Shrek Orphanage

After the competition Karni and Siduo finally had some time for each other. The first order of business was to go buy some metals that were going to be used in Siduo's armour and more importantly, restock their cocoa reserves. Siduo had most of her plans for the alloyed Battle Armour completed, though with her having been on the opposite team for so long, she had trouble asking Tang Wulin for favours.

Ironically, they hadn't actually had the time to explore the city much. That's just the kind of pressure that Shrek gave students. As for the final exam that was soon to follow, they were told they could not prepare for it—this left them with free time that had not been available until now.

They had yet to even visit the Blacksmith's Association. They had amazing blacksmith's within the academy. There was no need to. 

Tang Wulin insisted that they go and visit it to get familiar with the building, since he'll be processing their requests through it from now on. Guy was a money grabber through and through. This was what they were doing at the moment. They were surfing the various metals.

In case of the others in the group, they decided to wait for Ye Xinglan to become a Soul Ancestor before continuing with the creation of their Battle Armours. Siduo offered help as well, but they refused. Despite Tang Wulin's best intentions, the relationship between Siduo and the rest of the group wasn't the best. Only Tang Wulin, and surprisingly, Gu Yue, had been more open with her these days.

Siduo didn't care much, though she was surprised about Gu Yue. She offered her hand and if they didn't like it, there was nothing she could do. She wasn't in the team with them, nor was she acquainted with them before the match. They would need time to become proper friends, if at all. If they do eventually team up, they would have two great manufacturers to rely on, which would greatly speed up the process of creating Battle Armour.

Siduo now had to take alloys into consideration, as well as making sure that the recipe for it was accessible to them—or at least readily buyable—she had to consider a metal outside of Energy Palladium. She also had to figure out how to balance this out with Crystal Lithium in the torso.

Yesterday, she finally found her match. In the case of Energy Palladium, she had to consider what effect would actually be useful to add in the grand scheme of things. She decided to go for a decently safe, but smart option. Balance the metal's effects out. The energies would be balanced out before being infused into the Crystal Lithium Torso, which had the role of then fusing those energies.

Energy Palladium was only able to integrate all types of energy, but to balance them out was not something it could just do on its own. There was, however, a combination with an alloy that thrived off of balancing its own energies and was, because of that, hard to destroy through elemental energies. The alloy was called the Paladin Magnesium Alloy. It got its name because Palladium sounded similar to Paladins, and interestingly, Paladin-like Soul Masters often used this alloy in their armour.

One of the key ways to take down someone with holy power was for Soul Masters—mostly Evil Soul Masters—to throw the Paladins' energies into chaos. This alloy helped them with keeping a balance of the elements they were bombarded with.

The actual alloy was a combination of Energy Palladium and Star Magnesium. Energy Palladium would give the alloy a suitable capacity of intaking elements, while the Star Magnesium took care of balancing. In its base form Star Magnesium only balanced its own energy to be that of star energy while removing any other element. Meanwhile, the alloy was specifically designed to transform this effect into general stabilisation.

"Tang Wulin said he has the recipe for the Paladin Magnesium?"

Karni nodded. "Yue Zhengyu has apparently already asked him for the alloy."

"The Angel guy?"

Karni nodded again.

"That does make sense. What about Sunrise Lithium?"

"He does not have that alloy recipe, no."

Siduo looked at its price and grumbled. "This is a third of my savings. And that's only for the recipe. I still need to buy the metal"

Karni looked at the screen. "It is worth it for the effect though. Especially so when you combine it with Paladin Magnesium."

Siduo sighed. "I know." And pressed the 'buy' button.

Sunrise Lithium was the alloy combined of Crystal Lithium and Sunfall Arsenic. The first would fuse the elements and the second would concentrate them into small specs of energy, giving more space to store even more, should Siduo be willing to spend that amount of energy. Of course, this was a passive ability, but most suitable with Siduo's goals and experience.

