"Worse Then I Expected"

Sheng Feilong and the others continued bickering or a while longer before Sheng Feilong spoke up again. "Anyways, I think we should return for now." Looking at the sky, it was already becoming night time. All three of them managed to absorb the remnant energy of some Soul Beasts and get a feeling for how this Spirit Ascension Platform is different.

Moreover, with the night approaching and Yuanen Yehui being injured made it quite dangerous for them to remain in the forest. As always, they had a method to immediately leave the Spirit Ascension Platform, thus it wasn't a problem for them to return.

Huang Jialong and Yuanen Yehui agreed to end the venture there and all three of them exited the Spirit Ascension Platform.

After being caught up in the usual, weird feeling of entering and exiting the platform, they woke up inside the capsules again and slowly stood up. Inside the room, Song Weihan, She Meixiao and a few researchers were already waiting for them. Sheng Feilonga nd the others didn't know of Ye Wanxing coming to take a look as the latter had already left after they defeated the Draconic Forest Tyrant.

Song Weihan waited for them to climb out of the capsules, then spoke to them with a calm expressions. "Well done, all three of you." They lined up in front of She Meixiao and Song Weihan when the latter continued. "Let's return to my office for now. She Meixiao and I want to talk to you for a while."

Sheng Feilong simply nodded his head and followed Song Weihan into the latter's office. After relocating, Song Weihan smiled lightly and looked at Sheng Feilong, Huang Jialong and Yuanen Yehui. "Alright, we're alone now. What do you think about the Spirit Ascension Platform I created?"

Huang Jialong and Yuanen Yehui hesitated for a moment. Although they knew Song Weihan had a relaxed nature, they didn't quite know what to say into the face of a Titled Douluo. Sheng Feilong didn't share their concerns and simply spoke what was on his mind. "It's a bit weird. At first, everything was normal and felt like the regular Spirit Ascension Platform, but it felt different when we started fighting. The Soul Beasts seemed unproportionally aggressive, specially the weaker ones."

"What do you mean?" Song Weihan questioned, his interest peaked now. "Even if they're not as intelligent, they should be able to get the hunch that they're weaker than us and try to avoid us, yet they were aggressive the moment they spotted us. I don't believe that this was simple territorial instincts?"

Song Weihan frowned lightly, thn spoke up after a moment. "It didn't feel that way from watching you. Though the Soul Beasts might be somewhat more aggressive due to the rather large territories; There's currently much less Soul Beasts rummaging around when compared to the original Spirit Ascension Platform. I'll look into the matter. Was there something else?"

"That 10.000-years-old Soul Beast. What in the world was that? I've never seen one like it before." Sheng Feilong questioned with an interested look in his eyes, to which Song Weihan smiled again. "That Soul Beast... was a test for you."

His words caused Sheng Feilong and the others to tense up, staring at Song Weihan, who paused for a moment before continuing. "We've called it the Draconic Forest Tyrant. I placed you near its territory on purpose to see how you would fare against it in battle. It's actually not a real Soul Beast, but one we created from scratch inside the laboratory."

After a few moments, Sheng Feilong swallowed dryly. "Then, how did we fare..?" Song Weihan's smiling expression died down and he frowned slightly. "Worse then I expected you to do." Again, Huang Jialong, Yuanen Yehui and Sheng Feilong flinched, tensing up visibly.

"You took the right choice in stalling for time while Jialong was absorbing the Masked Wolves' remnant energy, yet instead of truly stalling it out, you fought it for real, the two of you even getting injured." Song Weihan spoke in a cold voice, staring at Sheng Feilong and Yuanen Yehui.

"If it wasn't for Jialong timely appearance, you would've probably fared even worse." His gaze wandered over to Huang Jialong, who awaited Song Weihan's assessment with a stoic expression. "Feilong and Jialong, your teamwork was superb; You took the Draconic Forest Tyrant down, utilizing its weakness against the bloodline suppression of Jialong's Hydra Spirit Essence while Feilong suppressed it spiritually."

Huang Jialong and Sheng Feilong heaved a miniscule sigh of relief, both of them glancing at each other and smirking proudly, but Song Weihan's cold voice caused them to freeze once more. "Do you think I am praising you? Why did only the two of you fight? You are a team of three."

