At that moment, a helpless, amused smile appeared on Luo Yang's face.
He waved a hand, signaling for the Golden-Haired Lion Mastiff Emperor to calm down, then spoke lightly to Yuanen Yehui, who looked like a hedgehog with all its quills raised.
"I was only trying to scare you. Don't be so tense."
"..."
Yuanen Yehui's killing intent faltered.
"Although your Martial Soul is the Fallen Angel, which the common people have classified as an 'Evil Martial Soul,'"
Luo Yang's smile faded. He looked at her with clear eyes. "You've never been able to choose what kind of Martial Soul you awaken. It isn't your fault. A Martial Soul is only a tool, a form of power. What truly defines good and evil is the person who wields that power, and how they use it."
He paused. "Besides, there are people in this world who haven't awakened Evil Martial Souls, and even bear glittering reputations, yet their deeds... are filthier and a hundred times more cruel than those of genuine Evil Soul Masters."
His words were like a stone tossed into an icy lake, stirring the first ripples in Yuanen Yehui's frozen heart.
Evil Soul Masters were despised throughout the continent because their methods of cultivation were rooted in slaughter, leaving people with the impression that they were bloodthirsty, cruel, and utterly inhuman.
So, to prevent tragedies, the various powers on the continent had all but reached a consensus: when someone awakened an Evil Martial Soul, especially a top-tier one like the Fallen Angel, they would often rather kill an innocent than let a guilty person go—or keep the person under lifelong surveillance.
But...
Were Soul Masters who awakened Evil Martial Souls from birth truly guilty by nature?
They couldn't choose their bloodline or their talents, just as no one could choose the family they were born into.
Should they be stripped of the right to live, hated and rejected by the entire world, even killed, simply because they had the potential to do evil?
And what about others, like the lofty and universally revered "pure and immaculate" God King Tang? His schemes against the continent, manipulation of fate, and treatment of all living beings as chess pieces...
Was he really any nobler than an Evil Soul Master?
And yet.
Yuanen Yehui continued to stare at Luo Yang, not letting down her guard in the slightest.
People's hearts were inscrutable.
She had seen people who seemed virtuous on the surface but secretly harbored wicked intentions.
This man had first offered her kindness, then threatened her, and now put on an understanding, sympathetic act... Which side of him was real?
Was he deliberately using these words to lower her guard, with some deeper scheme in mind?
Seeing that Yuanen Yehui was still tense, Luo Yang sighed softly.
He raised his right hand, palm up.
The next moment, an energy that was deep and desolate, mingled with pure death and annihilation, slowly welled up from his palm.
This aura wasn't the kind of "evil" that clung to the Fallen Angel, with its darkness, corrosion, and temptation. It was something more primordial and vast, as if it came from an ancient battlefield and passed judgment on the end of all things: "death" itself!
The deathly aura was so pure and immense that it even surpassed the dark aura emanating from Yuanen Yehui's Fallen Angel Martial Soul!
"Look." Luo Yang's voice rang out calmly. "In a way, my Martial Soul... could also be considered an 'Evil Martial Soul.'"
Undead Scourge—commanding death, communing with the undead, and controlling the dead.
In the eyes of most orthodox Soul Masters, this was definitely an even more "evil" and terrifying Martial Soul than the Fallen Angel!
Because it touched on the most forbidden realm of life.
Yuanen Yehui shuddered. She stared in astonishment at the deathly energy in Luo Yang's palm, which made her heart tremble, then looked up at his calm face.
She could clearly sense its true nature. It wasn't an act.
He... He was also...
"My Martial Soul's abilities lean toward 'purifying the undead' and 'controlling death,' so they carry a strong aura of death."
Luo Yang offered a brief explanation, then dispelled the energy in his hand. The suffocating feeling of death vanished with it.
"So I really don't bear you any ill will, and I'm not putting on a false front. Maybe because we both have Martial Souls the common world can't understand, I feel less tired around you. In fact, there's a bit of warmth in being with someone like me—a kindred spirit."
He extended his hand again—not as a threat or an offering, but as an equal invitation.
"I just... genuinely want to be your friend. Someone you don't have to hide your Martial Soul from, someone you don't have to worry will treat you like a freak, someone you can relax with and talk to. That's all."
Yuanen Yehui fell silent.
Her usually cold, guarded black eyes stared blankly at Luo Yang's outstretched hand, then at his clear, open eyes, free of the slightest impurity.
