Douluo Dalu - The Story of Sheng Feilong

The Doomstinger Dragonfly's tail type Soul Bone was lightly twirling around Sheng Feilong's body while Sheng Lingtian still lay on the ground, stupidly staring at his son. Song Weihan wasn't much better off than Sheng Lingtian and was shaking in his place, his face furiously twitching while he also stared at Sheng Feilong.

Having his Master and father react like this, Sheng Feilong started to feel slightly uncomfortable after the two of them stared at him for close to a minute now without saying anything. Awkwardly glancing to the side to avoid their eyes, Sheng Feilong willed the tail Soul Bone to slowly retract back into his body, giving his Master and father the chance to calm down.

After a long time of uncomfortable silence, Song Weihan and Sheng Lingtian finally regained their composure, with the former awkwardly faking a cough, now again with a stoic expression on his face, before he started speaking in a forcefully calmed manner. "This really was... shocking. I understand how your Netherworld Putrefaction Demon Spirit Essence works now and I have to admit that its even more terrifying than I imagined. Just its Innate Abilities, especially the Domain, are absolutely incredible."

Sheng Feilong patiently listened to Song Weihan, earnestly nodding his head as he thought the same about his second Spirit Essence. Song Weihan then continued with a light frown. "About the greyish red Soul Ring, though... I have to admit that I'm not entirely sure what it actually is. You know about the normal characteristics and levels of white, yellow, purple, black and, finally, red Soul Rings, indicating the age of the respective Soul Ring. However, there is a somewhat more secretive piece of information about differently coloured Soul Rings."

By this point, Sheng Lingtian had stood up and regained his composure as well. Frowning lightly since he had also never heard of something like this. His eyes widened at Song Weihan's next words. "This information has been obtained 10.000 years ago, from the Spirit Ice Douluo Huo Yuhao himself. According to him, there are actually Soul Rings that stand above red, 100.000-years-old ones. One kind of them, for example, are orange Soul Rings. They're said to be the Soul Rings of Soul Beasts that have reached an age of over 200.000 years. Another example are golden Soul Rings; They are even more incredible, signifying an age of over 1.000.000 years. Soul Beasts of that age are believed to be the equivalent to humanities true Demi-Gods."

Sheng Lingtian felt his heart pound wildly. A 100.000-years-old, red Soul Ring was already a pinnacle existence that only the strongest Soul Masters would possess, but now there's even 1.000.000-years-old, golden Soul Rings? He couldn't really believe it, but since Song Weihan said so, it was most likely true; He had no reason to lie to them in any way!

On the other hand, Sheng Feilong looked at his Master in disbelief. He didn't know about Soul Rings above red ones, but he had once seen a golden Soul Ring. "Master, do golden Soul Rings always signify an age of 1.000.000 years? Could there be so other reasons for the ring to turn golden?"

Song Weihan frowned light, not understanding why his disciple would ask something like this. Still, he answered promptly after thinking about it for a moment. "I don't think there would be another reason. As far as we know, the only golden Soul Ring in the history of the Douluo Continent was owned by the Spirit ice Douluo Huo Yuhao himself. Moreover, this information is known to most major powers on the continent, so it should be true. Personally, I've also never heard of any other case for a Soul Ring to have such a colour, nor any other odd colour. This is also why I'm so confused about your grey-red Soul Ring; There has never been a precedent of such a situation."

Sheng Feilong frowned. If a golden Soul Ring really always meant that the ring originates from a 1.000.000-years-old Soul Beast, then what about the one Tang Wulin showed? Seeing that Song Weihan wanted to know where this question stemmed from, Sheng Feilong told him about Tang Wulin in detail.

"... Basically, it comes from his bloodline. At elast that's what he told us about. But, he's from an ordinary family... They shouldn't have an 1.000.000-years-old history, should they?", Seng Feilong asked after finishing his explanation.

Once again, Song Weihan started to frown. This really was weird; a young boy from an ordinary family that possesses a golden Soul Ring that allegedly stems from his bloodline. If it really was like that, then this Tang Wulin's origin were even more shocking than the Sheng's bloodline connection to the Three-Eyed Golden Lion. It seems like Song Weihan would have to do some investigative work later...

Shaking his head lightly, Song Weihan looked at Sheng Feilong before speaking up with a slight smile. "Anyways, we'll talk about this matter later. For now, the strange colouration of your Soul Ring doesn't seem to have a negetive effect. In fact, it seems to be much stronger than a normal 100.000-years-old Soul Ring, so I assume we should let that slide for now. I'm actually more interested in your External Soul Bone... Would you mind telling us of it's abilities, Feilong?"

