26 Chapter 26: Leaving to Eastsea City Academy

A couple of weeks passed and there was no word about any clues to Na'er's whereabouts, except for a letter she left for the Tang family that detailed how her family had found her and had come pick her up.

It was afternoon, Xiu Ye had finally graduated and was packing up his stuff in his room and into his storage ring.

His eyes was dull and empty, as if he had lost someone important to him and truthfully, he had.

Na'er was gone, gone from the Tang family, Glorybound City, and from him. She had returned to her 'true' family.

'Yeah right.' Xiu Ye scoffed in his mind, his hand clenching hard, soul power circulated into his hand, making it glow with a blue and red light.

'The only true family that she has are us. Why didn't I stop her? Why didn't I talked to her to stay for a little while longer? Why...' His clenched fist suddenly emitted white smoke, lights of red and blue lit up his hand.

"Why was I such a coward?! I knew that she was going to leave, I remembered it from the story and realized it the moment she started talked about leaving... I could've talked her to stay but..." Tears streamed down his face and to his quivering lips. His clenched hand slowly going limp and his soul power calming down.

"I was too afraid of what kind of bullshit future were to happen at this point of time, the time where Tang Wulin lost his sister and also helped tempered him mentally, were to change. It would have been fine to change such a route, if Na'er wasn't a part of the Silver Dragon King, whose the half part of the freaking Dragon God!" Xiu Ye turned and walked towards his bed to sat at the end, his arms on his knees.

"There are just too many unknown variables, too many dangers, too many–there's just..." He let out a huge deep sigh of frustration. His thoughts sank deep, wondering if his choice was correct in letting her go. All that came out of his mouth, were excuses for his cowardice.

...So much for his promise to her.

Xiu Ye raised his arms up, veins throbbing, soul power coursing through his arms to his hands; orange circuit lines appearing on his arms.

His arms trembled, so desperate to just let out his frustration and self loathing on his surroundings, but no, Na'er wouldn't want him to act like this.

Xiu Ye slowly let his arms down, his eyes closed.

"I have to get it together. I'm a man in a boy's body. I have to control my emotions. This isn't the last time that we'll see each other." He turned to his window and out to the sky. A far away look in his eyes.

"If I remember the story correctly, she should be in Shrek. The number one academy of the entire Douluo continent. That's where she is, and that's where I'm going as well." He had a new goal.

Wiping his tears away, Xiu Ye stood up from his bed, arrange it neatly, and walked towards the door.

Stoping for a moment by the door, he took one last glance at his room, and left.

Walking down the hallway and down towards the first floor, Xiu Ye sees his foster father, Mang Tian, standing below the stairway with crossed arms and blank face.

"So, years passes by and it's time for you to leave the house huh?"

"Yeah..." Xiu Ye mutters out as he descended down the stairs but then he was caught off guard, as Mang Tian big buff arms circled around to hug him.

"I might not be your real father, and I sure as hell ain't a good one either, but I raised you like you were my own son. I don't care what people might say, that I shouldn't have the right to call you my son. I'm an average blacksmith and below average soul master, while you're a natural to both and many more. All I know is, that I have watched you grow up under me for the three years since I've adopted you." Letting go, Mang Tian slapped the shoulders of Xiu Ye and nodded.

"I am proud of you. Now then, off you go and make sure to give me a call every once in a while. Oh and ah, do try to take a break. I can tell, you very much need it." Xiu Ye nodded, eyes slightly wet, and said.

"I will and, thank you, for everything dad." Mang Tian smiled as he watched Xiu Ye walked by him and out of the house.

"No, thank you... son."

Xiu Ye turned to see Tang Wulin, standing in front of him with a rucksack over his left shoulder, a smile on his face but had worry and pain in his eyes.

He was feeling the same as him, he was still concerned about Na'er and was pained for her departure.

Walking towards him, Xiu Ye put a hand on his shoulder.

"Let's go?"

Tang Wulin nodded.

"Yeah, let's go to Eastsea City. But first..." He rummaged into his rucksack for a brief moment and handed Xiu Ye something, it made his eyes widened.

"This is...?"

"It's from Na'er. She left this for you in the letter she gave me, wanted for me to give it you as she didn't have the time to give it to you personally."

