Hypocrite Fan and Gullible Gu Yue

Douluo Continent

Previously:

Fan Lin: I wanna reforest the world! Pay me.

Federation: Nah.

..

Spirit Pagoda: We are planning on reforestation. Pay us!

Federation: Of course my Lord.

[Moving on]

{We have already informed the Federation and you can start your work whenever you want to. I have also approved of your 14 day leave for the Western region. Good luck on your trip.}

Leng Yaozhu said to him and cut the call. Fan Lin kept his soul communicator into the storage soul guide and looked at the flashing by scenery of the passing buildings of the Shrek City.

He was currently in a soul train, on his way to the nearest soul train station so that he can rent a flying soul cab and fly towards his destination.

Fan Lin was an official member of the Spirit Pagoda and not like a trainee/disciple like Gu Yue. Hence he had to take leave when he wanted to skip work or would not be able to attend work at the Spirit Pagoda.

Even though he hasn't done a single Spirit Pagoda job since no one gave him any and he had no idea what the Spirit Pagoda's main job fields actually were.

So he had taken a two week leave from the Spirit Pagoda to travel to the Western front to check the land that his Handler brought and began the first step of his grand scheme.

"And yeah, I have taken a leave, not asked for it."

The journey from the Shrek City to the Western region would normally take around 7 to 9 days from the Soul train as the western region was even beyond the Bright City.

The same journey could be done in less than 24 hours if done via a flying soul car but flying vehicle were not allowed to fly in the Shrek City and hence there were little to no flying soul cars in the entirety of Shrek City.

(I think this might be the reason why so many people couldn't escape even though Yun Ming provided them a few minutes of survival time during dd3 Shrek Academy destruction. There was no fast vehicle that could somehow ignore the jammed up road and take the people out of the vicinity of the attack. What do you guys think?)

As for wasting time to find those few flying soul cabs, Fan Lin rather chose the option to book one in the next city that he was going to.

Some time later. (A few hours)

Fan Lin got off the next station and went to get his rented flying soul car and flew west at top speed in it.

He could have used his Crystallokinesis Armor to fly as well but since he had proclaimed that he had lost his previous soul skills, using it would be akin to saying that he was lying at that time.

Even though he did.

And after a 23 and a half hour journey that made him realise why people prefer trains to driving on a car for long distances.

It was indeed incredibly boring to sit on a steering wheel and watch out for any other vehicle or the path for accident.

And Fan Lin didn't need to sleep or eat or toilet but that clearly wasn't the case for normal people.

"This long and arduously boring journey made me realise just how stupid campers are when they take a car or bike to travel to places which they could normally travel through a train or airplane."

"And don't get me started on 'its not the destination but the journey that matters.' Those are the words said by people to retain the few shreds of pride they may have left after realising just how foolish their actions were."

"Humans are stupid for creating mindless ad foolish things and calling it passion or escape from society."

Fan Lin got out of the Flying soul car in a grumpy mood as the 23 hours of constant driving didn't help in making him energized in any way.

He looked at the land in front of him.

It was in the middle of nowhere and actually lied on the north western part of the western region, nearly bordering the Absolute North.

This was a place that humans would never dare to come as this area was filled by all sorts of monsters. One was even directly coming to attack Fan Lin as he was planning on the distribution of the vegetation and the elevation of the area.

Boom.

A big worm/centipede like creature with wings on its back attack Fan Lin right on the his head, gobbling his head in a single bite.

[It looked like the beetles/insects on The Mummy.]

Its teeth broke at it made contact with his skin, while many of its teeth sinking deep into its own body as they couldn't progress any further into Fan Lin's head, not even a millimetre.

The creature fell from his head and writhed on the sand while Fan Lin looked at it while contemplating his actions.

"What is more important? Forest or something that destroys it."

"Suppose I created a forest and left it alone, you guys are going to end it in a few days. Can't let that happen."

Fan Lin said emotionlessly as a ruthless glint flashed by his dead eyes. He took out a coin and tossed.

"Heads and I will wipe out your species."

"Tails and I will change your species accordingly to the new environment."

"How do you like this way? I had forgotten, even though I am supposed to have eidetic memory due to the Energy Serum but looks like it didn't cover the time period before it was used."

