Karni and Siduo were resting next to one of the derailed carriages of the train. While Karni's enemies escaped, he was feeling oddly jovial. He had discovered his path as a Soul Master. He felt refreshed, the silent disturbance at the back of his mind was gone after so many years.
He had struggled it ever since he added Lily to his team and Hope evolved. He had implemented abilities with the Guardian, but did not truly create a style, he focused more on the Guardian itself. The addition of Tempest only worsened that state, where he relied on old tactics instead of creating new ones. Even in his early days, when he wished to be a pure control-system, he often was not, and could have been mistaken for an agility system.
Seeing his home in the cave of inheritance—even if in a twisted form—reminded him of his roots, and his body felt in tune… that combined with his Spiritual Power stepping with one foot into the Spirit Realm, helped him achieve a new purpose. To restrict his enemies and control them. However, he could not forget what he understood with the Greatsword as well. It was to protect. Himself and those close to him. Thankfully, the two ideas were highly compatible—the path ahead was clear. He could protect by restricting the enemies.
The only question on his mind was his mother… he still could not remember her face. There was no force that was keeping it from seeing her, it was his own guilt bringing up the nightmares. It has simply been too long by now for him to remember his mother clearly, and it manifested through an uncanny, faceless mother. Though he had to admit that this fight gave him some clarity of himself. He was curious if the nightmares would continue.
Karni glanced around. Wulin was talking with the army that arrived to help out. He heard that the guys were also from the War God Hall. He analysed the memory of this event. That one followed the normal path. It was funny that he could watch through the whole timeline like a memory, but something as simple as his mother was hard to remember. Karni shook his head. He had to let go. It was very plausible that he started to forget details of his previous life because of how much history of this world he understood.
He refocused on the now, and analysed what happened. Thankfully, it seemed like the discrepancy in today's event was limited to Shi Zan and Fu Juan. Shi Zan was not so surprising. Karni was more surprised that Fu Juan arrived all the way from Star Luo Continent. He could only imagine that it was due to the Holy Spirit Cult already preparing itself to attack Shrek Academy.
It made sense for them to prepare ahead of time, because Shrek City was mightily difficult to infiltrate. It was unfortunate that Karni was in the middle of this Military training, as he would prefer to start preparing counter measures ahead of time. That being said, even with this, he could tell that as he was right now, he could not stop the destruction of Shrek Academy. He needed this training.
The problem was… Karni already knew what the training was, the truth behind it. It would not be as effective on him as it was going to be for others. What to do, what to do?
His musings were disturbed as one of the army officers came toward him. The one from the War God Hall.
Karni stood up and saluted with respect.
The man nodded. "I heard you are the one who made sure everyone could live."
"You give me too much credit, sir. I was lucky to get a vision due to my Martial Soul and acted upon said vision. If not for the Shrek Seven Devils, the people would have died anyway."
"Hm. True, but there would be many casualties without you. And speaking of the Shrek Seven Devils, I heard you are not a part of them? Have you-"
"No." Karni raised his arm up with a sigh. "I am quite attached to Shrek and many of its faculties. As well as the Tang Sect. I doubt the War God Hall could finance my specific research and interests, and even if it could, I would have to abandon my current ones due to Tang Sect rules."
The man blinked. Karni denied him before he could ask anything, as well as spoke against the very arguments he was about to make to try to pull him over to War God Hall.
He could not help but laugh, then sigh. "Future Sight abilities, eh? It really is a shame that we cannot have you. Like always, Shrek does not disappoint. Sacrifice from the Angel Clan, a leader of the Shrek Seven Devils with a good head on its shoulders. And then you, a little monstrous oddity of Shrek."
Karni made a little bow. "I am honoured."
The man just waved at him. "Don't humour me. I thank you again. Now then, I must ask some routine questions as well."
"Of course."
… … …
The group of nine Shrek Students arrived at Northsea City. They came here by car. On the way, the Shrek Seven Devils were debating about their teamwork—if they had not been so rusty, Karni would not have had to intervene, and they likely would not have let Shi Zan and Fu Juan escape.
