After the appearance of The Secret History of the Supreme Elder, before Shrek Academy could even suppress the turmoil, The Phoenix Teases the Twin Dragons and Fellow Travelers followed closely, creating an even bigger wave.
Shrek Academy finally suffered a backlash, a backlash that almost cost them their existence.
Why did Shrek Academy maintain a good reputation among commoners, even though enrollment required a recommendation letter from a major city, and the elimination rate was so ridiculously high that only one in a hundred, or even a thousand, could graduate?
Because of the Shrek Monitoring Group! Because they would send out Inner Court disciples and powerful figures from the academy to hunt down Evil Soul Masters!
This was Tang San's cleverness.
While Spirit Hall's approach could solve the problem once and for all, making it so that there were no Evil Soul Masters on the continent, the common people could not see the life-threatening danger of Evil Soul Masters. The people ten thousand years ago naturally didn't know how much effort Spirit Hall had put in to protect them.
Instead, because the organization of Spirit Hall was so large, many of its branch halls were corrupted by termites, causing Spirit Hall to become the main villain. Even the great benefit of helping all age-appropriate children on the continent awaken their Martial Souls for free was forgotten.
Tang San was much smarter. He first destroyed the City of Slaughter, releasing the Evil Soul Masters. Then, he let them cause chaos all over the continent. Finally, he had Shrek Academy, with a mere fifty or sixty Inner Court disciples, make a big public show of hunting down the Evil Soul Masters.
What could fifty or sixty people do on the vast Douluo Continent?
To put it bluntly, if an Evil Soul Master hid well, even if all fifty or sixty people were in one city, it would take a lot of time to find them. Eradication was impossible.
This was called using the least amount of effort to achieve the greatest result.
It couldn't eradicate the Evil Soul Masters, but it ensured that there would always be Evil Soul Masters for them to gain prestige from, harvesting faith from the Douluo Continent, and ensuring Shrek Academy's righteous and glorious reputation and status.
Did the common people care about Shrek Academy's power, their endless stream of soul master powerhouses, or their inexhaustible cultivation resources?
Of course not.
The percentage of soul masters among the entire population of the Douluo Continent was probably less than five percent. The number of powerhouses who could reach the level of Soul Grandmaster or above was even less than 0.1 percent.
They couldn't use Shrek Academy's resources, so what did it matter to them if Shrek Academy had a lot of resources or a lot of powerful people?
They revered Shrek because for ten thousand years, Shrek had "done its best" to eliminate Evil Soul Masters and protect their "safety."
See? There were always Evil Soul Masters threatening them, and then there was a force that publicly declared itself an enemy of the Evil Soul Masters, fighting to the death. The prestige Shrek gained from this was far more than what it received for leading the three great Douluo Empires to repel the Sun and Moon Empire's invasion.
This was also where the backlash came from.
The high-level officials of Shrek, which was publicly fighting Evil Soul Masters to the death, were "all" Evil Soul Masters in private. This was completely a case of keeping the enemy alive for one's own benefit. While maintaining a righteous and glorious image, they were secretly doing all sorts of dirty deeds. This was the reason for the mass exodus of people from Shrek Academy and Shrek City.
They felt that they had been deceived! They also felt that their thousands of years of fear and comfort had been imposed upon them by Shrek Academy. They could have lived in peace without any danger!
At this moment, even without Lin Yun causing more trouble, Shrek was placed in the same position as Spirit Hall when Tang San fought it ten thousand years ago.
An enemy of the entire continent!
Compared to the Holy Spirit Cult, which was hidden in the shadows, Shrek, this hypocritical, disgusting, and powerful force that did as it pleased with no regard for others, was the one they feared and dreaded even more!
It was not at all difficult to understand why nine out of ten rooms in Shrek City were empty. This was the most normal outcome.
Now, Elder Song had laid this problem out in front of Mu En and asked him how he would solve this huge problem. She was undoubtedly pointing at Mu En's forehead and asking him:
"How will you prove that you are not an Evil Soul Master?"
"How will you prove that you have no connection to Evil Soul Masters?"
"How will you prove that you, Mu En, along with Yan Shaozhe and Xuan Zi, are completely clean and are the purest of Shrek people?"
"Huh?"
Mu En began to sweat profusely.
Facing Elder Song's sharp gaze, Mu En felt a tingling sensation on his scalp.
If he had a way to prove his innocence, he wouldn't have rushed out to try to cut off his dark history after Xuan Zi's special publication, The Secret History of the Supreme Elder, was released. It was because Mu En knew he wasn't clean that he was so anxious!
As long as a person has a stain on their record, it is absolutely impossible for them to get out of a public opinion storm unscathed!
Even if he was a Rank 99 Limit Douluo and the Sea God Pavilion Master who had protected Shrek Academy for over a hundred years, there would be no exception!
With Mu En's own past being a mess, if Lin Yun threw another pile of mud on his rear, that mud would be seen as excrement, the kind that can't be washed clean.
Even if you brought in someone who specializes in cleaning coal balls, they would be stumped by this kind of deadly situation!
Let alone expecting Mu En to handle it himself.
And so, Elder Song's gaze became sharper and sharper, while Mu En, sweating profusely, racked his brain to figure out how to prove his innocence.
But again, only the person who slanders you knows how wronged you are. Only the person who slanders you knows how to make you despair. Furthermore, Mu En wasn't clean to begin with. All Lin Yun did was add fuel to the fire and make things worse.
Finally, Elder Song couldn't hold back.
"Heh, in the end, you have no way to prove your innocence, do you, Elder Mu?" Elder Song sneered, leaning back in her chair, crossing her arms, and looking at Mu En with a mocking gaze.
Mu En, who was buried in thought, was startled by Elder Song's words. He looked at her with a face full of disbelief.
"Little Song, you..."
Mu En was truly shocked. Just a moment ago, he thought that even if these high-level officials of Shrek Academy were stupid, they wouldn't be fooled by such a petty trick. They wouldn't believe that he had sided with Evil Soul Masters just because of a few unfounded books.
But Elder Song's two sharp and pointed questions left Mu En completely stunned, his heart feeling a chill.
He looked at the other Sea God Pavilion elders. Except for Cai Mei'er, whose expression was a little dazed and anxious, and Zhang Lexuan, whose face was hidden by her hair as she looked down, all the other elders were looking at him with the same cold and indifferent eyes as Elder Song.
Mu En's hanging heart finally gave out.
(End of Chapter)
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