Douluo Continent III Haotian Wulin

"I think... I know what it is."

As soon as Tang Wulin finished speaking, the heat that had just subsided within him surged up again without warning.

It wasn't the brief tremor like before.

It was a deeper, more intense, and more ferocious one.

It was as if something had been suppressed at the very bottom, and had been awakened for a moment because of the initial formation of the first soul skill; at this moment, it suddenly arched upwards along the hidden line deepest in the spine.

Tang Wulin froze instantly.

"Brother?" Na'er immediately sensed something was wrong, and her voice changed.

Tang Wulin wanted to speak to tell her not to be afraid, but his throat felt like it was blocked by something, and he couldn't make a sound for a moment. The next instant, that burning heat had already shot up his spine all the way through his back, shoulders and neck, and finally swept into every part of his body.

heat.

It was heavier and finer than the day I awoke.

It wasn't a fire that would swallow a person whole, but rather like countless gleaming, fine needles, slowly piercing into the bones. Yet, his consciousness remained perfectly clear, so clear that he could feel every inch of the burning sensation acutely.

The sinking hammer still hung in his hand.

The white spirit ring hadn't dissipated yet, and it trembled slightly with the intense fluctuations of his spirit power. Deep within the hammer's body, the little ant suddenly froze.

Immediately afterwards, a very faint golden mesh pattern reappeared.

They first silently emerged from below Tang Wulin's forehead, like fine, cold cracks, shining layer by layer beneath his skin, and then quickly spreading down his neck. At the same time, beneath his clothes, a thin golden line seemed to be lit up along the midline of his spine, running from his tailbone upwards until it quietly met the golden net-like pattern on his forehead deep within his head.

This time, the gold is clearer than ever before.

It is understated, yet possesses a chilling, ancient coldness that can send shivers down your spine.

The little ant, which had been perched on the hammer, was now covered by the golden patterns inch by inch. Its dark gold carapace trembled slightly, as if it instinctively wanted to retreat, but in the end it did not retreat. It just stood there, letting the light gold lines seep into the depths of its carapace.

Tang Wulin could no longer hold on.

He groaned, his body swayed, and he slid off the edge of the bed.

"elder brother!"

Na'er's face turned pale instantly. She rushed over to help him, but Tang Wulin was burning hot, like a piece of iron just pulled from a furnace. The moment her hand touched him, she recoiled slightly from the frightening heat, then gritted her teeth and hugged him again.

Footsteps soon sounded outside.

"What's wrong?" Lang Yue's voice came in first, clearly flustered.

The door was pushed open.

The next moment, the couple saw Tang Wulin lying on the side of the bed.

"Wu Lin!"

Lang Yue practically lunged at him.

Tang Ziran immediately knelt down and picked up her son. Tang Wulin's eyes were tightly closed, his forehead and neck were covered in cold sweat, and his clothes were damp from the heat. His brows were tightly furrowed, clearly indicating that he was in a very uncomfortable state.

"What's going on?" Lang Yue's voice trembled, and she was already a little flustered.

Na'er stood to the side, her face pale, her lips pressed tightly together, unable to utter a single word. She could sense that what had been churned out of Tang Wulin's body just moments before was not merely a normal fluctuation resulting from the fusion of their souls.

There's something deeper inside.

But she couldn't quite put her finger on what it was.

Tang Ziran forced herself to calm down, reached out and pressed Tang Wulin's forehead, and then checked his pulse.

His pulse is still steady.

The aura is still there.

It's just unbearably hot.

"Put him back on the bed first," he whispered.

The couple worked together to settle Tang Wulin back into place, and Lang Yue immediately wrung out a cold towel to wipe his face. But the heat seemed to emanate from his own bones, and the towel warmed up again after only a few moments.

"Didn't they say the fusion was going smoothly..." Lang Yue's voice was already trembling with tears, "How could this happen?"

Tang Ziran did not answer.

He didn't know either.

When they returned from the Spirit Pagoda during the day, everything was fine. Their son even happily told them how well Little Jun Ant and the Sinking Star Hammer matched. No one expected that things would suddenly turn out like this at night.

Time passed little by little.

Tang Wulin remained unconscious.

He sometimes felt feverish, and sometimes trembled slightly. The fine golden lines deep in his forehead were faintly visible, occasionally flashing a cold light from beneath his black hair before quickly disappearing. No one really saw it clearly, taking it as an illusion caused by the flickering lamplight.

