Chapter 120: Soul Land 1 (part 1)
Word count = 1842 on 11/30/2023 (one paragraph is a bit messy but i explain in author notes)
Xue Tie pales greatly at the fact that Bibi Dong has ascended at some point and likely had to find out from others that he was still alive.
"Ugh, Bibi Hi. How are you doing? Guessing you didn't visit Du Lie at all?"
What happens next is a memory that Xue Tie 'killed but others know about the screams of rage mixed with screams of terror. Kindness and the Goddess of Life both pray for Xue Tie while Asura, Hui Mie and Poseidon laugh at his expense once they learn of this.
Many hours later and some very passionate love making, Xue Tie and Bibi Dong are together in bed. Xue Tie is spooning Bibi Dong with his hand on her belly. His mind is still in wanderlust at the revelation that he will be a father.
It seems that the last few nights before his final ascension, he had finally succeeded in impregnating her. He learns that She had already been pregnant for 4 months as it seems he was asleep for the equivalent of 2 mortal months working in dreamland. They are both unsure of whether or not her ascension to divinity would affect the pregnancy negatively. As such, they had visited the goddess of life just to be safe and they were informed that the pregnancy was likely elongated due to the child's life force also gradually being elevated to godhood as well. Xue Tie turns a bit squeamish as he realizes that Bibi Dong will have a lot of morning sickness due to this and he will have to suffer a lot because of it but he accepts such a reality as repentance for his sins.
The news spread out throughout the divine world about a potential godling child in the future. Their enthusiasm is not broken down by the fact that it's Xue Tie's child or that it was originally conceived as mortals. This is due to the fact that such children typically have tons of potential and if they inherited any lower level godhead, it has a chance of being elevated higher. A fire god could be remade into Inferno or branch out into lava if they received the blessing of the earth god or had somehow figured out how to merge the two godheads' properties.
The child of the new Reaper/Rakshasa Goddess and Death god. Many feel that darkness, weapons like trident or scythes or fire affinities are the highest likelihood of being inherited by the child. After a quick look, it is realized that the Darkness godhead has lain unclaimed since the ancient era.
As for the original Rakshasa goddess, she left. She actually outright left the divine realm after passing on her title and godhead. Her power wasn't really reduced but she went out to explore the void of space. Many gods tend to do this once they find a worthy successor. The most notable example would be in the future of SL3, Hui Mie planned to do this after passing on his title to Tang Wulin.
The two lovers return to their home once more and simply live a simple life…for now at least.
As for the Douluo Continent, it has started rapidly changing. Tang San was raised as a simple village boy away from the Tang Clan due to the awkwardness between Ah Yin and the human clans. Tang hao regularly came by when he could to spend time with his family.
As such, Tang San was given the loving family he always desired in his past life. It makes him cherish it so much more. Ah Yin realized early on that her child was special and had the spirit grass around their home during their early years. He was able to learn the Tang Sect techniques like usual and while still bound by the spirit power requirements, his progress was smoother and thus he became more confident as a child compared to his old life. At the age of 7, he awakened the silver grass and the Clear Sky hammer. Both parents cheered but still told him to hide the hammer and explained a simple plan for how to choose spirit rings. The procedure was done by the Blood Hall which is considered the holy land of spirit masters for the Empyrean Empire.
The two parents sent Tang San off to a nearby school as a work student. A situation that only arose due to Tang hao wanting to build up his son's character and subsequently was punished by sleeping on the couch by his angry wife who wants to pamper her child. But before Tang San went out, Ah Yin helped him get his first spirit ring which was a 500 year old snake beast (bit higher than original due to extra natural energy provided to him by Ah Yin).
There Tang San got to meet a young pink girl (A/N: I shall explain later what happened), who he befriended and got close to as they spent the next 5 years at this low level academy, With his increased potential, he was able to maintain his 'senior brother' status in the dorms which quite annoyed the young girl named Xiao Wu. Together they were fighting Seniors, cultivating and occasionally visiting his family, he was urged to learn blacksmithing which he inherited from Tang hao. Xiao Wu got to meet with Ah Yin and they exchanged their stories.
