Prayer was useless now. Yang Fan could only believe in coincidence.
Looking at Na'er before him, he had to admit he liked Gu Yue more.
Gu Yue wasn't as stunningly beautiful as Na'er, but that careful, considerate push and pull—drawing close, then keeping her distance—in the original novel had completely hooked his younger self in his previous life ^o^.
Yang Fan and Na'er had faced off for an hour. The sky was already growing dim when a black, luxurious, elongated soul-guidance car drove by not far away.
"You..."
Yang Fan crouched down until they were eye to eye. His long fingers unconsciously reached toward her grimy cheek.
Na'er didn't shy away. She simply watched him in silence, as though looking into a mirror.
"I don't have a home in this world, either."
Yang Fan spoke softly, as if telling her—or perhaps telling himself.
He withdrew his Martial Soul, revealing what he really looked like.
"I've been in this world for a few days. I thought I'd gotten used to being alone, but when I saw you..."
He paused, his eyes growing slightly warm.
"When I saw you, I realized I hadn't gotten used to being alone. I was just... waiting for someone who could stay by my side."
Na'er's lashes trembled. For the first time, a ripple stirred in those violet eyes.
Yang Fan reached out. This time, he didn't hesitate. Gently, he tucked the silver hair dusted with grime from her forehead behind her ear.
"Na'er, my name is Na'er."
Na'er looked at Yang Fan and spoke for the first time.
He repeated her name after her, his voice low and firm.
"Na'er, from today on, you won't be alone."
He stood and held out his hand to her, palm up.
"We're both poor wretches with nowhere to call home in this world. Be my little sister. Wherever I go, you'll come with me. I'll never leave you behind on your own."
Na'er stared at Yang Fan, dazed.
After a while, she held out her grimy little hand and gently, yet with absolute resolve, laid her fingertips in his palm.
So this was what it felt like to have a little sister? Not bad.
Nine parts truth, one part lie in what he'd told Na'er. He'd only been here for two days, and Yin'er was with him. How could he possibly be lonely?
The loneliness he carried was more like the Sorrow of Blood from a novel called Dragon Raja in his previous life: the loneliness that came from being out of step with the times.
But he truly did feel tenderness for the Silver Dragon King.
The Dragon God, driven mad by love, had brought ruin upon everything and left its split halves to clean up the mess.
Gu Yuena was much like Lan Yin now. She was only in her second life, a brand-new person who happened to possess memories from her previous one. Forcing the karma of her past life onto her would be asking too much of her.
Yang Fan liked teasing the Silver Dragon Fish, but that was because he cared about her. Someone he didn't care about was no more important than a stray dog by the roadside.
Just like that line from A Chinese Odyssey: "How he looks like a dog!"
Did the lives and deaths of Soul Beasts really matter to Gu Yuena?
The Dragon God had split in two. The Golden Dragon King had been sealed in the Divine Realm, while she, the Silver Dragon King, had taken a sword strike from Asura God and clung to life in the Life Lake of Star Dou Forest, recuperating.
After finally recovering, she'd woken to a bunch of insignificant little ants with no real connection to her, asking her to restore their race.
Who was she, the Silver Dragon King?
One half of the Dragon God, a Supreme God King.
A divine being by birth, with the bloodline of a true dragon.
Aside from Di Tian, there were no true kin of hers on this continent. Her kin would always be those true dragons. That was also why Gu Yue's attitude toward Tang Wulin truly changed only after he had spent a thousand days burying dragons.
With a little dragon by his side, he obviously couldn't rough it outdoors like he had yesterday.
If it were just him, he could find a corner in some shopping mall and make do for the night. It didn't matter, since he had to meditate anyway. He could meditate anywhere.
In the end, Yang Fan still thought of Legend of the Dragon King as no more than a side quest. Where he stayed wasn't important.
Yang Fan first took Na'er to a public restroom to wash her face, hair, and little hands. Then he took her, now looking like herself again, to a nearby Blacksmith Association, where he exchanged the metals he'd brought from Douluo Continent for some money.
It wasn't much, but it was enough.
