Three years (combined chapter)

Shrek Academy.

The Inner Court.

Inside a picturesque little courtyard.

"Hum..."

With a jade hairpin holding up her hair, her face growing ever softer and lovelier and her figure tall and proud, Zhang Lexuan, the Inner Court's eldest senior sister whom Mu En had personally named the Sea God Pavilion's successor for the generation after next in recent years, sat quietly cross-legged indoors. Wisps of ethereal silver moon spiritual Qi lingered around her, making the entire cottage seem like the mist-wreathed dwelling of a moon palace fairy.

"Eldest senior sister, the team sets out today. It's time. Xuan Zi sent me to fetch you..."

A voice sounded from outside the courtyard.

An Inner Court female disciple hurriedly pushed open the courtyard gate and spoke.

"Whew..."

"All right, I understand." Zhang Lexuan slowly exhaled a breath of stale air and emerged from meditation. Her beautiful pale blue eyes slowly opened. Compared to three years ago, they held a little more calm elegance, as well as a coldness that kept others a thousand miles away.

"Mm!"

The Inner Court female disciple glanced at Zhang Lexuan again, a trace of admiration and regret flashing through her eyes.

What a pity. Such a beautiful fairy of an elder sister. If not for what happened back then, she probably wouldn't be like this...

When she had first joined the Inner Court, she had vaguely heard her seniors discuss the rumors from that year. They said their eldest senior sister was just like this: seemingly gentle and quiet, yet in truth, her heart had only ever opened to one person... but that incident had made her seal it off completely.

Thus, several Inner Court senior brothers had confessed their love to her, only to be coldly rejected without the slightest consideration for their feelings.

She wondered just how peerlessly dazzling the person who had once entered Zhang Lexuan's heart-now a "taboo" at Shrek Academy-must have been.

As the Inner Court disciple disappeared from sight.

Zhang Lexuan slowly rose and stepped gracefully into the courtyard. The hairpin held up her glossy black hair, with a little bell hanging beneath it that gave a clear, pleasant chime with her steps.

"Three years..."

Her red lips parted slightly as she murmured softly.

She removed the hairpin, letting her hair spill over her shoulders like a waterfall. It looked anything but messy, instead lending her a touch of natural beauty.

Zhang Lexuan held the hairpin before her eyes, gently brushing her other delicate hand over it.

"Brother, am I beautiful?"

"Beautiful..."

Three years had passed, and her memories of many things had faded. Yet his voice and face alone seemed carved firmly into her mind, impossible to forget no matter what she did.

Three years ago, on the first night after she awoke.

She had still harbored a sliver of absurd hope. What if? What if all of this was only a dream, and everything could go back to the way it had been once she woke?

He would still lovingly help strengthen her body, feed her whale rubber, and hold her while telling her that he would be there for everything.

Several times, she had even returned in her dreams to the days before anything had happened. But upon waking, everything shattered, leaving only a cold bed and the hairpin...

Over those three years, she had hidden beneath her covers and cried countless times, cursing that fellow. Every time, she wanted to smash this hairpin and forget him completely, but in the end, she could never do it.

As time passed, however, she slowly accepted it all and began cultivating desperately, solely to see him again one day.

"..."

Zhang Lexuan's gaze gradually grew resolute.

"Lu Cheng."

"I won't kill you, but I'll break your meridians and bones and imprison you in Heaven Dou City forever... to atone to Father, Mother, and the elders of both clans who died."

Outside Shrek Academy.

Amid lush greenery, numerous Inner Court disciples had already gathered in small groups beneath an ancient tree that towered into the sky, waiting.

"Lexuan, over here..."

Ruomu waved and called with a grin.

"Senior sister Ruomu, have you finished your mission?" A trace of surprise and delight finally appeared on Zhang Lexuan's calm face.

"Yes. I've completed my Inner Court graduation assessment, and I'll be becoming an Inner Court teacher soon. This counts as the last mission the academy has assigned me." Ruomu wrapped an arm around the beauty's shoulders, a trace of heartache flashing through her emerald eyes.

"You've lost weight."

"You're already so talented. Why keep cultivating so desperately? You should relax a little too. Look at our Xuan Zi. He never has a care in the world..."

"You little girl." Xuan Zi was just as slovenly as he had been three years ago. He jumped down from the crown of the ancient tree and rolled his eyes. Still holding a chicken drumstick, he waved lazily.

"All right, since everyone's here, let's go."

"The same rule applies. We'll be going deep into the core region of the Star Dou Great Forest to capture Soul Beasts, but unless your lives are at stake, I won't act. Only if we encounter a powerful ten-thousand-year Soul Beast that you can't handle even together will I step in..."

"Understood?"

"Understood!" the Inner Court disciples answered respectfully in unison.

"Then let's set off." Xuan Zi picked his teeth with his other hand and spoke listlessly.

