Watching Soto from the Shadows: The Seven Devils Take Shape

Suotuo City was livelier than Nan Feng had imagined.

The journey from Heaven Dou City to Suotuo City took four days. On the evening of the fourth day, the official road joined the main road, and traffic grew heavier.

Suotuo City stood at the intersection of two official roads, connecting routes toward Heaven Dou City, Gengxin City, and the Star Dou Great Forest. Merchant caravans, Soul Masters, and adventurers came and went in an endless stream.

The city walls were three times as high as Nuoding City's. A long line stretched before the gates, and Nan Feng edged inside with the crowd. A cargo wagon blocked half the road, its wheels rolling over the flagstones. With his bundle on his back, he was carried forward a dozen steps by the press of people.

He looked up at the plaque on the city wall. The emblem of the Soto Great Soul Arena was carved in its center: a relief of a roaring beast's head, gleaming with a dull bronze light in the dusk.

Nan Feng found a cheap inn in the eastern part of the city and asked for a room farther inside.

He set his bundle on the bed and pushed open the window. A narrow alley ran behind the inn, with the Great Soul Arena at the other end. He needed to stay here for a while. Suotuo City was where Shrek Academy was located. Xiao Wu and Tang San were here now.

He didn't want them to know he had come. He needed to confirm a few things from a distance.

Early the next morning, Nan Feng went out and spent most of the day walking around the city.

Suotuo City's streets were cleaner than Gengxin City's and livelier than Nuoding City's. Young people in Soul Master uniforms were everywhere, heading to the Great Soul Arena in groups of three or five. Nan Feng turned into an alley in the west of the city. At its end was an open space, with an unassuming teahouse on one side.

He took a window seat on the teahouse's second floor and ordered a pot of coarse tea. It was bitter, leaving a dry, astringent taste all the way from his throat to his stomach. Downstairs, people were playing a drinking game, their voices rising in bursts.

Looking east from here, he could make out the walls of Shrek Academy in the distance. The blue-gray brick walls stood silent in the afternoon light.

The academy was small, and its main gate remained closed year-round. Now and then, students in uniform hurried in and out through the side gate, as though rushing to training.

Nan Feng sat in the teahouse all afternoon, watching the side gate through the window.

At dusk, the side gate opened. A few students came out.

At the front was a sturdily built blond youth who swaggered as he walked. Dai Mubai.

Behind him came a black-haired youth with a steady stride and a straight back. Tang San.

Beside Tang San was a girl in pink, her scorpion braid swinging behind her. Xiao Wu.

Last came a slender girl in black, whose footsteps made almost no sound. Zhu Zhuqing.

The four headed toward the Great Soul Arena.

Nan Feng set down his teacup, left the payment on the table, and rose to leave the teahouse.

He didn't follow them. He simply watched their backs disappear around the street corner.

For the next few days, Nan Feng went to the teahouse every day. He sat on the second floor for one or two two-hour periods, watching the area around Shrek Academy.

One by one, he saw the members of the Shrek Seven Monsters.

Ning Rongrong looked more refined than she had in Nuoding. She wore a lustrous hairpin, and she walked with her chin raised.

Oscar was a tall, thin youth with a shy smile on his face. He walked at the back of the group.

Ma Hongjun was a chubby boy. He swung his arms wide as he walked and had a loud voice. Nan Feng could hear what he was saying from half a street away.

From the shadows, Nan Feng committed their appearances to memory.

The Shrek Seven Devils had all come together. Yu Xiaogang had taken Tang San as his disciple. The academy's teaching system was running according to plan.

On the evening of the third day, Nan Feng stayed at the teahouse until the sky darkened. As he was about to leave, he saw someone unexpected.

The side gate opened. A girl in a white dress came out, walking at an unhurried pace.

Her plain white figure stood out in the dusk.

Ye Lingling.

With a basket of medicinal herbs on her back, she looked as though she had just returned from gathering herbs outside, and walked straight in through Shrek Academy's side gate. Nan Feng's teacup paused at his lips for a beat.

Ye Lingling was at Shrek Academy.

She had said before that she was going to Heaven Dou City. She had evidently come to Suotuo City by now.

Nan Feng lowered his teacup, his gaze following her through the side gate.

He didn't call out to her or ask about her. Ye Lingling had her own choices; she could go wherever she wanted.

On the morning of the fourth day, Nan Feng ate breakfast downstairs at the inn. Two Soul Masters at the next table were talking.

One said, "That bunch of Little Monsters from Shrek won again at the Great Soul Arena yesterday. That Blue Silver Grass kid beat three of the other side all by himself."

The other said, "That's not all. That little girl with the Soft Bone Rabbit is formidable too. Her kicks are so fast you can't see them clearly."

