Chapter 47: The Hyper Douluo: Guan Yue

Whether time passes quickly or slowly depends entirely on a person's state of mind.

The more bored one is, the slower time crawls; the happier one is, the faster time flies.

Knowing that a devilish training regimen awaited them in a week, the members of the Radiant Seven, including Xu Zhao, felt that the seven days of relaxation before the training passed in a flash.

So fast, in fact, that by the time the day of the special training arrived, they still felt as though they had just graduated only yesterday.

...

As the highest combat command institution directly affiliated with the Douro Federal Military, the headquarters of the Pantheon was established in the deep space of the Federal Central Military Base.

Since it was the Federal Central Military Base, it was naturally located in the vicinity of Mingdu, the political center of the Federation.

Xu Zhao and his companions entered the Pantheon by undergoing layers of identity verification before being directly teleported through the spatial transmission device on the surface of the central military base into the deep space where the Pantheon resided.

"Welcome to the Pantheon."

Inside the grand hall, a remarkably youthful and refined-looking man opened his arms and spoke to the group from the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy who had just been teleported there.

"I am Guan Yue, Vice Master of the Pantheon and the person in charge of this special training."

Among the group, Xu Zhao looked at this seemingly approachable Pantheon Vice Master, and the man's profile immediately surfaced in his mind.

Guan Yue, the Over-Heaven Douro, whose martial soul was the Over-Heaven Spear.

He was currently a ninety-eighth-rank titled Douro and a four-word battle armor master, though he would eventually break through to the ninety-ninth rank in the later stages.

However, this man was a fellow disciple of Yun Ming, both having originated from Shrek Academy, and thus naturally leaned toward Shrek's side.

That in itself was fine.

After all, Guan Yue was merely a vice master, and there was still a grand master above him.

However—

The Grand Master of the Pantheon, Chen Xinjie, the Vast Sea Douro, usually appeared selfless and put the interests of the Federation above all else, but that was conditional on whether it involved his beloved Lady Long.

Guan Yue hailed from Shrek, and Chen Xinjie was entangled in a web of complex love-hate ties with Long Yeyue.

These matters were no secret in the eyes of the older generation.

Yet in the original tale, knowing full well that Shrek and the Tang Sect intended to steal the Eternal Heaven, the Federation still handed this super-weapon over to the Pantheon for safekeeping.

Behind this decision, someone's astonishing wisdom was undoubtedly at play.

Yet upon careful reflection, after the fall of Shrek and the Tang Sect, the forces of the Spirit Pagoda expanded increasingly, growing far beyond the Federation's control.

Consequently, the Federation altered its policies to support the severely battered Shrek and the Tang Sect as a countermeasure against the increasingly uncontrollable Spirit Pagoda.

In the eyes of the Federation, Shrek, the Tang Sect, and the Spirit Pagoda were akin to three disobedient dogs that might potentially turn on their master.

Making these three forces engage in internal friction was no different from dogs biting dogs.

...

Among the group from the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy, Dean Kong Yunhua stepped forward, extended his hand politely, and said, "I am Kong Yunhua, serving as the Dean of the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy, and I am also the academy's team leader for this trip."

Seeing this, Guan Yue extended his hand and shook it.

"Ah, Dean Kong, I've heard so much about you!"

The moment their hands met, Guan Yue's initially calm expression underwent a subtle, imperceptible shift.

"Dean Kong is truly full of surprises!"

"Vice Master Guan is not bad either; I imagine it will happen within these next few years." Kong Yunhua's aged face carried a benign and amiable smile, entirely devoid of any visible abnormality.

"This is merely a special training session for a group of children. How is it that someone of your stature as a dean has personally led the team here?" Guan Yue withdrew his hand unhurriedly and asked with apparent casualness.

"We are cut from the same cloth. Since you are the Vice Master of the Pantheon, aren't you, just like this old man, personally in charge of the training for these children?"

