Calm and collected
Douluo Continent
Shrek Academy.
The same day.
Three hours later.
Fan Lin was asked by his Lecturer to attend to the comprehensive battle test one more time for some additional students.
He agreed. He knew who the students were.
They were the protagonist group who got late due to the fact that Wulin took too much time while breaking the second of his eighteen dragon seals.
Each seal was supposed to give him a portion of the dragon that was sealed in his body but it was also a timebomb that would kill him if all the seals were broken before a specific time.
The protagonist planned to use the power gained through the breaking of the seal to pass the Entrance Examinations of the Shrek along with his friends and unfortunately made a mess as no one, not even his teacher, realised how much time it would take.
And it did take quite a while. But Tang Wulin was the protagonist and how could the heavens be unfair to him, he woke up before the exams could end and hurried on their way to the academy.
Finally, they started exams in the afternoon where most of the students had been done with theirs and the only one left were the students who were doing the physical assessment after completing the rest of the trials for some extra points.
...
Fan Lin wore a mask and stood with the rest of his classmates as the four students were escorted by the newly appointed lecturer of grade 1 Shen Yi.
She told them about the task and stood aside to allow discussions among themselves.
The four of them discussed for a while while looking at grade 2 students from time to time.
The four eyed the ten possible opponents.
Generally, a soul master's outward appearance reflected the qualities of their martial soul. Power-type soul masters would have robust bodies while range or spiritual-type soul masters would have more delicate physiques.
Hence Xie Xie chose Yuanen Yehui and Xu Xiaoyan chose Fan Lin.
Both of them were on the slimmer end.
Fan Lin had Energy Body and Petrosapien physique and that was all. His body was slim, trim, with no muscles and no fat. He looked too slim.
Well truth to be told, he was thin, quite thin.
So nearly half an hour later after Xie Xie had been beaten one sided, Tang Wulin and Gu Yue stretched the match and Xu Xiaoyan's turn came.
The rest of the grade 2 was staring at him to take the duty of a tester seriously. Not the fight but his duty seriously.
The group of the four also saw the weird gazes of their opponents and a terrifying thought came to their mind.
They have already seen the result of choosing Yuanen Yehui and seems like Xu Xiaoyan made the wrong choice as well.
Fan Lin and Xu Xiaoyan slowly came to the fighting area and stood against each other.
One minute later, they were still standing against each other.
"Why aren't you doing anything?" [Xu Xiaoyan]
Fan Lin sat down on the spot on her words.
"Okay." [Xu Xiaoyan]
Xu Xiaoyan also sat down after some time. Although she doesn't understood the motive of the opponent she was facing, it was beneficial for her.
Time passed bit by bit and soon the ten minutes mark was nearing its end.
"Are you not going to do anything?" [Xu Xiaoyan]
"It doesn't matter. You would get points either way the moment you chose me. Since you are getting the points either way, let's waste time, it won't change the outcome of your score no matter what I do." [Fan Lin]
"Ohh. Thanks for going easy on me then." [Xu Xiaoyan]
She cutely said. She doesn't understood a single thing that Fan Lin said but it wouldn't hurt to earn the goodwill of a person who was accustomed to the academy. He could help her later on in the Shrek.
The ten minutes mark ended, with that Fan Lin got and left the arena. Xu Xiaoyan got a passing score for survival.
Shen Yi stared at him a little before taking the four students to the next trial.
Meanwhile the grade 2 students once again gathered behind Yuanen Yehui, ready to stop him if the situation became grave.
Yuanen Yehui came near Fan Lin.
"The world isn't fair but we are having a test here. Even If the whole outer court was to attack me at once, you would still lose. I should not be an opponent that the likes of anyone of the new students should face, yet here I am. The world is unfair." [Fan Lin]
"The fair thing would be a direct pass for someone who chose me since victory or struggle was never an option against me. The Lecturer knows about this as well, wonder why he begged me to do it." [Fan Lin]
Fan Lin emotionlessly remarked and left , leaving behind a group of confused children who didn't understand what he was actually trying to say.
The Lecturer begged him. The world was unfair. He was strong. Everyone was weak. Life is unfair. He was invincible.
That's the direct meaning of his words meant but why the heck did they say all this to them.