A friend...
The word was unfamiliar to her, and far too precious.
From the moment she awakened her Fallen Angel Martial Soul, her world had changed.
Within her family, some saw her as an ill-omened bringer of disaster; others feared she would invite calamity. Even her closest family, her father, had fallen into despair over her mother's death—her mother had possessed the same Martial Soul.
The outside world treated people like her as though they were a plague.
She had long since grown used to being alone, to disguising herself with coldness, to pushing everyone away.
She had thought she would live out her life like that, carrying the curse in solitude, or meet her end one day just as her mother had.
No one had ever told her, "I want to be your friend." No one had ever said, "We're alike," or "I feel comfortable around you."
At that moment, a tiny crack appeared in her frozen heart. A long-forgotten longing, one she had nearly forgotten even existed.
A longing to be understood and accepted, to feel even the slightest bit of warmth, quietly took root.
"You... really mean that?"
Yuanen Yehui's voice was low, with a faint, almost imperceptible tremble.
"Have you ever heard this saying?" Luo Yang didn't answer directly. Instead, he smiled faintly.
"My heart and my actions are as clear as a mirror; everything I do is just."
"A Martial Soul is only a tool. Power has no good or evil. What matters is the wielder's heart and actions. As long as you follow your conscience and stand by your principles, your Martial Soul has no so-called 'righteous' or 'evil' distinction!"
"So..."
He offered his hand a little farther, his smile warm and sincere. "Would you... be my friend?"
My heart and my actions are as clear as a mirror; everything I do is just...
Power has no good or evil. What matters is the heart...
The words struck like thunder and flowed like a warm current, again and again battering and washing over the walls Yuanen Yehui had built from years of fear and loneliness.
She looked into the young man's sincere eyes and felt the aura of his equally "unorthodox" yet utterly open Martial Soul. The wall of ice in her heart was melting faster.
Silence stretched between them.
But this time, the silence was no longer filled with hostility and tension. It held a little hesitation, a struggle, and... a faint glimmer of hope.
After a long while.
Yuanen Yehui gave an almost imperceptible nod, her voice as soft as a whisper.
"W-wait... Let's talk about it after we get out."
She didn't take his hand right away, but she didn't refuse him again, either.
For now, this was the greatest concession—and the greatest trust—she could offer.
"Okay."
Luo Yang's smile instantly brightened.
Little Yuanen Yehui, wrapped around my finger!
"Then let's keep going and take a look deeper inside."
He turned and gestured to the Golden-Haired Lion Mastiff Emperor.
The giant beast gave a low growl and strode ahead, taking the lead and clearing the way.
Yuanen Yehui looked at Luo Yang's back and drew a deep breath.
At last, she slowly followed.
The pair of black Fallen Angel Wings behind her quietly shed all their aggression and fluttered softly.
For Yuanen Yehui, the journey that followed, with two people and one beast, was an unprecedented experience.
She hardly... had any chance to fight.
Whether it was a pack of century-old Wind Wolves, a millennium-old Ghost Vine lying in wait to ambush them, or even another Scaled Beast they happened upon, with four thousand years of cultivation and more power than the last one...
None of the virtual Soul Beasts blocking the way required her or Luo Yang to lift a finger.
The Golden-Haired Lion Mastiff Emperor was like a diligent cleaner, crushing everything in its path as they went.
Walking alongside it, Yuanen Yehui went from shock at first to numb acceptance, then found deeper envy rising uncontrollably in her heart.
After the Golden-Haired Lion Mastiff Emperor easily dealt with yet another group of virtual Soul Beasts blocking their path, it suddenly let out a satisfied growl. Golden light flared around it, and its aura clearly rose by a notch.
"Oh? Looks like it's reached a bottleneck. It's absorbed all it can," Luo Yang said with a smile after sensing its condition. "Not bad for a first visit. Yehui, how about you? How much have you absorbed?"
Yuanen Yehui came back to herself and silently checked her Soul Spirit and Soul Ring. She nodded. "About the same."
Although her gains weren't as exaggerated as Luo Yang's, tagging along and "mooching off" all that high-quality energy had helped her improve far more than she could have by hunting hard on her own.
"Good. We've been here long enough. We shouldn't stay too long on a first visit; it can wear out the mind."
"Let's get ready to leave."
Luo Yang looked at the light around them, which was gradually shifting, and made his decision.
Yuanen Yehui had no objections.