Calm before the storm

Douluo Continent

Teachers area.

Ye Yingluo was sitting on her bed while looking at the moon. She had come from her sister's room and not even a minute has passed before she heard loud knockings on her door, followed by her sister's voice.

She went to the door and opened it.

"What happened now?"

She whispered both with tiredness and tons of irritation.

"Fan Lin, that Fan Lin came with an unconscious Gu Yue! Something must have happened, I told you!"

Ye Yingrong's hysterical voice added to the foul mood of Ye Yingluo but she calmed down when she thought about the content of her words.

"Who told you about it?"

She immediately asked her sister.

"The guards at the gate. They said that he came with an unconscious Gu Yue and they told him to take her to the infirmary. Did he do something to her?"

Ye Yingrong asked her sister. She was just going to cultivate when her soul communicater rang and the door guard informed her that a student of her class, named Fan Lin, entered the academy while carrying an unconscious Gu Yue on his shoulders.

The guards had sent him to the infirmary while informing the infirmary about it; and politely asked Ye Yingrong to visit the infirmary on accord of the nurse who asked them to inform the teachers of the students.

The moment Ye Yingrong heard the name of Fan Lin and Gu Yue with suffixes like unconscious and night, her brain immediately went haywire and she was unable to think of anything good.

She faced a situation like this for the first time in her life. She immediately went to her sister to get some experienced advice because she knew it was a crucial event for both her as a teacher and those students (Gu Yue and Fan Lin).

She won't let her inexperienced self be the reason for a complex event like this.

She knew that she could solve it by being calm and easily listening to both the sides and then finding the truth and a solution but she wasn't able to calm herself!

That was the problem!

She and her sister were on their way to the infirmary while her sister kept asking different questions.

"So did the guard said anything about injuries? Did he inform Teacher Wu about this? Was Fan Lin alone when he came with Gu Yue?"

"No the guard said nothing about injuries; they did say that the infirmary nurse told them to inform the teachers of the involved students so Teacher Wu might know about it and they said that Fan Lin came with Gu Yue alone."

Ye Yingrong answered and with their speed, they reached the place before the answers ended.

"Then he isn't in fault."

Ye Yingluo remarked as she entered the infirmary and saw Wu Zhangkong waiting.

"Teacher Wu, did you check the students?"

Ye Yingluo said to Wu Zhangkong knowing full well that he came for the same matter.

"They aren't here yet."

Wu Zhangkong coolly replied. He attitude showed just how much interested he was to talk with them.

Ye Yingluo's mouth twitched as she took Ye Yingrong by her hand and waited at the side.

The teacher's area was in the deepest parts of the intermediate area of the Eastsea Academy and obviously it was farther from the school gate and the infirmary.

And the infirmary had two gates, opened on both sides.

As the involved teachers( Teacher Ye Yingrong, Ye Yingluo and Wu Zhangkong) came from the teachers area, they actually came from the opposite direction of where Fan Lin and Tang Wulin were coming from, adding to the fact that the teachers came at full speed and Fan Lin and Wulin were slower than them, the teachers had arrived before the Fan Lin and Tang Wulin arrived.

This was also the reason why they didn't cross paths with each other.

A minute later.

They saw two students, one carrying a girl on his back while the other one completely drenched with water and both of them seem to be talking about something.

"You didn't look like dirty to me though."

"It's my body, I will decide if I am dirty or not. Now explain properly."

Fan Lin said to Wulin as they entered the infirmary in the eyes of the teachers.

Wu Zhangkong and the others (Ye Yingrong and Ye Yingluo) looked at them and the duo also looked at them.

"We have an unconscious body in here, where to take her?"

Fan Lin announced his purpose in the infirmary since there was no one except him, Tang Wulin and the teachers and he can't just ask the teachers.

He could but he just decided not to.

"Take her upstairs and no shouting in the infirmary."

Wu Zhangkong icily said with a cold gaze while pointing at the stairs.

Fan Lin looked at the stairs and then at Tang Wulin.

"Go."

"I was going to do that even if you didn't tell me."

Tang Wulin immediately went up the stairs and left Gu Yue to the nurse who was waiting for him. The nurse asked him to place Gu Yue in one of the beds and quickly shoved him out of the room.

Fan Lin and the teachers looked at each other for some time, since no one said anything, Fan Lin decided to go to the second floor, the teachers followed behind him closely.