Karni didn't mind though. He would never truly be a part of that team, so he never bothered about large scale teamwork as much, but more on his teamwork with Siduo. Unlike the Shrek Seven Devils, Karni and Siduo spent the last three years before returning to Shrek together, so their teamwork had only gotten better.
Karni and Siduo said goodbye to Ban Xiaomao when the army made sure to bring all the citizens to safety. He had left them with his communicator number, so they could contact him if Ban Xiaomao wanted to take the Shrek Exam. Karni expected to see the girl in a few years.
As for the team of nine, they first had to find a place to stay at and then they would have to look at their future plans.
They found an inn in this cold north city by the sea. Xu Xiaoyan and Yue Zhengyu grabbed the same room. Xu Xiaoyan was taking care of him due to the Sacrifice skill Yue Zhengyu used. There was no more of the bad blood that was present before. Ye Xinglan and Xu Lizhi were also staying together. Xie Xie, to his sadness, had to stay in a separate room from Yuanen Yehui, as she thought it too soon. Karni and Siduo of course took the same room; they were engaged after all.
Karni and Siduo spent quite a steamy night together. With the memories of their first night together, being in a snowy environment was quite a turn on for them. Memories were a powerful thing.
The next day, the team gathered and discussed the plans. They were to infiltrate the military base just north of here.
Wulin turned to Karni. "As for the matters of infiltration, I was thinking there was a good chance that some of the people there were from Shrek Academy. They might help us like the senior from War God Hall. Karni? Your thoughts?"
Karni thought about it for a bit. Right, that War God Hall guy was indeed an alumnus of Shrek, and the argument made sense, but there was a reason Wulin was consulting him. Karni's abilities and knowledge had become a key arsenal of his. Wulin knew how to use the assets of his team.
"Yes and no. It won't work." There was a clan in this base that hid the fact they were here to watch the Demon Island they were going to, but they would not help them openly, unless they were one of the Elders themselves. For the rest of the soldiers that weren't in the know… "They will capture us. This region absolutely despises Shrek Students. It almost exclusively has students from Sun Moon Engineering Academy."
Wulin frowned, then relaxed. "Well, thank gods for that knowledge. That changes our plans completely."
"Karni, are you sure?" Xie Xie asked, then stopped himself. "Of course you're sure. Forget about me. I don't know why I still try to fight against that all knowing knowledge of yours."
"Not all knowing. The aspects I affect change on the regular. Like the fight we went through a few days ago."
"Heh." Xie Xie smirked a bit at the thought of that, but everyone started staring daggers at him.
Yuanen Yehui complained. "I'm really dating an idiot. All he has are his instincts."
"Hey! Babe-" He stopped, scared by the look Yuanen Yehui gave him at the word. He decided to stop complaining.
"Well, even if my knowledge becomes wrong, I can focus on visions to a degree anyway to double check, no worries. But also, we should all learn from the previous encounter and stop taking things for granted with my visions. If there's any reason to suspect I may have caused a butterfly effect, we should be cautious. In this case, I had no direct influence, so nothing should be different from my knowledge."
Wulin nodded at that. "In that case, we will have to infiltrate this directly. If we want to get through those waves, we will have to steal either a plane or a ship. The plane would be preferred. We will have to kidnap someone who knows how to drive the craft either way."
"Eh? Why?" Siduo sounded, genuinely confused.
Wulin looked back to her, equally confused at her question.
She pointed to herself. "I know how to fly though."
Wulin blinked for a second. "Wait. Really? Since when?"
"Since I started at Shrek! It was one of the first things I learned! I study vehicles of all kinds. The sky is the hot new frontier among the researchers, so of course I joined in on that! Most of the thrusters I use on my motorbikes are flight ones, for partial flight abilities."
"That explains so much." Karni held his head. No wonder her bikes were always so annoyingly flexible in battle. She was using the newest technology available.
"Well shit." Wulin said out loud. "This mission should be easier than expected…"
The group looked at him. Wulin was feeling a weird sense of doubt that… this was too easy. And it was, because Karni and Siduo were not meant to be here.