"So where was I, yeah, on the coin. I just realise that whenever I have a problem and two solutions that are hard to choose from, I can just rely on the world and blame in on the Punishment God that sent it."

"Such a nice thing."

[.●⁠_⁠_⁠●.]

Fan Lin said to the worm and looked at the coin on the sand. It was tails. He eyes darted towards the worm and he took a small piece of it body and took out his poison suitcase.

He gently took a purple red vial and dropped the piece of the worm's flesh into it.

He then threw the purple red vials in the air and they disintegrated into nothing while spreading out to wherever the wind took it, affecting all the creatures that were the same species as the worm.

Starting by the worm on Fan Lin's feet.

"Don't worry, you will just feel a pain as if all the muscles and nerves in your body are torn apart but a few days later, the pain will go away and you will become a much more docile and vegetarians species."

"Although the few days will be your body genetically changing due to the effects of the toxins as they ravaged and forcefully change your body to fit what I desire. Sorry for that but I need to change. For a better future."

He slowly whispered while caressing the heavily writhing creature, his eyes completely devoid of emotions.

He got up and once again began to plan the distribution of vegetation in the area.

A few minutes later.

Fan Lin adorned his Battle Armor as his Boundless Ring rose from his body. The next moment, the whole area seemed to turn upside down as huge crystal rose from the ground and changing the landscape of the desert area that was full of sand.

The crystals seemed to work as a sort of roller that kneaded the sand with the soil and rocks that were hundreds of feet below the sand.

His restoration agent could definitely grow plants in an area but he still needed to have a proper base for it.

Or he can just release the D-S 1 and let the whole world get filled with plants as the living beings will become the carrier and the fertilizer for them.

Let's control my urges for now. Life is long. Really long.

A few minutes of kneading and brand new sandy soil was ready.l to be filled into the 15 kilometres of land that he uplifted.

"Let's see, restoration agent, nutrition agent and some more mutagenesis toxin with hyper diaolic agent, genetic syrus and some enhancement agents that I was able to specifically create from the things in this world. This should be enough to this much land."

He took out his poison suitcase and prepared a batch of ready to mix poisons that could also be used to heal and packed the new poison into a crystal sphere.

He then launched the crystal sphere into quite a distance away from him and in the land in front of him and willed all the Crystallokinesis to disappear.

Instantly the whole area seemed to have experience an earthquake as heaps of sands and dust was scattered everywhere as a landmass nearly 5 kilometres wide suddenly dropped to the ground.

"I just need to wait for a few days to see the effects of the new toxins and my toxins skills. I feel a have have rusted far more than I had previously thought since nearly half of my previous life's poison creation memories are jumbled."

"Ignoring that, a week will be enough for the trees to grow fully and I can leave this area at that point."

"Finally, I just need to cover this area in a strong repellent agent to scare away the soul beasts from coming here for a few weeks."

That much time would be enough for the worms to become a gentle spirit.

Douluo Continent

Western Region.

In a land that was surrounded by Blue Silver Grass and lots of other herbs and plants wherever the eyes could see, a boy was sleeping on the ground, surrounded by a plethora of plants and weird worm/centipede/beetle like creatures that were gnawing at his body.

At least they were trying to as their gnawing had no effects on the body that was sleeping peacefully in the ground.

After a while, the worm like creature seemed to have enough and dragged Fan Lin by his legs to the sandy area a few kilometres away and left him there while returning to sleep on the cool shade of the grass where Fan Lin previously slept.

These worm like creatures were the infamous desertification creatures. After a merciful baptism of Fan Lin, now there population was less than a tenth of what it was before and their digestive systems and other functions were forcefully tuned to only digest fruits and berries while their instincts and other predatory senses were completely ripped off by Fan Lin.

Now they were wriggly creatures that looked disgusting but were harmless and innocent and only ate fruits and berries for their sustainability.

Then why were they gnawing at Fan Lin?

Fan Lin slept around their newborn babies, and the worms treated Fan Lin as an enemy predator to their children so they tried their best to get rid of him, they obviously failed so they dragged him far away from the area and left him there.

They also shifted their babies to a new area, hidden among the trees and shrubbery.

Some hours later.

