St. Freya Academy was a new institution established in Haiyuan City in the past two years, funded by the City Lord’s Mansion and located in the eastern district, where Changli specially set aside a vast area for its construction.

After its completion, Jingliu, the strongest in Haiyuan City, became the martial soul department head, while Herta, who had only recently arrived in this world, took on the soul guidance department.

Over the last two years, St. Freya Academy has gradually enrolled several students.

However, most of these students were ordinary civilian children recruited from nearby villages by Changli; very few came from soul master families or nobility.

The main reason was that St. Freya Academy was unknown at its founding, making it hard to attract students from prestigious backgrounds.

So far, the total number of students has been less than a hundred. Those who did join were mainly motivated by gratitude since the City Lord’s Mansion not only helped them awaken their martial souls for free but also promised to help them obtain soul rings.

Out of gratitude, they embraced St. Freya Academy. In reality, the teaching staff was thin, with only a handful of people worthy of being called teachers.

The idea of founding their academy originally came from Changli. After understanding Douluo’s basic conditions, Changli began carefully planning to build a loyal and reliable team for Lu Jingming.

Training talent from among civilians not only ensured their loyalty to Lu Jingming but was also, under current conditions, one of the few feasible ways to build a team.

The establishment of St. Freya Academy also brought hope to those civilians who couldn’t even afford the cost of martial soul awakening. In the era of the Peerless Tang Sect, civilians needed to pay a fee to awaken their martial soul, since setting up the awakening array and hiring a soul master cost money.

A thousand years ago, Spirit Hall conducted mass free awakenings for civilians, recruiting the majority of Douluo’s civilian soul masters.

At that time, Spirit Hall’s soul masters even outnumbered those of the Heaven Dou and Star Luo Empires combined.

But as time passed to the present day, even though the number of soul masters and the power of the empires had greatly increased, the path for civilians to rise had only become narrower.

For some poor families, the cost of a single martial soul awakening could ruin them.

Take Shrek Academy, now known as the continent’s top academy—the requirements for admission are incredibly strict.

Students must not only have extraordinary talent but also obtain a recommendation letter from a city lord of a major imperial city, just to qualify to apply.

For civilians, awakening a martial soul is already extremely difficult, let alone connecting with a city lord and getting a recommendation.

Even if a civilian child shows great talent, influential city lords prefer to keep such talents for themselves rather than recommend them to Shrek Academy.

After all, for a city lord, controlling a civilian-born genius is easy, as long as the city lord isn’t incompetent.

In today’s Douluo, almost every student at Shrek Academy has some sort of background; pure civilian students are very rare.

Those with prestigious identities flock to Shrek Academy for two main reasons.

First, for the academy’s legendary reputation—after thousands of years, it has built immense prestige in the soul master world. Its teaching quality and outstanding graduates make it a sacred place for countless soul masters.

Second, to establish connections. The outer courtyard is full of elites, most from wealthy or powerful families. As a result, Shrek’s outer courtyard naturally forms a large, high-end social circle.

Think about it: do those students learn much from the Soul Emperor and Soul Sage teachers there? Martial souls are inherited through bloodlines, and these noble families have studied their martial souls for centuries or millennia.

In such a long process, each family has developed its own unique, comprehensive training system.

So, their real reason for attending Shrek is not to learn knowledge, but to build networks and friendships for their future paths.

Of course, if they are lucky enough to join Shrek’s inner courtyard and become core members, that’s even better.

For the families behind them, close ties with Shrek Academy are purely beneficial.

After all, Shrek has deep foundations and many titled Douluos, making it a formidable force.

However, how many students make it into the inner courtyard?

That’s why, from the start, Lu Jingming never intended to send Zhang Lexuan to Shrek Academy.

In his view, there was no need. He didn’t need to go out of his way to build those so-called connections. Besides, Zhang Lexuan had the guidance of Jingliu, whose strength and experience far surpassed the ordinary Soul Emperors and Soul Sages at Shrek.

As for Lu Jingming himself, he also had no plans to study at any other academy. After all, with Jingliu, Changli, and Herta—all outstanding talents—each was more than qualified to be his teacher.

Moreover, regarding connections, with Herta and the others around, people of insight would eventually seek him out. There was no need for him to curry favor.

Spirit Hall’s past experiences made Lu Jingming realize the enormous potential among civilians.

With such a vast base, there will always be some geniuses. As long as they are found and are not ungrateful, his investment will not be in vain.

Besides, thanks to Herta’s soul tools, Lu Jingming was quite well-off.

For him, helping Haiyuan City’s civilians awaken their martial souls for free, hiring a few teachers, and providing free soul master knowledge was not difficult.

Take Jingliu: even though she is usually busy, she still makes time to teach swordsmanship to St. Freya’s students.

Jingliu is a bona fide Titled Douluo. To be taught by her is a privilege no less than what Shrek students get.

As she said, as long as someone wants to learn, she’s willing to teach all she knows, regardless of their talent.

Because of this, almost all St. Freya students have studied swordsmanship under Jingliu.

However, their talent was indeed limited—whether for martial souls or swordsmanship, they were mediocre, with none comparable to Zhang Lexuan.

St. Freya Academy’s architecture was unique, mainly white with modern glass curtain walls and metal structures, looking stylish and grand.

This style was completely different from the traditional architecture of the Star Luo Empire—more similar to the Sun Moon Empire across the sea.

Though newly built, the academy’s facilities were complete. The teaching building was spacious and bright, providing a good learning environment.

The dormitories were cozy and comfortable, ensuring students could rest well after their studies. The training grounds were well-equipped for daily practice, and the simulation cultivation room was a highlight, the kind of top facility only high-level academies had.

The cafeteria offered a variety of delicious food, ensuring the students’ nutritional needs, and there were scenic areas for relaxation during stressful studies.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep