The night in blood.

Douluo Continent

Eastsea Academy

Four days later

Fan Lin opened his eyes and stared at the leaves of the dense trees around him.

Last night, he trained and slept in the Eastsea Park since the plan had been set in motion already, his turn has ended for now.

He got up from the ground and went towards the Academy to get ready for the school.

The same physical training in the morning, knowledge classes in the noon and lunch and then classes. It was the same routine for him.

After all the classes ended, it was the time for the Class promotion exams of that day with Class 5 and Class 2.

And obviously, the protagonists class won because... they are the protagonists.

Fan Lin still kept an eye at Wu Zhangkong the entire time noticing that his expressions changed a little during the fight but it wasn't due to the fighters or the exams.

'Hmm. So someone strong is too close to here, huh.'

Fan Lin's emotionless face didn't show any expression as he thought about it while going with the girls.

He was so into his thoughts that he nearly went to the girls bathroom before being stopped by a teacher.

Hmm.

"Everything should work out just fine but... humans aren't that reliable... or trustworthy."

"Forget it."

Fan Lin thought while going straight to the Eastsea Park and continuing his daily training.

'Wait. Why is the teacher standing near the girls bathroom 🤔'

Fan Lin thought while practicing.

'Whatever.'

After this killing, he had to increase his cultivation level to 25 by the end of the year, in which 3 months already have gone.

...

"No suspicious activities detected from that kid but there is a chance that he could be faking it."

The subordinate reported.

"That's it?"

The Leader exclaimed.

"That's it."

The subordinate reported once again.

"Okay. What about the others? A day has passed and nothing new."

The Leader looked at the faces of his subordinates waiting for a reply.

"None action taken by the any of the gangs in the Eastsea City after last night."

"We got a leak that the Child killer is going to have a conference call with the leaders tonight."

"And no suspicious activities detected in other regions. Looks like they are going to stop their activities as there is a chance of a heavy storm hitting the Eastsea City tomorrow. The meteorological department will confirm this by tomorrow."

"We just got the news that the chances of it hitting the Eastsea City are higher than 90 percent though."

The other subordinate added.

"What the heck? Something should have happened if he is involved. Hasn't there been a single massacre happening anywhere that has a connection to this?"

The Leader asked in frustration.

All his subordinates looked at him and then looked at each other.

They seem to realise exactly how did the previous Leader became nearly mad when he was on this case.

It was a small town with less than 120 kids who awakened during those three years. And even after three years, he could not find the killer, in a small town with a population of 80,000 people! In which children between the age of 6 to 10 weren't more than 4000.

And now they were finding the same killer in a big town with 16 child suspects and a possible shapeshifter and they still can get a 100 percent guarantee on the target even after three months.

It would frustrate anyone.

....

Evening.

Fan Lin went to the cafeteria after his training and watched the news while munching on tomatoes.

'This kid must really love tomatoes huh.'

The subordinate thought while observing him.

He had been keeping a distance from the school as a student of Shrek was teaching here and his Leader has ordered to not arouse any suspicion from the other three forces.

He had been looking at Fan Lin's action for the past hour and he found nothing different from his daily routine.

'The night's going to come in an hour. I hope they found something else since this isn't going anywhere.'

'But to be fair, the Leader was right in a sense that if we just looked at this kid's habit, it does look like of a zealous follower of the forest, since he spends literally two-thirds of his day in the Eastsea Park and him refusing to eat meat...'

'The other one said that it was an eating habit developed due to the poor conditions of the orphanage but shouldn't he at least eat the free food now that there is plenty of it, plus it's also beneficial for him.'

'Was I right and this kid really doesn't know that the cafeteria food is helpful for Soul Masters like him?'

'Considering his place of origin, it could be possible that he didn't know but something still doesn't add up.'

'Let's say, his habit was formed due to the unavailability of a certain food. But shouldn't he would at least try to eat better food when it is available to him, even if he doesn't have the habit of eating it.'

'Has he never smelled the free meat buns or looked at the others eating it. Wouldn't he have thought of eating it at least once. He is still just a child, he must have wanted to eat something delicious at least once, right?'

'Hmm. If despite all this, he is a veg then that means his willpower is quite strong since he is deliberately not eating it. Does a normal child have this strong a willpower?'

'Uh-hmm. Nope. That's not normal. If we give something to someone who's never had it before, he will snatch it without any other thoughts. and this is a 9 year old kid we are talking about.'

'This kid is weird then. He is not normal. Should I look at the documents once again.'

The Wargod temple official that was keeping a lookout at Fan Lin thought.

Right at that moment, a piece of news was suddenly broadcast in the dining hall.

"Teachers and students, pay attention! Teachers and students, pay attention! The following announcement is an emergency announcement. Our meteorology department has notified us that a strong tropical storm will be passing by tonight. This storm is an extremely powerful typhoon and is forecasted to persist for a whole week. Thus, for the next week, students are advised to not leave the academy and all classes will be suspended during the typhoon. Please wait quietly in your dorms. The Class Promotion Tournament will be temporarily suspended until the typhoon has passed."

'So the news of the storm has been confirmed.'

'How would the killer proceed now?'

'huh?'

As the Wargod Temple official was in this thoughts, he saw a kid who left the dining hall in a hurry.

'Wasn't that the other Blue Silver Grass kid from the Glorybound City? Where is he suddenly going after hearing about the storm?'