"Lexuan, you and Ruomu will lead the team this time."

"Yes, Xuan Zi." Zhang Lexuan bowed slightly.

Xuan Zi nodded in satisfaction, then vanished from the spot.

The elite Inner Court team also sped off toward the core region of the Star Dou Great Forest.

The view switched back to the first-person perspective.

Inside an open subterranean altar.

Lu Cheng slowly opened his eyes.

This was the Evil Demon Forest, within the Holy Spirit Cult's true headquarters. A black-robed Holy Spirit Cult disciple knelt on one knee before him. "Your Highness the Holy Son, according to information sent back by our spies concealed in Shrek City, Zhang Lexuan and the others have left Shrek City with Xuan Zi..."

"Mm." Lu Cheng raised his eyes and gave him an indifferent glance. "You may leave."

"Yes!" The disciple accepted the order, his body turning into a shadow and disappearing from the subterranean altar.

"Flutter, flutter~"

The shadow had barely departed when the sound of flapping wings arose. Several black crows flocked toward Lu Cheng and coalesced into a black-robed figure.

"The supreme elder ordered me to go with you," the black-robed figure said flatly.

"Well, that's wonderful, Ninth Revered Elder..." A smile appeared at the corner of Lu Cheng's mouth.

"..." Wu Yun's eye twitched.

"What are you plotting now, brat? You've already squeezed me dry of the few Gold Soul Coins I had. My monthly stipend is barely enough for my own cultivation. If you borrow any more, I'll be living on the northwest wind."

"Hahahaha... Crow, why so wary? Do I look like that sort of person?" Lu Cheng asked with a smile.

"Hmph, who can say?" That familiar feeling was back. Only then did Wu Yun snort, though his expression was clearly less tense than before.

When this brat had first joined the Holy Spirit Cult, he had dared speak bluntly to a revered elder like him... and call him by a "nickname."

Naturally, he had been displeased. They had even argued several times, and once, they had come directly to blows.

And that one fight had left him utterly stunned.

As a rank-ninety-four Titled Douluo and an Evil Soul Master, he already stood among the continent's strongest, yet he had fought an eighty-something-ranked Soul Douluo brat to a standstill.

The Sun-Shooting Bow in one hand, Blood Pupils in the other.

He could aim from several li away, and one Thousand-Li Sun-Shooting had nearly shot half his life away.

From then on, Wu Yun had thoroughly fallen into line, fully convinced of this Holy Spirit Cult Holy Son, his future superior.

"But I hear... that person is a romantic debt you left behind?" Seeming to recall something, Wu Yun smiled.

"...Don't ask what you shouldn't." The smile faded from Lu Cheng's face as he glanced at him indifferently.

"Hahahahaha." Seeing Lu Cheng at a disadvantage for the first time, Wu Yun burst into laughter without a care for his image.

The curiosity on his face grew stronger. "I'm rather impatient to meet her. Just what a peerless beauty must that girl be, to occupy even the Holy Spirit Cult's greatest fiend's thoughts day and night?"

"..."

Lu Cheng remained silent, gently stroking the jade pendant in his palm.

It wasn't that he had forgotten to return this token of love. He couldn't bear to return it...

Through his years in the Holy Spirit Cult, it alone had offered his heart constant solace.

His expression remained indifferent, however, and a trace of mockery flashed across his face. "Heh, a romantic debt? If Shrek's powerhouses hadn't been present when I defected back then, she would have died beneath my arrow. I could sacrifice my entire family... let alone a mere woman."

"Oh?" A trace of teasing flashed through Crow's eyes.

"Fine, then. This happens to be an opportunity. When we see her again, I'll kill her for you."

Lu Cheng turned and gave Crow a cold glance.

"Ahem, ahem..."

Crow's expression remained unchanged as he coughed twice, but inwardly, waves surged through him. What terrifying pressure. In the instant their eyes met, he had truly felt a chill seep into his marrow, coldness creeping around his neck.

To make even an Evil Soul Master with one foot in the realm of Super Douluo feel a threat to his life.

This brat... was truly a monster.

Half a year ago, they had still been evenly matched. Now... he had probably improved again.

"When do we leave?" Crow changed the subject.

"Now."

Lu Cheng toyed with the jade pendant in his hand and spoke slowly.

"Ha!"

In the core region of the Star Dou Great Forest.

"Seventh Soul Skill, Silver Moon True Body!"

"Sixth Soul Skill, Moonfall!"

A bright moon hung high in the sky, while a breathtaking fairy seemed to have borrowed the moon from the heavens and carried it behind her.

Looking down from high above at the packs of Bloodred Baboons below, a trace of indifference flashed through her eyes as she uttered her Soul Skill's name in a cool voice.

And in conjunction with Ruomu's wood-style entanglement.

It struck the leading Bloodred Baboon King, which was nearly forty thousand years old, with precision. The beast roared, but its voice soon weakened. Moon Silence cleaved into its entire body, and its life rapidly ebbed away...

"Roar!!!"

Seeing this, the other Bloodred Baboons roared in grief and fury. But after holding out against the other Shrek Inner Court disciples for a short while, they had no choice but to turn and leave.

After all, without their leader's berserk enhancement, their strength had sharply diminished...

"Not bad, Lexuan. You've grown stronger again."

Ruomu waved, signaling one of the Inner Court disciples to finish off the Bloodred Baboon King, which lay paralyzed on the ground, unable to move. Its Soul Ring suited that disciple.

Meanwhile, she came closer and spoke with a grin.

"Even I might not be your match now. You really are a little like that fellow..."

"Senior sister Ruomu." Zhang Lexuan's delicate brows knitted slightly as she looked at Ruomu with some displeasure.

"Ah... haha." Ruomu awkwardly patted her head, trying to change the subject. "Well... Zhang Ling and I are getting married soon. You absolutely have to come, girl."

"So soon?" Zhang Lexuan asked in surprise.

"What do you mean, soon... We've been like an old married couple for years." Ruomu chuckled, happiness unconsciously spilling into her voice.

"Well, congratulations to you both," Zhang Lexuan said plaintively.

"Um..." Ruomu's face twitched.

She seemed to have said the wrong thing again.

But she was naturally so carefree and straightforward. How could she have thought of that...

The two came to the top of an ancient tree and sat quietly cross-legged on a thick branch, chatting.

Sparks flickered below. Looking as small as ants, the Inner Court disciples sat around the fire laughing and joking, their youthful laughter drifting into the two women's ears from time to time.

"It's all right, senior sister Ruomu. Actually, I came to terms with it long ago."

Beneath the faint moonlight.

Zhang Lexuan's gaze was calm, her lips bearing a faint rosy sheen beneath the light spilling from the silver moon above.

"You really have?" Ruomu asked cautiously.

Zhang Lexuan nodded earnestly.

Her pale blue eyes gazed at the starry sky. "The next time we meet, I'll cripple him and take him back to Heaven Dou City. I'll make him kowtow and apologize to the dozens of people slaughtered in the Lu Clan and Zhang Clan."

"And then?" Ruomu asked.

"And then... I'll stay with him too, in a quiet village where no one will disturb us. I'll spend the rest of my life washing away the countless sins he committed and walk that final stretch with him." Though Zhang Lexuan's voice was soft, it was exceptionally firm.

Ruomu's eyes filled with astonishment.

"Lexuan, you won't inherit the Sea God Pavilion? Mu En has been treating you as..."

Zhang Lexuan shook her head.

"The academy has Xiaotao. All these years, I've forced her and pressured her to cultivate desperately precisely so she can inherit the position of Sea God Pavilion Master. I'm a sinner. Since I fell in love with him, and once inadvertently caused so many deaths, I'll stay with him and spend the rest of my life atoning..."

Ruomu: "..."

If Mu En heard this, would he die of anger on the spot?

In fact, not far away, Xuan Zi, who had been hiding among the ancient tree's foliage and dozing off, was already staring with eyes as wide as bronze bells.

"But throwing away the rest of your life for a beast like him, isn't that..." Ruomu's eye twitched as she spoke tactfully.

"After all, he's my brother, and after my parents died, he became my only 'family' in this world," Zhang Lexuan said softly.

Ruomu was dumbfounded.

If I'd known, I wouldn't have brought this up.

Mu En won't beat me when we get back, will he?

Probably not...

"That brat... is really fucking lucky to have met a foolish girl like you." Ruomu shook her head, her face full of emotion.

They truly were a pair of... ill-fated lovers.

"Also, my mission this time was to infiltrate the other side of the Ming Dou Mountain Range and go to the Sun Moon Continent to eliminate a powerful Evil Soul Master who had fled there. I caught up with him inside the Sun Moon Empire, and before he died, I once again interrogated him for information about that fellow."

"..."

Zhang Lexuan trembled all over. Her previously calm expression instantly froze.

She slowly turned toward Ruomu, an almost imperceptible urgency in her eyes. But after she caught herself, a complicated look welled up in them again...

"That fellow has done well for himself. After joining the Holy Spirit Cult, he supposedly gained overwhelming power. Within the Sun Moon Empire, even princes stand a head below him." Naturally, Ruomu noticed this and sighed inwardly. How has she let go, looking like that? But then again, how could something carved so deeply into her bones and heart be set aside just because she said so?

"By now, he's probably already reached the peak of rank-eighty-nine Soul Douluo." Ruomu's face filled with emotion.

"Rank-eighty-nine Soul Douluo..."

Zhang Lexuan dug her nails tightly into her flesh. Blood dripped down her pale hand, but she felt nothing.

Even after all these years of desperate cultivation, was she still no match for that fellow?