Chapter 519: Na'er's News (4k)

When Tang Wulin opened his eyes again, he was slightly startled.

He found that the world before his eyes seemed to have undergone an earth-shaking change.

Various colored specks of light floated around him, ready to obey his command at any moment.

He had long been able to see these specks of light, and he knew their nature: they were the various attribute elements in the air.

But the problem was, he had never before felt able to freely mobilize them; previously he mostly controlled them via soul skills attached to his soul rings and soul bones, whereas now he felt he could wield elemental power with just a thought.

Moreover, he felt his mastery over his body had greatly increased; the sense of disharmony caused by suddenly condensing a second soul core vanished completely, as if it had never existed.

This feeling was so comfortable that it seemed as if he had been reborn.

He stretched lazily, and immediately a series of crackling sounds rang out from his body.

Only then did he have leisure to observe his surroundings.

"Is this... I'm back at the hotel?"

This was exactly the bedroom of the hotel he remembered, and he was now sitting on the bed.

Clearly, just a moment ago he remembered being in Zhenhua's forging room.

"I see, deep meditation..."

Tang Wulin was no longer ignorant; after a little thought, he understood what had happened to him.

After forging, he suddenly lost consciousness, and upon waking found his control over all powers greatly increased—this was mostly because the forging had put him into deep meditation.

As for why he was moved to the hotel room... given Tang Wulin's understanding of Huo Yutong, it was likely that Zang Xin informed her, and she then used spatial power to bring him back directly.

This was very much in line with her usual modus operandi.

Tang Wulin swiped his hand, a breeze blew past, and the curtains were instantly swept to one side; outside, the sky looked completely dark.

"It's night already—I just don't know how much time has passed."

Tang Wulin felt somewhat helpless.

The duration of deep meditation is entirely beyond his control; in the worst case, several years could have passed without him knowing.

At least, judging by the fact that the room is filled with Huo Yutong's aura, it couldn't have been just a few days.

Tang Wulin got up, left the bedroom, and found no one in the other rooms either.

However, from the traces here and there, one could see that several people had been living here for a while; now they were probably just out playing together as a group of three.

Tang Wulin sat on the living-room sofa, picked up the remote, turned on the TV, and casually flipped through a few channels.

"Hmm, at least the worst-case scenario hasn't happened."

The TV displayed the time and date; it showed that only a little over two months had passed since he entered the deep meditation state.

He hadn't missed the appointment he'd made with Gu Yue, nor the promised wedding.

That was enough; for Tang Wulin, nothing was more important than that.

Moreover, after roughly scanning the TV content, he noticed that society's attention to the return of the Spirit Ice Douluo seemed to have waned; at least, not all TV stations were broadcasting it as they used to.

Upon reflection, this was natural; after all, online storms always come and go quickly, people have their own lives, and a topic like Huo Yutong coming to this era that doesn't greatly affect people's lives will lose interest fast if nothing related continues to happen.

Just then, the sound of the door came; Huo Yutong and Tang Ziran, the couple, returned.

Upon seeing Tang Wulin sitting on the sofa, everyone's eyes lit up at once.

Huo Yutong acted the fastest; she immediately came to Tang Wulin's side, sat down, wrapped her arm around his, and asked:

"Wulin, how do you feel now? What did you gain from this deep meditation?"

Tang Wulin smiled gently.

"Not bad; I can feel that my previous awkwardness with the dragon god's power has mostly disappeared. It seems the main benefit of this deep meditation lies in improved control over power."

After saying that, he looked at Tang Ziran and Lang Yue and asked, "What did you two go do?"

Tang Ziran lifted the food bag in his hand.

"We went to buy some midnight snacks; do you want some?"

"Give me a skewer."

"Sure, here."

After taking a meat skewer from Tang Ziran's hand, Tang Wulin asked Huo Yutong, who was happily clinging to his arm with a blissful expression:

"Has anything important happened in the past two months?"

"Yes."

Seeing Huo Yutong nod, Tang Wulin immediately perked up and hurriedly asked:

"What is it?"

"Well... there are many big and small things, but only two are truly important."

Huo Yutong said this, then pulled a card from her pocket and handed it to Tang Wulin.

Tang Wulin took it and saw it was a black card bearing Zhenhua's name.