Fan Lin woke up and slowly stood from the sand.

He looked at his surroundings and roughly understood the situation after seeing the footprints of the worms on the grassy ground.

He glanced at the place that was now filled with towering tress, glossy plants and aromatic herbs. The whole place was full of vitality and everywhere he saw was a shade of green.

"I should bring her here next time."

He mumbled to himself and gently threw a dark red leaf vial that seemed to disappear into the air leaving no traces of its use.

'Time to leave.'

More than a week has passed since he came here and he had stayed more than he planned.

He was going to leave a few days ago but the newer worms were going to give birth so he stayed to observe the newer offspring to see just how much he had degraded in his poison creation.

The result was, not too much. He still had his rough flair as the new offspring were the newer worms and exhibited no signs of the previous species.

Fan Lin specially stayed a few more days to observe them and regularly fed them the purple red toxins in really low amounts to kill any possibilities of genetic resemblance to the old species.

Now that he was completely sure that nothing was wrong, it was finally time for him to leave and leave he did.

'If there is even a single interference here by some other human, I will turn the western region in a graveyard.'

A calm Fan Lin thought on his way to the Spirit Pagoda in his flying soul car.

On his way, he stopped at some smaller places and filled those area with a wide variety of plants and trees according to the the area specific common plants and throughout the 29 places that he planted, Blue Silver Grass existed everywhere.

Literally everywhere. At every region and place be it the mountains, beaches, trenches, hot arid regions to slighter colder ones, from temperate to tropical regions.

Thankfully he was able to acquire quite a lot of different floral genetic material during his creation of the Energy Serums and hence didn't need that much to think while planting the different areas.

Lastly, he made sure to take pictures and video proof of his work and kept doing it till he reached the Shrek City one day later than his 14 days holiday.

....

Shrek City

Fan Lin was sitting in a soul cab as it was driving through the bustling city to reach the Spirit Pagoda Headquarters.

On his cab ride, he once again recalled the past two weeks and the sense of fulfillment he felt after he planted an area.

It made his heart calmer and firmer on what he desired and what he was going to do for it. It also calmed his anger against a particular someone.

Fan Lin was now more mature than before and resembled a more clear headed past self of his after his wife died.

Which might not be a good thing since he started killing at precisely this time period in his past life.

The cab dropped him quite a distance away from the Spirit Pagoda and he slowly walked towards it.

The Spirit Pagoda Headquarters. The tallest building in the entirety of Douluo planet felt a tad bit smaller than he previously thought.

His calm green eyes took the sight of the world in front of him as various thoughts filled his head.

...

A week later.

Nothing happened.

So another week later.

"Today's the grade examination between Gu Yue's grade and your former Grade. Who do you think will win?" [Leng Yaozhu]

"Does it have anything to do with the current work I am doing?" [Fan Lin]

"It doesn't." [Leng Yaozhu]

"Then don't ask." [Fan Lin]

"Why do you hate Gu Yue?" [Leng Yaozhu]

"I don't hate her." [Fan Lin]

"Then why don't you talk about her? Let me change the question. Why do you always change the topic when it comes to her?" [Leng Yaozhu]

"Does it concern you?" [Fan Lin]

"It does. You are my subordinate and she is my disciple, if you have done something bad to her then it's my responsibility as a her mentor and your superior to deal with you." [Leng Yaozhu]

"And if she had done you wrong then it's also my responsibility as her teacher and your superior to punish her for it." [Leng Yaozhu]

"So yeah it does concern me a lot that you guys have been avoiding each other like plague?" [Leng Yaozhu]

"Responsibility? That's a nice word to say. I am not avoiding her in particular, I have nothing to talk to her or about her, neither are we acquaintances or anything like that. I have no need to have a conversation with her since there is no need for any further communication between us." [Fan Lin]

"Hmm, by that logic, even the conversation you are having with me is pointless as well." [Leng Yaozhu]

"It isn't?" [Fan Lin]

"You really don't care about seniority, do you? You are also rude and indifferent towards others. And the fact that you can so smoothly insult the others without batting an eye is commendable as well." [Leng Yaozhu]

"Do you not any fear of my strength and status?" [Leng Yaozhu]

"I will have it too when I am your age, maybe even sooner than that." [Monotone Fan Lin]