Sunrise Lithium was also known for going out of hand, since concentrating energy formed from a fusion of elements was known to be problematic even without the control of the Battle Armour. But Siduo had the skill to control, and experience to back it up. Her outer pieces would also be made of Paladin Magnesium, adding another layer of stabilisation. The energy fused would be stable beforehand. It was then up to Karni to design a blueprint that would best transfer the energy from one section of the armour to another.

Siduo grabbed the hand-written recipe and stored it in her spatial ring. Recipes were often handwritten to be kept secret. Often, these recipes were personally made by blacksmiths through experimenting—and wasting—a lot of metal. It was no wonder it cost so much. Most Soul Masters would need to spend their whole savings for this, but Siduo was a prodigy at the end of the day, and she had Karni to fall back to as well—he was richer than her.

Siduo, wanting to forget about her new bank status, offered a distraction. "Wanna take a detour to a restaurant?"

Karni thought about it. "Last time we took an unintended detour to take food, we ended up with a whole slightly too long character arc."

"Yeah, but last time we were Soul Grandmasters and were in fact, not, in one of the most secure cities on the whole goddamn continent."

Karni chuckled. "I'm joking. Let's go. You need to fill your stomach with something since you just emptied it with all that money."

"I blame Gu Yue for this. If it weren't for her I wouldn't have to go through with it. I could have had Wulin help me!"

"I-I'm sorry." A voice came from behind. Genuinely apologetic.

The two turned and Siduo's face immediately changed into a surprised, then genuinely apologetic one. A rare expression to find on her. "No, no. I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way. It was a joke, a joke. Karni and I just have a weird sense of humour is all."

Gu Yue stared for a second, trying to figure out if everything was actually alright. The two weren't used to this. "I… Can I join you for lunch?"

Karni glanced at Siduo, who nodded. "Sure, why not. Are you okay though?"

Gu Yue sighed. "It's just. Even if you two did it to be petty, you did have some good points. Especially you, Karni. Comparing the friendship back then made me… think."

Siduo looked at Karni, asking only with her eyes. All she knew was that he told her he'd hurt Gu Yue where it hurt the most. It seemed he really did, if she still thought about it after more than 4 months.

Gu Yue noticed the exchange, thankful that Karni hadn't talked to Siduo about the finer details. She decided to describe the conversation herself. "Karni here said that my… friendship… with Tang Wulin, is much like the one you two share. One based on absolute trust. I simplified it, but… anyway, I mocked that. I'm… sorry."

Siduo smiled a bit, before shaking her head. "I'll be honest, I didn't really care about that. My friendship with Karni would not change based on someone else's opinion, even if they did mock it. It was more my personal grudge and the fact you took everything so personally even when I stepped back and offered a sort of truce. You're weirdly untrusting and vengeful. Not trying to mock you, just my observation… Though I now realise it does sound kind of mocking…"

Gu Yue was surprised at the blatant honesty, but still insisted on her apology. "I'll think of a way to pay you back. At the very least, you opened my eyes." She nodded to the two of them and returned alone.

"Didn't she want to join us for lunch?" Karni whispered to Siduo.

"Mm. Apparently she got everything out of her system."

Karni thought about it for a second. What was Gu Yue? Right. An ancient God Beast. The Silver Dragon Queen. Shouldn't she have better ability to manage her mentality? Then again… maybe that was the problem? Weird age, thousands of years old ongoing grudges, splitting personalities… Where was that other personality of hers again? He shook his head. He had more important things to do.

"So. Lunch date?" He asked.

Siduo blinked a little, before realising Karni didn't mean much about it. Or… She looked into his eyes. Did he?

Karni blinked away. "Let's go."

… … …

There was no incident in the restaurant. They had a good meal and left. Siduo was even disappointed with the lack of a flirtatious mood. No, it was even more frustrating than that. She could almost feel Karni intentionally holding back whenever she tried to flirt a little.

Karni however wasn't dense enough to not pick that up. She teased him so much, he could tell the difference between her normal teasing and flirting. The main difference, there was a tiny bit of shame in her voice when she genuinely tried to do some flirting. Throughout the lunch, she kept becoming more and more ashamed of it as well.

