Feng Ling had fallen, and it happened while she and Yan Shaozhe were engaged in the most primal act of life.
After suddenly degenerating into an Evil Phoenix, Feng Ling, drawn to the evil nature within Yan Shaozhe, almost used her Evil Martial Soul's unique devouring ability to drain him into a husk.
This was a literal draining, not a metaphorical one.
If Yan Shaozhe hadn't reacted quickly, his vitality, essence, and soul power would have all become nourishment for Feng Ling.
Looking at the fallen Feng Ling, Yan Shaozhe found himself in the same difficult position his grandfather Long Xiaoyao and teacher Mu En had faced: What should he do if his beloved became an Evil Soul Master?
Luckily, he was a disciple of Mu En and had Long Xiaoyao's blood in his veins. Despite being a man of Shrek, he still chose to protect his woman.
That's right!
Compared to love, what were the school rules worth? He wouldn't show mercy when hunting Evil Soul Masters—after all, those people had nothing to do with him and had sought their own deaths by killing innocents. But his loved one hadn't killed anyone. As long as he didn't see her kill, she wasn't an Evil Soul Master!
If anyone wanted to kill her, they would have to step over his dead body!
(Tang San liked this.)
This was a prime example of a double standard!
Just as Yan Shaozhe was about to let Feng Ling go, Mu En appeared. He stood not far away, watching Yan Shaozhe instruct a now-calm Feng Ling on how to evade Shrek Academy's pursuit.
Hmm... this plot seemed a little familiar.
Mu En sighed softly and walked up behind Yan Shaozhe.
Yan Shaozhe felt a shadow cover him, realized someone was behind him, and turned around sharply. He then saw Mu En's old face with a complex expression.
"Tea... Teacher..." Yan Shaozhe's lips trembled, his voice filled with a hint of panic and fear, but his body subconsciously shielded Feng Ling behind him.
Seeing Yan Shaozhe's actions, Mu En's eyes darkened a bit. This move truly reminded him of Long Xiaoyao's abstract behavior. That guy had also stood in front of Ye Xishui to confront him back then.
He's truly the brother's son. Good, good!
With that thought, a very grand idea suddenly appeared in Mu En's mind.
"Long Xiaoyao, you stole my woman, didn't you? I'll see if I can let someone else steal your grandson's woman!"
"Revenge is a dish best served cold!"
"Hehehehe!"
Mu En's subtle and complex expression suddenly changed, replaced by a warm (and fake) smile.
"Ah, Shaozhe, you have finally walked down this path too!" Mu En said with a complicated expression, patting Yan Shaozhe's shoulder.
Yan Shaozhe was bewildered. "Teacher, what are you talking about?"
Mu En shook his head and said, avoiding the question, "Rest assured. Although our Shrek Academy has always made it its mission to eliminate Evil Soul Masters, you are still my disciple. How could I let you watch your loved one wither away in front of you, leaving you to be immersed in a lifetime of pain and regret?"
Mu En's words moved Yan Shaozhe to no end.
"Teacher..." Yan Shaozhe looked at Mu En with tears in his eyes, full of reverence and admiration. He felt as though he had returned to the age when he first met Mu En, once again becoming that confused and helpless six-year-old child.
"Is this your little lover? Very good. She is a perfect match for you." Mu En looked at Feng Ling and smiled, nodding.
"Senior," Feng Ling said, performing a proper bow under Mu En's scrutiny.
When her Martial Soul first became evil, she did fall into a state of chaos and almost devoured Yan Shaozhe.
But the loss of control was only temporary. The Evil Martial Soul would cause Feng Ling to gradually fall into evil and be unable to suppress her desire to devour and kill, but she still retained her memory. The change was mostly in her personality.
She still loved Yan Shaozhe and naturally respected his teacher. What's more, Mu En didn't seem to intend to kill her, but to let her go, which made her equally grateful and respectful of him.
"Lord Mu En, we Evil Soul Masters will always respect you!"
"Since you are Shaozhe's lover, there is no need to be so formal. If you don't mind, you can address me as 'Teacher' just as Shaozhe does." Mu En waved his hand, his voice kind.
"Yes, Teacher!" Feng Ling was not so foolish as to reject such kindness and accepted Mu En as her teacher.
In this way, Mu En not only took the descendant of an Evil Soul Master as a disciple, but now he had also taken a real Evil Soul Master as a disciple. This behavior made one wonder about his true identity.
After settling the matter with Feng Ling, Mu En looked at Yan Shaozhe, his expression solemn. "Shaozhe, now that things have come to this, I will no longer hide it from you. Your background is not simple!"
With Feng Ling as a witness, Mu En told Yan Shaozhe some of his past, but he embellished it a little.
