[But in the end, I overestimated myself and underestimated the power contained within the Dragon Core. The moment I began absorbing it, I discovered the problem. The violent aura within the Dragon Core had never disappeared!]
[At my peak, the Dragon Core's power had not been enough to harm me, so I had come to believe that the violent aura within it had long since been neutralized through years of nurturing. Yet who could have imagined that it had not vanished at all, but merely hidden itself?]
[Once I began absorbing the Dragon Core's power, that violent aura sensed that I had been severely injured and weakened. It no longer concealed itself as it had before, but erupted completely, raging relentlessly within my body.]
[My battle with Du Bisi had left me gravely wounded. Although it had ensured that I would never again be able to straighten my back, it had not damaged my true foundation. Thus, my condition had been far better than Du Bisi's. But because of my mistaken decision regarding the Dragon Core, and the violent aura's continual rampage within me, my foundation suffered truly devastating damage.]
[I narrowly escaped death. Only after enduring countless hardships did I finally suppress the Dragon Core completely. Using that opportunity and the Dragon Core's power, I formed a second Soul Core through the method of positional resonance and became a Limit Douluo!]
[However, in return, I absorbed every trace of the Dragon Core's violent aura, and it completely merged with my body. For the rest of my life, I fought and contended against that aura.]
[It was precisely because of this that I completely missed my chance to find Xi Shui and uncover the truth behind what happened that year.]
Within Ben Ti Nei Zong, Du Busi sighed. "As expected, every Titled Douluo who reaches the Limit realm does so through more than mere great fortune. They also possess extraordinary perseverance!"
Although Du Busi had always hated Mu En, after learning of everything Mu En had experienced along the way, he could not help but feel emotional.
Putting himself in Mu En's place and facing the Dragon Core's violent aura crisis, he would not even dare speak of suppressing it, much less using it to form a second Soul Core and challenge the Limit realm. Whether he could have survived at all would have been a question.
A Dragon Core formed when a giant dragon infused it with the essence of its life's power after death was not merely a tremendous opportunity—it was also an immense danger!
Under such special circumstances, someone else might not have handled it as well as Mu En had.
In the Star Dou Great Forest, Scarlet King, who was hunting, sneered. "How could a mere human easily absorb the power of a pure-blooded giant dragon? Serves him right for becoming paralyzed."
As a Soul Beast, Scarlet King understood the power of giant dragons better than anyone.
They were beings at the very pinnacle of the Soul Beast race!
Moreover, Scarlet King did not have the slightest favorable impression of humans. So what if Mu En was one of the strongest humans?
Scarlet King would still mock him!
Mu En actually faced such a life-and-death crisis back then?! At Shrek Academy, Xuan Zi, who was eating a chicken leg, was utterly dumbfounded.
If the person involved had not personally recounted these hidden experiences, no one else could have learned their details.
For example, much of what Xuan Zi had previously known about Mu En, Long Xiaoyao, and Ye Xishui had been hearsay.
Before the Heavenly Curtain exposed everything, Xuan Zi had always believed that Ye Xishui had not directly chosen between Mu En and Long Xiaoyao back then.
Instead, she had told Mu En and Long Xiaoyao to prepare for a year before fighting a decisive battle.
Whoever won in the end would be the one she chose. Yet neither of them had gone...
Likewise, when Mu En had been gravely injured back then, Xuan Zi had naively believed that it had all been because of Du Bisi.
Teacher... In the Martial Soul Department Dean's office, Yan Shaozhe had never expected that his teacher had endured such a calamity in those years.
At the time, he had only recently joined Shrek Academy and had not yet truly become his teacher's disciple, so naturally he had known nothing of such matters. He had only understood the surface of things.
Over the more than eighty years since he joined Shrek Academy, his teacher, Dragon God Douluo Mu En, had seemed to him like a blazing sun illuminating Shrek Academy.
Yet he had never known that, behind the scenes, his teacher had endured such agonizing torment.