Sheng Feilong smiled at Song Weihan, completely forgetting the matter of Tang Wulin and focused on the moment. Lightly stimulating the Doomstinger Dragonfly's Soul Bone, the five metres long, demonic looking tail with the sword-like stinger grew out from his tailbone once again. "This is the Soul Bone. I can basically freely control it like its another arm and it feels like its always been there. But its form and abilities are slightly confusing. I don't know about the normal Doomstinger Dragonfly, but my tail has a lot of similarities to the Netherworld Putrefaction Demon."

"What do you mean?", Song Weihan asked with a light frown. Bringing the tail in front of himself, Sheng Feilong continued while looking at it. "Well, the Doomstinger Dragonfly's tail wasn't as thin as this one. It looked more like a number of balls being bound together and not so smooth. Moreover, there's these green vein patters on the tissue connecting the carapace pieces..

Looking t the tail more closely, Song weihan could indeed see the pattern's Sheng Feilong mentioned. They looked nearly exactly like the patters that grew from Sheng Feilong's chest in hs transformed state. Thinking about it for a moment, Song Weihan came up with a plausible explanation. "It's not uncommon for Soul Rings or even Spirit Souls to mutate due to the influence of a Soul Master's Spirit Essence. Given the strength of the Netherworld Putrefaction Demon, I wouldn't be too surprised if it really influenced the Soul Bone. Moreover, you said the demon literally'devoured' the Soul Ring and Soul Bone back then. That's completely different that having a Soul Master slowly fuse with it, so it's understandable that there are changes based on this special circumstance. What about it's abilities, though?"

Sheng Feilong nodded and followed up by swinging the tail around, piercing the stinger at the tip forward and even coil the tail around Song Weihan's arm to show its maneuverability. Bringing it back and holding it in front of him once again, he continued his explanation. "I can pretty much do anything the Doomstinger Dragonfly did with it. And thanks to the Netherworld Putrefaction Demon's influence, its actually easier to control as it isn't so bulky anymore. Its attack power is about double that of me when I transform into a demon. And it even took on some effects of the Netherworld Putrefaction Demon's power; Any wound made by the stinger would begin to corrode away like when I use my first Soul Skill, though, the tail's effect is much weaker and doesn't cost any Soul Power."

Song Weihan nodded again, while Sheng Lingtian frowned a bit. The former looked at Sheng Feilong and they talked a bit more about the various effects and possibilities of the External Soul Bone. As a Soul Bone researcher, Song Weihan's passion really was roused by this rare type of Soul Bone, not to mention that it was a 100.000-years-old, mutated one at that!

After a while, Sheng Lingtian cut into their discussion, bringing up a point the two of them had completely forgotten in their eagerness. "Brother Song, do you really think it would be good for Feilong to expose this Soul Bone? Not to mention an 100.000-years-old External Soul Bone, even normal ones of 10.000 years of age are incredibly rare and many people would do whatever it takes to obtain them."

Song Weihan and Sheng Feilong instantly calmed down. What Sheng Lingtian said was completely right. Not only was Sheng Feilong's Soul Bone incredibly powerful, its sheer rarity was enough to start a huge uproar, enough for all of the powerhouses of the continent to get involved in. In fact, Sheng Feilong had thought about this before, this is why he only mentioned it to Song Weihan and Sheng Lingtian and no one else.

After talking for a while longer, they decided to keep the Soul Bone a secret. At least until Song Weihan's research of Artificial Soul Bones has come far enough to have Sheng Feilong's pose an a prototype for an Artificial External Soul Bone. With all of this being said, Sheng Lingtian once again cut to the chase, asking another important question with a cold voice. "Then, how should we continue now? Brother Song, you and I can always just return to the research facility, but Feilong is still young and he needs to learn. Though, with the risk of his second Spirit Essence, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion's bloodline and External Soul Bone being exposed, can we even send him to another Academy? He has far to many sensitive secrets..."

Song Weihan frowned, sinking into his thoughts for a while. Sheng Feilong looked concerned as well. Honestly, he wanted to return to Shrek with his friends, but after the war between his master and the Academy and the fact that they had heavily injured Song Weihan and his father, he didn't really want to have anything to do with them.

All of them remained silent for a while, not knowing what the best course of action would be. Finally, Sheng Feilong broke the silence first, though with a hesitant voice. "What if I were to... join Madam She's organisation, Daedalus..?"