He felt bad for it. It wasn't that he didn't… But no. He had to hold back, he… Ah whatever. No good came frpm just keeping it in. He trusted her. They could talk it out. They're still grown ups inside. "Sisi. I… get what you were doing, but… we are not even 15 in this body. It feels… wrong."

Siduo turned to him, her eyes wondering. "What would you do if we weren't like this?"

Karni blushed just a little bit. "Do I really have to answer that?" He sounded almost annoyed. It was so embarrassing to say it. Why was it embarrassing?! Again. He was an adult! Damn this teenage body.

He could see Siduo's eyes starting to shine. His stomach fluttered because of them. And… shit. He hoped she was feeling the same as he did right now, it felt wrong yet exciting. If they could just… skip to being adults already. If he closed his eyes it would be fine, but then he looked at her… and something was just wrong. His rationale was telling him it was wrong.

"Say, Kiki, what is that?" Siduo turned away from him and pointed in a random direction.

Karni looked at her and noticed her red cheeks. Thank the gods. At least he wasn't the only one. He turned to look at what she pointed at, a poor attempt to switch the topic.

"Sh-Shrek Orphanage?" Karni asked out loud.

Siduo turned to look at what she pointed at with surprise. She really pointed at that? Wait. Was that there the whole time?

It was a building that was truly grand in its size, though the ornamentation was minimalist. It had a sort of serenity to it. A respectful atmosphere.

Karni looked at Siduo, the surprise washed away his previous embarrassment. He did not remember a Shrek Orphanage existing in the stories. Most of all, Siduo had a certain… melancholy to her now. The change was just as fast as his own.

"Want to go take a look?" Karni asked in a whispering voice for some reason.

Siduo nodded.

The two reached towards the grandiose building. This should have the ability to house at least a few thousand, based on its side. It's no wonder Siduo pointed at it. Based on how much space it had, even if one pointed randomly, they would likely have around 50 percent chance to point at the orphanage.

Seeing the big windows that were, at the moment, wide open—likely airing out the space—they could notice a bunch of children inside. Just as many beds as well. Most of the kids looked younger than the two of them.

Some of the children noticed them and pointed at their deep green uniform. "Shrek students!"

As soon as one of them said it, a stampede happened within the walls. All the windows were filled with children now. Some were even jumping up on others to see the 'Shrek students'.

Then came heavy footsteps, and a pressure that even Krani and Siduo could feel pushed towards the windows. The children scattered like the wind itself, though through force. Tiny inscriptions of words appeared on their clothes and they parted without having a say in their opinion.

They saw a figure with a paintbrush come next to the window and that harshly looked at Karni and Siduo. She had a stern face with thick eyebrows and pitch black eyes. Her hair though, was bright blond. It was an unusual contrast.

"Are you Shrek students?"

The two nodded, on guard purely by instinct.

The woman's face did a one eighty. A bright expression with a beautiful smile appeared on her. Somehow her eyebrows turned thin and her eyes turned green. The only thing remaining was her hair colour, yet even that seemed like it started to sparkle all of a sudden.

"Come on in then, what are you waiting for?"

They were confused. What just happened?

The front door opened the next instance, and there she was, the same woman. They looked back up at the window, then at the door. She was fast!

Karni had to ask. "Have the children… never seen a Shrek Student before?"

The woman shook her head. "They have, but the last time was five years ago. We were planning to invite one over again, to make them excited, but… You guys are an unexpected visit."

The two looked at each other, a bit confused.

"So," she started, "since you two are here unannounced, how about entertaining the little kiddos for a bit?" She 'smiled'. Something they haven't seen in a while. The only 'choice' here was to answer:

"Sure." Karni smiled back. He could recognise such smiles anywhere. Mo Qing smiles. Something was up.

The two entered, and seeing all the curious eyes upon them, they were confronted with a different kind of pressure they were used to. They felt like they had to live up to the Shrek standard.

More questions rose up in Karni's mind. How have the kids not seen any Shrek Students? This was a road that was fairly frequented. It was in the centre of the city and only about a 15 minute walk away from the main academy entrance.

