A Sincere Lie

Hun Ruoruo quietly watched the illusory old man standing dazed in midair and let out a slight breath of relief.

As the Continent's Number One Alchemist On the Surface, Old Man Yao's strength and knowledge were unquestionably second to none in the Central Continent. Precisely because of that, trying to latch onto the protagonist while keeping it hidden from him was indeed far too difficult.

She could hardly tell him that Xiao Yan was the Child of Destiny and that she had come to build ties with him in advance so she would not be dragged down, could she?

That would be far too absurd.

So, with her identity being sensitive, she simply laid her cards on the table. With her motives unclear, she simply redirected the blame elsewhere—

Hun Tiandi was going to sacrifice himself and the Soul Clan at the end anyway. Was she not allowed to strike back in advance?

Where was the justice in that?

"Senior Yao Chen," Hun Ruoruo prompted.

Only then did Old Man Yao snap back to his senses as if waking from a dream. With a bitter smile, he said, "Little Girl, do not blame this old man for being distrustful. How could the Soul Clan Leader possibly be connected to you?"

No matter how hard he racked his brain, he could not understand it. Although the girl before him could be called extraordinarily gifted, who was the other party? The leader of one of the Eight Ancient Clans. The Soul Clan was an enormous clan second only to the Ancient Clan. The gap in their strength and status was practically as vast as heaven and earth. How could they possibly have become enemies?

"He is my biological father."

"What?!" Old Man Yao stared at Hun Ruoruo in utter shock. He felt that the number of shocks he had suffered today alone surpassed everything from the past decade combined.

"You are... the Soul Clan Leader's daughter? Impossible. Hun Tiandi is a Nine-star Dou Saint. His daughter's Dou Di bloodline must be exceptionally dense. Even if you concealed it with a secret technique, there is no way you could have hidden it from me."

As someone who had once belonged to the Yao Clan, Old Man Yao knew far more about Dou Di bloodlines than ordinary people. His doubts only deepened.

The Dou Di bloodline concerned the lifeline of the Eight Clans. That special fluctuation could never be concealed by any ordinary secret technique. Even if such a technique existed, the denser the bloodline, the harder it was to hide—let alone for the biological child of a clan leader.

"Little Girl, though I am now merely a wandering soul, I am not so easily fooled. Such a clumsy lie is clearly not enough to deceive this Old Man."

Obviously, the girl's words alone carried no credibility before Old Man Yao.

"Whether it is true or false, Senior will know with one look."

Hun Ruoruo had expected this. She simply rolled up the sleeve of her right arm, revealing part of her smooth forearm.

"Th-this is?!"

Completely at odds with the girl's delicate skin, several gruesome, crisscrossing scars covered the upper middle portion of her pale forearm. The bizarre contrast made Old Man Yao's heart pound in alarm, and he could not calm himself for a long while.

"Your Bloodline Power... was extracted?"

A wisp of Soul Force swept across the scars on the girl's skin. The originally dull scars suddenly burst forth with streaks of Purple Light, appearing exceptionally eerie.

"...Could such a vicious method have been the work of that Soul Clan Leader?"

After a long silence, a trace of pity entered Old Man Yao's voice. In his heart, he had already believed most of what she said. Scars formed over many years could clearly not have resulted from some temporary impulse.

Although I did it myself, it would not be wrong to say Hun Tiandi did it. He is going to seize the bloodline of the entire clan anyway, Hun Ruoruo thought.

The girl nodded lightly, quickly pulled down her sleeve, and smiled faintly. "Senior Yao Chen, if I were from the Soul Hall, the price they paid would have been far too great. So, do you believe me now?"

Old Man Yao's expression was complicated. Even after being stripped of her Dou Di bloodline, the girl still possessed strength close to that of a high-level Dou Wang. One could well imagine just how astonishing her talent had been. With only his Soul Body, not even knowing whether he was dead or alive, it was simply impossible for the Soul Clan to pay such a steep price.

In other words, the girl's seemingly unconventional, strange, and crafty personality had most likely been caused by the harm inflicted by that father of hers, the clan leader.

After much consideration, although Hun Ruoruo had led him astray in the process, Old Man Yao actually arrived at the correct conclusion.

