Past

"Ever since my sister's accident, my will was mostly despondent for those first few years. Aside from cultivation, I had no heart to care about the many affairs of the Spirit Pagoda."

"That was until thirty years ago, when I met that little wild girl..."

Leng Yaozhu seemed to be recalling something; she narrowed her eyes slightly, sipped her red wine, and a charming smile tugged at the corners of her lips.

"The little girl was an orphan, but she had a strong-willed nature and often fought with other children who tried to bully her. Even when outnumbered, she would trade injury for injury. She was very much like my sister—both were the type who refused to be bullied."

"So, I was moved and decided to adopt her."

"Her talent was quite good, and miraculously, she also awakened a Phoenix Martial Soul—a relatively rare Ice Phoenix at that. Because of this, I focused on cultivating her. Although I raised her from the age of six until she was an adult, because she resembled my sister, we always addressed each other as sisters."

Hearing this, Shen Nanxun finally felt slightly relieved. At least it wasn't Leng Yulai; everything was still manageable.

"As I mentioned earlier, she had a free spirit. To put it nicely, it was freedom; to put it bluntly, it was rebellious. She had an extremely strong personality, and once she set her mind on something, it was hard to discipline her."

"Until the year she turned twenty-three..."

Leng Yaozhu's voice grew lower at this point. She said slowly, "By then, she was no longer satisfied with just the Douluo Continent and began to travel to the other two continents."

"Things were fine while she was on the Star Luo Continent; she wandered around and played, and nothing else happened. It wasn't until she arrived on the Douling Continent that things changed. There, she met a male Soul Master, and what followed was a very cliché love story. Though, it wasn't exactly a case of a wealthy young lady falling for a poor outsider; after all, that man's identity was... a Douling prince."

After hearing all this, Shen Nanxun automatically filled in the gaps, imagining a grand drama—a twenty-four-episode soap opera playing on loop.

"Aunt Leng, didn't you try to stop her? That sounds rather unreliable."

How could there be so many coincidences? To arrive in Douling and immediately fall for a prince.

"How could I not have tried to stop her?" Leng Yaozhu gave a bitter laugh. "I already told you, her personality was just like that; ten oxen couldn't pull her back. In the end, I had no choice but to let it be."

"What followed was marriage, childbirth, and you. But it wasn't until after she gave birth to you that the true nature of that Star Luo prince was exposed. The royal atmosphere of the Douling Empire was never as good as Star Luo's, and that prince was naturally promiscuous; everything had just been a ploy to get close to her."

The overall strength of the Douling Empire was nowhere near that of the Star Luo Empire. If not for the aid of the Tang Sect, its overall level of Soul Guidance technology would not even be as good as the Sun Moon Empire from ten thousand years ago. The situation was that exaggerated: the Star Luo Empire at least had its core strength, with its army and a portion of the populace having moved over, which could be considered a continuation of development in a new place; whereas only a few thousand of the Douling royal family had come to this continent.

Initially, for the sake of population, they had to reproduce frantically; this small number of people was essentially starting a civilization from scratch. Therefore, their overall level of Soul Guidance technology remained quite mediocre to this day.

The Leng family, meanwhile, was the second-largest family in the Spirit Pagoda and a powerful clan that ranked highly across the entire Douluo Continent. Furthermore, the Spirit Pagoda held significant influence within the Douling Empire.

Thus, this was a case of that neglected prince climbing above his station.

"That prince gambled that no matter how arrogant she was, she would have reservations because she was pregnant with you. And he was right. She, who was so intolerant of evil and would trade injury for injury as a child, ultimately yielded because of you. Even I was deceived at first; after all, the two continents were too far apart, and some things were beyond my reach."

Shen Nanxun had roughly cleared up the situation, but even so, he was still very confused: "Then why did I return to the Douluo Continent, and why was I lost? According to this development, I should very likely still be on the Douling Continent."

"Because not long after you were born, the Douling Empire underwent a regime change."

Leng Yaozhu placed her wine glass on the armrest. She leaned back in her chair, her dark red eyes gazing at the night view of Tianhai Port outside the window, her voice dropping even lower than before.

"The old emperor of the Douling Empire passed away, and the new emperor, Xue Yuntian, ascended the throne. The methods of this new emperor were far more ruthless than the old one. The first thing he did after taking the throne was to purge all the factions of the princes left behind by the old emperor. Regardless of whether they had participated in the struggle for the throne, not one was spared. Although your biological father was a neglected prince who didn't even have a say in the imperial court, in the eyes of the new emperor, as long as he had the old emperor's blood flowing in his veins, he was a hidden threat."

