A long day

Douluo Mainland

Eastsea Academy.

Morning.

Fan Lin woke up three hours later and dashed towards the teacher's area in a hurry.

"I overslept."

As not expected, Wu Zhangkong was waiting for him. Fan Lin stopped near him.

"I was late."

Fan Lin apologized.

"The experience of the Spirit Ascension plane must be rewarding."

Wu Zhangkong icily commented and turned around to get into the cab. Fan Lin followed behind.

The cab soon left in an awkward silence as Fan Lin sat beside Wu Zhangkong who had crossed his arms around his chest while closing his eyes, seemingly completely sealed off from the reality, and in front of him were the students of Class Zero, taking turns gazing at him and Fan Lin.

Fan Lin ignored their gazes as Wu Zhangkong didn't seem to have explained anything about him, neither to the Dean nor the Class Zero.

Everyone was silently waiting for the ride to finish.

"What is your Spirit Power rank?"

Wu Zhangkong said an hour later as the Spirit Pagoda got in sight.

"213 the previous month."

Fan Lin replied while looking at the vehicles passing by.

"En."

Wu Zhangkong became silent after that. The Dean couldn't be silent though when he heard the 200+ Spirit Power on a kid that didn't look more than fifteen years old.

This kid is in the Spirit Connecting Realm

"How much?"

The Dean asked Fan Lin. He wanted to confirm.

"213."

Fan Lin said emotionlessly, he wasn't that close to the Dean because he never saw him in person before and neither did he knew that the man in front of him was the Dean, nor did he want to be close to him as there were not many profits for him. He still didn't know that the man in front of him was the Dean.

"Spirit Power? You mean your Spirit Power is 213?"

The Dean continued, getting excited as he continued. From Fan Lin's uniform he knew that it was a student of his academy and a third year as well.

"Yeah."

Fan Lin replied, still looking outside. The Class Zero still kept silence.

"What's your name?" [Dean]

"Fan Lin." [Fan Lin]

"What year are you in?" [Dean]

"Year 3 Class 3... I took a proper leave to come." [Fan Lin]

"I wasn't asking for that. Don't worry. What's your Martial Soul and cultivation rank?" [Dean]

The Dean continued to ask more and more questions to further know about the kid and to later find the teacher of the Class 3 Year 3 to ask about him.

"We are here. Let's hurry." [Wu Zhangkong]

Wu Zhangkong coolly said as the cab stopped near the Spirit Pagoda, interrupting his conversion with Fan Lin. The Dean didn't know if Wu Zhangkong did it on purpose or it was coincidental.

All of them got out of the cab.

"I will be in the reception." [Fan Lin]

Fan Lin said as he left the group. The others followed behind him because their destination was the same.

<Awkward 😑 >

The Receptionist was once again waiting for him outside the door and took Fan Lin to the private room on the Spirit Soul acquisition floor.

"Our staff will inform Teacher Wu about this area when he wants to come."

She said before Fan Lin could ask something.

'He is the teacher of Class Zero first.'

He calmly nodded.

"Till the time, would you like to know more about the spirit souls?"

She asked him.

'I already know most of the things from the book.'

'But I just read less than 400 chapters and it wasn't a fifth of the book. So should I?'

"Okay." [Fan Lin]

The receptionist began with the starting lines of the spirit souls that he had read.

"Spirit Souls are spirit beasts in an energy form that are used by soul masters as a complement of the soul rings. It can be a animal, plant, tool, material, or elemental spirit. By becoming a spirit soul, spirit beasts only change their form and not their existence by binding their spiritual and life origin to the contracted soul master." [Xing Mo]

"Spirit souls are superior to conventional soul rings because the age or quality of soul rings given by them could be upgraded or evolved. But generally, it could only be done in the Spirit Pagoda's Spirit Ascension Platform. Strong spiritual power and a strong body is necessary to contract higher ranks of spirit souls." [Xing Mo]

"Spirit souls actually place their complete cultivation as spirit rings that take up space on their contracted soul master. As a result, if the spirit soul voluntarily leaves, the contracted soul master permanently loses those rings."