He shook his head. "Alright then, these are our roles. Siduo, Xie Xie, you two are on scout duty. Find a plane that's easy to steal once we infiltrate, as well as look for a route that we can take to stay hidden. Xu Xiaoyan, Karni, you two will be on stall duty. If there is an unavoidable enemy, Karni will serve as our radar, while Xu Xiaoyan will stun them. Again, only do this if we have to. Karni, you can help with Relaxing Aura on wide range as well, if I remember, so be ready to use it should we get overwhelmed. The new clone ability of yours should help cause a confusion as well. Xu Lizhi will be in charge of keeping us in top form. Meanwhile, the rest of us assault types will be in charge of handling anyone that gets through the net of Karni and Xu Xiaoyan."
The group nodded at that.
"Good." Wulin said. "Now then, Val Karni, what did you see in your visions? Any layout of the base you can help us with?"
Karni smiled, put a stick of bamboo in his mouth, tasting sweetness this time around, and pulled out a blueprint. "This is what I know…"
… … …
The group of Shrek Students boldly drove over to the Military base, not hiding their presence at all. The group stopped in front of the entry point of the base.
"Speak! Who goes there! Any further and it will be seen as threatening the Northeast Federal Army!" One of the guards shouted.
The group stepped out confident and with a smile. Wulin stepped in front of them. Behind him, everyone was lined up. Karni had another piece of bamboo in his mind. This time it was slightly salty.
"We are students of Shrek, here on a mission. We were hoping to get cooperation from you guys."
"Students of Shrek, eh?" Another voice immediately appeared. A man flew over the Shrek Seven Monsters, and Karni and Siduo. He had Eight Rings out without even asking any questions.
The group of nine immediately activated their Soul Rings. In Karni's case, he brought out his Royal Panda, fully displaying his Red Rings.
The Soul Douluo was taken aback but then proceeded to laugh. "This will get me a promotion! Listen up!" His voice got loud. "We have a group of Shrek brats in front of our doorstep again, and they are openly aggressive!"
Karni and the group heard a commotion start as soon as the announcement was released. This was flashier than what happened in Karni's memories, but it was intentionally flashier.
It only took a minute for around a hundred soldiers to arm the walls and point the wall defences toward the group.
"You better give up and surrender quietly." The Soul Douluo could not help but chuckle.
Wulin looked the whole situation with seriousness, turning to his comrades. They looked worried. He raised his arms. "Fine. We surrender." They've gone overboard.
"Good little lads. Detain them!"
The guards up front approached them and started putting cuffs on them one by one. Special cuffs brought from the inside. They disabled the use of Soul Power. The effect was instant.
"Oy, you, Panda boy." One of the guards called out to Karni. Karni went through a quick transformation just before.
Karni looked at the guy confused.
"Gimme that bamboo. You think we don't know the tricks you students try to pull?"
Karni spew it at the guy, but his face remained neutral. Good, that way they would think the plans were foiled. Karni made the perfect "angry but not wanting to show it" face.
The guard bit at the bamboo and nodded to his colleague. "Sure enough. A food type. Though the effect is a bit weak for a Black Soul Ring."
It was like everything stilled, Karni specifically. What? Food type?
Siduo looked to him, and so did the rest of the group. Food type? There was an effect? It had to be said, Karni offered the bamboo to everyone these last couple of days. They even played a game of, "which of the five tastes will it be this time?" Sweet, Salty, Bitter, Sour, or the rarest of them all, Umami. Karni didn't have control over it.
And now this random guard was calling him a food type Soul Master for some reason?
Unfortunately, he did not have the time to absorb this information, or how this happened, because they were on a mission.
They were taken to an underground facility. Besides the Soul Power restricting cuffs, they were forced to a wear a helmet that restricted their Spiritual Power. Karni found it surprising that his Spiritual Power was only partially locked away. It looked like the technology had yet to progress to the level where it could constrain Spiritual Power that was fully in Spirit Realm. Karni being only half step in it meant it was still almost fully constricted.
His mind was still stuck at what happened with the bamboo, but at least the mission was proceeding smoothly. They were taken to a cage and left there to rot. It would take a few days before anything happened. They wanted the students to suffer a bit. As soon as he was sure that the area was not observed anymore, his Relaxing Aura surged with ease, because no technology was capable of constricting the powers of the bloodline. The functions of the helmet and the cuffs were not constraining anything anymore, which allowed Karni's Spiritual Power and Soul Power to flow freely. He broke the two pieces of equipment with ease.
