CHAPTER 278: The Collapse of Shrek’s Reputation

Chapter 278: The Collapse of Shrek's Reputation

  "Can other soul beasts even compare with Senior Xiao Wu? Senior Xiao Wu is a kind soul beast! She shouldn't be treated the same as other soul beasts!" Huo Yuhao quickly defended, anxious as Xiao Qiang brought up Xiao Wu from ten thousand years ago.

  But before Xiao Qiang could even respond, the entire arena had erupted into chaos.

  "The soul beasts that helped Shrek win were 'kind,' but the ones aiding our Sun Moon Empire are 'evil'? You cheat openly and still pretend to be righteous! Next you'll say our soul tools don't count because we didn't invent them ourselves! Well, did any of you forge those soul tools you used back then?"

  "Exactly! You cheated in the last All-Continent Advanced Soul Master Tournament. Even your first win over the Spirit Hall was suspicious! You've been cheating for ten thousand years!"

  "I used to admire Shrek Academy as the pinnacle of soul master academies, but now it's clear—you're nothing but a pack of frauds! A garbage academy! Get out of the Sun Moon Empire! You don't deserve to stand on this battlefield!"

  "That's right! Trash academy, get out of the Sun Moon Empire!"

  "Get out! Get out!"

  "Get out of the Sun Moon Empire, garbage Shrek!"

  The arena of the All-Continent High-Level Spirit Master Competition was not a place for the uneducated. Most attendees were well-off and educated citizens. Yet today, a boiling fury surged like wildfire. Whether it was a spectator with a rotten martial spirit or someone sneakily handing out rotten eggs, no one could tell. But what everyone saw was undeniable: Huo Yuhao and the Shrek team were under siege—this time, from the fury of the people.

  Worse yet, many of these furious voices weren't from the Sun Moon Empire, but from the Douluo Three Kingdoms—those who once firmly believed in Shrek's supremacy. Now, with their faith shattered, their rage burned even hotter.

  "You bastards! Give my brother's life back!"

  One spectator from the Douluo Three Kingdoms roared. Immediately, more voices joined in.

  "My son! He only needed his fourth soul ring! He broke through rank 30 before twelve! He had the Pipi Elephant—top-tier defensive beast spirit! The first three rings were the best configuration available! He was destined to be a Titled Douluo! But he died… just because of a fourth soul ring! Not even a ten-thousand-year soul ring!"

  "Give back my brother! He had only just reached his third soul ring—barely at the thousand-year mark! Our clan patriarch is an Eight Ring Soul Douluo! As a direct heir, he could've easily gotten help from a Soul Emperor or Soul Sage! And yet he died? For a mere third ring?!"

  "Give me back my daughter! Our family may not be strong, but we have several Soul Saints! How could she die at the third ring?! You claimed you sent strong protectors with the students. Tell me—what kind of 'strong' fails to protect students at the third soul ring?!"

  Initially, people had been quiet, swallowing their doubts. But as soon as someone brought up the soul hunting casualties, it was like opening floodgates. Case after case poured out. Dozens… and then hundreds. Each was a death tied to a Shrek-organized soul hunt.

  Before, the public had consoled themselves with Shrek's status. After all, accidents could happen during soul hunts. But with dozens of cases emerging in a relatively small crowd, things no longer made sense.

  This was not a random collection of people. Though the audience had expanded due to the high-profile match between Shrek and the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy, they were still a tiny fraction of the overall soul master population. Yet among them were more than 200 direct relatives of Shrek students—dead students.

  And from that emerged a terrifying realization: Shrek Academy's death rate for students was over two-thirds.

  A majority of their students didn't graduate—they died during training, hunts, or missions.

  At last, people understood Shrek's so-called "elite strength." Soul masters who survived that deadly environment—if not lacking in talent—would naturally emerge strong. But that strength came at the cost of thousands of lives.

  Some things seem light until weighed. Once weighed, they crush. And Shrek was now being crushed under the weight of truth.

  Their teaching quality, which relied heavily on harsh physical training and near-impossible missions, couldn't stand the scrutiny. For years, Shrek had been seen as the best, so no one dared question them. But now, with hundreds of grieving relatives united in voice, all of Shrek's hidden problems exploded to the surface.

  Cheating, once the main accusation, was no longer the real issue—it was just the fuse.

  What truly buried Shrek was the appalling number of casualties and the exposure of their flawed and brutal training system.

  Families of the dead cried for justice. Others, fearing for their own children, rushed to send messages, trying to withdraw them from the academy at any cost.

  Shrek Academy now faced mass student dropouts. And in the future, recruiting new students would be a thousand times harder. For the truth was clear: the so-called "number one academy on the continent" was built on a mountain of corpses. Shrek treated its students as disposable fuel. Dozens—hundreds—could die, and no one in the academy had ever flinched.

  But now, the world saw through it.

  Shrek's reputation was destroyed.