"Senior, could we fly a little slower?"
Ye Qing controlled the Chaos Green Flame, sending a tail of blue-green fire streaming out behind him.
His whole body traced S-shaped curves through the air, barely keeping three zhang behind Dugu Bo.
The Chaos Green Flame could unleash both extreme cold and extreme heat, making it almost too perfect as a thruster.
The extreme heat provided the propulsion.
It was definitely cool.
It was also exhausting.
"Slower?"
Dugu Bo didn't even look back.
His emerald Soul Power drew a long trail through the air.
"I worked like an ox and horse for you in the Star Dou Great Forest all that time. Now I'm eager to get home, and you're telling me to slow down?"
"I'm just worried you might get tired, senior..."
"Quiet."
Ye Qing obediently shut his mouth.
Fine.
Ever since that old geezer had touched the corpses of seventeen wolves last time and hadn't gotten so much as a hair, his temper had been as foul as if he'd eaten three jin of explosives.
He looked down at the Star Dou Great Forest below.
The boundless sea of trees rushed backward beneath his feet.
Suddenly!
"Hm?"
Ye Qing's gaze sharpened.
In the bushes below,
a small, dark figure lay curled up on the ground, motionless.
And in the grass less than five zhang away from that figure, a pitch-black giant python slithered forward without a sound.
A Soul Beast with roughly two thousand years of cultivation.
At that moment, its slit pupils had already locked onto the unconscious person on the ground.
Its tongue flicked in and out as it coiled, ready to strike.
"Senior, there's someone down there!"
Before Dugu Bo could respond,
the Chaos Green Flame changed direction, and Ye Qing plunged straight toward the ground like a meteor.
"Hey! You're causing trouble for me again!"
Dugu Bo's shout still echoed in the air as Ye Qing landed.
The Chaos Green Flame condensed into a tiny blue-green lotus at his fingertips. He flicked it away.
The flaming lotus traced an arc through the air and struck the Black Mamba Snake precisely at the nape.
"Bloom!"
The flames burst open!
Extreme cold froze the snake's body in an instant, and extreme heat followed, incinerating its innards.
The two-thousand-year-old giant python didn't even have time to hiss before it became an ice sculpture, charred black inside.
One-shot kill.
"That's it?"
Ye Qing brushed nonexistent dust from his hands and turned toward the unconscious figure.
Only when he drew closer did he see that it was a girl.
She looked about ten years old.
Her black hair was scattered across the ground, and her little face was so pale it had no trace of color.
Her clothes were tattered and covered in dirt and dead leaves.
Ye Qing crouched down and placed two fingers against the side of her neck.
She still had a pulse.
It was weak, but she was alive.
Dugu Bo landed beside Ye Qing and frowned as he glanced at the girl on the ground.
"What happened?"
"I don't know. She was unconscious here and nearly got eaten by a snake."
"How did a little girl this young end up on the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest?"
A flicker of confusion crossed Dugu Bo's emerald eyes. He crouched to lift the girl's eyelids, then checked the fluctuations of her Soul Power.
Then he stood up, his tone returning to its usual indifference. "Nothing serious. She's only exhausted her Soul Power. She'll wake after some rest."
"Let's go."
"Go?"
Ye Qing pointed at the unconscious girl on the ground. "Are we just leaving her here?"
"What else?"
Dugu Bo raised an eyebrow. "You want to take her back?"
"Senior, saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda."
"Building what?"
Dugu Bo looked at him as if to say, What nonsense are you spouting now?
"Uh, I mean it's good to do kind deeds."
Ye Qing scratched his head and promptly switched to words Dugu Bo could understand.
"Just think about it. This is the middle of nowhere. If another Soul Beast comes along, this girl is done for."
"If we leave her to die, how are we any different from those villains?"
"Villains?"
"Bad people."
Dugu Bo fell silent for a moment.
His emerald gaze swept over Ye Qing's face, then he suddenly gave a mocking laugh. "Since when have you been so kind? Don't tell me it's because this girl's pretty?"
"Uh, senior, she's still a child."
"I didn't say anything. Why are you so worked up?"
Ye Qing rolled his eyes, not bothering to argue with the old geezer and his impure thoughts.
He simply bent down and scooped the unconscious girl into his arms.
She was frighteningly light.
It felt like holding a bundle of firewood.
Dugu Bo watched him act as if they were already familiar and knitted his brows into a deep frown.
But in the end, he didn't stop him.
He only snorted and rose into the air.
"You picked up the trouble, so deal with it yourself. Don't expect me to clean up after you."
"Got it, got it."
Holding the girl, Ye Qing sent the Chaos Green Flame surging out again.
Its blue-green tail of fire traced an arc through the air as he steadily caught up with Dugu Bo.
After returning to Heaven Dou City,
Ye Qing didn't head straight back to the academy.
Instead, he found a hotel in the city, rented a room, and settled the girl he'd picked up inside.