What was his purpose in all this?
Did he just insulted them in some hidden way?
They didn't know.
.....
Meanwhile in the forest near the working students dormitory.
Fan Lin was smiling while thinking of the confused faces of the others.
He had left a lot of things behind and having his past was one of them.
Three years!
Three years changed a lot of things for him once again.
Now he wanted to enjoy a little bit sometimes because why not. He can't be moody and stupidly serious 24/7 or he will just think about ending humanity, reverting to his old ways and slaughtering everyone on the Spirit Pagoda Headquarters for their deeds.
Anger needed to be always in control. An uncontrolled rage will lead to impartial deaths of everyone around him.
That's the opposite of what he planned. His desire was on its fruition and using happy and cheerful memories was one of the ways to keep himself from messing up in his hurry.
There was just a small problem in this. When he looked back on his happy memories, there weren't that many.
Nearly two-thirds of his memories with his wife after their second wedding was forgotten. So did the memories of his time together at the END.
Many things scraped and he didn't even know if what he remembered is actually the truth or not.
So final conclusion. Make some new ones.
Make some new cheerful memories. It would have been difficult for him a few years ago as all his mind was filled with was on finding a way to save the soul beasts and become their saviour.
Now his goals has changed. He wanted to save the soul beasts, without being the saviour and without being the reason for the extinction of another species.
He also needed to protect them. For this, he needed to be calm and collected.
He alone could end the world but he could also die by the hands of a random Titled Douluo because of being careless.
His most powerful and useful possessions were his poisons that he had stopped using... for the meantime.
But it all didn't matter. Fan Lin now had a way to do what he wanted, a future goal and target.
He had a proper, well planned path that he had to follow to achieve his goal.
It will take a bit of time but everything will end once he reached the end of his path.
And hence, he needed to calm down and take slow but steady steps. To not destroy a perfect future due to a momentous rage.
All will be good.
His looked at his enhanced ring that was slowly floating around him and then at his hands.
"Am I becoming childish as I grew up or something?"
He, as usual, put aside his thoughts and began his deep meditation with the aided assistance of the Enhanced green ring.
....
The same night.
Fan Lin stopped his cultivation after a few hours and left the Shrek Academy after checking the time. It was 9 pm.
His destination was a small shop that was just in front of the Shrek Academy.
This was his shop. This was also the only shop that he could afford after spending nearly half his contribution points. The main reason that he brought the place instead of renting it out and would Shrek leave a chance to decrease his contribution points.
The answer was no.
Fan had 10 million contribution points in the beginning of his grade 1, by the end of grade 1, less than 9 million were left. Even after he spend his points in boundless training area, to reimburse his classmates, rent for the working students dormitory, fees for the classes that he attended and fines for his 'misbehavior'. They couldn't decrease his total contribution points by even ten percent.
So Fan Lin had to spent 5 million contribution points to buy the small 2x2 metres shop directly in front of the Shrek, roughly ten thousand to break and rebuild the whole shop to his likings and was ordered to pay taxes on his future earnings to the Shrek City.
[Authors note - For those of you who will be saying it was stated that he had 1 million contribution points, read again, it said that he had more than a million contribution points and he recharged 10 billion Federal credits in the beginning of his grade at the hostess bar. Read Chapter seriously 😑]
[Now onto the story.]
This small shop that he brought obviously had a purpose or Fan Lin wouldn't have brought one in the city that was going to be destroyed in the near future.
Fan Lin entered the small shop and greeted his information handler who was working as a receptionist. Despite the fact that it was called a shop, the only thing they did in this branch was to deliver the product to the other branches of the shop. Even that was done via delivery services from a logistics company in Shrek City.
"How's work?" [Fan Lin]
"Great. Here is the list of the orders from new towns."
The handler gave him a piece of paper with different towns and their requirements on the amount of stuff they asked for. Fan Lin checked the numbers and asked for the handler to deal with the previous orders. Now was the time.
As he turned to look towards the busy streets of the Shrek City from his small shop, Fan Lin began to reminiscence about the past two years of his.
In grade 2, after Shi Hun's betrayal, Fan Lin needed a place to vent his anger of the Spirit Pagoda.