"Did you just call me old?" [Leng Yaozhu]

"I didn't but if you are thinking like that, you might be." [Fan Lin]

"You are really taking advantage of my kindness and the fact that I won't hurt you for little things like this." [Leng Yaozhu]

"Wisdom comes with Experience, Stability of mind with age. Of course you won't care about the words of a child who hasn't even lived a tenth of your lifespan." [Fan Lin]

"Now I suddenly want to." [Leng Yaozhu]

"So age has no effects on the stability of mindset." [Fan Lin]

"Did you imply that I am dumb despite being old. Do you wanna really die?" [Leng Yaozhu]

"Let's change the topic or I might act unworthy of my status." [Leng Yaozhu]

"You still want to talk to me, even after all this?" [Fan Lin]

"So you do know what you are speaking." [Leng Yaozhu]

"You are a Rank 7 Mecha Designer, teach Gu Yue in the upcoming months in my stead as I have to do some important matters to handle, in return I will give you a flying soul car for your ease in traveling. The soul trains takes too much time if you are planning on frequently traveling." [Leng Yaozhu]

"I can buy my own flying soul car, by myself at that." [Fan Lin]

"You are getting it for free, why buy it then?" [Leng Yaozhu]

"I don't want to waste my time on unnecessary things. Time is of importance." [Fan Lin]

"(⁠●⁠_⁠_⁠●⁠)" [stare] [Leng Yaozhu]

"(.•⁠_⁠•.)" [Reverse stare] [Fan Lin]

"It's an order." [Leng Yaozhu]

"I refuse to comply with anything that is useless to me or my cultivation." [Fan Lin]

"So it's fine with something that aids your cultivation. We have a Soul Bone, would you like that but you have to teach her more." [Leng Yaozhu]

"Not interested." [Fan Lin]

"In what? Soul bone or teaching her." [Leng Yaozhu]

"This is a waste of time." [Fan Lin]

"Okay then teach her Mecha Designing and... I will... sent you in a delegation for the other two continents. They are filled with a number of exotic plants and soul beasts and also had lots of barren land. Considering your interests, you don't not wanna miss this." [Leng Yaozhu]

"With the Spirit Pagoda as your intermediary you can easily gain much more than the Federation. What do you say? [Leng Yaozhu ]

"When do I start?" [Fan Lin]

"That's good. I will tell you when the time comes." [Leng Yaozhu]

...

Meanwhile in Shrek Academy.

The battle between the grade 1 and Grade 2 was overwhelmingly exciting as three grade 1 students had one word Battle Armor pieces whereas grade 2 was the same as in the original.

The result was a tough battle at the beginning but a direct landslide victory after the grade 1 used their battle armor.

The match was watched by all and the grade 1 was declared as the strongest grade 1 in the past hundred years.

(Fan Lin was the strongest student but due to his situation, he wasn't counted in the grade group since he could take on the whole grade by himself. Crystallokinesis rocks!)

The grade 2 students looked at each other and shook their heads while thinking what would happen happened if Fan Lin had joined the competition and laughed at the thought.

If he had joined, it would have not been a competition at all.

....

A few days later.

Spirit Pagoda Headquarters

Fan Lin was reading the reports of his drugged subordinates from all the various parts of the Spirit Pagoda Headquarters.

Among all the pieces of news, one thing attracted his attention. The Spirit Pagoda was planning on stopping the project to create artificial spirit souls of the ten thousand year old rank yet again as their research reached a dead end and Fan Lin was indirectly involved in it as well.

To the outside world, the news was the that the Spirit Pagoda had to stop the research since they were planning to start anew from a new direction.

But to the insiders, the project plan was stopped because of the wipeout of nearly hundred of illegal experimental facilities and organisations of the Spirit Pagoda, which was the work of the 'mysterious death' killing in the past years aka Fan Lin.

Fan Lin had kept killing the soul beasts traffickers and the people involved in the illegal experiments along with anyone else that fall under the category of evil. This has now spread into a horrifying fear among the other groups and they had either closed down or changed locations.

Due to this, Spirit Pagoda's valuable sources of research information was discontinued from nearly everywhere in the Douluo Continent and they had to stop the plan in here.