More than that. There was this constant gaze of suspicion that he felt, and it was definitely coming from that lady.

"Now, now kids. How did we practise greeting the students of Shrek when they come?"

In unison, the whole hall of a few hundred children said: "Please advise us seniors."

Karni gulped. No. This was definitely more than a hundred based on sound. He could even hear some of them saying it from places he could not see. From the backrooms, the canteen, the garden in the middle. Just how many were there?

Many of them also seemed injured, some seemed not to care and were a bit despondent. Some were missing limbs, or even eyes. This place was definitely an orphanage. A kind one as well. Any of the injuries seemed to have healed long ago. This couldn't be… all of the orphans in Shrek City… right?

"Let me introduce these two students to you." The woman spoke from behind with a powerful voice that didn't let any of the children make a peep. "These are Val Karni and Wu Siduo. The two of them are currently on the student council of the first year class in Shrek Academy."

"Oooooh." The children were in awe with shining eyes.

On the other hand, Karni and Siduo were now even more on guard. They did not tell her their names. More than that, she even knew their ranking in the class. This was definitely a high ranking member of Shrek Academy.

The two looked at her with suspicion, but they were greeted with a look of suspicion in return. What was with this place? The children are way too in sync for this to be just a normal orphanage and their… caretaker? Well, she seemed to be suspicious of something that they didn't know they did.

"Rion, Mia, Shao, come out." 

Two girls and one boy walked out, they looked to be around 12. Interestingly, there were no kids that they could notice being older than that.

"You'll have the honour to fight the first year's student council. Remember, only 2 of you lot entered Shrek this year. I expect more this year."

"Yes, Headmistress." The three said in unison.

Karni's and Siduo's eyes went wide. Two people entered from here? Who? They didn't know anyone from here. Shrek City didn't have its own schools or academies, those who lived here sent their children to Heaven Dou City most of the time. The two were on the student council, they've sorted their classmates before. There was no one that they could remember that would actually come from this place.

As for fighting these three children? They readily accepted it. 

They were led towards the centre of the Shrek Orphanage. It really was a large institution. The garden had a decently sized battle arena in the middle. They quickly noticed it was a giant contraption, which could split the arena into smaller ones. It was probably the training grounds.

They had the whole arena available to them this time. Siduo and Karni on one side, and Rion, Mia and Shao on the other.

Karni took this seriously. Two people made it to Shrek. That meant that these individuals weren't to be underestimated. Siduo seemed to be thinking the same way. The crowd was every orphan in the building. They had to number at least 2000.

Beside the caretaker—what they now assumed was the Headmistress—were two older gentlemen. Both of them had kind faces. Even The Headmistress was kind when talking to the children. It was like watching loving fathers and a loving mother.

Below them stood two women and a man, three people that looked to be in their 30s. They also had strong auras, though not as strong as the older three. They appeared to be younger caretakers of the orphans.

"Neither side should hold back. I personally guarantee there will be no injuries. Shrek students. Show us why you got into Shrek."

A bell rang that signified the start of the battle. Karni summoned his Martial Soul and the audience visibly gasped at his Black Soul Ring.

Siduo caused another uproar immediately after. 

Two Black Soul Rings!

Interestingly though, the opponents all had two Soul Rings, one of which had two Purple. These kids were talented.

Siduo disappeared from sight as Karni swung his Bo Staff with the Black Soul Ring shining. She appeared directly above the Purple Ringed Soul Grandmaster with her own fourth Ring shining. The Sun Meteor shone brightly.

All out? Sure they 'won't hold back'. Or at least, they would make it look like it. They were not about to expose all of their secrets from the start.

The Purple Ringed Soul Grandmaster was immediately pulled out by one of the overseers. In the next instant, Karni also appeared there, his third Soul Ring shining and hitting the other two students. They fell as well. It was all instantaneous.

The Headmaster stood up and appeared in the arena. "I said all out." She had a stern look.

Karni faked an apology, though he was wondering just how much this woman knew.

Siduo on the other hand… "If I do that, I might accidentally kill them. It's not worth the risk."