Huo Yutong explained:

"Mr. Zhenhua seems to be very taken with your forging talent; he said he definitely wants to take you as his disciple, with any terms you like. Moreover, this is one of his black cards, which supposedly contains a billion federal coins, free for you to use. But since you weren't awake, I was afraid you might refuse his offer, so I haven't touched it—not a single coin has been spent."

"..."

Tang Wulin instantly fell into a daze.

"How much?"

"A billion?! Although federal coins aren't as valuable as the gold spirit coins of ten thousand years ago, a billion is definitely a huge sum."

"You know, back then it cost a million federal coins just to buy a yellow spirit, which is why the Tang Ziran couple chose to take risks and work as researchers at the Spirit Pagoda."

"With this billion federal coins, Tang Wulin could buy a thousand yellow spirits."

"Tang Wulin certainly didn't think this was really much; he knows his own worth can't be measured by money, but thinking back ten years ago, he almost became an orphan over a mere million federal coins, which leaves him feeling somewhat torn between laughter and tears."

"After a full ten years, it's finally sweetness after bitterness."

He collected his thoughts and asked:

"What is the other important news?"

As for whether to become Zhenhua's disciple, he felt no reluctance whatsoever.

He himself didn't know how heaven-defying the quality of the metal he forged was; after all, it was his first attempt at fusion forging, and even the first forging after obtaining the Dragon God's power, so he misunderstood his current strength.

But he understood one thing: Zhenhua merely gave him a few pointers, which cleared his mind, letting him take a big step forward on the forging path, and also brought about a deep meditation that resolved the instability of his foundation caused by his rapid strength increase.

Besides, he was going to learn forging anyway, and who could be a better teacher than the continent's only divine craftsman? So he had already decided to visit him soon and take Zhenhua as his teacher.

Compared to that, he was still more curious about what the other piece of news of equal importance was.

Huo Yutong observed his expression and replied, "There's news about Na'er."

"What?!"

Tang Wulin's whole body shuddered instantly.

This time he was truly startled. This news was indeed too important for him.

He had originally thought that, in the worst case, he would have to accompany Huo Yutong searching the entire continent for someone, but he never expected that just a deep meditation would bring him news of Na'er upon waking.

He eagerly asked, "Where is Na'er now? How is she doing?"

Huo Yutong quickly comforted him:

"Don't worry, she's doing very well, and the place she's in is also very familiar to us."

"?"

Hearing that, Tang Wulin's heart instantly rose with an incredulous guess.

"Could it be Shilake Academy?"

"Hmm."

Seeing Huo Yutong lightly nod, Tang Wulin instantly felt a sense of emptiness.

He truly hadn't expected to receive such an answer.

Shilake Academy... Looks like I still have to go there first after all?

He asked, "In other words, does the 'family' mentioned in Na'er's letter before she left refer to people from Shilake Academy?"

This time the answer came from Tang Ziran.

"About that, you really guessed wrong."

Tang Ziran took Lang Yue's hand and sat on the sofa opposite Tang Wulin, saying, "Huo Yutong also asked the Light-Dark Pavilion Master about this for you; according to her, Na'er was sent to Shilake Academy by a reclusive great clan because her talent was astonishingly outstanding, and the current Sea God Pavilion Master, Honored Douluo Yunming, took her in as an exception; she is now considered his adopted daughter and disciple."

"Light-Dark Pavilion Master? Long Yeyue? With her dual martial souls of the Holy Light Dragon and Holy Dark Dragon, that title indeed suits her."

Besides that, it turns out Na'er was actually adopted by the current Sea God Pavilion Master? Before his deep meditation, Tang Wulin had already heard too much about this Sea God Pavilion Master from others.

The current Sea God Pavilion Master is Honored Douluo Qing Tian, named Yunming, with the martial soul Qing Tian Spear; he is only over a hundred years old yet already the world's most powerful Limit Douluo, equal to Di Tian, and the twenty-three-year-old who reached Honored Douluo rank mentioned by Zang Xin earlier is none other than this Honored Douluo Qing Tian.

Undoubtedly, he is absolutely a legend of an age, the most outstanding figure of the entire era.

Merely being able to stand against a powerhouse of Di Tian's level already earns Tang Wulin's deep admiration.

