'They all overlooked it, or rather, they simply couldn't understand just how terrifying Caelus's original time-attribute Martial Soul—the Regent of Time—truly was.'
'No matter how strong the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion Martial Soul is, or how rare Ultimate Ice may be, it ultimately still falls within the realm of reason.'
'However, Caelus's Karma-based Spirit Ability...'
'That is a forbidden Domain that even a Divinity cannot easily touch.'
Zhang Lexuan recalled Caelus's Fourth Soul Skill, which still made her heart palpitate to this day.
—"This Moment, That Moment."
Effect first, cause later.
Just recalling it made her feel like she was dreaming.
That was no longer a Spirit Ability; that was an alteration of the rules of the World.
Perhaps it was because she hadn't told the elder masters about the specific effects of Caelus's Spirit Ability...
Throughout the long history of the Douluo Continent, conceptual Martial Soul Abilities had appeared before; there were even records of Martial Soul Abilities capable of resurrecting the dead.
However, those Heaven-Defying Martial Soul Abilities were all accompanied by immense restrictions and costs.
And that Spirit Ability of Caelus's...
Zhang Lexuan recalled carefully, feeling that when Caelus used it, he didn't seem to face many restrictions.
The only drawback seemed to be the massive consumption of Soul Power.
A Spirit Ability with almost no restrictions that could tamper with Karma... she dared not dwell on what that represented.
'Forget it... let him decide for himself whether he wants to tell the academy in the future.'
Thinking of this, she swallowed all her words and bowed deeply to Mu En.
"Elder Mu, if there are no further instructions, Lexuan will take her leave."
After speaking, she turned around and slowly walked out of the Sea Gods Pavilion.
Mu En did not speak again, simply watching her departing figure in silence.
Until that heavy wooden door was closed once more, separating the inside from the outside.
Only then did his eyes, which had been half-closed, open completely, and his brows furrowed slightly.
Inside the attic, only he remained, along with the night wind blowing in from outside the window, carrying the dampness of the lake.
'This girl...'
Mu En let out a long sigh in his heart.
He could clearly feel that after Zhang Lexuan returned this time, she had changed significantly.
She was no longer the Inner Court chief who, despite being composed, still carried a hint of youthful sharpness.
There was a layer of something about her that he found difficult to see through.
'Especially... her concern for that kid, Caelus, is... simply too excessive.'
Mu En's mind conjured up the image of Zhang Lexuan's hesitant and conflicted appearance just moments ago.
The hesitation, worry, and ultimate silence in her eyes were clear to him.
This kind of expression, this unconscious instinct to want to protect someone...
It was all too familiar.
'In the past, the only one who could make her show such an expression was that child, Bei Bei...'
Thinking of Bei Bei, ripples of bitterness stirred in Mu En's previously tranquil heart.
He slowly raised his hand, looking at his palm, which resembled a withered tree branch, a flash of deep helplessness and regret crossing his eyes.
"Sigh..."
"I... perhaps I truly did the wrong thing back then."
He recalled a girl from many years ago, who had also stood here with clear and resolute eyes.
He recalled the agreement he had made with Zhang Lexuan.
That agreement, which acted like an invisible shackle, tightly binding her most beautiful years and purest emotions.
He also recalled how, for the sake of the last glimmer of hope for a long-fallen Sect, he had personally arranged for Bei Bei to approach and help the girl named Tang Ya.
He had assumed this was merely a trial.
Yet, he hadn't expected that the emotions of a young boy and girl were the things in this World that could least be calculated or arranged.
Bei Bei had fallen in love with Tang Ya.
And the agreement he had personally set had instantly plunged his most promising successor, Zhang Lexuan, into an incredibly awkward and painful situation.
Mu En closed his eyes, his wrinkled face full of exhaustion.
He had thought his plans were flawless; he had paved every path for the future of Shrek and for his own great-grandson.
Yet in the end, he had personally hurt the Junior he cherished the most.
Now, watching Zhang Lexuan seemingly transfer that misplaced concern onto another, even more mysterious and unpredictable youth.
Mu En's heart was filled with a complex mix of emotions.
He did not know whether this would be a blessing or a curse for Zhang Lexuan and Shrek.
Outside the window, the leaves of the golden tree rustled in the night wind, as if sighing along with the old man's heart.
The wooden door of the Sea Gods Pavilion closed slowly behind him, isolating the quiet and heavy atmosphere inside the attic.
Yan Shaozhe stood on the thick branches of the golden tree, the night wind carrying the damp, life-filled air of the Sea God Lake brushing against his face, yet it could not disperse the fire in his heart in the slightest.
It was a fire woven from shock, ecstasy, longing, and unwillingness.
His fists were tightly clenched beneath his wide sleeves.
Elder Mu's words still echoed in his ears.
"Let things take their natural course."
Let things take their natural course?
Yan Shaozhe chewed on these four words bitterly in his heart.
How could it be possible to let things take their natural course?
'Elder Mu... he is too old.'
This disrespectful thought emerged uncontrollably from the bottom of his heart.
'He has stood at the peak of the continent for too long, and he has become accustomed to viewing problems from the perspective of decades or centuries. He has enough patience to wait for a Genius to slowly grow, and to wait for so-called sense of belonging to slowly ferment.'
'However, we cannot afford to wait; Shrek cannot afford to wait.'
In his mind, the image of Elder Mu's hunched figure, appearing as if it could collapse at any moment, involuntarily surfaced.
The pillar of the academy was already tottering.
Although Elder Xuan was powerful, the flaw in his Martial Soul was a natural chasm preventing him from reaching the realm of a Limit Douluo.
And in their generation, there was not a single person who could truly shoulder the burden.
Every time he thought of this, Yan Shaozhe's heart was filled with anxiety and heavy pressure.
Shrek Academy was like a gigantic ship, magnificent and grand on the outside, but already decayed in many places within.
Elder Mu was the ballast, the Sea-Stabilizing Needle.
Once the needle broke, how much longer could this giant ship sail steadily amidst the turbulent currents of the continent's landscape?
And now, an unprecedented hope, a hope capable of becoming the new generation's Sea-Stabilizing Needle, had just appeared.
Caelus.
twin spirits.
One was built on the foundation of the mysterious and unfathomable time, and the other was Ultimate Ice, capable of inaugurating a new era.
At less than twelve years old, he had become a four-ring Spirit Ancestor.
With such talent and such Opportunity, looking throughout the ten-thousand-year history of Shrek, besides that ancestor Tang San who created the myth, who could stand shoulder to shoulder with him?
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