Karni and Siduo finished cultivation at the same time. Their cultivation was connected, so it was natural to finish together.
They opened their eyes. "Ew." Siduo was the first to announce.
"Disgusting." Karni also said, looking at the water they were in. It was dark greyish green. The two stood up and stepped out of the bathwater as fast as possible. Their clothes were of different colour than originally. Siduo's bright red dress was now barely red, mostly grey. The only red part was the top half, yet even that had lost its colour.
Karni also noticed his chest. It was blackened in many places, like it had just been through mud. He turned to Siduo, her back was basically the same. Black liquid covering her in multiple spots.
Siduo suddenly gagged. Karni turned to her. "I'm going to your room!" She rushed out of the bath. Karni looked confused. He cleared his nostrils through Soul Power, since it felt stuck. Then he breathed.
"Eghugh." He almost puked. Gods! The smell! He started rushing to his own room too, before stopping, quickly opening the window, and then rushing to his room.
He went into the bathroom, and it was open… Siduo did not undress, knowing Karni would follow. The smell was bad, but at least it was better. It was mixed with soap.
She looked at him. "Get in here already! I can smell you from there." She opened the shower, threw him in, then went out. She was not willing to smell Karni's stench right now.
She smelled herself. Cringed a bit. She still hadn't gotten rid of all of the smell, but it was better than before at the very least.
After 5 minutes, when Karni washed off the worst of it, she went back in the shower. And the two scrubbed, and they scrubbed hard. Despite getting rid of the worst, they could still smell it through the shampoo.
… … …
After two hours, they stepped out, finally fully rid of the smell. The worst part was their hair. It was difficult to clean with all of that stench stuck in them.
They looked at each other. Karni said in a serious tone. "Now it's time for war." The fact they showered together, alone, for two hours, didn't even cross their minds. That was how bad the stench was. All they thought off was the fact they'd now have to clean Siduo's bathroom as well.
They gathered as much cleaning equipment as they could from Karni's room, put on some masks to clothe the smell before going over the plan. A war plan.
Siduo started. "I'll grab my storage ring first, I have two gas masks in there. You look for more cleaning things. They should be under my sink in the kitchen area."
Karni nodded. "I opened the window, but based on how badly we had to scrub ourselves, and the fact I forgot to release the bath water, the stench will be just as bad."
Siduo nodded. Their plan of war was made. It was a winning strategy—or at least they convinced themselves it was, otherwise, they might just not have the will to try it.
They stepped out of Karni's room and after a bit of walking got to Siduo's room. Thankfully, the students were in class at this time, so when they ran to Karni's room originally, as well as now that they walked to Siduo's room, ready for war, no one was here to judge them for their uncanny behaviour.
They stood in front of the door, both taking a big breath, before stepping in. The bathroom door was closed, and the bathroom window was open, but the stench in the living room area was still awful.
They grabbed what they had to grab, Siduo's gas mask turned out to be of great help. Manufacturing often required a mask, if one didn't want particles of metal in their body.
And so they started with the bathroom. Flushing out the water, before starting to scrub out the bathtub.
… … …
4 hours they had been at it. But the stench still wasn't gone. The problem was, the place was squeaky clean. The smell attached itself in everything.
Siduo sat in her living room, the gas mask still on. Even here, they were unable to get rid of the smell fully.
"Kiki…" Siduo turned to Karni. "Can I crash at your place for a week? I'm gonna renovate the apartment."
Most types of medicine didn't leave that much filth after using them, even when they did purify. In fact, this was the very reason why this medicine was 99 percent of the time consumed with the help of intercourse, instead of their method. At most, they would have to air out the room, change the sheets and clean themselves after an active night. But three days of constant, slow consummation of medicine… Well, this was the end result. A need for new furniture.
Karni nodded. "No problem, I'll buy one of those couches that turns into a bed."
Siduo released a muffled sigh. "Thanks. Let's go to your room. The mask is getting stuffy."
As soon as they stepped out of her room, they put the masks off and breathed. Ah. Fresh air.
They quickly went to buy a couch for Siduo, before putting it in Karni's room, replacing the old couch. Now that most of the things were taken care off, they relaxed. Siduo refused to deal with the room today—she was too shaken by the smell.
Karni asked, with a bit of an odd voice. "How… did it go? How was your cultivation?"
Siduo checked herself. "Rank 47. A single increase. Not that much, though my Spirit Souls got quite a decent boost. The Nether Cat is now at about 5000 points, the Diamond Tiger is close to a breakthrough at around 9500 points. I'll have to hold back on that one for a bit if I'm honest. I need to save my power for a 10k Spirit Soul for the Hell Cat."
