Qiangu Dongfeng asked in a furious voice, "Then what about those Shrek Academy students? Do you know how heavy a price I had to pay to get those Godslayer missiles for you? Why didn't you ensure that all of them had been killed?"

Ghost Emperor replied in a cold voice, "That's because the information you provided us is inaccurate; there must be a sanctuary in Shrek Academy, one that we failed to discover. At the time, the entire Shrek City was destroyed, and a huge number of deceased souls had risen up into the air, so there was no way for us to verify whether these souls included those of Shrek Academy's students. However, we managed to harvest at least 15 Titled Douluo souls, so not many people should remain among Shrek Academy's higher-ups. It's just a few students; why are you so bothered by them? You can just kill them so you don't have to worry about them."

"I can't do that with the current controversy that's arisen surrounding our Spirit Pagoda! Do you know what kind of entity Shrek Academy is? It has even more influence over the entire continent than our Spirit Pagoda! Countless elite Soul Masters are Shrek Academy alumni; if they succeed in their rebuild, then many powerful Soul Masters will flock to join them. When that time comes, it'll be very difficult for us to deal with them."

Ghost Emperor asked in an indifferent voice, "So what do you want to do?"

At this point, Qiangu Dongfeng had already calmed down, and he replied, "I'll verify the exact situation over at Shrek Academy. In the meantime, prepare your forces to completely destroy Shrek Academy at all costs. Regardless of how many survivors there are, we have to kill them all; we can't allow Shrek Academy to make a resurgence!"

"Hehe, and why should I listen to you?" Ghost Emperor sneered.

"You...! Don't forget our agreement!" Qiangu Dongfeng snarled with barely-contained rage.

"Agreement? Where's the war you promised us? Where are the countless souls you promised us? Your Spirit Pagoda can't even deal with such a young Tang Sect Master and allowed him to ruin our entire plan. Everything has been set back indefinitely due to your incompetence, yet you still dare to tell me what to do?"

Qiangu Dongfeng replied, "Do you think I wanted to see this happen? Who could've foreseen the Tang Sect's actions? In any case, the Tang Sect has been declared to be a treasonous organization, and I'm going to exert pressure on the federal parliament to restart this war. The commander of the federal fleet, the Boundless Ocean Douluo, is a volatile factor that we can't control, so next time, I'll try to instate a commander whom we can directly control. Think about it, Ghost Emperor, if Shrek Academy makes a resurgence, your Holy Spirit Cult will suffer as well. Do you really want to see them rise again?"

Ghost Emperor was silent for a moment before replying, "Shrek Academy's decision to rebuild at a time like this definitely isn't just some ill-advised act of desperation. Setting aside whether Yun Ming has actually been resurrected, even if we discount Yun Ming, the academy still possesses formidable power. On top of that, Shrek Academy and the Tang Sect are the closest of allies, so Cao Dezhi and Zang Xin will definitely be supporting the academy's rebuild as well."

A hint of killing intent flashed through Qiangu Dongfeng's eyes. "Hasn't the medicine already been successfully developed? Would we be able to get that man to attack Shrek Academy? Once the high-ranking members of Shrek Academy and the Tang Sect are completely eradicated, no one will be able to stop us."

Ghost Emperor replied, "I have to think about this before I give you a response. In the meantime, verify the situation over at Shrek Academy as quickly as possible, and also do everything you can do to delay their rebuild."

"Alright, we can't allow Shrek Academy to successfully rebuild no matter what," Qiangu Dongfeng said in a cold voice.

He had taken a massive risk to eradicate Shrek Academy and the Tang Sect headquarters at the expense of all of the lives in Shrek City, and only then was the Spirit Pagoda able to climb to such lofty heights. If Shrek Academy were to succeed in its rebuild, then all of his efforts would've been for naught.

At the Sea God's Lake.

A procession of huge trucks stopped not far away from the site of Shrek Academy's reconstruction, and Mo Lan emerged from the first truck.

