A Visitor from the Past (Part 2).

"Oh, and he is saying something about Hu Liena... like he is her brother and you killed her. Is it true?" - added Oscar. Aiden looked straight at him. Something unknown was burning deeper inside his gaze.

"Hu Liena?" - Aiden asked to clarify things. He thought, he won't be able to control himself. He thought he will feel pain or go out and kill the idiot boy at the very moment, but he didn't.

What he felt is cold, controlled rage.

"Woa... wait... your voice is rather... bro Aiden, clam down." - Oscar stepped back. - "Killing like that is not a good idea."

"You are overreacting." - said Aiden.

"R-Really? Look around you..."

And so he did and was surprised for a moment. His aura was raging all over the place. The whole yard darkened because of pressure and the chaotic domain unfolded itself, making everything tremble.

"B-Bro... you... your domain is... it's suffocating me." - Oscar said with difficulty and stumbled to the side. He leaned on the wall and slid down weakly.

Aiden calmed down a little and controlled his power.

"Sorry. Come, stand up. I lost it for a second."

"But... who is Hu Liena?"

"Na'er."

"What?" - Oscar stared at him, flabbergasted. He heard that name many times and knew a couple of things, but it was his first time knowing her full name. And as far as he knew, the story was not how that man shouted. - "Let's go. Let's beat him up! He dares to spout such nonsense!"

"No, Oscar. It is good that you calmed me down. Go, I'll take care of him. Go, Oscar, leave me alone for a while. I need to calm down or I will kill him for sure."

"Oh, well, I'll go to others." - he nodded and left.

"Third. It is rather obvious. He is here to make me show my true fighting capabilities and arts. He is provoking me. The only person who might know her full name is someone from the orphanage or Spirit Beast Clans. It is hardly the latter, I don't think they need it."

"So, you won't fight?" - she asked, but one can see notes of approval in her impersonal voice.

"They are here for me to fight in front of many people. It is fine for Erlong to declare herself as Titled Douluo, but for me revealing my level will lead to no end of troubles. And it will implicate the entire Shrek Academy. Lead him away. To a secluded place in the forest. I will play with him. If he is someone who survived the purge of the orphanage, he is a living lead to the entire case. Most likely there will be someone in his circle connected to Na'er death. I don't need this small fry. What I need is a huge fish worthy of my trouble."

"You want to know who sent him here. But will it be so simple? We can interrogate him, yet it might reveal Dragon Fang." - said Third.

"That is why we will do it in a way he won't understand." - Aiden didn't smile. His face was as cold as ice. - "Tell me, Third, what do you do with traitors? With spies?"

"Kill them." - she said without thinking.

"Really? Just that?" - Aiden smirked. - "When you expose one as a spy, you don't kill them. They are more valuable alive. When a spy is exposed, it means a leash is already around his or her neck. You feed them with disinformation, watch their every movement to trace connections. You tighten that leash and finally when a spy realized that he was doing as you planned, it's game over. I need him alive, but to keep our own secrets we need to expel him. Let's go. Erlong will like the show."

Third moved ahead to find the strange guy, while Aiden and Erlong went to a secluded location in the forest and the former set to meditate in silence on a high elevation. Trees in Soul Land are really enormous. What he was about to do required his entire concentration.

Several minutes later a young man appeared in the meadow. His rings were already exposed, his aura all over the place. It was clear that he lost his cool at this point.

It was better than Aiden expected. This will be easier.

"There he is. Do what you want, but don't kill him yourself, or Vice Headmaster will kill you. You can't escape Titled Douluo." - said Third coldly.

"Why are you helping me?" - asked the youth.

"I have my own reasons for that. Take it or leave it. What, afraid of him?" - she answered in a bored tone.

That provoked the young man immensely. Afraid? He was never afraid of anyone! And he is better than that useless guy, who took everything from him that year. Hu Liena was his. They were always together until he arrived.

But he got another chance. He was chosen for a higher purpose.

"So, you are that strongest piece of shit? You are just a frog in the well. You have no idea about the real sky there. Haha, what is with that look? Surprised? Scared?" - the young man unleashed a very rare martial soul. It was in a shape of double blades with a strange moon-like shape, that exuded raw destructive power.

Aiden in front of him frowned and stood up.

"Scared? Not one bit. Are you here to fight?"

"Fight? Oh no. That won't be a fight. I can't kill you, but I will cripple you for life. You will be a waste and die in a gutter you belong to for killing her. I, Xie Yue, never forgot what you did to my sister Liena, you scum." - he didn't talk more, attacking with his strongest skills right from the start. All four rings in his arsenal were demonic, two yellow, two purple.

The guy in front of him was like others. He was easily overwhelmed and pummeled to the ground. He couldn't withstand even a minute.