By the latter half of the night, the terrifying heat had finally subsided.

But new anomalies emerged.

Tang Wulin's body began to tremble slightly, as if something was crawling out of his limbs and bones. The feeling was no longer heat, but numbness, fine and dense, even his fingertips were twitching slightly. Yet he was still unconscious, unable to utter a cry of pain, his brows furrowing more and more tightly, as if he couldn't find peace even in his dreams.

Na'er stood by the bed the whole time, without going to sleep.

She looked at Tang Wulin, her confusion deepening.

She didn't know when it started, but she felt as if she could also feel that pain. Not physical, but the kind of discomfort that was slowly being scraped out of her bones, like countless invisible little things pushing outwards, growing outwards.

As dawn approached, Tang Wulin finally fell completely silent.

The faint golden mesh pattern gradually sank back under the skin, as if it had never existed.

But he still didn't wake up.

……

The next day, Tang Wulin was unable to go to school or Mangtian Studio.

He slept soundly for the entire day, as if he had fallen into some deeper darkness. Lang Yue barely dared to leave the room, barely eating a few bites of food, only wiping her son's sweat, changing his clothes, and checking his forehead temperature over and over again.

Tang Ziran made two trips in one morning.

I need to ask for leave to go to the college.

He went to the studio, intending to speak with Mang Tian in person. But when he arrived, Mang Tian had already called via soul communication, his tone as cold and hard as ever, asking only one question: "Where is he?"

Tang Ziran remained silent for a moment before finally telling the story.

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone.

"I'll be there later." Mang Tian left only this sentence before hanging up the phone.

As evening approached, Mangtian indeed arrived.

The tall, middle-aged man's entrance made the already oppressive atmosphere in the room even heavier. He didn't exchange pleasantries or ask any questions, and went straight into the room.

Tang Wulin was still asleep on the bed.

Mang Tian stood by the bed for a long time, his gaze sweeping over the man's slightly pale face, his hair damp from sweating profusely, and his hands resting quietly outside the blankets.

"Normally, this wouldn't happen after the souls merge," he finally spoke, his voice low.

Upon hearing this, Lang Yue's eyes immediately reddened again.

"Then he..."

Mang Tian didn't answer immediately. Instead, he raised his hand and pressed on Tang Wulin's shoulder, wrist, and palm bones, and then probed the natural fluctuations of his soul power. After a moment, his brows furrowed almost imperceptibly.

"It doesn't look like a failed integration," he said.

"It's more like... after being fused together, it was then flushed over again by something else."

As soon as he said that, everyone in the room fell silent.

"What do you mean?" Tang Ziran asked in a deep voice.

Mang Tian glanced at him but did not continue to explain.

Because even he himself couldn't explain what it was.

However, there was something strange about this child's aura since yesterday. During the day, when the fusion was completed at the Spirit Pagoda, that strangeness was suppressed by the normal fluctuations of soul fusion; but at night, it seemed as if something deeper had been completely stirred up.

But in any case, at least one thing is certain.

The soul power within Tang Wulin's body not only did not become chaotic, but instead slowly and steadily increased.

This torment wasn't destroying him, but rather forcing him to truly internalize something.

"Wait a little longer," Mang Tian finally said, only these three words.

"If he doesn't wake up tonight, go find the Spirit Pagoda."

……

After it got completely dark, Tang Wulin finally slowly opened his eyes.

The first thing to recover was hearing.

There was a faint breeze outside the window, and the room was quiet. In the distance, I could hear the soft sound of a spatula hitting a bowl. Then, my sense of touch slowly returned. The bedding beneath me was dry, and my clothes had been changed; they were no longer damp and sticky like they had been the night before.

He lay quietly for a while before slowly sitting up.

It wasn't hot.

There was no numbness or itching.

Those feelings that almost drove me crazy last night are like a torrential rain that has already cleared up, leaving only a very faint lingering sensation deep within my body.

Instead, it is light.

It's not floating, but a lightness that's been washed and tightened again. Every inch of my bones feels more stretched, and even my breath is deeper and longer than before, falling into my chest like a cool breeze.

Tang Wulin lowered his head and stared blankly at his hands.

The next moment, he subconsciously activated his soul power.

The power within his body, which had already broken through to a higher level, was noticeably stronger than yesterday. As it flowed along the meridians, it gave people an extremely solid feeling, like a newly formed embryo that had suddenly been hammered several times, making even the bones denser.