'He is the Class Representative and one of the three fighting candidates, Tang Wulin. His friends are still sitting in the dining hall and so are the other students.'

'Is he the one?'

The Wargod temple official chose to follow Tang Wulin.

'I will ask for the CCTV footage of the dining hall later.'

....

Fan Lin was eating his food while paying attention to the surrounding students.

The moment he heard the announcement, he eyes went towards the Protagonist trio in front of him.

He purposefully chose this seat as he wanted to confirm the changes in Tang Wulin.

'This was the time where he learnt that his parents are in the hands of some really powerful black sect/corporation and he also unlocked his protagonist helper called Old Tang who gave him a recipe for body improvement and also informs him of the dragon in his body.'

'After hearing about the typhoon he was going to the Blacksmith Association to upgrade his rank, get money, buy ingredients and mix it to use for the body improvement.'

'After seven days, he should be back with his partially activated Golden Dragon King Bloodline and beat the Class 1 to show his protagonist upgrade.'

'I could have saved them...'

As Fan Lin's eyes followed Tang Wulin as he left, when he looked back, his eyes met with the eyes of Gu Yue who was staring at him because he stared at Tang Wulin.

'Nearly forgot about this stalker as well.'

He ignored her eyes and kept eating his food. She was one of the few people that he didn't want to get near. He had too little information on her and her background weird as well.

She most likely understood about the situation of Tang Wulin and she must have known about the dragon in his body. How and what was she going to do with him was the problem.

According to the cliche novels that he had read, Gu Yue must be the frienemy, first friends then enemies and then lovers. But it was all just a speculation of his.

'I wonder how many would die. Probably in hundreds... yeah, probably hundred towns at the least. Should be enough ransom to get everything settled.'

'I would be able to leave this area. Enroll in Shrek in a year and get the actual working of this world, Shrek's knowledge pool is one of the things that I can trust. I will decide how to proceed further based on that and then I would be in peace.'

'And time passes so fast, if only she stopped staring at me.'

'Ignore. Continue to ignore.'

And the evening passed with Fan Lin eating as much as he could and Gu Yue clearly staring at him the whole time.

And in an hour and a half, the typhoon struck the Eastsea City.

"Eastsea City was a coastal city, and encounters with typhoons was a normal occurrence."

"Hahaha 😀"

.....

The night passed and it came the news that the nearby cities had deaths.

....

"Nothing at all."

"Nothing Leader."

All five of his men answered him.

He looked at the storms outside the window.

"He should be frustrated, shouldn't he? Days of work wasted by nature. Huh. Let's eat to our hearts content. The headquarters had dismissed us from this case."

The Leader said without any change in his face and started stuffing food.

The subordinates looked at him and then began eating without any care as well.

Just an hour ago, they were dismissed from the case for insubordination.

Why?

Because they asked for one more day before taking care of the goons.

Now they were enjoying their last day in the Eastsea City as they have to leave the city the next day, in the stormy weather.

....

The next day with a storm in their lives as they got the news that 54,000 people had died the last night and it seemed to have a connection with the child killer and the goons that THEY refused to handle.

"Oh my..."

All of them looked themselves in the eyes but they don't know whom to weep.

"Are we fooled by him or was it a foolish action by our side?"

"Forget it...."

The Leader said and left the area. The subordinate followed closely.

In a single night, things happened and beknownst to them at that.

[Beknownst- Known, in someone's awareness.]

"Should we have nabbed the kid and the goons?"

"Nothing would have changed. The killings would have happened. The headquarters said that the gangsters were the decoy to grab our actions. And someone had leaked about us to the killer. The top brass found an Evil Soul Master in an higher echelons of the staff officials, he could have been supporting the killer from the Wargod temple."

"Haah. Let's leave."

"What about the kid? That kid that Captain thought was the Child killer?"

"The headquarters will look at that. That's what they said."

"And you believe them? I should have gone to the Seagod Pavilion instead."

"The top brass had begun the screening of the whole military and hidden departments, heard that the Spirit Pagoda is going to help them in it. They have already dismissed 100s of staff officers and employees."

"Ohhh."

"So that's it for us."

"That's it for us."

"If we meet again, let's try to search for him once again."

"He might have been caught by then."

"I don't think so."

"Then bye."

They bade their farewell.

...And they never met again.

....

Eastsea Academy.

Student Dormitory

Room 213

Fan Lin was cultivating his soul power. He had already gotten the news about the success of the plan and the ransom that they got.

They succeeded and now he could also leave the area to go to Shrek Academy.

But with his current Soul power and rank, he would not even gain the permission for the quota much less the entrance to Shrek.

The Shrek Academy entrance exam had three requirements. First, examinees had to be sent by a major city. Second, examinees could be no more than fifteen years of age. Third, the soul power of an examinee had to be rank 25 at the very least.

And then, Shrek Academy only accepted two hundred outer court disciples every three years. Among the two hundred, fifty were set aside for those who failed to pass the inner court exam. Only fifty people were allowed to take the inner court exam at a time. Passing the exam was obviously the desired outcome, but failing to do so still allowed entrance to the outer court, as well as the chance to enter the inner court in the future.

"And I am planning, not hoping but planning to get in it with my Blue Silver Grass Martial soul and Rank 13 Spirit Master status. I am getting a headache."