Douluo Continent
The next day
Fan Lin was silently eating in the cafeteria while thinking of the next step of the plan. He now had to move to the Earthrock Alliance in three months and then complete his studies in the designated school.
That's where he is going to get his quota for the Shrek.
"Now the only thing that's left was his low cultivation. It all comes down to this."
Fan Lin thought while observing the students around him.
The final class promotion exams had ended last evening with the victory of grade one class 5 and obviously they won as Wulin came after his upgrade.
Fan Lin didn't see it as he was in the Seafood restaurant with Shi Hun.
Fan Lin ate his food and went to the assembly area. All the students in the first grade were to gather at the sports field for the grade assembly since the principal ordered them to.
A grave expression still colored Wu Zhangkong's face like normal as he brought class five to assemble at the field.
It could be said that the first grade's class one had changed now. When they arrived at the field, they attracted the gazes of all of the other classes. Most of these gazes drifted toward Tang Wulin, Xie Xie, and Gu Yue.
Of course, the most prominent one among them was Tang Wulin! The day before he had prevailed at the last moment in a desperate crisis, shocking countless people and engraving a deep impression upon their hearts due to his protagonist and Golden Dragon aura.
Long Hengxu looked towards Yu Zhen before he began speaking. "Today's first grade assembly is to announce two things. First, due to the special circumstances of this year's first grade, the victorious class will no longer be continuing with the Class Promotion Tournament, but the classes of the first grade will still be rearranged according to the results. Namely, what was originally class five is now class one. And all of the other classes have been rearranged accordingly."
Long Hengxu continued, "In light of the new class one's outstanding achievements in this tournament, the entire class will be rewarded with one meal a day from the first window for one term."
What was the first window? It served the most nourishing food! Without even speaking of the taste, it had the most benefits to their cultivation but was extremely expensive. Most families couldn't afford to feed their children a meal from the first window. One term's worth of meals from the first window was worth an extraordinary sum of money!
Just the words that one thing from 'that' window will be free literally made the class 1 die in anticipation and excitement.
Long Hengxu shouted, "Quiet down!"
It was only then that the cheering gradually subsided.
Long Hengxu resumed. "Due to the excellence of this year's first grade, the board of directors has decided to conduct a study. We are establishing an experimental class in the first grade that will be comprised of the best students in the grade. It will temporarily be called class zero, and Wu Zhangkong will be the teacher in charge. The students for class zero have already been selected. From class one, we have Tang Wulin, Xie Xie, and Gu Yue. From class two, we have Zhang Yangzi, Wang Jinxi, and Wei Xiaofeng. In the future, any other student who shows exceptional ability will also be put into class zero."
Class zero?
'It's finally been established, huh?'
Fan Lin looked at the protagonist trio and smiled.
'Now I don't have to worry about any plot derailment due to the killings that occurred. If this protagonist didn't get what he deserved, how is going to fight the super calamity that is reserved for him in the end? I am not wasting my time to deal with something someone else was supposed to deal. And I would get nothing from that as well. I would live though, that could be considered a price but still a no.'
As Fan Lin was thinking of the unknown scenarios that could occur, the director and the president continued their speech.
Long Hengxu said, "Aside from these two announcements, there are still punishments to be announced. In the match yesterday between class one and class two, both sides prioritized their comrades first and the competition second, which led to three students being seriously injured. This has raised a serious concern with the six participants. As such, they will be deprived of the tournament rewards as a punishment and warning to others."
Deprived of their reward? It would seem that for this grade's Class Promotion Tournament, even if they'd won, there would be no rewards. Their class would only be promoted!
Long Hengxu had said these words harshly, but in reality this wasn't even a punishment at all!
"President, do you have any words to say?" Long Hengxu asked, looking at Yu Zhen to his side.
Yu Zhen nodded and began speaking with a clear voice. "Students, I am sure you are all very curious as to why we established class zero. This is because the students we have picked out have already far surpassed the level of their peers. If they were to continue advancing with the other students, their talent would be buried. In summary, if you wish to shine in the future, then you must put in even more effort! I hope that I will see more students joining class zero later on, going on to become the greatest geniuses of Eastsea Academy!"
"Alright then, the assembly is over. You may all leave now. Teachers, lead your classes back. Long Hengxu will act as class one's substitute teacher until a new teacher can be found. Wu Zhangkong and the students of class zero will remain here."
Filled with shock, admiration, envy, and regret, the students of the five classes returned to their classrooms, leaving only the president as well as those of the newly established class zero.
And finally it ended.
Fan Lin took a last look at Wulin and the others and left.
'Things are going according to the plot and I would be able to benefit one more time if it goes like this till the Shrek arc.'