Adding to the fact that his funds were quite low and he hadn't actually started focusing seriously on his Mecha Designing at that time...
Adding more to the fact that he might be spied upon at that time...
Fan Lin thought of opening a small shop to sell herbal medicine with only three products on his shop.
(Surprised?)
A scented floral medicine for calming emotions, a pain relief medicine for body pain and a beauty rejuvenation medicine that didn't actually make you beautiful but just improved digestion and restores the digestive organs to their prime.
The products were completely herbal, had no side effects and were supplements not actual medicines.
The cost creation was also close to nothing as Fan Lin made those with the grass and shrubs that could be found anywhere, that is, the price for the raw materials was none since he actually just took the grasses and shrubs in the various places of the Shrek Academy and Shrek City and created them.
He then hired the handler and her group as his shop assistants and sold the products at the cheap price of 5 to 30 Federal credits depending on which item they brought.
With the information network of the Handler and her group and the fact that Fan Lin's new herbal products were three to four times cheaper than their counterparts while actually being effective and lastly, his status as a Soul Master;
The Handler and her group were somehow able to turn this into a highly profitable business and raked in lots of profits.
Fan Lin didn't know and neither cared about the money though. At that time, his main plan in the creation of the shop was to aid in his bigger plan on venting his anger and slowly bleeding down the forces of humans
His first plan was to use his money to open the shop and act like a simple merchant who was delivering his stuff throughout the Sun-Moon Federation.
Since his products were sold throughout the Federation and the massacres happened only in some of them, no one would have any clue to him.
As for how he was going to kill. The three products of his were poisons. To be more precise, they came into the category of the healing toxins. Toxins that can both heal and kill when combined or given in different ways.
No one except Fan Lin knew the actual usage of his poisons and Fan Lin killed by towns.
Fan Lin didn't kill by numbers or crime. He killed by towns. A single night and dozens of towns has widespread death among the evil class in their populace.
The handler was the one who aided him in this as she provided him the list of all the towns that had the people that he wanted to kill; trafficking triads, Spirit Pagoda hidden organisations, federation hidden experimental organisations, evil spirits masters and many more.
Fan Lin randomly chose one or multiple towns from the list, and send a special batch of his healing toxins to those places.
The results were the slow and gradual deaths of the people that he wanted to specifically kill that took anywhere between 2 to 9 hours.
It solely depended on the luck of the person who was poisoned on how he would die, a not-so-quick 2 hour death was a luckiest and a slow and excruciating death of 9 hours for the unfortunate.
Fan Lin actual purpose of the shop was solely this. He just wanted a place near Shrek where he can meet the handler and plan some killing once in a few months.
He never cared about the money as he has ways to earn money. The shop was a facade to show the world that he was tight on funds and hence opened a shop.
He even delayed the acquisition of the rest of his three word Battle Armor pieces for this purpose. He needed to look a little bit on the poorer side.
And he succeeded as most of the forces didn't seem to find anything weird with his actions. They all thought that either he had found a way to use the suitcase that he dug out from his endeavours to the Eastsea Academy or he might want to earn more money for the Battle Armor and his future expenses.
Because in their eyes, Fan Lin might just be planning and skipping the three word Battle Armor and going straight for the Four word Battle Armor. Who knows, he might just do that.
They all saw him earning money and legitimately at that so they were chill. Most of them were...
Fan Lin never planned or hoped to earn money from the shop though, he seldom paid attention to the monetary gains that was earned by them and just created more medicines whenever he was free while the rest of his time was spent in meditation.
Then came his third academic year where he realised some important things like the soul beasts he will face in the Tower attack are not real. Completely fake unlike the half-virtual half-real soul beasts of the Spirit Ascension plane.
He also had a change of mind(again) after encountering some situations and decided to focus fully on his secondary profession to increase his Spirit Power. He had an idea that he wanted to implement.
As his grade 3 was spent down in Mecha Designing, he nearly had more than hundred thousand working soul circuit designs of his own, so he decided to sell them to the Shrek's Designing association and Mecha Designer Association for money and got 9 billion Federal credits.
On that day, the handler was shocked by the sudden 9 billion that Fan Lin supposedly put into the Shop's account since he planned to use them as shops expenses and buy some things of his own. He once again had an idea.
