"Plop."
The Soul Bone hit the water without making much of a splash, then vanished beneath the river's surface.
The sight nearly made the already gravely wounded Xuan Zi cough up another mouthful of blood in fury!
He stared at Mu En in disbelief, his expression practically asking, Elder Mu, have you gone mad?!
"Elder Mu! That was a Ten Thousand Year Soul Bone! And one of the most precious torso bones, too! You just... you just threw it away?!"
Xuan Zi was so worked up he nearly leaped to his feet, but the movement aggravated his injuries, and he grimaced in pain.
As far as he was concerned, this was sheer waste! A crime against nature!
A Ten Thousand Year Soul Bone was incredibly precious even to Shrek Academy. How could Mu En toss it into some wretched river just like that?!
"Elder Xuan, please calm down."
Beibei steadied him and explained softly.
"Great-grandfather must be testing whether this river affects nonliving things as well."
"Testing?"
Xuan Zi froze.
Mu En's aged gaze never left the still surface of the river. He spoke slowly, his voice carrying an unquestionable resolve.
"Exactly. It's a test."
"I want to see whether the Soul Bone will split into three as well."
Mu En turned to Beibei and Xuan Zi, his deep gaze sweeping over them as he continued, weighing the matter on a deeper level.
"More importantly, if it really does split into three, I want to see whether... I can take only one of the pieces."
"If something like what happened to you occurs again, and someone as evil as that other fellow appears, the consequences would be unimaginable. It would be a disaster for the entire Douluo Continent."
Mu En's words doused Xuan Zi's anger like a bucket of cold water.
Beibei also shivered as he suddenly understood Mu En's reasoning.
It was true!
One Elder Xuan was already enough to give Shrek a headache.
Now the Righteous Qi Xuan Zi, who represented ultimate righteousness and acted decisively, and the Evil Qi Xuan Zi, who represented ultimate wickedness and obeyed no laws, were both at large. With their Super Douluo strength, they could turn the entire Douluo Continent upside down!
If the Holy Spirit Cult or the Sun Moon Empire learned about the river's power...
They could mass-produce Evil Soul Masters born solely to destroy and kill!
It would be a catastrophe that engulfed the entire continent!
As they pondered this, the still surface of the river finally changed.
A figure appeared soundlessly above the water, holding a fishing rod with a lazy smile on his face.
It was Lin Feng!
He smiled at Mu En on the bank. The fellow really was a little clever, but... it was no use. The people of Douluo Continent had never had a say in the matter.
Lin Feng gave his fishing rod a gentle tug. A torso bone radiating terrifying energy emerged from the water. This Soul Bone had to be over a Hundred Thousand Years old!
Lin Feng's gaze swept across the three of them before he grinned at Mu En.
"Young Dragon God Douluo of Light~"
"Is this the thirty-thousand-year-old golden Soul Bone you dropped?"
He meant the golden Soul Bone shining brightest, whose quality was clearly far superior to the original.
Thirty thousand years?!
Xuan Zi and Beibei's eyes nearly bulged out of their heads!
They'd thrown in a Ten Thousand Year Soul Bone, and it had come back as a thirty-thousand-year one?!
Mu En's gaze sharpened, but as the Sea God Pavilion Master, he had weathered countless storms. He looked at Lin Feng and slowly, unmistakably, answered with a single word.
"Yes."
The smile vanished from Lin Feng's face at once.
His seemingly languid eyes turned icy, utterly devoid of emotion.
"Liars don't get a thing."
As soon as he finished speaking, the Soul Bone before him dissolved into light and disappeared, as though it had never existed.
He held his fishing rod and turned, preparing to sink beneath the river's surface as he had before.
"You damn bastard! Stop right there!"
Xuan Zi finally erupted!
It was this fellow!
He was the one responsible for everything! He had reduced Xuan Zi to this miserable state, and now he dared to swallow Shrek's Soul Bone!
Old and new grudges surged through him. With a roar, Xuan Zi instantly summoned his Taotie God Bull Martial Soul. Ignoring his injuries, he charged at Lin Feng on the water like a mountain, bringing down a huge, heavily scaled palm with all his strength!
"Oh? A mere Super Douluo thinks he can attack the River God?"
Lin Feng didn't even turn around. He simply spoke, his tone indifferent.
He made no other move. An invisible, supreme force descended in an instant.
It wasn't Soul Power or spiritual power, but a force beyond every rule in this world... divine power!
Xuan Zi, who had been charging toward Lin Feng with Thunderous Might, suddenly froze!
Then, before Beibei and Mu En's horrified eyes, he dropped straight to his knees with a "plop," smashing a huge crater into the ground.
His legs were as limp as noodles. No matter how he summoned his Soul Power or braced himself with his arms, he couldn't stand back up.
There was no blood and no wound.
But his legs had been crippled.
At the most fundamental level of the laws, he had been stripped of the right to "stand"!
"This... this is... divine power!"
Mu En cried out in shock. For the first time, his eyes, which had witnessed the vicissitudes of life, revealed such intense astonishment and horror!
He could clearly sense that this power was far above the Limit Douluo level. It unquestionably belonged to the realm of the gods!
Was this seemingly ordinary young man actually a god?!
As Mu En stared in shock, Lin Feng's figure slowly faded, as though he had never appeared.
An eerie silence settled over the riverbank.
Mu En slowly turned toward Xuan Zi, who knelt on the ground with bloodshot eyes, desperately trying to rise and failing. His expression was unbearably complicated.
He knew that Xuan Zi... was finished.
A Taotie Douluo who couldn't stand, a Power Attack System Super Douluo who had lost both legs—his combat strength had fallen to less than a tenth of what it had been.
Mu En's heart sank to the bottom.
Now, Shrek had only one high-level fighter left: himself.
And he...
Mu En felt his insides churn. The force he had just unleashed while forcing the Righteous Qi Xuan Zi to back down had made his old illness, which he had been suppressing, flare up again.
He knew he didn't have much time left.
For Shrek, and for the future of the continent, he had to do something.
A resolve unlike any he had ever felt flashed in Mu En's eyes.
"Beibei."
"Great-grandfather, I'm here."
"I have an important task I intend to entrust to you."
Mu En's voice was soft, yet weighed like a mountain.
"Elder Mu! You—!"
Xuan Zi could hear that something was wrong, and he lifted his head in alarm.
Beibei's face changed as well. "Great-grandfather! What are you going to do?!"
Mu En didn't answer. He only took one last, lingering look in the direction of Shrek Academy, his eyes full of longing and reluctance.
But the next moment, all those feelings gave way to determination.
For Shrek, he had to gamble on that one-in-ten-thousand chance and bring back the young Dragon God Douluo of Light!
As Beibei and Xuan Zi shouted after him, Mu En's aged figure leaped forward and plunged into the strange little river without the slightest hesitation.
Before you continue