'So the door guards informed the teachers, why didn't they just asked them to pick her up in the first place then?'

Fan Lin wondered as he slowly went towards the second floor in the eyes of the teachers who were still closely following him.

The teachers had no choice on that as well. Fan Lin was still drenched in water and every movement of his was drizzling with water leaving water droplets causing the stairs to be slippery.

This was the reason why they weren't asking Fan Lin anything. They were waiting for the water to at least stop dripping from his clothes before asking him anything.

His was completely soaked and now the teachers really wanted to know exactly what happened because Gu Yue had a visible punch mark on her face, Fan Lin was visibly soaked in water (his clothes were) and Tang Wulin, an additional person, was with them.

Fan Lin reached the second floor, he saw Tang Wulin standing outside a room and a female came out of it in a hurry.

"Teacher Wu, your student is awake."

The nurse said to Wu Zhangkong who was behind Fan Lin.

"En, let me see her."

He said to the nurse and followed the nurse to the patient's room. Ye Yingrong and Ye Yingluo followed him as well.

They needed to ensure Gu Yue's condition first and foremost to get her side of the story aka statement, the situation didn't seem that dire from the words of the guard but the visible punch mark on Gu Yue's face was worrying.

As for Fan Lin and Tang Wulin, they would be interrogated later on the basis of Gu Yue's statement and condition.

'That's fast, she should be still sleeping for at least five more minutes. Looks like the nurse had some rejuvenation type soul skill. Well, can't say anything but 'as expected of the Eastsea Academy'. They did spent a ton on Class Zero so of course they would spend a little on healthcare and all.'

'I have erased her memories of the past half an hour before she met me so I just need to stay adamant on my alibi that I found her unconscious in the Eastsea park and all I would get would be a small punishment for going out at night, maybe cleaning the toilets or something like that.'

"Why are you spacing out?"

Tang Wulin said while coming near Fan Lin, breaking his chain of thought.

'I also have to take care of this kid.'

"Just thinking about my punishment. What about you?"

Fan Lin said while sitting down on one of the empty chairs near the wall of the patients room. His clothes still wet and dripping with water.

Tang Wulin followed him and sat on the public chair beside Fan Lin.

"Just thinking about my forging tasks. Classes are harder than before, leaving no time for forging tasks."

"Then get used to it. Like you always have been."

"Thanks."

"Don't act friendly with me."

"... I won't as you are weaker than me and not that handsome as well."

"Not replying. Okay. Sorry about the incident a few minutes ago. I still hate you for what you did to my sister though."

"Why don't you say her name in front of me? And you should be sorry, I would have already deposited her and gone to my dorms to cultivate."

"Don't talk about Gu Yue as if she is an object!"

"You just hit her; on the face at that. Didn't your mother always say that a woman's face was half her life."

"Don't bring my mother in it!"

"Calm down and I will break your hands once again, for stronger you might be but foolish you still are."

Fan Lin said without looking at Tang Wulin, turning the situation silent.

'Why am I arguing with an immature kid to begin with? Ahh taking out my frustration on someone who wouldn't be able to counter, what a nice adult I am.'

Fan Lin calmed his emotions to his emotionless face.

'Did the disappointment of not finding a better energy serum creation plan, a better cultivation path and the fact that my body is burning through its so called potential or cellular healing with my current training plans and that I had my cover blown by a child making me grumpy?'

'Because that's a lot of things to be disappointed about.'

'Is it not that I am childish in my current body but that I have became like an irritable old man who had enough of everything and is now snapping on anyone?'

'That's possible. I should contemplate on my actions in the past few months. I haven't done that before, have __'

"Teacher Ye came to me and asked quite a lot of stuff about you. Did you do anything to her, or around her?"

Fan Lin thought was once again broken by Tang Wulin's question.

"I spaced out in the classes a lot but I did answered everything she asked. I didn't have any kind of conversation with others, nor did I beat anyone up. I acted politely and wasn't rude to her as well."

Fan Lin put the contemplation of his past aside and thought about the topic of Ye Yingrong. He didn't care before thinking that she was a cannon fodder side character but considering the situation, he might be in a tangle if she or Wu Zhangkong proposed a house arrest or didn't allow Fan Lin to train his body.

That would be detrimental to his future growth as he would have to waste his time later on for things that he could have done now cuz strengthening his physique was a must have to him if wanted to increase his cultivation speed.

