Awakening Ahead of Time, Two Souls in One Body

"How... how could this happen?"

Wang Dong stared at Huo Yuhao before her, disbelief filling her eyes.

The connection between them had felt so strong, their Martial Souls so perfectly matched, yet something always went wrong at the final, crucial moment.

"Huo Yuhao, do you not want to perform Martial Soul Fusion with me?"

"How else could it keep failing?"

Anger and frustration edged Wang Dong's voice.

The feeling was unbearable.

Everything was in place. They both wanted it to work. Yet at the crucial moment, they always fell one step short.

Without realizing it, Wang Dong had stirred a trace of the being buried in her subconscious.

That innately noble, domineering being surfaced quietly, leaving an unmistakable divide between Martial Souls that already could not fuse.

"What are you talking about?"

"I've done everything I can to cooperate with you. How is it my fault the Martial Soul Fusion failed?"

"Maybe our Martial Souls were never able to fuse. Maybe everything we felt before was just an illusion."

Huo Yuhao had felt somewhat guilty about their failure, especially after watching Wang Dong run herself ragged trying to make it work. But her accusing, commanding tone dredged up memories he least wanted to revisit.

His expression gradually turned cold.

He turned and walked out of the dormitory.

"I..."

Wang Dong stood frozen, watching Huo Yuhao leave. She wanted to apologize, but did not know how to begin.

"What... happened to me?"

"That tone just now... what's wrong with me?"

Even Wang Dong, oblivious as she could be, sensed something was wrong. For an instant just now, she had not been herself.

Everything Heavenly Fiend Douluo had told her was wrong.

This was not wild imagining caused by her disguise as a boy. Something had to be wrong with her.

The fragments of her past, the missing memories, that serious illness First Dad and Second Dad had spoken of—it had all been lies.

Everyone had lied to her.

A chill surged through Wang Dong and spread over her entire body.

All at once, it seemed as though everyone under the vast heavens wanted to harm her. There was nowhere she could hide and feel safe.

Her body trembled with fear of the unknown.

As her emotions surged and her state of mind wavered, earthshaking changes swept through Wang Dong's Sea of Consciousness.

A being who should not yet have awakened woke ahead of time.

She had not taken over completely, but her premature awakening brought two divine souls into the depths of this body's soul. The struggle between two wills had begun.

Deep within Wang Dong's soul—or rather, Tang Wutong's—lay safeguards Tang San had placed there with his own hands.

Not even a Limit Douluo could easily shake them. Nor could a Deity, unless they possessed extraordinary knowledge of souls.

To overturn the situation outright and flip the chessboard, one would need the power of at least a half-step God King, if not a true God King.

Yet at that moment, the restraints and safeguards Tang San had laid down were overturned.

Deities possessed might far beyond that of human Soul Masters, but their power was merely greater in scale.

They could not truly control a person's heart.

The Angel God guided humans to harvest their faith; the Rakshasa God used deception to lure them into corruption. Both could influence a person's mind, but neither could truly command it.

Even more powerful Deities could not do so.

That was what had happened to Wang Dong. The restraints deep in her soul could withstand even a Deity, but Wang Dong herself could overturn them.

Deep fear and self-doubt threw an already chaotic situation into greater turmoil, causing the slumbering Tang Wutong to emerge ahead of time.

The truth had not yet been fully laid bare, and Tang Wutong had not fully emerged. Yet from deep within, she instinctively guided Wang Dong into doing things that went against her own heart.

Had everything unfolded according to Tang San's plan, Tang Wutong's awakening would have been a good thing. She could have begun a path of fusion and self-repair.

But awakening early and setting foot on that path too soon would send everything off course, sparking a struggle between two consciousnesses.

Once a train jumped the rails, no one could say where it would end up.

As Tang Wutong's consciousness woke prematurely and Wang Dong's fear spread, Tang Wutong gradually gained the upper hand. A deep-blue power erupted from the depths of Wang Dong's soul, intent on crushing her consciousness completely and letting Tang Wutong take full possession of the body.

"What is..."

Wang Dong did not know what the power was, but it filled her with dread. Beneath its crushing pressure, she had no strength to resist.

She felt as though she would vanish completely in the next instant.

As though nothing of her would remain.

"Am I going to die?"

"So none of it was my imagination after all..."

Faced with a power she could not shake, Wang Dong barely resisted.

Instead, she felt a lightness and ease unlike anything she had known.

That's fine. At least I learned the truth before I died. None of it was my imagination. That's enough.

"This power... Lord Sea God..."

As an elder of the Sea God Pavilion and the only person in Shrek Academy who could wield Sea God's Light, Mu En sensed Lord Sea God's power at once.

He jolted awake and immediately looked toward the Freshman Dormitory.

A moment later, his figure vanished. When he reappeared, he was already outside Dormitory 203.

Huo Yuhao, who had been cultivating outside the dormitory, sensed a flash of dazzling golden light. He hurriedly stopped circulating his cultivation technique and opened his eyes.

There stood the old man who usually lay downstairs by the dormitory building, looking like a candle guttering in the wind.

When Huo Yuhao had first enrolled, the old man had lain there almost every day. Huo Yuhao had even brought him bedding once. Later, the old man disappeared.

Huo Yuhao had thought he had passed away and had felt sad about it.

He had never expected to see the old man again like this.

The old man had not revealed his Martial Soul or Soul Rings, but Huo Yuhao could sense that he might be a powerhouse on the same level as his teacher.

"Greetings, senior..."

Huo Yuhao hurriedly rose to salute him, then faltered, unsure how to address him.

"Little fellow, you're Little Xu's disciple, aren't you? If you don't mind, you can call me Grandpa Mu."

Seeing Huo Yuhao filled Mu En with warmth and lifted his spirits.

He had not forgotten how, when he was on the verge of death, this little fellow had appeared beside him and offered him warmth. It was thanks to Huo Yuhao that he had survived.