"..."
Although Fan Yu was the team leader, he was practically invisible the entire way.
Watching Su Wen being treated like the moon surrounded by stars, his eyes occasionally flashed with a cold gleam, as if plotting something.
Su Wen of course noticed. He openly turned his head and bared his teeth in a radiant smile.
The two were mortal enemies; that was set in stone after the Zhou Yi incident. He naturally felt no goodwill toward Fan Yu. If this trip to the Sun–Moon Empire could make Fan Yu show his fox tail, he could take the chance to remove him. Otherwise, within Shrek Academy, there was really no good reason or chance to make a move.
Perhaps in the past, Fan Yu could have toyed with and killed him.
But now... offense and defense have swapped.
If you fall into my hands, it'll cost you your life.
"Hmph!"
Fan Yu snorted coldly and turned his head away.
Jing Hongchen found the scene rather strange. As the team's teacher and its strongest student, shouldn't they get along?
What's with Shrek Academy...
But he quickly hid his doubts, smiling as he introduced, "Everyone, we've arrived at Mingdu."
Sun–Moon City, also called Mingdu.
Strangely, this massive, prosperous city had no high city walls; instead, the land around it was flat and open. From here, you could even see the low houses on the outskirts.
"Classified."
Seeing the puzzled looks, Jing Hongchen chuckled. This was exactly the effect he wanted: make them familiar with soul tools, accept soul tools, and finally fall in love with soul tools.
It was also the conversion process.
"You only need to know that the Sun–Moon Empire doesn't need city walls."
Su Wen was silent.
He remembered the original story never actually filled this plot hole. His guess: either there's a large-scale linked defensive soul tool array, similar to the 108 pillars in the Star Luo imperial plaza, or there's a detection system with soul tool sensors and several soul engineer regiments stationed nearby on standby.
From Earth's technological perspective, nothing too surprising.
Mingdu really was huge. As described in the original, it was as large as the three imperial capitals of Heaven Dou, Dou Ling, and Star Luo combined.
Its architecture was quite modern: five-story buildings everywhere, with quite a few reaching ten or twenty stories. Streets and houses were laid out like a star map—clearly, the planners had put in serious work.
"Everyone, welcome to... Mingdu!"
...
Testing zone.
The Shrek group followed the teaching director Lin Jiayi straight to the core area marked with a red circle.
Su Wen walked at the front, the others close behind.
Looking around, only once they entered the Sun–Moon Empire's core did they realize how terrifyingly widespread soul tools had become. When even a light bulb could be linked to soul tool tech, no wonder their development was so rapid.
On the way, Lin Jiayi introduced the details of the Sun–Moon Empire's outer court.
As long as you reached first-rank soul engineer, you could enter second year. Second rank, third year; and so on. If you reached fifth-rank before age twenty-five, you could enter Mingde Hall and study in a teacher's personal lab.
Su Wen and the others would directly join labs, assigned randomly.
But before that...
There had to be a small entrance test...
["Beep~ Level-3 clearance card."]
Lin Jiayi pulled out a crystal-like card and swiped it on the machine; a mechanical voice sounded.
The two-side mechanical doors slowly opened,
revealing a set of testing instruments.
"Who's first?" Lin Jiayi smiled at everyone; of course, his gaze lingered longest on Su Wen. This was the headliner—if he refused to test, it would be such a loss.
"I'll go first."
Su Wen smiled.
"Good. Don't worry—these machines only examine the body; there's no harm." Lin Jiayi's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly motioned for the staff to power up the devices.
"Please step up."
A middle-aged man led Su Wen to a wall and pointed to a metal step resting against it. On both sides were half-arc glass covers, currently open.
"Alright."
Su Wen did as told.
As the two glass covers slowly closed, lights came on and a nearby machine began beeping. Very soon, the sound grew urgent—like an alarm.
"What's going on?!" Lin Jiayi rushed over in a few steps, tense.
"Director, see for yourself..." The technician stared at the panel data, questioning reality.
["Body toughness: level 89. Physical resilience: level 83. Soul power fluctuation: level 67. Height: 1.83 meters. Weight: 80 kilograms. Left arm length... No soul bone attachments. Overall: Soul Sage peak. Body strength: Soul Douluo. Physical power: pending."]
Lin Jiayi, as if seeing a ghost, slowly looked up at the leisurely Su Wen—who was stepping down from the metal platform after casually looking around—and read the results out loud, word by word.
The atmosphere around them fell into a heavy silence.
The Sun–Moon Empire staff swallowed hard, staring in fear, as if looking at a humanoid ferocious beast.
The Shrek side was equally shocked.
Everyone knew Su Wen was over-spec, but how over-spec? These hard numbers left them dumbfounded.
Body strength at Soul Douluo level—he could probably blow away most ordinary Soul Kings and Soul Emperors with raw might alone, right?
The higher the realm, the greater the gap in physical robustness.
A Soul Douluo-level powerhouse could just stand there without using any soul skills; even if a Soul Emperor pummeled him until spent, he might not shed a single hair.
They'd always focused on soul power and never considered a human could push their physical body to this level.
And the scariest part:
Based on Lin Jiayi's guess, Su Wen's actual cultivation was only around Soul Emperor. What happens when he reaches Title Douluo? Would his physique rival a Limit Douluo?!!
"Whew..."
"Clap, clap, clap~" Lin Jiayi exhaled a long breath, face blooming with smiles as he applauded.
"As expected of a Shrek Academy student. Impressive."
"..."