A few days later.
"Any update?"
"No, My Liege. He hasn't used his ability since then. Should I —"
"No need to. Just keep a watch from afar and keep an eye on him."
''Yes My Liege."
Gu Yue finished her telepathic conversation with Di Tian and took a glance at Fan Lin who was sitting at his usual spot in the classroom. Alone.
The classroom was empty. Classes had ended. He didn't leave. He was working on some inscribing on an empty slate of metal.
Gu Yue kept watching over him, inspecting all the changes in his spiritual sea and soul body. She still couldn't grasp on how exactly Fan Lin was able to hide himself from even her.
If she could get, or understand, the reason or method, the rest of the weaker spirit beasts could use them to blend even more easily in the human society.
Not just that, many of the spirit beast incarnates wouldn't have to live in fear of being caught by the humans ever again.
"Still nothing. How is he hiding it? Is it related to his vessel like physique?"
Gu Yue could have just disappeared Fan Lin and gotten the answer through 'other' means instead of doing this but she has some reservations. What if it affected Tang Wulin and the class in some way? She was Shrek and Fan Lin was quite well known among the teachers and upper staff.
If he just disappeared from the Shrek Academy with anyone noticing...
"Should I control him to leave the academy and leave the rest to Di Tian? With how eccentric he is, no one would be suspicious of his decisions."
Gu Yue shook her head and avoided going to the 'Moon Change' route.
Gu Yue could also just come straight and talk it out with him but, once again, she had some reservations on it as well.
He was avoiding her, that was clear by now. Why? She had some guesses but nothing concrete. She was sure of one thing though, even if she was to try talk it out, he was not going to listen.
Her soul communicator rang and it was Xu Xiaoyan. Gu Yue picked the call and listened to her request. Turns out that she had finally made her own mind about the specific circuits that she wanted for her Battle Armour.
Previously, she wasn't sure of if but after after evolving her martial soul and get used to the changes to it, Xu Xiaoyan seem to have a resolute answer to how she wanted to progress.
She talked about her needs in as much details as she could and Gu Yue mentally noted it down while keeping an eye on Fan Lin.
He got a call as well.
"Hello, I am San Surveyor from Xvd Dental implantations, what services would you like to book for?"
"YOU! —"
He put the caller on mute and began to speak.
"I am deeply sorry, I am not in the services, please choose between colonoscopy, hypertension or glass bunting. You can also order through our website, HolySpiritfails101 and get a 50% off on all of our digital products."
"With just a cheap rate of 17 pokedollars, I will deliver the food to your kitchen in a few minutes, please make sure to wash it properly and hang it dry in sunlight so that it is properly dried to wear. Thanks for your patronage at the Lin Lin matrimonial services."
He cut the call and looked at the lecture podium in silence for a while before packing his stuff and leaving the classroom, passing by Gu Yue but not realising her presence.
"W-what was that?"
Gu Yue couldn't help but mutter.
"What happened?"
Hearing her words, Xu Xiaoyan asked Gu Yue.
"Nothing. What else do you need?"
Gu Yue answered and continued to follow Fan Lin. Tang Wulin would be busy for the whole day due to his forging training and this meant that Gu Yue was using the whole day on Fan Lin.
Or she could go along with Di Tian's suggestion where he suddenly forces him to use his Crystallokinesis and they would catch him red handed and then "ask" the reason on why were they not able to sense that he was a spirit beast incarnate.
Gu Yue had also stopped this as she was getting this extremely bad feeling as her dragon senses were telling her to avoid doing that.
(Dragons have future sight to a certain degree due to their existence or something and the universe likes them. This is the genuine lore from the actual books. Especially DD4 where it was focused a lot.)
(And secondly, in this scenario, Gu Yue is also being influenced and warned by the Planar Ruler.)
(The same Planar Ruler was also concealing and sealing Fan Lin to avoid any major butterfly effects due to his actions.)
Gu Yue had discussed about this with Di Tian but he had told her that he hadn't felt anything regarding him. That's another issue to boot.
Regarding this though, Gu Yue could also question her weird feelings about Tang Wulin and Di Tian would have still answered the same. He didn't feel anything regarding Tang Wulin as well. Gu Yue was the only ones with these feelings.
Fan Lin casually trotted his way to the cafeteria, acquired 100 kg honey and left for his Mecha Designing room. There, he resumed what he was doing at the classroom and began inscribing at the sheet again.