'After that, I don't know anything so it doesn't matter even if all the others somehow die, I will strive for what I want. It's not like the protagonist and the others would just die like that.'
Fan Lin went to his new classroom with new students as the students had just been shuffled according to their cultivational strength and aptitude. Basically nothing changed for the other students, except they would get a free meal from the first window, only for a semester though.
'Life is fair and hard.'
And his normal classes continued with a new teacher.
....
The same day.
Eastsea Park.
Fan Lin went to his secluded place that he had been using for his training and sleep.
He gently took out his shirt and placed it on a safe place.
He began his training.
Today's training was three thousand sit-ups, three thousand pull ups and three thousand kicks and punches thrown to the tree.
He needed to completely tire his body out of every single ounce of extra energy or he would die.
[The people who had read the previous book must know where this is going.]
And there was a reason for it as well...
His Energy body.
Nearly three and a half months ago, Fan Lin came to the Eastsea City and got his first Spirit Soul Pheonix tailed Crest Serpent when he heard about the Shrek's admissions, totally missing the ten year old Datura snake.
He wanted to use the Pheonix tailed Crest Serpent as a way to enhance his speed and use Half energy serum as a base for his admission. He wanted the basic physical abilities that was supposed to come with the Half energy serum that they once thought of.
Fan Lin was then duped by the God and had his first Spirit Soul ability changed to Enhanced digestion; which clashed directly with his Half energy serum plans as he didn't needed it now due to his first Spirit Soul ability.
And the most infuriating thing was that it was an active skill, meaning Fan Lin had to not just activate it every time he wanted to use it but he had to keep it active if he wanted to use it for longer times.
Fan Lin still brought the things to create the Half energy serum to double the so called meditation benefits of his first spirit soul skill but it backfired.
More than he could anticipate at that.
The moment he understood the effect of the Half Energy serum on his body had, he knew that he made a mistake.
The serum did grant him the benefits of increased cultivation and a pseudo energy body but it was a double aged sword.
Since his new body was able to digest everything, while increasing the absorption rate of the food to 100 percentage and ensuring that the harmful substances doesn't harm the body, it created a bigger problem, where would the excess energy go to.
He could perfectly absorb the nutrition from the food but the food in the Douluo world also have spiritual energy in it, adding to the higher nutritional potency and he was doomed as his digestion absorbed everything but his body has a limited space to keep the energy and an even lower need for energy to function properly.
Which leads to the fact that if the energy is not spent before his vessel aka body is full, he would die, and energy implosion that would destroy all of his energy veins and blood vessels would occur.
The Half energy serum, just like his name was incomplete.
This realisation happened in the first month of his coming to the Eastsea City, that is the third week of the month, at that time, he had no choice but to lower his intake of food to survive.
But Fan Lin didn't have the luxury to vent his emotions, mainly anger, he had a dream to complete, a goal to achieve and a planet to destroy(this was a joke).
He immediately thought of completing the Half energy serum, that is to make it complete energy serum or Energy Serum.
Basically he needed to create an Energy vessel in the body that could hold excessive energy gained from the food and cultivation.
That's the Energy body that he planned of.
So he compiled all his knowledge to create a plan to create the Energy Serum to further enhance his body.
With his knowledge and pill knowledge from the various other people of the Douluo Mainland that he got with the help of Shi Hun and the informer Yun Woo, he was able to create the perfect plan in three days.
He once again ordered everything through Shi Hun, got his stuff and began creating his new Energy Serum.
It took half a month to create it successfully after multiple failures but he succeeded at last.
He took the Energy serum and got the surprise of his life.
[Soul skill- Enhanced Digestion evolved to Ultimate digestion.
Ultimate digestion: Digestion increased by 700%. ]
"So, it still didn't reach the perfect Energy body."
*Haa* (sigh)
Fan Lin sighed in inner frustration.
Nearly two months of his year has been already wasted and he hadn't made any progress in his cultivation.
"But what does the increase to 700% even do? I can already digest 100 percent of the food's benefits. Nothing more to absorb. No nutrition, no energy, nothing."
Fan Lin didn't knew of the significance of his new skill at that time.
He had no knowledge about it but he would soon realise.
A few days after that, Fan Lin realised the significance of his changed First Spirit Soul ability and he was a little devastated.
It was terrifying. The food was digested at a speed far faster than his normal digestion speed; his normal speed which was already far faster than many. And the after effects were also increased. The amount of soul energy he could accumulate increased by 14 times but the downside being the overcharged state got longer and more dangerous.
'It is a slow death. Instead of my body exploding in a mush of organs and flesh, only my artilleries would burst, an implosion instead of an explosion causing cellular damage that would decrease my lifespan and body's limit.
'But at least it was a small success in regards that I do have a energy vessel that can store 14 times my normal energy, but the downside is that it is connected to my cultivation energy source as well.