He let out a long sigh, and all hostility vanished from his expression. "Child, you are much like me—both of us were hurt by those closest to us. But with my strength, even at my peak, I was no more than an ant before that Soul Clan Leader. I fear I cannot help you much."

"As for that boy Xiao Yan, though he is still young, how far he can go remains unknown. If you wish to nurture him into someone capable of standing against an expert like Hun Tiandi, I fear it will be difficult—far too difficult!"

After saying "difficult" twice in a row, Old Man Yao gently shook his head.

Even if Old Man Yao wanted to take Xiao Yan as his disciple, it was only to help himself reconstruct his body and, incidentally, pass on his legacy. As for cultivation—

Not to mention becoming a Nine-star Dou Saint, even advancing to Dou Saint was already an extravagant hope. After all, with the talent Yao Chen had possessed in his prime, he had only barely reached the peak of Dou Zun. He had remained far from even Half-Saint.

Could Dou Saint, or even Nine-star Dou Saint, truly be possible?

Perhaps it was, but the chance was so slim that it made one doubt whether it even truly existed.

"You will never know the result if you do not try."

"Besides, you must have seen what happened today. Even without any backing or trump cards, Xiao Yan still had the courage to face the authority of the Misty Cloud Sect's Young Sect Master head-on. Was the gap between the two of them not just as insurmountable?"

The girl's eyes sparkled, making Old Man Yao unable to help meeting her gaze in a daze.

After a while, he laughed heartily several times, and his mind seemed to grow clearer.

"Perhaps the blows I suffered in the past wore away the drive in my heart. At some point, I began accepting fate as well. You are right. We cultivators truly should not wallow in self-pity."

"Good! It is rare for this wandering soul to take a gamble like this. The Soul Hall nearly caused my soul to be utterly destroyed. Seeking revenge will sooner or later affect the Soul Clan's interests. Since that is the case, I might as well cooperate with you, Girl, in advance and place my bet on the two of you." Old Man Yao's Soul Body suddenly brightened somewhat as he directly agreed to the girl's seemingly absurd condition.

Hun Ruoruo chuckled to herself. Pouting, she let out a rather melancholy sigh and said, "Senior Yao Chen, why does it feel like Ruoruo is the one comforting you now?"

"Th-this..."

Being lectured by a little girl made Old Man Yao's expression stiffen slightly. His previously soaring heroic spirit immediately collapsed.

Looking somewhat embarrassed, he cleared his throat. "Hehe, when one gets old, one tends to become sentimental. Girl, do not make fun of this old man."

He paused, as though recalling something, and a hint of confusion appeared on his face. "When I observed you from the Storage Ring earlier, I thought you simply lacked sufficient guile. But after our conversation just now, I realized something was amiss. Since you think so highly of that boy Xiao Yan, why did you leave him with the... ah, impression that you were using him?"

"With your methods, you should not have made such a mistake."

Hun Ruoruo's earlier actions might have seemed mysterious and unfathomable to an inexperienced boy like Xiao Yan, but with Old Man Yao's discerning eye, he naturally saw through the strange aspects at once.

Since theirs was actually a mutually beneficial partnership, why make the other side wary?

"This? A hobby, perhaps?" The girl's expression stiffened. She blinked and casually made something up.

Hun Ruoruo knew perfectly well that after forcing herself to keep up an act for so long in the Soul Realm, her peculiar personality could no longer be changed. If she did not make Xiao Yan fear her a little and hate her a little, what if he started pursuing her in the future?

It was not narcissism. This was the conclusion she had reached after devouring the souls of countless people who had coveted her over the years in the Soul Realm.

She did not like men. She merely enjoyed the feeling of playing them in the palm of her hand.

Sneaking a glance at the girl's somewhat stiff smile, Old Man Yao shook his head helplessly and did not pursue the matter further—

Clearly, this girl had no intention of telling the truth.

Still, that made sense. Even if she possessed deep cunning, she was inevitably limited by her age and could not completely conceal her emotions.

"Ultimately, she is still just a little girl." Old Man Yao stroked his beard and secretly chuckled wickedly a few times, thoroughly taking on the appearance of an improper old man.