This was also part of the stench. The Spirit Souls were also boosted, which caused the body to release the excess energy.
This was in fact the primary function of the pills. On their own, they purified and increased the Soul Power. Together, they affected the Spirit Souls as well.
Karni nodded absentmindedly. "Yeah. I thought so."
"Kiki? Is everything okay?"
Karni nodded. "Yeah. I reached rank 46, my energy flow seems much smoother as well. It's just…" He sighed. "Hopper got an increase of around 2000. He's now at…" he mentally talked to Hopper. "25,230… 234 years of cultivation." Hop was a precise dude.
Siduo nodded. Solaria was at around the same point now.
"Yeah, well get this. Hope is stuck at around 2600…" he heard a voice complaining inside, "and 58. 2658 years of cultivation." Hopper liked to be exact even when it came to other people. He was almost protective of Hope after this odd phenomenon—he was just as confused as Karni.
"Wait. It gained that little?"
Karni shook his head. "No. She stopped growing about halfway through our cultivation."
Siduo looked confused. Perhaps for the first time, when it came to a problem he had, there was genuine confusion as to what could be the problem.
"The funny thing is," Karni continued, "I saw a brief vision of a giant snake the moment Hope stopped growing."
Siduo nodded, as if that would be something natural. "So how come it stopped growing?"
"Well, that was my question."
"Let's go to the library." Siduo offered. "Shrek has notes on almost all Soul Beasts in existence. It should have something on the All-Seeing Rattlesnake as well. It's one of the few Soul Beasts that aren't on the brink of extinction yet. There has to be something.
So they went to the library. And indeed, the All-Seeing Rattlesnake was often mentioned as one of the few Soul Beasts to not have trouble surviving in this age. There were two reasons. One, properties which they offered rarely suited most Soul Masters, and were so specific that they couldn't be used as general companions; and two, these very properties offered them high abilities of survival. Highly acclaimed researchers of the past and present had noted large colonies, but those who could actually benefit from the snakes, had trouble finding them, due to the snake's future sight. They ran away from people who meant them harm.
The abilities were well described as well. Future sight, which worked mostly through their eyes and sound control. Both of the abilities were kind of weak. And Karni agreed with that. He had to learn and comprehend the properties of Sound on his own. The ability itself had to be used in a unique way to have good effects: like putting sound into the Bo Staff. The very first thing he did.
But that was the only thing that the books wrote about. Only after shifting to a book called "Rare Conditions of Soul Beasts", in which the All-Seeing Rattlesnake was also included, did he notice an oddity.
He read: "The All-Seeing Rattlesnake do not have any special abilities, yet the one thing they have, that only a few other rare species have, is a limit. In history, a Rattlesnake on the 10,000-year cultivation level has never been observed." It was a short entry, where most of the page was filled with art instead. It captures the three stages of the snake: White, Yellow and Purple, quite well.
"This offers some speculation on what would happen if they broke this barrier. The two well-known plants, the Thunderclap Nether Vines and their cousins, the Mercury Cyclone Flowers, are known to be self-destructive, incapable of reaching the rank of Hundred Thousand Years, rarely even going past Fifty Thousand. It is speculated that this is due to their overwhelming power, and the danger of awakening the power of gods through their bloodlines. The plane of Douluo is limiting them. One must wonder if this is the case here as well, or if it is a genetic disadvantage of the species."
Karni looked at the source. It cited a "Time Snake Douluo's Records of Snakes." A Shrek Elder from some 2000 years ago.
Karni put down the book and went to look for the cited book. It didn't take too long to find it. The library was, like any library, well sorted.
He looked at the index. There were an incredible amount of species listed in here, but the few snakes that were known for their connection to time had the largest sections. In fact, the All-Seeing Rattlesnake had the greatest number of pages dedicated to it. A whole section within there was dedicated to their limit. "The 10,000 Year Limit of All-Seeing Rattlesnakes".
He opened at the start of the section. Just like Karni, this Soul Master from 2000 years ago had the All-Seeing Rattlesnake as his first companion; though unlike Karni's, his was an actual Soul Beast originally.
In it he noted how, despite the loose abilities of the snake, they had incredible potential in terms of how far they could take their inner skills, as well as their flexibility. Karni found himself nodding, as that was exactly his experience as well.
Then he came to the part where the problem was described. This Soul Master encountered a Bottleneck with his Spirit Soul snake. It got stuck before the 10,000 Year mark. In his lifetime it never progressed any further.