Days passed just like that. Gu Yue stalked him for around a month before giving up and returning her complete focus on Tang Wulin. Di Tian was also returned as her guard before leaving to deal with some matters and The Bear Lord taking his place.
Gu Yue still occasionally checked upon Fan Lin, inspecting his body for any newer changes. Unfortunately for her though, Fan Lin seem to have forgotten that he had his Crystallokinesis since he never used it after that incident. The only ones that he ever used was his first skill and he used it pretty all the time. He had also stopped any conversations with his classmates and was alone and far away from people most of the times.
Looking at this behaviour Gu Yue sometimes speculated that he may have realised that she was suspicious of him and was thus fooling around and not using his inherent abilities.
Meanwhile Tang Wulin was tearing his hair out because of the change in Gu Yue's behaviour this season as she was sometimes avoiding him, sometimes acting like she previous does, sometimes being distant to him and sometimes, plainly acting cold towards him.
He didn't know what to do and this was affecting his forging and studies. Fortunately, he had some great teachers with really poor advices and thay was just adding to his misery.
....
Along half way of the academic year, the academy(Elder Cai) announced the approval of Tang Wulin's challenge to the third grade but with conditions that the first and second grade would pose the challenge together.
I don't want to talk about this. Here's a brief rundown. Everyone in the protagonist group got stronger. They won and got some resources and a special announcement that ten people will be selected for students exchange program. Grade 1 and grade 2 students that is.
Then half an year passed, Gu Yue and Na Er suddenly got on talking terms and then they came to Fan Lin to talk about some truly basic things like if he remembered her from back then and why didn't he join the Inner court?
They also asked about his martial soul's mutation and some information about his skills. Fan Lin had looked at them in pure disgust and then began to avoid both of them wherever he can.
It was a mystery as to why he felt disgusted at them but one thing was for sure, Fan Lin did not want to even breath the same air as them. This was a first for anyone who had known him. The first time that he was showing visible emotions on his face.
They had never seen that before and truly wondered what had happened between them.
Then he later stopped showing up in the classroom. No one knew why but there were rumours that Fan Lin had tried to quit Shrek Academy multiple times due to unknown reasons but his application was rejected by Elder Cai and without any good justifications.
All she had said was that he didn't look good.
Fan Lin had henceforth stopped attending classes, brought a house at one corner of the Shrek City and gone into meditation waking up once a year or sometimes not even that.
Time continued to pass. Things began to happen, he was in meditation. There was just one thing in his mind, not a single person should die in the upcoming event. Not again.
[Time skip]
7 something years later.
Heaven Dou City.
Tang Sect second Headquarters.
Fan Lin slowly walked towards the Tang Sect building and got in after beating the entrance guards who tried to stop him.
Branchmaster Zhao immediately appeared in front of him.
"The hermit has finally awakened and came to cause trouble."
He spoke with a glint in his eyes. There was nary a person in the upper echelons of Shrek that didn't know Fan Lin, the monster that Elder Cai was fearful of releasing outside.
"My Hundred thousand year old spirit soul. I have paid for it six years ago, asked for it a month ago and I didn't get it even after sending two complaints."
Fan Lin emotionlessly spoke and picked up a chair and threw it at another guard that was coming for him. Branchmaster Zhao stopped the chair and ordered his men to leave them alone.
"I think we should talk this out in the room. Your Spirit Soul is there as well."
He said and turned around and began to walk, a silent gesture to follow him.
Fan Lin picked another chair and smash it at the guard and gestured Branchmaster Zhao.
"Let's go now. You should teach your men on how they should speak."
He emotionlessly commented and Branchmaster Zhao silently lead the way. He could lash at Fan Lin but from what he knew of him, Fan Lin seldom acted without reason. He was going to check in with his men first before he would take actions against Fan Lin.
"What happened? Are you in a hurry?"
Branchmaster Zhao asked.
"Holy Spirit Cult is going to attack the Heaven Dou City today. Well, they want to attack the Tang Sect Headquarters, the Heaven Dou City is just going to be destroyed from it. I can't let anyone die— "
"What? W-what do you mean by that?"
Branchmaster Zhao halted in his steps and stared at Fan Lin who didn't stop and continued to walk. He didn't even know the way.
'I do.'
Correction. He did know the way to the room where Branchmaster Zhao had placed his spirit soul. To be precise, he was in the Heaven Dou City Tang Sect because he knew his spirit soul was transported there.
"Fan Lin, what did you mean by that? If you are joking, that's not a good joke."
