Lies? Truth!

Ye Kai had the Nuoding City branch hall send a letter to Spirit City informing them that he was heading to Heaven Dou City. He also found a flowerpot to plant Ah Yin in and recruited two Stewards from the Nuoding Branch Hall to replace the guards for the lectures before setting off on the road once more.

After a month of traveling, cultivating, earning Healer Points—and, oh right, completing the newly added daily task of feeding Ah Yin—Ye Kai and his group arrived at Silves City, the capital of the Silves Kingdom.

After heading straight to the local main Spirit Hall and settling in, Ye Kai took out Ah Yin again and began feeding her.

(It's the capital of a kingdom, after all. Calling it a major city isn't an exaggeration, so having a main hall is only natural, right?)

After finishing another day's feeding, Ye Kai looked at Ah Yin's branches and leaves, which were no longer as withered as before, and nodded in satisfaction. Then doubt rose in his heart.

"Strange. She was pretty lively before, so why does she seem even less alive these past few days? Could Life Energy develop some kind of resistance?"

Ye Kai had also tried asking what was happening through the Lord of Plants, but he had not even received an emotional response.

Could her soul be too weak? Even with the replenishment of Life Energy, perhaps it's still not enough to awaken her?

Considering that he had brought Ah Yin out more than ten years ahead of schedule, perhaps her consciousness had not yet recovered enough for communication.

Ah Yin trembled slightly as she listened to Ye Kai's murmurs.

After bringing her out of the stone chamber, this very handsome child had nourished her body every day. Not only did he change her soil and water her, but he also took her outside to bask in the sun.

His attentive care, coupled with the fresh scent that constantly emanated from him and drew her in, made her feel at ease.

Although, at certain moments over the past few days, she had realized that he belonged to Spirit Hall—and that his status was not low, either.

And she had once held a grudge against the Pope of Spirit Hall.

Yet she still desperately wanted to get close to him and thoroughly savor his scent.

Ah Yin, Ah Yin, when did you become such a pervert? He's still a child! And how could you do this to Hao...

At the thought of Tang Hao, Ah Yin recalled the hatred-filled look in his eyes back then, as well as the hammer strike that had seemed determined to bury both her and this child beneath it.

The scene from that day replayed over and over in her mind. She had clearly escaped, yet Tang Hao's reaction had been far too abnormal.

Too many doubts surfaced in her heart. She wanted to unravel those mysteries, only to find herself afraid of the final truth.

Now, she could only suffer between the truth, her feelings, and the possibility that she might be a pervert.

"Could it be that she needs some other method before she can fully recover?"

Ye Kai suddenly remembered that, as a healer system, the store should have some medicine or nutrient solution suitable for the current situation.

Before Ye Kai could even enter the store after opening the system, he saw Ah Yin's name appear in the Favorability section. The number in parentheses was 60, constantly fluctuating between 70 and 50.

This... Could she already be awake? Is she pretending to sleep right now? Ye Kai looked at Ah Yin strangely.

He wanted to try communicating through the Lord of Plants again, but then he recalled a saying from his previous life: "You can never wake someone who is pretending to sleep." So he simply gave up.

Ah Yin sensed Ye Kai's strange gaze and heard that he was still trying to find a way to help her recover.

One was a child she had met for the first time; the other was her husband of more than a decade.

The two should not have been comparable in any way.

But when she compared the dark, sunless years after her sacrifice with the life she had lived these past few days—

Ah Yin could not bring herself to side with Tang Hao against her conscience.

"Knock, knock, knock—"

A knock sounded at the door. After placing Ah Yin by the window, Ye Kai turned and went to open it.

Outside stood a Steward from Spirit Hall. Upon seeing Ye Kai open the door, he respectfully said, "Your Highness, there is a letter for you from Her Majesty."

"Alright, thank you."

Ye Kai accepted the envelope, shut the door, returned to the bed, and opened it.

Sure enough, Pope Teacher had been furious upon receiving the news that he was still going to Heaven Dou City.

In the letter, Bibi Dong stated that she would give Ye Kai a proper lesson once he returned to Spirit City. She was sure he would look forward to practicing with his teacher every day.

Ye Kai shook his head, put the envelope into his Soul Tool, changed into his pajamas, and climbed into bed.

But Ah Yin by the window made a move. Her crystalline branches and leaves, marked with golden patterns, gradually lengthened and reached toward Ye Kai.

Ye Kai looked at Ah Yin, who had suddenly begun moving. She was no longer pretending to sleep and was planning to come clean?

The branches and leaves continued to extend. The moment they touched Ye Kai's exposed arm, they trembled and stopped, as if she were making up her mind. Then they wrapped around his arm.