The two of them glanced at Yuanen Yehui, who had a complicated expression on her face, while Song Weihan continued in the same tone as before. "Did you refuse to incorporate Yuanen Yehui because she was injured? Because you thought you two could do it on your own?"

His gaze wandered solely on Sheng Feilong, his voice dropping a bit lower. "Did you think she'd be too weak to help after the earlier fight? What were you even doing fighting it on the frontlines, to begin with? You are the leader of this team and you're supposed to lead it as a control type Soul Master; Why are you fighting as an assault type while you have someone who could perfectly close that gap just standing in the back rows?"

Song Weihan paused for a moment after seeing Sheng Feilong not answer, then turned to look at the three of them as a whole. "If you repeat mistakes like these continuously, then don't even think about going to the Great Star Dou Forest in the future." He turned around and sat down on his desk, looking at the three of them just standing there. "You may leave. Rest early; You'll return to the Spirit Ascension Platform tomorrow."

Sheng Feilong and the other two left the room wordlessly, looking a bit lost. Sheng Feilong turned to look at Yuanen Yehui with a conflicted expression. "Yehui, I'm sorry... After you were injured, I didn't want to take any chances. This is my fault." Yuanen Yehui hesitated for a moment, then forced a light smile. "It's alright. Thanks for your consideration..."

They walked back to their respective quarters, heading Song Weihan's advice to rest early. Without talking about it to each other, they each choose to cultivate for a while upon returning to their quarters, then going to bed a few hours later, all with a vague feeling of unease in the pits of their stomachs.

-------------------

After Sheng Feilong and the others left the office, Song Weihan let out a long sigh ad leaned back in his chair. She Meixiao looked at him from the sidelines with a stern look. "Is that what you wanted to test them for?"

"I was being honest." Song Weihan said, looking at her with a tired expression. "I wanted Yuanen Yehui to learn her own place in their team, yet I didn't expect Jialong and Feilong to downright ignore her presence and deal with the threat with only the two of them. It's honestly disappointing."

"Still, you could've thought about it a bit more. An unknown foe with extreme strength, who already injured Yehui. You know well just how overly emotional Feilong reacts when it comes to people close to him." She Meixiao said.

Song Weihan didn't react, but She Meixiao sighed lightly and continued. "If he didn't fully trust in Huang Jialong's strength to be enough to deal with the Draconic Forest Tyrant, he would've probably given the order to flee or possibly taken it on alone."

"I agree. But that's also a problem; Yuanen Yehui and Huang Jialong also know that. Now the question is how Yuanen Yehui will react to that; Feilong indirectly told her that he didn't trust her strength and thought her to be too weak to help in that situation." Song Weihan said after a while, then looked at She Meixiao. "What do you think?"

She Meixiao definitely knew Yuanen Yehui better than Song Weihan, but she also wasn't sure about this. She frowned and looked back at him. "I don't think she'll take it too badly. If anything, it's rouse her to want to become stronger; Strong enough that she'll be able to actively take part in anything that follows."

Song Weihan nodded his head with a light, relieved smile on his face. "That's good then... I think I'll better go easy on them the next few days, huh..."

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Sheng Feilong and the others returned to the Spirit Ascension Platform the very next day, as per song Weihan's instructions. The latter really took it a bit easy on them, sending them to another part of the forest with considerably weaker Soul Beasts and without planting any great tests for them.

After being reprimanded the day before, Sheng Feilong kept to the back rows more, taking place in the battles as a control type Soul Master, leaving the direct confrontations to Huang Jialong and Yuanen Yehui, while supporting them as good as he could. Still, with the weak foes, it became a bit of a routine for Sheng Feilong to stun the foe and either Huang Jialong or Yuanen Yehui finishing it off.

By the end of the day, they had hunted a total of six more Soul Beasts, ranging from ages between 1.000 years to 3.000 years. They took turns absorbing the remnant energy, advancing their respective Spirit Souls by roughly 400-500 years each.

Like this, a few more days passed in the same manner and their teamwork steadily improved. Yet, none of them seemed fully satisfied. In the evening of the fifths day, Sheng Feilong and Huang Jialong returned to their rooms, after being dismissed, while Yuanen Yehui returned to Song Weihan's office again.

She Meixiao and Song Weihan were still inside, seemingly having waited for her as both started to smile lightly. Yuanen Yehui ignored that, staring at the two of them with a determined expression before suddenly bowing deeply. "Seniors, please help me. I want to become stronger."