A Call [Please Keep Reading]

Hearing the familiar voice, Li Jinsheng turned around and saw a beautiful silver-haired girl.

Her beauty was the kind that gathered all the world's finest splendor—never gaudy, yet not cold and aloof either. Her beauty was natural, as though she were heaven and earth's favored child.

"It's you! The silly Na'er that Gu Yue talks about every day!" Li Jinsheng spoke without thinking and blurted it out.

"Who are you calling silly?! Gu Yue is the silly one!" The moment Na'er heard Gu Yue's name, her hackles rose. She stared into Li Jinsheng's eyes and said, "Don't tell me you think I'm silly too!"

"No, I think Miss Na'er is naturally beautiful and utterly stunning." The boy smiled awkwardly, while silently adding, That's true as long as she doesn't talk.

"Hmph, I didn't expect a big bad guy like you to know how to say nice things!" Na'er said bluntly, the blurry reflection of a human figure visible in her silver eyes.

"What do you mean, I'm a big bad guy?! Aren't you afraid I'll strip away your sense of taste again? Didn't you cry enough last time?!" Li Jinsheng threatened without hesitation.

Did she even know the value of hunting down one's natural predator?!

"Who said you were a big bad guy?!" Na'er immediately changed her tune, her expression shifting with astonishing speed. "In my eyes, you're a hundred-percent Good Person. I like you too much to do otherwise—how could I possibly dislike you?"

Before long, the squid was served, followed by the other dishes one after another.

The two sat down and began eating without restraint. The owner remembered Na'er. Though the child looked thin and small, her appetite was practically a bottomless pit.

As for the other one, he did not eat as quickly as Na'er, but he seemed capable of eating endlessly. After consuming so much, his stomach had not changed in the slightest. His appetite was equally impressive.

Li Jinsheng sensed a dense, gentle life force from afar, and his gaze instinctively shifted toward a corner. Sure enough, Ya Li was secretly watching from the shadows.

Na'er was only seven years old. It would be terrible if she went out alone and got tricked! Their Na'er was so innocent and kind!

As they ate, the distance between them gradually closed. While drinking Happy Water, they began complaining about Gu Yue.

"Li Jinsheng, I'm warning you—stay away from that Gu Yue. She doesn't look like a good person!" Na'er could not help saying.

"Why?" Li Jinsheng picked up another can of Happy Water, poked a hole in the can, and drank deeply. "Isn't Miss Gu quite kind? She even lent me her completed homework. You can't slander her. We've got a life-and-death bond, you know!"

"The prettier a girl is, the better she is at pretending! She's dangerous! Believe me!" Na'er's gaze was incomparably serious.

Li Jinsheng did not understand. Thinking back to Gu Yue's appearance, without the bet, Gu Yue looked seventy percent similar to Na'er and was equally beautiful.

But why was Na'er saying all this just because they were having a meal together?

After a moment of silence, he ended the conversation with a single sentence. "Aren't you pretty too?"

Na'er was instantly speechless, countless words catching in her throat. "I... I'm obviously pretty. But can I be compared to her?!"

"What's the difference?" Li Jinsheng looked Na'er up and down, finally settling on her ahoge. Weren't these two the left and right halves of the Silver Dragon King?

In common terms, the left and right brains!

But these two would elbow each other!!!

"Of course I'm prettier and smarter!" Na'er took a huge gulp of Happy Water and said smugly.

"I'll admit that you're prettier! But smarter..." The boy could not agree. Setting strategy aside, at least Gu Yue's homework answers were all correct.

"Who are you looking down on?! I'm very smart!" The silver-haired girl confidently patted her chest. Her silver eyes narrowed as she looked at the boy. "You're not saying one thing while thinking another, are you?!"

Li Jinsheng did not argue. Instead, he picked up a squid from the side and directly hit Na'er with some hard crowd control.

"Damn Li Jinsheng! Just you wait... wait until I finish off..." Na'er stuffed her face with the food before her, her muffled voice emerging from between bites.

"Just eat! Is all this food still not enough to shut your mouth?" Li Jinsheng ordered another fifty jin of Chicken Fork Bone from the owner. As Na'er ate, she soon forgot Li Jinsheng's words entirely.

As it grew late, the lights along Snack Street went out one by one, and the crowds gradually dispersed. Only the Teppanyaki owner was suffering and rejoicing at once. He had made money, but one night had exhausted him more than three days of work.

Na'er dabbed at the corner of her mouth with a napkin, then patted her stomach. She was seventy percent full—barely enough.

"That should do it. I should head back too! I didn't expect eating with you to be so fun!"

"We hit it off at first sight, yet you have to leave. Since parting is at hand, Na'er, let me walk you back!" Li Jinsheng stood up and said naturally.

"Sure, sure!" Na'er replied carelessly in a crisp voice as the two headed together toward Shrek Academy.

They walked side by side along Sea God Lake. The lamps by the lake were still bright, shining upon them and casting two shadows, one long and one short, behind them.

The lake breeze brushed past them, and the ripples on the water shattered the full moon's reflection before swiftly piecing it back together.

Na'er hopped onto a small boat. The vessel swayed gently, sending ripples across the water. She turned to look at the boy, raised her hand to reveal a slender, pale wrist, and waved it in the air.

"Li Jinsheng, this is far enough! See you next time!"

"See you next time!"

Li Jinsheng waved goodbye as he watched the boat slowly leave the shore and her figure gradually vanish into the night. He remained where he was, his gaze turning toward the deeper darkness.

There was a point of golden light there, like a hole torn into a black curtain, revealing a sliver of daylight.

That was the Golden Ancient Tree, the Life Core of Douluo Continent. It stood at the center of Sea God Island, its branches and leaves luxuriant, its entire body gleaming gold.

Li Jinsheng gazed at it in silence. He knew it would be destroyed in that explosion and replaced by Ah Yin.

"The God Realm isn't present in this era, but everything was arranged long ago! It's all part of Tang San's calculations for his ten-thousand-year plan."

Even the Abyss Plane had been brought here by Tang San.

Thinking of this, he sighed helplessly. But no matter how difficult it was, as long as he kept living, only he could decide his own Fate.

Not even life and death could bind him!

Li Jinsheng turned and left, his gaze growing resolute. At that moment, the golden glow on the distant Golden Ancient Tree flickered once in the night.

The boy's steps halted. He turned his head and looked toward the center of the lake once more. That definitely hadn't been an illusion just now—a real warmth had risen in his chest.

It was a call from the Golden Ancient Tree.

"Is it calling for me? Unfortunately, I still can't go to Sea God Island." Li Jinsheng paused in slight surprise, but still chose to turn and leave.

He still wasn't qualified to go to Sea God Island, much less meet the Golden Ancient Tree! But since the Golden Ancient Tree had called to him, he would definitely go and see it someday!

We will meet again!