Shrek Academy's Sea God's Fated Date Festival was a sight to behold. After all of the Inner Court students made their way onto the Sea God's Lake, the first phase began. In total, there were over 50 male students standing on lotus leaves at one side, and over 30 female students on the other side, also standing on similar lotus leaves.
During the first phase, Lan Muzi and Tang Tingmeng gave the male students the option to reveal their faces directly, which many them did, but the real point of the first phase was for the male students to try and snatch away the bamboo hats that obscured the female students' faces.
Sheng Feilong wasn't too interested in this, but still chose to watch together with Yuanen Yehui and Huang Jialong. Huang Jialong seemed to have a similarly low interest in the festival, but Yuanen Yehui was oddly entranced; It didn't feel weird, though, they came her too come and see Tang Wulin and Yuanen Yehui's other former teammates, after all.
There was a surprising outcome, though; Male Student Number Two was actually Yue Zhengyu, an aquaintance of Sheng Feilong's and Yuanen Yehui's and one of the current generation's Shrek Seven Monsters. This shocked the surrounding students and participants more than Sheng Feilong and Yuanen Yehui though; Sheng Feilong simply didn't care enough to be surprised, while Yuanen Yehui wasn't too fond of Yue Zhengyu to begin with.
Although both of them were members of Shrek Academy before, they had cut all ties with the academy by now. Yuanen Yehui still thought of Tang Wulin and the rest of their team that went to the Star Luo Continent as friends, though. As for Sheng Feilong, the only ones he still somewhat cared about here were Xu Lizhi and Ye Xinglan; The two of them were the first people he got acquainted with and spent the most time with, after all. Other than them, the only other person who Sheng Feilong really remembered was Jiang Wang, who had originally come to Shrek Academy together with him.
The first phase continued and by the end of it, only two of the 31 female students were able to keep their bamboo hats; All of the others had been exposed, willingly or unwillingly, including Ye Xinglan and Xu Xiaoyan. Most notably there were definitely Yue Zhengyu, Xie Xie, who was number 16, as well as Number 41, who didn't expose his own face, Number 50 Long Yue and Number 51, who also didn't remove his own hat.
Still, Sheng Feilong couldn't help but frown at both, Number 41 and Number 51. Both of them seemed oddly familiar to him, but he couldn't pinpoint it as neither of them exposed their Spirit Essence or any Soul Skills; Number 41 used raw phyiscal strength to force more than 10 of the females to remove their bamboo hats by causing a miniature flood wave on the lake, while Number 51 used techniques unique to the Tang Sect.
Soon after that, the second round began and Lan Muzi started drawing lots to determine which male student went first. The second phase, Love At First Sight, allowed for the male students to introduce themselves to the females, who could than light a lantern to show their general interest in the male student. If a male student didn't get a single lantern to light up, they would be disqualified.
Unsurprisingly, Yue Zhengyu managed to shock the crowd; A total of 16 lights lit up for him, meaning over half of the females were interested in him. With his handsome looks, his background as a member of the Holy Angel Clan and his position as a member of the Shrek Seven Monster, tough, this was to be expected.
The second phase was a lot shorter than the first phase, though, and quite a few students were disqualified, meaning the next phase would be even faster. All members of Shrek's Seven Monsters got people to light up their lanterns for them. Eventually, the enigmatic Number 41, as well as Long Yue, also got lanterns to light up for them; Surprisingly, the one who lit up their lantern for Long Yue was Dai Yun'er, though.
Student Number 41 still chose to not expose his identity, thus resulting in him only getting three lantern to light up, as not many of the female students dared to take the risk, especially so as Number 41's style was quite brutish during the first phase.
During the end of the second phase, another storm was kicked up as Number 51 chose to reveal his identity. At first, not many students recognized him, but those that did were more than simply shocked, including Sheng Feilong, who rose an eyebrow, and Yuanen Yehui who blurted out the name of the student with a smile on her face. "Tang Wulin!"