Xiu Ye looked down in his hand to gaze on a small silver pendant necklace with similar colored silver cross, which looked more like a sword, that had a seven colored gem embedded on the middle of it.

Seven rays of light could be faintly distinguished as they twinkled within the gem. One look and it was easy to tell that it held considerable value.

However, in Xiu Ye's heart, this gemstone couldn't possibly compensate for Na'er.

'I don't want a necklace.' He gripped the pendant tight. 'I want you.'

Xiu Ye took a moment to process the farewell gift Na'er had given him and immediately wore it.

"Alright, let's go."

....

Eastsea City.

This was the second largest seaside city in the Sun-Moon Federation. Its main feature was its port, which served as a nexus for travelling the seas and exploiting the resources of the ocean.

The city had a population of over three million people. By exploiting the natural resources in the ocean, the city was able to prosper. Even when compared to the rest of the Sun-Moon Federation, it could still be considered a second-tier city.

Eastsea City had a long history and its overall appearance had preserved its original state of a simple and unadorned style. In the last several hundred years, the Sun-Moon Federation had taken extra care to protect some of the more ancient buildings. Thus, many of the millennia old buildings could be found in this ancient city.

Eastsea City soul train station.

A dark blue soul train slowly entered the station and came to a stop.

In Eastsea City, nearly all of the soul trains were blue in color.

After coming to a stop, the train's doors opened up, letting the people onboard off. Many people greeted each other but after a moment, the station returned to its usual hustle and bustle as people headed towards the exit.

Xiu Ye and Tang Wulin both left the soul train, the latter slightly out of it while the former had a contemplated look on his face.

He was thinking, what should he do for the next three years?

In his mind, he could mostly remember about the important events in the story. Right now, he could remember that it'll take about 3-4 years for Tang Wulin and his friends to start to enroll into Shrek Academy.

Xiu Ye is certain that he would be able to join them and enroll into the academy, the problem, however, is how should he be productive during this next few years?

Right now, he doesn't have any problems related to his combat skills, cultivation, and forging. He could, however, work on tempering his physical body and increasing his spirit soul's age. The former would be tricky, as he had no clue on how to temper his body except getting himself beat up or bathing in some of the heaven and earth treasures he had in storage. The problem is that, he wasn't that desperate for a great body and he had no clue in what said treasures could do to affect his body.

"So that leaves increasing my spirit soul's age huh..." Xiu Ye mumbled as he and Tang Wulin followed the stream of people out of the soul station.

Suddenly, the stream of people split into two, giving Xiu Ye and Tang Wulin both a clear look at a polished black soul car that was parked on the platform. The stream of people had split in order to avoid this car.

Although he didn't recognize what type of car this was, Xiu Ye could tell from its exterior that it was absolutely high class. The body of the car was slender and sleek, its four wheels had caterpillar tracks on them. It seems it was an all-terrain vehicle.

Beside the car doors stood two men in black suits who were peering into the crowd.

When Xiu Ye and Tang Wulin neared the car, the two men found their target. One of the men walked in Tang Wulin's direction with large strides and respectfully called out, "Young Master!"

Naturally, this address wasn't directed at Tang Wulin. While he was looked around for this young master, a youth strode out from behind him.

This youth looked to be about the same age from his appearance. He was dressed in blue from head to toe and had short brown hair. When Tang Wulin turned around to look, the youth had already walked past his side, so Tang Wulin was only able to catch a glimpse of the side of his face.

Fair white skin, a straight nose, eyes that were slightly sunken in, long eyelashes that curled up slightly and eyes that were deep green in color.

Right at that moment, Tang Wulin was pushed from the side and stumbled into that young master's shoulder.

Staggering backwards from the collision, the youth caught himself and abruptly turned towards Tang Wulin.

The youth was handsome but Tang Wulin could clearly feel that he had a cold and arrogant temperament. The youths expression soured, but after a glance, he continued walking towards the soul car. His expression wasn't one of indifference to his offender, rather, it was one of disdain.

Xiu Ye narrowed his eyes.

"My apologies!" Suddenly, Tang Wulin stepped forward to hastily apologize.

The man who had stepped forward to greet his young master raised his hand and was about pushed Tang Wulin away, when suddenly, it was grabbed.

