Chapter 212: To the Water God
Furina had gotten her wish and become the fastest person in history to reach the Soul Sage level. If word of this got out, not only would Shrek be so shocked their jaws would drop, but if she went back and showed her own Four Protectors, they'd probably be so astonished their chins would hit the floor.
After all, those Four Protectors were cultivating painstakingly right now and were still bottlenecked at the Soul Sage realm. Wanting to break through to Soul Douluo would likely require several more years of bitter effort. As for Titled Douluo? That could only depend on fate.
Unless she gave them immortal herbs and lent them another helping hand, otherwise it was all up to their own opportunities and talent.
Of course, the lowest method was to feed them enough pills and forcibly pile their levels up directly. That was exactly how the Sun Moon Empire's Class 9 soul engineers had done it.
They had no choice. If those talented Class 8 soul engineers couldn't be promoted, who would produce all those Class 9 soul tools for them?
But all that was for the future; there was no rush now. Her Water God Church just needed to develop steadily and continue expanding its influence. In any case, once she and Huo Yuhao became gods, whether they had Titled Douluo or not would be irrelevant.
Just as before a Limit Douluo, Titled Douluo were mere ants; before a god, Limit Douluo were also mere ants. The gap was not just a little big...
Uh... no, wait. Thinking carefully, the gods of the Douluo Continent, judging from the first part, were actually quite weak. At least compared to gods in other works, this was truly the case.
First, after Qian Renxue inherited the divine position of the first-class Angel God, in her initial clash with Tang San, she was actually wounded by Tang San in his mortal body, and suppressed for three full seconds.
Second, her heart was pierced by Tang San using the hidden weapon technique "Tears of Avalokitesvara." Although it wasn't fatal, it could still leave a god temporarily in a severely wounded state, requiring time to recover.
Next, when she unleashed a major attack, it could be blocked by dirt and rocks, and she actually couldn't penetrate straight through within a single second. Finally, it was blocked by the Sea God's divine sense, by expending the power of the Sea God's Heart.
And then what? After Tang San entered the ocean, Qian Renxue's stroke of "brilliance" came.
She actually gave up the chase, choosing instead to just wait there idly.
Logically speaking, if she had been bold or ruthless enough, she could have gone and completely annihilated Sea God's Island. Even if she didn't annihilate it, she could have chosen to capture the remaining Six Devils and Bo Saixi, or even directly kill Bo Saixi. In that case, the Sea God's inheritance ceremony simply couldn't have been activated.
Because the original Sea God was already in the Divine Realm and couldn't possibly descend to the lower realm the way Tang San could now. And Tang San had yet to complete the Eighth Trial. Even if he truly completed it, could his speed in the ocean possibly match that of Qian Renxue, who was already the Angel God? Finding Sea God's Island wouldn't have been effortless for her? What Deep Sea Demonic Whale King, what Bo Saixi—wouldn't they all just be speed bumps?
If the Asura God wanted to step in and save Tang San, he'd have to consider the attitudes of the God of Destruction, the Goddess of Life, the God of Kindness, and the God of Evil. Furthermore, at that very time, the Asura God's subordinates had just happened to stir up trouble.
In the original story, when the Asura God finally did act, it was still by relying on the Food God and the Nine-Colored Goddess to barely execute a resurrection technique through Oscar and Ning Rongrong's bodies, bringing Tang San back to life, and then having Xiao Wu bring the Asura Sword and fuse with Tang San—only then did Tang San obtain the Asura God position.
One could only say that Qian Renxue truly had no brains. In a situation favorable to her in practically every aspect, she had specifically chosen a dead end.
But thinking about it seriously, Qian Renxue was just a love-brain. Her previous actions had already shown she wasn't too bright. But who could blame her, when the entire worldview of the Douluo Continent dictated that the strong were all love-brains? Or rather, only love-brains could become strong, especially the top-tier strong.
Thank goodness she had cheats; that way she didn't have to become a love-brain.
Thinking up to this point, Furina felt a surge of secret glee in her heart.
Immediately after, she began examining her seventh soul skill.
Martial Soul True Body, named—Proustis, the specialty dish dedicated to the Water God.
Its effects were: restore all status conditions (including fatal injuries), immunity to all negative effects for three seconds, and upon consumption, increase all attributes by twenty-five percent for one hour. She could only produce three per day.
It was essentially a super-enhanced version of her third soul skill, the Fruit Cake! It had the effect of the Senzu Beans from Dragon Ball, plus an attribute amplification buff.
"Not bad! This thing is far more useful." Furina nodded in satisfaction.
Her current soul power had already reached Rank 72. The next step was to find some time to make a trip to the Great Star Dou Forest and ask Di Tian for his help to lead her to the Yin-Yang Eyes of Ice and Fire in the Sunset Forest, and turn Tang San's backyard garden into her own backyard garden.
