160 Distress Call

While Sheng Feilong was lost in thought, the little girl, Xiao Feifei, was busy trying to get Huang Jialong to fight her. She had stopped pouting when Sheng Feilong told her she reminded him of someone he knows, but tactfully didn't ask.

After being pestered for a while, Huang Jialong agreed to fight her, but also quickly defeated her. Still, he actually had a bit of trouble due to the nature of Xiao Feifei's Spirit Essence; Nothing that would hinder him from winning, but enough for Xiao Feifei to hold a clear advantage if the two of them were at the same rank.

Without them noticing, it had already become evening. They were still inside the training area, chatting and occasionally fighting against the other members of Daedalus, when She Meixiao, this branch's Branchmaster, as well as two other people arrived.

The four were quickly noticed by some of the members, who promptly made way for them to come through. The leader of the top executive's associates went over to them and bowed to the Branchmaster, then to the two other people and She Meixiao. Two more people did the same and after them, Xiao Feifei followed suit.

She bowed first to a rather young looking man among these four important people. He didn't look much older than most of the Daedalus members inside the training hall, but all of them obviously had high respects for him. Sheng Feilong quickly understood why when Xiao Feifei called the young man 'Master'.

After them, Sheng Feilong and Huang Jialong also came forward, first bowed to She Meixiao, then to the Branchmaster and the other two, addressing those three as Seniors. She Meixiao smiled lightly and introduced them to the others. "Feilong, Jialong, these are Branchmaster Ying, Chief Xiao and Chief Hong. Come, greet them properly."

The two of them did as they were told, much to the satisfaction of the three upper echelons. The one called Chief Hong nodded contently at their greetings, while Chief Xiao, the young looking man, simply smiled and returned the greeting with a nod.

Branchmaster Ying had met Sheng Feilong and Huang Jialong before, so she wasn't too set on their formal greetings. Instead, she was glad to see that the two of them seemed to have formed pleasant ties with the other younger members of her branch.

As per usual, Sheng Feilong and the others spent another night at the branch before returning to the city the next morning. Their schedule was a bit tighter as they would take the train to the next city in the afternoon already, but none of them were bothered by that.

The next branch they had to reach was rather far away and they spent nearly a whole day inside the train; Travelling through the night and almost until noon of the next day. This was the farthest travel Sheng Feilong and Huang Jialong had had on the Star Luo Continent so far, but they quickly got used to it.

They arrived at the branch the same day, went through the procedures and check-up of the branch and went back to their travels the very next day. This became their new routine and Sheng Feilong became accustomed to just cultivate most of the time; Especially when they were riding the train as it was almost always at least a few hours.

Before anyone noticed it, more than three months had passed in this manner. With the constant travels, Sheng Feilong had much time for cultivating and actually managed to break through, reaching Rank 54 without much hassle, while also getting close to the halfway mark to reach rank 55. Huang Jialong didn't manage to make a full break through, but he was close to the very peak of rank 59 already.

This wouldn't have been possible with just a few hours of daily cultivation, but thanks to their long travelling times, they managed to do it. This was due to the fact, that it sometimes took multiple days on the train to reach their destination; one of the branches they visited even requiring 5 days worth of travel by train as well as another half a day to reach the actual base.

Currently, the three of them were once again sitting in a train, though Sheng Feilong had a rather unpleasant expression on his face. A few days ago, She Meixiao had gotten word that long time mission of the Tang Sect had lead to the supposed death of a certain Tang Sect member, which she also told Sheng Feilong. Because the one that supposedly died was actually Tang Wulin.

Because of this, both of them got the same bad feeling that Gu Yue, Shrek Academy or maybe possibly the Tang Sect themselves were involved in this. They already knew that Gu Yue was after Tang Wulin'S bloodline and She Meixiao had told Sheng Feilong that she was conspiring with Shrek Academy.