The section went further into his investigation. The man went all around the world, visited all continents, and anywhere he went, the colonies of the All-Seeing Rattlesnakes he found all had Thousand-Year Soul Beasts as the leaders. Usually, there was even more of a council than a single Snake that ruled. Never once did he encounter a snake above 10,000 years level.
The man further researched the species. When comparing the different bloodlines, he found that the snakes had a surprisingly high-ranking bloodline for snakes. Though it wasn't particularly effective against lower bloodlines, it also was not affected by the stronger ones.
It wasn't until the Time Snake's Douluo's elderly years, when he noticed one of the colony's leading All-Seeing Rattlesnakes stand, surrounded by its companions for what was a full year of no sleeping, looking in the sky, as if waiting for some judgement to come, only for it to never appear. The snake was noted to die of old age waiting in that same spot.
From this he concluded: nature decided that the species, due to their high potential, simply wouldn't be able to evolve to a higher tier.
He looked at the next section: "Theories of Possible Evolution". The first paragraph listed all the failed experiments. And the second, shorter paragraph had only one short note.
Dragon Blood has been shown to have some effect, as the Spirit Soul seemed to be absorbing it, before it abruptly stopped and rejected it. It was the only thing it ever even got some sort of reaction from the All-Seeing Rattlesnake. In fact, the snake got intelligence from then on and was able to communicate with the Time Snake Douluo.
The third and last paragraph only had one more passage. That the evolution might require a very high bloodline, but the likes of Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon and the Holy Light Dragon were not high enough to bring out an evolution.
This was when the section ended.
Karni closed the book and thought. But why did Hope stop at the 2658 mark? What was the difference?
Siduo took the part he was just reading and read the same thing.
By the time she finished reading, Karni had a theory, not because he was a skilled researcher in the area, but because it felt like the only plausible reason. "Hope is an Artificial Spirit Soul."
Siduo looked at him, closing the book. She thought about it. "It… does seem like the only plausible answer. But Kiki, there is a clue."
"I'll talk to Wulin about the blood. Tomorrow." He stretched. "I promised to help you buy a new dress."
… … …
Mecha on one side, a motorcycle the size of a car on the other.
Two people rushed at each other. Tentacle-like whips that were sharp like razors on one side and a mecha with a Greatsword on the other.
The Greatsword swung down the middle, while the giant bike turned sideways, swiping with the whips toward the mecha.
The mecha moved with its weight, swinging wide. The Greatsword caught the whips around it. Both bodies stopped for a second. The bike started driving backwards while spinning like a tornado, twisting the whips. The mecha on the other hand… jumped.
It jumped directly towards the motorcycle, loosening the whips. It didn't jump high, but it fell down with force, swinging the sword with it, sticking it in the ground.
The bike drove up the sword—the Greatsword was big enough to support it without trouble—crashing directly into the head of the mecha.
But the head leaned, then the body leaned. The bike flew up in the air, while the mecha used the fact it started to fall to swing the Greatsword, throwing it directly at the still midair bike.
Whips swung toward the Greatsword, hooking on it, before spinning, changing the trajectory of the motorcycle's flight.
The Greatsword hit the wall and got stuck in it. Meanwhile the whole bike shifted horizontally mid-air, while its centre stayed in place and landed on the wall perfectly.
It drove down the wall, smoothly going from the corner onto the floor. Then, with whips out swinging, it charged at the mecha.
There was no way to dodge the whips, so the mecha let itself be captured. The whips flapped, throwing the bike into the mecha, except the mecha dodged perfectly to the side.
The bike landed, when the whips tightened. Tightened by the mecha, which then turned. Turning turned into spinning.
The mecha spun in the middle, while the bike was being spun around like a wheel. And the spinning sped up. Then sped up further. There was wind starting to blow in the arena due to the speed.
The mecha jumped. An imbalance appeared, the motorcycle still spun around it, but the mecha directed the bike directly into the ground.
The mecha landed. The whip released. Then the cockpit of the mecha opened, Karni breathed out. "Whew. Got ya."
Something opened with a hissing sound near the bike, which actually had its own small cockpit. Siduo got out of it. "Damn it. I need to add a function to detach the whips."
"Ugh." Karni groaned. "Yeah, that'll counter the only thing I thought up to counter you."
Siduo waved her hands. "Don't worry about it. I used a whip-like weapon in my past life. Though I'm still not completely satisfied with this one. There was a reason why I won the last 3 times."
