A golden head struggled its way out of the swaying bushes. When the Three-Eyed Golden Lion spotted Su Qing not far away, she grinned. But then she noticed Zhang Lexuan leaning against him and hesitated to come closer. A person and a beast stared at each other, eyes wide.
"What are you here for?"
Su Qing only moved his lips without making a sound, hoping the Three-Eyed Golden Lion would understand him by reading his lips.
"What did you say?"
As it turned out, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion couldn't understand him at all. She could only see Su Qing's mouth moving, but couldn't hear a thing. She nearly thought her ears had gone bad.
"Keep your voice down. Someone here is sleeping."
Helpless, Su Qing suddenly realized that his spiritual power was more than enough to send a mental transmission!
"Oh, right! I was going to come find you and play, but halfway here, my lord asked me to bring you a message. She suspects the space-time turbulence first carried you back through time to the past, then sent you straight to this era. But your Second Martial Soul isn't from this world, so it wasn't affected by time or space and retained some of the divine powers you'd refined back then."
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion didn't actually understand what she was saying. Fortunately, she had a good memory and had memorized every word. Hearing this theory, Su Qing suddenly understood. That explained it: he had clearly been reborn in the lower realm, yet Tang San hadn't erased him. So Tang San simply didn't recognize him now!
Didn't that mean he didn't need to keep such a low profile? He only had to avoid attracting Tang San's attention until he had enough strength to flip the table.
"That's great! You've brought me this news at just the right time, Little Rui. But there's a human sleeping here, so I can't play with you until later. Oh, right—ask your lord to arrange a ten-thousand-year-old Silver Hero Beast for me, and have it driven near me when it hears my signal."
Su Qing was so excited by the realization that he nearly shouted. If the Silver Dragon King was right, then this was his own personal second round. As long as he kept his head down and stayed alive, a little Tang San would be nothing to worry about!
"Okay! I'll go find my lord first. Remember to come find me when you're done. I'll carry you to all the fun places!"
After talking with Su Qing in the Sea of Consciousness, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion hurried back to the Land of Great Calamity. She was actually quite happy to be able to run around freely, even if it was a little tiring. She couldn't understand why her lord had to make her the go-between when she could simply open a space rift with a little spatial power, or just contact Su Qing directly with her spiritual power.
But she didn't dwell on it. Su Qing was happy with this way of passing messages, her lord was happy, and she was happy to run around freely. Since everyone was happy, there was nothing to think about. She was just a little curious about who the human sleeping beside Su Qing was.
"Ah, never mind! I can just ask my lord!"
With that, she continued happily frolicking toward the core area.
Looking at Zhang Lexuan, who was sleeping soundly without a care in the world, Su Qing reached out and pinched her cheek. He also moved the Qiluo Pill to the side she was leaning against. He couldn't help thinking that Zhang Lexuan didn't seem as aloof as the rumors made her out to be. She looked quite pretty when she slept. It was just that she liked to get stuck in her own head. Xuan Zi was the one who'd failed in his duty, yet she blamed everything on her own lack of strength.
"She's hard to figure out..."
Meanwhile, Gu Yuena, who had been waiting for the Auspicious Beast to return with a report, was beginning to lose patience. She opened a space passage and brought the beast right to her. The Three-Eyed Golden Lion, panting after running between the two places, had barely found her footing when Gu Yuena questioned her.
"What did he say?"
Seeing the serious look on Gu Yuena's face, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion didn't delay. She told her that after hearing Gu Yuena's theory, Su Qing had praised her profusely. But Gu Yuena wasn't so easily fooled. She asked the Three-Eyed Golden Lion to repeat his exact words, and sure enough, that was where things went wrong.
Gu Yuena stared straight into the Three-Eyed Golden Lion's eyes and said, word by word, "He's sleeping with another woman?"
"Yeah. He said he'd come find me after he was done. I think that's what he said, anyway. Oh, right, my lord—he asked you to prepare a ten-thousand-year-old Silver Hero Beast for him!"
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion's innocent voice struck Gu Yuena's defenses like a heavy hammer. Her teeth nearly ground to dust. He was sleeping with another woman, then going to find the Auspicious Beast as soon as he was done, and the only time he thought of her was to ask her to prepare a Soul Beast for him!
"That bastard!"
The angrier she got, the more she decided she had to see for herself. On the other side, Su Qing sensed an immense spiritual power spying on him. Instinctively, he tried to use his spiritual power to fend it off. He didn't want someone looking at him until he didn't have a stitch on. But the spiritual power was incredibly domineering. It smashed through his mental defenses and left him "stark naked" before that person.
"Hey, who's so rude?"
Seeing that resistance was futile, he immediately used his spiritual power to establish a link with the other party. The moment the connection formed, he was about to start cursing, but then he realized it was Gu Yuena. The words died on his lips. The two stared at each other, and an awkward silence fell between them.
In the end, he was the one who broke the silence. "Do you have to be so rough...?"
"The Auspicious Beast told me you were sleeping with another woman..."
After saying that, Gu Yuena fell silent and stared fixedly at Su Qing. Seeing it with her own eyes, she of course realized that the Auspicious Beast had gotten it wrong. But now that she was here, could she, as the Soul Beast Co-Master, really be the one to admit her mistake? Besides, he shouldn't have let another woman lean against him while she slept!
"?"
Hearing that, Su Qing was rocked by a storm of shock. The seemingly simple and honest Three-Eyed Golden Lion had actually spread a rumor about him—and a scandalous one at that!!! That accursed golden-haired dog! He swore that if he got the chance, he'd teach her a harsh lesson.
"So, are you jealous?"
Though the atmosphere was painfully awkward, Su Qing had known Gu Yuena for a long time. He quickly realized what lay at the heart of it.
"Bullshit. I'm only worried that you'll be bewitched by beauty and forget what you're supposed to do!"
Gu Yuena turned her face away and stopped looking at him. She felt a little guilty saying it, but her forceful temperament covered it up without a trace.
"Don't worry. Within twenty years, I'll flatten the Divine Realm. When that day comes, I'll give you the Golden Dragon King's divine core as a gift."
As he spoke, his spiritual avatar drifted in front of Gu Yuena and pulled her into his arms, gazing at her tenderly. But before he could make another move, Gu Yuena severed the mental connection.
When her consciousness returned, her face was flushed, though she murmured, "That bastard—he only knows how to sweet-talk me!"