Only with a highly durable body could he survive the energy implosion or he dies, be it a quick explosive death or a slow implosive death over time.

'Hmm. She doesn't know what I was thinking, me being quite shouldn't arouse her attention as well since there were a few more introverted students in Class 3. My combat training activities wouldn't be detected in anyways, so that leaves only two things, my cultivation and the fact that I spaced out in classes.'

'My cultivation speed is indeed higher than others but compared to the achievements of Wulin, it pales a lot.'

"That just leaves the spaced out scenario. She is a new teacher with a cheerful smile and attitude, did I hurt her ego when I didn't pay any attention to her? Or did my actions hurt her teacher's pride when I answered everything when she asked even though I was spaced out."

Fan Lin verbalized his thoughts to Tang Wulin.

"I don't know. Don't you have any more incident, I mean conversation with her in something?"

Tang Wulin changed his words midway when he saw a light green ponytail of a person poorly hiding by the door. He knew who it belonged to.

"We had around 6 conversations, one where she asked me a question in the first class, then the congratulations in the combat training classes, then other four as questions in the later classes."

"My actions might have hurt her ego. Anything else I can't think. She can't be interested in me as there is nothing interesting in me, if she did then that's a problem as well. A normal person would not be so interested in a average looking silent outcast kid, she even went to the others to ask questions using her authority as a teacher. A predator (pedophile or shota rap-er, basically a criminal) targeting the quiet kids who can't fight back or have any class presence, but why me, ahh (nearly forgot I am an orphan in this world) interesting (even side characters have their hidden sides) Do you know if the school has any child protection agency, I may need__?

"I am not a criminal!"

Ye Yingrong couldn't help but exclaim loudly. She heard Fan Lin and could guess exactly where he was going with his thinking.

Fan Lin heard her voice and looked at not her but Tang Wulin.

'He definitely knew about her, still angry over his sister huh.'

'Haah, just how worse can this day even be?'

Fan Lin thought as he looked at Ye Yingrong with his calm eyes and emotionless face although he wasn't that calm on the inside.

'They must have be listening to us from the inside. Stupid me.'

Ye Yingrong wanted to say a lot but couldn't say anything in front of Fan Lin's calm stare.

Mainly due to the fact that if she looked at the situation from a different unrelated perspective, it did look like what he said.

But she was just curious over the fact that maybe Fan Lin and Tang Wulin may have the same ancestor and she can't say that as well.

She did felt a little irritated at the fact that Fan Lin wasn't paying attention to her class but all she wanted was to just help everyone and Fan Lin seemed the most miserable to her at that time.

Her perspective did change after she listened to the former Class 5 students but it wasn't that worse.

"So it wasn't that. Sorry."

Fan Lin looked at her silently and apologized leaving both Tang Wulin and Ye Yingrong blank for a second.

"It's okay, you don't need to apologise but you shouldn't just assume things like this in the future okay. That's bad manners."

Ye Yingluo said while exiting the patients room.

Fan Lin looked at her and then nodded.

"Now let's put those things aside and tell us what happened and I meant the both of you."

"I found her unconscious in the Eastsea Park."

Fan Lin began his story.

"What were you doing there?"

"I was meditating as the cultivation speed is higher in the forest."

"Do you know that Intermediate division students aren't allowed to leave the school grounds after 10 pm? It 2:30 am in the middle of the night right now."

"I know. I just wanted to meditate in the forest since I liked the silence and the increased cultivation speed."

"Okay. Why did Gu Yue had drag marks on her?"

"I dragged her from the Eastsea park. Didn't want to increase any kinds of rumours."

"What about the injury on her face?"

"He did that."

Ye Yingluo looked at Tang Wulin.

"And when did you meet them and why did you do that?"

"I was late from my forging tasks and when I was going to my new dorm, I saw him dragging Gu Yue by her leg. Thinking that he might have done something to her, I rushed and confronted him. He explained his reasoning and I volunteered to drop Gu Yue to the infirmary."

"That didn't explain why she had a punch mark on her face?"

She asked again but Fan Lin interjected.

"We got into a small argument and when he was going to punch me, I used Gu Yue as a meatshield. He was the one who punched her though."

Tang Wulin looked at him and then said,"I did and I am sorry for that. I will take any punishment for it."

Tang Wulin quietly accepted his 'crime'.

"What do you think about the situation Teacher Wu?"

Wu Zhangkong looked at both of them and then at Gu Yue who was listening to their conversation from the patient's room.

