1636 Yi Zichen

Tong Yu stared dully for a long time. Then, he looked toward Tang Wulin once again. "Oh well, oh well. Since I can't meet him, it's just the same for me to meet his descendant. This life of mine belongs to you after all. Perhaps my power will not be of use to you, but I'm still giving it. You can see what you would like to do with it."

While he spoke, Tong Yue's aura burst forth from his body as he readied to use his power on himself.

"Wait!" Tang Wulin called out in haste.

Tong Yu said with a bitter smile, "This is my dying wish. There's no need for you to dissuade me. I learned about what happened in the Star Luo Empire afterward. You're a good man. If you feel that my death will sully the best academy on the continent, we can do this somewhere else."

With great effort, Tang Wulin took a deep breath and suppressed his emotions. "Your Excellency Qilin, don't be in such a rush to seek your doom. Frankly, I only heard the story about you and my grandmother from you. However, you should let me understand the truth behind your words first, even if you are determined to end your life. There is no way I can make a judgment about something that happened decades ago. Furthermore, my heart would be very uneasy if I were to just let you die like that. However, I can't forgive you so easily either. How about this? I believe that it is possible to atone for any crime. My parents were killed by the Darkness Blood Demon. If you can kill him in the future and avenge my parents, our past grievances will be considered settled once and for all. If my grandmother were still alive, I believe this is what she would want as well."

Tong Yue was stunned for a moment. "Revenge? Seeking vengeance for your parents, huh?"

Tang Wulin nodded. "Precisely. Are you willing to do so?"

Tong Yu heaved a sigh. "You are her only descendant. My life is yours now. There is nothing that I won't do. It's just that, it seems like I'm getting off too easily. For decades, my heart has been tormented by the pain and regret. I…"

Tang Wulin interrupted his words. "The torment is actually the biggest punishment for you. Alright, the decision has been made. You can remain in Shrek Academy for now. The Holy Spirit Cult is a formidable enemy of Shrek. We will certainly deal with them in the future. You won't be able to find the Darkness Blood Demon by yourself. You can join us when we go to fight against the Holy Spirit Cult."

Tong Yu was silent for a moment before he said, "Very well, then. My life is yours. You may take it whenever you want. I will say no more. I'm tired after wandering for so long. It's in your hands anyway."

…

This was how Tang Wulin kept Tong Yu in Shrek Academy. Just as he had promised, he would abide by Tang Wulin's orders regardless. He joined Shrek when he was asked to and he came to participate in his competition today as he was instructed.

The lethargy that was on the Qilin Douluo's face when he first arrived had disappeared. He had the deepest concern for Tang Wulin. In a sense, Tang Wulin was his moral center.

How did Tang Wulin appear on the battlefield once again without a single scratch on him? Why did he have the courage to withstand an attack from a quasigod-ranked Limit Douluo? There was a reason behind that, of course. It was because he still had a guardian whose healing abilities surpassed even Yali's.

It was the Ancient Life Tree!

As the Nature Child, he was capable of channeling a sufficiently large amount of life force for the Ancient Life Tree and resurrecting it. As compensation, the Ancient Life Tree bestowed him with a special power to transport himself back to the tree's side as well as transporting life force. The Ancient Life Tree was the source of life for the entire Douluo Continent. With its assistance, it would not be easy to kill Tang Wulin.

The function of his role as the Nature Child was best shown when the Life Seed had taken root, germinated and grown into the Ancient Life Tree once again.

Unless the Ancient Life Tree's life force had dried up once again, Tang Wulin could be transported back to the Ancient Life Tree's side from anywhere on the Douluo Continent. At any time, he could be taken there to heal and recover.

With the heavy responsibilities of being the Tang Sect's Sect Master and the Sea God's Pavilion Master of Shrek Academy on him, how could he take his life lightly? Everything in the day's battle was within his control.

The opportunity to receive a direct, fully powered strike from a merciless quasigod was precious for a soul master that had cultivated to his realm. The experience would be vastly beneficial for his upcoming cultivation.

