"Who is that?!"
"Beast God? The strongest soul beast in the world?! Why is he here?"
"Is he... fighting for us?"
"He's so strong!"
Not everyone in Shrek Academy knew about the truce between the school and the Great Star Dou Forest, only the higher-ups and specifically qualified students had the right to know. So they were quickly baffled by the appearance of Beast God just after the sudden death of their Pavilion Master.
Xuan Zi and the others landed back in the Sea God Pavilion, their faces solemn as they watched Beast God easily decimate the group of evil soul masters with his expert use over spatial power and ultimate darkness.
Xuan Zi bitterly smiled. "So he was holding back this much... we've really underestimated Di Tian. No wonder Mu En told us to never anger him. If he can wipe out those evil soul masters nonchalantly, then what happens if we earn his wrath?"
Xuan Zi started imagining a black hole appearing in the Sea God Pavilion and started swallowing both the school and the city, killing millions of people within a few breaths.
The only one who could fight back against Di Tian would be a Limit Douluo, but now, there was no longer one in Shrek Academy.
For a brief moment, Xuan Zi contemplated taking his own life to repay those he wronged and let down but he quickly slapped himself, calming down.
'Stronger. I need to get stronger! I'm a rank 98 Transcendent Douluo, yet I couldn't even help prevent the many problems happening in my life. What's the point of my life if I can't even save people?!' Xuan Zi's eyes turned bloodshot, he clenched his fists tightly to the point of bleeding.
He was done running away from his problems.
He remembered his duty, his purpose when he accepted the title of Elder in the Sea God Pavilion.
He wanted to become an elder of Shrek Academy because he wanted to protect others! To guide others in the path of justice, to make monsters become unrivaled!
Xuan Zi's vigor and resolve reawakened at this moment. No longer a weight pressing him down, it became a blade sharpening his will.
Deep within his body, the sounds of shackles began to stir. Its bindings slightly loosened.
In the path of cultivation, accumulating energy and comprehending the laws of the world isn't everything.
It was improving oneself, to change, to break through their struggles and inner demons — to confront the fear, pain, and failure that chain the soul tighter than any lack of talent ever could.
This was the true essence of transcending mortality: not just power, but evolution of the self.
In another timeline, Mu En would've died peacefully a year later. Xuan Zi would reluctantly become the new Pavilion Master and wouldn't face his mistakes and helplessness in the grand scheme of things, stagnating for years until Huo Yuhao brought him a particularly strong drug that would help him achieve a breakthrough towards Limit Douluo.
He wouldn't experience the loss of an old friend being murdered and he wouldn't understand what it truly meant to carry the will of someone who gave their life for others.
As a cultivator, how can you be lazy and melancholic? You must fight for it! You must work hard! You must be motivated!
Xuan Zi closed his eyes at this moment, feeling a sense of enlightenment had hit him.
Suddenly space behind him cracked and out came Huo Yuhao with a solemn look on his face, and unexpectedly Bi Ji came alongside him as well.
"Yuhao? Is that really—?" Xuan Zi and the others turned to him in surprise.
Huo Yuhao nodded with a forced smile. "Yeah, it's the real me. My shadow clone popped the moment it sensed the auras of those Evil Soul Masters. What happened? Are there any casualties? Miss Bi Ji here can help."
Xuan Zi explained the entire situation to him.
"EVIL SOUL MASTERS!" Huo Yuhao had a ferocious look on his face, his Sharingan eyes shone in a bloody light.
That was his teacher! Although it had only been a year, Mu En had taught him everything that there was of a soul master up to a Limit Douluo.
He had taught him more about the world of soul masters than anyone else and helped him develop light-based techniques, improving some of his Light magic, and helped him develop more control over his spiritual power.
So hearing that he had died by a single swing, Huo Yuhao was naturally pissed.
