Change of Heart

Douluo Continent

Shining Moon Academy. Earthrock city.

The next day.

In the early morning.

Fan Lin woke up from his deep sleep. His eyes calmly looked at his room and then he got up and went to bath.

A few minutes later.

'It's five in the morning."

Fan Lin said as he got out of the bath and looked at the time. He got dressed in his school uniform.

"Now just three things remain. One, to increase the age of my Pheonix tailed Crest Serpent spirit soul."

"Two, to gain mastery in my secondary profession and lastly,"

"To safely choose a good spirit soul and advance."

"I should practice the secondary profession in the day with my studies."

"With my Three Word Battle Armor, I don't have to worry about my cultivation speed. I can ascend to Rank 21 Spirit Grandmaster now if I want to; but which spirit soul should I have?"

"The Spirit Soul will depend on the Spirit Pagoda and my spiritual power, so delaying it is better for now. I should get my spirit soul around a month before the Shrek's entrance examinations."

"Now, the problem of increasing the age of my Spirit Soul remains."

"I already prepared that with the Handler."

"When was the nearest date?"

Fan Lin mumbled to himself as he took out a piece of paper from his storage soul guide.

On it, there were four listings of the date of his Spiritual Ascension platform quota.

"It's a month away. I have a total of four quota in the next five months."

Fan Lin stored the paper in his storage soul guide and went towards his classroom.

It was still a few hours before classes would start but he wanted to use that time to study more about the world, especially the geographical areas and locations.

He couldn't always rely on the Skyorder City's Spirit Pagoda as a landmark. He needed to know about the different places and their specialities, since he will need it further down the road.

Sometime later, the classes started and Fan Lin attended it amidst the confused murmuring of students who were informed that he was on leave.

The teacher was calm though as he knew about it already.

Soon the day ended and he went to find a secondary profession for him.

He knew that he wouldn't learn anything in the small amount of time that he had and hence he put practicality above everything.

He wanted a secondary profession that would help him in the later stages of his life.

He found one, got registered for it and patiently started his training.

Fan Lin also checked his body in the meantime and it was in a far worse condition that he thought.

His body was, in terms of cellular damage, less than a tenth of what it was before.

Basically a full candle that was lit and now only a tenth of it remained after a while.

"I should take out heavy physical activities for the meantime."

Fan Lin remarked while checking his body. Much less exercises, he couldn't even do some heavy lifting or intense work because it could futher harm his body. His meaning of heavy exercises were 3000 3x squats, chin ups and pull ups with a healthy dose of running.

His body was just that brittle now.

And he was just 9 years old!

So Fan Lin prepared a new schedule of meditation in the night, classes in the morning, secondary profession in the evening and then meditation at the night.

No physical training at all. Not even a heavy walk.

His plan was to let his body recover as much as it can before the Shrek's entrance examinations because he might need to exert his body in that. Till that time, he is a soft feather and act like a soft feather.

As for loss of muscles, agility and all. Those doesn't exist in the Energy body.

'If only I can add the passive optimization and life support.'

Fan Lin meticulously followed his schedule and soon the day for his spiritual Ascension platform entry came.

Fan Lin took a week leave once again and rode a cab to the Spirit Pagoda.

It was still a six hour ride and in the meantime, he read some materials from his secondary profession.

'Nothing else to do except this.'

The cab arrived at the Spirit Pagoda, he got out, looked at the massive Pagoda and went to the reception area.

"I applied for the Spiritual Ascension platform. Where do I have to go?"

Fan Lin asked the receptionist.

"May I have your ID, Sir"

The receptionist looked at Fan Lin and asked for his Spirit Master ID and checked Fan Lin's appointment.

"Here you go, Sir."

He gave the ID back to Fan Lin and gave him the directions for the Spiritual Ascension platform.

Fan Lin nodded and went towards the lift, pressed the button that the receptionist said and waited for the lift to deliver him to his destination.

He soon got out at the floor and was greeted with a staff person who after confirming he was Fan Lin, took him to an area where his sleeping pod was already set up.