She asked him about where did he got the money and they all got the moment of their lives when they heard that Fan Lin can earn through normal means. Legally. Through hardwork. With patience
Because from what she had observed and knew; Fan Lin liked to kill people left and right.
He killed people in the intermediate Spirit Ascension platform once a month.
Once every two-three months, he chooses a town or city of his liking and killed thousands through his toxin send through the decoy of his shop's products.
In her eyes, Fan Lin was a slaughter maniac who can't live without killing anyone for more than a month and it was becoming graver as time passed.
If not for the fact that Fan Lin still hasn't killed an innocent till now and that he and her had the same enemy, she would have left long ago.
The Handler looked at the leaving figure of Fan Lin as her group members finally came from the back of the small shop.
"How much did we earn this month?"
Her friend said while acting as if Fan Lin never came.
"A lot."
Another friend chimed in.
"Let's prepare for the next round of deliveries. We have been getting a lot of demand for the regions around Bright City."
The handler said while looking at the new towns where they have to deliver the products.
""Ok.""
....
Shrek Academy.
Fan Lin slowly returned to his working students dormitory as it was in the way of his training area in the forest.
"You have joined Shrek?"
A voice came to his ears as someone came beside him. He immediately looked at the source of the voice and it was Gu Yue.
'Is my Spirit Power bogus?'
He thought as he glanced at her direction, and moved forward while ignoring her.
He had no reason to talk to her. If it was Tang Wulin then he might even consider it a bit but not her.
Gu Yue followed behind him till the working students dormitory and stopped there. Fan Lin continued onwards his training area as if nothing happened.
'Which one should I do next? I am already done with the towns near the countryside... Then let's start with the western front then."
Fan Lin thought about his next targets.
'That area is filled with deserts and has low population density, they will be easier to clean up.'
'In around an year, I will be finished with a third of the federation.'
Fan Lin entered the dense area of the forest and sat on the spot that he always cultivated at.
After he upgraded his Spirit soul to the thousand year old Pheonix Tailed Crest Serpent.
His soul skill Energy body did upgrade like previously but the upgrade wasn't what he thought.
[Your soul skill Energy body remains the same.
Energy body: Active skill. When used, absorbs soul energy from the surrounding. Provides complete digestion of food.]
There was no change to the skill though.
[Your martial soul Blue Silver Grass has evolved to Blue Silver Energy Grass.
Blue Silver Energy grass: It is an evolved from of blue silver grass. It helps to absorb energy faster. Passive]
His Martial Soul upgraded. How?
He didn't know. But he knew who could have done that and he accepted it as the right answer.
There were no other changes to his spirit skills. Even his enhanced Green ring got a makeover but not skill upgrade.
Fan Lin had faced too many disappointments throughout his time in Shrek and didn't dwell on this matter anymore than an hour.
He still needed to make sure everything was the same or different.
"And..."
Two years ago, he had deducted that he will be Rank 50 Soul King in two years time but due to a lots of hiccups and time wasting events. He was still at Rank 48 Soul Ancestor.
Two whole levels behind the goal.
And these two levels would take around four to five months at the minimum.
"That's the price for the massive increment in my Spirit Power."
*Sigh*
The night passed and the dawn signalled the start of his first academic day in grade 2.
....
Morning.
Fan Lin's first day at grade 2 wasn't as epic as he thought it would be. It was the same as the starting of the Grade 1.
The Lecturer gave some prep talks, new assignment for the end, held some fights for the Class Representative position and taught about the various aspects regarding the Mecha, Battle Armors and combat skills of a Soul Master.
Fan Lin didn't know about the things that the Lecturer taught but even then, he didn't feel like it would help his situation that much.
His goals were different from the rest of the students. What he wanted was the direct opposite of the things that students around him were aspiring to become.
Fan Lin wanted to skip grades!
His appeal was denied on the basis of no academic knowledge.
A Soul Master's course wasn't just about the Soul Master's related stuff but also included the basic subjects like history, politics and economics along with Soul Master related subjects like Mecha operating, etc.
This was the norm and even Shrek Academy followed it.
