Chapter 9: Change of Plans 2
Douluo Continent.
Eastsea City.
Spirit Pagoda.
Fan Lin thought about all the possibilities regarding his choices.
After a few minutes, he took a deep breath and stared at the spirit soul in front of him.
"Little fella, I once promised myself that I will never kill an innocent animal and I will never break it, even if I were to die. Fortunately, what I am going to do with you is just integration. I don't know if I am lucky or not though."
Fan Lin opened the spirit soul capsule and killed the Phoenix Tail Crest serpent before it can even slither a little and began absorbing it.
Two hours later.
A white soul ring slowly floated around him.
Fan Lin opened his eyes and was greeted with a message from the God.
[Good day to you dear.
This is a small pre-recorded message that I left that will play everytime your absorb a portion of your gift. Your gift is Petrosapien, by the way, in case that you forget which you did.
And always remember, the soul rings are just a medium for the transfer of your gift.
Try to live a happy life this time, your previous one wasn't good at all.]
Fan Lin smirked at the message of the God and chose to look at his soul skill. The moment he thought about his soul skill, a panel immediately opened in front of his eyes.
[Your soul skill «Frenzy Grip» has been changed to «Enhanced Digestion»
Enhanced Digestion : Increases the user's Digestion by 40%. Active skill. ]
Fan Lin's smirked began to break when he looked at the panel in front of him.
"My whole plan was based on the fact that I can gain a speed related soul skill and then along with the half energy body that I gained with the serum that I was going to make, I would have a lot of ways to pass the Shrek's entrance test. But now..."
"Now I know why he said to live a happy life. That ducker god. What do I use Digestion for?"
Fan Lin took a deep breath and then released it.
"Okay, change of plans, I need to concoct the Half energy serum as fast as I can and then use the double benefit that I will gain from them to cultivate."
"Secondly, I need money and either I can sell my medication for money or I can just straight out slaughter some fat, black sheeps for it. I will decide this by the end of the month."
"Finally, I need to increase my physical stats. Fortunately, at least that will be easier once I made the Half Energy Body serum. Sometimes, I envy the talent of that Chunnibyou but alas, everything has a price for it."
Fan Lin got out of the free spirit soul absorption room and went to a decent hotel to wash up.
He didn't want to go to the Eastsea Academy like that. Currently he was a little drenched and smelly due to sweating during the absorption period.
"But really, my perfect plan was ruined."
Fan Lin's plan(that is ruined now):
He had cancelled the plan to study in the intermediate Academy for this year and instead going to meddle in the dark side of the Eastsea City and to collect all the materials for the concoction of the half energy serum and for various other poisons and medicines.
Then create all of them and stay a month collecting information about the various gangs in the various other places.
Finally to leave the Eastsea City and to change his identity and roam the Douluo continent in the search of the person that can grant him the spot for the entrance examinations of Shrek.
As for how he was going to earn the money. One was with the selling of his medication and second was to extort from the criminals and to kill them.
All the while he will be increasing his strength.
Now everything was just a fragment of the past.
His new plan, still in planning.
But for that, he was going to do many things and lying low was one of them.
After washing up and getting ready, Fan Lin went to the Eastsea Academy and it was really far from the Spirit Pagoda. Around 60 to 150 kilometres.
'Did the guards lied to me?'
Fan Lin didn't have the actual estimate.
Fan Lin reached the Academy an hour later.
He looked at the Eastsea Academy and went towards the guards beside the big gate and asked for his registration.
The Guards looked at Fan Lin with amused expression and finally one of them could not help but say,"Kid, you have to report in the reporting booth that was near the Eastsea City train station first and get a placard from there and then check-in in here. You still have half an hour left, so take that blue bus, it will stop adjacent to the reporting booth."
Fan Lin was unable to comprehend the situation for a few seconds, when he did, he immediately thanked the guards and ran towards the bus.
The guard that help him couldn't help but shout," easy there kid, you can report in tomorrow as well. Hahahaha. Kids these days are too impatient." And he started to laugh with the other guards.
Except Fan Lin had already boarded the bus till then, hence he couldn't listen to them, if he did then a few names would have been added to his revenge list.
It took 20 minutes for the bus to reach the reporting booth.
Fan Lin got off the bus and looked at the sign that said: Eastsea Academy.
"Little brother, are you here to report?" A girl who was in her teens asked Fan Lin when he was running towards their booth.
The black haired girl had a pair of red phoenix eyes, a moderate build and a sweet appearance that gave a feeling of warmth.
"Yes, I will." Fan Lin said with icy voice.
The tension that his whole plan was going to be ruined again due to a stupid mistake was enough for his actual self to release.
"Okay. Fill out the form there." The youth felt a little scared and said hurriedly.
Fan Lin immediately picked the pen and carefully and neatly filled his form.
The youth just glanced at the form and Fan Lin's letter of recommendation and stamped the form due to the gaze of Fan Lin.