"I am fine so don't punish Tang Wulin."

Gu Yue said while silently staring at Fan Lin.

'What about me?' [Fan Lin]

"Well, I will leave that to the school to decide."

Wu Zhangkong coolly stated. The situation wasn't anything that could be related to the term worse and hence he had no need to intervene.

"I had called the director, he will come in a few minutes."

Fan Lin looked at all of them.

'Can't you guys even decide a simple thing like that by yourself?'

Fan Lin thought.

Gu Yue was still staring at him and Tang Wulin was standing beside Fan Lin with his head down.

....

Douluo Continent

Eastsea Academy

Director Hong came and gave the rights to punishment to the nurse.

After a few minutes of lecture from the nurse on how to carry a patient, Tang Wulin and Fan Lin were allowed to go to their dorms.

Their punishment being that Tang Wulin had to do extra training and Fan Lin had to report and get permission of the teacher of Class 3, Ye Yingrong before leaving the school grounds. He also had to write a reflective essay about his behaviour on using his unconscious classmates as a meatshield with the added punishment of helping the library staff for a whole month.

Fan Lin calmly accepted it. So did Tang Wulin. They could do nothing but accept it and thank the nurse for leaving them with just this.

After a last round of checkup on Gu Yue by the nurse using her soul skill. She allowed her to leave as well since Gu Yue was perfectly fine except for the bruise on her face.

So Gu Yue, Wu Zhangkong, the Ye sisters and Tang Wulin left for the teachers area as the Class zero was also situated there and the matter was finished.

Fan Lin on the other hand went towards his dorm in silence.

Throughout his way, he was thinking about his behaviour and he realised that he was slowly acting more and more like an grumpy old man.

Not listening to the younger people and thinking that he has seen everything while criticizing the world for stupid things. That's what his behaviour ensued.

"Need to change my mindset first. I am not Gloomy Forest but Fan Lin. Can't behave like Gloomy Forest or what would the difference between my past and new present, just a new name and body."

"My past life goals was the termination of humanity. Fan Lin's goal is to save the soul beasts and termination of humanity; if needed. I can't mix both of them just because they are somewhat similar to each other."

*Sigh*

Fan Lin took a big sigh.

"Does it matter though? My plans still won't change. I still need to gain myself a place in this world and when I am going to stop talking to myself."

Fan Lin internally declared and went towards his dorm with a calming anger towards himself.

And just like this, days passed.

Fan Lin's punishment didn't add anything new to his life, no one was interested enough to know exactly why he stayed late in the classes or why he went to the library everyday.

Unlike what he had thought, none of the teachers said anything about the incident of the night nor did they bring it up to him.

Ye Yingrong was still teaching cheerfully to Fan Lin like nothing happened and everything was the same as before.

He did his meditation in the night, attended his classes in the morning, the evening was spent in the library and then the night was spent in meditation.

As for body training, Fan Lin did not do any after checking the condition of his body. His body in a few words, was like a mold of wax right now.

The more wax someone burns, the less they have.

In a similar way, the more he used his body, the more damage he would do to his body and by damage, he meant cellular level damage that reduced his lifespan by one to two years every.

The implosions weren't a joke.

'If only my body was metaphorically like clay that could be beaten and shaped thousands of times, I would be content but a person can't just have everything.'

'Higher cultivation speed, better physique, lucky encounters and a stable income, not everyone can have it. I don't even have parents to exchange for the protagonist buff and I don't want to be the protagonist.'

'But I am not that bad, considering that I just reached rank 16 Spirit Master yesterday, my speed is still a lot faster than the others.'

'The greatest of all being that I have a new blueprint for the new energy serum.'

Fan Lin was thinking about his current situation. It was morning outside and he had just stabilized his rank 16 cultivation.

"In a month or so, I might reach Rank 20 and then I can move to the Earthrock Alliance since the process will be done by then."

"A week has passed since my night encounter with Gu Yue and Tang Wulin but no additional encounters happened. Gu Yue doesn't remember but considering the fact that she was staring at me the whole time that night, she might be suspicious about me. Thankfully till the time my relation to Tang Wulin isn't cleared, that stalker won't do anything."

"Tang Wulin on the other hand had avoided me openly from that day which is what I wanted as well. Both of them continued with their daily lives with Tang Wulin doing his training, cultivation, forging and studying in the Class Zero everyday. Gu Yue being the same as she was before. No changes in the timeline."

