Chapter 22

After a violent bout of dizziness, Wang Rui found himself in an exceptionally dilapidated courtyard.

It was around dusk. The sun had already set, and the sky was a gloomy iron gray.

Directly ahead stood a house that had fallen into disrepair over the years. There were no windows in its walls, and a corner of the door was missing. Weeds and moss grew from the cracks in the walls—such a place was bound to be cool in winter and warm in summer.

Several filthy wooden basins were stacked outside the door. A clothesline had been strung between the two trees in the courtyard, hung with many garments meant for adults. A well stood in one corner of the small yard, beside it a rust-covered iron bucket. A sparse fence encircled the yard, broken where it should be broken and crooked where it should be crooked.

With a creak, the door opened, and a small, thin figure emerged from the house and bent down to pick up the wooden basin on the ground.

In the dim evening light, the child's face was Huo Yuqing's. She looked much the same as she did now—thin and tiny, dressed in coarse hemp clothes. The only difference was that her hair was still long, casually tied into a low ponytail behind her head.

As if she could not see the huge lion standing in the courtyard, she walked straight to the clothesline, felt the clothes to see whether they had dried, then took them down one by one and placed them in the large wooden basin.

"So Huo Hang had long hair before leaving the Duke Estate!" Wang Rui muttered to himself.

It was not as though he would fail to see the truth even if it were slapped right in his face—just look at Di Tian's long, straight black hair hanging down to his heels. Wang Rui had long since learned not to distinguish men from women based on hair length.

This was Huo Yuqing's memory.

When the convergence ended, parts of their consciousness had entered each other's Spiritual Seas. Next, they would see one another's memories.

There was no way Wang Rui would allow himself to completely exchange memories with Huo Hang, as Huo Yuhao and Miss Jin Ni had in the original work.

He had far too many secrets, many of which Huo Hang could not be allowed to see yet.

Fortunately, Wang Rui's Spiritual Power was now far stronger than Huo Hang's, and this attribute convergence was gentler than the one in the original work. Neither side harbored any resistance, giving him more room to maneuver and allowing him to stop the memory exchange process.

Wang Rui had also used certain methods to conceal his own memories, so Huo Yuqing might not see anything particularly secret.

Still, he was somewhat curious now.

According to Wang Rui's research into the Spiritual Worlds of intelligent lifeforms, the memories floating at the upper layers of the Spiritual Sea were either recent events or those most important to their owner. The unimportant, scattered memories were almost all buried deep within the Spiritual World and could not normally be recalled at all.

Theoretically, when exchanging memories, they would first see the important memories the other person had been thinking of recently, followed only afterward by the trivial details of everyday life.

Thus, Wang Rui had thought he would see Huo Hang kneeling before her mother's sickbed, or scenes of Huo Yun'er being bullied by the people of the Duke Estate.

Yet the Huo Hang in this memory was not very different from how she was now. This should have been not long before she left the Duke Estate, and there was no trace of anyone else in the little house. Huo Yun'er had probably already passed away by then.

That only made Wang Rui more curious.

So, he did not hurry to leave this memory. Instead, he chose to follow Huo Yuqing to a row of relatively clean and tidy houses—this should have been where the higher-ranking servants of the White Tiger Duke Estate lived.

She knocked on a door. An old woman opened it, took the clothes from Huo Yuqing's basin, and handed her a Copper Soul Coin and a cornbread bun.

In the original work, Huo Yun'er had relied on washing clothes for the other servants in the Duke Estate to earn even a pitiful amount of living money. Wang Rui thought, This memory doesn't seem particularly special either...?

He followed Huo Yuqing back to the shack where she and her mother had lived—

A burly young man stood at the shack's entrance. In the dim light, he revealed a malicious smile, then reached out to grab Huo Yuqing's wrist.

Wang Rui recalled seeing yellowing bruises on Huo Hang's wrist. He had thought they were left by ordinary bumps and scrapes, never imagining they had come from this.

The golden lion's feline face wrinkled in disgust.

But this was only a memory. Wang Rui could not touch anything or do anything. All he could do was flick his tail irritably and stand there, digging his claw tips into the earth.

He did not know whether Huo Hang in the original work had gone through something like this. Most likely not. Could this also be part of the world's changes?

At the same time, Wang Rui felt guilt well up within him, rare as it was.

Perhaps he should not have merely sent some small soul beasts with limited intelligence to monitor the Duke Estate. Back then, he should have sent a few human disciples of the Beast Sect to infiltrate the Duke Estate... That way, they could have taken better care of Huo Yuhao and her mother.

