Douluo Dalu 3: Legend of the White Fox

Senior Jin!"

With Yun Ming's voice infused with peak-level Ling Domain Realm spiritual power, the Golden Ancient Tree trembled violently. A hunched old man slowly appeared before Yun Ming and Long Yeyue.

The old man's entire body glowed with a red-gold hue. His long beard had already reached the ground, and so had his head of white hair—even his eyebrows drooped downward.

"Senior Jin, what happened? Why is your power decreasing so rapidly?" Seeing the tree spirit of the Golden Ancient Tree appear, Long Yeyue immediately asked with concern.

The tree spirit of the Golden Ancient Tree slowly closed his eyes, sensing the changes within himself.

A long while later, he reopened them and said in a solemn tone, "There is an unknown presence that is crazily devouring my power, yet I cannot sense its exact location."

"How is that possible?" Both Yun Ming and Long Yeyue were shocked. They understood better than anyone how terrifying the tree spirit of the Golden Ancient Tree was.

Even a pseudo-god would find it difficult to escape his perception, yet now someone was stealing his power without leaving a trace.

"Could it be the Chosen of Fate?" The tree spirit murmured.

"The Chosen of Fate… the Underworld King Douluo, Harrosa? But isn't he dead?" Yun Ming and Long Yeyue's expressions changed again.

The Chosen of Fate—these were individuals blessed by the Will of the Douluo Continent.

Currently, the most widely recognized Chosen of Fate was none other than Underworld King Douluo Harrosa, one of the two emperors of the Holy Spirit Cult.

He was an existence who could single-handedly battle Shrek Academy.

Even the previous Sea God Pavilion Master of Shrek Academy, borrowing the power of the Golden Ancient Tree, had failed to defeat him.

In the end, it took the combined efforts of Light-Dark Douluo Long Yeyue and the former Spirit Pagoda Master to finally kill him.

Since the founding of the Spirit Pagoda, he was the only one who had forced Shrek Academy and the Spirit Pagoda Master to join forces against him.

Although Shrek Academy had long suspected that he might not have truly perished, they never expected him to dare to infiltrate Shrek Academy itself.

At present, Shrek Academy's Sky Douluo Yun Ming was at his peak.

As a pseudo-god, he believed that even without borrowing the power of the Golden Ancient Tree, he could defeat Underworld King Douluo Harrosa.

He had already begun to step into the final threshold!Unless a true god intervened, he was invincible.

Until now, Yun Ming had always believed that the only person in the entire Douluo Continent capable of fighting him was the legendary Beast God Di Tian.

One, a recognized strongest human, and the other, the strongest known soul beast.

But after hearing the tree spirit's words, he fell silent.

If Underworld King Douluo Harrosa had truly infiltrated Shrek Academy undetected, stealing the power of the Golden Ancient Tree, and even the tree spirit himself could not perceive him…

Then Harrosa might have already stepped into the same threshold as Yun Ming.

Perhaps, he had even surpassed him.

"No! We must stop him." Long Yeyue said gravely. If it really was Underworld King Douluo Harrosa, then him taking such a great risk to steal the power of the Golden Ancient Tree must mean he had a greater goal.

Most likely, he was trying to completely cross the final threshold—to shed his false godhood and become a true god.

Yun Ming and Long Yeyue could easily imagine what would happen if Harrosa truly became a god.

He would undoubtedly destroy Shrek Academy at the first opportunity.

Thus, no matter the cost, they had to stop him.

"I wasn't talking about Underworld King Douluo Harrosa. I meant the new Chosen of Fate." Seeing Yun Ming and Long Yeyue so anxious, the Golden Ancient Tree's tree spirit hurriedly clarified.

"A new Chosen of Fate? What do you mean?" Yun Ming asked in a deep voice.

"The Master of the Plane told me a few years ago that the true Chosen of Fate had already appeared. He wanted to borrow a portion of my power to nurture them. Furthermore, the Master of the Plane gave me a seed, calling it the Seed of Nature, and instructed me to pass it on to the true Chosen of Fate." The tree spirit explained.

"Who is the true Chosen of Fate?" Yun Ming asked.

"I don't know." The tree spirit shook his head and said, "I can no longer contact the Master of the Plane."

Yun Ming frowned, suddenly thinking of something. He asked, "Senior Jin, have you recently released any power?"

The Golden Ancient Tree's tree spirit nodded, "Since I could no longer contact the Master of the Plane, I started searching for the Chosen of Fate myself. Recently, during the entrance examination, I paid special attention whenever I sensed an exceptional genius."

"How many times have you released your power in the past few days?" Yun Ming asked.

"Twice!" The tree spirit raised two fingers and said, "Once the day before the new student examination—there was a two-ring Soul Master named Tang Wulin who suddenly erupted with terrifying bloodline power, so I took notice of him. The second time was yesterday, when a student named Xia Yi displayed a very unique martial soul, so I observed him as well."