Nan Feng listened with his bowl of congee in his hands, but didn't join in.

He finished his congee, put down the bowl, and returned to his room.

After closing the door, he sank his consciousness into the space inside the tower. Old Huai poked his head out of the crack and glanced at him.

"You've been in Suotuo City for almost five days. What exactly are you watching?"

"People." Nan Feng sat down opposite Old Huai. "The Shrek Seven Devils have all come together. Xiao Wu and Tang San are both here. And Ye Lingling is at Shrek Academy too."

Old Huai snorted. "So what do you want to do? Go in and find them?"

Nan Feng shook his head. "If I went to them, I'd only disrupt their rhythm. Tang San has Yu Xiaogang's theoretical framework, Xiao Wu has Tang San working with her, and the Shrek Seven Monsters have their own path of growth. I don't need to crowd into their place."

Old Huai narrowed his eyes and studied him for a moment, a flash of cyan light passing through his cloudy pupils. "Then what exactly did you come here to do?"

Nan Feng opened his right hand. The deep black underlying glow of a Soul Ring pulsed against the skin of his palm.

"The Primordial World Seed is still inside Xiao Wu. I sensed it from a distance with Treasure-Appraising Spirit Light before. The seed is sprouting, but it isn't growing fast."

"The seal inside her is still the same. The origin power of the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soft Bone Rabbit is locked in the deepest part of her Martial Soul core. I need to confirm one thing: just how deep her seal goes."

Old Huai emerged from the crack and sat cross-legged at the bottom of the tower.

"What you sensed might differ from the reality. From that far away, Treasure-Appraising Spirit Light can only show you the outline, not the details."

"If you want to confirm the seal's depth, you'll have to get closer to her."

Nan Feng nodded.

He withdrew his consciousness from the tower, took the short staff from the bed, tucked it behind his waist, and left the inn.

He headed toward the Great Soul Arena. The Shrek Seven Monsters trained and competed there every evening.

He didn't need to meet them. He only needed to find a place where he could sense Xiao Wu's Martial Soul core from close range.

A corridor for spectators to rest in ran around the outside of the Great Soul Arena. A section on the eastern side faced Shrek Academy.

Nan Feng walked to the end of the corridor's eastern side and stopped.

From here, Treasure-Appraising Spirit Light could reach inside the academy.

He spread Treasure-Appraising Spirit Light toward the academy. With his Soul Power at level thirty-four, its range was enough to cover more than half of Shrek Academy's grounds.

He closed his eyes and found Xiao Wu through his senses.

The pink point of light was moving across the training ground. Her Soul Power fluctuations were light and nimble as she worked with several nearby points of light in combat drills.

Nan Feng's tendrils of perception lingered near Xiao Wu's Martial Soul core for a breath. He caught the outline of the seal.

The seal was like an extremely thin chain, tightly fastened around the outermost layer of the Soft Bone Rabbit's origin power.

Runes were densely arrayed along the chain. They were clearer and more complex than when he had sensed them from afar in Gengxin City.

The seal went deeper than he had estimated. The chain was wound around it at least nine times, each layer woven from a different power.

With his current Soul Power, he couldn't touch the substance of the seal. At level thirty-four, the Power of Creation had only opened a crack.

He needed to reach level forty to push the tower's third-floor door fully open. He still had six levels to climb.

Nan Feng withdrew his perception and opened his eyes.

Dusk spread across Suotuo City from the west. The lanterns at the Great Soul Arena lit up one by one.

He turned and walked back the way he had come, his pace neither hurried nor slow. The deep black underlying glow of a Soul Ring pulsed against his palm, rising and falling in response to the cyan light in the crack at the bottom of the tower.

He had confirmed two things.

First, Xiao Wu's seal was deeper than he had expected. He would need to cultivate longer and build a stronger Soul Power foundation before he could touch it.

Second, the Shrek Seven Monsters were progressing along their path of growth as planned. He didn't need to crowd into their place.

There was only one thing he needed to do: raise his Soul Power from level thirty-four to level forty and push the tower's third-floor door fully open.

Only then, when he could release the Power of Creation outward, could he even begin to speak of helping Xiao Wu touch that seal.

Back at the inn, he sat on the bed and circulated his Soul Power through his meridians three times.

That deep black Soul Ring energy pulsed steadily in his dantian.

Before closing his eyes, he glanced at the moon outside the window. Moonlight slipped through a gap in the window, spreading a small patch of gray-white light before the bed.

He closed his eyes, and his breathing deepened.

Suotuo City was much quieter at night than Gengxin City. From the direction of the distant Great Soul Arena came an occasional cheer or two, followed by silence.