"Here, here is your placard. You still need to go check-in and receive your supplies. Get on the bus behind me and we'll take off in a few minutes." The moment she completed her sentence, she felt lighter. As if some kind of heavy pressure was lifted from her.
Fan Lin also entered his usual half smile face and went towards the bus. The youth stared at his back and immediately decided to stay away from Fan Lin.
Fan Lin tried to see the figure of Tang Wulin but failed.
'Seems like he went there byy another bus. Good for me, let's avoid him for now as getting tangled with him is the same as getting in the eyes of Wu Zhangkong.
Fan Lin thought as he took a seat that was empty. He observed the others on the bus.
Eastsea Academy's bus was exceptionally wide and could hold fifty people. There were already some people on the bus. Some of them were going to be his peers, while the others were adults. These were clearly parents who had come to accompany their children to report.
Soon the bus started to move. He watched as the scenery outside of the window changed to stores that lined the streets. The bus was travelling amongst an endless stream of vehicles. Urgency and the scent of steel permeated the atmosphere. Everyone on the streets were bustling about. At the very least, it was countless times busier than the streets of Glorybound City.
A lofty building slid into view after the 20 minute long bus ride. In front of them was a high wall that he was seeing for the second time that day.
"We've arrived at the academy. Please get off the bus now, everybody." A familiar voice came from the front, she greeted all of the students, along with their parents, who had come to report in.
Fan Lin looked at her and waited for the people to leave the bus so that he could also leave.
The wall in front of him was precisely a part of Eastsea Academy. Not too far off were the large stone academy gates which gave off an imposing feeling.
Eastsea Academy was a large academy which was actually comprised of both an intermediate academy and an advanced academy. Liu Yuxin (the youth) was a student of the advanced academy.
One simply couldn't assume that the intermediate academy and the advanced academy were just a single step apart from each other. In reality, the two had a myriad of differences between one another.
The intermediate academy still fell under a compulsory education, so it didn't require any tuition fees. Eastsea Academy was a Soul Master academy and the intermediate academy took up two thirds of the total area. On the other hand, the advanced academy, which only took up one third of the area, was still the most important part of the academy.
As long as one was a Soul Master and resided within the greater area of Eastsea City, or had a recommendation letter, one would be able to enter the intermediate academy and receive a Soul Master's education. They would study at the intermediate academy for six years. After graduating, students would then be able to take the entrance exam to enter an advanced Soul Master academy, but no more than a tenth of the applicants pass.
Advanced academies weren't part of the compulsory education, so a series of rigorous exams would be used to test the applicants. Anyone who was accepted into an advanced academy would definitely be considered an elite.
If it was said that elementary academies taught the basic Soul Master and martial soul knowledge, then intermediate academies taught students how to use this knowledge and the direction in which they take to cultivate their martial souls. Their studies still wouldn't truly begin until they entered an advanced academy.
passed through the gates and began walking on a wide, tree-lined road that cut through a courtyard. The road was paved with limestone, which gave it a simple and unadorned appearance.
"For the sake of everyone's safety, the academy doesn't allow the use of vehicles within its grounds. If any vehicles enter campus grounds, they will have to immediately head off to the side and enter the underground parking lot. The advanced academy division is on the west side, while the rest of the campus is part of the intermediate academy." An announcement rang in the background.
The intermediate academy's school building was located on the east side of the campus grounds. It was a massive building with twelve floors in total. The upperclassmen would be in the higher floors while the newer students would be on the lower floors. Being a first grader student himself, he would would be attending classes on the first and second floors.
"The people that are here to report-in, please head to the administration office and collect their supplies from them. The dormitory of the students are behind the school building. For any more assistance, contact the administration office." The announcement rang once more.
Fan Lin followed the announcement and reached the administration office.
Thanks to the recommendation as well as the metal placard Liu Yuxin (the youth) had given him, the enrollment procedures were completed without a hitch.
Two sets of the school uniform were provided free of charge, as well as a dormitory key. He wouldn't receive any learning materials until his first class.
He had been assigned to class five of the first graders, simply on the basis of his martial soul. From now on, he was a new student at Eastsea Academy.
He soon arrived at the dormitory, which was nearly as tall as the school building as it also contained twelve floors. His dorm room was on the second floor, room number 213.
The corridor was noisy and in disarray as countless new students were reporting in during these last few days. The noise also wasn't limited to just the new students; parents who accompanied their children were also contributing to the chaos.
He chose to ignore them and entered his dorm room. Inside of the room were two bunk beds, enough to accommodate four people. In addition, there were two square desks, four chairs, two cabinets and a roof lamp. This was the entirety of the room's features.
And there were no signs of anyone else in his room.
He looked at the room and began to clean it.
In a few minutes, he was finished with the cleaning and sat to cultivate.
One hour later, he opened his eyes and looked at the dorm room.
He was alone.
"Weird." Fan Lin got up and went to check the other rooms.
Room 211– Full.
Room 212– Full.
Room 213 – Not full.