"Any other request for revision?"
Siduo thought about it. "Not for now. Only that. I'm satisfied with how it turned out. I'll only do some revision to optimise it, but I can do that myself. How are you liking your mech?"
"It's good. It does what I want. The Greatsword does too, though I still need to work on it further." Karni criticised himself.
"Your only mistake was throwing the sword."
"Still beat you though." Karni smiled.
Siduo sighed. "One time. I won the last three rounds. And I won't get caught off guard the next time you lose your weapon."
"I'm actually working on implementing my staff next time. That way my muscle memory of throwing stuff will become a viable weapon even for a Greatsword."
Siduo shuddered. "Oh gods. I'm not looking forward to that." Then she paused. "But wait, wouldn't Shifting a whole mecha cost a bunch of Spiritual Power?"
"I can Shift the weapon instead." Karni smiled back. "But yes. Both options will be available. And if I can get the version of the Greatsword for a human working…"
"Spiritual Power usage wouldn't be a problem either." Siduo filled in his words. "How is that going by the way?"
"Better than my designs for fusing my staff with the Greatsword. In fact, I'm noticing I'll have to adapt the damn core inscription of a Battle Armour to get the effect truly going. And I'll likely have to apply the inscription to Soul Rings instead of the Martial Soul… hopefully not though, that would cause different problems as well."
Siduo cringed. "That does seem like a challenge."
The two were interrupted. Tang Wulin walked into the arena. Not an expected guest.
The two looked at each other and sighed. "We haven't changed our minds, Wulin. We'll only participate in the Profession part."
Wulin sighed, defeated. "Fine. Just don't forget to actually come tomorrow, eh? You two have been here for a whole month as if obsessed."
"Making a mecha yourself takes time." Karni answered.
"Especially when he makes me do everything myself." Siduo complained.
Tang Wulin grumbled something. Cursing. Karni heard it loud and clear. "You two lovebirds. Caring only about each other. You're on the council too you know? You didn't even interact with the second-grade presidents! Gu Yue and I had to do everything ourselves."
"I'm sorry? I didn't quite hear that." Karni said.
"I know you did! You… You definitely did." He sighed, starting to leave, giving up. "Karni, I'll see you later for testing." He said, defeated.
Siduo and Karni chuckled awkwardly, while Wulin left. There was no use. The original Shrek Seven Devils team would have to do without them. The second grade plus first grade vs the third. Karni and Siduo were some of the strongest between the second and first grade, but they just didn't care. Wulin went to the teachers about a week in. The teachers didn't help, told him to fix it on his own. Great for them.
Karni looked at the leaving Wulin. At this moment, Wulin was slightly gold. Adult and grown. Shouldering responsibilities of the world, as he was destined to.
The visions never stopped. Sounds of Future, blinks. The most time spent of him not seeing them was a week. On average he saw some sort of flashes every third day. They were getting out of hand.
"Well," Karni shrugged. "We could offer a one on one. You could at least." Karni pointed at Siduo.
Siduo looked at him. "You are the vice-president. I ain't."
"Yeah, but you actually like to battle, and have explosive power that terrifies even Wulin. And you are likely to face a Battle Armour Master as well."
Siduo groaned. That did sound fun. She did not want to regret missing out on competition like she did when Wulin got an upgrade. "Wulin. Wait."
Karni looked at Siduo telling Wulin the news. And the guy turned bright. Yeah. He'll have to carry the world on his shoulders if the academy is destroyed. And Karni… Karni had to get strong enough so something like that wouldn't happen.
But… he also wanted to just relax. While he still had his time. With Siduo. The two of them. Just enjoying… life.
If only these visions weren't constantly reminding him of what was to come.
… … …
"Nothing." Karni puked out the blood. By now he was used to it. He had had tests with Wulin ever since he first noticed the problem Hope. Despite Wulin's blood being of a God King level, it didn't help. In fact, the rejection felt stronger to Karni. Hope also didn't gain any intelligence; though that might have been due to the fact Hope was stuck at 2560 Years, instead of 9999.
Wulin patted Karni on the shoulder. "You'll figure it out eventually. Or maybe once I train my Bloodline more, it will help."
Karni thanked Wulin. It was this very exchange of theirs, that was the reason Karni even joined the third-year competition as the Representative Designer. Originally, he wanted to leave it to one of the second years.
The truth was, being the Representative Designer didn't really help Karni raise his skills in designing. And a one-time competition definitely wouldn't. Profession skills weren't like combat skills, which needed constant tempering in battles.