A sound of breaking was heard from Wulin's side as well. The two nodded to each other and freed the others. Unlike in the original, they planned to get captured this time. It was the easiest way to get inside while at the same time lowering the guard of the military. The Bamboo served as distraction as well… but they did not expect that it would actually produce an effect.
"So. Food type?" Xu Lizhi was the first to ask, since he was a food type as well. "Were you hiding it?"
"No!" Karni shouted, though no sound escaped the room. "I have no clue what happened there!"
"We can think about it later." Wulin stopped any more incoming questions from his teammates. "Let's go, as we planned."
The group nodded and got to work. Siduo and Xie Xie fused into the surroundings and did some scouting. They were warned what sort of sensors they had to watch out for as well so as not to get discovered. Xie Xie got discovered in the original timeline after all.
They returned not long after. "We found a jet. Let's go." Siduo said and started leading the way.
With Karni's hearing, the progress was smooth, and thankfully, the guard inside the actual base was less on guard than the ones guarding the perimeter of the base. They could avoid them quite smoothly.
They reached the jet. Instead of opening it, Karni Shifted them all inside. Any sounds or movements might alert the military. Siduo ordered everyone to hold tight, but not to put on their seatbelts, because they were likely going to have to defend themselves.
Wulin looked at everyone at that. "Be prepared. We've discussed the defence tactics."
Everyone nodded and Wulin turned to Siduo. "Start it up."
Siduo made a cheeky smile and cracked her knuckles. This would be her first time where she could abuse her piloting skills without any care for rules.
The engines started up and she went on the runway. The soldiers inside were immediately a bit confused, usually, when a plane would start up, they would be given a quick warning to watch out for it.
Radio turned up inside the plane. "Jet-346, this is the West Tower speaking. You're not authorised for lift off. I repeat you are not authorised for lift off."
"This is Jet-346. Yes, we are. We were authorised through the channel 13 of the West Section."
Karni raised his eyebrows at Siduo's reporting. She looked at him and shrugged. She was completely bluffing.
There was a sigh that could be heard over the radio. And then the alarm started. "Warning! The Shrek Students are escaping. I repeat. Warning! The Shrek Students are escaping!"
Siduo turned backwards before anyone could comment. "Hey! What else was I supposed to say."
"No one was going to blame you."
"How would you kno-" She shut up as soon as she realised Karni said that. "Well, they weren't going to blame me, but they were thinking about it!" She stared daggers at Xie Xie.
"Why me!?"
"It's always you." Yuanen Yehui added.
"Why are you suddenly bullying me again?!"
The jet flew up into the sky, and Karni's eyes turned gold for a split second. "We have half a minute before they get to us at most."
"Heh. Nuh uh! I'm the babe that's flying this baby!" Siduo shouted.
She suddenly sped up and sure enough, the military base quickly disappeared behind them.
Yet in half a minute, weapons were already fired at them from afar, no one was up close. Siduo was right. No one was able to follow them. She was an excellent pilot. She also didn't care about the state of the jet; they would not be using it for long.
But weapons were another thing. Rockets were much faster than jets.
"I'm going out there!" Yue Zhengyu said.
"Wait!" Karni stopped him. "These are homing missiles. Let me do my thing."
He spread his Relaxing Aura, encompassing the whole jet in it. He repeated a silent mantra to himself. "We're just a part of the air. We are the surroundings."
The rockets quickly malfunctioned and started flying in a straight path. Siduo knew what Karni was doing, so she angled the jet downwards before the effect fully kicked in. The rockets exploded in the sea.
"Phew." Karni said. "That was more tiring than I expected. Covering the whole jet is quite difficult."
The group just stared at him. "That feels unfair." Wulin said.
"You are saying that, captain? We should say that!" Yue Zhengyu complained.
"Hey, hey." Karni said. "The only thing I can do with it is adapt to the surroundings, to fool something into liking me and relax it."