Shrek could be described as rapidly heading toward prosperity with new changes every day. Whether it was the outstanding teachers and students continuously enrolling into the academy or the making of battle armor using the precious alloy he was forging nonstop, everything was improving Shrek bit by bit.

Tang Wulin spent almost all his daily cultivation time performing Heavenly Refinement. His physical capabilities in addition to his identity as the Nature Child and the blessing of the plane were what enabled him to continue forging in such a manner without fear of being affected by the elemental calamities. Nevertheless, he had still been very fatigued for the past few months.

Spirit Academy was finally defeated, so Tang Wulin was relieved. Of course, this ordeal was still unfinished, as Shrek had yet to achieve a decisive victory. Too much time had been wasted, so the enrollment on the other side would have to make up for it.

Yi Zichen was turning twelve years old this year and it was only about a month away from his twelfth birthday. Since he was young, he grew up in a small town in the remote part of the south.

His clan members were all ordinary people. Before him, there had never been a martial soul awakening or any emergence of soul power even among the elders in his clan.

On the other hand, there was no telling if luck had been on his clan's side in his generation. When his martial soul awakened at the age of six, he found that he had soul power as well. Moreover, he had Innate Full Soul Power as soon as it happened.

The incident sent shockwaves through the entire town at the time. The mayor came and paid him a visit to express his wish to do everything in the town's power to support Yi Zichen's cultivation in the future.

Yi Zichen was still a naive child when he was six years old. He had no idea what the significance of cultivation was. He only understood that his future would be wondrous if he could become a powerful soul master.

Hence, he entered an elementary soul academy to study.

His martial soul was very special. It was 'Dust' which was the dust from the fine particles of earth. It was an earth-attribute martial soul. In the beginning, even the teachers in the academy had no idea what direction he should be cultivating toward with his martial soul.

Yi Zichen's clan was not considered poor, but they were definitely not wealthy either. After all, he came from a small town in the remote south. The elementary soul academy he was studying in was nothing special. These were the circumstances he began his cultivation under.

In the eyes of the clansmen and people in the town, he could at the very least become a mecha master in the future with his Innate Full Soul Power. As long as he was willing to work hard, he would certainly be able to bring credit to the small town.

No one expected that Yi Zichen's natural talents would surpass their predictions.

The Innate Full Soul Power allowed him to be at the most advanced starting point among his soul master peers. When the others were still working hard to reach rank-10 so they could acquire their first spirit souls, he already had one.

His town had sponsored the spirit soul to him. For that, the entire town gave its entire fortune and paid a hefty price to purchase a one-hundred-year spirit soul for him from Spirit Pagoda.

Yi Zichen felt the wonder of soul masters' world for the very first time after possessing this spirit soul. He had begun his journey of cultivation.

Three years. He had spent only three years' time to smoothly cultivate from rank-10 to rank-20. His speed was incredible because it was difficult to do this even with the Innate Full Soul Power. He relied on his one-hundred-year spirit soul to gain his second soul ring and became a Soul Grandmaster.

The news of such rapid cultivation speed shocked the academy where he was at. Even though the teaching standards of that elementary soul academy were average, the teachers were still rather experienced. They understood that they could not just neglect this child. Hence, he was sent to study at another elementary soul academy in the biggest city in the south. He had earned himself a full scholarship due to his extraordinary natural talent.

It could be said that everything was going smoothly.

In the blink of an eye, Yi Zichen was already almost twelve years old this year. Not long ago, Spirit Academy's advertisements were broadcast to the entire continent.

There was no doubt that this was the best academy on the continent. Yi Zichen found the series of benefits offered by Spirit Academy made it even more attractive. The benefits were very tempting, especially for someone that came from a poverty-stricken clan like him.

His soul power cultivation base was already at rank-29. He only needed to take one more step to cross into the threshold of rank-30. He could easily receive his second spirit soul if he was to join Spirit Academy! As a result, he made the decision to enroll there after discussing with his teachers and clansmen.

He was feeling very confident, and he was already the best of his peers in his academy.

Thus, he went there. His teacher and father came along with him to register for his enrollment.