Although the public wasn't informed of this matter, the great organisations of the Star Luo Continent were naturally aware of what occurred. This included Daedalus as well as She Meixiao. Apparently, the had sent a number of promising members to a place called the Dragon Valley. It was another world that could be entered through a space crack where they could obtains various rewards by fighting the remnant spirits of dead dragons to strengthen themselves.

According to the information She Meixiao got, this place was an unstable space and during the operation of Tang Sact a few days ago, it collapsed. Every one of their members managed to safely evacuate and return to the normal world; Everyone but Tang Wulin.

For the first two days, Sheng Feilong's thoughts were in complete disarray. Even though they had a fight, he still considered Tang Wulin his friend, so hearing that the latter died left him devastated. Moreover, due to the fact that he knew that people were after him but didn't say anything, he actually blamed himself for it.

It took nearly all of those two days for She Meixiao to blaming himself and by now, he was rather calm, though still anxious. She Meixiao was only able to calm him down this much by saying that she would send out members of Daedalus to try to save Tang Wulin, though She Meixiao herself didn't care to much about it as she didn't have anything to do with Tang Wulin.

A few more days had passed since then and Sheng Feilong had returned to cultivating during their train rides when his Soul Communicator suddenly rung. He stopped cultivating and looked who was calling him, then rose an eyebrow and hastily answered the call. "Hello, Yuanen?"

"Sheng Feilong? Hello. Do you have some time? I need to talk to you and Senior She..." Sheng Feilong was glad to hear from her, but quickly frowned. Yuanen Yehui's voice sounded grave and she was obviously struggling to keep calm. With a serious expression, Sheng Feilong spoke up again. "What happened? You sound awful. Are you okay?"

Yuanen Yehui hesitated for a moment before Sheng Feilong heard her strained voice again. "...Have you heard about what happened to Tang Wulin?"Sheng Feilong sighed lightly and his voice grew a bit more emotional. "Yes, Master told me about it... Did you hear anything new?"

"No, but that's why I need to talk to Senior She." yuanen Yehui stopped for a moment and Sheng Feilong heard her take a deep breath. "Shrek Academy, or more precisely, Elder Cai refuses to look into this matter and she actually wants us to return to the Douluo Continent like nothing had happened.

"...What?" Sheng Feilong waited for a moment, then asked back with a cold voice, causing both, She Meixiao's and Huang Jialong's eyes, to fall onto him. "Wait a moment." He said, then looked up to She Meixiao. "Master, can you isolate us from the rest of the train?"

She Meixiao nodded, creating a sound isolating barrier around their booth before Sheng Feilong put the call on speaker. "Yuanen, Master is listening in now as well. What happened? Why would Elder Cai refuse to look for Wulin?"

"Greetings, Senior She... I don't know. Elder Cai was the first to hear what happened and told us students, but also said that Tang Sect would look into it and that we shouldn't concern ourselves too much with it." Yuanen Yehui's voice was obviously agitated by this point. "We asked her what happened and pleaded for her to tell us; Only then did we hear about the Dragon Valley. She still refused to look into it, saying we should focus on the task at hand and that we would return to the Douluo continent in about a week as planned."

For a short moment, She Meixiao's eyes sparkled with a crafty light, too short for Sheng Feilong and Huang Jialong to notice, before she spoke up. "So Shrek Academy really refuses to look into this? I've heard about it from my sources, but I didn't think it would be true."

"...Yes, it's true. With Teacher Wu's help, we somehow managed to persuade her to wait and let us personally look into it, but the Tang Sect isn't giving out any information about this matter..." Yuanen Yehui answered with a powerless voice. To this, She Meixiao replied with a concerned voice. "Daedalus is looking into it as well. I can instruct my connections to keep you updated, if you wish. But more importantly, are you and the other students okay?"

"All of us are distressed, especially Gu Yue... She isn't even speaking to anyone anymore and just remain in her room. I... I could actually hear her weeping when I passed her room. Everyone's down and we don't know what to do..." Her voice was slightly shaking, causing She Meixiao to sigh in pity as she replied again. "Yuanen Yehui, where are you guys currently? We'll come and meet you."