"The matter has died down and no butterfly effects has occurred due to my involvement with them. Now Wulin can do his protagonist stuff and live his life so that I can get my second lucky encounter."

"Finally everything is in motion and my second lucky encounter is on his way.

They can do whatever they want after my second lucky encounter for I won't care if Wulin joined the dark side or anything. After I have my encounter, I can then decide the fate of this world and after that... *giggling*"

Fan Lin giggled at the thought of the future except it was a terrifying sight for those who knew his past self.

They have learnt a valuable lessons with him that this man could only giggle when he was with his wife or when he is sending others to his wife. His wife is dead by the way.

*Trink trink trink*

Fan Lin's soul communicater rang, stopping his giggling and returning to his emotionless face.

He looked at the soul guide and picked the call.

"Tie them properly and I will finish the rest of them. Don't do anything else to them."

Fan Lin emotionlessly said and cut the call.

"I still have to do overtime at my 'volunteer' work at library today as well huh. Can't do anything about it since it's better than being in detention."

Fan Lin whispered while wearing his student uniform and getting ready for the classes.

"What should I choose for my second ring? MY first spirit soul is just a ten year old one and I would obviously need another one for the second ring."

"I already made a mistake in my first spirit soul and choose the Phoenix Crest tailed Serpent, not saying that choosing you was a mistake but that my situation demanded someone else."

Fan Lin consoled his ten year old spirit soul although he knew that ten year old soul beasts had little to no wisdom, just instinctual intelligence of animals.

"Considering the fact that my so called gift could once again change my spirit soul ability, and also the fact that each spirit soul can passively enhance my martial soul... I need to find a spirit soul that even if I lost its spirit soul skill, the passive benefits still help my martial soul."

"The Pheonix tailed Crest Serpent spirit soul enhanced the speed of my Blue Silver Grass, this spirit soul should either increase its durability or attack, maybe speed plus attack equals power combination..."

"Or I could add metal type spirit soul to increase its sharpness and then speed and swiftness plus sharpness; lethality. One shot death if its the eye socket or heart."

"That would be like controlling sharp tentacles, could rip apart lot of things, kinda like Tang San's spider legs."

"I should visit the Spirit Pagoda and see if I can find anything worthwhile. I will book it for myself just in case I couldn't get it later on."

While he was thinking of various spirit souls that he could consider by peering through soul master's forums for more information, he reached his class and sat down.

It was still an hour before anyone could come and the class representative being the only person in the room except him.

Fan Lin once again started his day by making the class representative uncomfortable by staring at his back.

There was nothing else to look at and his thoughts had came to a halt. He had a new blueprint for the energy serum but no materials to try out and even if he had, he would not try to create a new energy serum because his current physique wouldn't be able to bear the effects of another energy serum.

He had read the book till the Shrek Academy's entrance examinations and a few chapters later.

He knew that Gu Yue was the female lead, it was obvious that she came from a weird but rich family.

But that's all he knew.

'Considering that she started doing monologues with, probably her guard or the Black Dragon, after sometime in the second volume and I am still alive. There is a good chance that she hasn't been in contact with the Black Dragon or maybe now's not the time.'

'Moving on, my identity as the child killer has ended with the so called death of the child killer and all of my records had been deleted by Shi Hun and someone else in the purge of the Wargod Temple.'

'My identity is safe but looking back at the things that I did, I was hasty in implementing them, if not for the fact that I know the future, I would have been likely found.'

'Well I wouldn't have done that if I didn't know about the future in the first place so who's at fault.'

'Sometimes I think that spending my days over thinking about useless things might be a future that I want, at least I am not thinking of slaughter plans or end of the world scenario.'

'Life is hard.'

"Still need 55 more minutes for the class to start."

'Let's just eat a tomato and meditate a little bit.'

Fan Lin thought while taking out a single tomato and using his first spirit skill to meditate.

Eating a single tomato was fine for him as his body has enough space for the tomato and it increased his cultivation a little bit. Like just a little bit.

"Isn't it weird that at some days we think we have no time and then on some days we feel like time is moving really slow?"

Fan Lin stopped his thinking and started his deep meditation

Cliffhanger---

...

Also ".....blah blah...." Is for spoken words. Saying.

'.... blah blah....' is for thoughts. Thinking.

[This are important stuff]

(This is for thinking inside the "..." saying box) Basically thinking things while talking.

Others will come later.