"Yes, Father. The Shrek Supervision Regiment's missions are indeed rather difficult to complete, especially when they involve Evil Spirit Masters. So far, I've only finished fewer than twenty."
Hearing his son's voice through the soul guidance phone, the Spirit Douluo responsible for protecting Beibei nodded.
"As the number one academy on the continent, Shrek certainly doesn't make the supervision tasks given to inner court disciples easy. Still, you have time and can take it slowly."
"By the way, do you have any tasks right now? I've come across someone who appears to be an Evil Spirit Master, which should happen to help you cross off one of your tasks."
"An Evil Spirit Master?"
"Indeed. Dressed in commoner's clothes, looking only around thirteen or fourteen years old, heading alone to the Star Dou Great Forest to obtain a Third Soul Ring—yet a genius like this didn't come to study at our Shrek Academy."
"Even after hunting a soul beast to seize its soul ring, he insatiably took away the soul beast's carcass that should have remained in the Star Dou Great Forest. Yang Peng, you understand what I mean, don't you?"
"I understand, Father."
Yang Peng nodded. Thirteen or four years old, dressed as a commoner yet possessing the cultivation of rank 30, not a Shrek student, and taking away the soul beast carcass that ought to have stayed in the Star Dou Great Forest—this could be said to have precisely stepped onto Shrek's minefield.
It perfectly matched Shrek's practical standards for judging an Evil Spirit Master.
Shrek outwardly proclaimed that they fought against Evil Spirit Masters, but the criteria for what constituted an Evil Spirit Master were entirely defined by Shrek themselves.
Yet the rules they set were utterly bizarre: without actually harming any humans, simply absorbing the blood of soul beasts for cultivation was defined as being an Evil Spirit Master, whereas Shrek insiders could massively slaughter an entire species of soul beasts in a short period of time to create crafted soul bones and face no consequences at all.
This point was defined by many readers who had read Douluo Continent as the double standards present in Tang Jia San Shao's books, but in truth, the essence of this matter really wasn't the double standards of a novel.
The essence of this matter was actually the same as rich people constantly calling on everyone to save water while never turning off their own household faucets and wasting water by building numerous golf courses.
Dragon God Douluo Mu En had once given Zhang Peng a thorough beating the moment he saw him, on the grounds that Zhang Peng belonged to the category of semi-Evil Spirit Masters, actually using soul beast blood as a material for cultivation—which made him far too evil.
Yet Mu En himself possessed a full three 100,000-year soul rings, an entire set of soul bones covering his body, and the cafeteria of Shrek Academy never once went a single day without a steady supply of soul beast meat.
When it came to the sheer quantity of slaughtered soul beasts, Zhang Peng compared to Mu En's Shrek Academy was simply a drop in the ocean, completely beyond any comparison.
Mu En's actions were entirely equivalent to the young manager of a slaughterhouse pointing the finger at an ordinary person who slaughtered a pig, accusing them of lacking humanity and failing to appreciate the preciousness of life.
This seemingly double-standard approach was essentially one of the core reasons why Shrek had stood unshaken on the continent for tens of thousands of years.
Regardless of what slogans were shouted on the surface, Shrek's upper echelons were all well aware of what mattered most to Shrek.
Zhang Peng hunted soul beasts without harming ordinary people; under normal circumstances, this could not be judged as being an Evil Spirit Master.
But firstly, he did not belong to Shrek, nor was he a Shrek genius. This meant that Shrek's myth of invincibility at the same rank stood a chance of being shattered by Zhang Peng. If Shrek was no longer invincible at the same rank, how could they make people continue to view them as the continent's premier academy?
Secondly, the soul beasts he killed were somewhat too numerous. The number of soul beasts was ultimately limited, and every extra one Zhang Peng killed meant fewer could be killed by Shrek.
Shrek understood very well that whether it was soul beasts or anything else, the resources of this world were ultimately finite.
Since Zhang Peng—someone not belonging to Shrek—occupied a vast quantity of soul beasts that could have served as Shrek's resources, upholding the logic that every extra bite you take means my Shrek might have to take one less bite, if Zhang Peng wasn't an Evil Spirit Master, then who possibly could be?
Of course, back then Zhang Peng hadn't harmed anyone yet; the moment Zhang Peng had killed even a single commoner, Shrek would have raised the banner of justice high and executed him on the spot.
However, whether Zhang Peng failed to understand what Mu En actually meant, or simply didn't want to work alongside someone who had suddenly rushed over and beaten him up, after taking that beating from Mu En, he chose not to join Shrek and instead opted to never appear while Mu En was still alive.
In reality, back then, all Zhang Peng needed to do was say a single sentence indicating his willingness to join Shrek, and Shrek would merely have gained one more Super Douluo elder named Zhang Peng.
As for the Zhang Peng who originally cultivated with the blood of soul beasts...
Soul beasts weren't humans; which soul master didn't kill soul beasts? For a Shrek elder to kill a few more soul beasts to enhance their own strength for the sake of stability in the soul master world—was there a problem with that? To say nothing of soul beasts, what about Ma Xiaotao and Tang Ya in Douluo Continent II? How few people had those two killed? In the end, didn't one still become the Sea God Pavilion Master and the other the Tang Sect Master?
Even if one argued that the killings they committed while under control didn't count, was Ma Xiaotao really all that wonderful before she was controlled by Evil Spirit Masters? Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong had almost died at Ma Xiaotao's hands right at the very beginning. Given that Ma Xiaotao was capable of almost killing Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong later on based on mere suspicion, one could only fear that her indiscriminate slaughter wasn't happening for the first time.
As well as how Shrek openly recruited a chaos-bringing demon king in Douluo III to become part of Shrek's upper echelons—everything pointed to the fact that Shrek didn't practice double standards; they simply operated with their own distinct set of evaluation criteria.
Over at Shrek, no matter what someone did, as long as they belonged to Shrek, they were never an Evil Spirit Master.
As for those who didn't belong to Shrek, yet occupied resources that, in Shrek's eyes, rightfully belonged to Shrek...
A Martial Soul with the dark attribute—defining that as being an evil soul is completely normal, right? I see your Martial Soul looks a bit dark, so suspecting your inner thoughts are sinister and that you're an Evil Spirit Master is completely normal, right? I see you're young yet so formidable in strength...
Ah, a soul master with backers behind them? Never mind, then. There must be some misunderstanding between us.
By relying on such criteria for identifying Evil Spirit Masters, Shrek could either assimilate or eliminate those talented soul masters who didn't belong to Shrek and had no backers standing behind them.
As long as no suddenly mutated genius soul masters popped out of nowhere, Shrek could perpetually shout about being invincible at the same rank while monopolizing sufficient resources.
And right at this moment, Xiao Qiang fit Shrek's criteria for judging an Evil Spirit Master to absolute perfection.
Not a Shrek person, a Three-Ring Soul Elder at thirteen or fourteen years old whose talent could be considered quite good, and coming from a commoner background with no backers. Although Xiao Qiang's Martial Soul wasn't certain yet, wanting to prove one's innocence was extremely difficult, whereas framing someone was remarkably simple.
"As long as you understand my meaning, go ahead. Be careful."
"Rest assured, Father. I'm already at level 68. A Six-Ring Soul Emperor fighting a Three-Ring Soul Elder—no matter how you calculate it, victory in this battle is entirely on my side."