NOVEL WEB Chapter 51: Chapter 51: Di Feng
Walking past the statues and turning left, they could faintly see a wide expanse of water through the shaded trees.
This was naturally the legendary artificial Qinghai Lake—no, Sea God Lake.
Wang Rui activated his Eye of Destiny and gazed into the distance at the island in the center of Sea God Lake.
Jiang Nannan noticed that Wang Rui had gone silent, so she took over and explained, "That's Sea God Lake, built to commemorate Tang San. There's a small island in the middle of the lake, which is where Shrek Academy's inner court is located. It's extremely difficult to gain entry into the inner court, with extremely strict requirements. There has always been a saying: only inner court disciples are considered true Shrek students; those in the outer court aren't truly part of Shrek."
Huo Yuqing looked at the lake's center through the mist hanging over the water.
In the center, only a golden tower could be faintly seen, looming through the hazy fog.
However, in Wang Rui's vision, the island above Sea God Lake shone with a dazzling blue-gold pillar of light that pierced the sky, vaguely forming the shape of a golden trident.
Shrek Academy, the Clear Sky Clan, and the Sea God Island off the coast were the three places most closely connected to the God Realm—to Tang San, specifically.
Countless threads of destiny, representing cause and effect, extended from Sea God Island. These blue-gold threads floated in the air, winding far into the distance and connecting with countless individuals related to Shrek Academy.
These threads of fate intertwined, forming a giant web that seemed to enshroud the entire continent. At the center of this web was Sea God Island, radiating blinding blue-gold light, which overshadowed everyone else's fortunes. It was like a giant spider perched at the heart of the web, waiting to devour everything.
Like the roots of a blue silver grass plant, they were deeply embedded in the land, absorbing every ounce of nutrients from the earth to nourish the towering blue-gold vine at the center.
"Don't think of Shrek Academy as a school. Think of it as a sect that will do anything to ensure its continued survival, and everything makes sense," Wang Rui murmured.
Sea God Lake was indeed vast. They walked southward along the lakeside path for nearly half an hour before reaching a broad plaza.
On the other side of the plaza were tall teaching buildings in various colors: white, yellow, purple, and black.
Looking further north beyond Shrek Plaza, there appeared to be another cluster of gray buildings.
"Shrek Academy has two divisions. This side is the Martial Soul Division, distinguished by different grade levels using soul ring colors. The gray buildings over there are for the Soul Tool Division," Jiang Nannan explained.
"I get it, but why is the Soul Tool Division gray?" Huo Yuqing frowned, staring at the dull-colored buildings.
Her aesthetic sense had long been influenced by a certain dung beetle teacher, leading her to believe that soul tools should be represented by gold—or at least metallic silver.
But here, the Soul Tool Division's buildings were an uninspiring gray, squeezed into a corner as if they were being marginalized by the brightly colored Martial Soul Division.
"Does Shrek dislike soul tools?" Huo Yuqing asked, her face scrunched up in confusion. "Even during the entrance test, they didn't allow the use of soul tools but permitted those hidden weapons."
"You hit the nail on the head," Jiang Nannan said with a shrug. "Shrek's Martial Soul Division operates on the principle that truly powerful soul masters don't need soul tools, and soul engineers are nothing in the face of truly powerful soul masters."
Huo Yuqing's small face was filled with big confusion.
The trio turned a corner and entered the Martial Soul Division's teaching area.
The registration area for new students was on the first floor of the first-year teaching building.
Although it was already the tail end of the registration period, the place was still bustling with activity. Occasionally, students in white uniforms could be seen hurrying by, their faces brimming with confidence and anticipation for the future.
For some reason, Wang Rui was suddenly reminded of his middle school days.
At the registration desk, they received their dormitory keys, two sets of uniforms, and a white badge indicating their status as new students.
Perhaps due to their late registration, Wang Rui and Huo Yuqing were assigned to Class Nine of the new students, with their dormitory being Room 313 in the new students' dormitory building. At least they didn't end up in the same class as Wang Dong.
Jiang Nannan escorted them to the vicinity of the dormitory building before hastily leaving to complete her own registration.
There was an old man sitting under a tree near the dormitory building.
He wore a loose white robe and looked like an ordinary old man relaxing in the shade. His wrinkled face seemed capable of trapping flies, but he was in good spirits and looked like he could stand up and take down two Chicken Drumstick Douluos with one hand at any moment.
The old man reclined in a chair, legs crossed, with a gaudy magazine resting on his stomach. His withered hands lay atop the magazine, and his eyes were half-closed, as if he were dozing—though a closer look would reveal that he was actually squinting, sneaking glances at the new first-year students, especially taking a longer look at the prettier girls.
Wang Rui: …
So, this is what happens when you act dignified for too long in your youth—you completely let yourself go in old age.
Seeing Wang Rui standing still, Huo Yuqing tugged on his sleeve and asked, "Shall we find the dormitory ourselves? That grandpa seems to be asleep."
Wang Rui naturally recognized Mu En.
To be precise, his other identity was from the same era as Mu En, so they knew each other and could even be considered old friends.
More than two hundred years ago, there was a ginseng king in the Star Dou Forest who had reached the threshold of one hundred thousand years and was preparing to take human form to cultivate anew.
However, plants of the immortal variety, being inherently rich in spiritual energy, found cultivation relatively smooth and free of bottlenecks, unlike ordinary plants. But as a trade-off, they found it significantly harder to develop sentience and take human form, with their tribulations being far more difficult than those of ordinary soul beasts.
The ginseng king foresaw that it wouldn't survive the tribulation at one hundred thousand and one years and, unwilling to remain trapped in the Star Dou Forest, chose to take human form instead.
Yet during the process of forming a human body, it encountered an invisible barrier preventing it from compressing spiritual energy into soul power and storing it within its body.
This was the only bottleneck it had ever faced, a trial imposed by the laws of nature. Like a carp leaping over the dragon gate, this was something only it could overcome through effort; no one else could intervene.
For half a month, it struggled in vain to compress the immense spiritual energy into a human form. Ultimately, its soul and spiritual energy dissipated, leaving behind only a lifeless embryonic form.
Wang Rui took possession of this embryo.
He infused it with a large amount of the Gold of Life, revitalizing the lifeless form. He then injected a portion of his soul power and his own blood into it, using the power of fate to guide its growth, eventually refining it into a puppet avatar indistinguishable from a human.
He named this avatar Di Feng.
While Wang Rui's true body remained in the Star Dou Forest, his avatar, Di Feng, roamed the continent and secretly carried out many tasks for the Beast Sect.
As one of the era's prodigies, Di Feng naturally knew Mu En, and they could even be considered friends.
However, how much that friendship was worth… was another matter.
Different stances often led to parting ways.
Just then, a faint cracking sound reached Wang Rui's ears, and he quickly pulled Huo Yuqing aside.
Glass shards scattered as a figure in white uniform came crashing out of the building.
The person landed precisely where Wang Rui and Huo Yuqing had just been standing.
He rolled on the ground, nimbly pushing off with his toes. A pair of dazzling blue butterfly wings spread open behind him, gently flapping as he rose into the air.
The surrounding new students looked up, staring at him in awe.
Wang Rui, however, focused on the broken window with a dark expression.
And thus, Wang Dong made his debut!