Karni wrote down the differences from the last time he tried to consume Wulin's blood, only to stop himself. He defeatedly wrote: "Same as last time."
In fact, this particular phrase has been repeated in his notes for 10 times now. And they did this twice a week. Only the first 6 times were his reactions different and even then, the differences were minute.
In entered a foreign person. Well, not foreign, it was Gu Yue. An unexpected guest. They were in Wulin's room, so the visit wasn't unusual per se, Karni was just surprised she didn't even knock. It appeared that the Working Students dormitory wasn't as strict about visits between women and men. At least, their rooms were right next to each other, while the regular dormitories had different buildings for men and women.
"What are you two doing?" She noticed the blood on Karni's hand, the one he just puked out.
"Well, I'm trying to consume Wulin's blood to see if it affects my Spirit Soul in any way." This was Gu Yue, the one who appeared calm most of the time, but truly? She had the temper of a beast when it came to Wulin. Karni would rather be honest than make her mad, especially now that their friendship was getting better.
"How is it supposed to help with your Spirit Soul?"
Karni brought out his Spirit Soul, Hope. "We've been trying to see how the Spirit Soul is affected by Wulin's blood for two months now."
Gu Yue took a closer look. Her eyes shined somewhat. "Oh? You have the All-Seeing Rattlesnake? Let me guess. It's stuck at the 9999-Years mark."
"No, actually, it's stuck at the 2650 mark."
Gu Yue paused. "It's an Artificial Spirit Soul."
Karni nodded, surprised she deduced this immediately. Gu Yue could see his curiosity and decided to be kind for a change, since Wulin was trying to help Karni. "The All-Seeing Rattlesnake is known in my clan. The higher members of the species helped the now extinct Dragon Clan with visions of the future. True Dragon Blood was needed for them to be able to speak, but they also needed to be at 9999 Years of cultivation. The problem was that they only stayed alive for one year once they reached that point, hence why they were so precious."
Karni took in all the knowledge. No wonder she knew about it. The snakes served the Dragon Clan itself. What an interesting choice he made at the very start of his journey.
"It seems that in your case, the fact that it's an Artificial Spirit Soul in itself has become its flaw. Due to the species' gifts, the universe limited their potential of growth."
Karni sighed. The universe… the universe itself worked against him. How ironic. It really didn't want him to go home. Or to even affect this world in that manner. Yet the visions constantly reminded him of an event he wished to—that he had to—prevent. The destruction of Shrek City.
"Any way at all that I might be able to help it cultivate? At least to a 9999 mark? It's a Spirit Soul, there might be a way to surpass the limit." He looked at Gu Yue with hope, and Hope did the same, as if knowing his feelings.
Gu Yue paused, looking at Hope for a second, before putting on a poker face. It felt like there was no difference in expression, but Karni noticed the subtlety. There was less expression. "No." She said, then left. "Wulin, come to me afterwards, we need to plan our attack strategy."
Karni looked after the leaving Gu Yue. There was a way. There was some way! Her reaction alone told him this. She was hiding something. And of all the things he knew, he unfortunately couldn't figure out what exactly might help him.
Karni stood up. "I'll let you go with Gu Yue. And we should stop this, since Gu Yue says there's nothing to do."
Wulin stood up as well. "Okay then." He sighed. "By the way, how is the design looking?"
Karni just shook his head. "More complicated than I thought. I'll need to craft the upper torso first to see how it will connect with the rest of the Battle Armour. It's not difficult on its own, it's just…" Karni sighed.
"I get it." Wulin nodded. "That piece will take a while to design and create. It is the biggest after all. Well, then I'll be leaving first."
Karni stretched. It was a shame. He was really looking forward to an early head piece of Battle Armour. Now he'll likely design it at the end. He had made a single arm piece for his left arm since then. He wasted a week on the head piece, before figuring out he would need the chest piece to really know how to proceed. The progress would slow down if he reallocated his time into the chest and head pieces.
If he did it now, he would at most be able to craft the chest and head pieces by the end of the semester. On the other hand, he could easily finish all the leg and arm pieces by the end of the semester as well. They were symmetrical, so it took less designing, and were faster to manufacture, once one of them was made before already. There was also no problem with compatibility of the metals.
Wulin would go to another continent in 4 months, at the end of the semester, so he had to think about what was more important. He needed that high quality metal.
Decisions, decisions. Karni left the room. For now, he had to prepare a design for the competition next week. He would decide after that. He went back to the Tang Sect. It was the end of the week. He could go into the time slow room in the Battle Hall again.
