Douluo Dalu - The Story of Sheng Feilong 26 Jian Wang's Dilemma

Back at Sheng Fengtian's courtyard, Sheng Lijing was already looking way better. Although she was still slightly pale, she wasn't wounded anywhere. When Sheng Feilong and Sheng Lingtian came back and told the others about what happened at the arena after they left, Sheng Fengtian and Sheng Lijing could help burst out laughing while even Luo Mei chuckled at the Patriarch plight.

The family spent the rest of the day together, before Sheng Feilong and Sheng Lingtian left the Sheng Clan estate the next morning, not being bothered in the slightest by all the fuss they had created. Sheng Fengtian promised to keep Sheng Lingtian up to date. Sheng Feilong spent the weekend together with his father and it quickly went by.

Monday morning, when Sheng Lingtian was making breakfast, Sheng Feilong came out of his room, seemingly in a hurry. Sheng Lingtian questioned him about it and Sheng Feilong told him, that Song Weihan had returned and asked him, Jian Wang and Jian Shiguan to come to the Spirit Pagoda to train today.

Sheng Feilong was happy to train with Jian Wang and Jian Shiguan again and quickly finished his breakfast before following his father to the Spirit Pagoda. While Sheng Lingtian went to do his job, Sheng Feilong waited at the ground floor for his friends. A short while later he saw both of them coming. Jian Shiguan had her usual attitude and demeanor, but Jian Wang seemed somewhat... miserable..?

Sheng Feilong walked up to them and quickly asked Jian Wang if something was wrong, but the latter just groaned, then turned to face Sheng Feilong with an expression as if he was about to cry.

"Remember when I told you, that I'd ask my father to let me skip the blacksmithing training for the week so that I'd have the whole week off? Turns out it had the opposite effect. He forced me to train for nearly thrice as long as usual, constantly telling me that I have to improve and beat Tang Wulin..."

Sheng Feilong was a bit taken aback by Jian Wang's sudden rant, but even more so by the story. He looked at Jian Wang before he spoke his condolence.

"Thrice..? Isn't that, like, half a day? And who's that Tang Wulin?"

Jian Wang snorted and spoke with disdain.

"Tang Wulin is the personal disciple of one of my father's old rivals, Chen Mu. He's said to be an incredible talent in the blacksmithing world and that he'll become the next Divine Blacksmith in the future. My father's forcing me to train like a mad man in order to beat that guy, because he lost against Chen Mu back then."

Sheng Feilong did his utmost to not laugh at Jian Wang, while maintaining a poker face and trying to consult his friend. He mentioned for the others to come with him while he went to the elevator.

"Well, that just shows how highly Senior Jian values your talent, I guess? The better of a blacksmith you are the closer you are to build your own Mecha, right? Just bear with it."

Jian Wang rolled his eyes at Sheng Feilong.

"It's not like I can just build a Mecha by myself just because I have some metal. And when I told my father that Senior Song asked me to come, he said that we'll just train for a few hours when I come back, even though he knows that Senior Song won't take it easy on us. He's even selling the metals I'm working on without batting an eye. That's child labour, I'm telling you!"

Sheng Feilong just smiled and shook his head.

"Well, whatever. Where here now, so focus on Master's training for the time being."

They then walked towards Song Weihan's office and found him reading some documents. They bowed and greeted him. They then went on with their usual training that ended with a team fight against Song Weihan. Sheng Feilong couldn't put his finger on it, but he felt that something was different. All three of them proceeded to get beaten to a pulp before Song Weihan called quits, leaving the children lying in the middle of the training hall, gasping for their breaths.

After a while, Song Weihan returned and waited for them to recuperate before talking a bit on how to improve their fighting techniques and teamwork and then dismissed the children. Jian Wang and Jian Shiguan left while Sheng Feilong followed his Master to his office again to talk a bit more.

"Master, what did you have to leave for last week? It must have been something important, right? Can you tell me?" Sheng Feilong asked with a sincere expression. Song Weihan just smiled casually before picking up a few documents and showing them to Sheng Feilong.

"I didn't leave in the sense of going somewhere else. I had to focus on a few problems with the Artificial Soul Bones that had come up. While we successfully created both leg bones, a skull and a torso bone, there were a few complications with the right and left arm bones, that needed my undivided attention, hence I put our training on hold. We did get them sorted out and started creating the arm bones now, though."

Sheng Feilong was instantly hooked. He knew just how rare normal Soul Bones were and the artificial ones his Master created were a ground breaking invention of the century. Moreover, if they could be mass produces, they would increase the strength of Soul Masters in general by multiple folds!

"What kind of problem? Did you make mistakes in the formulars or did you not have the right materials?"

Song Weihan smiled and affectionately looked at Sheng Feilong. He was glad that his disciple was interested in his work, so he happily explained it to him.

"You know that Artificial Soul Bones use the same theory as artificial Spirit Souls of using small quantities of actual Soul Beast's essence to be created, right? Well, we used the essence of the Titan Giant Ape as the base for the Arm Bones but there were a few complications. The essence didn't mix well with the specially created spirit ingredients needed to make it possible for humans to fuse with the bones, so we had to find a way to make that happen. I'm actually surprised that we managed it in the span of one week, as something like that would usually need months if not years of research."

"So, how did you do it? The research of years can't possibly be done in a week just like that, right? Was is just a problem with the ingredients used?" Sheng Feilong asked.

Song Weihan smiled and continued his explanation.

"It was actually just a fluke. Someone came up with using a material that mixed well with the Titan Giant Ape's essence as a catalyst, we tried it out and it surprisingly worked near instantly. With the current progress, we'll be able to finish the first prototype in approximately 3 months."

Sheng Feilong was about to ask another question, when someone knocked on the door. A green haired woman, the same that helped Song Weihan get the Ancient Hypnotic Toad Spirit Soul for Sheng Feilong back then, came in and bowed lightly.

"Professor Song, a small problem that needs your supervision came up in the laboratory. Professor Ling asked for your assistance with the matter."

Song Weihan nodded, and his expression turned more serious.

"Very well, I'll be there shortly. You may leave." The green haired woman bowed again and left. Song Weihan then looked at Sheng Feilong with a slightly bitter smile.

"Seems like we'll have to talk at another time. Your father's shift should also be about to end, so how about you go home for today? We'll talk more tomorrow after training."

Sheng Feilong nodded and prepared to leave. He looked at Song Weihan, who had also stood up and they walked out of the office together. Song Weihan went towards the laboratory while Sheng Feilong made his way to the elevator, not forgetting to say his goodbye's to his master.

"See you tomorrow, Master. And good luck with your research!"

Song Weihan smiled at Sheng Feilong before he left for the laboratory, while Sheng Feilong went down the elevator and went home with Sheng Lingtian. The next few weeks passed silently with Sheng Feilong, Jian Wang and Jian Shiguan training with Song Weihan daily, and Sheng Feilong often asking about Song Weihan's work afterwards.

The children's summer break was about to end, and tomorrow would be their first day as students of Heaven Dou City's Intermediate Academy!

Chapter end