Those words quieted down everyone, including the Headmaster.

"Fine. You can face me then. Then you won't have to worry."

She flew to the opposite side of the field. "I'll only react to your attacks, but I won't be attacking myself. Come."

Karni and Siduo got into position, when the Headmaster summoned her rings. 1. 2. 3. 4… 9 Soul Rings. Last two… were Red.

Siduo made a wide smile, while Karni wondered how he got into such a situation. Well, it's not like he won't give it his all when something like that happens. This was a great opportunity!

Karni and Siduo immediately went to work. First, Karni Shifted Siduo high up in the air. He himself started building up the Disordered Drumstick Resonance.

Siduo created her self-fusion. Hell White Tiger. Following up, her Soul Rings started fusing. Six of them. Her Skull Bone appeared as well as her Torso Bone, she appeared to become a bloody drill of light charging straight into the Titled Douluo before them.

Karni kept on building up his Disordered Drumstick Resonance. Unfortunately, he couldn't really use his second Soul Ring to affect the Titled Douluo. It would be foolish. He would achieve absolutely nothing from it. He had to focus on gathering the Sound together with the joint attack.

The woman glanced at the two with a hidden smile. Her fourth Soul Ring activated and her paintbrush created a nigh infinite amount of silvery inscriptions around her. They pulsed with a soft glow.

Karni wasn't sure what it was, but he could see that everything would fail should they hit that.

He waited, building up the Disordered Drumstick Resonance. He really picked the height he Shifted Siduo to perfectly. Just as he got the 26th hit in, he used his Purple Demon Eyes along with his Golden Insight. The world seemed to slow down as his focus increased.

"Time it perfectly." He breathed out.

As the 27th, the most important hit, came, Siduo almost clashed with the Silver Inscription. He spun his body along with both drumsticks and Shifted. Two spaces at the same time. Siduo reappeared inside the Silver Inscription, above the Headmistress. Karni appeared to her side. In that one instance, he shut off his third Soul Ring then turned it on again and a melody that didn't belong to this world came together with the Disordered Drumstick Resonance along the beat of his heart.

He rarely used that. It needed his comprehension and his Spiritual Energy. It was immensely exhausting.

They released their attacks at the same time. Yet just before they connected, an eighth, Red Soul Ring shone for a split second. Small, pure blackness appeared close around the Headmistress.

The two hit it. On Siduo's side, tiny, tiny cracks appeared. On Karni's side, the blackness seemed to bend ever so slightly in unnatural ways. Karni's vision focused on this void. It wasn't just a big paint of black, no. It was millions of tiny letters and words condensed together so much it might as well have been completely black paint.

The two dispersed. Siduo quickly deactivated her skills before she got overwhelmed. She still had backlash, but it was not as bad as if she'd continued with this attack. One of the older overseers quickly stepped to her and released a soothing energy. He was a healing type soul master. He was also a Titled Douluo, though his Rings were all Black.

The Headmistress nodded. Her third Soul Ring shone, and her eight soul skill doubled in size. Everyone could now see the effect.

"Great power and incredible comprehension. My skill is often used in testing the students here. If they manage to affect this skill even a little, they are likely to enter Shrek Academy. It's called the Ink's Abyss. It takes in a skill and can seal it at an opportune moment, I can unseal it and attack back with the skill. However my skill has a limit. If something affects it too much, it will, of course, break. Because of that, those who can affect it possess a decent amount of power."

Karni analysed the reactions of the orphans. All he could see was amazement. It seemed she was speaking the truth.

The Headmistress turned to the audience. "What you saw is a great display of power, achieved by combining an amazing amount of skills into a single, efficient attack. The result of that are these cracks."

Then she turned the still visible ink that was being shown to the audience. The bent characters were shown. "This on the other hand, is a matter of pure comprehension of the element. It is well on its way into the Heart's Element, reaching the level of connection with nature as well. It has characteristics of Ultimate Element as well."

"Children," she turned to the three who were instantly defeated, "remember this experience."

The three nodded, full of motivation and reverence for Karni and Siduo.

