Questioning the Heart

Zhou You instinctively wanted to get away from the danger. The Golden-Waisted Flying Swallow seemed frightened too, darting around him and chirping away, though he had no idea what it was trying to say.

But he had barely taken a step when he froze. Xiao Wu reacted strangely as well: all her fur stood on end, scraping his face like needles and stinging him.

He paid it no mind, staring northeast with a look of shock and uncertainty.

This fluctuation of Soul Power...

Zhou You sensed trouble and immediately called out, "Wait—"

But Xiao Wu paid him no heed. She vanished from his shoulder in an instant. It was "Teleportation," one of the Soft Bone Rabbit's innate skills.

Though Zhou You had failed to catch sight of her, he knew where she was headed: toward the battlefield.

That earlier fluctuation of Soul Power belonged to her mother.

She was locked in a bitter fight!

He couldn't help wondering: could this be the day Xiao Wu's mother died in the original story?

An ordinary enemy would probably not be enough to make her release such a powerful fluctuation of Soul Power. After all, the most important thing for a transformed Soul Beast was to keep a low profile, especially in the Soul Hunting Forest.

The Golden-Waisted Flying Swallow seized Zhou You's backpack in its beak and beat its wings desperately, trying to carry him away.

But Zhou You remained rooted to the spot like a wedge. The Golden-Waisted Flying Swallow chirped anxiously, unable to budge him.

"Ahh..." Zhou You sighed.

Sure enough, once some people formed an emotional connection with others, they found it hard to turn a blind eye to their suffering with a clear conscience.

Zhou You knew what was happening there, and he also knew very well what would happen if he did nothing.

Xiao Wu would lose her mother and later choose to transform into a human. She would enter the human world, and in doing so, step onto the path of the fate originally laid out for her.

She would become the Soft Bone Douluo who stood at Tang San's side, the Asura Sword Sheath, an accessory to a God King...

And now, he had the power to change all of it.

But should he? What gave him the right to think his interference would make things better?

As a human, should he interfere with Soul Masters hunting Soul Beasts?

Or perhaps he should ask it this way: should he go along with his position as a human and turn a deaf ear to everything Xiao Wu was about to face?

They had only met by chance, like duckweed on the water. They could hardly even be said to have a friendship.

She ate all the fodder I brought and gave me a scare when we first met. From my last life until now, I've never been as bedraggled as I am today.

Zhou You could list countless faults in that rabbit and find countless excuses not to concern himself with her. Every one of them was more than enough. He didn't even need an excuse; no one thought there was anything wrong with Soul Masters hunting Soul Beasts.

It was the way of the world. Everyone did it, and everyone believed they were acting in accordance with heaven.

Yes, acting in accordance with heaven. Those who understood the times should follow that path.

"But we of the Three-One Sect were born with defiant bones in the backs of our heads. Follow heaven? Like hell!"

As the second-generation Immortal Daying, Zhou You had also inherited his master's unyielding temperament. He had no need to worry about humans and Soul Beasts, nor did he need to consider the laws of heaven and nature.

He only needed to question his own heart.

Before Zhou You's eyes, his master's back seemed to appear once more. It was the first time he had followed his master through the sect's mountain gate.

The mountain was cold, but the sun was bright. His master turned around, and with the light behind him, Zhou You couldn't make out his expression, but he remembered those clear eyes.

His master stared at him.

"Xiao You." He raised a hand and pointed at Zhou You's chest.

"Ask yourself. Ask your heart. What do you want to do right now?"

Zhou You lowered his head, as though he could see his heart through his flesh. "I want to go," he said.

"Where? What for?" His master's voice seemed to drift down from the heavens.

Zhou You raised his head, a fierce fire seeming to burn in his eyes. "To do what I want to do!"

"Even if it might be wrong?"

"Even if it's wrong!"

"No regrets?"

"Even if I regret it, I'll do it!"

"Good." His master's voice gradually drifted away, its echoes lingering in his ears.

"Good..."

Back in the real world, Zhou You opened his eyes. The black and white in them were distinct, and there was no confusion left in them.

He turned to the Golden-Waisted Flying Swallow, which was still flying about anxiously, and finally spoke.

"Go back now and tell them to come find me."

The Golden-Waisted Flying Swallow froze. It understood what Zhou You meant, but not quite why.

Zhou You pointed in that dangerous direction and said, "Tell them I'm over there."

With that, before the Golden-Waisted Flying Swallow could respond, he turned and rushed northeast, toward the battlefield, leaving the little golden bird circling in confusion.

After a while, as though it had finally given up, it dissolved into golden light on the spot and scattered on the wind.

Elsewhere, several kilometers away, Zhang Ping suddenly paused and quickly reviewed the Golden-Waisted Flying Swallow's memories in her mind.

This was one of the abilities of a Disembodied Martial Soul. After dispersing, the Golden-Waisted Flying Swallow could share everything it had seen and heard with Zhang Ping through its memories.

After receiving them, Zhang Ping's face filled with astonishment.

"What is it?" Wei Lin noticed that something was wrong with her expression and immediately asked, "Didn't you find him?"

"I found him." Zhang Ping pointed northeast, still looking puzzled. "He's in that direction now."

Wei Lin's face changed dramatically. "He got caught up in the battle over there? Quick! Everyone, follow me at once!"

He couldn't possibly abandon Zhou You, because She Long, and even the Pope, had taken notice of him.

But he couldn't just leave the other children here either. Night was about to fall. Soul Beasts became more active in the dark, and leaving a few young Soul Masters here would be tantamount to letting them become a meal on the Soul Beasts' plates!

Wei Lin had no other choice but to take the whole bunch of burdens along with him.

He was a Power Attack System Soul Saint and was not particularly skilled at Spiritual Detection. From this far away, he could only vaguely sense that a major battle was taking place over there; he couldn't accurately gauge its intensity.

Fluctuations of Soul Power weakened with distance, much like radiation, and measurements became inaccurate when taken from too far away. Thus, Wei Lin didn't realize that the battle over there was at the Titled Douluo level.

Besides, in actual combat, Titled Douluo didn't constantly release their pressure. That was used to oppress those beneath them.

Doing so while fighting an opponent of the same level would instead look rather bizarre, and would be tantamount to exposing one's true strength to the enemy.

So, through this combination of circumstances, Wei Lin didn't realize how dangerous the battlefield he was about to enter was.

At most, he reckoned there might be two enormous Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts fighting each other.

He believed he could still keep the situation under control if that were the case.

Only when they were less than a hundred meters from the battlefield did a Titled Douluo-level fluctuation of Soul Power once again turn into a gale that swept across the entire area, bringing Wei Lin to a halt.

Behind him, the students, who had barely managed to keep up despite giving it their all, could finally stop and catch their breath. Their legs were like lead, and once they stopped, they couldn't run anymore.

The gulf between these young Soul Masters and Titled Douluo was on the level of a difference in dimensions, so they had no idea what kind of battlefield they had entered.

They only saw Wei Lin standing there motionless, looking as though his parents had died.

As luck would have it, Yan chose that moment to gasp out a question. "W-why have we stopped, Captain Wei?"

The fluctuations of Soul Power on the battlefield froze in an instant. They had heard the commotion over here.

Wei Lin: "..."

I'm fucking done for!