Three days after Zhu Ziyang returned to Shrek Academy from the Sun Moon Empire, he attended this year's outer courtyard freshman opening ceremony at Cai Mei'er's invitation.
This opening ceremony was proposed by Cai Mei'er three years ago and approved by the Tian Yuan Pavilion meeting. This year was the first, and the reason was simple: this year held special significance for Shrek Academy.
Six years ago, Shrek Academy established the first Tian Yuan Academy. Now, six years later, the first batch of Tian Yuan Academy students had graduated, and many outstanding graduates had successfully advanced to Shrek Academy—these were precisely this year's outer courtyard freshmen.
Due to Shrek Academy's public declaration of neutrality and the continent currently being in a state of war, this year's freshman count was just over four hundred—the lowest in a century.
However, Cai Mei'er and the outer courtyard leadership were not panicked at all; instead, they were happy and excited. Because among these four hundred-plus freshmen, fewer than fifty entered through the recommendation letter system, while the remaining over three hundred were Tian Yuan Academy graduates. This meant the Tian Yuan Plan had already shown initial success.
Among these over three hundred freshmen from various Tian Yuan Academies, half had awakened their martial souls at Tian Yuan Academy. Basically, they awakened on the spot, and as long as they had soul power, they could enroll. This greatly prevented geniuses from being buried—this was also the confidence behind Shrek Academy's bold declaration of stance and complete severance from the original Douluo Three Kingdoms' nobility.
They now had a stable source of students. What Shrek Academy had once lost was returning. The aristocratic tint on Shrek Academy was fading. Shrek Academy would eventually become the ivory tower all soul masters yearned for, not a playground for noble children.
As one of the two outer courtyard deans and the Martial Soul Department dean, Cai Mei'er represented the will of Shrek Academy and Tian Yuan Pavilion and delivered a far-reaching speech to these destined-to-be-extraordinary freshmen. This speech was regarded as the guiding ideology for the outer courtyard reform.
The content of the speech was roughly as follows:
First, from now on, Shrek Academy will issue academic subsidies to every student annually. Students with different titles will receive different amounts, roughly divided into four tiers: Soul Master students will receive 1,000 gold soul coins per year, Great Soul Masters 100 gold soul coins, Soul Elders 10 gold soul coins, and Soul Ancestors only a symbolic 1 gold soul coin per year.
Second, establish an outstanding student leaderboard. Students who achieve different rankings will receive rewards not limited to gold soul coins, soul rings (spirit), soul bones, heavenly materials, and earthly treasures. The leaderboard will be determined through the annual student tournament; specific rules for the tournament are omitted.
Third, abolish the last-place elimination system and cancel teachers' right to expel students. At the same time, establish a new elimination mechanism: when advancing from second to third grade, soul power must exceed level 20; from fourth to fifth grade, soul power must exceed level 30. Students who still do not meet the requirements three months after the start of the school year will be advised to withdraw. A very simple, clear, and cruel rule.
Fourth…
In short, the new outer courtyard is friendlier to commoner students, more beneficial to genius students, and provides stronger motivation for all students.
Regarding Cai Mei'er's speech, this year's freshmen were still in a state of confusion. They only knew that Shrek Academy truly lived up to being the continent's number one academy—giving out money right at the start of school. Wasn't this a bit too generous?
On the presiding platform, Cai Mei'er was still speaking passionately. Zhu Ziyang sat in his seat, flipping through this year's freshman profiles. Four hundred twenty-five freshmen, aged between twelve and thirteen. Due to the existence of Tian Yuan Academy, there were no students under twelve—after all, successfully graduating from Tian Yuan Academy and completing six years of education was the basic condition and prerequisite.
This year's students' strength, like previous years, varied widely—from Soul Elder at the top to Soul Master at the bottom. Specifically, the highest soul power was level 33, and the lowest was level 15. Overall, this year's students were on the weaker side: only three at Soul Elder rank, just over a hundred at Great Soul Master rank, and the remaining over three hundred all at Soul Master rank.
This was understandable. After all, most were commoner children—how could they compare to previous years' noble children? Even with Tian Yuan Academy doing its best to ensure resources for these commoner students, there was still a certain gap with noble children. This was an inevitable objective fact, not worth delving into.
Zhu Ziyang focused on the information of the three Soul Elder freshmen. The one with the highest soul power was named Zhu Ziguang, from Anyang City Tian Yuan Academy. Uh, alright, no need to look too much at this kid. Although Zhu Ziguang's innate soul power was only level 7, he was still a genius. Plus, with the resources Zhu Ziyang provided him, reaching level 33 at age twelve was normal. In fact, in Zhu Ziyang's expectations, his soul power should be at least level 35 or above by now. This kid must have been slacking off. Good, very good—there would be things to do for him in the academy next.
