Douluo Dalu - The Story of Sheng Feilong

A Spirit Power of 1.209 was already incredible for any normal Soul Master, much less a 10 years old child. While Song Weihan was silently sighing in admiration, Sheng Feilong didn't seem to care much. Of course, that doesn't mean he didn't knew how impressive such a Spirit Power is or that he had become much stronger thanks to it; he just didn't put too much regards to it as he was still far, far weaker than his Master, Song Weihan.

Naturally, if anyone else knew of Sheng Feilong's thoughts to this, they would probably beat him half dead for his shamelessness. A 10 years old child comparing himself to a illustrious Titled Douluo famed for their Spirit Power and genius – What a joke!

Song Weihan was still reviewing the results of the other tests seriously. Although he was happy about his personal disciple's growth, he was even more concerned about the latter's well-being. A powerful Spirit Power has to be supported by an equally powerful physical strength and toughness. Without a trained body, a high Spirit Power would bring more harm then good to any Soul Master.

Sheng Feilong didn't disrupt his Master and instead began reading one of the less important documents about the refining of Artificial Soul Bones that he was allowed to study. Meanwhile, Song Weihan found alarming results about Sheng Feilong's brain activity and body within the test results.

He looked at his disciple without the letter noticing and had an incredibly concerned expression, but quickly put on a mild smile again to not worry Sheng Feilong before speaking in a semi-serious tone.

"Feilong, it seems we need to focus a bit more about your physical training. Your Spirit Power increasing this much due to your artificial Spirit Soul was really unexpected and we should make sure no problems manifest themselves. For now, you're prohibited from training your Spirit Power. Meditate to consolidate and calm it down, but down try to strengthen it before I allow it. Do you understand?"

Sheng Feilong looked up and looked at his Master's expression and unusually serious tone and quickly nodded. After that, Song Weihan took him to take a few more throughout tests before they worked out a modified training schedule for Sheng Feilong. Sheng Lingtian was also informed about the changes and Song Weihan later told him about the alarming results.

According to the initial tests, Sheng Feilong's body was at its limit. His body and brain can't support his strong Spirit Power and will collapse in due time if no precautions are taken. The both of them discussed a few methods and Sheng Lingtian vowed to make sure Sheng Feilong wouldn't train his Spirit Power while Song Weihan would supplement the training with a number of rather mild Soul Treasures to further enhance Sheng Feilong's physique.

Aside from the two of them, everyone else, including Sheng Feilong and the teachers at the Heaven Dou Intermediate Academy, were left in the dark about this. During the next few months, Jian Wang, Jian Shiguan and Sheng Feilong would continue to train together while their Spirit Power training was completely put on hold by Song Weihan. He didn't stop Jian Shiguan and Jian Wang from training, but forbid them from doing so during their stay with him at the Spirit Pagoda.

After about 4 months, Sheng feilong's Spirit Power balanced itself out and remained at 1.305 while his physique was constantly enhanced by Song Weihan's meticulously planned training. With the help of various Soul Treasures and medicinal baths, he entered another growth spurt and reached a height of 143cm at the end of it, while his physical strength was enough to make even Jian Wang break out sweating whenever they competed in raw hand-to-hand combat.

Even tough Sheng Feilong's physique and Spirit Power had reached a balance, Song Weihan continued to forbid the training of Spirit Power for another 4 months to make sure and enhance Sheng Feilong's strength even more. However, during those 4 months, he also added another part to Sheng Feilong's training. As the boy had already evolved his artificial Spirit Soul to the 1.000 year level, he would be able to communicate with it on a spiritual basis.

Sheng Feilong had heard about this communication between Soul Master and Spirit Soul before. According to the research of the Spirit pagoda, every Soul Master would be able to communicate with their artificial Spirit Souls starting be conveying emotions at the 100 year level, to basic thoughts on the 1.000 year level and even have full grown conversations with them at the 10.000 year level and above! Apparently, this was found out by accident by a Soul Master a few thousand years ago, causing all Soul Master at the time to change their minds about Spirit Souls.

