The Legend of the Dragon King

“Yeah, I saw her.” Tang Wulin nodded. “Xie Xie, I really have to thank you for what you did. How about we go out for a moment and you explain what happened? We’re good brothers, aren’t we? There shouldn’t be any misunderstandings between us.”

Upon hearing Tang Wulin’s words, Xie Xie sighed in relief. He shot up from his bed and followed Tang Wulin outside.

Just beyond the curtain dividing the room, Xu Xiaoyan stared at the door in confusion. “What happened today? They’re all acting so strange.”

After closing the door behind them, Tang Wulin headed for a secluded location with Xie Xie in tow.

“Captain, it’s good that we’re getting this matter out in the open,” Xie Xie said as they walked. “It’s easy to get confused at our age, and Yue Zhengyu isn’t a good guy either. If it weren’t for him, would the misunderstanding between Yuanen and I have occurred? Well, don’t worry! I won’t tell anyone your secret. Actually, I have nothing against you for having that kind of preference, but I still think girls are the best. So, what did you want to tell me?”

“Yeah, sure.” Tang Wulin replied. “That makes sense.”

They soon turned a bend, arriving in the forest that separated the working student dormitory and Spirit Ice Plaza.

Xie Xie wore a carefree smile as he walked over to Tang Wulin and patted him on the shoulder. “You really scared me though! So what happened between you and Yue Zhengyu today? I happened to catch a glimpse of you two while I ran some errands, otherwise I’d still be in the dark…”

Tang Wulin smiled in response, but it didn’t quite show in his eyes.

“C-captain, what are you doing?” A shiver ran down Xie Xie’s spine, and he stumbled backward. Fear and suspicion began creeping into his heart. “Hey! Didn’t you say you were going to explain things to me?”

Tang Wulin cracked his knuckles. “Explain things your ass!”

“Ah! No! Captain, please! Have mercy!”

Miserable screams pierced the serenity of night’s embrace.

☀

Back at the dorm, Gu Yue entered her room and flopped onto her bed. She thrust her face, still flushed crimson, into her blankets.

“Big Sis Gu Yue, you’re finally finished? What is it that all of you are hiding?” Xu Xiaoyan asked, pouting. “I thought we were friends!”

Gu Yue glanced at her. “If you don’t know… that’s probably for the best. Where’s Xie Xie?”

“Captain came back and took him outside to talk. He said he had to explain something to Xie Xie… to clear up some sort of misunderstanding? What’s that all about?” Xu Xiaoyan asked curiously.

After a moment of hesitation, Gu Yue went over to Xu Xiaoyan and whispered into her ear.

The longer Xu Xiaoyan listened, the wider her eyes opened. They eventually got to the point where they were almost popping out of their sockets. “N-no way! Xie Xie’s just talking out of his ass! I bet he’s feeling miserable right about now.”

Gu Yue nodded. “No, not just miserable. He probably regrets being alive at all!”

Half an hour later, Tang Wulin walked in with Xie Xie slung over his shoulder. He threw Xie Xie onto his bed, snorted, then climbed into his own.

Silence reigned on the other side of the curtain.

Xie Xie’s face twitched with pain as he lay on his bed. No bruises or wounds could be seen on his body, but his convulsing limbs betrayed his suffering.

Then, without warning, Gu Yue’s voice cut through the air.

“Xie Xie… don’t you need to explain things to me as well?”

The ice in Gu Yue’s voice made Xie Xie’s eyes open wide. His entire body began to spasm violently, and terror grasped his heart.

The remainder of the evening passed quietly. The usual chirping of crickets couldn’t be heard. Instead, a constant slap of fist against flesh softly resounded in its place, the calming rhythm lasting well into the night.

☀

Early the next morning, Gu Yue returned to the dorm just as Tang Wulin and Xu Xiaoyan finished practicing with their Purple Demon Eyes. Her entire being seemed refreshed and free of all pent up stress. She walked over to Tang Wulin and Xu Xiaoyan. “Wulin, I made a few inquiries at the Spirit Pagoda for Xiaoyan and discovered that students at Shrek Academy can get spirit souls by means other than purchasing them. There’s even a way to get higher quality spirit souls. Considering Xiaoyan’s situation, she absolutely has to get a thousand-year spirit soul, but such a spirit soul would cost an astronomically high price and it isn’t even guaranteed that she’ll get one that’s suitable. There’s another method to get spirit souls at the Spirit Pagoda, but it’s much more difficult than simply gathering funds.”