She cast her gaze toward the people laying down the groundwork in the giant crater, and a faint smile appeared on her face.

She then caught sight of the Holy Spirit Douluo, who was hovering in mid-air, and the Holy Spirit Douluo had also spotted her.

Yali descended by Mo Lan's side, and the latter immediately extended a respectful bow.

The Holy Spirit Douluo had saved her life, so she had an extremely high level of respect for Yali.

Yali smiled, and said, "Thank you for your hard work. Our Shrek Academy is greatly indebted to your Heaven Dou City."

"I'm only doing what's to be expected of me," Mo Lan replied, "I've already spread the news, and I'm sure journalists from all of the major news media outlets are already on their way here; it's going to get quite lively here soon."

Yali smiled, and said, "I can imagine that there will be many people who don't want to see the revival of our Shrek Academy but also many people supporting the rebuild."

"Indeed, but I'm sure the glory of Shrek Academy will rise again. Please excuse me, Your Majesty; I have to go and oversee the unloading of the trucks now. Aside from resources, I also brought along over 300 skilled workers who are adept in different areas of construction. They're all elite artisans that I chose from the Heaven Dou City reconstruction project; with their help, I'm sure Shrek Academy's rebuild will progress faster."

Yali nodded with a smile in response.

Thus, Mo Lan departed toward the trucks.

Each and every one of the trucks was carrying 30 tons of resources, including all types of basic construction materials, as well as construction soul tools.

According to the plan, the three-story school building was the first construction to be erected. It would act as the centerpiece around which the rest of the academy was to be constructed. The goal was to gradually reconstruct all of the facilities that Shrek Academy once had, and with the support of the Tang Sect, money wouldn't be an issue for now.

At the same time, there was also some accumulated wealth in the Shrek Academy Sanctuary. This wealth didn't comprise solely of money; more importantly, there were some prized cultivation techniques, and those were the most valuable assets of Shrek Academy.

Under the instructions of Mo Lan, all of the artisans who had been brought here immediately got to work.

All of them were wearing anti-radiation suits, and they began the process of piling around the outskirts of the crater according to the blueprints they had been given. [1]

Vertical metal columns were driven into the ground at intervals of 30 meters, then connected using barbed wire to create a barrier.

The artisans worked extremely quickly, and a barrier of barbed wire and metal columns was quickly taking shape around the crater.

This type of barrier was obviously extremely crude, but it served its main purpose, which was to declare that this territory belonged to Shrek Academy.

"Stop! Stop what you're doing, right now! Who let you construct these metal columns here? What are you doing?" A dozen or so police vehicles with their sirens blaring at full blast arrived at the construction site.

A group of soldiers emerged from the vehicles with soul laser guns in their hands and stopped the construction workers in their tracks.

"Who's the supervisor here? Who allowed you to start this construction work here?"

Xie Xie was busy helping with the construction efforts not far away, and he raised his head as a faint smile appeared on his face.

He had predicted that troublemakers would be arriving at some point, and they certainly didn't disappoint!

Xie Xie strode over to them, and said, "This land belongs to us; why aren't we allowed to begin construction work here?"

The leader of the soldiers had captain epaulets on his shoulders, and he said in an arrogant manner, "This place has been declared as a restricted area by the federation. It has destructive radiation and isn't suitable for human habitation, so no one can do any construction work here. Stop right now, or we'll have to stop you by force."

Xie Xie chuckled as he pulled a small book out of his pocket before handing it over to the soldier. "Is this how you speak to your superiors, Captain?"

The captain faltered slightly before accepting the small book. This was something that he was very familiar with; it was an officer identification document. Xie Xie's officer identification document was blue with two stars emblazoned onto its surface, indicating that he was a lieutenant colonel.

[1] [In this instance, piling is a piece of construction jargon that refers to setting a type of deep foundation. Google search "piling construction" if you want to get a better idea of what it is.]