Cute, Adorable, and Brainless

After Zhou You finished speaking, he waited patiently for a while.

A little later, a rustling came from the grass. A little white rabbit poked her head out of a low bush, her two long ears pressed back against her body as her red eyes watched Zhou You warily.

She still seemed hesitant, but her willingness to come out was a good sign.

Zhou You raised his hands slightly, palms up, to show that he meant no harm.

Since he had chosen dialogue, someone needed to lay their cards on the table first as a gesture of sincerity. He was willing to be the first.

"You've been following me all this time. You must have some reason. Would you mind telling me?"

Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts could already understand human language and learn to speak, though the specifics varied from beast to beast.

Some Soul Beasts could produce sounds directly with their physical vocal cords, while others communicated through mental transmissions. The latter were usually more common.

Soul Masters on the continent also generally used a Soul Beast's ability to speak human language as a way to judge whether it had passed the hundred-thousand-year mark.

Sure enough, before long, Zhou You "heard" a soft, sweet voice in his head.

[I... I want to find my mom...]

His guess had been right. This rabbit really was terribly naive. By saying that, she had completely exposed her own situation.

A lone Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, naive and quick to trust others—if Zhou You regarded Soul Beasts as nothing more than prey like other Soul Masters did, he was even in a position to trick her right now.

After all, this Soul Hunting Forest was Spirit Hall territory. It was hard to believe they had made no preparations for such a situation.

He shook his head, suddenly feeling that his earlier caution had been somewhat unnecessary. No matter how great her strength, if she lacked sufficient awareness to wield that power, she was nothing more than a walking Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring in other people's eyes.

But who told you to run into me? Unless it was necessary, Zhou You generally didn't resort to killing Soul Beasts.

He took the Eye of Truth out of his chest pocket, held it in his palm, and fed Qi into it.

Although he hadn't managed to discover much through his research, he had still gained a rough understanding of what this Soul Tool did.

Here, he had to apologize to Sun Chuantao. The boasts the man had made while selling it apparently contained no exaggeration. This Soul Tool really did possess all the functions he had described; they simply needed the right method to activate.

Of course, Zhou You couldn't possibly gouge out his own eyeball, but he had found a workaround.

He had discovered that feeding Qi to the Soul Tool could bypass certain restrictions and forcibly activate some of its functions.

In a sense, Soul Tools were much like the magical artifacts crafted by artifact refiners in his previous life. They were used much the same way, too: simply feed them Qi and they would activate.

[Qi], as a form of energy of higher quality than Soul Power, could activate the Soul Tool and bring out stronger effects.

With the Eye of Truth in his hand, Zhou You's Mental Power rose rapidly. In mere moments, it reached a level where it could leave his body and interfere with the physical world.

Correspondingly, however, controlling this Mental Power had also become much harder, placing a considerable burden on Zhou You's mind.

After all, this Mental Power had been induced through an abnormal means, so it wasn't very easy to use. But it was just what he needed right now.

He extended this Mental Power out of his body and connected it to Xiao Wu. Their minds immediately resonated, then linked together, like two servers connecting to a network.

His voice then appeared directly in Xiao Wu's mind as well.

[Hello, my name is Zhou You.]

The little rabbit jumped in fright at first, then timidly replied with her Mental Power, [My name is Xiao Wu.]

Sure enough. Zhou You opened his eyes and met the rabbit's gaze.

Though he had expected it, hearing her admit it herself still gave him a peculiar feeling.

It was like the feeling he had when he first met his master in his previous life, or when he first met Lu Jin.

[Xiao Wu, picture what your mom looks like now.] He thought for a moment, then added, [I just came in from outside today. Maybe I've seen her.]

Xiao Wu's mother had a human body and was most likely already at the mature stage, so even a Titled Douluo would have difficulty seeing through to her true form.

Since she had spent time in the human world, it was reasonable to assume she had grown accustomed to living as a human. After all, transformation was irreversible.

Therefore, even if she lived deep within the Star Dou Great Forest for long periods, she would still need some products made by humans.

If nothing else, she would at least need to buy things like clothing from outside. She couldn't possibly make everything by hand.

Every creation in the human world involved a very complicated process to make from scratch. Even the simplest piece of pottery contained no small amount of technology when examined closely.

So she should have been a frequent visitor to the human world.

The innocent Xiao Wu didn't think too much about it. All she wanted now was to find her mother quickly, so she soon pictured her mother in her mind.

Zhou You received the image in her mind at the same time.

Their minds were now connected, so they could clearly see the surface thoughts that arose in each other's minds.

Zhou You had intended to preserve a little privacy for both of them. After all, it was very rude to look directly through someone else's thoughts, so as long as she didn't want him to see anything, he wouldn't.

But he had underestimated Xiao Wu's innocence, or rather, her eagerness to find her mother. The girl had opened her mind almost completely, leaving Zhou You free to look through it.

He had thought Xiao Wu would only provide a still image, something like a photograph. Who would have guessed that her mind would instantly flood with memories of the time she had spent with her mother?

For almost the entire time, Zhou You experienced Xiao Wu's mother's caresses, touches, kisses... all manner of intimate gestures between mother and daughter from a first-person perspective. He received them all in the blink of an eye.

He hurriedly severed the mental connection between them.

"That's enough, you don't need to give me so much!" He rubbed his temples instinctively, trying to dispel the sensation.

Fortunately, his Nature Skill was high enough and his willpower strong. Besides, these were someone else's memories, not something he had experienced himself, so the sensation was easily dispelled.

Though there had been a small mishap, Xiao Wu's mother had successfully left a deep impression in his mind. Not only her appearance, but also her voice, her bearing, her Soul Power fluctuations, and even her distinctive scent...

He couldn't be blamed for that. The information Xiao Wu had given him was simply too detailed.

[Well?] The mental fluctuation Xiao Wu sent over clearly conveyed anticipation. [Have you seen Mom?]

"I'm sorry, I don't remember seeing her." Zhou You pinched his temples. He really didn't dare continue communicating with her mentally. The child had no defenses up, which made things very awkward for him.

Xiao Wu's mood visibly sank, and the two pairs of long ears on her head drooped limply.

Zhou You hesitated for a moment, then took a handful of hay from his backpack.

It was fodder made by compressing a mixture of plants such as timothy grass, alfalfa, June grass, and clover, and was very well suited for feeding herbivorous animals.

Some Blue Silver Grass had also been added as a Soul Power supplement and a seasoning.

Zhou You had originally planned to catch a few low-age Soul Beasts to take back and study on this trip, but carnivores were difficult to keep fed.

He was also worried that the academy would forcibly kill any Soul Beasts that were too aggressive, so he wanted to catch a few less threatening herbivorous Soul Beasts and try raising them.

He had studied the miscellaneous books in the library, and they really did mention how to raise low-level herbivorous Soul Beasts. Following the formula, he had prepared some relatively palatable fodder to try out.

The book said Soft Bone Rabbits liked eating this stuff, too.

He held the fodder up to Xiao Wu's mouth. She glanced at it and carefully sniffed it, her little pink nose twitching.

Sure enough, to a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, this sort of thing...

—"Chomp, chomp"!

The weight in Zhou You's hand vanished. To his astonishment, he discovered that the handful of grass had already been eaten clean.

[It's tasty! More!]

So said Xiao Wu.