Zhang Lexuan's Despair

"Sister Ruoruo, when do you think I'll be called Shrek's Senior Disciple Sister? I want to stand on my own sooner too."

"Stop dreaming about that. No matter how high your cultivation gets, you'll still be our Junior Disciple Sister—unless something happens during this soul hunt, Senior Disciple Brother and the others all meet with disaster, or you obtain a Hundred-Thousand-Year eighth soul ring. Otherwise, it's probably impossible."

"Pah, pah, pah! Sister Ruoruo, don't say such unlucky things! We're about to head deep into the Star Dou Great Forest!"

"What's there to fear? Tell me, which of those two things I mentioned is even possible? Setting aside Shrek's and the Star Dou Great Forest's rules that Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts cannot be slaughtered at will, can your body even withstand a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring? I'd say even a ninety-thousand-year one would be difficult for you. So a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring is impossible."

"As for something happening to Senior Disciple Brother and the others, Junior Disciple Sister, the one leading us this time isn't some ordinary Titled Douluo. It's Xuan Zi!"

"With his ninety-eighth-rank Soul Power, unless he deliberately abandons us, we could retreat unharmed even if we encountered those ferocious beasts over two hundred thousand years old. What are you worrying about?"

"No! Don't! Don't trust Xuan Zi! He'll get us killed!" Zhang Lexuan cried out hysterically. At that moment, she seemed to see once more the scene of their group of twelve heading into the Star Dou Great Forest to hunt for Soul Rings.

She tried to tell everyone not to trust Xuan Zi, but those people seemed unable to see her. They continued into the Star Dou Great Forest one after another, then stopped in the forest formed by that Hundred-Thousand-Year banyan tree.

They rested beneath the banyan tree for a long time—so long that every second was torment to Zhang Lexuan, each day feeling like a year.

Yet the time they rested beneath the banyan tree was also very short. Before long, Zhang Lexuan watched her senior brothers and sisters die before her once again. All she could do was watch silently. Before facts that had already happened, she was merely an outsider incapable of doing anything.

At that moment, Zhang Lexuan recalled the fear and despair of that day once more. Faced with that sudden upheaval, she had been so powerless then—and she was just as powerless now.

"No! Don't!"

Zhang Lexuan watched herself absorb the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring, then watched herself lead the remaining people in an attempt to leave the Star Dou Great Forest, only to encounter that sixty-thousand-year Nether Poison Wolf. The despair of body and mind nearing collapse struck her again, yet at this moment, Zhang Lexuan could do nothing but kneel on the ground and weep.

"I can't do anything!"

As she watched the remaining three senior brothers and sisters dwindle once more until only Han Ruoruo remained, the last line of defense in Zhang Lexuan's heart completely collapsed.

She could do nothing but kneel on the ground, trembling all over.

But though she wanted to escape, the nightmare had no intention of letting her go.

As the body within her memories reached its limit, the scene changed once more in an instant.

This time, she returned to her childhood. That day, she had been hiding under the bed, playing hide-and-seek with her mother.

She had hidden there many times before. She knew she could not fool her mother, but as a child, she had loved hiding there.

She had thought her mother would find her soon enough, but her mother did find her—covered in blood from head to toe.

Amid that sudden disaster befalling her family, the young Zhang Lexuan instinctively wanted to scream, but her mother reached beneath the bed and covered her mouth, stopping her cry.

Thus, faced with the assassins sent by a great noble and powerless to resist, Zhang Lexuan felt despair once again—the despair of being helpless and able only to watch everything happen.

But it still did not end there.

She did not reach the road that would take her to Shrek, nor did she reach the moment of asking Mu En to avenge her. Instead, her consciousness returned once again to the day they set out for the Star Dou Great Forest to hunt for Soul Rings.

"Sister Ruoruo, when do you think I'll be called Shrek's Senior Disciple Sister? I want to stand on my own sooner too."

"Stop dreaming about that. No matter how high your cultivation gets, you'll still be our Junior Disciple Sister—unless something happens during this soul hunt, Senior Disciple Brother and the others all meet with disaster, or you obtain a Hundred-Thousand-Year eighth soul ring. Otherwise, it's probably impossible."

"Pah, pah, pah! Sister Ruoruo, don't say such unlucky things! We're about to head deep into the Star Dou Great Forest!"

"What's there to fear? Tell me, which of those two things I mentioned is even possible? Setting aside Shrek's and the Star Dou Great Forest's rules that Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts cannot be slaughtered at will, can your body even withstand a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring? I'd say even a ninety-thousand-year one would be difficult for you. So a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring is impossible."

"Ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!"

The despair of encountering a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast while hunting Soul Rings; the despair of killing the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast only for it not to end there, then encountering a sixty-thousand-year Nether Poison Wolf at her weakest and watching the other two senior brothers die as well, even as she herself was about to perish beneath the wolf's jaws.

Added to that was the despair from years ago, when her entire family had been exterminated and she could be killed at any moment, as well as the despair of watching her mother die before her while being unable to do anything. All of it played over and over in the depths of Zhang Lexuan's consciousness, driving her despair to its peak and making her desperately want to escape it all.

But at that moment, a voice entered Zhang Lexuan's mind. It was neither imposing nor solemn, not even loud, yet it was incomparably reassuring.

"It's all right. I'm here."

A reassuring hand settled on Zhang Lexuan's shoulder. Only then did she slowly open her eyes and discover that Han Ruoruo, like herself, was weeping uncontrollably. Clearly, she too had recalled something painful.

"A Titled Douluo resorting to deception and sneak attacks against three young people—have you no shame?"

After dispelling the influence imposed on Zhang Lexuan and Han Ruoruo, Lin Feng fixed his blazing gaze on a patch of empty air in the distance. The light there then began to distort, and before long, an old man in black robes appeared.

"Hehehe, three young people? I won't say anything about those two, but someone like you, who can awaken from my Nightmare Illusory Domain and even help others resist my domain, doesn't look like any young person."

"Believe it or not, I wasn't lying."

"Heh heh, whether you lied isn't important. What matters is that since you dared come to Mingdu, don't even think about leaving. Leave those two little girls behind obediently. As for you..."

"Those who can break my domain cannot be controlled by my Holy Cult. So die!"

As the old man spoke, two yellow, one purple, five black, and one red Soul Rings appeared. Carrying the aura of a ninety-eighth-rank Titled Douluo, he lunged at Lin Feng.