"Level 11..."

Tang Wulin read out the number almost silently.

He was stunned for a moment.

This is not speculation.

It was a very clear feeling—his soul power had truly and steadily stepped into level eleven.

It wasn't a hollow breakthrough after a forced one, but rather a very stable one.

Tang Wulin subconsciously stood up and stretched his arms.

There was not a trace of sourness or bitterness.

Instead, it felt strangely smooth.

He tried making a fist, then raised his arm and casually swung it forward.

"Smack."

A very soft popping sound came from the air.

Tang Wulin himself was startled.

He looked down at his fist, then at the empty air in front of him, and paused for a moment before the shock in his eyes gradually faded, turning into a look of disbelief.

My body... has become stronger again.

Before he could try a second time, the door was suddenly pushed open.

"Wu Lin!"

The first to rush in was Lang Yue.

She saw her son sit up at a glance, and it was as if she was first pulled hard before she rushed over and hugged him tightly.

"You scared your mother to death..." Her voice trembled, and in the end, she couldn't suppress her sobs.

Tang Wulin was a little dazed from being hugged, and only then did he realize that it was already dark outside.

In other words, he slept for a full day and night.

"Mom..." He quickly reached out and hugged her, his voice still a little hoarse, "I'm fine, I'm really fine."

Following them were Tang Ziran, Na'er, and Mang Tian, ​​who was standing at the door.

The lights in the room were on, and the warm yellow light illuminated the expressions on everyone's faces clearly.

Tang Ziran looked visibly tired, as if he hadn't truly sat down all day. Na'er stood beside him, her lips pursed, her eyes fixed on Tang Wulin. Mang Tian remained silent, simply standing there, his gaze more somber than usual.

Lang Yue pulled Tang Wulin away from her arms a little and looked him up and down several times, as if she had to confirm with her own eyes that the child was really alright before she could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

"We're not going to be Soul Masters anymore," she suddenly said in a hoarse voice. "Son, let's live a peaceful life from now on, and not be Soul Masters anymore, okay?"

After he said that, the room fell silent for a moment.

Tang Wulin was taken aback at first, but then he smiled.

The smile was weak, but very clean.

"Mom, I'm really okay," he said. "And... I feel like I'm not just okay."

"What do you mean?" Tang Ziran asked immediately.

Tang Wulin looked down at his hands and slowly clenched his fist.

"My soul power has increased," he said. "It should be level eleven by now."

"What?" Lang Yue hadn't reacted yet.

Mang Tian had already taken two steps forward.

"Release your martial spirit," he said in a deep voice.

Without hesitation, Tang Wulin raised his right hand, and with a flash of dark light, the Sinking Star Hammer fell into his palm.

The moment the hammer appeared, the air in the room seemed to thicken.

The hammer was still black, short, and heavy, but its aura was clearly different from yesterday. The dark gold patterns that were previously faintly visible deep within the hammer were now much clearer, like fine gold threads embedded in the iron color. It was understated, yet one could immediately tell that it was harder and more stable.

Immediately afterwards, a pure white spirit ring slowly rose up.

Outside the white spirit ring, the spirit power fluctuations were quiet and solid, without the slightest sign of being weak or unstable.

Mang Tian's expression changed instantly.

This wasn't the first time he had seen Tang Wulin's martial spirit, but it was the first time he had felt so clearly that after fusing with the spirit, the hammer seemed to have been reforged by something deeper.

"Level eleven," he said slowly, his tone lower than usual, "and his foundation is very solid."

Tang Ziran, who had been holding her breath for a whole day, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Na'er had been standing by watching, and only now did she give a very slight smile. It was as if she had known this would happen all along, but the confusion and unease deep in her eyes only truly dissipated now.

With tears still in her eyes, Lang Yue looked at the hammer, then at her son, as if she still couldn't quite believe it.

"Really...all right?"

Tang Wulin nodded.

"Really," he said.

When he said those two words, the hammer in his hand trembled slightly, as if it were bearing witness for him.

Mang Tian's gaze fell on the hammer, paused for a moment, and then looked back at Tang Wulin.

"What about the first soul skill?" he asked.

"I understand." Tang Wulin took a soft breath, and when he looked up, the light in his dark eyes finally returned. "I knew last night."

Mang Tian looked at him, and a hint of approval, which he had always kept hidden deep in his eyes, finally surfaced.

"Then show me."