Before he could react, the man let out a loud bloody pained scream that made the surrounding people look with wide eyes. He fell down to his knees in pain.

"Hm?" Both the youth and the other man looked back, hearing a sudden disturbance near then, then they widened their eyes in shock.

A nine year old boy, with fair white skin, straight nose, a pair of golden eyes that seem to momentarily turned red, and short slightly red hair. He was handsome for his age, even more than the youth. Right now, he had an expression of cold fury as he was holding onto a large man's hand and easily holding it tight, to the point of making him kneel in pain.

"Hey, what are you doing to him!" The other man quickly reacted, taking big strides to help his colleague. However, as he just took two steps, he felt a powerful pressure unlike anything he has ever felt before being pressed down on him. Making him stop in place, his expression ugly and in pain, and he felt his legs getting weak.

He wanted to release his martial soul, to get out of the strange situation he was in, but he couldn't concentrate enough to circulate his soul power to release his martial soul! He could feel himself feeling extremely exhausted.

...Was it just him, or did it suddenly get hotter all of a sudden?

In fact, where did this strange pressure come from? He's a rank 22 soul grandmaster and worked for the Xie family for a few years now and he hadn't ever such a feeling before. His gaze went towards the red headed kid, who unexpectedly, looked towards him as well. He just knew that this had something to do with him... He saw the kid's eyes lit up momentarily and he felt a sudden stabbing pain in eyes and brain, before he blacked out and fell to the ground, unconscious.

Xiu Ye let go of the man's hand he'd broken, the man whimpered and let out a sob, which is pathetic for an adult to do that. He ignored the big baby's crying and proceeded to punch him, with a reinforced fist, on his forehead, knocking him unconscious to the ground.

Everyone stared in disbelief at the situation in front of them, so strong and quick! A nine year old boy, defeating two old men, within two breathes of time?! Wow!

While Tang Wulin looked on with a raised brow, looking completely unsurprised and calm at the entire situation. It was like an ordinary day for him.

It was at that moment, the youth suddenly made his move.

A 35 centimeter long blade that seemed to be made of crystal yellow appeared in his right hand, simultaneously, a flash of yellow light momentarily covered his mid-section; revealing it to be a hundred year old soul ring. The youth crouched down, looking like he was hugging the ground, and in a blink of an eye he sped forward.

He was fast, so fast that the surrounding audience wasn't able to see how he was able to appear in front of the red headed boy in a moment.

But to Xiu Ye, a boy that has the memories of a two thousand year old death god, and Tang Wulin, a boy who was trained in multiple combat skills under the former, was clearly seeing the youth movements like how they see other people running normally.

'Slow.' They both thought.

Xiu Ye took a single step. He didn't released his martial soul, his spirit soul, not even tracing a small Noble Phantasm to deal with the cold arrogant youth. Instead...

Raising his right arm back with his palm up, Xie Yu backhanded the wrist of the youth's hand, holding his golden dagger, to the side and pushed forward his right palm towards the latter's chest.

Tang Wulin twitched his brow, feeling a sense of nostalgia and déjà vu feeling of fear.

It was like history had repeated.

The youth felt like the world around him had gone into a weird direction, he couldn't control his body nor his soul power, and the next thing he knew, he felt his chest and back hurting, a lot.

"Ugh..."

The youth groaned in pain as he lay immobile on a cracked pavement along with his bodyguards. His mind in a daze, in pain and not quite understanding of what was going on as his martial soul was on the ground near his hand, his wrist feeling numb and painful.

But the youth was lucky compared to them, as the extent of his injuries were only a bruised wrist, chest, back and pride.

"Next time, try to reign in your dogs more. Lest they provoke the wrong person. Wulin, let's go." Xiu Ye said indifferently, walking past the bodies he left broken and bruised on the ground as Tang Wulin obediently followed him, but not before giving them a slight head bow in apology for the former's actions.

Xiu Ye is a good person, someone who's almost never get angry, with a eccentric personality and good demeanor towards to the people around him. Of course, that only extends to people who doesn't pisses him off.

If you don't want to anger him, then don't mess with his family and friends. Or you'll get a sword up your ass with the least punishment.