They created all rounder monsters, proficient in all the fields. Emphasis on created, not nurture but forcefully shaped into perfection by using and manipulating the kids' desire to rise above the others.
It was a shameful and disgraceful move but Fan Lin couldn't help but admire it. There was no wrong or right methods, they were just results and processes.
How you do things determine if it's bad or good. Same with the end result.
Shrek Academy was currently using the cruel and cunning strategy to create the future of mankind. Kids that honour their roots.
"Pathetic."
He thought out loud while looking at the kid who was selling himself for a year's worth of food.
"Huh?"
"Fan Lin?"
Tang Wulin murmured the name that he was familiar with a long time ago.
"Pathetic."
Fan Lin said again and moved to the Dining Hall's window to get his order of vegetables and fruits from them. He took his stuff and came in front of Tang Wulin.
"What are you doing?"
He asked, although he could roughly guess. Wulin was trying scam someone. He had the Golden Dragon Bloodline and it had a massive nutrition requirement for his blood essence.
But Tang Wulin was unlike Fan Lin. Fan Lin's Energy body(physique) with the Energy Body skill and Petrosapien physique made him energy efficient and immortal.
An actual immortal fairy who didn't need to eat to.
His energy requirements to sustain his bodily functions and activities were 50 times lower than others, even if he were to exclude the Energy body skill and Petrosapien physique.
He can eat once and live healthy and at his peak for the next 50 days before feeling hungry. Now after using his soul skills, he didn't need to eat.
Why was he telling it? No reason.
"You are Fan Lin?"
Wulin asked again, however this time he was sure of it.
"Why are you scamming others?"
Fan Lin asked back without answering. Wulin looked at him.
"You are... talking politely?"
Tang Wulin asked a question of his own. He had grew up with Fan Lin and Fan Lin wasn't polite like this before.
"(●__●)" [Stare] [Fan Lin]
"Okay~ okay, stop staring. I don't have a choice, I am hungry and I have no contribution points for it."
Tang Wulin gave up and said while trying to sound pitiful.
"Go work and earn. You are the Blacksmith who can thousand refine in under half an hour, go do some tasks and come eat when you are finished."
Fan Lin said while looking at the sign that Wulin had on him.
"I eat a lot, a few tasks won't be able enough for the amount that I eat."
Tang Wulin countered.
"Then earn more. Who stopped you. The Dining Hall will be opened till 9 pm in the night. You have a lot of time till then."
Fan Lin pressed forward.
"I can't spend the rest of my day forging just so that I can eat. You must have known already but the first years studies are really hard. By the way, I didn't know you joined Shrek as well, where were you sitting?"
Tang Wulin asked while thinking that Fan Lin was a first grade student. He and Fan Lin were of the same age and possessed the same Blue Silver Grass martial soul.
Wulin knew how low his cultivation speed was, adding to the fact that they were late to take the exams the previous day, he thought they might have missed him.
His class also had nearly 100 students and it hadn't been long before Tang Wulin started to attend his classes and became the Class representative and Blacksmiths representative.
Just a mere few days have passed.
So it wasn't completely impossible that Wulin might have missed Fan Lin in the crowd of nearly hundred students.
Fan Lin also didn't like to associate with others but could easily blend with the group when trying to find him.
"Don't wanna." [Fan Lin.]
"Huh?" [Tang Wulin]
"I don't want to tell you where I am sitting." [Fan Lin]
"And if you are really that hungry, I can give you a loan, just forge me a few pieces of metals when I need it." [Fan Lin]
"Really! But I eat a lot... I think I will work instead." [Tang Wulin]
Tang Wulin said after some thinking. Even though his relationship with Fan Lin was bad, he still had some fond and foolish memories with him and he knew his stomach, he didn't want to take advantage of him, more so when he knew that Fan Lin was an orphan.
"I never said I am doing charity. I said forge some pieces of metals when I need them. I will take them as the repayment."
Fan Lin said while calmly looking at Wulin.
"But even then... how much do you even have? I will take a loan for a day's amount of food and do some forging task in my free time today. That should be enough to pay for my meal tomorrow."
"More than hundred thousand contribution points. I exchanged actual money for contribution points since everything in here requires that only." [Fan Lin]
Fan Lin flatly replied while looking at the leader of the Anti Lin group coming towards the Dining Hall.
