Everyone in First Grade Class Four was dumbfounded.
This... this couldn't be right. Were they sure they had fought Class Five, not Class One? The entire battle could only be called an instant kill.
"We won!" Tang Wulin was so excited that he actually jumped. He ran over to Jiang Mingyuan, and the two raised their hands for a high five, cheering.
Their opponents might not have been very strong, but this was still their first victory in a formal match, won before everyone's eyes.
Xie Xie walked over, shaking his head. "Ah, how boring. I barely used half a fraction of my strength, and the match was already over."
Even he couldn't keep a hint of pride and excitement out of his voice.
Below the stage, Wu Changkong approved of the three children's performance as well, and a faint smile crossed his face. Perhaps the three of them really could pull it off.
The three walked up to Wu Changkong, who nodded. Then, with a sweep of his hand, he made his decision. "You performed very well today. There's no need for special training tonight. Get some proper rest. You have more matches tomorrow."
The other students from Class Five gathered around them too. After sharing the joy of their victory, the three headed down the path toward the school gates together.
"Hehe. We won, so we have to go out for something good to celebrate!" Jiang Mingyuan said with a grin.
Tang Wulin rubbed his stomach. He really was getting hungry.
"Sure, I'll treat again today. After what happened yesterday, none of us got to enjoy our meal." Xie Xie patted his chest, looking pleased.
In fact, he had already contacted Uncle Li that morning through his Soul Guidance Communicator. Uncle Li had also heard about the fire at Eastsea City Mecha Brigade. Although he didn't know who had done it, he could finally keep his shop open. However, because of Guanglong's destruction, he still needed to replace the furniture, so the shop would remain closed for two days.
That was certainly cause for celebration.
"Oh, right. Is everything all right with Uncle Li now?" Tang Wulin remembered the poor shopkeeper.
"Of course it is. Guanglong was badly burned, and Guang Biao is dead. No one's going to trouble Uncle Li anymore."
"That's good. That's good." Tang Wulin had been raised in an ordinary family and had an upright sense of right and wrong. If an honest man like Uncle Li really suffered an undeserved calamity, Tang Wulin would certainly have felt troubled.
Jiang Mingyuan squeezed between the two and hooked his arms around their necks.
"Haha. Come on, let's go! Xie Xie, you said you'd treat us, so don't go back on your word."
Jiang Mingyuan stepped in and steered the conversation back. A little uneasy, Xie Xie glanced at Tang Wulin out of the corner of his eye and counted up the money he had on him. After all, he had given Uncle Li quite a bit of his pocket money yesterday.
It should be enough if we just get some snacks.
Late that night, everyone in the dormitory was already in bed, fast asleep. Tang Wulin, however, still couldn't fall asleep.
He tossed and turned as waves of dragon roars echoed through his mind, making so much noise that he couldn't sleep at all.
This wasn't the first time. The earliest occurrence had probably been half a month ago, when he had accidentally been stabbed by Xie Xie's Light Dragon Dagger during a sparring session arranged by Wu Changkong.
That night, his mind had felt somewhat dazed, and he seemed to have seen an enormous golden dragon in his dreams.
Tang Wulin felt a faint, burning heat spreading through his body. It was already autumn, yet he was too hot to sleep.
Tang Wulin sat up and took off his pajama top. A thin sheen of sweat already covered his body. His awareness gradually grew hazy, and his breathing became heavy.
"What... what's happening to me? Am I going to die?"
The worst Tang Wulin had ever felt in his life was when he had run a high fever as a child, leaving his head muddled and heavy.
That hazy feeling kept intensifying. Tang Wulin had to do something. He looked toward Jiang Mingyuan in the opposite bed, shifted his body, and crawled over.
"B-Brother Yuan, help..." Before he could finish, Tang Wulin lost consciousness completely, his entire body falling stiffly onto Jiang Mingyuan's bed.
When he came to his senses, Tang Wulin found nothing but darkness around him. A feeling of helplessness and loneliness welled up in his heart.
"Where am I? Brother Yuan, where are you?" Tang Wulin shouted, but there was no response from his surroundings. Not even an echo came back.
Suddenly, Tang Wulin saw a golden point of light rapidly expanding in the distance. Its dazzling radiance was impossible to ignore.
As the golden point drew closer, Tang Wulin finally made out its form. It was actually an enormous dragon. An enormous golden dragon.
By that dazzling golden light, Tang Wulin discovered that his own body looked somewhat illusory. Could this mean I wasn't in the real world?
"You're here." A quiet voice sounded behind him. Tang Wulin hurriedly turned around and discovered a magnificent palace at his back. A pale golden figure stood silently before its great doors.
The golden dragon flew over and circled above the palace. A full eighteen golden rings encircled its body.
"Who are you? Am I dreaming?" Tang Wulin asked.
Hearing Tang Wulin's questions, the golden figure raised his hand and rubbed his chin.
"Dreaming? Perhaps. I'm not entirely sure either. I seem to be nothing more than a strand of someone's divine sense." The golden figure sounded somewhat bewildered too. His memories were very incomplete, as though some great crisis had occurred and he had only been created in the midst of that emergency.
"I should exist to help you grow stronger. This place seems to have been made specifically to seal that dragon, and it's inside your body. I suppose that could count as a dream?"
It's a dream. That's good, then. At least I'm not dead. If I really died just like that, how heartbroken would my parents and Brother Yuan be?
Wait. Tang Wulin suddenly caught on.
"Hold on! What did you say was sealed inside my body?"
The golden figure pointed upward. The enormous dragon was still circling there, dragon roars pouring ceaselessly from his mouth.
"A dragon. To be precise, the king of the dragons, the Golden Dragon King."
"Who sealed him? Why was he sealed inside my body?" Tang Wulin was utterly confused.
The golden figure shook his head.
"I can't remember either. In my memories, this golden dragon is both an opportunity and a disaster. The energy contained within the Golden Dragon King is far too vast-so vast that your fragile body cannot withstand it at all. Once his energy erupts, you'll die."
Die.
The moment that word left the figure's mouth, Tang Wulin lost his composure.
"Then can you drive him out of my body?" Tang Wulin didn't want to die. He hadn't become a Titled Douluo yet. He hadn't soared through the skies with Brother Yuan, nor had he earned enough money to let his parents enjoy the happiness of family life.
"There should be a way to drive him out, but I don't know it. You needn't panic over this. The Golden Dragon King's power can still be kept sealed for now, so your safety is assured. I exist to help you grow stronger, step by step, and avoid the fate of being consumed by the Golden Dragon King's backlash."
Tang Wulin remembered what Jiang Mingyuan had once told him: stay calm when something happens. First understand the situation-what it is and why it happened. Even if you die, at least be a ghost who knows the truth.
"Then how will you help me grow stronger?"
This golden figure had no answers to any of his questions. All he kept saying was that he was here to help him grow stronger. Tang Wulin wanted to see just how the golden figure would make a Blue Silver Grass Soul Master like him powerful.