76 Let Me Take Revenge In Your Stead

The world remained grey and not a single trace of emotion could be seen on Sheng Feilong's face; It was as if he had never heard the voice booming in his head. He had accepted his fate. He would die because he was too weak. It didn't matter what that voice was or what it said. He could only silently feel regret.

A few moments passed in silence as Sheng Feilong continued to stare at the giant Soul Beast, that seemed frozen in time in front of him. He had accepted his fate, but the hatred still remained. If it wasn't for the Soul Saint attacking the train, if it wasn't for him being kidnapped, if this Soul Beast hadn't attacked him, he wouldn't have to feel this kind of hate and regret. At this moment, the otherworldly, deep voice rung out in his head again.

>You crave for power. Power to destroy your enemies. I can sense it.<

Sheng Feilong didn't react; He couldn't react. His body was unmoving, still, the voice roused his hatred even further. If nothing of what happened today had afflicted him... If he wasn't so weak when all this happened...

>Do not resist. If it is power that you seek, surrender your body to me.<

Sheng Feilong's mind shook as his eyes slowly lost their luster. That's right. He just had to give in. What did his body matter when he was dying anyways? He didn't know why he was still alive, why the time seemed to have frozen. The only thing he knew was that his life would end as soon as time began to flow again. And this Soul Beast in front of him was the cause of all this...

>Let me take your anger, your regret, from you. Rest. Let me take revenge in your stead. You only need to rest.<

Right, rest... When was the last time he had truly rested? Why should he put up with this Beast any longer? Why struggle against those stronger than him? He could simply rest... With these thoughts, the luster in Sheng Feilong's eyes dimmed more and more. He couldn't feel his body anymore, nor could he muster any strength. The only thing keeping him awake was this hatred, this regret; He was so terribly tired of it.

Sheng Feilong slowly closed his eyes, the luster in them long since gone, as the world finally turned completely black...

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A staff member of Shrek Academy was hurriedly walking over to the school building. Walking through a corridor, past a few doors, he gingerly knocked on one of them, waiting to be invited in. A female voice echoed out and the staff member entered the room, making sure that his distress wasn't shown on his face as he spoke to the teacher in front of her class.

"Teacher Shen, could I trouble you to accompany me outside for a moment? It's urgent."

Shen Yi frowned. She was in the middle of class and this staff member suddenly disturbed her lesson. Still, she accompanied him outside of the room and the staff member made sure no one could hear their conversation.

"Teacher Shen, we just got news that, about half an hour ago, the Soul Train to Heaven Dou City, that one of the first grade's students had boarded was destroyed by terrorists. As far as we know, there a no survivors."

Shen Yi's expression changed. Although she told the students that Shrek Academy wouldn't interfere with their exam if them were met with life threatening situation, that was only a phrase meant to encourage them to do their best and be cautious in their choice of opponents. She looked at the staff member with obvious worry in her eyes.

"Which student was on that train?"

"From our intel, it should have been student Sheng Feilong. He was the first of the students taking the exam to board a Soul Train. We didn't expect someone to get on so early and missed the train. The staff member taking the next train is to get to Heaven Dou City is the one who reported about the incident.", the staff member reported.

Shen Yi's expression turned complicated as she contemplated her options in her head. She knew of Sheng Feilong's status as well as his connections to the Spirit Pagoda. If they got news that Shrek Academy let one of their members die in their exams...

"Inform the students in the classroom them they've got free time for now. I'll immediately head over to Sea God's Pavilion and inform Elder Cai."

When Shen Yi reached the Sea God's Island, she went to see Elder Cai. She was in one of the regular meeting of the Sea God's Pavilion' Elders when Shen Yi told her that Sheng Feilong most likely died in the attack on the Soul Train. After a short discussion, the decision was made that, after taking Sheng Feilong's identity into consideration, the Sea God's Pavilion Master, Atlas Douluo Yun Ming, would personally inform the Spirit Pagoda and Sheng Feilong's family.

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Song Weihan was currently in the Spirit Soul Laboratory and overseeing and experiment to create another Spirit Soul that his subordinates lead when his Soul Communicator rung. Not wanting to disturb anyone, he quickly excused him as soon as he saw the caller's ID. Taking a deep breath outside of the experimentation room, he answered the call with a faked smile.

"Respected Atlas Douluo, what do I owe this honour today?"

"Song Weihan, I'm sorry about this sudden call. It's about your student, Sheng Feilong, he..."

