Lu Chen Returning from Post-Graduate Studies in the One-Punch World

Outside Shrek City on the Douluo Continent.

The setting sun looked like blood, stretching the girl's slender shadow quite far.

Tang Ya walked in a daze along the small path through the woods.

Her originally lively eyes were extremely red and swollen right now, filled with despair and self-mockery.

That rejection really was decisive...

She muttered to herself, her voice terribly hoarse.

Just half an hour ago, she stood outside the Sea God Pavilion, the symbol of Shrek's highest sanctuary, begging like a stray dog.

She begged those lofty senior elders, begging them to preside over justice for the exterminated Tang Family for the sake of Tang San, the ancestor of the Tang Sect from ten thousand years ago.

Yet all she got was a single sentence of cold, euphemistic refusal.

"The affairs of the Tang Sect are simply the normal course of sect succession, and Shrek Academy's founding principle is not to participate in sect grievances.

Tang Ya, keeping your ancestor's sentiments in mind, we grant you special permission to enter Shrek to study.

Furthermore, anyone of the Tang Sect may enjoy one exemption slot every year. As for the hatred... sigh."

A single sigh, though unspoken clearly, already gave the result.

Tang Ya smiled bitterly as tears welled up again. "This is Shrek, the Shrek that flourished ten thousand years ago because of the Tang Sect Master.

Yet in the end, using a high-sounding excuse, they are unwilling to make a move even against enemies who could be wiped out with a mere wave of the hand.

In the end, they are no different from other sects, birds of a feather!

How truly laughable. My parents' decades of persistence are apparently just a joke!"

Tang Ya stumbled and pushed open a dilapidated civilian house on the outskirts of the city.

The house was very crude, its only furniture a wooden bed covered with thick mattresses.

Lying on the bed was a boy of about nine years old.

His complexion was as pale as paper, yet he was extremely handsome to look at.

Seeing the boy, Tang Ya seemed to finally find a trace of solace.

With trembling hands, she gently stroked the boy's cheeks, her voice choked with sobs:

"Little Chenzi, I'm going to leave. You were right, relying on others is never as good as relying on oneself.

Since those senior elders in the Sea God Pavilion are unwilling to help me avenge this, I'll do it myself.

Tomorrow I will go report to Shrek. I want to become stronger, I want to make the Iron Blood Sect pay in blood..."

Yet at the thought of her own martial soul, Tang Ya's fists clenched tightly once again.

As one of the lowest-tier martial souls on the continent, relying merely on Blue Silver Grass to become a powerhouse was as hard as ascending to heaven.

Even her parents had cultivated for decades and reached only Soul Emperor.

"Little Chen, I'm really so scared. I'm scared that before I finish slaughtering them all, I'll die at their hands first."

She slumped by the bedside, her frail shoulders trembling violently. "These past six months, I can only talk to you, a sleeping person."

However, she did not notice.

At this very moment, Lu Chen's long-immobile fingertips were glowing with a faint yet extremely pure golden light.

Lu Chen felt as though he had dreamed a very long time.

In the dream, he transmigrated to the world of One-Punch Man.

He became Zombieman, an S-class hero of the Heroes Association.

He possessed a nearly immortal and indestructible fleshly body, capable of reassembling even if beaten into pieces.

The end of the dream was deep underground within the Monster Association.

Because he was familiar with the original work, he learned fist techniques from Silver Fang Bang, causing his mentality to become extremely inflated.

When attacking the monster headquarters, because he was too reckless, he encountered that will calling itself "God" ahead of time.

That was a giant of light impossible to describe in words.

Before that power, his proud Immortal Body was forcibly deconstructed into particles.

At the final moment when his consciousness collapsed, he forcibly devoured that "God's Light" which was destroying him.

Then his consciousness plunged completely into darkness.

"This is... where?"

A weak voice suddenly sounded inside the narrow room.

Tang Ya's weeping came to an abrupt halt.

She raised her head in panic and disbelief, locking eyes with a pair of eyes as deep as an abyss.

Within those eyes, golden radiance faintly flowed.

"Lu... Lu Chen?" Tang Ya was stunned.

Lu Chen's vision gradually focused.

A wisp of pale blue hair brushed past the tip of his nose, followed immediately by a pretty little face coming into view.