Or it could be that I somehow connected my cultivation energy storage source, my Dantian, as a energy storage for my food.
Basically, what I eat went to my body and what I cultivated went to my cultivation energy storage source or Dantian as what the people here say.
Now the energy from what I eat is going to my Dantian as well as my body instead of just my body.
But that means my Dantian is 14 times bigger now. That's a problem, I already have difficulty in cultivation and now I have increased it, cuz bigger storage must mean higher energy requirements to fill it.
"Duck my life."
He murmured. Unknown to him, he hadn't connected his dantian to his body, his whole body was his dantian or Energy vessel in simple terms.
Fan Lin thought that whatever he ate was going to his dantian instead of his body but since his body and dantian were the same, it was normal for it to happen.
It was also this reason why his energy vessel was 14 times bigger. His body was the energy vessel! Every part of it.
Three weeks later, Fan Lin caused the massacre and it was also the night where he seriously cultivated for the first time and also the time where he realised the benefits of his new skill although it came with a cost.
His three months plan happened as following:
The first month was spent on creating the massacre plan, to get materials, to create the Half energy serum, Energy Serum (pseudo).
The second month was spent on implementing the plan, making sure everything is done well, hiding his traces, getting the quota, new school and other things.
Two weeks have gone by of the third month, the first week was the massacre and the second week was the present time.
To be precise, it was the sixth day of the second week.
And Fan Lin had been eating tomatoes for the past months. It was the bare minimum that he did to stop his Half energy body and later his new Energy body from exploding.
For the past few weeks, he had been slowly training his body to reach that optimum level where he could eat as much as he could and have the physique to completely deplete his excess energy.
For that, he needed a body that wouldn't tire out that easily, because the moment he activated his first Spirit Soul ability, stopping to deplete his energy is death as the most extreme, and broken vessels as the least 'punishment' for his greed of getting everything faster.
So after months of preparing his body, he was ready to start his arduous workout to live and to increase his cultivation.
"This is my first actual day in the workout by the way, so in case I die, it would be stupid decision on my part."
Fan Lin said out loud and began his training.
A fully bloodied Fan Lin was heavily heaving while lying in a pool of blood and wood, his first white spirit soul and spirit skill was activated as his Pheonix Tailed Crest Serpent was slowly slithering around him while looking at Fan Lin at regular intervals.
He was breathing weakly but the shine in his eyes was something that he couldn't hide.
He would have screamed in both happiness and terror... if he could but his throat and mouth were nearly crushed.
The only thing that he could do was think and flap his legs.
' I survived!'
'I really survived!'
Fan Lin thought while slowly closing his eyes. He had succeeded in surviving the first energy implosion of his energy body.
His body completed his three thousand 3x exercise but even that wasn't enough to depleted the excess energy that he had due to the excess eating that he did and his muscles were dead tired despite the energy that it had.
So at that time, only one thing came to his mind: 😑Death, take me in your arms.'
And Fan Lin's body imploded...
And began healing at a rapidly rate while imploding. His body was basically breaking down and recovering at the same time.
This continued for an hour before the final implosion ended and his body was slowly healing from the aftermath of the implosions.
Fan Lin layed in his pool of blood breathing his not so final breaths.
He was dead tired, mentally and physically but one good thing that happened was that the first implosion destroyed his nervous system disabling his pain receptors, so he didn't feel anything till the time the healing process started and then, Fan Lin experienced the type of pain which came and went without notice for an hour before it ended.
He took back his soul power and his spirit soul vanished and so did the effects of his spirit skill.
He had succeeded in keeping his life. He closed his eyes and began to meditate.
A few hours later.
Fan Lin stopped his meditation and looked at the dense canopy of the trees surrounding him.
''It's still night-time. Good.''
Fan Lin commented while looking at the moonlight that was peering through the gaps in the dense canopy of the trees.
His body was healed to the point where he didn't feel any pain or showed signs of bleedings/bruises on him.
The only remaining things that proved that he wasn't dreaming was the pool of blood and his ripped up pants fully dipped in the blood.
Fan Lin stood up from the blood pool and went towards his stuff while taking out his pants.
'I bled quite a lot there. So the continuous healing created new blood which was thrown out by the continuous implosion.'
'Thank God, it's not explosion or even my healing wouldn't have matter cuz I would have blown to pieces before the regeneration could even start.'
'At least the healing factor of the Energy body was achieved, although its lot lesser in ability than I imagined.'
'...'
'It's not like everything is happening according to how I imagined them to happen.'
Fan Lin thought while cleaning the blood stains and wearing a new set of clothes.
The one he took out the previous day was his school uniform, he still needed it as he just had two sets of it.