'That I didn't know.' [Fan Lin]

Fan Lin turned to her when she said this. Now this was the piece of information that he had never read or had forgotten completely.

'But is there a use for it?'

He pondered for a second but couldn't get an answer nor did it help his situation.

"Once bound, spirit souls merge their bloodlines into their contracted soul master and allow physical improvement. If their bloodline or compatibility is high, the bloodlines can possibly affect the soul master's martial soul and evolve them, awakening it. The bloodlines of the spirit souls also attain counter-resonance from the soul master's rising cultivation rank and the martial soul evolution, allowing the improvement of their bloodlines and their spirit beast existence to a higher quality."

'This one I know. The grass snake of Wulin in the original story evolved into a Psuedo dragon snake due to something like this. Although quite a lot was due to his bloodline of the Golden Dragon king.' [Fan Lin]

"In battle, Spirit Souls who have more than 100 years can help the soul master in combat with unleashing a spirit skill or other abilities, but most do not do this because if a spirit soul is killed in battle, it takes a long time to restore it and it can wound the spirit master as well as impact their spiritual power." [Xing Mo]

'So basically Pokemon. Not for me then. I knew about this one as well.'

"The original intent for founding spirit souls was to make soul masters completely dependent on spirit beasts, for example, a ten thousand years spirit beast can provide maximum of 4 Spirit rings, saving time and effort in cultivation while promoting communion between spirit beast and soul master. With this subordination to spirit beasts, spirit beasts would have been held higher as nobility in soul master society."

"But the greed of humanity surfaced and led the soul beasts to extinction. Fortunately the Spirit Pagoda had been working on preserving and safeguarding the soul beasts for centuries or it would have been far worse." [Xing Mo]

'!!!' [Fan Lin]

'Literally all the sources that I know of blamed the Spirit Pagoda for the near extinction of the Soul beasts. Safeguarding?Conservation?' [Fan Lin]

'For centuries at that... Hmph! Guess why I joined the Spirit Pagoda?' [Fan Lin]

Fan Lin's thoughts turned just a little darker but it got unnoticed by the receptionist as his face didn't show any signs of emotions.

'Nope. Now is not the time to let go of my emotions. I have to think calmly, raise my strength, get the attention, infiltrate the Spirit Pagoda and then slowly change it.' [Fan Lin]

'Don't forget the plan. It will take time but it is for a better future of the soul beasts.' [Fan Lin]

His new mental state was far superior than his fragile past self.

Hence he completely calmed his self into dead calm.

"This lead to the creation of Artificial Spirit Souls." [Xing Mo]

The Receptionist continued.

"Artificial Spirit Souls are still reliant on the genes of the Spirit Beast they were created from. As a result of the gradual extinction of Spirit Beasts, Spirit Beast genes had also unceasingly depleted. The researchers of the Spirit Pagoda had tried many times to use non-Spirit Beast genes to create a Spirit Soul and see if the result was acceptable." [Xing Mo]

'I know, this also resulted in some defective spirit souls, Wulin's Goldsong was one as well.'

"The experiment was a success, but the fact was, the Spirit Souls made from those genes were pitifully weak. Basically, no one would be willing to buy them. Spirit Souls could take on the form of non-living objects, like a piece of metal or a hammer, adding to the variety of the soul skills and the resonance of the martial soul. [Xing Mo]

"Currently we are only able to artificially create white, yellow, and purple spirit souls. But even this helps a lot to ease the burden on the Soul beasts." [Xing Mo]

'The change is indeed visible as they are now used in the soul beasts arena instead.' [Fan Lin]

"That should be enough for now although I think you knew most of it already." [Xing Mo]

She turned around to ask him.

"I did." [Fan Lin]

He answered.

"What's my spirit soul? Just wanted to ask." [Fan Lin]

Fan Lin said to her. He wanted to know.

