Douluo Continent
Shrek City.
Spirit Pagoda Headquarters.
Spirit Soul Tower.
Some time ago.
Fan Lin was quietly sitting in the middle of the Spirit Soul Tower challenge floor that Qiangu Dongfeng had specially prepared for him.
In this floor, Fan Lin was the defender and the soul beasts would play the role of the challenger aka the reverse of normal Spirit Soul Tower challenge.
In simpler words, for those that have trouble understanding, all of Fan Lin battles will happen on the same arena while different soul beasts pertaining to different floors will be sent to Fan Lin to duke it out.
This was due to the fact that Fan Lin's situation was different and Qiangu Dongfeng didn't want anyone to know about the fighting prowess/potential of Fan Lin. That would be a serious detrimental to his plan of turning Fan Lin into an auxiliary tool.
Hence he prepared this special arena for Fan Lin. Since all the battle data and recordings were from a single source(room), Qiangu Dongfeng could easily delete Fan Lin's data and then frame it as a necessary step to protect Fan Lin's 'privacy'.
Fan Lin didn't care about that though. And yeah, he knew about it.
His controlled Pagoda members were already spread in all the parts of the Spirit Pagoda Headquarters, be it cleaners, researchers, guards, officials, receptionist, Qiangu Dongfeng's men, the Council elders' special officials and even the technicians and secretaries.
At the current moment, Fan Lin had control over 2/5 of the Pagoda's staff and he was slowly increasing his control over more and more people whenever he came to the Pagoda.
His loyal staff allowed him access to the vast amounts of information that the Spirit Pagoda had, making his plans easier than before.
But this wasn't all his loyal puppets could do, rumour spreading, cleaning Fan Lin's room and providing financial help were also some of their fields of expertise among many.
Now why was Fan Lin thinking about this?
'So what was it that I ate after my first kill?'
'It was rice with curd.'
Fan Lin was sitting in the middle of the room.
'It wasn't tasty.'
He had eaten tons of fruits before coming here.
'Humans don't taste good.'
His body was barely holding the energy that he gained from eating.
'In came the first one. I am sorry.'
Now that he was actually on the trial, his mindset felt shaky. Something was acting against it.
'Till when do I have to continue doing this?'
He wanted to leave. A gate seem to materialize in front of the wall he was facing. It was at least a 100 metres away.
'Should I stop? My plan was to lose anyways.'
He was conflicted. The gate opened. The soul beast saw the weak looking dumb human. It decided to use the opportunity to deliver the first strike on a foe that was unprepared.
'I am not feeling well.'
He was scared. The soul beasts wasn't. It had already decided on its actions and attacked Fan Lin. It's teeth had just scratched the hard flesh of Fan Lin, the world turned bright.
'I knew it. The more I do this, I more I don't want to continue. I have t–'
His body vanished in the blinding burst of light. So did the soul beast. The room turned bright, the flooring completely destroyed. Destroyed by the destructive force of pure energy that was ravaging everything around him.
It was quite obvious that the source of the energy storm was Fan Lin but what caused it?
"-too enter the Dead Calm state."
He thought as not even a second later, his body began to repair itself on top of the damages of the energy storm.
[I know.]
Calmness returned to his eyes as he used his Three Word Battle Armour to cover his naked body while using his energy manipulation skill to shelter himself for the energy storm.
[Pathetic.]
His Petrosapien physique provided him with Energy manipulation along with the various other abilities but Fan Lin seldom used them.
[Useless.]
This was due to the fact that Energy manipulation made Energy combustion training useless. If he used it, he would have no problem with the nullifying the energy damaging his body but that also nullified the soul power gain that he got through each bout of energy combustion training, thus making the training useless.
And Fan Lin was plenty strong... due to his Crystallokinesis, so much that he didn't need to use any of his third skill's abilities that much, be it the Spirit Ascension platform, class battles or any other fight because his second skill was enough.
Energy manipulation, in its own was useless due to his semi human body. He still hasn't unlocked the complete Petrosapien physique skill, making the energy manipulation dependent on his second skill Crystallokinesis.
His crystal were one of the few things that he had complete control of, and pair it with Energy manipulation, he had a complete control of the energy inside his crystals.
But Fan Lin could not use his second skill. He said he had lost it. The world thinks so as well. He had to make sure that the world continue thinking that by hiding his really conspicuous green Crystallokinesis.
Hence Energy manipulation, in its own, was not that useful due to his semi human body. That's a fact.
[Weak.]
Another beast came but died before it could reach him. And then another one.
'l.-.l'
A new soul beast came. An illusionary moth looking translucent Butterfly winged creature.
Unlike it's previous 'friends', this one seemed unfazed by the rampaging Energy storm that seem to never stop.
It stared at Fan Lin for a while before appearing just a few inches away from his face.
It shouldn't have.
[Slaughter Intent]
It died and Fan Lin was also released from his emotionless state. Forcefully. Without his own accord at that.
'I am calm now.'
