Tremors and Parting

Looking at Lan Si's refined, fair palm, Zhu Zhuqing hesitated. From childhood until now, aside from her father, she had never had physical contact with any male.

At the same time, because of her repulsive engagement and her curvaceous figure, she was frequently subjected to strange gazes, which made her deeply loathe men.

Yet, although this was their first meeting, she found herself unexpectedly not disliking the young man before her.

"Apologies, I was reckless." Seeing this, a look of embarrassment appeared on Lan Si's face. Just as he was about to withdraw his hand, he saw Zhu Zhuqing extend her slender, jade-like hand with a crimson face.

Lan Si revealed a gentle smile and took hold of Zhu Zhuqing's delicate hand.

A gust of wind blew by, the dark clouds dispersed, and moonlight spilled onto the ground, reflecting off the beautiful faces of Lan Si and Zhu Zhuqing.

Quietly, an ambiguous atmosphere permeated the entire world.

The night passed without incident.

Early the next morning, as dawn just began to break, a fish-belly white tint appeared in the east.

When the first ray of sunlight shone on Lan Si's cheek, he slowly opened his eyes and exited his meditative state.

Glancing at the tent, Zhu Zhuqing had already awakened and was currently changing her clothes. Under the illumination of the sunlight, her curvaceous, graceful, and moving silhouette was highlighted.

Lan Si immediately covered his eyes, peeking through the gaps between his fingers while admiring her and whispering, "Do not look at what is improper, do not look at what is improper; form is emptiness, emptiness is form."

"It's early in the morning, what are you muttering about!" Zhu Zhuqing held her folded clothes and stepped out of the tent, having already changed back into her black leather outfit.

"N-nothing." Lan Si shook his head with a guilty conscience and skipped the previous topic: "How is your injury?"

"It's much better after using your medicine. Once I find an auxiliary-type Soul Master for treatment, I believe I will recover in a few days." A Soul Master's body is different from an ordinary person's. Injuries that would break bones for commoners are, in the eyes of a Soul Master, recovered from several or even over ten times faster with the assistance of soul power.

"That's good. I'll take you to a nearby town later. Since this is adjacent to the Star Dou Great Forest, there should be many places specializing in treating Soul Masters injured while hunting soul beasts." Lan Si stood up, walked to the tent, and began packing while speaking.

"Mm." Zhu Zhuqing responded softly, her onion-white fingers gripping the clothes in her hands tightly.

"What's wrong, Zhuqing? Is something the matter?" Sensing that Zhu Zhuqing's mood was a bit off, Lan Si asked casually.

"A-Si, your clothes are stained with my blood... I..."

"Hey, I thought it was something major. It's just a piece of clothing; consider it a gift. If you really feel bad about it, just wash it clean and return it to me next time we meet."

Zhu Zhuqing nodded, stored the clothes in her Soul Tool, and asked seriously: "Where do you plan to go? And how will I find you next time?"

"Since this is near the Star Dou Great Forest, I'm obviously going in to hunt for a soul ring. As for how to find me..." Lan Si smiled calmly, walked up to Zhu Zhuqing, and took her left hand.

Zhu Zhuqing's body trembled, and she instinctively wanted to pull away, but Lan Si didn't give her the chance. He took a jade bottle from his Soul Tool and pressed it into her hand.

He smiled warmly: "We will meet again if fate allows. If one day you feel you have nowhere else to go, you can come to the Blue Tyrant Academy in Heaven Dou City to find me. This jade bottle contains the same golden sore medicine I used on you; if you accidentally get hurt again, you can use it for emergencies."

"I..." A blush appeared on Zhu Zhuqing's cheeks. Although she understood the implication in Lan Si's words, she lacked the courage to provide an answer at this moment.

In all honesty, while she couldn't say she loved Lan Si, she certainly felt a degree of affection for him. At the very least, if not for this engagement, she would have tried to get along with him. If they truly hit it off, they might even have walked down the aisle together.

Unfortunately, there are no "ifs" in this world. Once she did that, she would not just be facing Zhu Zhuyun's pursuit, but the entire Star Luo Empire royal family.

To the Star Luo royal family, traitors are met with zero tolerance.

At that point, not only would she suffer, but Lan Si would also be implicated, ultimately harming both herself and others.

Unless the two of them became strong enough—strong enough to fear no assassination from the Star Luo royal family.

"No need to rush your answer. Just try your best and be yourself. Even if you fail in the end, it doesn't matter." Lan Si shook his head fearlessly, giving her a reassuring look, "Because..."

A breeze blew by, white clouds drifted away, and Lan Si's messy hair fluttered in the wind. The warm sunlight brushed against his fair and handsome face. He parted his lips slightly and spoke, word by word...

The camera pulled back as tree branches swayed in the wind, and the rustling sound of leaves echoed through the forest.

Except for Zhu Zhuqing, no one heard what Lan Si said. But standing from afar, one could vaguely see two long shadows slowly merging together under the morning sun, eventually becoming indistinguishable from one another.

At this very moment, the two of them seemed to have been reborn.

After seeing Zhu Zhuqing off, Lan Si resumed his journey toward the Star Dou Great Forest.

Perhaps because of Zhu Zhuqing, or perhaps because of something else, he had previously treated his daily training as nothing more than a task.

Now, he was so impatient to become stronger.

Trekking through the outer perimeter of the Star Dou Great Forest, Lan Si relied on his powerful dynamic vision and keen speed to easily avoid one soul beast after another. Standing on the branch of a large tree, he touched his slightly burning cheeks and muttered to himself:

"Is this what it feels like to fall for someone? No, no, it should just be that I'm lusting after her body. There's no way I could fall in love after knowing her for less than two days. But this palpitation in my heart..."

Lan Si shook his head, cast aside his distracting thoughts, and focused his attention on searching for soul beasts.

His first soul skill was Cyan Lotus Assault, which belonged to the power-attack type and granted his martial soul the ability to fly.

His second soul skill, Shadow Clone, allowed him to manifest four cyan lotuses with his current number of soul rings.

Aside from the sharp blades possessing decent attack power, the remaining flight and clone skills were biased toward auxiliary combat and enhancing the martial soul itself.

His offense was simply too singular.

Therefore, for his third soul skill, Lan Si chose to add a control-type skill.

And spider-type soul beasts were undoubtedly the best choice.

Lan Si's first soul ring was a Red Feather Eagle, between 410 and 430 years old, extremely close to the limit Yu Xiaogang had summarized based on Martial Soul Hall data for a first soul ring. It even slightly exceeded it.

His second soul ring was a Shadow-Splitting Beast over 900 years old, which had greatly exceeded the limit for a second soul ring.

Thus, for his third soul ring, he prepared to find a spider-type soul beast over 2,000 years old.

Creatures like the Man Faced Demon Spider, Death Demon Spider (the predecessor to the Death Spider Emperor, which can only be called an Emperor if it exceeds 50,000 years), or the Soul-Eater Demon Spider (predecessor to the Soul-Eater Spider Emperor) would all suffice.

PS: Second update.