Arthur ended the matter by contacting an administrative officer through his communicator and having them come handle things.
During this time, Guang Biao behaved himself quite well. The moment he heard he would be handed over to an administrative officer, he was completely unconcerned.
It wasn't as if he hadn't been taken in before. Every single time, hadn't his older brother bailed him out by the next morning at the latest?
Little did he know that this time, once he went in, he would never come back out.
With a single word from Arthur, even his older brother, the Captain of Eastsea City's Mecha Brigade, would be utterly powerless.
To put it plainly, Arthur was East Sea City's crown prince.
Gu Yue had quietly followed along and watched everything unfold from within the crowd, adding yet another entry to her private observation journal on Arthur.
By the time evening fell, after everything that had happened, no one was in the mood to keep enjoying themselves. The group wrapped up their day out and headed back.
The next day's promotion match also ended quickly. This time, Gu Yue held back, playing little more than a supporting role. Her goal had already been accomplished, so there was no need to do more than coast along.
After school, unlike in the original story, there was no scene of Guang Biao waiting at the door to cause trouble.
Su Wuyan's authority in East Sea City was absolute.
The man had barely been taken in before Guang Biao's dismissal notice arrived the very next second. If Guang Biao had dared to make any move, he would have been taken in as well.
Setting aside his title as Tower Master of the East Sea Spirit Transmission Tower, the Dragon Sparrow Titled Douluo's name carried real weight throughout the entire Federation.
The reason Su Wuyan had chosen to stay in this small East Sea City, beyond wanting to escape the power struggles at the Spirit Transmission Tower's headquarters, was mainly because of Mu Chen.
After all, it didn't much matter where one chose to settle. And so, Su Wuyan had volunteered at the time to take a post in East Sea City, keeping his good friend Mu Chen company along the way.
Of course, given that this "company" mostly amounted to dropping by the Blacksmith Association to freeload off him, Mu Chen would have preferred to do without it entirely.
That evening in Dormitory 205, Xie Xie, fresh off another promotion match victory, was holding court in front of Yun Xiaoding and Zhou Zhangxi, speaking with all the grand authority of a general surveying his domain.
By his account, the contestants from Class 3 and Class 4 were utterly beneath him, and Class 2 would surely be no different.
He was already studying the opponents in Class 1.
In contrast, Tang Wulin sat cross-legged on his bed, appearing to be deep in meditative cultivation.
Yet inwardly, he was restless.
Lately, that strange force within his body had been stirring constantly, and the agonized cries of a dragon's roar appearing in his mind were growing ever more frequent.
He had a faint sense that a great secret lay hidden within all of this, one that might even be connected to the mutation of his Blue Silver Grass martial soul.
On any other day, closing his eyes would have carried him straight into deep meditation. But now Tang Wulin's mind was a jumble of scattered thoughts, and that inescapable, agonized dragon's roar rang out again, leaving his spirit thoroughly unsettled.
Gradually, his consciousness began to blur. The dragon's roar faded, and he thought he had finally slipped into meditation. He did not notice the golden markings stretching from the nape of his neck all the way down his spine, quietly beginning to glow.
At the same time, a faint scorching warmth slowly enveloped his entire body. Tang Wulin couldn't help but tremble slightly, his brow furrowed tight.
When he opened his eyes again, everything around him had gone pitch black, as though he had fallen into an endless void.
Just then, a beam of golden light pierced through the darkness in the distance, blazing brilliantly as it pulled him swiftly toward it.
As the outline of the golden light sharpened into clarity, Tang Wulin couldn't help but draw a sharp breath.
It was an enormous golden dragon!
Five claws spread wide, its entire body armored in golden scales, with a deer's antlers and a serpentine form. It had no wings, yet it loomed imperiously above all.
Even the shape of the five claws on its underside differed from any dragon recorded in the annals of the continent, and yet deep in his heart, a single thought rose unbidden: this was a dragon.
The golden light flared suddenly. Beneath Tang Wulin's feet, a surface of ancient green bricks took shape. He glanced down at himself and found that his own silhouette had become translucent and ethereal. Looking up, the golden dragon stretched on above him without end.