"Ohh- wait a second, how much did you say? Hundred thousand contribution points? Through exchange? Weren't you an orphan? And poor?"
Tang Wulin exclaimed, loudly at that, now nearly half the cafeteria was looking at their direction.
"Sorry, sorry."
Tang Wulin immediately apologized towards the others for the commotion and asked in a low voice.
"Weren't you poor?" [Tang Wulin]
"I opened a shop to sell some herbal supplements. It somehow made me quiet a lot." [Fan Lin]
"Ohh, but then... I don't take the money as you might need it more than me. You know our Martial Soul already, you must have felt the speed decrease of the cultivation as you progressed. Shrek Academy has everything, use those contribution points to buy a panacea to upgrade your Martial Soul or something." [Tang Wulin]
Tang Wulin said after some thinking. He had the Golden Dragon Bloodline as his hidden card and that made the limitations of his Martial Soul drop by a lot. Fan Lin didn't have anything except the Blue Silver Grass.
"Already did that, also brought everything that I need. Now the only thing I want are capable Craftsmen and Blacksmiths. You are one. Just treat it as an investment. What you will provide me will be worth it. Now want the loan."
Fan Lin talked like his elementary school years after a long time. It wasn't that he had trouble forming sentences at that time. He just wanted to limit the time of his talks with others as much as he could.
Because in his elementary school years, his orphan status was a topic that literally anyone who got to know him talked about.
Also he liked to talk like that. It was easy but only people in his previous group and his former comrades heard him talk like this.
He can and did talk normally. It's just Wulin needed some emotional blackmailing to stop thinking about the situation rationally.
Fan Lin needed the best Blacksmith that he could find to forge his Battle Armor pieces and who better than the protagonist at his job.
Plus the Tang Wulin in front of him still haven't matured that much nd Fan Lin just needed to take a promise from Wulin. He knew that Wulin will keep it.
Fan Lin had already two pieces of the Three Word Battle Armor but since it will obviously take a lot of time, Fan Lin had decided to move on and get the Four Word Battle Armor directly.
What he wanted from Wulin weren't mere Soul refined alloys, it was something much much better. It was the final refinement and took the lifespan of the Blacksmiths when refining it.
'Wulin would somehow survive the backlash with his protagonist luck. No worries.'
Fan Lin looked at the young and shiny Tang Wulin who was contemplating. He looked at the Dining Hall.
'To end all, I need to endure for a few more years.'
"Allow him to eat whatever he wants. Put it on my tab."
He loudly said to the Dining Hall staff while showing Tang Wulin's face and they nodded.
"Done. Don't forget, forge some pieces of metals for me. I will tell you the time."
Fan Lin left Dining Hall after saying this.
Leaving a blank and speechless Wulin and the nearby crowd who were watching the situation.
Yuanen Yehui walked closer to Wulin and saw the sign and looked at Wulin.
Wulin also saw him and remembered the gorilla that beat Xie Xie.
"Is it true?"
Yuanen Yehui asked him.
"I can forge it but the offer has ended. Sorry."
Tang Wulin apologized and put the sign back in his storage ring.
Yuanen Yehui thought for a moment and after some inquiry on Tang Wulin's forging rate of first rate thousand refinements and cost and timings. He chose to hire him. Yuanen knew about Tang Wulin being a grade 1 student. He confirmed that Fan Lin must have hired him as well.
The sign read that Tang Wulin would thousand refine for a year's worth of food. Fan Lin just announced the Dining Hall to put Wulin's bill on Fan Lin's tab.
Doesn't that mean that Fan Lin had taken Wulin on his offer.
Yuanen Yehui went ahead and ate his food while Tang Wulin returned to group.
"Should I?"
He asked his group. They all looked at him and Xie Xie couldn't help but say.
"Wasn't captain someone who didn't know shame and tact when it came to free food? What happened?"
Tang Wulin looked at his friends with blank eyes and after some chatting and discussion, he took just 30 plates of food.
He wasn't full but he didn't want to bankrupt Fan Lin and the food was really filling.
'I should be able to toll by tomorrow. I should take some more forging tasks to help the burden on my finances.'
....