The staff came with a few more people and one of them made Fan Lin sign some documents that Spirit Pagoda wouldn't be responsible for any kind of mental damages that occurred in the Spiritual Ascension platform.

'That doesn't look something you would put children through.'

The staff then began explaining.

"The spirit ascension platform is the fruit of a millennium years of our Spirit Pagoda's efforts and knowledge. We had invested an enormous amount of resources and used our spatial technology to create a different world, therefore, the first thing you need to note is that the spirit ascension platform is a virtual world. To be precise, it is half virtual and half real. This is because a lot of the virtual data relies on your input. However, it can be considered purely virtual within the elementary spirit ascension platform, so there is no need to fear for your lives."

"You can do anything you want in the spirit ascension platform, but your main objective will be to survive. Do your best to survive as long as you can. The longer you survive, the greater the benefits you will reap."

"Secondly, don't believe that it is completely safe in there. Although your life will not be in danger as only your brain waves are active in there, in some extreme circumstances, there is a possibility that your brain waves will be damaged and cause danger to your corporeal body. As such, the moment you face danger beyond your power to deal with, press the emergency exit button; and you will immediately exit the spirit ascension platform. Understood?"

"Yup. I mean understood" Fan Lin replied.

"As for the rest, you will learn them after experiencing it inside. Today is the first time you will be inside, so you probably won't survive too long, but it should leave a deep impression on you. Prepare yourselves mentally and remember this: don't panic if you run into a dangerous situation. Soul beasts aren't that scary if you know how to react properly."

'The same words they told Wulin huh. Do they revise the lines in their free time or something.'

He thought while laying down on the capsule as per their given directions.

*Whoosh*

He was in a lush forest. He was surrounded by gigantic trees and large thickets of shrubbery. There wasn't a single path in sight. It felt like he had entered an ancient forest.

It was not familiar. Even though he was hoping for it to be false, it wasn't. The trees in his old world were smaller. The quantity of the herbs and the vitality that it exhibit was something that the plants of his old world could never achieve. He indeed had been training in the Eastsea Park and it could be termed as a forest due to the huge amount of plants and trees in it but it still wasn't of this scale.

The forest of his old world.

The forest in front of him.

The two were called forests but to him the sight in front of him was unfamiliar.

Surya Jayvardhan, realised at this point that he had already left his past life. No matter how hard he tried to deny it. There was no him here. He was not the Surya of the forest officers but Fan Lin , a Soul Master, in this world.

Reality hit him hard. Harder than his own self. He couldn't help but accept as there was nothing more he could deny, nothing else to latch into his past self.

This was his new home now. He will protect it this time, he will protect it from himself. He has to.

He mind might have calmed down a lot in the past month but it only took a moment for all the memories, pain, hapiness and guilt to resurface.

He was overwhelmed, so much that he sat on the spot to cry. He cried a lot. After fifteen minutes he was done. At this moment, he was finally free, free from himself.

Unknown to him, the barrier that was suppressing his spirit power also began to crack at this time, slowly increasing his spirit power.

He wiped his tears and went in search for what he had come for. The Blue Silver Grass was a nice plant type Martial Soul. It can be used to detect, control, attack, defend, rescue and movement. The only thing it lacked was healing factor.

He slowly traversed the forest while taking every sight in his eyes.

His eyes were tenderly looking at the plants, the trees and everything that existed in the forest.

He avoided the soul beasts and soon found what he was looking for.

It was a group of children. They looked scarily familiar to him.

It was Tang Wulin and his group.

Fan Lin looked at them with dead calm eyes and changed his route.

A few hours passed once again as he avoided the beasts and strong looking humans and finally found a two person group, one male, one female who running away from there.

'Found a target but who are they running from.'

Fan Lin thought before his body was shadowed by an bigger shadow.

He slowly turned his head and looked at the hundred year old Human Faced Spider that was hanging just above him while staring at him.

'Now I know.'

Fan Lin thought as he got into a mad run into the direction of the two people.

Weaker he might be but he still possessed a physique that could do 3000 push-ups, 3000 squats and 3000 one more exercise in just a single night.