"But I shouldn't use intent."
'So a soul beasts that is immune to my Energy tactic. Interesting.'
"I wonder what's the next one will be?"
Fan Lin began to talk and think to himself. The emotionless state of his was like the cold water bath that he needed to calm his desires.
[Lusty person]
But unbeknownst to him, he was quite expressive in his 'emotionless state'. A poor choice of name, just like his wait for the next soul beast as none came even after a long time.
Emotions once again began to boil inside him, something nudging them to do so, as he coldly asked, completely unaware of the drama that was unveiling itself in the control room.
"When are we starting or should I take this as you surrendering to me, I win in that case, right?"
He was getting emotional and cold blooded by the moment but he didn't completely understand why? Neither was he able to control his emotions. Something had messed with his mind. Someone was playing with his thoughts.
Maybe it was his self conscience and pride that was slowing tearing his old wounds and oaths.
Or could it be his deep desire to not hurt any living beings(humans excluded)?
Maybe he wasn't as mentally prepared as he thought himself to be. He did advance the plan way ahead of its time. Time that he would have used to prepare himself. That could be the reason why his mentalilty was shaky at the moment.
Shaky enough that even small things were making him go haywire, causing doubts and despair to rise and roar.
It could also be that he was too hasty and his plan had some unfortunate flaws which Qiangu Dongfeng had gotten a hold off and he might be using it on Fan Lin.
It could be many things.
"Nah, it can not." [Fan Lin]
I am like that most of the times. I don't have a self conscience and I have steeled my heart enough with the 7 day sleep.
I couldn't be doubtful of myself at this moment, I would have delayed all this if I was. I am not that stupid to just one day wake up and do everything I hate that day.
Something's wrong with my emotions; is it this place? That could be the reason why he said he was busy preparing for the trial.
Did he think that disturbing my mind would make me weaker?
He is unfortunately right on that. I would indeed not continue and just submit to my defeat without even fighting if I didn't clear my emotions. Looks like he didn't factor this.
'Hmph!'
I am calm, even if mind isn't.
He entered the Dead Calm state. Wrong choice.
....
Fan Lin calmy sat while waiting, thinking, wondering, calming his mind, thinking again and then waiting.
His emotions were going haywire and he had been calming it down to absolute null but it wasn't helping.
Why?
Because either he jinxed it or he was unfortunate because the spiritual interference of his mind didn't stop at just one time. It continued on and now each time he became emotionless or suppressed his emotions, a few seconds later, his emotions were fiercely aroused yet again, turning into a game of cat and mouse where he was extinguishing his emotions and something was stirring it occasionally.
Fan Lin didn't care about this in the beginning but as time passed and the effects seem to worsen, he decided to just exit in and out of his dead calm state while thinking of what to eat in Bright City.
Or else he might burst in his emotions, showing what should not be seen as of that moment.
'Diversion is a good tactic but for how long? I need to finish this faster.'
He thought, still having no idea that his plan had already ended and even if he did, he would still be thinking of what to eat in Bright City because emotional control was necessary. He will kill a few thousand later when he had left the Shrek City but now he needed to be calm. There's a image he had to manage.
As for what to do now, Fan Lin was keen on leaving the Spirit Soul Tower, Spirit Pagoda Headquarters, Shrek City and even beyond. He wanted to go as far away as be could and eat his sorrows away calmly while watching the news to sooth his emotions.
That could and would be achieved if he cleared the Spirit Soul Tower to his desired level, till then - CONTROL.
Except nothing was happening according to how he wanted and his destructive impulses were going farther than chomping down on a few tomatoes while watching the news.
'I will kill him earlier than I planned. I will.'
"Sorry, we had a small problem. Would you like to continue the trial?" [Elder Yang]
A voice finally came after a while.
'Of course I would or why else would l be standing here?'
'Hmm. That is not his voice, must be someone else's then. Who cares. Let the trial start, I can't control my dark emotions for much longer; these emotions of mine are making me unleash my real self.'
'Hummmm😶'
'That was cringe! Aaaah, my mind has another dark history to add into it!'
'My childish thoughts returned!'
"En... This is a waste of time, one by one that is, anything below the two hundred thousand year old rank is not my match. Why don't we start from there? I don't have much time, I have to reach Bright City by the afternoon."
"So don't waste my time and yours as well."
Contrary to his emotional turmoil inside his mind, Fan Lin coldly replied.
He did not have the luxury to take his time and slowly ascend the floors while killing each and every soul beast that got in his way. He had to do it faster. He had to faster.
And his words weren't something that he said on a whim or something. Due to Gu Yue's information and help, Fan Lin had a rough guessing of his own strength and according to Gu Yue, Fan Lin could take on soul beasts around the 200k mark.
Her words being backed up by the fact that Fan Lin could casually create and lift more than a city worth of his Green crystals with ease
In laymen human terms, Fan Lin can casually throw a Crystallokinesis mountain the size of Germany and many times at that.