He took Na'er to a nearby clothing store and had a young saleswoman help her wipe herself down and change into clean clothes. A dainty little girl, cute enough to make your heart melt, appeared before him.
After that, Yang Fan found a fairly decent hotel near the park where he'd met Na'er and decided to stay there.
But when he arrived at the hotel entrance with Na'er, he realized there was a very serious problem.
He had no identification.
Neither did Na'er.
A crow cawed as it flew overhead, as if mocking Yang Fan.
Emmm, in the original story, Tang Wulin and Na'er's identities had been taken care of by Tang Ziran, a fourth-level mecha designer, and Lang Yue, a mecha designer and pharmaceutical researcher. Both were big shots who kept a low profile among ordinary people.
He'd just arrived. Where was he supposed to find big shots of that caliber?
Was he supposed to rely on his fists, which were as strong as a Soul Ancestor's?
Don't make the East Sea Patrol Squad laugh.
This was the age of mechas. Ordinary Soul Masters were practically nobodies.
Only a Titled Douluo could afford to ignore the Federation in this era.
Wu Zhangkong in the original story had purely benefited from his Shrek background. Besides, that captain had been in the wrong. If he couldn't call in a big shot, what clout did a Six-Ring Soul Emperor have?
The East Sea was one of the areas most firmly controlled by the Douluo Federation, and it was where the East Sea Legion, one of the Eight Legions, was stationed.
"Na'er, did your family give you anything like an identity card?"
Na'er blinked her big eyes. She didn't say anything, but Yang Fan understood her perfectly.
What are you talking about? Na'er doesn't know.
"If two identity cards fell out of the sky, I'd even marry Bi Ji!"
Yang Fan gave a bitter smile. He, the dignified owner of the Heart of Eros, had been stumped by identity papers.
With his first Soul Skill, he could manage on his own, but now he had a little tagalong with him.
There was no way he could actually abandon this girl who had unexpectedly wandered into his plans.
If she ended up going to Tang Wulin, a lovestruck fool paired with the Sea God's brainwashing method would be pure aid to the enemy.
"Dream on. You want to marry sweet, kind, and gracious Bi Ji? You want to have all the good things for yourself, little one?"
Yang Fan turned around and looked at Bi Ji before him, surprised. He'd guessed that a Ferocious Beast was definitely following Na'er. The most likely reason none had shown up earlier was that something had held them up. Otherwise, Na'er wouldn't have looked like a little beggar.
So he'd teased Bi Ji, the darling of the Soul Beasts, to draw someone out—and ended up hooking the very person he'd been fishing for.
Bi Ji's long hair was jade green, and her clear, emerald eyes were as limpid as spring water. Her delicate features were gentle and warm, and her face carried a faint, compassionate sorrow.
Today, she wore a long dress of white and pale green, with delicate vine patterns embroidered along the hem.
Bi Ji rose slightly onto her toes, walked up to Yang Fan, and pinched his cheek as she asked softly, "You're not from this world, are you? I've been keeping an eye on you since last night."
Yang Fan hadn't paid much attention to the hint of intimacy between them. He was merely a little nervous, afraid he'd offended Bi Ji.
The original story portrayed Bi Ji as a specialist in healing who wasn't good at fighting. But she was still a Ferocious Beast. Even if she wasn't good at hand-to-hand combat, she wasn't someone most people could afford to provoke.
Fortunately, Bi Ji was one of the pacifists among the Soul Beasts, the classic compassionate, saintly type.
Because of that, she and Di Tian had been at odds for a while. It wasn't until the Ultimate Douluo era, when the conflict between humans and Soul Beasts had eased and the Soul Beasts had their own planet to thrive on, that the two were able to make up—and even let their relationship grow into something more.
"You... know... me? Don't try to fool me. I don't just mean that you know me in the literal sense."
Bi Ji watched Yang Fan's eyes as she asked, pausing between each word.
After cultivating for tens of thousands of years and treating countless Soul Beasts, and even humans, she had become deeply knowledgeable about psychology and facial expressions. In human terms, she was a psychologist at the absolute pinnacle.