Kong Yunhua's weathered eyes gazed meaningfully at Guan Yue right before him, as if saying, "Don't think this old man doesn't know what petty schemes you're plotting."

When Kong Yunhua learned through the grapevine that the person in charge of this special training was Guan Yue, he immediately brushed aside his pending matters, replaced the original vice dean, and became the academy's team leader for the trip.

Although that vice dean was, like Guan Yue, a ninety-eighth-rank titled Douro, in terms of combat prowess, the vice dean of their academy fell woefully short compared to Guan Yue, a four-word battle armor master.

Throughout the entire Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy, only he, the dean, had broken through to the realm of Limit Douro with the aid of Xu Zhao's spiritual martial soul.

Therefore, only by having him, the dean, personally lead the team and suppress the ninety-eighth-rank Guan Yue in terms of strength could he effectively prevent Guan Yue from sweet-talking and swindling the academy's geniuses into Shrek Academy.

"Look at what you're saying. Since the successor of the Godsmith is among these children, my Pantheon naturally cannot afford to lack courtesy." Guan Yue spouted nonsense with a straight face, as though he had never once harbored the intention of abducting these children into Shrek Academy.

"Of course, this old man has always trusted the reputation of the Pantheon." Kong Yunhua replied with unruffled composure, as if this were not the Pantheon, but the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy itself.

Guan Yue remained completely unbothered by the veiled barbs directed at him. Who could blame him for graduating from Shrek Academy, while the man across from him was the dean of the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy?

He shook his head, cast his gaze toward the group behind Dean Kong, swept his eyes lightly over them, and finally settled on a child with heterochromatic eyes.

"You must be Xu Zhao, right?" Guan Yue stepped forward and said with a smile:

"I have long heard of the great reputation of the Sun-Moon Dual Pupils."

"Yet, like many others, I assumed your martial soul would be the twin martial souls of the sun and the moon, but I never expected it to be a mutated body-type eye martial soul."

"Indeed, Your冕下 [Your Excellency] Over-Heaven Douro, I am Xu Zhao." Xu Zhao offered a slight bow to show respect to the Pantheon Vice Master, and then said politely:

"Compared to the Sun-Moon Dual Pupils, Your Excellency's Over-Heaven Divine Spear is the one truly renowned across the continent."

As he spoke thus, he inwardly lamented the monstrous nature of Guan Yue's generation of Shrek's Seven Monsters.

That generation of Shrek's Seven Monsters had produced four Limit Douros:

Yun Ming the擎天斗罗 [Prop-Heaven Douro], Guan Yue the Over-Heaven Douro, Cao Dezhi the Merciless Douro, and Zang Xin the Amorous Douro.

As for the remaining three: Zhuo Shi, Feng Wuyu, and Cai Yue'er.

Compared to the aforementioned four, these three might have fallen short by more than just a little bit, but they had still managed to secure positions as Sea God's Pavilion Elders.

Although the book did not explicitly state their spirit power ranks, able as they were to become Sea God's Pavilion Elders, they were bound to be Super Douros.

Zhuo Shi and Cai Yue'er's spirit power ranks were estimated to be at the ninety-seventh or ninety-eighth rank.

Because Feng Wuyu was distracted by forging, the book explicitly mentioned that he could not keep pace with Zhuo Shi, and he was estimated to be at the ninety-sixth or ninety-seventh rank.

In this generation, the configuration of four Limit Douros and three Super Douros—had it not been for Tang Wulin's generation possessing the protagonist's halo—could simply not be compared to at all.

Even Huo Yuhao's generation from ten thousand years ago, discounting Huo Gu himself and that stitched-together monster Tang Wutong, the remaining five could not possibly compare to Guan Yue's generation.

Especially Yun Ming; judging by his trajectory of growth and life journey, he possessed a sheer protagonist script.

Had he merely been named Tang Ming instead of Yun Ming, there would have been no room left for Tang Wulin.

"The Legend of the Dragon King" could easily have been renamed "The Legend of the Prop-Heaven".