'Now onto the main question, how much did I gain for nearly dying and causing cellular damage to my body along with a decrease in my lifespan?'
Fan Lin took out a soul power testing tool and checked his soul power.
15.
15!
Fan Lin looked at the 15 with shock. He barely raised his cultivation by 3 small ranks in nearly three months, reaching lvl 14 not long ago and he was lvl 15 with just a single night of heavy body cultivation.
"But I don't want to do this again. Let's eat less, I would rather raise one rank a week rather than 'try hard, die young'. Life is precious, more so when it's mine own."
"What time it is?"
Fan Lin took out his soul tab to check the time and it was 4: 45 in the morning.
"I should cultivate till the dining hall opens, then return to the dorms to wash up the remaining scent of the blood before going to the classes."
Fan Lin set down to cultivate beside the blood pool.
If anyone saw him, there first thought would be that Fan Lin was an Evil Soul Master!
With the succeeding thoughts of 'let's report him to the authorities' and ' did he saw my face😳? I am in danger😱!'
And what would have Fan Lin even answered when asked where the blood came from?
'It was created as I was cultivating with my spirit skill😊. He he.'
Just that would have been warranted in him being branded as an Evil Soul Master without any clarifications or appeals.
But since Fan Lin was cultivating in the deeper parts of the Eastsea park where even the most desperate teens would dare not come, Fan Lin was safe from any spying or chance encounters.
🌤️
Dining hall.
Fan Lin began eating his food in the presence of someone he would rather avoid.
It was the protagonist stalker Gu Yue. She had been boring a hole through her gaze whenever she found him looking at Wulin.
Now Fan Lin can't help about looking at Wulin as well. He eyes always wandered to the top priority among all the cannon fodders and Wulin is that top priority.
For Fan Lin, Wulin's protagonist growth should not be messed up because Fna Lin's happy encounter was riding on the fact that Wulin safely reach that specific point in the future so he can reap the rewards.
If Wulin's protagonist growth path is delayed or even changes, Fan Lin's chance to get that happy encounter ends as well.
Fan Lin didn't want that, so now he was staring at Wulin. This however has alerted Gu Yue who is also, most of the times, staring at (stalking) Wulin.
Now this has led to the situation where Gu Yue is tearing a hole through Fan Lin's soul with her intense gaze of hatred and annoyance, both of which Fan Lin had no idea why.
And a new rumour among the girls that Fan Lin had switched his target from Wu Zhangkong to Tang Wulin and Gu Yue is trying her best to protect him.
A rumour that neither Fan Lin nor Gu Yue cared about.
They just had one simple thing that they wanted to know: Exactly what is going on in the other's mind?
They both wanted to know about each other but had no way of knowing due to no communication or information available on them.
Both were blank slates.
And continuing on that matter, Fan Lin finally ate his small breakfast because he didn't want to suffer from excessive energy burst.
Experiencing it once was enough for him and it wasn't something that he wanted to experience twice, it wasn't worth it.
'I should leave for class.'
'She eats really slow huh, I will come at a later time tomorrow or should I just skip eating at the dining hall altogether. My needs aren't that much and I can cook just fine.'
'She isn't someone that I would want to interact in any way, be it as friends or enemies.'
Fan Lin silently left the dining hall in the watchful eyes of Gu Yue and went for his classes.
...
Some trivia:
Soul power testing tool was something that anyone can buy at any soul store near them.
It was also used by teachers to regularly check the soul power of students at regular intervals, say a month or three months.
Psuedo Energy Body: Energy usage.
I forgot to add this info in this book of mine about the Psuedo Energy Body.
A person with any type of Psuedo Energy body that they gained through serums and all, have really low energy requirements.
Generally, a person with energy body requires only 2% of the energy that a regular person would need throughout their day.
A person with an energy body could survive 50 days on the same amount of food that a regular person intakes for his daily activities.
This is the main reason for the excess energy for people with energy body (Fan Lin) eating a normal meal is like a regular person eating 50 times their normal meal.
That much is enough to kill you, if you can eat that much to begin with.
So when Fan Lin eats anything like a plate of veggies and a bowl of rice, just that is enough to keep him full active for weeks and this is without his spirit skill usage.
When he uses his spirit skill, the food is digested in mere minutes, producing 50 times the energy and nutrition that Fan Lin's body requires, this causes over-nutrition and in the worst case death.
And this increases with the amount of food Fan eats/intakes. So the 50 times becomes 100 or even thousands depending on how much or how qualitative the food he eats.
So in summary, Fan Lin energy requirements are really low, basically he is a semi immortal, can live for months with just jar of honey.
Also I will keep adding trivia as I reread the novel, I realised that many things are not properly explained to people who had never read Dalu Douluo or The legend of the Dragon king.
So yeah, bye.
Your author.