"It's a Crossbreed variant of a Ice Silver Tulip and Blue Silver Grass." [Xing Mo]

"Blue Silver Grass?" [Fan Lin]

"Yeah. It was one of the spirit soul experiment results. Blue Silver Grass is known for its tenacity and adaptive nature where it accepts all the different changes without resistance." [Xing Mo]

"We did lots of research and tried to crossbreed different varieties of species to get stronger spirit souls by getting rid of their inherent weaknesses." [Xing Mo]

"This was one of them but no one bought it." [Xing Mo]

"Why?" [Fan Lin]

Fan listened to her and a red flag appeared in his mind.

"Because it's a Blue Silver Grass species." [Wu Zhangkong]

Wu Zhangkong said while coming in.

'How did he know?' [Fan Lin]

"Just a little off, Teacher Wu." [Xing Mo]

She said while bowing a little to him. Wu Zhangkong was a Seven Ring Soul Saint and a Two-word Battle Armor Master.

He deserved respect.

"The main reason why it wasn't sold was due to its age and the other spirit souls surrounding its age."

"Compared to the other Spirit Souls around the five thousand year old Spirit Soul category, the abilities that this one could provide are on the weaker side but it cost the same as any five thousand year old spirit soul."

"We, as Spirit Pagoda, never hid this fact due to our open-book policy and its other weaknesses being that it could be constrained by higher level Martial souls and such, hence no Spirit Master brought it."

"To them, the benefits didn't seem to outweigh the others of the same price. They could just buy another spirit soul with ice or spirit attribute with the same price and get better stats." [Xing Mo]

"Then why are you giving it to me?" [Fan Lin]

Fan Lin asked in his usual manner. Wu Zhangkong remained silent but his thoughts were also the same.

"Because it can give you the Icicle storm Soul skill. We have checked your Martial Soul in depth and found out that this Spirit Soul had the perfect resonance with your Martial Soul among all the Spirit Souls under ten thousand year old mark. It is in complete resonance with your Martial Soul and possess a 96% chance to evolve it in the future." [Xing Mo]

"So we ordered it from the Skyorder City's Spirit Pagoda for you." [Xing Mo]

"If you don't know, Icicle Storm is an AoE skill that only fifty thousand year old ice type spirit beasts can gain." [Xing Mo]

"It's not an over the top unique skill but it's the best suited for the current you. Not only is their a 100% chance of getting the skill but the passive benefits that it will provide to your Martial Soul can even evolve it into a higher state, as I said before. Although the changes will take time to surface but since it's your second Spirit Ring, you have the time. " [Xing Mo]

She explained in easy to understand words. Wu Zhangkong looked at Fan Lin and gave the okay signal as well, his thoughts still unknown.

"Did you get the information on my Martial Soul through the Spirit Ascension plane?" [Fan Lin]

But Fan Lin's attention was on an entirely different point. He couldn't remember a time where he had given any kinds of test that checked his body or Martial Soul in the Spirit Pagoda before.

[Well~ you did]

'Except for the Titled Douluo one.'

He just wanted to know how they got the 'in-depth information' on his Martial Soul because he knew how he got it and it should be massacre if somehow, someone got to know that he can artificially create his Energy body.

A massacre in a sense that he will be the one to start it.

'And here I thought about less killing.'

"Yeah we did. We didn't want to hide it but the peculiarities of your Martial Soul mutation were something that the higher ups were heavily interested in. We also wanted to find the best suited Spirit souls and Soul bones for you, for that though, we needed as much information as we could as your mutation might have some hidden repercussions to some particular things." [Xing Mo]

"We would not do that if you don't want to." [Xing Mo]

"... No need to panic. I just wanted to know how were you able to judge what is the best suited for my Martial Soul. I have an interest in working in that field."

Fan Lin calmly said with a smile. As if his refusal would directly kill the chances of them secretly observing him.