Even if he lost 90% of his strength, it was still around 200 - 300 push-ups now. That was something that many adults of his time couldn't do and he was a kid.

Adding to the fact that he didn't need to fear the backlash in the Spirit Ascension plane, he went all gung ho, straining his body to the max but gaining quite a speed as well.

So as Fan Lin bolted for the two people, the Human Faced Spider gave a sharp shriek and followed Fan Lin.

In just a few seconds, Fan Lin swiftly passed the two person team and was above them.

The two people looked at the running figure of Fan Lin as he passed them and the female immediately ducked.

The male wasn't fast enough and was taken by the Human Faced Spider as it was still rampaging towards Fan Lin.

The woman was safe. The man wasn't as he couldn't even press the escape button before his head was gone.

Fan Lin didn't stop to look at the two people and chose to run into the direction of the Class Zero, or at least towards its surving members.

'I really hope someone survives among them. It have been a four months, they should have adapted to the Spirit Ascension Plane.'

So as Fan Lin was madly dashing towards the place where Class Zero was, Class Zero's remaining students were quietly having a strategy meeting in the opposite direction of Fan Lin.

They were the people who actually outrun the Human Faced Spider and left it towards the two people.

The two people on the other hand injured the Human Faced Spider and ran away. Fan Lin found them and now he was being chased by the Human Faced Spider and trying to send it towards the Class Zero.

He didn't know that it was futile attempt as the Class Zero weren't even there.

So Fan Lin kept running and running until he reached the area that was surrounded by plain everywhere. The Human Faced Spider kept following him madly until, suddenly the Human Faced Spider gave a sharp skrill and changed its path, turning around and desperately fleeing from where it had come from.

Fan Lin heard its cry and immediately stopped to turn around and check his surroundings. A thing came into his sight and he once again went into a mad dash... in the direction of the Human Faced spider.

It was because he saw a certain Bear that WAS sleeping.

Emphasis on was, and the Bear, now awoken by the shriek of the Human Faced Spider, was looking at both the running figure of Fan Lin and the Human Faced Spider with rage in its eyes.

The bear slowly got up and madly started to dash towards them.

'I can't continue this for more longer, this body is going to breakdown.' [Fan Lin]

Fan Lin looked at the dashing Darkgold Dreadclaw Bear and realised that it was quite slow compared to the Human Faced Spider and himself.

So he immediately found a thick shrubbery and used that to change his direction.

The Human Faced Spider also escaped towards the direction of Class Zero, the Darkgold Dreadclaw Bear was following it and the remaining soul beasts ran away from the area.

Fan Lin on the other hand waited for the Darkgold Dreadclaw Bear to pass and then slowly followed behind it.

'My body will be completely immobile in around five minutes and I have to complete the regeneration cycle. I don't know if I can even do that in here or not and I may be monitored, will it be suspicious?'

'Coming here right now was a mistake. I am too weak and this place is monitored by people; I think every participant in the Spirit Ascension platform was monitored in the story.'

'Let's get my second spirit soul today then. No matter if the skill is influenced by the 'gift' or turned out to be one like my first soul skill. It will still be a great addition and I can use the remaining five months to adapt to the skill and its usage.'

Fan Lin kept a distance from the Duskgold Dreadclaw Bear while being on the lookout for any humans. He didn't have much time.

In a few minutes, he saw the same female that was able to escape the Human Faced Spider by ducking.

She was unfortunate this time though as Fan Lin saw her dead body lying in the path that the Darkgold Dreadclaw Bear took.

Her body had already vanished by more than half and he can just see the upper body of hers.

Fan Lin looked at the yellow particles of light that were releasing from her body as it was slowly vanishing.

He absorbed it. It was Spirit Energy. Something that was released by killing the soul beasts in the Spiritual Ascension platform.

Humans also released it as well but the amount wasn't even a hundredth of the same level.

The disparity was so high that even a 10 year old soul beasts provided more Spirit Energy than a Soul Ancestor (Rank 40+).

And why are we talking about Spirit Energy?

It was the source that increases the age of the spirit souls. A person can only absorb a limited amount of Spirit Energy and the spirit energy absorption limit depended on their spiritual power.

