The Legend of the Dragon King

The sound of combat pierced through the air. It was chaos incarnate, thundering booms shaking the earth and sending debris flying sometimes meters away. Battles had broken out throughout every corner of the forest, spreading like wildfire.

However, this was natural, as 101 participants were scrambling for a measly three positions. They all believed themselves destined to stand at the summit, special and extraordinary among crowds of the mundane.

And today was the best chance to showcase just that to their teachers.

☀

“Senior brother, who do you think will become the class president?” Shen Yi asked, eyes glued to the large screen on the wall, analyzing.

“Tang Wulin,” Wu Zhangkong answered.

“Tang Wulin? Are you sure?”

Wu Zhangkong nodded.

“But Gu Yue and several other students are stronger than him. He doesn’t shine in any aspect and we have a lot of good newcomers flooding in this year,” Shen Yi said. “The inner court’s standards are extremely strict now. In fact, the outer court is practically used to toughen students without letting them enter the inner court directly. Do you really think Tang Wulin has a chance against those students?”

Wu Zhangkong shook his head. “It’s not his strength that will allow him to win, but his character. I know Tang Wulin isn’t the most gifted of his classmates, and Gu Yue is obviously stronger than him. In fact, Xie Xie and Xu Xiaoyan are about equal to him as well. Not to mention, there are numerous students with more talent than him. That said, I am certain no one is more suited to be class president.”

Shen Yi was taken aback. “Is it because he’s a schemer? Because he’s so two-faced?”

Wu Zhangkong shook his head again. “No. It’s because he has the temperament of a leader.”

“A leader’s temperament? Aren’t you exaggerating a bit too much?” Shen Yi prodded.

Once more, Wu Zhangkong shook his head. “I’m not. Watch him carefully from now on. It took me three years to uncover what sort of person he is. He may be rotten at times, but his character truly shines when he’s faced with a challenge and still manages to make the right decision. You say he’s two-faced, but when his comrades are in danger, he doesn’t hesitate to step forward to help. Even then, he somehow manages to minimize the damage. Furthermore, his situational awareness is a level above his peers. If he wasn’t in charge of his team, then their fighting strength would decrease by twenty or maybe even thirty percent. But under his lead, they act as one cohesive whole.

“His charisma unites the people at his side and makes the willingly accept his commands. Both Gu Yue and Xie Xie are proud kids, but they never forget to call him captain. It’s his actions that demand their heartfelt admiration. So like I said before, just watch. I am convinced that out of everyone out there, he’s the most likely to become class president.”

Shen Yi hummed, eyes glazing over thoughtfully. “I’ll sit back and observe then. And I’ll await an excellent performance from him.”

☀

Farther out into the distance, a blood-soaked figure dressed in tattered attire leaped out of the bushes. On his back were a pair of white wings, nothing like the Holy Angel ones Tang Wulin had seen before. Instead of feathers, white hair covered the surface area of the wings, black stripes knitted like spiderwebs.

These same stripes snaked throughout his body. If not for his humanoid form, it would be easy to mistake him for a tiger.

This person had a muscular body covered in wounds. Yet, he managed to rush forward like a roaring gale.

They said clouds come from dragons and winds come from tigers. Tiger-type martial souls were powerful, but he outdone even that by possessing a winged tiger martial soul!

As he dashed from the bushes, three figures followed chase. Leading was someone shrouded in a black haze! The pack moved in complete silence; not a single rustle of a leaf could be heard as they shot through the forest. The area around them dimmed as if the light was being sucked into their pitch-black haze.

The black figures flashed forward, leaving afterimages behind as they closed the gap between them and their prey. It seemed that the winged tiger wasn’t truly capable of flight, especially with a gaping hole in his right wing.

Compared to their leader, the two behind the shadowy figure were slower, trailing behind as the one in front overtook the winged tiger soul master.

A jet-black light exploded. Even fifty meters away, Tang Wulin broke out into a cold sweat at its sheer power. This chill came not from the weather, but from the very depths of his soul.

What martial soul is that?

Stricken with dread, the winged tiger soul master barrel rolled in the air, activating his purple third soul ring. His body expanded, a golden shine dusting his hair as he spun around roaring to face the attack.

As soon as he did, a wave of darkness descended, engulfing both the winged tiger and the shadowy figure pursuing him!

A blink, and the winged tiger soul master blasted out of the darkness like a rocket. He smashed into the ground and slid through it, his damaged wing snapped off clean.

Then the shadowy figure left the darkness’ embrace, the black haze covering their body thin enough for Tang Wulin to discern their appearance.

Ashen hair. Sickly pale skin. It was a youth whose physical appearance bore nothing attractive to say so the least, and the only features worth a second glance were perhaps his hair and eyes. That said, he seemed to have sprang out from another world.

In his right hand was a large scythe. The handle was no less than three meters long and its blade stretched to one meter, alluring violet patterns etched into the metal. In fact, those decorations sucked in the soul of the observer.

That’s…

The gray-haired youth lifted his scythe as he approached the winged tiger soul master, one leisurely step at a time.

“Show some mercy!” begged the wounded party.

But his pleas were left unanswered. A flash of shadow, followed by blinding white light. And the powerful winged tiger soul master was no more.

Moments later, the two people following the ashened-hair youth finally caught up to their leader.

“Captain, you’re so awesome!” One of them flashed a big thumbs up.

Wearing a perfect impassive mask, the aforementioned captain continued on as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. “Let’s go.”

Hidden in the trees far away, Tang Wulin and his team had witnessed this one-sided battle with bated breath.

Their eyes trembled with shock.

It wasn’t just the strength of the gray-haired youth that came as a bombshell. It was his soul rings too.

He had four yellow soul rings! Although none of them were of the thousand-year level, he still had four rings! A whopping four!

Since he was a new student like them, he was fifteen at the oldest. Yet he was a Soul Elder! Only one word came to mind to describe him: terrifying!

However, what was truly baffling was despite his strength, he did not have a single thousand-year soul ring.

Then again, this was to be expected of Shrek Academy, the congregation point of all things bizarre.

“I recognize him. He’s from Bright City.”

Tang Wulin and Gu Yue turned to the owner of the voice, Yang Nianxia.

Gone was the sparkling honesty in his eyes. Instead, a fierce light flickered in their depths, as if he were some ferocious beast on alert.

“Bright City? Who is he?” Tang Wulin asked.

“His name is Xu Yucheng. It’s an ordinary name, but he’s super famous in Bright City. He’s from the Imperial Sun Moon Soul Engineer Academy. I hear he is nicknamed ‘Immortal’! Immortal Xu Yucheng! His martial soul is the Demon Scythe, also know as the Reaper’s Scythe. Pay attention to him. The reason he has four rings with not a single purple one is because his body can’t handle it.

“The Demon Scythe isn’t a peak-level martial soul. But that’s not because it isn’t powerful. No, it’s because it’s so powerful it begins devouring the soul master’s body. Because of that, his body is so frail he doesn’t dare fuse with a thousand-year spirit soul yet. In fact, having that many hundred-year soul rings is impressive for his situation.”

Yang Nianxia’s eyes grew wide, his words becoming more and more grave. “He’s not just the strongest student under fifteen at the Imperial Sun Moon Soul Engineering Academy—he even dominated everyone eighteen years old and under! Remember that. I never expected him to enter our class! This is going to be troublesome. Also, the two following him should be from the Imperial Sun Moon Soul Engineering Academy. Like Shrek Academy, that academy has over ten thousands years of history, and I even hear that back then, they stood toe to toe with them.”