The Legend of the Dragon King

“Tell me about your thoughts on your experiences in the spirit ascension platform yesterday.” Wu Zhangkong stood at the lectern and unenthusiastically told his five students.

Wang Jinxi’s and Zhang Yangzi’s eyes were puffy and dark. Clearly, they hadn’t had a good night’s rest. The difference, though, was that Zhang Yangzi’s restless night was due to depression, while Wang Jinxi’s was caused by nightmares. Wang Jinxi simply couldn’t forget the chill the Man-Faced Demon Spider instilled in him. That chill had reached to the depths of his very soul. He had felt like he was truly about to die at that moment. It was a terrifying feeling that was permanently etched into his heart.

Xie Xie’s complexion wasn’t too healthy either. After fighting a bloody battle yesterday and receiving countless injuries, his nightmares were filled with wolves throwing themselves upon him, one after another It had been impossible for him to meditate calmly and recover properly under such circumstances. In fact, he had tumbled onto the ground midway through the night, waking him from his nightmare.

Contrary to the others, Gu Yue was just the same as usual.

Tang Wulin was the only one in high spirits. After all, how could he not rejoice after his spirit soul evolved?

“We’ll go in order of yesterday’s eliminations. Zhang Yangzi, you first!” Seeing that no one wanted to be the first to speak, Wu Zhangkong singled out Zhang Yangzi by name.

“Yes!” Zhang Yangzi responded in embarrassment and quickly stood up. “My performance yesterday was simply horrible. Teacher Wu, I was wrong.”

Wu Zhangkong rebuked him with a wave of his hand. “I don’t need you to tell me you were wrong, it’s your own life after all. What you can do, however, is use this chance to acknowledge your errors and improve yourself. If you had really been in a soul beast forest yesterday, then all that would have remained of you would be a corpse. In fact, your skeleton might also have been destroyed. So tell me then, what do you think of your experience and of yourself in the spirit ascension platform yesterday?”

Zhang Yangzi’s face twitched awkwardly. “The world of the spirit ascension platform is too realistic. I couldn’t feel anything unauthentic about it at all! I was really curious about the world when I first entered, so I climbed up a tree to survey my surroundings. With my martial soul’s ability to glide, I thought I would be able to fly in any direction I wanted, so I did.

“In the beginning, I didn’t do anything wrong. My mistake was underestimating my opponent afterward. I was arrogant and didn’t carefully observe my surroundings when I chose to impulsively battle it. In the end, I was besieged on all sides and was quickly eliminated.

“The next time I enter the spirit ascension platform, I will be far more careful and place preserving my life as the number one priority. That way, I’ll be able to survive even longer.”

Finished with his summary, Zhang Yangzi sat back down.

Without any words of criticism or praise for Zhang Yangzi’s assessment of himself, Wu Zhangkong simply moved on to Wang Jinxi. “How about you?”

Wang Jinxi forced out a bitter laugh. “Teacher Wu, right now I can’t really remember too much about what happened in there, the only thing I remember vividly is that face falling on me from above and the soul freezing chill that followed it. The way it trapped me still gives me nightmares. I’m not even sure how I should react if I were to face it again in the future.”

Wu Zhangkong calmly spoke. “You need to relax your mind and take several days to recover. Your situation is actually a bit special. The Man-Faced Demon Spider is an extremely rare and powerful soul beast. Even at the hundred-year level, it’s able to hunt thousand-year soul beasts. Although there’s no shame in dying to it, you must remember to immediately press the exit button the moment you encounter such a powerful soul beast next time. You actually faced some danger to your real self when it killed you this time.”

Teacher Wu is consoling someone? No way!

“Thank you, teacher.”

Wu Zhangkong then turned to Gu Yue.

Gu Yue was prepared and quickly gave her analysis. “The spirit ascension platform is an exceedingly realistic world and I felt that I was truly in an ancient forest during my stay there. I really like it in there. It’s great. Battles with soul beasts are really realistic, I can’t see a single difference from real combat.”

“Is that it?” Wu Zhangkong made a slight frown when he saw Gu Yue sitting down so quickly.

Gu Yue nodded.

Wu Zhangkong prodded her on. “Then explain to me, how were you able to find Tang Wulin?’

Gu Yue was stunned. “It was just by chance.”