'If I had come a bit sooner! Di Tian would've blocked those bastards and teacher Mu wouldn't have to sacrifice his body and everything else. If his body had at least remained, I could've resurrected him with Edo Tensei! And completely resurrected him with my Eye of Destiny,' Huo Yuhao blankly stared at the place where Mu En's corpse had fallen, only, it had long since dissipated into golden specks gradually disappearing.
Huo Yuhao had many techniques related to resurrecting someone from the dead, even making them immortal or bringing them back to their prime.
This was the accumulated knowledge of two worlds! A world of Shinobi and a world of Knights and Magic. Top-tier and forbidden techniques from those worlds are easily accessible to him all because of the two old souls that had reached the pinnacle of those worlds.
If Huo Yuhao really wanted to, he might even lay claim to becoming the God of Death!
Although he would try bragging about becoming a God, that realm was still too far away for him to think too much about right now.
"Yuhao. What is Beast God and Miss Bi Ji doing here? I mean, I appreciate Di Tian's assistance, but..." Xuan Zi slowly said, glancing at Bi Ji.
Bi Ji politely bowed at him, a saddened look in her eyes and said. "As allies, we must help each other in times of need. Di Tian stepped up in order to show his, no, the forest's sincerity. Which is why I came as well in order to help any casualties.
Also...my condolences. Although I didn't know him all that well, the holy light he released couldn't hide his personality. It was...warm, full of compassion and love. As expected of someone who has the Light Holy Dragon martial soul."
Xuan Zi and the rest were taken aback for a moment before Mu En's death finally hit them. Tears and sounds of grief finally broke the strained silence that had gripped the Sea God Pavilion members.
Some wept openly—Yan Shaozhe and Cai Mei'er, his first generation disciples who once trained under Mu En's strict but kind guidance, others who had only known him from afar but always felt his presence like a pillar holding up the sky.
At this moment, the rest of the inner courtyard students gradually gathered around the elders. Upon hearing the clarification of Mu En's death they, too, were shaken to their core.
Some students collapsed to their knees in disbelief. Others covered their mouths, eyes wide with horror, not wanting to accept it. The atmosphere was thick with mourning, sorrow rolling through the Sea God Pavilion like an unstoppable tide.
Mu En had hidden himself from the world for years, to the point that even most teachers and the outer courtyard students don't know his name. If they had met Xuan Zi, they would've thought that he was the Pavilion Master.
They only knew that there was a mysterious Pavilion Master resting in the Sea God Island, silently protecting and managing the school and the city.
The title of Pavilion Master was something that only the strongest in the entire academy could have, they've all met Yan Shaozhe and Xian Lin'er, both deans and are at Transcendent Douluo level! What kind of powerful person might they be to have authority higher than a Transcendent Douluo?
Moreover, they all saw how he valiantly tried to fight back against the Evil Soul Master and even sacrificed what was left of him to construct a powerful barrier to protect them all.
How could they not admire and respect such a man? They might not know him, but they all mourn for losing such a heroic person.
"Nooo! No! Great-grandfather! I...!" Bei Bei, Mu En's last descendant, stumbled into the courtyard, his face pale, eyes wild with disbelief as he forced his way through the crowd of students.
He dropped to his knees near the spot where Mu En had released his final light, punching the stone tiles until his fists bled.
"I was too late...! I should've been here! I SHOULD'VE BEEN HERE! AAAAAH! DAMN IT!!"
Tears streamed down his face, raw and unfiltered. The ever-calm, ever-composed Bei Bei, an "elder" of the Akatsuki Sect and respected figure within the academy, now looked like a broken young man—just a grieving boy who'd lost the last of his family.
"Yuhao..." Wang Dong'er, Xiao Xiao, Ning Tian, and the rest of his friends walked up beside him. Tears rolled down their faces, some of them sniffing.
"What's going to happen now?" Xiao Xiao muttered, looking confused.
"....I don't know," Huo Yuhao replied with a bitter smile and looked up, covering his eyes with his right hand, a single teardrop trickled down his cheek.
"Ah. It looks like it's beginning to rain..."
There was a long period of silence.