"Your mother had just given birth to you at that time and hadn't fully recovered. She could have escaped on her own; with her mastery of the Ice Phoenix Martial Soul, even if she couldn't win a fight, she could certainly fly away. But she didn't. She helped you escape. I don't know who she entrusted you to, but in the chaos, you were taken away. In any case, you eventually arrived on the Douluo Continent, were found by the Shen family, and were ultimately adopted."

"Then, Aunt Leng, you and the Shen family..."

Shen Nanxun opened his mouth, feeling his throat tighten. He had always thought Leng Yaozhu only had a past connection with his biological mother, but he hadn't expected such a layer of relationship.

"I have known Ye Li for a long time. We were close friends before she married into the Shen family. Later, Ye Li accidentally discovered you by the seaside while on a business trip and brought you back to the Shen family."

Leng Yaozhu paused. "It's just that she brought you back to the Shen family as the youngest son of the family, so she didn't make it public. And at that time, I was far away at the Spirit Pagoda, so I had no way of knowing."

"It wasn't until a few years ago that the Shen family used the jade pendant you had on you to search for your family. When your mother, Ye Li, saw the character 'Leng' on the pendant, she finally realized it might be me, so she brought it for me to see."

In Leng Yaozhu's hand appeared a small, exquisite jade pendant—the very one Shen Nanxun had been wearing when he was found.

"I have been observing you for three years," Leng Yaozhu paused slightly, lifted her eyes to look at him, and asked, "Do you know why I observed you for three years and why I set these two tasks for you this time?"

"To test me?" Shen Nanxun naturally guessed as much.

"Something like that." Leng Yaozhu sighed softly. "Even if the Douling Empire is inferior to Star Luo and the Federation, it is still an entire empire. Even I can only force them to apologize. If you want revenge, you must become an enemy of the entire empire! Therefore, you must be exceptionally outstanding—outstanding enough to become a figure who can shake an entire era, like Tang San of Shrek twenty thousand years ago, the Spirit Ice Douluo who founded the Spirit Pagoda ten thousand years ago, or at the very least, the current Sea God Pavilion Master, the Sky-Piercing Douluo Yun Ming."

"Only then," she leaned forward slightly, her eyes fixed intently on him, "can you make the Douling Empire bow its head and pay the price for what happened back then."

Leng Yaozhu stood up, her wine-red dress flowing behind her like water. She walked over to Shen Nanxun, bent down, and placed her hands on his thin shoulders. Her fingers were long and strong; even through the fabric, he could feel the undeniable weight of them.

"Shen Nanxun, remember this. There is no such thing as justice that comes out of thin air. Justice is fought for, killed for, and snatched inch by inch from the enemy's hands with strength. Your mother, Leng Yunling, awakened her Ice Phoenix Martial Soul at six, was undefeated among her peers in the Spirit Pagoda by eighteen, and traveled across the Star Luo Continent alone at twenty-three. She was such a proud person, yet in the end, she knelt before others for your sake. When she knelt, she didn't beg anyone to avenge her. It wasn't that she didn't hold a grudge; it was that she swallowed all that resentment into her stomach. Because she knew that at that time, she wasn't strong enough—not strong enough to both protect you and crush those who had harmed you."

Leng Yaozhu's fiery red eyes burned with an intense, pure light, as if she wanted to burn away all the anger of the past ten years.

"So, I will seek this justice for her. But I am not enough. Leng Yaozhu, the Heavenly Phoenix Douluo, Vice Tower Master of the Spirit Pagoda—are these titles grand enough? They are. But they are not grand enough. I cannot single-handedly level the Douling royal family, nor can I, with one person's rage, make the entire Douling Imperial Palace pay for your childhood. Because I am the Vice Tower Master of the Spirit Pagoda; I have the interests of the Spirit Pagoda behind me, and everything of the Leng family. I cannot drag the entire family into the abyss for a personal vendetta."

She knelt on one knee, looking Shen Nanxun straight in the eyes. Coming from a Title Douluo who had been proud for half her life, this action felt completely natural. Her hands remained on his shoulders, pressing down with extra force.