Don't look at how Tang Wulin previously beat Di Tian like that; in that fight, the absolute suppression of his Dragon God bloodline over the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King bloodline, and the near immunity to darkness and space attributes from his dragon bones, played a huge role. If it came down to pure strength, Tang Wulin is confident he could defeat Di Tian, but he also believes he would pay a heavy price.

Of course, if they were to face off now, it's hard to say, given that over these two months Tang Wulin's strength has grown even stronger than before his deep meditation.

No matter what, for this Honored Douluo Qing Tian, the continent's strongest, to take him as a disciple shows that Na'er's talent must have reached an extraordinarily terrifying level.

Recalling how she once couldn't even properly awaken her martial soul, Tang Wulin suddenly felt as if he had stepped into another world.

He asked Tang Ziran, "Have you seen Na'er's face?"

Tang Ziran shook his head.

"Not really, after all we wanted to wait until you woke up to visit her together as a family, but we've already chatted with her several times via soul communication devices, and we also have her current photo."

Saying that, he pulled out his wallet, took out a photo, and handed it to Tang Wulin.

Tang Wulin's gaze was instantly drawn to the silver-haired girl in the photo.

No mistake, this is the younger sister Na'er he once loved most.

However, her appearance has changed from his memory; her eyes, once like amethyst, have inexplicably turned silver. Though still beautiful, this makes Tang Wulin somewhat unaccustomed.

Seeing Tang Wulin's doubt, Huo Yutong spoke softly:

"Regarding her eyes, according to Na'er, this is due to her martial soul awakening."

"Is that so."

Tang Wulin nodded, and at that moment he suddenly noticed Huo Yutong seemed to have something to say but held back, so he instinctively asked:

"What's wrong? Could there be a problem with her awakening?"

Huo Yutong quickly shook her head.

"The awakening itself is fine; the problem lies with her martial soul."

"What do you mean, does her martial soul have some side effect?"

"Not exactly; her martial soul is deeply related to you."

Huo Yutong took a breath and said solemnly to Tang Wulin:

"The name of her martial soul is the Silver Dragon Spear."

"... Is that so."

Tang Wulin instantly understood why Huo Yutong had that hesitant look.

Regarding the Light Dragon King's warning, he had already told Huo Yutong long ago, so she also knows about the Silver Dragon King.

Silver hair and silver eyes, paired with this spear clearly meant to match the Golden Dragon Spear, make it hard not to doubt Na'er's true identity.

If she really is the Silver Dragon King, then many past events would be chilling.

Huo Yutong is worried he'll be heartbroken over Na'er's matter.

Tang Wulin smiled at Huo Yutong and reached out to rub her head.

Alright, thank you for thinking so much for me, but don't worry, I'm not that fragile, and more importantly...

Tang Wulin gave her a bright smile.

I don't believe Na'er is really that Silver Dragon King who wouldn't hesitate to drag thousands of innocent ordinary people in the soul‑guidance train into disaster and also wipe us out; I certainly don't remember teaching my sister to become like that.

In Tang Wulin's memory, Na'er has always been a kind, good child; he doesn't think that merely restoring her memories could completely change her nature, causing her to lose even the most basic kindness.

Hmm.

Huo Yutong also showed a cheerful smile.

She just knew that Tang Wulin would indeed not disappoint.

Tang Wulin asked, 'Then when are we setting off? Did Senior Long Yeyue say anything?'

Tang Ziran replied:

She said she would stay in Tiandou City during this period, and we can set off anytime once we're ready.

How about we go to Shilake Academy tomorrow?

Tang Wulin was already eager for a family reunion.

Moreover, the family now has one more member; the atmosphere will surely be even livelier, and he believes Na'er will definitely be very happy.

Of course.

Tang Ziran and the others naturally had no objections.

They actually had wanted to meet Na'er for a long time, but since this is a meaningful occasion, they really didn't want to leave Tang Wulin to handle it alone, so they've held back until today.

Now that Tang Wulin has awakened, they have no reason to wait any longer.

Everyone thus reached a consensus: tomorrow we'll go to Shilake Academy to find Na'er for a family reunion! By the way, of the eighteen thousand, four thousand have been repaid, leaving fourteen thousand still owed.

(End of chapter)