Now the Spirit Pagoda was thinking of other means to get reasearch materials and experiment data.

Fan Lin stared at the words: Artificial Spirit Souls. It was the term for those spirit souls that were created artificially and didn't require any kinds of essence from the soul beasts.

(It was basically vegan meat if you want a really clear example. Tasted like meat, cooked like meat, smelled and looked like meat but wasn't meat but an artificial product of the humans.)

(The same were the artificial spirit souls, they don't require the need/assistance of soul beasts in its creation and acted the same as the spirit souls, except on the weaker end.)

(This problem was however fixed by the time of DD4 and artificial spirit souls were the mainstream and also the only available spirit souls that were available to the general public.)

(Onto the story...)

Fan Lin wondered about the possibility that if he was able to create the artificial spirit souls of the ten thousand year rank then the dependence on the Starduo forest soul beasts would most likely end.

'But I don't have any knowledge in this field, Altruist was the one with mastery over energy and life, my specialities were poisons and living things, hmm.'

'I need someone who... Gu Yue. Let's ask Gu Yue."

Fan Lin remembered about a certain girl when he was thinking of people he could use and then remembered that with her female lead protagonist aura and the fact that she was a member of the Spirit Pagoda and that the creation of ten thousand year old spirit soul could be a groundbreaking invention, adding to the fact that she was really interested in his plans and Tang Wulin.

She might be the person who was destined to create the artificial ten thousand year old spirit soul, thus gaining a valuable position in the Spirit Pagoda.

Shrek was going to be destroyed and the protagonist would most likely need a help of another power, at that time, Gu Yue, the female lead will spread her arms and help him open heartedly becoming the second background behind him. This might also be a plot point for them to realise their own feelings and deepen it.

'That should be how the future should go.'

(Disclaimer: The above written materials are the thoughts of Fan Lin and had no actual association with the DD3 plot. Don't read this and judge the DD3.)

"Will she listen to me though?"

"I will try, if not then I will learn it myself. With the amount of people that I have, my own rank in the Spirit Pagoda and my vast knowledge in poisons and genetic modification, I should be able to learn everything in a few years."

"I am thirteen now."

'Let's kill the targets in the Eastern coasts and stop killing for a few years.'

Fan Lin called the Handler to prepare the list of the Eastern and southern coasts of the Sun Moon Federation.

He had reforested a small part of the Western region that came under him and him killing people in the western region might attract some unwanted eyes on his land.

He was going to cause a big event in the Eastern coast, big enough to attract the attention of literally most the forces of the Federation and that will be the breathing space that his land in the western area needed.

He wasn't worried about people seeing his replanted forest. What he was worried was about the new species that were living in the forests and the sudden disappearence of the old beetle worm species in the western region. If people got suspicious and either kidnapped his new worms to experiment the new species or did anything to his forest.

He still remembered the words he whispered to himself when he left his land.

'I need to name it. Calling it land or my land isn't cutting it out.'

"What about Qiangu Donfeng? I have to take care of him sooner or later but he is a Four Word Battle Armorer and a Limit Douluo (Rank 99) as well."

"Let's wait and watch. Maybe I could find some more weakness of his as time passes and then..."

...

A few days later.

Fan Lin was patiently waiting for Gu Yue in Leng Yaozhu's room.

Leng Yaozhu had gone to handle her 'important matters' and entrusted the teaching of Gu Yue to Fan Lin.

Fan Lin had reluctantly agreed after he was offered a chance to visit the other two continents as an envoy of Spirit Pagoda and making reforestation deals with the government there.

Some time later, Gu Yue came and turned back to leave the moment she saw him.

Her master had told her that she had to leave for important matters and had appointed a helper for her. Gu Yue didn't know who the helper was. If she knew about Fan Lin, she would have rejected her master then and there.

Fan Lin sped up to stop her.

"Wait." [Fan Lin]

He said while standing in front of her.

"What do you need?" [Gu Yue]

She coldly asked but he wasn't fazed by her at all.

"Leng Yaozhu had gone to handle her important matters, I am your Mecha Designing teacher in the meantime till she comes." [Fan Lin]

He said while keeping his gaze on her.

