Welcome to My World

Dawn was breaking.

A thin layer of mist shrouded the Shrek Academy training ground.

Flender and Zhao Wuji stood off to one side, both sporting enormous dark circles.

Neither of them had slept a wink last night.

Whenever they closed their eyes, they saw Lin Xi's earth-shattering punch and that blood-red Soul Ring.

Dai Mubai, Oscar, Tang San, Xiao Wu, Ning Rongrong, and Zhu Zhuqing.

The seven stood in a row at the center of the training ground.

Each of them wore an expression of confusion and nervousness.

They had no idea what the first lesson from this newly appointed "Supreme Dean" would be.

Would she teach them that terrifying fist technique?

Or would she impart the secret to obtaining a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring?

"Starting today, your training will be divided into two parts."

Lin Xi stood before them, her voice especially clear in the morning air.

"Mornings are for Heart Refining."

"Afternoons are for Body Refining."

"Heart Refining? Body Refining?"

Oscar muttered softly.

"It sounds pretty impressive."

"What is Heart Refining?" Ning Rongrong could not help asking.

Her feelings toward the little girl who had defeated her were complicated.

There was resentment, curiosity, and a trace of anticipation that even she had not noticed.

Lin Xi glanced at her.

"It means getting to know yourself."

Her words were utterly cryptic.

Leaving everyone completely baffled.

Getting to know themselves?

What kind of training was that?

"Enough nonsense."

Lin Xi clapped her hands.

"Now, everyone, close your eyes."

Though puzzled, everyone obeyed and closed their eyes.

"Focus your minds and empty your thoughts."

"Do not resist."

There seemed to be a strange magic in Lin Xi's voice.

Guiding them into a state between sleep and wakefulness.

A flicker of wariness rose in Tang San's heart.

Instinctively, he wanted to activate his Purple Demon Eye.

But Lin Xi noticed.

"Tang San, I said do not resist."

Her voice rang directly inside his mind.

Tang San's heart tightened, and he had no choice but to abandon his resistance.

He chose to trust Lin Xi.

At the moment everyone completely relaxed.

Lin Xi moved.

There was no earth-shaking motion.

She merely slowly raised her head and looked at them.

In an instant, her eyes turned a profound black.

Like two whirlpools capable of swallowing everything.

The first blood-red Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring beneath her feet quietly lit up.

The red light flashed and vanished.

It was so fast that even Flender and Zhao Wuji, standing nearby, thought they had imagined it.

First Soul Skill, Mirror Flower, Water Moon.

Lin Xi silently recited in her heart.

The next second.

The seven youths on the training ground, their eyes closed.

Their bodies all trembled at once.

Then they became completely motionless.

As though they had turned into seven lifeless statues.

"Wh... what happened?"

Flender could not help asking as he watched the eerie scene.

"Did they fall asleep?"

"No."

Zhao Wuji shook his head, his expression turning incomparably grave.

"There are no Soul Power fluctuations coming from them."

"But their minds are fluctuating violently!"

As a battle Soul Sage, his Spiritual Power far surpassed that of ordinary people.

He could sense that the seven children were currently in an exceedingly mysterious state.

Their mental worlds seemed to be undergoing a world-shaking storm!

"Supreme Dean... what did you do to them?"

Flender asked cautiously.

Lin Xi did not answer him.

She merely looked at the seven "statues," the corner of her lips curving into an unnoticed smile.

"Welcome to..."

"My world."

Tang San felt as if he had had a dream.

He dreamed that he had returned to Holy Soul Village.

Returned to that dilapidated blacksmith shop.

His father, Tang Hao, sat by the furnace, drinking the cheapest ale.

Everything was exactly as he remembered.

Yet something felt wrong.

He wanted to call out, "Dad."

But he found that he could not make a sound.

He wanted to walk over.

But he found that he could not move his body.

He was like an outsider, a ghost.

Only able to watch helplessly.

Watch Tang Hao finish his drink, then pick up his hammer and begin forging.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

It was the sound he knew best.

But today, that sound filled him with an inexplicable dread.

He saw that every time Tang Hao swung his hammer.

His body became a little more illusory.

As though he were about to scatter away in the wind.

"No! Dad!"

Tang San screamed frantically in his heart.

He wanted to rush over and grab him.

But he could not do it.

He could only watch.

Watch Tang San disappear bit by bit.

Until he, along with that dilapidated blacksmith shop, turned into countless specks of light filling the sky.

Tang San froze.

He reached out, trying to catch those specks of light.

But he could catch nothing.

He had lost his only family.

Just as he sank into endless grief and despair.

The scene around him changed once more.

He arrived at Nuoding Academy.

He saw Xiao Wu surrounded and bullied by a group of noble children.

Rage surged within him, and he wanted to rush forward.

But he still could not move.

He could only watch.

Watch Xiao Wu being knocked to the ground, crying her heart out.

"No!!"

Tang San felt as though his heart were breaking apart.

Why?

Why could he do nothing?

Why could he only watch as the people he cherished left him one after another?

No.

He did not want this!

He wanted power!

He wanted power strong enough to protect everything!

At the instant that thought reached its peak.

He felt his Sea of Consciousness suddenly boil!

An unprecedentedly powerful surge of Spiritual Power erupted from the depths of his soul!

"Break!"

He roared!

The world before his eyes shattered inch by inch like a broken mirror!

He opened his eyes.

What he saw was still the shabby training ground of Shrek Academy.

The morning light was blinding.

His body had long since been drenched in cold sweat.

He gasped for breath, his heart pounding wildly.

Everything just now had been too real.

So real that he could no longer tell reality from illusion.

He turned to look beside him.

Dai Mubai, Oscar, Ning Rongrong, Zhu Zhuqing, and Xiao Wu.

They were still standing where they were with their eyes closed.

Each of them wore an expression of pain and struggle.

Clearly, they too had fallen into their own nightmares.

"You woke up."

Lin Xi's voice came from ahead.

"Faster than I expected."

Tang San looked at her, his heart filled with shock.

"That just now... was an illusion?"

"Yes, and no."

Lin Xi said blandly.

"It was the deepest fear in your hearts."

"It was what you least wanted to face."

"Only after overcoming it will you be qualified to speak of the word 'strength.'"

Tang San fell silent.

He understood.

This was the "Heart Refining" Lin Xi had spoken of.