Douluo Dalu 2: Reincarnated as the Auspicious Beast

"No." Ma Xiaotao suppressed that inexplicable chill and replied firmly.

The way she looked at Wang Rui now was as if she were looking at a quack doctor. "My memory has always been clear. I was adopted by my teacher when I was very young, then grew up at Shrek Academy. I entered Shrek's outer court at the age of ten and moved up to the inner court at fourteen. I remember everything clearly. There's absolutely no memory loss."

"Is that so?" Wang Rui spoke slowly. "But just now, I happened to take a quick look at your brain."

He pointed to the side of his head. "There's a very obvious soul power-induced blockage in your brain, right at... never mind, I'm too lazy to explain the mechanisms of the human brain to you. Just understand that there's an old injury in the part of your brain responsible for memory, which inevitably affects your memory. If you think your recent memories are clear, why not try recalling things from when you were even younger?"

"Do you still remember your biological parents? Do you remember what happened before Yan Shaozhe adopted you?" Wang Rui asked, his tone somewhat aggressive.

Ma Xiaotao paused. She indeed couldn't clearly recall things from when she was younger, but she remained stubborn. "I was too little back then. Isn't it normal for children to forget some things?"

"Then what about when your martial soul awakened? You were six years old then—old enough to remember. Do you recall who presided over your martial soul awakening ceremony? Do you remember how the people present reacted? No one ever forgets that day; it's a day that can decide your entire life."

Ma Xiaotao was stunned.

Her martial soul... when had it awakened? Who was there? What were their reactions?She had no recollection at all.

"Think about it carefully," Wang Rui sneered. "My hypothesis cannot be wrong. The problem of your martial soul's evilization doesn't stem from your bloodline but from your past. There must be a deeply painful experience in the past you've forgotten. That past hasn't disappeared but continues to have a constant negative impact on you. This kind of situation is... well, Shrek doesn't talk about this much, but I usually refer to it as a 'heart demon.'"

"Or, as I've heard it put before, some call it a 'skeleton in the closet.' Personally, I think that's a very fitting description. Your skeleton might be hidden under a black cloth, but it hasn't disappeared."

"'Skeleton in the closet...'" Ma Xiaotao murmured, repeating the phrase.

Wang Rui shrugged.

"To eliminate the negative influence on your martial soul, you need to conquer that past, face it, defeat it, and finally walk out of it completely—make peace with your own past. No one can help you with this process; you have to do it yourself. Once you conquer the darkness within, you'll never have to worry about losing control again. But the most important problem now is that you don't even know what your heart demon is." He spread his hands. "So you need to find a way to recover your memory first."

"Is it that simple?" Ma Xiaotao asked skeptically.

"Simple?" Wang Rui let out a cold laugh, his eyes carrying a hint of mockery. "Even if your martial soul naturally had latent evilization potential and was easily influenced by negative emotions, do you think an experience traumatic enough to cause martial soul evilization would be a pleasant one? Or do you think facing your own mind is an easy thing to do?"

If Ma Xiaotao were to recover her memories suddenly without any psychological preparation and didn't immediately go berserk, Wang Rui might as well eat Tianmeng Ice Silkworm.

Soul master cultivation on the Douluo Continent did not emphasize cultivating one's mental state, nor were there trials of inner demons. As a result, they did not pay much attention to mental health... but in this cultivation system, the saying "blackening makes you ten times stronger" was not merely a figure of speech.

After running the Beast Sect's white-glove company for so long, Wang Rui's understanding of evil soul masters far surpassed everyone at Shrek.

A martial soul and a person's soul influence each other. To some extent, a martial soul is a reflection of the soul.

Those who inherited naturally evil martial souls from their bloodline would also have their disposition influenced by the evil within their martial soul, as if their martial soul contained a form of corruption. And those evil martial souls always appeared as sudden mutations in a generation, completely different from the originally inherited martial souls. Most of these martial souls resembled sinister entities that did not originally exist on the Douluo Continent, as if they had been polluted by something... foreign.

Wang Rui had some suspicions about this, but without concrete evidence to support his theory, he set it aside for now.

Some soul beasts that naturally existed in the Douluo world and appeared extremely evil to humans were not in this category. These seemingly evil martial souls did not exert a mental influence on humans but instead offered a sinister shortcut to gaining strength—testing the will of the martial soul bearer. If they couldn't resist the greed for power, the soul master would truly become an evil soul master.

The other type of evil soul master, however, were those who polluted their own martial souls. Their martial souls might have had subtle negative inclinations or been entirely normal, but extreme negative emotions could transform them into evil martial souls that continuously emitted negativity, leading to heinous crimes.

In reality, the boundaries between these two types of evil soul masters were often quite blurry. Take Tang Ya, for example—it was hard to say whether her obsession awakened the Dark Blue Silver Grass or if the dark nature of the grass deepened her obsession.

"So, your first step is to recover those memories. The second step is to make sure you don't go insane when they return. Then, confront the despair and madness within your martial soul, accept that dark past, make peace with yourself, and find new hope and belief." Wang Rui spread his hands.

A very clichéd approach, with a whiff of positive energy as the core message—but effective.

"By the way, I personally do not recommend forcefully clearing that blockage in your brain," Wang Rui added. "The brain is far too complex—even Bi Ji is helpless when it comes to memory loss. Of course, if you want to become an idiot, you could give it a try."

Ma Xiaotao opened her mouth. She had no clue about her lost memories. "Isn't there... an easier way?"

"Sure, work for me and I'll guarantee you the Ultimate Fire. Or..." Wang Rui paused meaningfully. "The Phoenix martial soul has a special trait—rebirth. You could try... dying. Maybe you'd be reborn."

"... I'll pass on trying to die. Rebirth is just a legend. I've never heard of anyone succeeding." She sighed, looking uncharacteristically troubled. "Searching is at least a direction to strive for. Whether it works or not, I won't take your information for free. I owe you three favors."

"I like straightforward people. While I'm at Shrek Academy, you can come to me to clear the negative energy from your flames, but know that this is just a temporary fix."

"Then what do you want me to do?"

"Work hard, get into the Sea God Pavilion, become the Pavilion Master... or at least the Head of the Martial Soul Department. Then we can talk more." Wang Rui smiled at her.

For his plans, having a Sea God Pavilion member fully aligned with the Beast Sect was extremely necessary.

Ma Xiaotao looked at Wang Rui for a while. "Alright, becoming the Head of the Martial Soul Department is certainly doable, but becoming the Pavilion Master will be much harder."

"Oh? With your talent and background, you can't do it?" Wang Rui raised an eyebrow.

"My talent is definitely enough, but on Sea God Island, there's already a student with a Sea God martial soul who has been pre-designated as the Pavilion Master."

"Oh, is that so? No problem, just do your best." Wang Rui nodded nonchalantly, but Ma Xiaotao sharply noticed a fleeting moment of distress on his face.

Before Ma Xiaotao could say anything, Wang Rui suddenly seemed to notice something, his expression changed, and he waved her away with annoyance. "You better head back. Your teacher is looking for you."

"But—"

"No buts! Hurry up, go!"

Confused, Ma Xiaotao left.

Bai Chenxiang stared in shock as Wang Rui rubbed his face, adopting a pitiful expression while smearing black ash onto his uniform.

Then, she heard a terrified scream.

"Wang Rui!?" Huo Yuqing rushed over in a panic. "What happened? Are you okay?!"

Tianmeng Ice Silkworm: "Your Majesty! I accuse Emperor Rui of having an affair with the busty senior!"(Not really)

(End of Chapter)