"I will come when Master is back then." [Gu Yue]

She said and tried to bypass him. She failed as Fan Lin didn't allow her.

"Hmm?" [Gu Yue]

She stared at him, her eyes questioning his reason for stopping her.

"Are you free this weekend?" [Fan Lin]

He asked her but she didn't answer. Her reply loud and clear.

"I need you. If you are free then come to this place tonight."

He forcefully handed her his shop's location and turned around to leave.

She looked at his leaving figure and then at the shops location. It was directly in front of the Shrek Academy and the next day was the weekend that he asked about.

She thought of his words and took out her soul communicator.

"What do you want now?" [Gu Yue]

She asked him, her voice as cold as ice.

{Actions speak louder than words. If you are interested, then you are free to come.} [Fan Lin]

Gu Yue saw him pick her call and reply while running towards her.

"Don't show me your face now. Just talk while remaining outside my field of view." [Gu Yue]

She coldly remarked.

{Unreasonable as always.} [Fan Lin]

He said while running away from her, taking stairs, lifts and finally reaching his room.

"And when have you been reasonable? What do need me for?" [Gu Yue]

She entered Leng Yaozhu's workroom as talking in the hallway was weird.

{Don't you think you are too gullible? Don't give second chances to other people like me. You will regret it.} [Fan Lin]

Fan Lin thought about the actions of Gu Yue and found out that she was quite easily deceived.

'Is that why she always maintains a distance from others and only wander around Tang Wulin. That guy doesn't have the guts to deceive his close friends.'

"That's it?" [Gu Yue]

She heard his words and calmly asked. Her icy tone slowly frosting the surroundings.

{Artificial spirit souls. Are you planning on learning it?} [Fan Lin]

He asked to clear his thinking. If Gu Yue had no interest in learning it, his whole plan will end there.

"Yeah." [Gu Yue]

She answered while wondering what does he needed her for. Fan Lin reputation in her mind was in the negatives but even then, if there was a slight chance that he indeed was the owner of the vials and could use those weird liquids to replant the empty area just like he did on their first meeting then everything may be worth it.

{Wanna collab?} [Fan Lin]

She took a double take when she heard him say that.

'He really thinks that I would want to help him after all this?'

"Why should I partner with you?" [Gu Yue]

She asked trying to get more information out of him. But he as usual tried to be ambiguous about it.

{You have what I lack and I am a genius.} [Fan Lin]

She knew that Fan Lin wouldn't tell her the full truth until she force it out of him

"Should I cut the call or are you coming to the point?" [Gu Yue]

{Ten thousand year old artificial spirit souls. I want to create it. Help me.} [Fan Lin]

He answered calmly but this wasn't the answer that she wanted. Fan Lin had previously said that he will create a forest better than the Starduo forest.

Then he said that he will get the top 9 spirit souls from the Tower Attack.

Then he quit Shrek and joined Spirit Pagoda even though he previously said that he hated it.

Now Gu Yue was finding it really hard to trust this guy whose words felt like bluffs used to deceive people like her.

"What about the previous plan of yours? Did you ditch it? Or did you change your mind since it was too difficult?" [Gu Yue]

She asked, her voice turning icy cold. She once again thought about whether Fan Lin was a suitable person to be associated with.

{Actions speak louder than words.} [Fan Lin]

He repeated his previous words calmly.

It took her a moment to understand what he was trying to imply but when she did, her eyes shine up just a little.

"You succeeded?" [Gu Yue]

And then he repeated it again.

{Actions speak louder than words.} [Fan Lin]

The shine in her eyes seemed to disappear at his words, replaced by anger

"Stop it and tell me if you succeeded or not. I am not in the mood for jokes." [Gu Yue]

{Actions speak louder than words.} [Fan Lin]

"I will come. Let's talk about our cooperation on a later date." [Gu Yue]

Gu Yue nearly sighed at his childish antics and agreed while cutting the call.

She then called her Master to complain about the sudden teacher change and informed her that she will wait for her before continuing her Mecha Designing classes.

Gu Yue directly stated that she didn't want to be in a same room as Fan Lin and cut the call.

Leng Yaozhu looked at her soul communicator and thought.

'When did the kids become so rebellious?'

...

One more to go.

And then we will be on the Massive Chapter.