Sheng Feilong stod in front of She Meixiao's room. After coughing up blood, the latter told him she would only need some time to recuperate and asked for Sheng Feilong to guard the room outside. It had been a few hours since then and Sheng Feilong was slowly growing restless as he didn't hear from She Meixiao.
Still, he didn't dare disturb her inside as he could still feel the energy in the area being pulled into the direction of the room, clear evidence that She Meixiao, a powerful Titled Douluo was currently cultivating.
He, of course, wasn't the only one to notice this. As the people closest to the source of the energy suction, Tang Wulin and the other Shrek Students came by to take a look. Sheng Feilong explained that She Meixiao was cultivating to them, but skipped the details of her coughing up blood.
Tang Wulin and the others stayed for a while as they couldn't cultivate with She Meixiao pulling all the energy in, anyways. After a while, they began to scatter once more and Sheng Feilong was left alone watching the door.
He drifted off after a while, loosing himself in the thoughts of the battle he witnessed before. The power that She Meixiao showed him – the power to deal with one of the Ten Great Ferocious Beasts all on her own in such a calm manner – really shocked him. 'When will I ever be able to reach such heights? Master isn't just a Hyper Douluo but also a Four Word Battle Armour Master... The only one who can build that kind of armour is Divine Blacksmith Zhen Hua; Are they somehow connected?'
"You're keeping watch over her room? So I was right, she overexerted herself, didn't she?" A voice suddenly pulled Sheng Feilong out of his thoughts and into a defensive situation. He quickly looked up with wariness in his eyes, but upon seeing that Mu Ye stood in front of him, he quickly bowed lightly. "Junior She Feilong greets Senior Mu."
Mu Ye nodded before looking towards She Meixiao's room, seemingly staring right through the wall. He stayed silent for a few, awkward seconds with Sheng Feilong staring at him before he opened his mouth again. "How long has she been cultivating for?"
His face showed no expression, so Sheng Feilong had a hard time guessing what his deal was, but opted for simply answering honestly. "About two hours now, though she only began drawing in energy a bit over an hour ago... You said she overexerted herself before; Is there something wrong with Master..?"
Averting his gaze from the wall, Mu Ye turned to face Sheng Feilong, still with the lack of any expression on his face, nodded and began walking down the hallway. "Don't worry. She literally overexerted herself. Keeping a 100.000-years-old Soul Ring's Soul Skill active for over half an hour isn't easy, even when you're a Hyper Douluo. She also used her Battle Armour together with it. She'll need some rest, so keep guarding her door; Don't let anyone disturb her."
Sheng Feilong was left standing at the door and bowed lightly in the direction Mu Ye was walking off to. It seemed like She Meixiao wouldn't exit her session of meditation for at least a few more hours.
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Mu Ye returned to his own room, closed the door and casually sat down at the table. After a few moments, a dull, silver light filled the room and another fer moment later, Elder Cai appeared in Mu Ye's room.
She just stood there for a while, staring at Mu Ye and waiting for him to react. The latter continued to just sit at the table, not even glancing at her before Elder Cai finally left her patience. She squinted her eyes, looking Mu Ye up and down again. "You're Sect Master Mu Ye of the Body Sect, correct?"
Mu Ye didn't answer, but had a faint, indifferent smile on his face. Elder Cai squinted her eyes even more and continued her questions. "I'd really like to know why Sect Master Mu Ye would follow the diplomatic delegation to the Star Luo Continent."
Mu Ye cracked a real smile this time and finally turned to look at Elder Cai. "It has nothing to do with you. I only joined this trip as a cook. I thought there might be a good spot to find some ingredients around here..."
(A/N: Good that sentence haunts me. S/o to anyone who read that in Donald's voice.)
Elder Cai huffed lightly, clearly displeased by Mu Ye's attitude; She wasn't a good-tempered person either. Her voice and expression grew somewhat colder as she continued speaking to Mu Ye. "What is your relationship with She Meixiao?"
Mu Ye's gaze turned cold as he stared back at Elder Cai. The atmosphere inside the room suddenly turned intense, but both of them were still aware enough of their surroundings to not let their energy leak outside the room. Mu Ye harrumphed audibly as he spoke up. "Is that your business to mind?"
Elder Cai stayed silent and the two of them just stared at each other for a while. "Alright, if you're going to be that way, we've nothing much to talk about. Go carefully, Sect Master Mu Ye." Elder Cai spoke coldly. A silver light flashed only once in her eyes before she vanished without a trace.
Back in her own room, Elder Cai frowned. A powerhouse like Mu Ye appearing on the ship was not a good sign for her. It was already bad enough for someone like She Meixiao, who they weren't on the best terms with being on the ship, much less Mu Ye.
Shrek Academy and Mu Ye's Body Sect have been at odds for the last ten thousand years without ever coming to an agreement. They weren't on bad terms per se, but the Body Sect was always a threat to Shrek Academy in the past. Elder Cai couldn't be sure whether Mu Ye was friend of foe, but she knew for a fact that she was weaker than him.
Ever more concerning was the fact that She Meixiao and Mu Ye seemed to be on good terms, so much so that She Meixiao would entrust her personal disciple to Mu Ye when she went to fight the Great Beast. This was something that would have to be reported back to Shrek Academy as soon as possible.
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The last week of their journey across the ocean passed quietly. She Meixiao exited her room calmly after a few hours, on the same day of the battle, and seemed to be perfectly fine again. She assured Sheng Feilong that everything was alright and that she would only need to take it easy for a few days before being in top shape again.
Sheng Feilong took her word and focused on cultivating again. With only a week left, he didn't make much progress but managed to completely consolidate his foundation of rank 53 in the mean time.
Most of his friends made their own breakthroughs and varying degrees of progress, with the most obvious being Tang Wulin who somewhen broke through rank 40 during the journey; He did so even before the great battle, apparently.
The situation between Sheng Feilong and Xie Xie seemed to only get worse as the latter flat out refused to share the same table as Sheng Feilong. In the end, though, he stayed as the rest of the Shrek Students refused to go along with his petty antics.
Although non of them were really happy about the situation of the two of them being at odds, they refrained from actively intervening. They knew that it was something for them to duke out between themselves and that getting involved would only make matters worse.
The worst part about it might actually be Sheng Feilong. Unlike Xie Xie, who was petty about the situation, he seemed to completely ignore it and was perfectly content with how things played out. He acted completely normal, just ignoring Xie Xie's existence at all, which only incited the latter even more.
Yuanen Yehui, the cause of this whole ordeal, refrained from acknowledging any of this and continued as normal as well. Though from Tang Wulin's point of view, it seemed like she preferred Sheng Feilong's company over Xie Xie's which somewhat bothered him; As the captain of their team, he had to make sure that everyone was alright, but he couldn't just kick one of them out.
Soon, they reached the coast of the Star Luo Continent. The people that finally returned home rejoiced at the sight of the familiar coastline, while a grant welcoming ceremony awaited the member's of the Douluo Continent's delegation. Most of the people coming to the Star Luo Continent were content with the situation and went along their ways with the Star Luo Continent's members of their respective fields, but for She Meixiao and Shrek Academy's parties, all of this was just a formality.
She Meixiao took Sheng Feilong to a more quiet spot before deciding on their plans. Most of the delegation would visit the Star Luo Empire's capital, Star Luo City, while they would do the same. The only exception being that She Meixiao and Sheng Feilong would pay a visit to one of Daedalus' branches that was on the way towards Star Luo City and therefore not travel with the rest of the delegation.
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