"Can I ask?" The Purple Ringed Soul Master raised her hand. She was one of two girls in the group, and was clearly the leader. "How old are you two?"

Karni answered instead of Siduo, because she was being treated. "We're 14, turning 15 this year. We became Soul Ancestors when we were 13."

The girl nodded and clenched her fist. She was 12. There was no way she could become a Soul Ancestor in that short amount of time, but she already had Purple Soul Rings. There was hope for her to reach Soul Ancestor by the time it's her turn to take the Shrek Exam at 15.

"Will we be able to practise with you?" The only boy asked.

The Headmistress answered in Karni's stead. "We'll see. They are unexpected, and students lead busy lives." She glanced at Karni, clearly still harbouring some sort of suspicions, though her expression had greatly softened. "You two, come with me."

… … …

"We have to sign this? Why?"

"Because this building must stay completely secret. This will be your vow." The Headmistress 6th Soul Ring was glowing.

The two sighed. It's not like they had a choice, but this meant they would not be able to find out who in their class comes from this orphanage.

She watched the two teens leave, unsure as to why she made them do this. Instinct? She had to be sure. She had an inkling. If everything went normally, they wouldn't be able to find this place ever again, but… if she could not do anything? This was a good second option, as well as a guarantee.

She entered a room that was partly filled with golden bamboo, yet this was connected with golden inscriptions and technology at once. It was… she breathed in… as ancient as ever.

Putting her hand on the 'computer', she accessed some files.

"Entry denied. Higher clearance needed."

"Higher clearance needed? How? Their data requires the highest clearance?" Sighing, she called a number. She didn't even wait 3 minutes, before a figure appeared.

"Yeyue."

"Mm. Shishi. What's wrong?"

"This." She showed the 'entry denied'.

"Peculiar. What is this about?"

"Val Karni and Wu Siduo. They wandered into the area by accident today. I tried accessing their files, but…"

"This happened? For them?"

"Yes. My guess is that either you, Pavilion Master or Ya Li entered them into the database?"

"Not to my knowledge, no. Besides, don't you have higher clearance than us?" 

"Not if it was a personal entry."

Long Yeyue stepped next to the terminal and put her hand to a scanner to access Val Karni's and Wu Siduo's database.

"Entry Denied. Higher Clearance needed."

"We should ask that brat Yun Ming as well-" Shishi was interrupted.

"Hush. You know as well as I, that that is unlikely… Though just in case…" Long Yeyue wore a rarely seen frown. "Shishi. How do you feel about helping with the exam? Think of it as a personal favour."

"Yeyue, please. How long have we known each other? Do you really need me for this? Get one of the teachers to do it."

"Hmm. But this is a special case. All you would have to do is take notes on their progress. I'm guessing they'll be taking a similar route since they're both from Star Luo City."

Shishi looked unsure. She had the orphanage to take care of. Being away for ten days didn't feel right to her. "Though I agree that this is incredibly odd, I do not think the two are harmful. I don't think we'll find anything out. They didn't put up much of a fight when I forced them to sign a Vow of Silence about the orphanage. And don't think I don't recognise that girl, you talked to me about wanting to take her in, didn't you?"

"Shishi. A clearance higher than yours, connected to your orphanage only, that neither of us knows anything about. Think about it." She ignored Shishi's last comment. "It is not something that we can brush off, even if they are harmless. The first step to solving this mystery is figuring out why this happened. For that, we need someone to keep a tighter watch over them."

Shishi still wasn't quite sure. Long Yeyue knew her friend. The woman practically lived for this orphanage, was raised in it and poured all her resources into it. They rose to positions of similar power and influence, though Shishi's was limited to the institution with an added bonus of no one being above her even if she was directly connected to the academy. It wasn't easy to convince a woman like that. She needed to give her one more push.

"I seem to remember that one of your students had a fake ID that dictated she came from Star Luo City. They happen to be quite close with her, it's likely that they'll plan a similar route, even if they won't interact with one another. I remember you being fond of that one."

Shishi was finally persuaded. "Fine. I'll be one of your examiners this once. But you still owe me one."