Xuan Zi was not the only one. Yan Shaozhe and all those who knew and revered Mu En deeply reacted much the same way.
As for Mu En's current nearly paralyzed state, everyone had basically believed it was a lingering consequence of his great battle with Du Bisi back then.
As Mu En aged and weakened, no longer able to suppress his old injuries as he once had, this condition had gradually emerged.
Only now did they realize that the suffering Mu En had endured was far more severe than they had imagined.
To resist it day after day, for decades on end... this...
[After breaking through to become a Limit Douluo, I began nurturing the academy's students, hoping to find an inheritor among them who would one day succeed to the position of Sea God Pavilion Master.]
[Thus, I discovered a young fellow named Yan Shaozhe. He was highly gifted and possessed the Bright Phoenix Martial Soul, which shared my light attribute. So I accepted him as my direct disciple and devoted myself to training him.]
[I hoped that, a hundred years later, he would help Xuan Zi shoulder the heavy responsibility of protecting Shrek Academy!]
"Uh..." After seeing scenes from his youth repeatedly appear in his teacher's monologue, Yan Shaozhe was not happy in the slightest. Instead, he looked extremely embarrassed.
He knew all too well about the romantic debts and disgraceful history of his youth.
Now it had been exposed before the entire continent. Where was he supposed to put his old face?
"Serves you right!" Xian Lin'er naturally thought of the same thing.
She immediately felt as though she had vented a long-held grievance.
"Lin'er is right." Qian Duoduo beside her also chimed in.
Xian Lin'er, Cai Mei'er, Qian Duoduo, and Yan Shaozhe had known one another since they first enrolled.
Later, Qian Duoduo and Yan Shaozhe both fell for her.
Between the two, Xian Lin'er chose to date Yan Shaozhe, her senior disciple brother, whom she had feelings for.
She had thought it would be a wonderful romance, but who could have expected Yan Shaozhe to be so promiscuous? He was always flirting with other female students at the academy, hurting Xian Lin'er again and again.
Only after Xian Lin'er personally witnessed Yan Shaozhe being intimate with another female student did the two finally break up for good.
More absurdly, after breaking up with Xian Lin'er, Yan Shaozhe quickly got together with Cai Mei'er and even married her.
That completely severed the relationship between Yan Shaozhe and Xian Lin'er. They had even turned against each other.
In a fit of anger, Xian Lin'er chose to marry Qian Duoduo, who had secretly loved her.
However, they were only husband and wife in name and had never consummated their marriage.
All one could say was that the feng shui of Shrek Academy—no, of Douluo Continent—was downright cursed...
[However, though Shao Zhe was talented, he was too proud and fickle in love. Not only did he flirt with women throughout the academy, but when he returned from traveling the continent, he even brought back an Evil Soul Master who possessed an Evil Phoenix Martial Soul.]
[Stimulated by the aura of Shao Zhe's Bright Phoenix, that Evil Soul Master's martial soul soon made up its mind to devour Shao Zhe.]
[After discovering the other's intentions, the two broke out into a fierce battle. Although Shao Zhe suppressed her with his powerful cultivation, he softened for a moment and let her go.]
[One must understand that the Evil Phoenix was among the most exceptional talents of all Evil Soul Masters. Letting her go was equivalent to releasing a great demon. Who knew how many people would suffer in the future because of Shao Zhe's moment of mercy?]
[Because of this matter, I severely punished Shao Zhe. I had made the same mistake myself back then, and I did not wish to see my eldest disciple repeat it. At the same time, I feared even more that Shao Zhe would be like my former self and fall into love beyond escape...]
[Thus, I confined Shao Zhe to Shrek Academy for a full three years, making him focus wholeheartedly on cultivation without interference from external matters. Fortunately, Shao Zhe did not disappoint me. The solid foundation he built through those three years of secluded cultivation laid the groundwork for him to one day become the Martial Soul Department Dean.]
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