You're not going to be impotent, are you?

"Covering the changes of the universe, I transform myself into a king."

A voice like a dream echoed in his ears.

Oscar woke up with a start, his eyes wide and his chest heaving. His hands, gripping the tattered wooden bed, trembled uncontrollably.

"Wait..."

After blurting that out like a reflex, he felt a sense of bewilderment and carefully observed his surroundings.

It was a small, narrow, yet warm cabin. Sunlight streamed through the window, casting a long, warm beam of light across the bed.

Two potted plants sat on the windowsill, their graceful forms swaying gently.

Distant memories flooded his mind.

This is...

His school back on the Douluo Continent.

He stood up gingerly and opened the worn-out wardrobe by the door.

One piece... two pieces; everything matched the memories sealed away in his mind.

Back?

But how could this be...

Could it be... a dream, a dream so realistic it was impossible to distinguish from reality?

It was hard for him not to harbor such doubts; that world had been too wonderful, too real.

Moreover, the Taiji of Wudang had kept him in such good health that his body shouldn't have become this frail.

Yet, he was certain this wasn't a dream.

He could feel the qi within his meridians—something entirely different from soul power—and he could feel the energy of heaven and earth surging toward him as a result.

"I couldn't have fallen into the Inner Scene..."

Even for a sorcerer with profound cultivation, the Feng Hou Qi Gate still had an incredibly high threshold.

The slightest carelessness could lead one to fall into the Inner Scene, only to be controlled by the Feng Hou Qi Gate itself. The luckiest ones could only manage to lock themselves within the Qi Gate formation like Master Hong, barely maintaining their consciousness; one wrong move, and they would end up like many of the Wudang ancestors, broken by the Feng Hou Qi Gate.

The only remaining inheritors of the Feng Hou Qi Gate were Master Hong, Master Lu, Master Dong, and Senior Brother Wang Ye, along with the legendary Senior Zhou Sheng—whose survival was unknown—and himself!

Fortunately, there was one way to determine if he was still in the Inner Scene: to see if he could manifest his desires at will!

Oscar's greatest regret was that he couldn't use the Man Disk and God Disk of the Four Disks of Heaven Earth Man and God, so to test this, he had to look at the Feng Hou Qi Gate!

Thinking of this, Oscar pivoted his feet, and the Four Disks of Heaven Earth Man and God suddenly appeared beneath him. The Heaven and Earth disks flickered with blue light, while the Man and God disks remained dim.

Looking at the locked Man and God disks, Oscar sighed, but he couldn't help but feel a sense of relief. He reached up and touched his chin.

"Not the Inner Scene... could it be... Chaos Gold Lock?"

Chaos Gold Lock was the ability within the Feng Hou Qi Gate to control time. Although it was incredible, it was the only explanation he could find.

Having figured this out, Oscar instinctively gained a sense of clarity.

A sorcerer should go with the flow. Since fate had allowed him to return, he should accept it—when weak, cultivate one's own character; when strong, benefit the world.

Now that he had returned to the Douluo Continent with the Feng Hou Qi Gate, his goal was to repay his foster father's kindness, uncover the truth behind his parents' deaths, and once all that was accomplished and his strength had grown to a certain level, dedicate his life to the prosperity of the Douluo Continent.

As for how to explain things to his master and senior brothers if he ever returned, he would cross that bridge when he came to it. After all, the Dao follows nature...

"The long road is vast, and today it lies beneath my feet."

Oscar said this as he walked toward the door, feeling hungry.

Just as he reached the entrance, the door was kicked open with a "bang," the rotating wooden door grazing the tip of his nose before slamming against the wall.

"Little Ao, it's time for training, hurry up!"

A little fatty with a protruding belly barged into the room, speaking in a boisterous manner.

"Hey, Fatty! Can we talk about not jumping out and scaring people like that?"

This person was Ma Hongjun, two years younger than Oscar.

Both were children brought in from small villages by Dean Flender, though Oscar had been there longer; he had been adopted by Flender shortly after he was born.

At the age of six, Oscar had awakened his Innate Full Soul Power food-system martial soul—the Sausage.

Two years later, Flender had found Ma Hongjun, who possessed the extremely rare mutated grass chicken martial soul—the Evil Fire Phoenix!

The martial souls they awakened each had their own merits, but Oscar's greatest stage was the battlefield, while Ma Hongjun's was the Spirit Master tournament.

Because Flender placed great importance on the Spirit Master tournament, he paid extra attention to Ma Hongjun after finding him. Furthermore, since Ma Hongjun's martial soul and Flender's own both belonged to the avian category, Ma Hongjun had been much more favored than Oscar since childhood. The only misfortune was that he carried a bit of "evil fire," which, if suppressed for too long, could cause him to explode.