"Considering the fact that each room is holding 4 kids, 20 rooms would be 80 kids. Adding to the fact that girl and boys have separate rooms and there are two floors, it's common for some rooms to be empty. Every year is different, then why is Room 214 full?" Fan Lin muttered.
"Good for me, atleast now I don't have to worry about my privacy." Fan Lin mumbled and started to cultivate once again.
It was still daytime and what he wanted could only be found in the night time. That was the time where all the hyenas came out of their den.
....
{ Report xxXxx 015
The case about the child killer has been given to the Spirit Pagoda and Shrek Academy, and Tang Sect. All the personnel that are involved in this case are to be recalled immediately.
From XXXc of the Parliament. }
A middle aged man sent the message to everyone. Except his face was stitched with the skin of many people.
"Hope you turn out to be a huge monster."
....
Eastsea Academy
Fan Lin was roaming the streets of the Eastsea City looking for the things that he could get from the market.
'It's around 8 pm in the night, the black market might have started to operate by now.'
Fan Lin thought after looking at the common herbs (herbs that are not spiritual herbs) and plants. The common herbs were dirt cheap and had little to no market in a big city like Eastsea City.
The availability of herbs was even lesser than the Glorybound City.
"Why did I even think that scientifically advanced places would have backward and common herbs to begin with? I need to either order the herbs that I require or use some others in their place."
Fan Lin mumbled while entering the black market to order some of the rare herbs.
"Or I can just order all the herbs that I require by the black market. It will be costly but the time and effort that I could save... Let's order everything from there then and focus solely on my cultivation and studies."
Fan Lin continued his self mumbling while looking for a shop that specialised in the herbs as obviously, the black market had lots of things, meaning lots of shops that sold lots of stuff.
Each shop had a variety of services from a particular speciality like human traffickers or drug sellers. They solely provide humans and drugs.
Apothecaries and courthouses are great examples of this types of shops as well.
While there are big shops in the black market that acted as a convenience store.
They can provide what you want at a suitable price, generally higher than others. They usually provided spiritual herbs, poisons, medicinal pills, mecha parts, fake IDs, slaves, metals of all kinds etc. etc.
They usually have chains of stores in different cities and were run by some bigshot families or bigger crime mafias.
Fan Lin wanted to find one of them.
Simply because of the various things that he needed. He needed herbs for his half energy serum, information about the corrupt officials that had the power to appoint Shrek's entrance exams slot, information about the various illegal criminals in the vicinity of the Eastsea City and Skysea Alliance.
Finally, he needed a fake identity that he could use to interact with the darker and stronger side of the world.
He knew the difference between his guts and people who could split seas. His guts didn't seem that big anymore.
After an hour of deep window shopping and searching, Fan Lin finally came in front of a fancy shop that had the black market connections that he needed.
Half an hour later, Fan Lin came out of the shop with a smile on his face and no money in his bank account.
"Sometimes sacrifices of thousands are needed to save millions. Now I just need to choose who are going to be the sacrifices."
Fan Lin calmly stated while returning to the Eastsea Academy.
Oh his way, he saw Wulin coming out from the Blacksmith Association.
"Should I choose a secondary occupation? I don't have the time for that and I can just commission Wulin and his gang later on for things that I require. The protagonist gang always had the best skills in all the world. Why waste my precious time learning something that I would not even have the time to use later on."
He sighed and continued on his way to the Academy.
....
The same night.
Fan Lin was testing the effects of his first soul skill.
"Humans are able to digest 90% of their food. The remaining 10% is flushed out of their system by excretion. My soul skill increases the digestion by 40%, meaning if my initial digestion is 80% then my digestion would increase by 32% increasing the total to be 112% of digestion level . Twelve % more. This extra % should be the the increase in digestion speed or it could be the amount of energy that is increased."
"If it is the energy, then there is a problem. A big one at that. Where would the excess energy go or in more simple terms, where will it be used? The current human body was the product of the evolution of tens of thousands of years. So if the humans aren't able to digest more than 90 percent then there should be something that is a problem."
"Generally animals like Crocodiles and Anacondas can digest around 99% of their food and have a general requirements of eating once in three to six months."
"I just need to test my first spirit soul for this month. Around ten days would be enough to get a general understanding and a month would be enough for a deeper understanding of the spirit ring ability."
"The herbs and medicinal plants that I have ordered should come by the end of the next week as well. I already have a prescription so making the half energy serum should be done in around two weeks at most. So all in all, I would be able to finish a part of my plans by this month."
"Let's start the test then, first experiment... I will have my normal dinner and observe the time that I can say hungry after that."
Fan Lin took out his self prepared dinner and ate it and started to meditate while his first spirit ring was actively used to digest the food.
It was an active skill and needed soul power to keep it active whenever he wanted to use it.
Fan Lin was currently in a hurry. A year seemed long but it wasn't that long.
He had read about Shrek and the resources that it could provide. He also knew about the things that he would need.
If he can play his cards right, then he might gain everything without much trouble.
If he can...
.....
Now for the previous readers, as you can see, I am compressing chapters.
Currently we are at 13 or 14.
Bye.
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