Her eyes were red-rimmed, teardrops still hanging at the corners of her eyes, obviously having just cried, yet her appearance was incomparably familiar to him.

"Xiao... ya?"

Lu Chen fully regained his senses, his eyes widening in sheer disbelief.

Tears flickered in Tang Ya's eyes as she nodded heavily, her voice carrying a crying tone:

"It's me. Great, Lu Chen, you've finally woken up!"

Receiving confirmation, Lu Chen was completely dazed.

Wasn't he dead? How had he returned to the Douluo world?

He felt his brain in complete chaos, sorting out his thoughts only a moment later.

He really had returned from the One-Punch world, back to the Douluo world of his first transmigration.

Lu Chen gathered his wits, looking at Tang Ya's tear-stained little face, and asked with concern:

"Xiaoya, why are you crying? What happened?"

Prompted by this caring question, Tang Ya could no longer hold back, throwing herself onto Lu Chen and weeping loudly:

"Lu Chen, I have nothing left now. The Tang Sect was destroyed, and my mom and dad are both dead."

"What?!"

Lu Chen's expression shifted, then he quickly calmed down, his brow furrowing deeply.

He hadn't expected this tragedy to happen after all.

"In other words, I've actually been unconscious for nearly four years!"

He was one year younger than Tang Ya, having accidentally transmigrated when he awakened his martial soul at age six.

"No wonder I always felt my body stiff and awkward," Lu Chen murmured inwardly.

"These past six months I searched all around for my father's friends from back then, but not a single person helped me, and even Shrek was unwilling to make a move..."

After her parents died, Tang Ya had long since treated Lu Chen as her closest person.

Seeing him wake up at this moment, she seemed to find an outlet for confiding and a spiritual pillar, pouring out all the grievances of the past six months in one breath.

Lu Chen listened quietly, also figuring out the ins and outs of the matter.

Half a year ago, the Iron Blood Sect forcibly occupied the Tang Sect's properties. Tang Ya happened to be by the bedside caring for him at the time, which was how she narrowly escaped that bloody massacre.

Only, the whole affair left Lu Chen feeling very puzzled.

A mere Iron Blood Sect with only a Soul Emperor—even if the Tang Sect had now declined, they shouldn't have had the guts to casually make a move.

What was even stranger was that sects which used to have good relations with the Tang Sect were actually unwilling to extend a helping hand at all.

Even powerful forces like the Clear Sky Sect and the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect chose to refuse.

It was as if they had received some kind of unified directive.

Although during the era of The Unrivaled Tang Clan, the Douluo Continent was practically Tang San's back garden.

Various conspiracy theories had circulated in his past life, but the other party shouldn't have meddled this early, right?

Could it be that just to make Tang Ya join Shrek and establish a connection with Huo Yuhao, they deliberately let the Tang Sect be destroyed?

That was simply too dark!

Or was it really just wealth tempting the heart, belonging purely to blind luck?

"Sooner or later, I will storm the Iron Blood Sect and kill every last one of them!"

Tang Ya choked out, her gaze suddenly turning fierce as she mentioned the Iron Blood Sect, a wisp of black Qi flashing across the depths of her eyes.

Seeing this scene, Lu Chen's heart stirred slightly.

He hadn't expected that the Dark Blue Silver Grass would already be showing signs of awakening at this time.

He immediately looked resolute and chimed in, "Sister Xiaoya, don't forget there's still me.

Uncle and Auntie treated me with meticulous care when they were alive, so their vengeance counts as part of my duty too!"

Encouraged by her companion, light rekindled in Tang Ya's eyes.

Her suppressed emotions were also released.

Feeling her mood ease considerably, she couldn't help teasing, "Little Chenzi, you only know how to talk big!

You're only a Soul Scholar, and having been unconscious for over three years, you're now nine years old and haven't even attached your first soul ring yet."

She patted her own chest and said proudly, "Whereas your big sister here is now a 21st-rank Soul Grandmaster, and in a little over a month I'll be able to advance to the 22nd rank!"

Lu Chen's mouth twitched slightly. Nearly eleven years old and only soul power rank 21—was that anything to be proud of?

One could only say she truly lived up to being Blue Silver Grass.

"Right, speaking of which, what is your martial soul? I still don't even know," Tang Ya asked with curiosity.