"Hahaha... that's it? That is all you can do? How pathetic. You didn't even reach my cultivation level, and I am one step away from being spirit king. You? Three rings of standard composition? Scum, lowlife, weakling!" - he cursed with derisive laughter. He felt great, in fact, he never felt so great. Normally, Xie Yue was a collected and determined person, but since drinking Ambrosia he changed a little by little through time, yet he never noticed it himself.

An enemy in front of him was weakly lying on the ground while coughing blood.

He raised his blade and used its end to pierce straight through the dantian of Aiden, who screamed in pain.

"You... you... how dare you to cripple me!" - he screamed.

Immediately a tremendous pressure descended on the ground, making Xie Yue freeze in place. His all bravado went away and an inherent sense of fear before the strong took over.

Erlong appeared out of thin air.

"Where do you think you are?" - she raged. - "This is Shrek Academy! Private fights are forbidden here!"

"I-It was an accident..." - Xie Yue said weakly but was implanted into the ground by sheer pressure of her presence. He coughed blood, hearing his bones creak.

Erlong kicked him in the gut and sent him flying out of the meadow and further away. It was a very hard blow that broke several of his bones and caused tremendous harm to his martial spirit. It nearly broke! Yet it didn't and he preserved his cultivation base. Still, it will take months to recover.

"Hmph, by the rules of the academy you are expelled! Get out of my sight this instant!" - he heard the enraged voice and breathed out in relief. He survived and wasn't even crippled! Yet, he destroyed his enemy and avenged Hu Liena.

Xie Yue barely could stand up. By some lucky chance, his legs didn't suffer much.

He left the grounds of the academy under mocking gazes of people, but again, he didn't care. He never noticed a figure of a man with a roman number seven on his mask trailing him.

Back in the meadow, Aiden, that was lying on the ground, turned to mist and evaporated.

"So. How was it?" - Erlong looked up at the young man, who was meditating there and never moved from the place.

"I got what I need." - came a voice that can freeze the world.

"Don't do anything stupid."

"I'm not that reckless. But I now know one target. He is a difficult one to take down." - Aiden stood up and descended on the ground near Erlong.

"You think I can't see it? The same you who went of killing spree after her death. Do you think I didn't know where you periodically went away? How many gangs have you slaughtered back then? How many bandit hideouts raided? And you did all that with that same look. Have you forgotten what alias they gave you? Silent Reaper. Sound right. I don't want that Aiden to be back. You were just like me..."

"You really like to nag..." - Aiden sighed and smiled slightly. - "Aunt Erlong, rest assured, I know what to do and how to act."

"You better not be deceiving me." - she said strictly.

"For now, I plan to train." - he said simply and they walked out of the secluded valley.

Aiden got back to his room after a brief walk with Erlong. He was calm again.

"Third. I got a name." - he said while staring at the window. She appeared, as usual, seamless, and from the darkest part of the room.

"Soul search technique performed from a distance? How did you do that? Ah, perhaps with the usage of your senses from the fifth ring. In that case, it might be possible."

"He was so emotional and focused on my illusion that his mind was completely unguarded. He didn't even notice my intrusion. Anyway. I need to know his weakness. He is a Titled Douluo, Ci Xue." - said Aiden neither admitting nor denying her claim.

He saw an aura of that man in Xie Yue memories. He met that Titled Douluo in the orphanage. Ci Xue and several others were the ones who backed up the entire operation back then. And the aura of Ci Xue was exactly the same as the one from Tang Hao memories.

'I really am lucky

He remembered one troubling thing about a man. His beast martial spirit made Ci Xue immune to nearly every poison.

If he wants to harm Titled Douluo of 96 rank or even kill him, going head-on is not an option. He needs to catch the man unaware. And the best chance is poison. Actually, his immunity to them might make the man arrogant and careless enough not to care to check if something around him was poisoned or not.

= I have a way to create a special inhibitor that will let poison bypass his immunity. So poisoning him is an act of two steps. First, my inhibitor, then the actual poison. The latter should be strong enough to work on Titled Douluo.

'You are as helpful as always.'

= Yet you still didn't look through my genius work on dual cultivation arts.

'You sound like a pouting girl.'

=No, I'm not!

'Even more so now.'

= I'm not talking to you anymore, hmph.

'How much time do you need to create the drug?'

= A second? How much time do you need to synthesize it with your Krondan? It is easy to create. Materials are present. But the poison to harm him is another matter. Even with inhibitor, he will have high resistance to poisons. You need something deadly.

'Looks like I will need some help. I'm not knowledgeable in poisons at all.'

Aiden was deep in thought only for a moment, and soon a voice of a woman dragged him back to reality.

"Titled Douluo is a hard target. His power is too strong. Even if you know his weakness you can't exploit it."

"Third, I'm talking about a different kind of weakness. The one that every human has. I need the weakness of his personality."