Ning Fengzhi's gaze wandered to Oscar. He was momentarily stunned that much was visible, but then he nodded.

"Yes, of course you can." He said, and Oscar beamed. His gaze grazed Ma Honjun, Zhu Zhuqing, and Dai Mubai.

Dai Mubai and Zhuqing immediately shook their head. "We are from the Star Lou Empire and have been gone for a long time. It is time for us to return home." Mubai said with a faint smile on his lips.

Ma Hongjun shook his head as well. "Nope. I love my freedom too much, I want to go see the world, and gain experiences. Stuff like that, before eventually returning to Shrek to help Teacher."

Flender turned to Ma Honjung, his often seemingly dimwitted student who basically never showed interest in anything other than women. He had not expected those words to come from him of all people.

"Since it is like that, I will not stand in your way, just remember any of you are always welcome at Seven Treasures, our doors are wide open." He said before turning his gaze to Ning Feng, his daughter, and Oscar, silently pointing for them to follow him and come along.

"We'll see each other in five years."  Ma Honjun then stated. "Right at Shrek's gates."

"Ha, and who gave you the right to decide that?" Dai Mubai asked him teasingly. "I am Captain."  New ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄhapters are published on NovᴇlFɪre.nᴇt

"No one but I is deciding it now anyway." He stated. "Any objections?" Amusement in his eyes as all the others agreed with laughs and sadness in their hearts at the same time.

It was the first time they had separated ever since their entrance at Shrek, and Feng felt weird. It was also the first time since Nuoding that she was apart from the Tang twins, ever since she was in Nuoding.

Ning Fengzhi silently gazed at handsome and talented Oscar, feeling happy inside, having gained such a promising new member, before his gaze wandered towards tall and lanky Ning Feng. He felt off seeing her. The girl was more a woman in appearance then the others, there was such pride to her and her entire demeanor was like that of a stout warrior, unlike the noble aura his breathen aimed for.

There was nothing soft about Ning Feng.

He was still wondering what the teachers back then had been missing out on, such a talented little girl, and what idiocy had compelled them to ignore the bullying that she had endured, which caused her mother to willingly put her as far away from her tormentors as she could find.

But then again, would this girl have grown into the one she was today without those experiences, without being a member of the Tang sect that the twins proclaimed was theirs?

He would never know.

--

It was nighttime; the sky was filled with stars, and the moon was a slender light, illuminating the sky and giving only the dimmest light to the surroundings.

Xiao Wu slowly recovered from her unconsciousness.

Still partially unconscious, she shot upwards until sitting upright, the warmth of a bonfire and the red light dancing over her skin as she turned aside and looked straight at Tang Hao as she fully regained conciousness.

Seeing him now, she found it hard to believe that this man had humiliated the entire Spirit Hall all by himself. He looked like a beggar at first glance, his gaze hooded, filled with a profound sadness and grief that stuck to him like a second skin.

"You are awake." He said his voice was gloomy.

Xiao Wu nodded silently as her gaze searched for Tang San, who was lying still unconscious on the ground.

"Thank you," she then said.

"Don't mind it." He said, and his gaze wandered further while Xiao Wu turned and saw an equally familiar face. Jiang. As he had kept her secret, she had kept his.

The childlike appearance him but right now there was nothing of it left after all, one did not get the byname dead moon dragon for nothing.

His grey gaze flickered in the light of the bonfire. He had shed his childlike teenage appearance. That man in front of her was the true Jiang. A mountain of meanance, there was nothing of the prettyness or handsomeness of his teenage appearance left, instead what sat there was a hard almost harsh man with a gaze one could literally see the stormclouds dancing inside and a aura that promised painfull death should he be offended.

"From the view of a spirit master, I should lock both of you up and then keep you prisoner until I can kill you and give your spirit rings and bones to my children." Tang Hao said, and both spirit beasts turned towards him. "From the point of a husband and a father, I cannot." He continued. "But I love my children, and harming you would break them."

"I have no intention of being imprisoned by you. I am not like Xiao Wu after all." Jiang flashed a pair of vicious fangs. "I have not decided to become human; I merely gained a human guise for my own convenience. If I wanted to kill you, it would not be easy, but neither impossible."

"I know." Tang Hao said, narrowing his eyes. "Which rises inside me more than anything, the question of why my daughter, whom you proclaim to value so much, was there alone. Without you to protect her."

Jiang growled, and Xiao Wu felt it down to her bones. "I did not want to endanger her with my presence; the douluo would have felt it. I had no desire to be in battle with them. with Yin in the line of fire. Like you Bibi Dong would not have been an impossible enemy but neither an easy one, add the rest of spirit hall. It was safer with me not there." He stated. "That being said, I am nowhere capable enough to tell your daughter to do anything she doesn't want to do, nor do I have the slightest desire to do so."

"Just know that if I know she will find any harm because of her relationship with you, then I will hunt you down." Tang Hao stated, and upon seeing him, Xiao Wu had no doubt that he would make his words a reality.

Jiang said. "You worry too soon. There is not much of a relationship. I have not yet won much of her heart. Maybe I never will," he looked at Yin lying still unconscious next to her brother on the ground, his gaze softening. "That being said. I choose. I am a dragon, and my kind only chooses once and we choose well."

"I see. That brings me to you." Tang Hao turned to Xiao Wu. "Do you know how foolish you were?" He asked, and Xiao Wu looked to the ground. She had been very foolish, and she knew that.

"I know." She said her voice was low.

"If it had been any later, or had it been any other spirit master but me, they would have hunted you down. A spirit beast not yet in the mature phase amongst spirit masters? That means either you have a lot of guts or you were being foolish; have your elders taught you nothing? If not for that flower of yours, you would have been discovered ages ago."

"I am sorry." Xiao Wu muttered.

"Don't blame her." Jiang then sighed. "She, like many before her, was just curious. Curiosity drives many of us to foolishness, yet it is also what enabled many of us to live to see a hundred thousand years of age."

"I know." Tang Hao said. "Still...Ahh...My children take too much after me. I always hoped they would be more like their mother. But now they are being foolish as well. Knowingly taking the risks." Tang Hao let his head fall a weak chuckle coming form him. "It's all happening again."

"Once again?" Xiao Wu asked him curious.

"Tang Sans mother...Ah Yin. She was a spirit beast, just like you, although already in the mature phase. I was just as foolish as my children. I loved her, and I protected her. But I failed in the bitter end. I hoped I prayed my children would never end up in the same situation...."