He only said that he and Long Xiaoyao were good friends and that they both fell in love with Ye Xishui, but in the end, Long Xiaoyao won her heart. The general story was similar to what Huo Yuhao had heard from Xuan Zi, but with the addition of Yan Shaozhe's father.
Mu En took Yan Shaozhe as his disciple out of their old relationship.
"So, my grandparents were your friends from over a hundred years ago, and they are both Rank 99 Limit Douluo?" Yan Shaozhe was shocked.
"That's right. Your grandparents were old friends of mine, and they are both powerhouses at the Limit Douluo level now," Mu En said.
"Feng Ling clearly cannot return to Shrek with you, so the only solution is to send her to your grandmother, so she can live a good life in the Holy Spirit Cult."
Upon hearing this, Yan Shaozhe looked at Feng Ling with a reluctant expression, and Feng Ling looked back at Yan Shaozhe with tears in her eyes. The atmosphere made Mu En feel like he was eating some kind of cyber-dog food.
However, considering that he would soon be able to show Long Xiaoyao what "a change in fortune" meant, he quickly cast these unimportant details aside.
He gave Feng Ling and Yan Shaozhe plenty of time to say goodbye, and then, with their tearful farewells, he took Feng Ling and flew into the sky toward the Holy Spirit Cult's location.
On the ground, only Yan Shaozhe was left, looking at the two black dots disappearing into the distance, his figure lonely and dejected.
"Ling'er, you must live."
"You must live a good life!"
…
Feng Ling was taken away. To be honest, when reading this part of the story, if you ignored the identities of the three people and Mu En's status as the Sea God Pavilion Master, the scene was actually quite moving.
Especially the illustration of Yan Shaozhe looking off into the distance, his face forlorn and his back lonely against the sunset. It made people feel an instinctive sympathy for him.
There was nothing that could be done.
It could only be said that the illustrations were truly divine. Throughout these six books, any illustration set against a sunset gave a strong sense of desolation and loneliness. The creation of the lighting and atmosphere was simply impeccable.
And this feeling of desolation and loneliness could be expressed in different ways depending on the occasion, making people unconsciously empathize with the characters.
For example, in the Dragon and Phoenix series, the illustration of Yan Shaozhe and Qian Duoduo exchanging a fist bump in the sunset. The two men, looking at each other with a smile, were bathed in the sunset's glow, conveying unspoken emotions that included both brotherhood and forbidden love.
Another example is in the book The Wicked Teacher, where Zhou Yi stands on a high building at sunset, looking down at the many helpless students at her feet. The atmosphere of despair and the intense sense of oppression were vividly displayed.
Then, there's The Phoenix Teases the Twin Dragons, where Mu En stands in the sunset, with only his back visible. His shadow is stretched long, and at the end of the shadow, a happy Long Xiaoyao and Ye Xishui walk away hand in hand. Ye Xishui is even holding her and Long Xiaoyao's child. Mu En seems to be an outsider, and the sad, desolate, and unrequited love is suffocating.
Finally, there's this one of Yan Shaozhe.
Every picture seemed to have a great deal of Teacher Qingye's hard work and emotion poured into it, making it more than just a picture—it became a living scene.
This terrifying skill in writing and art made people want to scream to the heavens: "Teacher Qingye! The god who controls the twilight!"
But after leaving the realm of high art and returning to vulgar entertainment, everyone's brows furrowed.
"Wait a minute!"
"Feeling emotional is one thing, but two top-level figures from Shrek both fall in love with Evil Soul Masters and even choose to protect them and help them survive?"
"Every Evil Soul Master represents a river of blood and wails of agony!"
"You're afraid of your loved one dying, but aren't you afraid of your loved one killing us? As long as they are Evil Soul Masters for one day, they will be Evil Soul Masters forever!"
"A rotten orange is a rotten orange. You expect an Evil Soul Master to turn over a new leaf? In that case, we can only say to you, Shrek:"
"Dream on!"
"Wait..."
"But then again, it seems Shrek has never really cared about the lives of us commoners. Killing Evil Soul Masters is just a game for them. After all, the top brass of Shrek and the Holy Spirit Cult basically sleep in the same bed. When the door is closed, aren't they all one big family?"
"Masaka..."
"Could it be that Shrek uses the power of the Holy Spirit Cult's Evil Soul Masters to clean up 'unruly trash' for them, while Shrek helps the Holy Spirit Cult gather Evil Soul Masters, making those rogue Evil Soul Masters feel fear and then spontaneously converging on the Holy Spirit Cult, thus strengthening it?!"
"Ah, this...?!"
Smart people immediately began to connect the dots, conjuring up a terrifying conspiracy. This conspiracy was even darker than the abyss of the Thirty-Six Emperors and more evil than the heart of the Sea God Tang San!