"Yeah. If you'd have invisibility as well, you'd be untraceable. Oh, so limiting." Xu Xiaoyan was snarky, supporting her boyfriend.
"Speaking of invisibility, we'll be able to Inscribe someone else's Soul Ring into our Armour at the Two Word level, right?" Xie Xie wondered out loud.
"Yeah." Karni confirmed then realised. He and the group all turned to Siduo.
"You have an invisibility skill, right?"
"I do. I'll let you inscribe it if you decide to defend again! Incoming!"
"Right! Oops!" Karni's Relaxing Aura exploded again. And another round of rockets went into the sea.
"Damn it, so he really might be untraceable after this."
Karni grumbled. Part of him felt like the universe is telling him he should become a weird assassin type. Too bad, universe! He already found his path!
"Kiki! Love! Stop spacing out! More missiles!"
"Sorry!"
… … …
The group landed on the island and got out of the jet.
"Oh, grass, sweet grass." Karni said. The jet wasn't scary, but because there was no other jets on their tails, he was the only one they ended up needing for protection. He really wanted to rest. They had plans if there would end up being more jets, but Siduo's flying was too effective, so he ended up being the only one who defended the jet.
"Good job love." Siduo came next to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Karni could not help but smile a bit.
"Check the surroundings, Karni is essential to keeping us safe, we still have a few days. We can discover slowly." Wulin ordered. Yue Zhengyu and Xie Xi quickly went to scout the surroundings.
They returned quickly, both wore frowns. "It's… eerily empty. There's only grass and nothing else. Most of it feels completely dead as well." Xie Xie started.
"I noticed a weird change to the east, but it's a bit of a walk away, so as long as we keep our attention on it, it should be fine." Yue Zhengyu added.
"Good. In that case, we're resting for a bit until Karni regains his power."
"Also, can we finally discuss Karni being called a Food type?" Xu Lizhi said.
"True." Karni himself said. "I don't need to use up energy to talk."
"Let's see then." Siduo started. "I've tasted the bamboo multiple times. It's always the five flavours. The same ones we played the game with. I never got a sense of power from the bamboo."
"Same with the rest of us." Xu Lizhi said. "But the guard was clearly affected. You could even feel a bit of strength oozing from him."
"So, what was different?" Karni wondered out loud.
Everyone "hummed" at the same time, as if this was some sort of a sketch.
"I used my Soul Ring just before." Karni said and stood up all of a sudden.
"Don't strain." Siduo said.
"I'm not, it's just gonna do a simple test."
His first Soul Ring shone, giving him strength, and then he plucked out the bamboo. He gave it to Siduo. "Try it out."
Siduo took a bite and her eyes widened… but Karni noticed a bit of fakeness behind the surprised face. Huh. So, she knew?
"It really is giving me power!" She took another bite. "But it doesn't stack. And the effect is quite weak. She threw it at Xu Lizhi to try it out.
Xu Lizhi bit. "Huh… that really is rather poor. That's not even a five percent increase. Though I suppose since one only needs a bite, it's not that bad… But it has the effect of a Yellow Ring at most. And you cannot mass produce it so it's not effective for a large group either."
"Cause it's likely just a side effect." Karni said and looked to Siduo, who stuck out her tongue. She was not apologising for knowing. Actually, she didn't really know, she just thought these powers hadn't sprouted yet.
Xu Lizhi sighed. "This isn't good. If Karni become a Food Type above all else, then what am I?"
"Hey now. I doubt these abilities will ever become much stronger." Karni quickly said.
Siduo shook her hand sideways, signifying it kind of will, but not in the way he might think.
"But still. All of you have the ability to adapt. I'm a one trick pony. This is military training, right? And there's something weird to the east! I say we go already!" Xu Lizhi had newfound determination.
Wulin turned to Karni with a slight smile. He was happy to see Lizhi motivated. "How long will you need to fully recover?"
"Two hours."
"I'm fine with that." Xu Lizhi nodded, as if he was judging Karni. Then he felt embarrassed when he realised how he was acting.
"Alright then. We wait, and then we go. Everyone rest up, make sure you're in your best condition!" Wulin ordered and with that, everyone sat down to meditate on this barren island.