The spacious Royal Research Institute was lit by soft fluorescent lamps. The three of them stood there in silence.
"Lan Qing..."
Kong Deming drew his gaze back and looked into Xu Lanqing's eyes. The wrinkles at the corners of his mouth twitched. After a brief pause, he spoke slowly:
"I've been your age, too. I'm not that much older than you. Compared to the Ice Empress..."
He glanced at the Ice Empress, who had her head bowed, her eyes hidden behind her bangs, and continued with a smile:
"Not just when I was your age—even now, I'm often confused. I face all kinds of choices and feel lost, unsure of which way to go. I wonder if the Ice Empress feels the same?"
At Kong Deming's question, the Ice Empress lifted her head and looked at Xu Lanqing's broad back. Her pretty face betrayed no emotion as her red lips parted:
"Soul Beasts and humans are fundamentally different. Low-level Soul Beasts aren't even fully sentient. Aside from staying alive, what other choices could they have?
"Even I only had to choose between reincarnating as a human and facing tribulation when I reached a hundred thousand years. But that wasn't really a choice for me. I've only ever had one path to follow.
"I've never had a choice. Humans, on the other hand, are cunning and deceitful."
The Ice Empress ended with a mild jab.
"The Ice Empress is a noble soul," Kong Deming said with an unconcerned smile.
He turned to Xu Lanqing and continued his earlier point: "A person faces many different choices in life, and each one affects where the future leads...
"I think that at every age, you should do what's right for that age.
"You're still young, full of energy, with plenty of time to spend