Filled with fear, they continued to read, as the story of Fellow Travelers was far from over. The final part of the story was the essence of the book.
Under Mu En's leadership, Feng Ling arrived with him at the headquarters of the largest terrorist group and evil organization on the Douluo Continent—the Holy Spirit Cult.
Contrary to outside speculation, the Holy Spirit Cult's headquarters was not gloomy and eerie. Instead, it was in a primeval forest, a place that was clearly difficult to access. There was no smell of blood or decay. On the contrary, the air was filled with the fragrance of birds and flowers, smelling fresh and natural.
But that made sense. Even if the Holy Spirit Cult people loved the smell of blood, blood has a very short shelf life. The scent of freshly spouting blood intoxicated them, but if they waited a few hours or even days...
The smell would be disgusting.
The same went for corpses. Without special preservation methods, they would rot quickly.
The people of the Holy Spirit Cult were just perverts; they weren't idiots, nor were they rats in a sewer, so they had no interest in making their lair stink like a fermented cesspool.
Evil Soul Masters: "We don't accept your definition!"
In any case, Feng Ling, who was visiting the Holy Spirit Cult for the first time, truly felt her horizons had been broadened. She had never imagined that the lair of an Evil Soul Master organization could be so beautiful.
Not long after Mu En arrived in the Holy Spirit Cult's territory, two figures, one black and one red, quietly appeared not far from him.
"Xiaoyao, Xishui, it's been a long time." Mu En looked at their clasped hands, and the joy of a reunion was immediately washed away.
Mu En: I should be under the car, not in the car.
Damn it, this is disgusting. Why did I have the crazy idea of coming to the Holy Spirit Cult?
Mu En's heart was filled with bitterness. His composure was a little shaken, and the acid in his stomach was churning. He couldn't stay in this place for another second. If he looked at the loving Long Xiaoyao and Ye Xishui for another moment, Mu En felt he might explode on the spot.
After briefly explaining Feng Ling's Martial Soul and her relationship with Yan Shaozhe, Mu En quickly made his escape.
Ye Xishui, of course, knew about Yan Shaozhe. As soon as she heard that Mu En had taken a disciple with a Radiant Phoenix Martial Soul who was also surnamed Yan, she guessed that Yan Shaozhe was probably her descendant.
However, after she returned to the Holy Spirit Cult, she was immediately invited by Old Ghoul Zhong Li to play the secret chamber mini-game. Later, she deliberately stopped paying attention to her descendants due to her change in personality, so she didn't know if Yan Shaozhe was specifically her grandson or great-grandson.
To be honest, after more than a hundred years, Ye Xishui no longer cared about the past. She didn't have strong feelings for Yan Shaozhe, her bloodline descendant. The only two people she still cared about were Long Xiaoyao and Mu En.
What did the life and death of others have to do with her, the Death God Douluo?
And Mu En's hurried departure also made her a little dissatisfied. After finally meeting him, what was the meaning of him giving her the cold shoulder the moment he arrived?
Disinterested, Ye Xishui casually waved her hand, letting Feng Ling go off and amuse herself.
At the same time...
Zhong Liwu, who had taken over as the Holy Spirit Cult's leader and was now a Titled Douluo, noticed Feng Ling. He felt that she had a certain scent that greatly attracted him.
And so... the secret chamber mini-game was re-enacted.
And Zhong Liwu played it even more perversely than his father, Old Ghoul Zhong Li. Not only did he use various small toys to break Feng Ling's will, but during the process, he also used a variety of drugs, causing Feng Ling to become completely subservient to him...
Uh... a velvet ball~
The illustrations of Old Ghoul Zhong Li and Ye Xishui were already mind-blowing enough, but the illustrations of Zhong Liwu and Feng Ling were even more so, pushing the boundaries of absurdity to the max.
After all, after a hundred years of innovations, Old Ghoul Zhong Li's small toys were long outdated. The new trend was gaming props that provided a stronger sensory experience.
They were elevated from a white, inferior grade all the way to a golden, legendary one!
The noblemen who had just ordered craftsmen to create small tools immediately handed over the concept art for the new versions. As a result, after the craftsmen finished making the small tools, they closed their doors and returned to their old profession, practicing their long-lost art.
There was no other way. To learn how to make the small tools, they had to study and understand the illustrations of Fellow Travelers repeatedly. This kind of stimulation was more than they, as mere mortals, could handle.
...
In this way, Feng Ling became Zhong Liwu's possession. While Yan Shaozhe was carefully forging a path forward, Zhong Liwu had already taken his bicycle, put it in gear, and even locked it, making some very professional personal modifications.
Far away in Shrek, Yan Shaozhe, who was missing Feng Ling, felt a pang in his chest and a certain heaviness on his head.
Fellow Travelers ends here.
(End of Chapter)
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