The thought flashed for only half an instant before she smiled softly to herself and pressed that unformed trace of greed back into the depths of her heart.
She had watched him for far too long, from places he never knew of.
Ever since the day he had imitated her aura in Shrek City and driven back the Evil Soul Masters, she had been watching him.
The explosion in Shrek City that day had come suddenly. Though she had been far away in Star Dou Forest, she had still sensed that wave of Soul Power.
She had not intended to concern herself with it. Whatever happened in a human city had nothing to do with her.
But immediately after that wave came another force—gentle, vast, and carrying a trace of dragon aura she could never mistake.
She followed that aura.
She saw a young boy who had not even steadied himself before raising his hand to heal the wounded across the streets at the heart of the explosion. Emerald light swept over broken walls and rubble as he raced back and forth between fire and ruins, transferring every unexploded Soul Tool bomb into the void by himself.
Gu Yuena watched for a long time. Back then, she had wondered, Who is this child? He doesn't look much older than the Auspicious Beast.
Later, she learned his name. Later still, she began to make a habit of sending a thread of her awareness toward him before resting on long nights.
At the Medical Pavilion, he would squat down to set the broken bones of a young beast that had come seeking help;
In the hellscape of the Mingdou Mountain Range, with his Soul Power already on the verge of depletion, he had crouched before the corpse of a small child pierced