Although artificially created, Spirit Souls were living beings with a consciousness that had their own thoughts and emotions. It was never a secret that Soul Beasts were capable of understanding humans to an extent and even communicate with them, but for artificial Spirit Souls to be the same was unheard of at the time. Later research came to the conclusion that the first person to find out about that was actually the very founder of the artificial Spirit Soul research, Spirit Ice Douluo Huo Yuhao.

Sheng Feilong went to a meditation room that Song Weihan assigned to him and entered his mind space, where he searched for the Ancient Hypnotic Toad and tried to communicate with it. As he new it would only be able to communicate using basic thoughts, he tried conveying thoughts like 'wanting food' or 'sleeping', but didn't receive an answer.

He continued to try while loosing track of the time. After a long time, Song Weihan came to pick him up. Apparently, he had spent nearly 3 hours inside his own mind space, continuously trying to get a reaction from the Ancient Hypnotic Toad. He still looked lost in thought after being picked up, and Song Weihan instantly noticed the probable reason.

"You didn't get the ancient Hypnotic Toad to communicate with you? Don't worry, it's pretty normal. Most people take a few dozen tries before finding the right things to convey."

Sheng feilong snapped out of his thoughts and looked at Song Weihan, before answering with a light frown.

"That's not it. I got a few reactions from it, but they were... weird... I tried all kinds of things from food, hunting, sleeping and even reproduction, but the only ones I got answers to were 'blood', 'frightening presence', 'survival' and 'getting stronger'... Do you know what that means, Master?"

Song Weihan frowned, and seemed lost in thoughts for a while. He had heard of many things from people communicating with their Spirit Souls for the first time, but things like 'blood' and 'frightening presence' were new to him, still he didn't fail to come up with a reaonable explanation.

"You're right, it seems a bit weird, but you shouldn't worry too much about it. Stuff like 'survival' and 'getting stronger' are pretty normal. Surviving and getting stronger are equal to Soul Beasts as their cultivation increases with their age. The ancient Hypnotic Toad was never strong and had to rely on its Spirit Power and illusionary abilities to survive in ancient times. 'Blood' could have to do something with their bloodline. The toads are, by now, known for cross-breeding. A lot of toad or frog type Soul Beasts have similarities to the Ancient Hypnotic Toad's bloodline."

Sheng Feilong nodded and didn't seem too concerned anymore, but still couldn't help but ask another question with an amused expression.

"What about the 'frightening presence', though? Does that mean me? Could it be the toad fears me?"

Song Weihan looked a bit surprised for a second before begging to chuckle.

"I don't it means you. You're pretty harmless, aren't you? The 'frightening presence' its referring too could be a predator that had slain Ancient Hypnotic Toads. The genetic information used to create the artificial Spirit Soul you fused with was from a long dead and fossilized Ancient Hypnotic Toad after all. I may have not died a natural death and still have lingering fear within it."

Sheng Feilong nodded his, but still had a slightly unsightly expression and muttered in a voice only he could hear.

"Non the less, even if it is as predator, is there a reason to still fear it to that extent that it is one of the only things it can think about? The toad somehow feels like a frightened rabbit more than a powerful toad..."

A few days later, the Heaven Dou Intermediate Academy had a festive atmosphere. Today would be the last day of the third years, including Wong Wushuang, and starting next week, Sheng Feilong and the others would be second year students! Apparently the Intermediate Academy invited not only the graduating students but also the younger once to attend and see off their seniors as many would leave the Academy and not continue with the Advanced Academy.

As the representative of the third years, Wong Wushuang held a short speech, followed by the principal and a few teachers wishing them luck and glory on their ways to become outstanding Soul Master. The ceremony was over after about an hour, and Sheng Feilong and the others decided to speak to Wong Wushuang again. They met him and his parents together with a 2 of the people they met at the Spirit Ascension Platform, Senior Brother Yan and Senior Sister Ling, and the lot of them talked for a while.

At last, Sheng Feilong couldn't keep his curiosity in check.

"Senior Brother Wong, what will you do now? Will you attend the Advanced Academy, search for a job or cultivate in silence?"

Wong Wushuang smiled at him as Jian Wang and the others, including Xiao Yueuwu, who had slipped into their group unseen by everyone until now, expectedly looked at him.

"I'll continue with the Advanced Academy, but not the one her in Heaven Dou City. I'm going to attend Shrek Academy!"