"The strong are respected—you should have understood this principle better than anyone since the day you awakened your Martial Soul at six. Without a Martial Soul, they called you trash. With two levels of soul power, they forced you to drop out. During that attack by the North Sea Legion four years ago, two Evil Soul Masters dared to strike near the legion's base. They dared to touch you because they thought you were weak! So now, in the future, and forever, you must make everyone who wants to touch you weigh the cost before they act. You must make them feel fear in their very bones at the mere mention of the name Shen Nanxun. You must make the Douling Empire understand that the infant they hunted down ten years ago has become someone they cannot afford to provoke."

Leng Yaozhu released her grip on Shen Nanxun's shoulders, pulled the cork from the wine bottle, poured herself a full glass, and downed it in one gulp. Her eyes were slightly red, but her lips were curved.

"Aunt Leng is not a good person; I am more accustomed to using power to suppress others than Cai Yue'er, and I am more ruthless than anyone when I take action. But every word I have said to you today is true. You don't owe anyone anything, but I owe my sister justice. I have spent ten years trying to seek this justice for her and failed. The rest is up to you."

She lowered her head, looked at the jade pendant in Shen Nanxun's palm, reached out, and closed his fingers one by one, holding them tightly.

"Child of the water, go and become the sea."

At that moment, Shen Nanxun understood why Leng Yaozhu had observed him for three years and set these two tasks. Essentially, it was a test to see his talent and character.

Now that he and Gu Yue could sweep through the seven members of Shrek Academy, many things were already out in the open.

This was also why Leng Yaozhu had asked him several times if he really wanted to know his background. To know was to bear the burden; not to know meant he could continue to live without any psychological pressure, remaining the young master of the Shen family.

On the road from Tianhai City back to North Sea City, Shen Nanxun thought about this matter the entire way.

It was not because of the pressure, but rather because he was pondering the many details involved. For instance, how did that Douling prince come to know the identity of her mother? Moreover, there seemed to be an inexplicable force pushing the waves from behind the scenes.

Although he had no memories of his biological mother, the debt of birth was there, and he could not simply sit idly by. While the debt of birth might not compare to the debt of upbringing, it was still greater than the heavens; a sincere heart and earnest feelings were things everyone aspired to.

Immersing his consciousness into his Sea of Consciousness, he looked toward the woman on the golden trunk.

"Sister Xue, were you looking for me?"

It was Qian Renxue who had taken the initiative to guide him in this time, hence his question.

"Mm." Qian Renxue nodded slightly. She sat there with her legs crossed, looking as languid as ever. "I heard everything that woman said just now."

"Before that, there is something I must tell you."

"I absorbed eighteen levels of your soul power."

"What?" Shen Nanxun was slightly stunned. What did it mean to absorb eighteen levels of soul power?

The old man in the ring?

Had he become the Douluo Continent version of the Flame Emperor!?

"Don't start berating me yet; it was all because of your situation." Qian Renxue's beautiful eyes narrowed slightly as she explained, "This also concerns the matter of your adoption."

The ferry's broadcast echoed through the night sky, a female voice laced with static repeating the reminder that they were about to arrive at Douluo Continent. There were no passengers left on the deck, and the sea breeze, carrying the chill of deep winter, swept through the empty corridor.

A middle-aged woman sat alone in a corner seat by the window in the cabin, clutching an infant tightly to her chest.

She was dressed modestly in a faded, dark gray cotton robe, her hair wrapped in a plain cloth that revealed only a few stray locks at her temples, tousled by the sea breeze. Her face could not be called beautiful, but there was a profound, steady composure in her features, and her ice-blue eyes shone with startling intensity in the dim cabin.

She gathered the infant against her chest, using her own body to shield the child from the cold wind pouring in through the porthole. The infant's face was mostly hidden by swaddling clothes, revealing only a tiny, tightly clenched fist and a sliver of fair forehead.

At the other end of the cabin, several figures emerged slowly from the shadows. Leading them was a tall, thin middle-aged man in plain clothes, his gait casual as if he were merely taking a stroll on the deck to get some air.

Three people followed behind him, fanning out to block both sides of the corridor.

The four of them sealed off the only exit to the cabin. Their footsteps were light—so light they were nearly silent—and their formation, while appearing casual, effectively cut off all paths of retreat in both directions.

The middle-aged man looked up, revealing an incredibly ordinary face. The only thing that set him apart were his eyes; they lacked pupils, the entire eyeball a murky, grayish-white as if something had eroded them from within, enough to make one's scalp crawl.

He spoke, his voice hoarse, as if reporting to some unseen presence: "Target confirmed. Leng Yunling's child, nine months old."

He paused, the corners of his mouth curling into an arc—an arc devoid of mirth, holding only a sinister, cruel intent.

"Do it."