It hurts so much!

A sense of severe physical discomfort jolted Tang Wulin awake.

He felt as if his entire body had fallen apart at the seams. With his immensely powerful physical constitution, he rarely ever experienced this kind of pain aside from when he was breaking his Golden Dragon King seals.

Am I dead? Have I already died?

As he gradually regained consciousness, he slowly began to recall everything that had happened.

He really wished that it was just a nightmare that he could wake up from.

It had to have been a nightmare! Shrek Academy was so powerful; how could it have been destroyed?

He opened his eyes with difficulty, and much to his surprise, he found himself in a green world.

As his eyesight slowly focused, his hearing also returned, and he discovered that he was in a place with chirping birds and flying insects. This was... a forest?

His entire body was in agony, and the pain suggested that he was still alive.

He blinked and tried to move his body, but was completely unable to do so. He took a slow and deep breath before inspecting his own internal condition.

In doing so, he discovered that both his soul power vortex and bloodline vortex had become extremely feeble. Many sections of his meridians had been damaged, and even his internal organs had been displaced.

If a normal person had suffered these injuries, they'd most likely be dead already, but he could clearly feel that his body was slowly recovering.

His immense bloodline power was surging throughout his body, repairing his meridians and adjusting his internal organs back to their rightful places.

He wasn't dead. Was everything that had happened before real? Why was he in a forest?

Tang Wulin was quite perplexed as these thoughts flashed through his mind. However, he knew that his top priority at the moment was to recover as quickly as possible. Only after making a recovery would he be able to uncover the answers to those questions.

After waking up, his rate of self-regeneration immediately sped up. Under his control, his bloodline power was like an extension of his body, and he used it to nudge his internal organs back into place. After that, he quickly set about repairing his meridians, and at the same time, he spurred his soul power vortex into action so it could absorb the natural energies in the outside world to assist in his recovery.

Thankfully, the natural energies here were very abundant, and he was a plant system Soul Master, so he was able to cultivate to great effect in a forest that was filled with plant life.

After an indeterminate period of time had passed, Tang Wulin's meridians and organs were basically fully recovered. The pain began to recede, and some soul power had also gathered in his dantian.

He opened his eyes again, and everything became a lot clearer to him. The first thing that he saw was a massive tree that extended all the way into the heavens.

He rolled over and clambered to his feet.

Thankfully, he still had his recovery ability. However, the fact that he'd managed to survive an explosion from a ninth-grade soul missile at point-blank range had to be a miracle in itself.

Just as he was thinking this, he suddenly noticed that there was someone lying on the ground not too far away from him.

She wore a white dress, and she was lying in a completely still manner.

Tang Wulin's heart skipped a beat as soon as he caught sight of her. He dug through his memories and recalled the woman that had suddenly appeared in his arms at the last moment.

He rushed over to her as quickly as he could before carefully rolling her over.

A set of familiar and exquisitely beautiful facial features was revealed to him. She looked exactly like Na'er, except this seemed to be a version of Na'er that was two to three years older than she should've been.

It really was her!

Tang Wulin hurriedly laid a hand on her wrist to find that she still had a pulse, but it was rather feeble. Many sections of her clothes had also been damaged, revealing sections of fair and delicate skin.

However, Tang Wulin paid no heed to any of that. He carefully cradled her up in his arms before injecting his Mysterious Heaven Method soul power into her body.

There seemed to be nothing wrong with her meridians, but her aura was extremely feeble. Only after picking her up did Tang Wulin discover that her back was completely bare. The entire back of her dress had disappeared, and thus, his hands came into contact with her smooth and fair skin.

At this point, he had completely regained his consciousness. He could clearly recall that she appeared in his arms just as he was murmuring the words "Gu Yue, I love you".

Her voice was so familiar, but why did she claim that she was Gu Yue?

Her voice and aura were both so familiar, yet she had the appearance of an older Na'er. Tang Wulin was completely at a loss for what to think.

That's right, her aura was one that Tang Wulin was extremely familiar with.

Ever since he'd first begun studying with Gu Yue, they regularly came into contact with one another, and they'd grown up alongside each other for several years. During that time, she had become the most important woman in his life, so there was no way that he would mistake her aura for someone else's.

There was a unique fragrance emanating from her body that belonged only to Gu Yue, and it was completely different from Na'er's fragrance.

So just who was this woman?

All of a sudden, a thought occurred to Tang Wulin, and he hurriedly cast his gaze toward her neck. He clearly recalled that she had an ovular birthmark on her collarbone. It was very faint, and there was no way anyone would be able to notice it unless they'd appraised her in as much detail as he had.

There was a birthmark! This woman was Gu Yue!

Tang Wulin caught sight of the birthmark almost right away.

Everything else could be faked, but a birthmark couldn't! But why had her appearance changed?

Tang Wulin carefully began to rub her cheeks. He had learned disguise techniques, and he was hoping that Gu Yue was merely in disguise. However, he quickly found that this was indeed her real face, and even her hair had turned silver!

He gently peeled back one of her eyelids to find that her pupils were now purple. Silver hair and purple eyes; those were Na'er's signature traits!

Tang Wulin was completely flabbergasted now.

He would be ecstatic if any one of Gu Yue or Na'er were to return to him, but this woman seemed to be a combination of the two. He simply didn't know what to think.

Overall, she felt more like Gu Yue, but her appearance...

Could it be that Gu Yue had learned some kind of disguise technique that even he couldn't see through? That seemed to be the only possibility.

Tang Wulin's heart was filled with complex emotions as he held her in his arms. Never would he have thought that she would come to him in that dire situation. He could still clearly recall that she had used her own body to shield him from that lethal explosion.

Where were they right now? What was this place?

In any case, his top priority was to revive her first.

He carefully injected his soul power into Gu Yue's body, only to find that it was as if he were injecting energy into a bottomless pit. No matter how much soul power flowed from his body to hers, it would disappear without a trace, and Gu Yue didn't display any reaction to this, either.

A thought suddenly occurred to Tang Wulin. He could recall that prior to Gu Yue's sudden emergence, he had felt a cool and refreshing sensation coming from his chest.

He reflexively laid a hand onto his own chest, and his fingers came into contact with the necklace that Gu Yue had left him. The pedant was a silver scale, and as he picked up the scale, a theory began to form in his mind.

Could it be that Gu Yue had left him this scale so she could teleport herself to his side in his time of need?

In that case, everything made sense; this woman had to be Gu Yue!

Why would you do this?

Tang Wulin held Gu Yue's body tightly in his arms. If it weren't for the fact that she bore such a strong resemblance to Na'er, he most likely wouldn't have been able to resist the urge to kiss her.

At the very least, he had to wait until she woke up so he could ask her what was going on.

Gu Yue remained unconscious, and after injecting his soul power into her body for a while, Tang Wulin was starting to give out, so he had to meditate to recover some soul power first. Thankfully, even though Gu Yue hadn't woken up, her aura was very stable.