He had been growing steadily through cultivation and comprehension. The Battle Hall room was one of them as well, especially useful to his Spiritual Power. These days it felt like only these things genuinely helped him grow. He found these competitions to be somewhat… unnecessary for his growth.
… … …
Siduo's arms shone brightly along with her legs. This was what the cultivation gave her, the purity of her Soul Power enabled her to make friction between Yin and Yang that much easier. This was what two months of additional training gave her. Though there was still more White than Black.
The opponent kept on holding up her arms, not being able to do anything, but clearly being able to take it. She was engulfed in a full Battle Armour.
Siduo was fast. Extremely fast. Combining her Soul Skills with the Yin and Yang attacks. The flames hit hard, especially when she had her own pieces of Alloyed Battle Armour equipped. Both arms have now been fully covered with them. This, along with the flames, made her arms deadly.
Two problems the opponent faced. Power and Speed. Both were worse than Siduo. Her body might not have been suffering, but the knockback was hard. She had to focus on not being knocked out of the arena.
Siduo combined her powers, layers of diamond, along with Mysterious Jade Hands, fused into the Hundred Hell Claws and Hell Blade. All of it covered by the flames of Yin and Yang.
And there it was. A single, tiny crack in the One-Word Battle Armour.
Siduo's face turned vicious. The Hell White Tiger appeared, and six rings fused together seamlessly. The Buffalo Duke's Skull Bone also combined with Solaria's Sun Tiger Torso Bone.
An instant explosion of abilities. Her specialty.
The One-Word Battle Armour Master couldn't do anything. The hit was dead on the crack.
The dust settled where the opponent landed. Cracks of Soul Power kept on leaving the Battle Armour. Cracks across the whole torso, even reaching the arms and legs. The woman stood up, spitting some blood, though she wasn't defeated.
Except she was. Siduo stood on the edge of the arena, and her opponent wasn't on it anymore. Siduo looked down upon the girl, looking slightly disappointed. She won against a true Battle Master of Shrek Academy, but she did not look satisfied.
She looked at Karni and gave him a tired peace sign with a face that was saying: "This was too easy."
… … …
"Based on performance, Wu Siduo should go." One of the elders in the pavilion spoke.
"No. She won't. She's to learn under me. It's the best for her." Long Yeyue stated, no room for a rebuke from any of the elders. Even Yun Ming looked at the one who spoke previously, and simply shook his head. This was non-negotiable.
"Val Karni will go." Yun Ming stated. "He does not have many things to learn here from me and I have heard that there is a teacher he has on the other continent."
The elders weren't so sure. Elder Cai, sighed. "Yun Ming, you have to admit. The boy clearly didn't do much in the second semester yet. He only won against the third years with Designing and stopped there, even when we said the competition would decide who gets some presents."
"That's exactly it." Ya Li suddenly spoke. "He beat a third year, and his design was done with quite some ease. He is ahead of his peers in many regards, even the second years."
Yun Ming nodded. "His abilities and friends cause him to practice with them, as it is more beneficial to him. I am familiar with his abilities. His comprehension is more connected to his understanding of Sound, which is not something he can always get in combat. Only the correct kind of opponents would help him understand more. And the boy is of the idea he cannot find that here. It's why he is so inactive. Forcing him to battle won't help much either." Yun Ming smiled. "I think, to him, this will be a punishment. And he needs one."
"Wu Siduo does too." Long Yeyue suddenly spoke. "She is of a similar mindset, but at least, if the boy is not here, I know her cultivation will explode. I've seen it before. She'd be willing to go through harsh training to distract herself from thinking that he's far away. She also isn't that close with the rest of the Working Dormitory students. Karni is just a better fit."
"Wait, wait, wait." An elder from the side—Karni would recognise him as the kind Elder Li who guided them during the exam—voiced his concern. "We're separating two lovers? Or at least, two who would be lifelong companions?"
Yun Ming nodded. "Yes. And it's because they are exactly that. They are too dependent on one another, and are spoiling each other, they need pressure to grow properly. I'm willing to bet that they'd have grown more this year, if they weren't constantly together."
"A scary thought." Elder Cai grimaced.
"Indeed. They are becoming each other's flaws. And we need to prevent them from becoming each other's weakness."
"Hah. Fine." Elder Li gave up. He had to admit, based on the reports Ya Li, Long Yeyue, and Yun Ming provided, they were right.
"Good. If there's no further complaints," he paused, looking at the elders. "I announce that the last member to join the Star Luo Continent exchange is Val Karni."