Because of this, he was often taken by Flender to houses of ill repute, leading to a premature loss of vitality and his current short, chubby appearance.

"Oscar, why do you sound so weird?"

Ma Hongjun scratched his head, stunned by the accent Oscar had picked up from who knows where.

"Let's go."

Oscar didn't care about Ma Hongjun's confusion; he draped an arm over his shoulder and walked outside.

Although he had spent over a decade in another world, Oscar still remembered the training regimen at Shrek Academy vividly.

The training style at Shrek, to put it nicely, was tailored to the individual; to put it bluntly, it was free-range.

To be more specific, it meant two people running around the nearby villages to build physical stamina, and whenever they were hungry, they would eat the sausages Oscar created with his martial soul to train their affinity with it.

A single training session would last the entire day, skipping both breakfast and lunch—well, that was very much in line with the style of Flender.

Oscar mused that given Flender's personality, if he had been born in that other world, he would surely have been branded as Flender the Skin-Flayer and hung from a lamppost.

Of course, he was just thinking about it casually; he still respected his foster father very much.

After all...

Curiosity was something that anyone who studied the Feng Hou Qi Gate possessed to some degree.

At this moment, the two were jogging along a dirt path in the countryside. The sun was just right, a gentle breeze was blowing, and the occasional scent of grass and trees carried on the wind made one feel very comfortable.

Oscar followed behind Ma Hongjun, his eyes flickering slightly.

However, as he continued to visit the red-light district to suppress his Evil Fire, the little fatty's personality had become increasingly lewd.

On a smaller scale, the little fatty's mind would become corrupted, affecting his future development; on a larger scale, he would leak his yang energy, and a shortened lifespan would be inevitable.

Looking at it now, the little fatty's personality had already developed problems. While he didn't usually bully men or oppress women, his speech was often filled with insults toward women, and his attitude even toward Oscar had begun to turn somewhat violent.

If it were anyone else, Oscar wouldn't even bother to take a second look, letting the other person follow their own path. After all... everyone is responsible for their own life, so what did it have to do with him?

But this person was Ma Hongjun. When he first arrived at Shrek Academy and hadn't yet started visiting the red-light district, he had followed behind Oscar every day, calling him "brother" at every turn.

Although his personality was boisterous and he spoke without thinking, his nature wasn't bad; he was even willing to go through fire and water for his friends and family.

Oscar decided he couldn't let him go on like this; he had to find a way to help him.

Thinking of this, Oscar quickened his pace, catching up to Ma Hongjun, who was running with his head down in front.

"Did you have a change of heart today? Why are you running so fast?"

Ma Hongjun panted heavily, turned his head, and looked Oscar up and down in disbelief.

Was this really the same Oscar who was always listless during every run, looking like he was about to kick the bucket?

"Never mind that, Fatty, I have a way to completely resolve your Evil Fire."

"For real?"

Ma Hongjun rolled his eyes. He didn't believe Oscar truly had a solution. If he really did, he wouldn't have waited until today; with his personality, he would have said so long ago.

But he still intended to listen. On one hand, it was curiosity; on the other... he felt that Oscar was acting strange today, as if... he had become a different person.

"I have a cultivation technique passed down from my master, but the path of practice is very dull and painful."

Seeing the serious, furrowed expression on Oscar's face, Ma Hongjun couldn't help but believe him halfway.

"If it really..."

Oscar knew what Ma Hongjun was going to say and immediately reached out to interrupt him.

"Cultivation is a major matter and cannot be viewed with short-sightedness. I'll give you three days to consider it, then come find me."

The sun gradually set. Outside Shrek Academy, the panting figures of two youths stepped through the sunset and slowly approached.

At the gate of Shrek Academy, a middle-aged figure was standing on a stone pillar waiting. This person was none other than Oscar's foster father and Ma Hongjun's master—Flender.

"Not bad today. You two actually didn't slack off. If things keep going like this, our Shrek will surely become famous throughout the Douluo Continent."

Flender smiled and patted both of them on the shoulders, leading the two children into the school.

Oscar scrutinized Flender. He might not have understood before, but having learned quite a bit of Taoist arts, how could he fail to see that Flender was still a man of pure yang?

This surprised him greatly. One had to know that Flender had taken Ma Hongjun to that red-light district quite often; could it be that he was born with a deficiency?

Thinking of this, he patted Flender's arm with deep sympathy and lowered his voice.

"Dean Flender, if you have any hidden ailments, you can come to me at any time."

He was his foster father, after all, and Oscar felt he had an obligation to help him treat it.