But that might also have affected the initial formation of the Child of Destiny's character. Without that early suffering, Huo Yuhao of the original work might not have reached that position.

Watching Huo Yuqing struggle desperately as her wrist was seized in the memory, Wang Rui felt more agitated than he had in several thousand years.

But there was no use thinking about it now. The fact that Huo Yuqing had appeared safely near the Star Dou Great Forest proved that she had gotten through this crisis unharmed.

The one who had met with misfortune was most likely the other party.

Perhaps Wang Rui could do his best to make it up to her later, but that did not mean he could pretend the revulsion of encountering this bastard had never happened—

Then he saw Huo Yuqing pull an ancient dagger from her waist amid her struggle and slash out in a panicked yet steady, precise, and ruthless motion.

Immediately afterward, white light burst from the dagger's blade, ripping open the man's stomach and nearly cutting him in two.

Blood flowed out.

The scent of blood, mixed with some indescribable smell, lingered around Wang Rui's nose.

The man's fleshy face was filled with shock before his expression twisted. His eyes bulged wide, nearly popping from their sockets under the intense pain.

Blood splattered across Huo Yuqing's pale face, and her delicate features were filled with terror.

Her hand shook violently, and the dagger nearly slipped from her grasp. But she immediately forced herself to tighten her grip on the weapon and pointed it at her enemy.

Like an enraged bull, the man charged at Huo Yuqing with his last breath.

However, the wound in his stomach seemed to have taken the last of his life force with it.

After taking two steps, he crashed heavily into his own blood. It seemed as though he wanted to say something, but only meaningless gurgling came from his throat.

His blood-soaked hand reached futilely toward Huo Yuqing in hatred, then fell heavily.

He was dead.

Huo Yuqing staggered back several steps before collapsing onto the ground.

Black-red blood flowed across the ground, quickly soaking Huo Yuqing's coarse cloth clothes. She turned her head to the side and began dry-heaving, but there was almost nothing in her stomach, so she could not throw up.

Yet before long, she braced herself against the ground and crawled back to her feet.

She wiped the half-dried blood from her face with her sleeve, then got up to inspect the dead man.

The warm body was exceptionally heavy. Huo Yuqing tried to drag it aside, leaving a broad smear of dark-red blood across the ground.

Huo Yuqing immediately gave up.

She looked around, drew water from the well first, then used the White Tiger Dagger to completely sever the large piece of trash that had nearly been cut in two.

In silence, Huo Yuqing gathered the trash from the ground into a wooden basin and carried it to the well.

Leaning forward slightly, she dumped everything in the basin into the well in one go.

Wang Rui watched almost dumbfounded as she calmed down in such a short time, dealt with the trash steadily, split it into two batches and threw them into the well, then rinsed the ground with the water she had drawn earlier...

Only one thought remained in his mind: So... so Wind Baboons really were in the Duke's Mansion!

Wang Rui shook his head, flinging that absurd thought from his mind.

He now knew why he had ended up in this memory. This was probably Huo Hang's first time laying hands on someone—and under circumstances like these...

Wang Rui truly felt a little sorry for Huo Hang having to go through something like this, and he was also worried that it might leave her with psychological trauma.

But on second thought, the Douluo Continent was hardly a safe world. In the original story, Huo Yuhao had killed people too. Being a little ruthless was ultimately a good thing.

Still, one could only say that the Child of Destiny truly lived up to the title. Her mental fortitude was incredible.

She had been able to retaliate rationally in a crisis, quickly pull herself out of her panic, and calmly handle the aftermath—the key was that Huo Hang was still so young!

At that moment, his appreciation for Huo Yuqing surpassed anything he had felt from reading the original work. Only now did he shatter that shallow impression of her that had been based on the original story.

She did not panic when trouble arose, and she had this kind of mental resilience. Even if she were not the protagonist of a novel, her eventual achievements would not be lacking.

Wang Rui thought about what he had been doing at Huo Hang's age—during his previous life, he had been running wild across an elementary school playground; in this life, he had been staying in a nest with his adoptive older sister, throwing kitty punches at each other.

Then he thought about how he had reacted after killing someone for the first time. Mm... better not go there. Their species and races were different, after all; they could not be judged by the same standard.

After Huo Yuqing had more or less cleaned up the scene, she returned to the woodshed.

