The feeling was incredibly mysterious.
Chen Zhou could clearly feel that as his mood lifted, some kind of change was quietly taking place within him.
For Chen Zhou, this was a good thing. He could even feel his meridians becoming more open and clear.
Watching Chen Zhou sit cross-legged, his gaze clear and bright, Neuvillette slowly rose to his feet. His figure vanished from the Dream World as he began returning to Fontaine to handle his daily affairs.
Chen Zhou was startled awake by a knock at the door.
By the time he opened his eyes, the sky outside had already darkened. It should have been around eight or nine in the evening.
He opened the door.
A young girl stood there, watching him with some trepidation.
"Young Master Qiangu Qingzhou. Several young masters from our branch have returned. Some of them were injured by you, and the elder told me to summon you."
As she spoke, the girl bowed.
A trace of fear showed on her face.
Word had already spread that Chen Zhou had injured quite a few people as soon as he came back. Even the least seriously hurt had suffered severe injuries.
Some of the servants had even had a leg crippled. In a place like this, anyone who lost an arm or a leg—
usually ended up being sold off.
They would lose the means they depended on to survive.
For many people, that was cruel, and it would have a huge impact on their lives.
Chen Zhou simply didn't care. When those people had bullied him for money, they should have known that a day like this might come.
Still, he had no intention of giving this girl, who had only just arrived, a hard time. He merely gave a quiet "Mm," then stood up and strode out.
When he reached the enormous dining hall, quite a few people were already there.
Most of them were girls, though; there were very few boys. Some had been beaten up by Chen Zhou when they first returned, while others had come back early and been beaten up when Chen Zhou barged into their rooms.
Chen Zhou had held back, but they would still be stuck in bed for at least a week or two, and perhaps even a month or two.
When the cousins who had treated him coldly saw Chen Zhou, the only boy among them, walk in, they all turned their eyes toward him.
Chen Zhou couldn't be bothered with them at all. He sat down and quietly began to eat.
They were all still young. Even the oldest was only nine or ten, and the strongest among them had reached only the second ring.
Not one of them had reached the third ring.
Compared to a peerless prodigy like Chen Zhou, who had reached the second ring at only six and a half, they were no match at all.
On top of that, there was the fundamental difference between their Martial Souls. It was hardly surprising that Chen Zhou had beaten them so badly.
An old man led the group. He glanced at Chen Zhou but said nothing.
The Qiangu Clan had its share of geniuses, but there were very few with talent as exceptional as his.
Among their branch families, only two people had possessed Innate Full Soul Power in the past few years.
One had appeared two years ago, before Chen Zhou.
The girl had also possessed Innate Full Soul Power and even had Twin Martial Souls, but both Martial Souls were only average.
The Qiangu Clan had so many geniuses because its dozens of branches had a sizable population.
That was like having a handful, or even a dozen or more, emerge from among hundreds of exceptionally gifted descendants each year.
It was worth remembering that after generations of genetic renewal and even genetic protection, all the Qiangu Clan's branch and direct-line descendants possessed the finest bloodlines.
Almost all of their parents, whether their fathers or mothers, had top-tier Martial Souls if they weren't members of the clan.
After these top-tier Martial Souls had been passed down and circulated through generation after generation, this situation had finally taken shape.
But even so, the number of top-tier geniuses and those with Innate Full Soul Power remained very small.
If a genius like this appeared in a branch family—
even the head of that branch, Chen Zhou's uncle, wouldn't have said anything to Chen Zhou, even though his own son had been beaten quite badly.
In fact, when Chen Zhou walked over, his uncle even smiled.
"Xiao Zhou, your uncle didn't know about any of this before. I never imagined they'd been bullying you behind my back like that. I've already looked into it."
"Your uncle will gather evidence on everyone who took part in bullying you. Then I'll make sure they're punished."
The middle-aged man spoke gently as he looked at Chen Zhou. He was an administrator in the Qiangu Clan.
He was already the head of a branch family, yet his cultivation had only reached the Soul Saint level. Talent and ability like that—
was already quite respectable among the branch families.
But compared with a prodigy like Chen Zhou, there was no comparison at all.
Based solely on the strength of the Martial Soul Chen Zhou had revealed, the clan had already begun making its own assessments.
The information he had received so far suggested that the other boy's Martial Soul might not be an ordinary Water Dragon Martial Soul.
Instead, it might be a special Water Dragon King Martial Soul, one that had even undergone a second mutation.
This new kind of dragon Martial Soul had never appeared before, not even in the entire clan.
Looking at the man's gentle expression, Chen Zhou didn't pay him the slightest attention. He quietly finished his meal, then calmly bowed before turning and heading back to his room.
He didn't care at all about this show of goodwill. He would be leaving in just a few days and returning to the Spirit Pagoda branch.
The Eastsea City Spirit Pagoda was his home—or rather, the place he truly considered home.
He felt no sense of belonging toward this so-called uncle or any of his other relatives.
It wasn't that Chen Zhou was cold by nature. But anyone would find it hard to feel affection for cousins they hadn't spoken to in years, or even decades—or for cousins who bullied them whenever they did speak.
That night, Chen Zhou continued cultivating.
He also discovered that every time he entered the Dream World, a watery shield appeared around him in the real world. It was a power Neuvillette could project to him.
The moment Chen Zhou fell asleep—or, rather, the moment a connection formed between the Dream World and the real world—Neuvillette could place this shield around him.
It was actually a kind of bug, because Neuvillette was the one who put this shield around him.
Even an ordinary Titled Douluo couldn't break through it.
In other words, if Chen Zhou really couldn't win a fight, he could simply force himself to sleep and use the shield to protect himself. It was a pretty good defensive method.
And after he entered the Dream World, his body could recover Soul Power as well.
He could use this to exploit another bug.
However, as Chen Zhou grew stronger and stronger at an ever faster pace, this bug would become less and less useful.
Especially as his Water Dragon King Martial Soul began to evolve and mutate toward the legendary Primordial Dragon.
Chen Zhou could clearly feel that his strength was changing day by day.
His rate of improvement was astonishing.
But for Chen Zhou, that wasn't a good thing.
Being a prodigy was one thing, but if he became too freakish, it might arouse the suspicion of the Douluo World.
His Martial Soul was already problematic to begin with. The Qiangu Clan might well treat him as a research subject, and that could put him in danger.