A Strange Soul?! (Please Keep Reading~)

Muffled groans of pain came from within the hall, along with the footsteps of maids hurrying back and forth. The midwife was shouting something inside, her voice urgent and loud.

Ye Xunfeng stood outside the door with his hands behind his back, his face somewhat pale with fear. With him here, nothing should go wrong, but he was still afraid.

Golden Crocodile Douluo had arrived at some point. He stood beneath the corridor and glanced at him without saying a word.

Light Feather Douluo had come as well. He craned his neck to peer into the hall, only for Green Phoenix Douluo to yank him back.

"What are you doing?" Green Phoenix Douluo lowered his voice.

"I was just looking for the Pope..." Light Feather Douluo sheepishly drew back his neck.

"Her Holiness the Pope has already arrived," Mighty Lion Douluo said in a deep, muffled voice, though he could not resist glancing inside himself.

The several worshippers simply stood beneath the corridor in silence, waiting.

Bibi Dong's cries within the hall grew increasingly urgent, interspersed with the midwife's shouts. "Push! Push harder! I can see the head!"

Ye Xunfeng clenched his fingers tighter.

Yue Guan brought over a cup of tea and carefully offered it to him. "Your Holiness, would you... like a sip of water?"

Ye Xunfeng did not take it.

He sensed a force within his body leave him. It seemed to be that trace of white radiance born from Life Force and the Power of Destruction.

It was not very obvious, but because his control over Soul Power was so powerful, he noticed it.

Yue Guan awkwardly withdrew his hand and set the teacup on the railing beside him.

Ye Xunfeng glanced over. Hmm, this railing was really round.

Wait!

How had he set it there?

About fifteen minutes later, a clear, resounding cry suddenly rang out from within the hall.

The cry was loud and crisp, clear even through several doors.

Ye Xunfeng's body stiffened abruptly.

Then he heard the midwife shout from inside, "She's born! She's born! It's a little miss!"

The worshippers beneath the corridor all let out a sigh of relief. Light Feather Douluo even gave a "Heh," a smile appearing on his face.

Yet Ye Xunfeng remained where he was.

He heard the child crying, again and again, full of vigor, as though she were announcing her arrival to the entire world.

He suddenly thought of nineteen years ago. In that shabby little wooden hut, had his mother held him just after he was born, listened to him cry, and smiled through her tears as well?

"Your Holiness." Yue Guan softly called out, "Aren't you going in to take a look?"

Ye Xunfeng came back to himself and headed into the hall. After taking two steps, he stopped again, lowered his head to inspect his robe, dusted it off, then straightened his cuffs.

The hall had already been cleaned up. The scent of blood had not fully dispersed, mingling with the strange aura brought by new life.

Bibi Dong leaned against the bed, her face pale. The hair at her forehead was soaked with sweat, strands clinging to her face, making her look extremely weak.

Yet she held a tiny swaddled bundle in her arms. Her eyes curved like crescent moons, the corners of her lips lifted, her face full of irrepressible joy.

"Brother Xunfeng, come look." Bibi Dong's voice was much softer than usual, carrying the tenderness of a new mother. "She's so tiny."

Ye Xunfeng walked over and lowered his head to look at the swaddled bundle.

She was tiny, red, and wrinkled, her eyes still unopened. Her fists were tightly clenched, and her mouth opened and closed as if searching for something to eat.

This was his daughter.

Ye Xunfeng reached out, his fingers trembling slightly, and gently touched her little face.

She was unbelievably soft.

Her skin was so tender that it seemed it would break at the slightest touch. She carried the warmth unique to a newborn, along with a faint milky scent.

Touched once, the little one scrunched up her face, pursed her lips, and looked ready to cry again.

Ye Xunfeng was so frightened that he quickly pulled back his hand.

Bibi Dong was amused by his reaction. Her laughter tugged at her body, and pain made her frown, but the smile on her face simply would not fade.

"What are you afraid of?" Bibi Dong gently took his hand and guided it back to touch the child's face. "She won't bite you."

Ye Xunfeng's fingers landed on his daughter's face again. This time, he did not pull them back.

He merely touched her gently, as if afraid that even a little force would hurt her.

"She looks like you." Ye Xunfeng suddenly spoke, his voice a little hoarse. "Her eyes look like yours."

Bibi Dong lowered her head to look at the child in her arms, then lifted her gaze to Ye Xunfeng and smiled. "Her nose looks like yours, and so does her mouth."

Ye Xunfeng did not reply. He only looked at that tiny swaddled bundle for a long time.

"What should we call her?" Ye Xunfeng asked with a lowered smile.

"You name her," Bibi Dong said gently.

Ye Xunfeng's expression suddenly froze. His Soul Power seemed to sense an extremely sacred force.

This divine soul...

This was Qian Renxue?

There were two identical souls!

No, it should be that part of her carried a soul that did not belong to an infant, and it had split apart.

This sacred aura.

Qian Renxue?

However, this fragment of a shattered soul seemed to have been sealed by a silver force.

Ye Xunfeng's eyes darkened as dense Life Force slowly flowed into that shattered soul.

He did not want his daughter to become the Qian Renxue from the original story. She was truly...

Qian Renxue from the original story was simply impossible to judge favorably: a love-struck fool, merciful toward her enemies...

She was exactly like her father and grandfather.

So they could not merge. At the very least, before her mind matured, she could not be contaminated by Qian Renxue's memories.

To this day, he still could not understand which genius had come up with that infiltration plan, nor how she could still... when she knew Tang San was the enemy who had killed her father.

Ye Xunfeng rubbed the baby girl's hair. "Let's call her Xiao Xue for now."

He had originally planned to call her Ye Renxue, but it sounded far too unpleasant and felt somewhat awkward.

Forget it. There was no rush to choose a name.

"Xiao Xue, Xiao Xue..." Bibi Dong smiled as she stroked Qian Renxue's little face, her heart filled with happiness.

Deep beneath Slaughter City, the Blood Pool churned.

The thick, dark-red liquid seemed alive, bubbling and gurgling. Every bursting bubble came with a shriek that set one's teeth on edge.

Something was climbing upward through the darkness.

First came the fingers.

Five deathly pale fingers without a trace of color, their knuckles distinct, their nails packed with dark-red grime as they clawed tightly into the stone wall at the edge of the Blood Pool.

Then came the entire hand.

It was withered and gaunt, veins bulging beneath the skin like the roots of an old tree, throbbing and pulsing.

That hand suddenly exerted force.

Splash!

Blood sprayed everywhere as a figure rose from the pool.

Soaked crimson hair clung to her face, shoulders, and back, bloodwater dripping steadily from it.

She was naked, her skin so pale it was nearly translucent. The blue veins beneath were clearly visible, as though someone had peeled away a layer of skin and left only a thin membrane wrapped around bone and sinew.

She slowly raised her head.

That face.

If no one said anything, no one would recognize her as Bibi Dong.

Her features still appeared to be the same, but her expression had changed completely.

Her brow bones jutted high, her eye sockets were deeply sunken, and her pupils were no longer purple. Instead, they were a murky dark yellow tinged with green, like jade soaked in stagnant water for far too long.

A faint layer of green patterns emerged across her face, like a spiderweb or shattered porcelain. They spread from the corners of her eyes to her jaw, crawling across half her face.