Wang Rui craned his neck to look at her. Though he was very curious about how Huo Yuqing would react next—whether she might quietly cry or something—

He could not remain in Huo Yuqing's memories any longer. He had to end the memory exchange as soon as possible... There were simply too many secrets in his memories.

Still, Wang Rui was also curious about which part of his memories Huo Yuqing would see.

It could not possibly be the time he had molded his own face and martial soul, could it? Wang Rui muttered inwardly.

If the connection between the Three-Eyed Golden Lion and "Wang Rui" were exposed, what would he have left to play with afterward? The Huo Hang cultivation plan could be switched straight to Plan B.

The Three-Eyed Golden Lion leaped into the air and raced toward the sky.

The golden lion-dragon seemed to break free from the shackles of heaven and earth, vaulting into the sky and leaving behind a black void where it had departed.

The deep-blue sky began to collapse and dissipate from the edges of that black hole, before returning to utter nothingness.

Huo Yuqing felt herself falling.

She remembered the Imperial Auspicious Beast saying it would help improve her aptitude. She also remembered, guided by some unseen force, pressing her forehead against that Imperial Auspicious Beast's, as though an entirely new power had flowed into her body.

But what was going on now?

Huo Yuqing was somewhat wary, yet she did not feel particularly afraid.

After an unknown amount of time, she finally landed on solid ground.

Huo Yuqing opened her eyes.

She found herself standing beside the Imperial Auspicious Beast.

Just as she was about to ask what was happening, she realized that the golden soul beast seemed unable to see her at all and was staring fixedly ahead.

The girl instinctively reached out to touch the Auspicious Beast, but touched nothing. Her fingers passed straight through the Three-Eyed Golden Lion's body.

Was this some kind of dream or illusion...?

Yet for some reason, she could sense that this soul beast, like a blazing sun, was grieving.

The girl followed the Three-Eyed Golden Lion's gaze.

She was standing atop a small mountain covered in greenery, surrounded by dense, emerald vegetation. Yet below lay a valley filled with jagged rocks. The stones throughout the valley bore scorched marks, while twisted, charred dead branches stretched into the air, as though they had once struggled desperately within a sea of flames.

The entire valley was suffused with an uncomfortable aura of destruction.

No, this terrifying aura actually permeated the entire space.

The girl raised her head toward the sky.

Heavy black storm clouds churned overhead. From time to time, terrifying bolts of bright-purple lightning, as thick as dragons and serpents, flashed through them, turning half the shadowed sky an apocalyptic purple.

Apart from the Imperial Auspicious Beast beside her, there were other people and soul beasts here as well.

Beside the Auspicious Beast stood a black tiger roughly similar in size.

Dark-purple stripes ran across the black tiger's body, and it possessed a pair of golden eyes identical to those of the Auspicious Beast. More strangely, this black tiger also seemed to possess certain draconic traits: two sharp horns, dragon-like claws on all four paws, and a row of purple spines along its back.

There were five humans present as well, but Huo Yuqing felt that they probably were not human.

A middle-aged man in black robes with long black hair and a stern face; a stunning woman with long emerald-green hair and wings of the same color growing from her back; a dashing, mature woman with an impressive figure, her entire body covered in purple-black scales—each of them possessed distinct traits that did not belong to humans.

Huo Yuqing had no idea that these three were all the most terrifying Fierce Beasts of the Star Dou Great Forest.

On the other side of the black tiger stood a handsome middle-aged man with silver hair. There was nothing about him that seemed any different from a human.

Yet all four of them wore either obvious or concealed sorrow on their faces.

As for the last person—the woman standing at the very front, dressed in a fur-trimmed short top and shorts, with tiger ears, a tiger tail, and short purple hair—she actually wore a relaxed smile.

Her entire presence was utterly at odds with the solemn and sorrowful atmosphere.

It felt like a dignified, solemn funeral, where everyone bade farewell to the deceased with grief on their faces, while only this woman stood there smiling. It was terribly conspicuous.

Huo Yuqing could not help but grow curious.

Were these people standing alongside the Imperial Auspicious Beast all soul beasts as well? She had once heard that the most powerful Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts could assume human form. Were these people with beastlike traits the Auspicious Beast's family or friends?

Just then, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion spoke. "Could you delay the Great Tribulation for a while longer? Two hundred years at most... Just two hundred years, and I'll have a way to let you survive the Great Tribulation."

I couldn't get it through review, so I could only revise it and repost it... like this.