“Chance?” Wu Zhangkong’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Xie Xie running into Tang Wulin can be considered chance since they weren’t too far from each other in the beginning and Xie Xie had only encountered Tang Wulin after running around chaotically. But you, you were quite far from Tang Wulin, yet as soon as you encountered the Crystal Bear, you immediately chose a direction to flee in; and this was precisely in the direction of Tang Wulin. Furthermore, the direction you fled would continuously adjust for Tang Wulin’s position when he moved elsewhere. How could you have encountered him by chance? It’s simply impossible to be that lucky.”

Gu Yue remained silent while Tang Wulin looked at her in shock. How was she able to pinpoint my position?

Tang Wulin didn’t have a complete understanding of all the events that had happened yesterday. All he knew was that Xie Xie had fought a bloody battle against a pack of wolves for him. As for Gu Yue, he had no idea how or why she left.

“I’ll admit it. I have a way of tracking him by controlling the elements. I can place a marker on the bodies of my comrades by manipulating the elements. This marker let’s me find them easily. I thought that being with Tang Wulin would be the safest decision, so I prioritized finding him first.” Gu Yue finally gave a seemingly far-fetched explanation.

“I see.” Wu Zhangkong didn’t pry too deeply and simply moved on to Xie Xie. “It’s your turn.”

Xie Xie began going over his experience. “I really like it in there too. The feeling of hunting soul beasts in the forest is so invigorating. That sort of forest environment is really suitable for us Agility System Soul Masters, and my ability to survive increases with the improvement of my speed. My final battle against those Green Wolves felt amazing too. I had to carefully avoid any fatal injuries while fighting a battle of attrition. I learned the theory of such battles before, but that was the first time I had actually experienced the bitterness of such a bloody fight. I gained a lot of combat experience this time, and I learned the importance of avoiding injuries to vital parts.”

The very last person to go was Tang Wulin.

Tang Wulin muttered a few words under his breath, before he began voicing his thoughts. “We were actually really lucky to be able to kill a thousand-year Crystal Bear this time. If we made even the slightest mistake, we would have died. Although I knew that the forest is virtual, it was so realistic that I was no longer able to differentiate it from reality. I subconsciously began treating everything like it were real. Especially the injuries; I could feel all the pains and aches of the injuries I had sustained in there.

The sensation of battling with an actual soul beast is also very helpful to improving my combat abilities. I think that if we could continue to cultivate in such an environment, we will be able to become true Soul Masters. Furthermore, I feel that we need to strengthen our cooperation as a team, so that we’ll be able to face even stronger soul beasts in the future.”

Wu Zhangkong nodded in approval after hearing their evaluations.

“If I were to score your performances in the spirit ascension platform this time, then: Zhang Yangzi, 0 points. Wang Jinxi, 1 point. Gu Yue, 5 points. Xie Xie, 5 points. And Tang Wulin, 4 points.”

Zhang Yangzi and Wang Jinxi expected that they would receive low scores, but when they all heard Tang Wulin’s score, they were shocked. If Tang Wulin hadn’t killed the hundred-year Horned Dragon and thousand-year Crystal Bear, then Xie Xie and Gu Yue would have died far earlier!

“Tang Wulin, do you know why you scored less than Xie Xie and Gu Yue?” Wu Zhangkong’s burning gaze locked onto Tang Wulin.

Tang Wulin lowered his head and pondered over it. Although he had also been stunned when he heard his score since he thought he’d done the best, Wu Zhangkong challenged him to come up with the reasoning, so he began to consider it seriously. As he continued to mull over the events of the day before, Tang Wulin gradually understood Wu Zhangkong’s reasoning.

“Gu Yue’s score is higher than mine because of the coordination in our joint attack. It was only because of her excellent control over the elements that we were successful in killing the Crystal Bear. Xie Xie’s score is higher because he risked his life to defend me from the pack of wolves.”

Wu Zhangkong corrected him. “That’s not all of it. If Gu Yue hadn’t sacrificed herself to catch you when you were crystallized, you would have shattered into pieces. Although you wouldn’t have died in reality, you would have suffered from residual effects like Wang Jinxi and experience some dangers. If we count the minor details, then Gu Yue would actually have the highest score out of all of you.

“As for Xie Xie, his score isn’t higher than yours because he saved you, but because of his greater knowledge of soul beasts. You were deducted points because you were crystallized after killing the Crystal Bear. If you had studied more and had known the traits and features of a Crystal Bear, then you would have known that its soul power explodes when it is on the verge of death, crystallizing everything in a certain radius. You would also have known that the stronger the Crystal Bear, the greater the radius of its soul power explosion. Clearly, however, you were lacking in such knowledge.”