“Oh? What method is that?” Tang Wulin asked.

Xu Xiaoyan, on the other hand, stared at the two of them with a strange look on her face. The way they acted, pretending as if the song of pain from last night hadn’t been sung, clearly surprised her.

“The tower attack,” Gu Yue answered. “The Spirit Pagoda has it set up so that it’s possible to get a thousand-year spirit soul from the tower attack. They built a spirit soul tower with 108 floors and different defense mechanisms on each one. If we conquer a floor, we’ll get the opportunity to purchase the spirit soul found on that floor at a fifty percent discount.

“There are only two types of people who can do the tower attack: members of the Spirit Pagoda or prodigies that the Spirit Pagoda has bestowed its approval upon. I can help Xiaoyan with getting approved, but I can’t help her clear the tower myself.

“Since different soul masters need different kinds of spirit souls, and also taking support-type soul masters into account, the Spirit Pagoda allows the tower attack to be done in teams of up to seven people. As a result, the difficulty is also tailored to fit a seven-man team. The first eighteen floors are filled with thousand-year spirit souls, but the strength of those souls increases with every floor. The Spirit Pagoda has populated each floor from the eighteenth to the thirty-sixth with ten-thousand year spirit souls that it has collected over the years. Hundred-thousand-year spirit souls can be found from the thirty-sixth floor onward, and the final nine floors supposedly contain the spirit souls of the strongest soul beasts to ever exist.

“The Spirit Pagoda only allows soul masters aged thirty or under to participate in the tower attack, so even a member of the Spirit Pagoda like me won’t be able to enter the tower to get spirit souls once they pass the age of thirty. From then on, we’ll have to buy them. I heard that Shrek Academy also has a way to grant spirit souls, but that privilege is reserved for those in the inner court. Right now, our best bet is to gather some people to help Xiaoyan clear the tower. It’ll be a learning experience for us as well. What do you think?”

“No problem!” Tang Wulin replied instantly. “Of course I’ll help.”

“Ugh. How come I never knew about something as great as that until now…” a voice groaned from the side of the room, and a person walked over.

It was Xie Xie, but his face was so bloody and swollen that, if the others hadn’t known him for years, they wouldn’t have been able to recognize him. Tang Wulin had shown him some mercy by avoiding his face when he beat him, but Gu Yue hadn’t been nearly as kind.

Gu Yue glanced at Xie Xie. “I only found out after coming here. The tower attack is only available here at the headquarters of the Spirit Pagoda, and no other spirit soul tower exists on the continent. Even the Spirit Pagoda’s staff members need to undergo strict audits before they can be approved for entry.”

Tang Wulin turned to Xu Xiaoyan. “It’s settled then. When do you want to go?”

“The audits will take several days, so I think our next day off should work,” Gu Yue interjected. “We still need to prepare and find three more people. If we want to get as far up the tower as we can, we’ll need a full team of seven. Wulin, I’ll let you handle the search for more team members. I’m sure you’ll find the best people to join us.”

“Alright, I’ll go think about who to invite. Are there any specific requirements for our teammates?”

“Yeah. The ages of everyone on the team have to fall within a range of three years.”

Tang Wulin furrowed his brow. The first person to pop into his mind was Wu Zhangkong. He knew for a fact that their teacher had yet to turn thirty. If they could bring him, then the first eighteen floors would pose no problem. However, it was clear that the Spirit Pagoda has foreseen such situations and created rules to prevent people from gaming the system.

“Then we can only invite people from our grade or the second grade.”

“How about Yuanen Yehui?” Xie Xie flubbed with his swollen face. Tang Wulin looked him in the eye. She’d be a pretty good choice, but… considering how rocky our relationship is at the moment, would she agree to come?