Follow Your Heart, My Surname Is "Long"

"Old Di, take out the 'ball' inside that's best suited to the Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul and has the highest age."

White-gold light flickered in the Holy Dragon King's eyes as he scanned the hundreds of Soul Spirit balls inside the machine.

A few seconds later, he reached through space, extended his hand into the machine, and pulled out a pure white sphere.

Without using an activation tool, the Holy Dragon King followed the tool's operating principle and activated the Soul Spirit ball in his palm.

In an instant, a ring of yellow light appeared.

The next second, amid flashing green-gold light, a thick vine appeared inside the Soul Spirit ball.

The Dragon Emperor only needed one glance before he explained, "A four-hundred-year-old Diamond Vine. It's right at the lower limit of what you can absorb. It should be enough to raise you straight to level twelve."

Watching the thick vine and listening to "Bad Guy Huang" explain, Tang Wulin's breath caught, and his heart pounded.

Although he hadn't learned much about Soul Beast encyclopedias, as someone who'd awakened the Blue Silver Grass, he'd naturally paid special attention to Soul Spirits suited to him.

And this four-hundred-year-old Diamond Vine before him was, just as the other man had said, the kind most suited to him.

If he could absorb it as his first Soul Spirit, his dream of becoming a Soul Master would finally be underway.

"So? Did I lie to you? Speak." The Dragon Emperor's gaze was still as aggressive as ever.

Dragged back to reality from his beautiful dream, Tang Wulin lowered his head in silence and walked toward the door with the defective product that belonged to him.

"Your father's clothes are a little worn, and the dark circles under his eyes aren't light, either. Don't you want to take this broad road of becoming a Soul Master and lead them to a life of plenty?"

The voice came from behind him, calm and casual, yet it made Tang Wulin freeze in place.

Slowly, he turned his body around. He could even hear his joints grinding as he did.

"What... what do you want me to do for you?" Tang Wulin's eyes reddened.

The Dragon Emperor smiled faintly. "Come up here and call me big brother, and I'll give you another chance to choose a better life."

As he spoke, he raised the four-hundred-year-old Diamond Vine in his hand.

Tang Wulin clenched his fist. His fingertips rubbed against the calluses on his palm, making a faint sound.

In all his life, the only person who'd earned the right to be called big brother was the senior brother who'd taught him to forge at Mang Tian Studio: Brother Long.

So, with defiance and stubbornness filling his clear black eyes, Tang Wulin clenched his fist and walked up to the Dragon Emperor.

He forced out a dry, "Big brother."

"Heh." At last, a smile appeared on the Dragon Emperor's face, which had been frozen for ages.

He took the Soul Spirit ball from Tang Wulin again and had the Holy Dragon King restore it, along with the one containing the Diamond Vine, to their original smooth, pure-white forms.

Then the Dragon Emperor took the two identical Soul Spirit balls and hid them behind his back, seeming to shift them from his left hand to his right, switching their positions...

A few seconds later, he held out the two identical-looking white spheres to Tang Wulin. "Here. Pick one."

The Dragon Emperor also offered a friendly reminder: "Follow your heart. Don't listen to any interference."

Tang Wulin paused as he reached out, but still timidly accepted the two Soul Spirit balls.

He turned to look at the entrance to the small hall, toward Tang Ziran, who was being kept outside by a row of people.

After receiving his father's encouraging look and affirmative nod, Tang Wulin closed his eyes, raised the two Soul Spirit balls to the bridge of his nose, and gently tapped them together.

A strange "ding" rang in his ears.

Tang Wulin listened with all his heart once more...

The instincts formed over three years of experience told him to choose the Soul Spirit ball in his right hand.

But from somewhere deep within, a marvelous, familiar thought seemed to whisper: choose the one in his left hand.

That vague thought was like an ocean made of Blue Silver Grass, teeming with countless wonders and welcoming every river into its depths.

It felt as gentle as the love of his closest family...

"I choose this one." Tang Wulin tightened his left hand.

He handed the Soul Spirit ball in his right hand back to the purple-haired "bad guy."

The Dragon Emperor blinked his golden eyes, then asked one last time, "You won't regret it?"

Tang Wulin forced a confident smile. "I won't!"

He said each word clearly. "The two draws just now cost sixty thousand Federal Coins in total. I'll definitely pay you back someday."

The Dragon Emperor looked at the hand offering him the Soul Spirit ball. Patches of dead skin covered the palm and knuckles—the medals of a life spent working hard.

The Dragon Emperor shook his head and took back the Soul Spirit ball. "No. I said I'd give it to you, so you don't have to pay me back."

"But..."

A streak of purple abruptly appeared in his pure-gold eyes, and a sharp aura burst from the Dragon Emperor!

He suddenly slashed his left hand. With a hiss, it was as though even the air had been torn open—

Tang Wulin didn't know why the other man's attitude had changed so suddenly. All he could do was instinctively raise his empty right hand in front of himself.

Outside the door, Tang Ziran cried out in alarm, "Wulin!"

The Dragon Emperor's fingertip nicked the joint of his wrist. A streak of red came back with it, landing on Tang Wulin's lower lip and the tip of his tongue.

For an instant, gold swept through the Dragon Emperor's purple hair. His Purple-Gold Eyes gleamed: the taste of the True Dragon Origin... exquisite.

How exciting...

When Tang Wulin finally came to his senses amid the biting aura, he found that he hadn't suffered any further harm.

Only then did the Dragon Emperor explain, "Three years ago, you owed me a drop of blood."

"Now we're even."

With that, he jerked his chin toward the Holy Dragon King. "Let's go."

The black-clad Sun Soul Masters blocking the doorway immediately stepped aside, clearing a path.

The Dragon Emperor led the group of one white and six black-clad figures past Tang Ziran in a grand procession.

"Uh, huh?" Tang Ziran was baffled. Weren't they going to take me back?

"So, they're just letting me go?"

The Dragon Emperor looked back and laughed softly. "If you're not leaving, should we stay for lunch?"

"Tang Muran. Designer Tang."

At that, Tang Ziran's body, which had just relaxed, stiffened again as though he'd been struck by a shock.

Tang Wulin also walked out of the small hall. He rubbed the broken skin on his right wrist, all gloom swept from his face, and said with a grin, "Dad, let's go outside and activate my Soul Spirit."

"Okay." Tang Ziran answered shakily, wondering whether they should move overnight and lie low in another city.

Hugging the Soul Spirit ball that had been chosen for him by that "familiar feeling," Tang Wulin brimmed with confidence. I'll definitely use this four-hundred-year-old Diamond Vine to become the greatest Soul Master!

My ambition is still the ocean and the stars!

As he thought this, Tang Wulin's heart surged with excitement. He turned toward the retreating "Bad Guy Huang" and shouted, "Thank you! Bad..."

"Brother Huang!"

The Dragon Emperor stumbled as he led his team upstairs.

A few seconds later, he covered his face and called back from a distance, "My surname isn't Huang."

"My surname is Long."

Across the vast universe, he was the being most worthy of bearing the surname Long.

But Tang Wulin couldn't hear him anymore.

At that moment, he was bounding back to the first-floor lobby and the gray-robed Spirit Master's workstation.

Facing the expectant expressions of his adoptive father, himself, and the Spirit Master, he pointed the activation tool in his right hand at the Soul Spirit ball in his left.

In the blink of an eye, the pure white sphere opened amid the sound of a pounding heartbeat.

Beneath a ring of white light, an earth-colored little grass snake raised its head and flicked its tongue at the air with a hiss.