"Oh? okay. I will inform you about it before we do any examinations of you." [Xing Mo]

"Don't need to, I know that it's a part of the procedure now and it's common practice to regularly check the status of the students in school anyway, so why wouldn't the Spirit Pagoda do the same since I have already joined the Spirit Pagoda anyway." [Fan Lin]

Xing Mo looked at Fan Lin as he spoke and internally sighed. She said nothing and picked the Blue coloured oval ball that had been beside her on the table since the beginning and gave it to Fan Lin.

"Even then we are sorry if our actions caused some inconvenience to you. Here is the Spirit Soul that we prepared. You can absorb it here with the assistance of Teacher Wu, if needed."

She stated and bowed towards Fan Lin and backed down.

'What happened to her suddenly?' [Fan Lin]

He thought of her actions after Wu Zhangkong came and slightly looked at him, he was calmly looking at the Spirit Soul.

Their eyes meet and Wu Zhangkong gave his assurance that the Spirit Soul was a legit one and Fan Lin can use it.

When he watched Wu Zhangkong's face, as if a lightbulb glowed into his mind when he remembered that the females always behaved weirdly in front of Wu Zhangkong.

'Oh that's what it was.'

He put the actions of the receptionist as the same as the female students of the Eastsea Academy and chose to divert his mind onto the Spirit Soul in his hands.

Unbeknownst to him, he was the cause for the weird behaviour of the receptionist, not Wu Zhangkong. The receptionist decided to act professionally because she was afraid that Wu Zhangkong might find her actions suspicious, thus alerting Fan Lin against her.

He sat down a little far away from them and opened the oval box.

"You can absorb it whole, don't need to kill. Some Spirit Souls like the tool spirit or inanimate Spirit Souls doesn't require the need to kill to absorb it. They are inanimate." [Xing Mo]

He nodded and began absorbing the Spirit Soul.

....

"You didn't check his Spirit Power." [Wu]

Wu Zhangkong said to the Xing Mo.

"We did it yesterday in the Spirit Ascension platform. It broke through 500 at that time. That's enough to absorb the five thousand year old spirit soul."

Xing Mo curtly replied. Gone were the hesitant and weak reactions from before.

"... He can absorb a ten thousand year old spirit soul with his current state then."

Wu Zhangkong asked after sometime time. He was shocked about the increase but since he had an idea about what was going on with Fan Lin from his seniors in Tang Sect, the shock was diminished.

The conversation stopped there as both of them waited silently for the Spirit Soul to be absorbed by Fan Lin.

....

[Quite Fast but still pateint.

Your colleagues are fine. Quite fine. The kid did cause some problems but is repenting for now.

As for that Womanizer, he is really fine.

The others had settled down.

I will wait for you.]

Fan Lin looked at the message of the God that was in front of him. This time he was calm though.

'I will wait for you?'

'The rest of it is weird as well. The kid is Net Geek.'

'But what the heck is the 'I will wait for you' line?'

"Are you fine?"

Xing Mo's said in concern when Fan Lin had been staring at the air for sometime.

"I am. I was just checking the skill application and it is indeed Icicle Storm."

He said while getting up. His body didn't show any kinds of changes but he felt just a bit stronger.

"Congratulations to you then."

"Now we just need to take your Spirit Power measurements and you will be free to go."

Xing Mo said as she took both Fan Lin and Wu Zhangkong to the Spirit power measuring chamber.

This time, it was the common Spirit Power measurement chamber though.

He sat on the Spirit Power measurement chair(the dentist chair thingy) and she started the machine after strapping him.

Ding ding ding.

596.

They looked at the results and were still surprised by it.

"That's quite a lot. I knew it, this was the reason for the sudden improvement of the inscriptions."

Fan Lin whispered to himself. He bade the receptionist farewell and left the Spirit Pagoda.

Wu Zhangkong whereas went to oversee the Class Zero. He was their teacher and he couldn't fully trust the Dean on overseeing his students, the capability being the reason.

"That woman is hiding something, her motives for helping him at the beginning are still unclear."

Wu Zhangkong thought as he watched his students adeptly getting rid of the soul beasts in the platform.