Setting Zhu Ziguang's profile aside, Zhu Ziyang picked up the second Soul Elder freshman's file. Lei Ting, twelve years old, level 33 Strong Attack System Soul Elder, innate full soul power, martial soul Sin-Cleansing Blade, eldest son of the Star Luo Empire's White Night Marquis. This was the strongest noble freshman this year. The Lei family of White Night Marquis had an extremely good relationship with Shrek Academy—almost every generation's eldest son was an inner courtyard disciple, firmly in the Shrek faction.
This child named Lei Ting, with innate full soul power, had even better talent than Zhu Ziguang—a good seedling worth cultivating.
The third Soul Elder freshman moved Zhu Ziyang even more. Yi Yi, thirteen years old, level 31 Support System Soul Elder, innate full soul power, martial soul Silver-Scale White Whale, from Hanhai City, Bibo Town, Tian Yuan Academy in the Dou Ling Empire. Clearly, this Yi Yi was a commoner genius unearthed by Tian Yuan Academy. Her file contained very detailed information.
Yi Yi was born in a small fishing village in Bibo Town, Hanhai City, Dou Ling Empire. Her parents were ordinary fishermen without awakened martial souls. Her martial soul was awakened on the spot when she followed village children to Tian Yuan Academy's recruitment day. The Tian Yuan Academy teacher who awakened her martial soul speculated it was a variant martial soul, because although the other village children also awakened martial souls, they were all common sea-type martial souls.
Based on the characteristics and abilities of her martial soul, Bibo Town Tian Yuan Academy's teacher selected a three-hundred-year sea soul beast as her soul ring, and she obtained a support-type soul skill. Thus, this commoner girl chose to become a support-system soul master.
An innate full soul power support-system soul master—Zhu Ziyang couldn't help but think of Oscar, the Food God Douluo, among the first generation Shrek Seven Devils. If Yi Yi were properly cultivated, she would surely become a top-tier support-system Titled Douluo in the future, and might even have a chance to become the second support-system Limit Douluo—who knows.
Zhu Ziyang developed an interest in this girl from a small fishing village. When the time came, he would have Tian Yuan Pavilion pay more attention to her. If she were worth cultivating, making her a core disciple of Shrek Academy wouldn't be out of the question.
"Tsk tsk!" He suddenly smacked his lips and murmured, "Looking at it this way, A-Guang is actually the worst of the three. No, as Zhu Ziyang's younger brother, even if he's not invincible among his peers, he at least can't be at the bottom. Looks like he really needs to step up the intensity."
He paid special attention to the enrollment numbers from Anyang City Tian Yuan Academy. As the first Tian Yuan Academy, it deserved such attention from Zhu Ziyang. Anyang City Tian Yuan Academy had eleven graduates advance to Shrek Academy—the highest number among the more than forty Tian Yuan Academies in the same batch. Mm, not bad. Among the eleven graduates, excluding Zhu Ziguang, the connected one, the highest soul power was a boy named Xiang Li at level 24, while the other nine were three Great Soul Masters and six Soul Masters.
Soon, Zhu Ziyang finished reviewing all the freshman profiles, Cai Mei'er's speech ended, and the opening ceremony concluded.
The freshmen, organized by class, left Shrek Square in an orderly manner under their class teachers' guidance. Zhu Ziguang was in Freshman Class Three. Whether by coincidence or deliberate arrangement, the class teacher for Freshman Class Three was Xia Yu—yes, the same class teacher Zhu Ziyang had in the outer courtyard back then, now Zhu Ziguang's class teacher. Could this be considered a cycle?
The other two Soul Elder freshmen were in Class One and Class Two, respectively. Lei Ting was a boy with an ordinary appearance but a masculine aura. Though noble, he lacked the arrogance common among most nobles and was very open. Zhu Ziyang clearly saw that his palms were covered in calluses—the kind only formed from years of sword practice, just like his own hands back then. Yi Yi was a somewhat frail little girl with delicate features and big, fluttering eyes that evoked pity and affection. However, her skin was dark and rough, perfectly fitting the image of a fisherman's daughter.
Zhu Ziyang faintly looked forward to how far these few would grow. He thought that Titled Douluo should be the worst-case scenario.
Perhaps because his strength had reached the pinnacle of the mortal world, Zhu Ziyang was filled with the mindset and desire of a senior guiding the younger generation. Perhaps this was a common human flaw—even gods were not exempt.
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