A Fated Encounter

The eagle carried Wang Rui to the edge of Star Dou in less than half an hour.

Wang Rui patted the old eagle's head, thanked the Soul Beast—which was no young creature—and then headed out of the forest on his own.

Beyond Star Dou Forest... there was still an endless sea of trees.

This ordinary forest surrounding Star Dou was called the buffer zone by humans. Hundred-year and even thousand-year Soul Beasts lived here, but the vegetation was younger, and there were no traces of plant-type Soul Beasts.

Only areas inhabited by plant-type Soul Beasts were considered the true Star Dou Great Forest.

...Within the true Star Dou Great Forest, every plant-type Soul Beast served as the eyes and ears of the Fierce Beasts.

Human Soul Masters had a saying: if you encountered a ten-year plant-type Soul Beast in the forest outside Star Dou, you had better be careful, because a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast might pop out at any moment and come face-to-face with you.

If you were luckier, you might even see a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast passing by.

The buffer zone was not as dangerous as the true Star Dou Forest, but that did not mean it was particularly safe. After all, those powerful Soul Beasts did not have leashes around their necks. No one said they could not wander out here when they were bored.

After many years, once plant-type Soul Beasts were born in the buffer zone, it would officially be incorporated into Star Dou Forest's territory, while the ordinary vegetation extended outward to form a new buffer zone.

But to Wang Rui, this place was as safe as his own backyard.

He crossed the forest at an unhurried pace.

Within the vision of the Eye of Destiny, an enormous, exceptionally bright ball of light was moving in this direction.

That was the fortune belonging to the Child of the World.

To Wang Rui, everyone else's fortune was like fireflies compared to the moon beside Huo Yuhao's fortune.

A mist-like ribbon of light connected him to Huo Yuhao, and Wang Rui could vaguely sense a pulling force coming from it.

That was the so-called fated affinity, karma that had yet to take shape.

With that ribbon of light between them, even if Wang Rui deliberately avoided him, the two would eventually meet.

Wang Rui estimated the distance and wandered through the forest for five or six days.

Only when he calculated that Huo Yuhao was nearly here did he choose a spot beside a clear river, sit down, and wait by the river for Huo.

He had tied a forehead protector around his head. Behind it, the Eye of Destiny was open, its blood-red eyeball rolling about wildly in its socket.

That blinding ball of fortune was already close by.

This place was near a road built by humans. At Huo Yuhao's speed, he would probably reach this river in half a day.

Wang Rui decided to get the campfire going first.

Excitedly, he gathered several pieces of wood and decided to try starting a fire by rubbing sticks together. But perhaps he had picked the wrong materials. After rubbing for ages without even producing a spark, he angrily tossed aside the stick, snapped his fingers, and summoned a bright flame of Soul Power above the firewood.

The wood immediately crackled and popped, turning into a pile of charcoal within two seconds.

Wang Rui: ...

It had been at least ten thousand years since he had last used Ultimate Fire to start a cooking fire. It was perfectly understandable that he had used too much fire at once, right?

Fortunately, this was the buffer zone outside Star Dou. No Soul Beasts saw the Auspicious Beast fail spectacularly at starting a cooking fire, or the embarrassed Three-Eyed Golden Lion would probably have turned them into dinner.

Wang Rui sheepishly rubbed his face, got up, gathered more wood, and threw it back into the fire.

This time, the flames burned quietly. But upon closer inspection, the ball of fire was floating above the wood, at least two centimeters away from it.

He could use the remaining time to hunt some game. Then he could share some with Huo Hang and raise his favorability.

Wang Rui caught several wild rabbits in the woods, quickly cleaned them, skewered one on a stick, and set it over the fire to roast.

Then he came to the riverbank, preparing to catch some fish.

But when he saw his reflection in the water, he suddenly burst out laughing.

With a forehead protector like this, and a metal plate engraved with the Konoha symbol, he could totally cosplay as a ninja!

When using Soul Skills, perhaps his chuunibyou spirit could even flare up and let him shout something like, "Fire Release: Great Fireball Dragon Technique!" or "Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Technique!"

He could add a tactical vest, too.

A flash of golden light passed, and a dark green vest appeared in Wang Rui's hand.