Song Weihan listened to the Atlas Douluo for a moment and the fake smile on his face quickly vanished, turning into a solemn face. By the time Yun Ming finished explaining the situation, no expression could be seen on Song Weihan's face, but everyone in the laboratory could feel the ice cold pressure filled with killing intent that radiated off of him. Cutting off the call with Yun Ming, Song Weihan's Soul Power exploded out from him as he burst out of the laboratory before crashing a window to leave the Spirit Pagoda as he flew into the direction of Shrek City, or more precisely the direction of the destroyed Soul Train, at breakneck speed.

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In another Soul Train heading to Heaven Dou City, Gu Yue, Xu Xiaoyan and Xie Xie happily chatted about how to finish their exam before a howling wind hit their train and a few windows shook. Xie Xie frowned and complained about the weather, failing to notice Gu Yue's horrified look and ghastly pale face as she stared into the direction of the winds. Gu Yue's bodytrembled as she mindlessly muttered in a voice only audible to herself.

"How... How can the energy of one of those monsters be present in this world..."

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At another place; The Blacksmith's Association of Shrek City, Tang Wulin was currently walking around, trying to find another way to earn money. He was allowed to forge and sell his metal to the federation for a outrageously low price before to afford the ticket to Heaven Dou city, but now they refused to let him work again, saying it was to not let him make the exam easy for himself.

He still cursed Sheng Feilong when his bloodline suddenly became agitated. Golden scales quickly covered nearly all of his body as he himself felt the disturbance in his bloodline and cold sweat flowed down his back like a river. He quickly sprung up, searching for the source of this terrifying feeling but he could find nothing even after searching for over a few minutes. His heart pounded like crazy and his blood unceasingly coursed through his body like a raging tsunami.

"What's going on? What is this feeling that's even making my bloodline act up in dread to defend?"

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A few hours had passed since then and Tang Wulin and Gu Yue had calmed down by now. The dreadful presence the two of them felt had ceased to exist completely after flaring up for some time. A bad feeling lingered in Gu Yue's stomach, but she forced herself to focus on the Year End Exam for now. Song Weihan had flung into a brutal rage after he saw what happened to the Soul Train that supposedly had Sheng Feilong in it; It was completely destroyed, with whatever remained of charred remains of people that were burned, exploded or squished to death in the terrorist's attack.

He returned to the Spirit Pagoda, mustering his subordinates and wanted to head out to Shrek Academy to declare war on them for his disciple's life, but was stopped by nearly all of the other Elder's and top echelon's of Heaven Dou City's Spirit Pagoda. Not backing down, the Elder's had informed the Spirit Pagoda's headquarters and Song Weihan got the formal order to stand down, causing him to flare up once again and the other Elder's had to forcibly restrain him.

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At the same time, at yet another position, a cloaked figure stood in the air, looking down at the terrain beneath them speechlessly. This land was known to be a tundra like wasteland to begin with but what they saw could only be described with a single word: Carnage. The earth was dried out and dead with deep ravines running through it while all vegetation had died and an incredible dark energy lingered in the air, making it hard for them to even breath.

Flying through these dead, destroyed lands, the figure finally stopped a few dozen meters away from a huge, insectoid corpse of a Soul Beast, staring at it in shock. It was lying directly in the middle of these destroyed lands, with the dreadful carnage having consumed everything around it in a hundred kilometres radius.

"This is... The 100.000-years-old Doomstinger Dragonfly's corpse..? It's the overlord of this whole area and not even Titled Douluo's dare to approach it's territory mindlessly. What in the world could have mutilated it like this?"

The 100.000-years-old Doomstinger Dragonfly was barely recognizable. It's wings were brutally torn apart and their leftovers lay around it after having been thrown to the side. It's solid, near indestructible carapace was completely crushed and it's whole body was horrendously mutilated. Its greatest strength, its dozens of metres long, powerful tail was nearly torn from its body and even more mutilated than the torso itself. The worst part, though, wasn't it's mutilated state, but the stench coming off of it. A combination of the stenches of acidic burns and rotting flesh lay in the air around it while the dark energy surrounding it was dozens if not hundreds of times more intense than what the cloaked figure felt before. The arena dozens of metres around it was completely corroded and only a black, unidentifiable waste remained.

Looking around the scene a bit, the figure didn't dare near the Doomstinger Dragonfly's corpse any closer, but they could see, that the Soul Beast's Soul Ring had long since dissipated; It's clearly been dead for more than an hour. Nothing in this wasteland stood out from the carnage and death, but the cloaked figure still looked around trying to find any clue to what happened here until something finally caught their eye, stunning them deeply.

"There's a... boy lying there..?"