Farewell

At dawn the next day, Tang Yin watched Third Sister, Xiao Wu, leave before slowly closing the gate.

"Looks like you're ready," a hoarse voice said from behind him.

Tang Yin didn't need to guess who it was. Without even turning around, he mocked, "You're certainly well informed. I haven't even been at level twenty for a week, and you're already here."

"Come back to Holy Soul Village with me. I'll take you to meet someone..." Tang Hao hesitated slightly when he said "someone." After all, Ah Yin could hardly be called a person in her current state.

Tang Yin froze at that. The only person in Holy Soul Village Tang Hao would go out of his way to take him to see was probably his mother in this life, Ah Yin. At the thought, he nodded faintly.

When he'd returned to Holy Soul Village two years ago, he'd looked around a little, making sure Tang Hao wasn't there. But the original story had been so vague that he'd given up after searching for a while.

In the end, he and Ah Yin had no real bond. He couldn't understand those people who had never met their parents but burst into tears and wailed for them the moment they did. His search back then had only been a passing whim born of curiosity.

Besides, if she were really that easy to find, how could Tang Hao have felt safe leaving Holy Soul Village?

"Fine." Tang Yin nodded. It was time he met her.

Since neither of them was an ordinary person anymore, Tang Hao and Tang Yin reached Holy Soul Village quickly. Then, guided by Tang Hao, they entered a cave with an open ceiling, where sunlight streamed straight down.

Directly beneath the opening in the ceiling, a verdant plant—somewhat like Third Sister's Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul—swayed gently in the sunlight.

It was none other than the Blue Silver Emperor, Ah Yin—in her juvenile form.

Tang Yin remembered someone in a group chat for fellow fans joking in his previous life: "Do you think Ah Yin will still be... after she revives?"

Everyone had laughed and told them to stop teasing Tang Yin's mom. She'd long since taken on Haozi's shape.

But once everyone had calmed down, the group chat fell silent. Finally, the screen filled with messages of "666."

At the memory, Tang Yin coughed slightly and cursed himself. What a piece of shit he was. This was his mother; even if he had no real bond with her, he shouldn't be making jokes about her behind her back.

"Kneel. This is your mother!"

The moment Tang Hao entered the cave, his usually cold expression softened into tender affection. Even his voice turned gentle, making Tang Yin, who'd been lost in his thoughts, shiver.

A scruffy man crouching in front of a little plant and acting like this was almost too much for even someone who knew the story. But the scene had to go on.

"My mother? You're telling me this Blue Silver Grass is my mother? Have you gone senile?" Tang Yin deliberately gave him a look that said, "Are you stupid?" and used the chance to insult Tang Hao.

Tang Hao's eye twitched at his words. But with Ah Yin right there, he didn't want to argue with Tang Yin, so he could only take a deep breath and steady himself.

"This is your mother. Her name is Ah Yin, and she was a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, the Blue Silver Emperor, who took human form."

Tang Hao's eyes were full of memories. Then his voice turned cold. "As for why she became like this, you're not qualified to know yet. Your only duty is to support Third Sister in the future."

"So that's it. Third Sister and I are the children of a Soul Beast and a human, uh... conceived together!" Tang Yin approached Ah Yin and crouched beside her, wearing an expression that was three parts tender affection and seven parts shock.

The instant Tang Yin crouched down, Ah Yin's leaves began to tremble violently. A vine as thick as a chopstick then unfurled from their tips, climbed along his palm and up his neck, and stopped growing only when it reached his cheek.

The vine's tip then brushed against Tang Yin's face, its movements exceptionally gentle.

Tang Yin stiffened all over. His body instinctively wanted to recoil, but he forced himself to hold still.

He didn't know how resilient the Blue Silver Emperor was in this state. What if he pulled back and snapped her? Wouldn't that be the end of it?

Naturally, Ah Yin had no idea what was going through Tang Yin's strange mind. The whole plant seemed to be brimming with vitality now, and anyone could feel her joy.

As the vine gently stroked his face, Tang Yin's expression grew dazed.

He couldn't understand the feeling. Part of him even instinctively wanted to avoid it.

The sensation was strange. He felt as though a gentle, familiar presence were wrapping around him, easing the tension in his heart without him realizing it.

Feeling his emotions soothed, Tang Yin's vacant eyes flickered with uncertainty. A hint of gloom even flashed through them.

"Ah Yin, you really are still conscious. Ah Yin, my Ah Yin..." Seeing this, Tang Hao put on another tearful display.

This showed that Tang Hao truly hadn't been decent to her.

Though Tang Hao didn't know that Ah Yin could revive, he'd spent so long with her that he couldn't possibly have failed to guess she could still sense the world outside.

Yet even knowing this, he'd never once thought to bring his children to keep Ah Yin company. He'd simply planted her in a secluded cave with only a single shaft of sunlight.

After a long while, Tang Hao and Tang Yin left the cave. They walked back in silence, and only after they'd returned to Holy Soul Village did Tang Hao resume his usual cold expression and tone.

"I've already asked Grandmaster to deliver my letter to Third Sister. Now we'll head to Star Dou Great Forest as agreed and hunt a Soul Ring for you."

"Fine." With business on the table, Tang Yin finally came back to himself and nodded.

He'd long decided which Soul Beast to hunt for his Second Soul Ring: a pack of Shadow Gale Wolves that lived on the outskirts of Star Dou Great Forest.

This pack was unusual. The males were called Gale Wolves, while the females were called Shadow Wolves.

They were sought after by many agility-attack Soul Masters because their Soul Rings normally granted two skills: Gale and Shadow. As the names suggested, one increased speed, while the other allowed the user to conceal themselves.

Both male and female wolves provided Soul Skills that agility-attack Soul Masters wanted.

But if bird-type Soul Beasts, famed for their speed, were truly the best choice for him, why had he chosen the Shadow Gale Wolf pack?

If they were ordinary Shadow Wolves or Gale Wolves, Tang Yin wouldn't have been interested, and he wouldn't have needed Tang Hao's help.

What he wanted to hunt was the pack's leader: the Shadow Gale Wolf King.

The Shadow Gale Wolf King was not only stronger than ordinary wolves, but also highly intelligent and cunning. With the pack keeping watch, ordinary Soul Masters would find it difficult to locate and kill it.

But if they killed the Shadow Gale Wolf King, the Soul Skill they obtained would naturally be stronger than one from an ordinary wolf. Both its amplification and duration would exceed those of a regular wolf by a wide margin.

"The Shadow Gale Wolf King?" Tang Hao considered it, then nodded. He'd heard of the Shadow Gale Wolves.

Though they were only Soul Beasts from the outskirts of Star Dou Great Forest, they were still a nightmare for low-level Soul Masters. A pack with a wolf king was especially notorious, earning the title of beginner Soul Master killers.

Meanwhile, in Nuoding City, Xiao Wu had spent the day as the academy's big sister as usual, then returned to the courtyard she was renting with a jaunty step.

"Bro, your big sister's back! Hurry up and bring me some food!" Xiao Wu kicked open the gate, but no familiar reply came from the courtyard. Only Third Sister was there, facing away from her with her head lowered, staring blankly at a piece of paper in her hand.

"Third Sister, you're here too. Where's my bro?" Xiao Wu came up behind Third Sister and patted her shoulder. But what greeted her was Third Sister's tearful face, full of helplessness.

"Brother, brother's gone..."