Those who had higher spiritual power could absorb higher amounts of spirit energy which in turn increased the age of their spirit souls faster.

Fan Lin smiled a little as he absorbed the low amount of Spirit Energy from the vanishing corpse of the female.

He indeed came to the Spirit Ascension plane to increase the age of his spirit souls but he had a problem.

He didn't want to hunt soul beasts. The solution, he could hunt humans instead.

He learnt that in the library as he was searching for the information of the Darkgold Dreadclaw Bear.

He had learned about the Darkgold Dreadclaw Bear from the library because Class Zero was going to kill it in the future. It was also the event that will give Wulin his first soul bone.

Fan Lin looked at the forest around him and then at the surroundings. Even though the things were semi-real in the Elementary Spirit Ascension plane, he still couldn't think of killing the soul beasts in it.

Nor did he wanted to destroy the natural side of the forest.

He just couldn't bear to, more so when he had calmed down and wanted to protect the forest.

And that's why he will hunt the humans instead.

He used the escape button and got out of the Spiritual Ascension platform as his body gave the final call.

Now he was going to get his second spirit soul.

He had a goal now.

He loved his wife. He loved the animals that lived freely in the forest.

He wasn't in his old world. He doesn't know how to turn back time as well.

He was dead in his old world.

"I just want the sight that I saw in the Spirit Ascension plane to become reality."

Once upon a time, he was a naive kid.

"The world is a big place, I just need to find a place to start the restoration of the forest then."

Then he turned into a psychotic madman.

"And then, I may clean up the nearby areas for the soul beasts."

He just wanted to restore the forests of his new world to their prime. It was just a small selfish wish of his now.

"The humans are taking a lot of land for themselves and yet they don't use it that often. That had to be controlled."

There was just a small problem.

"I kind of remembered that around nine-tenth of the world was forest area, right?"

He was a person who didn't see humans as humans.

"One tenth should be fine."

For him, most of them were livestocks. He could manipulate, kill and even slaughter them with fake care.

"The humans aren't that much to begin with."

The only people that he cared for were his colleagues and his wife.

In a new life and no one to stop him, he just needed a reason.

Be it good or bad.

He was wanted to let it go.

Fan Lin calmly opened his eyes. The staff was looking at him.

"Can I get a spirit soul right now?"

He got up from the capsule and calmly asked one of the staff.

"Yeah you can. Good job surviving in the platform even though it was your first time."

"Thanks. Where should I go to get my spirit soul?"

"Just returned to the reception and they will guide you."

"Thanks again."

He got of the device and bid farewell to them.

'These guys are suspicious.'

Unknowingly to him, the staff immediately ran towards the control room and then looked at the live footage.

On the big transparent screen, a scene of a massive bear rampaging everything on its way could be seen.

"If this continues on, the Darkgold Dreadclaw Bear will clash with the other lord in no time. What do we do then."

One of the staff asked.

"Let's keep a watch for now, if a situation turns grim, send someone to stop the two beasts and safely procure them to their region."

Another person said.

Fan Lin had unknowingly angered the Dreadclaw Bear so much that it has been killing everyone in its path and that had in turn caused a lot of trouble to the Spirit Pagoda as they were getting complaints from many participants who died unfairly just a few moments after entering the platform which they ignored.

Their main concern was the fight of the two guardians, that should not happen.

....

Ten minutes later.

Eastsea City's Spirit Pagoda.

Spiritual Ascension platform.

Five pods opened up at the same time. The students in the pods got out while screaming and in a dazed.

The staff immediately helped them to get out of the pods and to rest at the side.

Some more time later.

"Where did that Human Faced Spider and the bear came from?"

One of the students asked while the other remained silent.

They still haven't been able to register their quick and horrifying deaths.

Their teacher looked at the coldly and then at replay of their deaths. It was quite uncommon but they got what they did.

It was the Class Zero and they just got Penta killed by the group combination of Human Faced Spider and Darkgold Dreadclaw Bear.

...

Half the Proofreading is done.

Currently at chapter 42.

The rest should be done in one to two days.

Bye.