But before that, she would first prepare several Nut Cakes and the like to leave for Huo Yuhao's group and Ma Xiaotao's group as backup.
Then she would warn them not to place too much of their life's safety on Elder Xuan. When dealing with evil soul masters, even in the midst of battle, they had to do their best to burn the opponent's corpse and such to ashes as well, cleaning everything up thoroughly, just in case.
This was to prevent the situation from the original storyline, where they got wrecked by a Soul King evil soul master using Corpse Explosion. That technique actually had substance to it. If that guy had truly been allowed to become a Titled Douluo—forget Hyper Douluo or Limit Douluo—he would have been at least among the strongest tier of ordinary Titled Douluo.
"Ah, there really is so much to do." Furina rubbed her temples. "Right, I should suggest they buy more defensive soul tools like Invincible Barriers. Though, whether they can take it to heart is their business.
Given their understanding, no matter how strong an evil soul master is, there are limits. They'd never imagine the opponent has that kind of soul skill."
She shook her head helplessly.
Douluo people, still not cautious enough!
...
After class, when Huo Yuhao and the others saw Furina, they originally wanted to greet her, but upon sensing the aura emanating from her, they all froze.
Yesterday, she was clearly still a Soul King, but now she was at the Soul Sage level?! Wasn't this too exaggerated?
Originally, they had learned through Xiao Xiao that Furina might have already reached Rank 60 and was preparing to find a suitable soul ring to break through to Soul Emperor. But what they hadn't expected was that, after just one day, Furina had jumped again from Soul Emperor straight to the Soul Sage realm. This was no longer something the word "monster" could describe.
Huo Yuhao felt it most clearly. His Spirit Eyes were naturally sensitive to soul power fluctuations, and right now he could clearly perceive that the aura on Furina was more than just one level stronger than yesterday.
"Sister Furina, you broke through to Soul Sage?!" Huo Yuhao's eyes widened, his voice full of disbelief.
Furina wiped her nose and laughed. "Just a lucky fluke, a fluke!"
"What do you mean 'just a fluke'!!!" Wang Dong instantly exploded, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. "No matter how much of a fluke, how can you leap so fast?! Are you planning to just directly become a Soul Douluo tomorrow? A Titled Douluo the day after?! A god by next year?!"
She put her hands on her hips, her face full of righteous indignation. She considered herself already very hardworking, very diligent, and then she discovered Furina was even more freakish.
To leap straight from peak Soul King to Soul Sage in one go—even if the sixth soul ring was a hundred-thousand-year ring, plus absorbing a hundred-thousand-year soul bone, it shouldn't be this exaggerated, right?
Xiao Xiao chimed in support from the side. "Exactly! With your innate talent, you could have already entered the Inner Court. Now you're practically at the level of stepping all over the Inner Court disciples."
Her tone carried a teasing flavor, but what she said was also the truth.
Because they all knew, entering the Inner Court basically required one to be at the Soul King level, and the Inner Court seniors at most were generally at the Soul Emperor level.
But now Furina was directly a Soul Sage, a whole realm above Soul Emperor, completely crushing the seniors underfoot. If she walked alongside those Inner Court seniors, she'd undoubtedly be the most dazzling one—or be directly mistaken for a relatively young teacher. After all, the vast majority of Shrek Academy's teachers were also only at the Soul Emperor level.
"Congratulations, Sister Furina." Huo Yuhao was the first to regain his composure and sincerely offered his congratulations. Though shocked, he was more happy for Furina.
Furina smiled slightly. "Thank you!"
She looked at the complicated expressions on the trio's faces—shock, admiration, unwillingness to fall behind, and also heartfelt joy. She reached out and gently patted each of their shoulders.
"Don't you guys get discouraged or disheartened. I am the Water God, isn't it only natural that my leveling speed is fast?" She winked, a hint of playfulness in her tone. "You all need to work hard too, and strive to keep up with my pace!"
Wang Dong rolled her eyes, but the corner of her mouth still couldn't help but twitch upwards. She muttered, "Fine, fine. When I can obtain a divine trial, maybe I can catch up with you."
"Great, I'll be waiting with bated breath." Furina smiled calmly.
She knew perfectly well in her heart that, under normal circumstances, Wang Dong couldn't possibly obtain a divine trial. After all, she was originally a god. Although she was only half right now, she was still a god. Unless another deity took a liking to her, but that possibility wasn't great, because Tang San wouldn't permit it.
But naturally, she wouldn't voice these thoughts aloud.
Huo Yuhao looked at Furina and suddenly asked, "Sister Furina, what are your plans next? Are you going to the Inner Court?"
"The Inner Court, huh..." Furina thought for a moment. "I probably will go, but there's no rush. I still have some matters to deal with; I might have to leave the academy for a while."
"Leave?" The three spoke in unison.