Inside the vast Royal Research Institute, soft white light shone over the three people, who had fallen silent.
"Lan Qing..."
Kong Deming withdrew his gaze 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 much older than you. Compared to Her Majesty the Ice Empress..."
He glanced at the Ice Empress, who had lowered her head, her eyes hidden beneath her bangs, and continued with a smile:
"Forget what I was like at your age. Even now, there are plenty of times when I'm confused. When faced with all kinds of choices, I can feel lost and unsure. I wonder if Her Majesty the Ice Empress feels the same way?"
At Kong Deming's question, the Ice Empress raised 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 surviving, what other choices could they have?
"Even I only had a choice to make when I reached a hundred thousand years old: whether to reincarnate as a human or face the tribulation. In truth, it wasn't a choice at all. From beginning to end, I had only one path.
"I've never had a choice. Humans, on the other hand, are sly and deceitful."
The Ice Empress ended with a mild barb.
"Her Majesty the Ice Empress is noble in character," Kong Deming said with an unconcerned smile.
He looked at Xu Lanqing and returned to the topic at hand. "A person faces many different choices in life, and each one affects the direction their future takes...
"I think that at every age, you should do