Crystallokinesis was broken. More so in his hands.
....
The voice became silent for a few seconds before another answer came.
"Okay. Then we will start the trial from floor 68 in ten seconds. Hope you can survive." [Elder Yang]
'Finally!' [Fan Lin]
Fan Lin got ready, the soul power inside his body began to churn and burn and slither like the snakes of lightning while he once again entered his Dead calm state because harming soul beasts without it was beyond difficult for him.
And then Fan Lin waited, waited with baited breaths as nothing happened even after 10 seconds.
'Are they playing with my psyche?'
'Luring me in and out?'
'Or are they waiting for my destabilized state of mind to begin? On that note, ain't I just delaying this by stopping my emotions and in turn stopping their plans.'
*sigh*
"What happened now?" [Fan Lin]
Fan Lin calmy asked with a sigh.
"...Sorry. We just had some guests. We cna start now."
"Battle conditions have changed, survive the Golden armored Armadillo for 3 mins, you can proceed to the next floor."
The voice said again but this time Fan Lin was quite doubtful about the authenticity of the words... so he waited for the soul beast to come.
'What else can I do?'
'But so many interruptions huh? Something must have happened... I will care about that later.'
He thought, his gaze fixed at the place where the soul beast gate should open. And thankfully, illusionary patterns began to form as a familiar gate finally opened and from it came a weird armadillo with gold plating and wings. Three pairs of cicada wings.
Fan Lin once again ceased his emotions, entering his dead calm state and preparing to attack the armadillo but the Armadillo didn't seem to be keen on allowing Fan Lin the chance to do so.
It had already lept into action while Fan Lin was preparing his mind.
[Fa-]
'-st'
Fan Lin couldn't even properly think as he was forcefully put out of his dead calm state and stood there like a statue, giving enough time for the armadillo's attack to impale him.
'That felt targeted.'
He took the attack head on while once again entering into Dead Calm and unleashing a bit of his intent causing the armadillo to back away.
[Enough]
And then 'Fan Lin', irritated for reasons unknown, impaled the Armadillo to death with the energy spear.
The dead calm state broke once again and his body was fine. His Battle Armor remained undamaged.
'Now I just need to act like a peacock and seduce the attention... something about my wording irks me out. Is it a side effects of my emotional turmoil?'
Fan Lin wondered about the battle he had just taken part in. Again, like a drug addict.
The Golden armadillo entered through the gate and the energy storm didn't faze it that much.
Fan Lin was calm though, he already knew that the energy storm won't be effective for stronger soul beasts because,
'Gu Yue's attack was stronger than this.'
But that all didn't matter as Fan Lin's Trump card was never the energy storm or his regeneration or Three Word Battle Armor, it was something else, something quite simple.
The Golden Armadillo didn't waste any time and attacked Fan Lin from all sides, spikes from the ground to restrict his movement and damage, air cutters from above to restrict his aerial movement and damage and finally a physical attack from the front.
The Golden Armadillo didn't want to give Fan Lin an opportunity to strike or counterattack. It was all in on the output.
Except due to not being mentally fit, Fan Lin got the brunt of the first two attacks while successfully thwarting the third attack through his intent followed by his Blue Silver Spear attack on the Golden Armadillo that had just backed down.
[75th floor cleared]
It was a simple and boring battle. Simple enough that writing more would be just adding filler, plus it was a cannon fodder so we will just focus on Fan Lin's mental state and some other vital information while sprinkling some parts of Golden Armadillo in the scenario.
With that, let's move on the slightly interesting part.
Fan Lin just used his Blue Silver Energy Spear's degraded version Blue Silver Spear again. It was the same skill but less power due to missing a noun.
But that wasn't interesting, it was the fact that Fan Lin used the Blue Silver Energy Spear when he had already told the Spirit Pagoda that he is unable to use his past skills.
It was another matter that he had told Qiangu Dongfeng that his Boundless Ring has different skills according to different environment but that didn't answer the current question for the others. Questions like,
How was Fan Lin able to do that when he didn't have his previous soul skills?
Or
Why did he do that when he was supposed to be hiding his skills?
Is he stupid?
He is.
But that was not the point that we will focus. The crucial thing was: how would a person from Spirit Pagoda would react to that, now that it was already shown?
"Can I ask what that attack was?" [Elder Yang]
And as expected, the question came.
"Later. Send the next one." [Fan Lin]
Fan Lin coldly closed the conversation. Now was not the time for debates and explanations, that was for later. Later when he was out of the Spirit Soul Tower and without any kinds of mental unstablility.
The pressing issue was to hurriedly leave the Spirit Soul Tower before his emotions got out of control and he does something stupid because he was still in the thinking that the Spirit Soul Tower arena was the one which
was messing with his mind.
"80th floor. The same conditions as before." [Elder Yang]
As the voice ended, a ten second timer appeared in front of Fan Lin.
'The Spirit Soul Tower is becoming bothersome.'
A new gate opened once again.