If most spirit-type Soul Beasts and humans saw this, they would probably curse, "Fuck, you have tangible Spiritual Power, and you use it to make cosplay outfits?!"

—Assuming they knew what cosplay outfits were.

"...Doesn't look right." Wang Rui stared at the green vest in his hand, sighed, and spoke softly.

Then, the tactical vest transformed into an Akatsuki Robe with a black background and red cloud patterns.

"...Still doesn't look right."

Wang Rui gave a bitter smile and shook his head. The Akatsuki Robe, whose details were riddled with errors, broke apart into golden motes in his hand and slowly drifted back into his body.

Fifteen thousand years had passed. He could no longer remember the details clearly.

Of course, if he dug deeply enough into his memories, he could certainly recreate every manga he had read down to the smallest detail.

But what would be the point?

After the passage of fifteen thousand years, some things had ultimately changed.

He spent some time catching several fish from the river. Not long afterward, Huo Yuhao emerged from the forest behind him.

The instant he truly saw Huo Hang, Wang Rui was a little surprised.

The child before him had a messy crop of short black hair, a pale face, and a small, skinny frame. His features were delicate, his dark blue eyes bright and spirited, and his expression carried a trace of determination and stubbornness.

...If someone said this was a slender, androgynous little girl, Wang Rui would believe it.

The main issue was that this did not match the original novel's description at all! Even if the original Huo Hang had poor foundations, he had been described as having a moderate build, absolutely not like this.

I clearly instructed those Silver-Backed Brocade Rats keeping watch in the White Tiger Duke Estate to take better care of Huo Yun'er and her child. Wang Rui frowned, a little wary. Could the plot have undergone some unknown change?

He opened the Eye of Destiny hidden beneath his forehead protector. That fortune dazzling enough to blind a lion's eyes had to belong to Huo Hang.

It never even occurred to him that Huo Hang might have already turned into a little girl...

Although Wang Rui had always sent small Soul Beasts to spy on the White Tiger Duke Estate, animals' intelligence was limited. Besides, animals viewed humans much as humans viewed animals; unless they were especially familiar, they found it difficult to distinguish males from females.

Wang Rui had not specifically told them to investigate whether "the human child whose Martial Soul was eyes" was male or female, so naturally, his little animal subordinates had not made any special report.

The Silver-Backed Brocade Rats: Is that our fault?

The Imperial Auspicious Beast and the Child of Destiny were fated to have some entanglement... Put simply, it was probably a red thread decreed by heaven.

Wang Rui did not stop to think that after he had shouted from inside the egg that he would not become a girl, he was no longer the Miss Jin Ni of the original novel. So why would the Child of Destiny, who was born afterward and destined to have an emotional entanglement with him... still be male?

While he was still puzzling over why the Huo Hang before him differed from the original novel's description, the other party suddenly spoke hesitantly. "Um... yours... is already burnt."

Wang Rui abruptly turned and looked toward his campfire.

What roasted rabbit was left on the fire? There was only a blackened lump of charcoal skewered on a stick.

Woohoo! Rui Rui's barbecue had failed miserably!

The Three-Eyed Golden Lion had eaten raw meat for over ten thousand years. Now that he had finally tried roasting meat, he was using his own Ultimate Fire. A lion as big as him only knew how to use Ultimate Fire to burn enemies into charcoal; naturally, he was not very skilled at roasting edible meat!

After transforming into human form, the Auspicious Beast of this story simulated the fire attribute his true body used least often, turned into a redhead, and covered the Eye of Destiny. Who could possibly connect him to the Three-Eyed Golden Lion?

Not even Tang San could!

The main thing is Ultimate Fire and Ultimate Ice. Please type "a match made in heaven" in the chat, thank you, thank you!

Actually, according to the original work, if Tang San had not sent his daughter over, Wang Qiu'er would have been Huo Yuhao's fated wife, okay?

The Three-Eyed Golden Lion had three attributes: Ultimate Fire corresponded to Ultimate Ice, Ultimate Light corresponded to Electrolux, and the primary spirit attribute corresponded to Spirit Eyes. How perfect was that? ψ(｀)ψ

By the way, I made a group chat. Come hang out with Eel in the group!