Branchmaster Zhao immediately caught up to him, realising that Fan Lin knew the place where they have stored their spirit soul.
"I am not joking. If I were to alert the people now, then they would likely not attack today. Defending isn't a good choice either. I have tried that before. My body got cracked and fried. I have to either get Plant Body skill or Nenom would work as well and I would immediately end anyone who's to come."
"What are talking about?"
Branchmaster Zhao grabbed Fan Lin's shoulder, stopping him completely. The things he spoke were a bit hard to digest without any proof.
"Someone who loved me died. Killed herself so she won't be a liability to me. She was an information Broker, innocent and respectable. Got dragged into all this because of me. She saved this continent a few years ago."
"Sorry to trauma dump on you. You must want proof, right? An hour later, this place will be attacked. I want to avoid that."
"That's not proof."
"It is. The attack would happen via Soul Missiles. They should be setting them up now. Your senses are better than mine, go sense and find them. I would advise against catching someone to interrogate though. They are somehow linked through some skill and would know it."
"I was going to do that. I am a genius, I can find their location even if my spiritual senses don't work. I didn't. There's a chance I might encounter someone too strong. There would be Hyper Douluos present and I am not in good terms with the Holy Spirit Cult."
"Go now. I will wait. Take the spirit soul with you if you think I am lying. Just be sure to bring it back. Otherwise, I would burn this place down and kill everyone as well."
Fan Lin said and gazed at Branchmaster Zhao. Branchmaster Zhao silently back away.
Too much varying information to process in too little time.
"Every city had all types of advanced sensory devices that could detect explosives, and if things like soul missiles were to be discovered, they had to be immediately taken care of by the city's officials."
"I don't think you should trust the people running the city. You wanted proof. I gave it. Go inspect it. Don't waste time on stupid arguments with me now. Useless human."
Branchmaster glared at him.
"Wait here. If this is a joke or if you tried anything, ANYTHING, I would not be civil with you."
He said, bounded Fan Lin with some special cuffs and disappeared.
Fifteen minutes later.
"Holy shit child! How did you know this!"
Branchmaster Zhao immediately appeared, with him came Long Yeyue.
"43 minutes remaining. Give me that spirit soul."
"Answer us first. How do you know all this? Where did you get the information?"
Leng Yeyue spoke while releasing her spiritual pressure on him.
"I will not repeat myself. Hand over the spirit soul."
Fan Lin emotionlessly said, completely unfazed. Long Yeyue increased the pressure but Branchmaster Zhao stopped her.
"He is stubborn. He would die than back away."
The spiritual pressure receded at his words and he turned to Fan Lin while taking out the spirit soul. He had taken it with him.
"Okay, here, have it. I just need to know one thing. Is this the only attack?"
Fan Lin took the spirit ball and shook his head.
"Where's the second attack happening?"
"Use your mind. I am going to absorb it, don't disturb me."
Fan Lin broke the spirit ball and looked at the Fantasia Tulip with myriads of emotions. Spirit Rings began to float around him as he began to absorb the spirit soul.
Just beside him, not even a hands away, stood Branchmaster Zhao and Long Yeyue, befuddled, bemused and rageful at his antics. No one treated them like he does.
They knew about him, about his way of speaking. But experiencing it made them realise that the information wasn't doing justice to the being that was in front of them. It was a pure wonder on how he could be so annoying and effervescent with his words at the same time.
While they were thinking that, Fan Lin completely absorbed the Fantasia Tulip and began to leave as two red rings began to float beside him, slowly vanishing as he walked away.
"That fast?"
Not even a minute has passed since Fan Lin broke the spirit ball.
"How? What's your spiritual power?"
Branchmaster Zhao questioned in bewilderment. Fan Lin was breaking the common sense that he had.
"Now's not the time for that. Where's the second place?"
Long Yeyue spoke while appearing in front of Fan Lin.
"Shrek. A few days later."
"It can't be."
"Yeah. Seagod Pavilion is the next target. Shrek Academy is the second one. The Tang Sect there also included."
"Don't worry though, only the staff and normal people dies. Important personnel would survive. Let me rephrase it. Only the weak and helpless normies dies. The important people are protected, will be protected, in bunkers and teleportation formations and all... Sometimes, I really hate humans like you. Even now, you were thinking of informing and rescuing your choice of people instead of everyone and then you give lectures to me. Whatever."
"Now stand away. I don't want to kill you. Although I can and will if you dared to stop me."
Fan Lin said and teleported. Leaving behind two people in tension.