It seems that to allow Spirit Hall to climb to new heights, The elder hall which is the only nominal force remaining as they essentially control it now since the previous pope spontaneously died. To regain their honor, The elders accompanied the new pope during his spirit ring hunts. As such, they forced Xiao Wu's mother to 'sacrifice' herself in exchange for her daughter's safety as they only needed one ring. Otherwise they would have killed them both. Xiao Wu ran away and ran into one of the spirit beast kings who was blessed by Xue Tie and had even visited Empyrean some time ago. It told Xiao Wu how the discrimination factor is much lesser there and since Xiao Wu had already turned human by this point due to her irrational grief. She was recommended to join the school there. She had met up with Hong Zu whilst traveling to Empyrean, she was technically adopted and referred to the school there which is where Xiao Wu met Tang San who helped her get over her grief. Ah Yin looked teary-eyed after listening to the story and pampered her and gave her blessing to Xiao Wu.
As time moved on so did the duo. With more nurturing, Tang Sans techniques grew much faster. He did not meet the grandmaster (Yu XiaoGang) as they were still in Heaven Dou's Nouding Academy. While he is a laughing stock, his knowledge is still valuable to many, especially the younger folk where he can still fight a bit due to his limited spirit power.
After their time at the academy, they went to Shrek just like the original story, where they met Zhao Wuji who is a bit more humble after being beaten up by Xue Tie years ago. The conditions of the school are much nicer as well compared to the original story. Tang San naturally still possessed the recommendation from Xue Tie long ago. This also applies to Ning RongRong who is a happy little girl, she isn't as haughty as her original self due to the discipline her mother put her through that still sends shivers down her spine. She still has a few Ning clan members following her around just to be sure of her safety even though they were reassured by Xue Tie long ago about the school.
Dai Mubai the prince of Star Luo came here a year or two prior to escape his family since he knows that they hate this empire. This same explanation follows for Zhu ZhuQing, granted she is slightly less stoic due to her desire to emulate the strength of the previous Empyrean Queen, Bibi Dong. A powerful woman who assisted in the formation of a powerful empire that had kicked her relatives' asses during the previous war. While Bibi Herself did not participate, Xue Tie was able to go to war knowing she would be able to maintain it all. Thus making her a proper wifely role model. The extra knowledge of how she had even semi-publicly ascended to godhood was like an arrow through all female hearts. She was seen as virtuous but sad as her lover the emperor was proclaimed dead but she persevered into ascending, knowing that she would be alone for a long time[1].
At least that is the public story which is why they see Bibi Dong as an example of a filial, talented woman. Granted, Zhu Zhuqing almost left Shrek once she found out Dai Mubai was there. He is still fanciful and arrogant with no real difference from his canon self with the exception of a bit of humbleness since he was almost just beaten up by Xiao Wu and Tang San in the hotel just before they arrived at Shrek to Register.
It's only because Tang San was able to reassure her that Zhu Zhuqing stayed which disappointed Dai Mubai since he is still interested in her but hasn't done anything to change himself ... .at least not yet.
Naturally, even with recommendations, all new students still had to go through the trials and Dai Mubai the original proctor for this test was beaten up too quickly and so Zhao Wuji took over to properly challenge them and he did. The fight ended with only Tang San left but he was able to finish the fight with his hidden tools this time around and didn't suffer as much which is more of a blessing for Zhao Wuji than anyone else as he was not beaten up by Tang Hao, nor Ah Yin who are watching over Tang San in secret.
In the end, the Shrek Seven Monsters are still created with Ma Hongjun qnd Oscar as part of the team, as ordained by fate but their temperaments start out better as compared to the originals. Such as RongRong not trying to hire Tang San to kill Dai Mubai or anything like that.
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[1]Sorry yall, I had trouble phrasing how Bibi Dong was considered an inspirational figure during the intro to Zhu Zhuqing part. So I kinda started mumbling random shit. Just know this: Bibi Dong = empress, kept land safe and happy while Xue Tie went to war with Star Luo. She also ascended to godhood even though it was believed that Xue Tie was dead. She continued their shared dream. There was also the wedding crash which exaggerated the tale of love between them. She was referred to here as Goddess Widow (pun intended with spider martial spirits)