"Do you believe either of them to be the Chosen of Fate?" Yun Ming continued asking.

He had already guessed that the one stealing the Golden Ancient Tree's power was Xia Yi.

Yesterday, Ya Li had gone to the Spirit Pagoda to apologize, and Xia Yi had mentioned to Ya Li that his martial soul's fourth tail was evolving.

Although Xia Yi himself did not know what was required for his martial soul to evolve, it had to be something of absolute rarity. Ya Li did not dare to promise anything.

Of course, she also wanted to use this as leverage against Xia Yi and Leng Yaozhu.

Xia Yi could resist the temptation of evolving his martial soul, but Leng Yaozhu would never allow Xia Yi to give up such an opportunity due to personal reasons.

After returning to Shrek Academy, she had discussed the matter with Yun Ming, hoping to use it as a bargaining chip to force Leng Yaozhu to allow Xia Yi to become her disciple.

Now, Yun Ming recalled this incident.

"I'm not sure yet, but both of them have aspects I cannot see through." The tree spirit said solemnly.

"If Xia Yi truly is the Chosen of Fate, then we cannot let him have only Leng Yaozhu as his teacher. We must ensure that he forms a true bond with Shrek Academy and fully joins us." Yun Ming said gravely.

The Chosen of Fate always carried great fortune with them.

Just like Underworld King Douluo Harrosa, who refused to die even after being utterly annihilated.

Moreover, according to the Golden Ancient Tree's words, this time, the Chosen of Fate was the true one.

Now that the Spirit Pagoda was at its peak, if they also gained the Chosen of Fate, then for at least the next two hundred years, both Shrek Academy and Tang Sect would be completely overshadowed by them.

"Both Tang Wulin and Xia Yi are work-study students. I'm going to the work-study dorm to see who exactly is stealing Senior Jin's power."Yun Ming stepped forward and had already arrived at the work-study dormitory entrance.

He did not push the door open; he simply stood there with a slight frown.

Inside Xia Yi's dorm, Xia Yi was completely engaged in his normal meditative cultivation, showing no signs of anything unusual.

Yun Ming then took another step forward; this time he appeared directly in the Shrek Academy Forging Association.

"Boss, why are you here?" In the Forging Association, the Blazing Dragon Douluo Feng Wuyu was startled by Yun Ming's sudden appearance.

"What's going on?" Yun Ming asked calmly as he looked toward Tang Wulin, who was also meditating and cultivating. He hadn't noticed Tang Wulin in the work-study dormitory earlier.

Using his spiritual power to search, he discovered that Tang Wulin was in the Shrek Academy Forging Association.

"Boss, this is Tang Wulin, a first-year new student. His cultivation level is a bit low—I gave him a type of myriads-of-year spiritual item to help boost his soul force to the three-ring level, and he's now absorbing the spiritual energy from that item," Feng Wuyu said proudly. "Boss, I'm not just flattering him. This kid was born with divine strength. At such a young age, he's already capable of performing spiritual forging. Once his cultivation reaches three rings, he's guaranteed to become a level-5 forger. Originally, he was a disciple of Mu Chen—Zhen Hua's junior—but I practically strong-armed and coaxed him into accepting me as his master. Heh heh, I've dug up a forging genius for our Shrek Academy. Impressive, isn't he?"

"Very impressive, but haven't you forgotten the task the Pavilion Master assigned you?" Yun Ming said coolly.

"Boss, when did the Pavilion Master ever give me a task?" Feng Wuyu asked, completely puzzled.

"Think carefully—who is the Pavilion Master now?" Yun Ming said in a deep tone.

"You mean Yali, right!" Feng Wuyu rubbed his hands together, appearing somewhat embarrassed, and said, "Of course I haven't forgotten the task she gave me. Yesterday when Xia Yi showed up, I took a quick look—he's got slender arms and his martial soul is still ice-type, which makes him totally unsuitable for forging."

"So you're saying you don't intend to complete the task that the Pavilion Master assigned you?" Yun Ming asked with a half-smile.

Seeing Yun Ming's smile, Feng Wuyu immediately became timid and quickly explained, "Boss, you know that we forgers—especially high-level forgers—only take on one final disciple. And once we take on that final disciple, we spare no expense in training him into a divine artisan. My greatest regret in life is that I can never become a divine artisan myself. The reason I've never taken on a final disciple is because I haven't yet met someone with divine artisan potential. Now, having finally encountered Wulin, I'd never give him up just because of the Pavilion Master's preferences. So how about I take Xia Yi as a regular disciple instead?"

"Are you so sure that Xia Yi lacks any forging talent? Don't you know he's already a level-5 forger?" Yun Ming asked, frowning.

(End of Chapter)