Lan Muzi and Tang Tingmeng didn't recognize Tang Wulin and asked him to identify himself, which he gladly did. By then, everyone knew who he was, causing many of the female students to light up their lantern as soon as Tang Tingmeng asked for their votes. In total, Tang Wulin got 18 lantern to light up, breaking even Yue Zhengyu's record.
Yuanen Yehui continued to smile as she watched from the sidelines with Sheng Feilong and Huang Jialong. She confirmed with her own eyes that Tag Wulin was back and he was doing particularly well at that; He had grown over the past three years, his face loosing what remained of his former childishness, now showing a handsome face with sharp features.
She didn't particularly care about his appearance, but the change after not seeing him for three years was truly to noticeable. Instead of admiring his appearance, though, Sheng Feilong checked the latter's cultivation and strength in general; As She Meixiao had told them, his cultivation didn't increase and he was still at the middle ranks of the Soul Ancestor level, but Sheng Feilong could tellthat something was totally different by now.
'...It seems he was able to train, wherever he went after this so-called Dragon Valley was destroyed. His cultivation didn't increase, but the intensity of his aura is on another level altogether compared to three years ago... His Spirit Power also seems incredibly strong; Is he at the Spirit Abyss Realm yet?' Sheng Feilong's gaze lingered on Tang Wulin for a while as he quietly assessed the latters strength.
As he had thought, Tang Wulin's Spirit Power had increased by leaps and bounds, enough for him to notice Sheng Feilong's gaze. He turned around, facing Sheng Feilong before first showing a surprised, then unpleasant and frowning expression. Quite a few of the more perspective students noticed Tang Wulin's change in expression and, following his gaze, also noticed that he was staring at Sheng Feilong.
The latter didn't say anything and only continued to stare at Sheng Feilong with an indifferent expression. 'He's definitely at the Spirit Abyss Realm... Just hat kind of training did he do, though? He was barely at the Spirit Sea realm three years ago. Did he get something similar to Ancestor Wuyong's inheritance? His bloodline seems even more powerful than before, as well.'
Tang Wulin didn't look at Sheng Feilong too long, but quickly noticed the smiling Yuanen Yehui standing next to him. He was surprised, especially after seeing that Yuanen Yehui was holding Sheng Feilong's hand. The two of them nodded at each other in greeting before Tang Wulin glanced at Xie Xie.
As most of the students around did by now, Xie Xie had also followed Tang Wulin's gaze to see Sheng Feilong and Yuanen Yehui. He wasn't present before, as e was one of the students that came from the Sea God's Island to participate at the Fated Date Festival, thus he didn't know that Sheng Feilong was present, nor what happened between him and Long Yue.
His gaze was filled with malice, clearly still angry that Yuanen Yehui left Shrek Academy because of him and everything else that happened during their visit to the Star Luo Empire. He got even more frustrated when he noticed that Sheng Feilong didn't even spare him a single glance, though all he could do was clench his fists and gnash his teeth.
The third phase began after Tang Wulin returned to his place. By now, only Number 41 was still obscured by a bamboo hat among the male students. On the female's side, there were still the same two as before; Among those three cloaked figures, no one had guessed who they were yet.
Once again, the male students were called into action by Lan Muzi and Tang Tingmeng. This time, the third phase called, Love At Second Sight, was meant for the female students to make their final choice. They could once again light up their lanterns, but they only had one chance; As did the male students, who could ask the female students to light their lantern for them.
This time, the first student to step up was the enigmatic Number 41. Lan Muzi looked down at him from his position in the sky and smiled. "Student Number 41, this will be your last chance to remove your bamboo hat. I'm afraid our dear junior sister wouldn't be willing to choose you if you remain unknown."
"Ha, ha... In that case, I better listen to Senior Lan." Number 41 laughed casually while grabbing towards his bamboo hat. By this point, Sheng Feilong stared t him with wide eyes; He definitely recognized the voice, but how could that be? Number 41's bamboo hat fell, revealing a handsome face with comparatively soft features. In addition to his sleek, muscular frame, he gave off the aura of a sweat younger brother, causing the older female students to perk up. "Senior and Junior sister, hello. My name Is Jiang Wang; A member of the current Shrek's Seven Monsters."