Chapter 392: New Sea God Pavilion Master

After Xuanzi had an accident, the position of Sea God Pavilion Master became vacant.

According to the remarks of those who returned from the Ri Yue Di Guo, trying to rescue him is already impossible in the short term, so selecting a new Sea God Pavilion Master is urgent.

There are three strong candidates for the Sea God Pavilion Master position.

They are Song Lao, Yan Shaozhe, and Tang Wulin.

Song Lao needs no further explanation; as a ninety-seven level Soul Power Super Douluo, she is practically the strongest in the current Sea God Pavilion, and with high seniority and great prestige, as the mother of Xianlin'er she naturally has the support of the Soul Guidance Department, making her the most competitive member of the Sea God Pavilion.

Yan Shaozhe's advantage lies in being younger than Song Lao, and he is also a disciple of Mu En; before Tang Wulin and Huo Yutong appeared, anyone could see that Mu En was training him to be the successor after Xuanzi; now that Xuanzi has met with an accident, and Tang Wulin and Huo Yutong have not yet fully grown, letting Yan Shaozhe take over first is also a good choice; moreover, although he is only ninety-six level Soul Power, considering his martial soul advantage, it's really hard to say who is stronger between him and Song Lao.

Tang Wulin's advantage lies in that he is not only Mu En's closed-door disciple, but also Mu En's designated successor before his death; Mu En explicitly said that the next Sea God Pavilion Master after Xuanzi would be him, earning him the support of many Senior Elders who had a good relationship with Mu En; however, compared to the two above, his support is still much lower, because his experience is truly too shallow—he is only fifteen years old, and a fifteen-year-old Sea God Pavilion Master would be unprecedented since the founding of the Sea God Pavilion.

Originally, according to the situation at the time, if nothing unexpected happened, the position of the next Sea God Pavilion Master would go to Song Lao; but just then, Song Lao suddenly proposed a new solution.

"In this wartime period, as the leader of the Academy, what does the Sea God Pavilion Master need? It is strength—strength that prevents outsiders from bullying the Academy at will, allowing the Academy to stand firm in this chaotic era. Therefore I propose that the position of the next Sea God Pavilion Master be decided by sparring, with the strongest taking the post."

She was originally a sure bet for the next Pavilion Master; now that she proposes this, Yan Shaozhe and Tang Wulin naturally won't object, and as the three parties involved they all agree, so the remaining Senior Elders naturally have no objections.

First to face off are Yan Shaozhe and Tang Wulin; after all, on paper the strongest appears to be Song Lao, so we must first let these two relatively weaker contenders decide a winner, only then can they qualify to challenge the strongest her.

It looks like this will be a battle with no suspense; Tang Wulin and Yan Shaozhe are both disciples of Mu En, but their age and cultivation differ by far too much, so Yan Shaozhe's victory is almost a foregone conclusion.

However, what happened next left everyone dumbfounded.

Tang Wulin actually defeated Yan Shaozhe with relative ease, earning the right to face Song Lao.

Tang Wulin had been missing for two years, and after returning he hardly had any chance to show his strength, so the Sea God Pavilion's internal assessment of his current combat power was greatly mistaken.

Actually, after breaking through the eleventh seal and obtaining the sixth soul ring, in terms of pure physical strength Tang Wulin is no inferior to the former Xuanzi, his combat power has officially entered the ranks of Super Douluo, and even in the Sea God Pavilion full of experts his frontal combat ability is not bad.

What's more fatal is that Yan Shaozhe's main and secondary attributes are light and fire respectively, and among the Five Great Godly Dragon King Soul Bones that Tang Wulin possesses, there happen to be those of light and fire attributes…

As a result, throughout the battle Yan Shaozhe's attacks on Tang Wulin could barely be described as a light scrape; aside from a few powerful soul skills, the rest of his attacks failed to harm him, and he suffered a tragic defeat.

Faced with this result that astonished everyone, Song Lao was not particularly surprised.

After all, she had fought alongside Tang Wulin before, so her understanding of his strength is the deepest in the Sea God Pavilion; without sufficient strength, not even back then would she have qualified to jointly oppose Feng Ling with him.

One reason she proposed this election method was to let Tang Wulin take this opportunity to demonstrate his current combat power before the Sea God Pavilion members, dispelling their unconscious bias against him; however, in the subsequent battle against Song Lao, Tang Wulin could only describe it with the four words 'bitter beyond words'.

The reason he could defeat Yan Shaozhe was that the elemental resistance provided by the two Dragon King Soul Bones played a huge role; his hard strength still has a significant gap compared to top-tier experts.

Song Lao then gave him a harsh lesson; from start to finish he couldn't land a single hit on her, yet her fierce assault left him unable to relax at all, feeling that at any moment he could be killed by one of her blows.

Tang Wulin had no doubt that Song Lao was holding back in their fight; if she had been serious, he would not have lasted more than three minutes.

And at the climax of the battle, Song Lao suddenly lowered her voice to ask Tang Wulin a question: 'I remember you once had opinions on how we deal with Evil Soul Masters; you said you would definitely find a way to change the current situation—what about now? After witnessing so many Evil Soul Masters harming people's lives, do you still hold the same view?'

Tang Wulin staggered for a moment before realizing she was referring to their conversation on the roof after he had wiped out the first Holy Spirit Sect branch.

At that time he learned that the Shilake Academy's purge of Evil Soul Masters had also affected some innocent targets, making him furious, but Song Lao's reply then left him speechless.

In fact, even to this day Tang Wulin cannot think of a perfect solution; rather, everything he has experienced since then seems to be proving that Song Lao's viewpoint is correct.

Perhaps the Shilake Academy mistakenly killed some innocents, that's true, but the harm caused by Evil Soul Masters is so immense that if we let them slip through, who would be responsible for the countless dead?

Therefore, after a moment of silence, Tang Wulin replied: 'I now choose to support the Academy's approach, because with such a great enemy as the Holy Spirit Sect ahead, extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures; but when peace arrives and I have sufficient strength, I will definitely find a way to change this situation, creating a world where even those with Evil Martial Souls can live normally.'

"Heh."

After hearing his answer, Song Lao suddenly laughed.

Next, after she flashed aside to dodge another of Tang Wulin's attacks, her figure returned to human form, she landed on the ground, smiling and said to the watching Senior Elders: 'I withdraw from competing with Tang Wulin for the Sea God Pavilion Master position; the next Sea God Pavilion Master must be him and no one else.'

After saying that, she ignored the stunned expressions of the crowd, walked up to Tang Wulin, and lightly patted his shoulder.

"Keep going, young man; I have high hopes for you—don't let me down, and make sure I see that world before I die."

She knew that she was old and had lost her edge; if she were to inherit the Pavilion Master position, perhaps the Academy would develop more smoothly, but it would be hard to achieve great innovation.

Therefore, when she heard that Tang Wulin maintained rationality while still holding onto that seemingly childish idea, she decided to hand over the Sea God Pavilion Master position to him.

The future belongs to the young; Tang Wulin has already created too many miracles—who dares to say that what he says will certainly not come true? Imagining the possible future scenes, Song Lao's face broke into a warmer smile.

(End of chapter)