After coiling around Ye Kai's arm, the branches continued upward, spreading from his neck toward the other side of his body. Halfway there, they suddenly stopped, resting directly over Ye Kai's chest.

Ye Kai looked at Ah Yin in confusion.

The branches wriggled again, but no matter what, they could not extend even a little farther.

Emmmmmm, has she not fully recovered yet, so this is her limit?

Ye Kai simply walked over to Ah Yin, dug her out of the flowerpot, and held her in his palm. Life Energy poured from his hand, emerald motes of light reflecting one another with the pale blue glow emanating from Ah Yin and bathing the entire room in a dreamlike radiance.

You're awake? Ye Kai communicated with Ah Yin through Spiritual Power.

... There was still only silence.

Even Ye Kai was at a loss with this situation. You were the one who woke me up, and now you're also the one refusing to speak.

"Big sister, what are you trying to do?"

After a long while, Ah Yin finally spoke in Ye Kai's mind through Spiritual Power. "Thank you for your help."

"No need to thank me. It was only a small favor, and I was acting at someone else's request." Though he coveted her body, the current situation was not suitable for saying so directly.

"What happened to him in the end?" Ah Yin suddenly asked a seemingly random question.

Ye Kai knew she meant Tang Hao. "He might... already be dead."

"You know about what happened between the two of us?" Ah Yin asked again.

"Right, you're from Spirit Hall, and your status seems quite high. The Pope's disciple? Are you here to avenge what happened years ago?"

"If he's already dead, what about me? How do you plan to deal with me?"

By the end, Ah Yin's voice already carried an air of death.

Ye Kai shook his head. "That was a matter between your generation. Besides, from my perspective, you two indirectly helped me as well."

"I suppose you woke up long ago, didn't you? You didn't answer me before because you were thinking over the truth of what happened back then, right?"

"Now that you've suddenly come out, have you already reached some conclusions? Or are there questions you want to ask me?"

Hearing Ye Kai say this, Ah Yin felt a trace of relief arise in her heart, though she should have been drowning in despair.

She could not explain where that relief had come from.

"No. What you said just now has already told me the truth. I just don't understand why."

"According to Spirit Hall's investigation, when Tang Hao and his brother Tang Xiao went out to train, Tang Hao was only level 70, while Tang Xiao was already level 78..."

(In the original work, that was indeed how it was stated. Tang Hao was level 70 at thirty, while Tang Xiao was level 78 at forty-five. The two encountered Ah Yin while training outside. Three years later, Tang Xiao returned to the Clear Sky Sect, and another two years after that, he became a Title Douluo. It could only mean that he had already reached level 80 before returning to the sect. It was even possible that he had already become a Soul Douluo and seen through her identity during the first year the three of them were together. After all, it was impossible for Tang Xiao to return to the sect and then leap across the entire Soul Douluo rank in just two years. If he had possessed that kind of talent, would the title of Clear Sky Douluo have fallen to Tang Hao?)

Ye Kai did not continue with the rest. He believed Ah Yin understood what he meant.

Ah Yin was nearly breaking down under the impact of this unexpected truth. Her branches and leaves trembled violently. She had thought Tang Hao had only developed improper intentions after she revealed the truth to him, but it turned out that she had been exposed long ago.

Thinking back on it now, he had known her identity even before she came clean. Even his so-called feelings had been driven by ulterior motives.

To Tang Hao, those years of hers must have been nothing more than a joke.

"And you? You've been so diligent in helping me recover. Are you planning to take my soul ring again?" This time, Ah Yin's voice held not only deathly despair, but utter hopelessness.

"With your current state, even if I said no, you probably wouldn't believe me. I suppose I can only prove it through my actions. Do you need me to send you back to the Blue Silver Forest or the Star Dou Great Forest?"

"Or, I know of a Treasure Basin that is extremely suitable for plant growth. Ordinary plants can grow ten times faster there. If it were you, growing a hundred or a thousand times faster would not be out of the question. It should be much faster than staying by my side."

"Besides, I'll return your Soul Bone to you as well. I imagine that should help you recover more quickly."

Hearing that Ye Kai wanted to send her away, Ah Yin instinctively tightened her branches around him, then immediately loosened them again for fear of hurting him.

"Otherwise, I can't understand why you would help me so much."

Ye Kai sighed. "I simply didn't want to see a pitiful person who had been deceived continue living in lies."

"At the end of the day, you've already taken human form. Though you still have a soul ring and Soul Bone, in my eyes, you are no different from a human."

"Or rather, even if they are Soul Beasts, as long as they have developed intelligence and possess spirituality, they are different in my eyes."