Dugu Bo checked her pulse again.
He stood up and brushed nonexistent dust from his sleeve.
"She's exhausted her Soul Power and is physically weak, but she has no internal injuries. She'll wake after some rest."
He turned to Ye Qing, a hint of impatience flashing in his emerald eyes.
"Handle the rest yourself. I'm leaving."
"Wait, senior, you're really just leaving her with me?"
"You picked her up, so you're responsible."
Dugu Bo glared at him in annoyance.
He reached the door, then stopped and tossed out a remark without looking back.
"By the way, when Yanyan asks about it after you get back to the academy, explain it yourself. Don't expect me to say anything for you."
"And one more thing..."
He paused, the corner of his mouth curling into a sinister smile.
"If Yanyan gets the wrong idea and thinks you're fooling around with women outside, I'll be the first to poison you to death."
"..."
The door slammed shut without mercy.
Ye Qing stood there, the corner of his mouth twitching three times.
So what exactly was he to that old geezer?
He threatened to poison him to death every day, yet helped him with Soul Hunting and covered for him.
A tsundere.
"Forget that old tsundere for now."
Ye Qing turned his gaze back to the bed.
The black-haired girl lay quietly beneath the blankets.
Her breathing had evened out considerably, and a touch of color had returned to her pale cheeks.
He dragged over a chair, sat down beside the bed, propped his chin on his hand, and began studying her little face.
She was around ten, her features not yet fully grown in, but it was already clear she'd become a beauty.
She had fair skin and a pretty face, and her hair was long, straight, and black.
"Whose child are you?"
Ye Qing muttered to himself, lightly tapping his knee with a finger.
"The outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest aren't a place for a little kid."
"Was she being hunted? Did something happen to her family? Or..."
He suddenly remembered a certain event from the original story.
Zhu Zhuqing.
The second daughter of the Zhu Family. She was about the same age and had run away because of the affairs between her family and the imperial family.
"Could it really be that much of a coincidence?"
Just then, the person in the bed moved.
The girl's eyelashes trembled lightly, then she suddenly opened her eyes.
A pair of amber cat eyes.
The instant she saw Ye Qing, her whole demeanor shifted from unconsciousness to intense wariness.
She flipped upright.
Both hands braced against the bed as she arched her body slightly.
Then a pair of black cat ears sprang out from her hair, and a long, slender black tail rose behind her.
This was Beast Martial Soul Possession!
She performed a textbook catlike hiss at Ye Qing.
"Hiss—!"
Her expression, her posture—they were exactly like a little black cat with its fur standing on end, hissing.
If the mood hadn't been so tense, Ye Qing would have been tempted to find a feather toy and give it a try.
"Calm down."
Ye Qing placated her calmly. "I'm not a bad person. To be precise, I'm the one who saved your life."
The girl's cat ears twitched.
But she didn't budge from her hissing posture.
Those amber cat eyes remained fixed on him.
"Really."
Ye Qing tried to make himself look as harmless as possible.
"You were unconscious on the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest. A Snake Soul Beast was very close to you. If I hadn't happened to pass by, you'd be snake food by now."
"!"
The girl's breath hitched slightly.
She remembered.
She remembered fleeing into the Star Dou Great Forest, remembered running out of Soul Power, remembered everything going black as she collapsed.
Had this person in front of her... really saved her?
Though she was somewhat convinced, her instincts remained on guard.
She stayed in her Martial Soul Possession form, her catlike pupils fixed on Ye Qing.
"Who are you?"
She spoke, her voice as hoarse as sandpaper scraping against itself.
"Where is this place?"
"My name is Ye Qing. Ye as in Ye Hei, Qing as in Azure Emperor."
Ye Qing spread his hands as he introduced himself, then explained, "This is a hotel in Heaven Dou City."
"I found you unconscious in the Star Dou Great Forest, so I brought you here."
The girl's cat ears twitched again.
Heaven Dou City?
She'd actually been brought to Heaven Dou City?
"You..."
She was just about to say something else.
"Grrr!"
Her stomach growled.
The sound wasn't loud, but it rang especially clearly in the quiet room.
The girl's cat ears drooped at once.
At last, a hint of color crept into her pale little face.
Ye Qing's mouth twitched. He tried his best not to laugh aloud.
"Are you... hungry?"
"..."
The girl said nothing.
Her amber cat eyes turned aside, and her tail curled around in front of her without her noticing.
As if she wanted to crawl into a crack in the ground.
"I'll go get you something to eat."
Ye Qing stood up and walked out of the room.
The room fell quiet.
The girl remained in her Martial Soul Possession stance, staring at the tightly shut door with her amber cat eyes for a long time.
She was thinking.
Was what that man named Ye Qing had said true?
She lowered her head and looked at her dirty hands.
"Ye Qing..."
She softly repeated the name.
Complex emotions flickered in the depths of her cat eyes.