Rings upon rings of clear blue light circled around the dragon's body. That shade of blue stirred something inexplicable in him, reminding him, for no clear reason, of his own Blue Silver Grass.
"You've come."
A cool, detached voice reached him from every direction at once, carrying a quality that felt almost divine.
Threads of golden light gathered before Tang Wulin and condensed into a luminous silhouette, its features impossible to make out.
"Who are you? Where is this place? Am I dreaming?" The questions spilled out of Tang Wulin one after another.
"Perhaps it is a dream, or perhaps it is a part of your own body." The silhouette's voice spoke in riddles. "You may call me Old Tang. I am nothing more than a remnant sliver of spiritual consciousness, here specifically to guide you."
Strangely, under the influence of that voice, Tang Wulin's curiosity overrode his fear of the unknown. "Then what is that? Is it a dragon?"
"It is no ordinary dragon. It is the full essence of the Golden Dragon King." The silhouette's words sent a jolt through Tang Wulin's heart. "In a certain sense, it is your calamity. The energy of the Golden Dragon King is too vast; this small body of yours cannot possibly contain it. Once it erupts, you will die."
The word "die" struck Tang Wulin like a hammer blow. He stood there stunned for a moment, then asked quietly, "Will I definitely die?"
"Follow what I tell you, and you still have a chance, though it will not be easy." Sensing that it now held the upper hand, the silhouette's voice grew calm.
"You should have already felt its power by now."
"The Golden Dragon King represents the absolute pinnacle of strength." The silhouette's voice seemed to carry both longing and sorrow. "The reason your physical strength surpasses that of other children your age is entirely due to its influence. Long ago, a great expert sealed eighteen layers of restraints upon it, and that is the only reason your life was spared. If you wish to survive, you must break the seals one by one, absorbing and assimilating the energy until you have mastered it completely."
Absorb it?
Standing this close, Tang Wulin could feel his Blue Silver Grass martial soul wilting from the proximity.
He trusted his own martial soul far more than he trusted this inscrutable silhouette.
"Why was such a dangerous power sealed inside my body in the first place? Can't it simply be separated out?"
The silhouette seemed to have heard an answer it hadn't anticipated. It was quiet for a moment before asking, "This is supreme power. You don't want it?"
At this stage in his life, Tang Wulin did not feel an especially strong hunger for power. Since enrolling at East Sea Academy, he had been genuinely happy.
His classmates, shaped by Arthur's influence, got along with one another warmly and without friction.
His dormitory roommates were easy company, and every night the four of them would talk late into the evening about their hopes for the future.
Then there was Xie Xie, a good friend who occasionally treated him to meals.
The promotion matches were going smoothly, living up to the expectations Teacher Wu Zhangkong had placed in him.
Given all of that, why should Tang Wulin risk his life to absorb the Golden Dragon King?
"You have no choice; it is either advance or perish." The silhouette could see that Tang Wulin was beginning to pull back. "If you make no effort to absorb its power, your body will eventually burst apart and you will die."
A moment of silence passed.
"How do I absorb it?" Tang Wulin pressed.
"To break the first seal, you will need three spiritual items: a century-old Ice Crystal Fruit, a century-old Crimson Flame Fruit, and ten drops of fresh blood from a century-old spirit beast with dragon bloodline."
The silhouette paused, its tone turning grave. "Now that I have awakened, once you gather all three items and consume them together, I will help you break the first seal. Remember this: the pace at which you grow stronger must keep ahead of the pace at which the seals loosen.
If you cannot break the first seal before your tenth birthday, I will no longer be able to suppress its power."
Tang Wulin's heart clenched.
He had only a few months left before he turned ten. He was about to ask where he could find these things, when the thought of spirit beasts on the brink of extinction made the words die in his throat. His voice was laced with resignation.
"Spirit beasts are nearly gone. Where am I supposed to find the blood of a century-old one?"
Whether it was just his imagination, the silhouette seemed to sense something. It glanced in a particular direction.
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~ Push the story forward with your Power Stones