Quite the Monster

"Enough!"

With his two daughters at each other's throats, Zhu Mo was already frustrated and irritable. Now his head was pounding. He barked impatiently, "Settle down! This isn't the time for you two to fight!"

"Hmph!"

Both daughters turned their heads away at the same time. Zhu Zhuyun did so with a hint of arrogance, while Zhu Zhuqing merely gave a slight turn of her head, appearing somewhat detached.

"Come on. Let's go take a look."

Zhu Mo could not infer anything too specific from Zhu Zhuqing's words alone. Besides, Zhu Lian's fate was still unknown. He might not actually be dead—perhaps he had already taken down that boy.

They had to go and see for themselves.

Zhu Zhuqing hesitated slightly.

"What are you afraid of?" Zhu Zhuyun sneered when she saw this. "Don't tell me you've been scared out of your wits?"

"Say less!" Zhu Mo said displeasedly.

He looked at Zhu Zhuqing and reassured her, "That boy is full of lies. He followed us for an entire day without daring to make a move. My strength as a Soul Douluo must have made him wary. If we go over together now, he won't be able to cause any trouble. If he's really there, I'll take his head myself."

Zhu Zhuqing pressed her lips together and nodded lightly.

Only then did the group head toward the Dreadclaw Bear's lair. After quite some time, they arrived at their destination. Without needing Zhu Mo's orders, the servants began searching.

Before long, several people returned to Zhu Mo and reported what they had found one by one.

"Reporting to the clan head, we found no trace of that boy. He must have cleaned up after himself and fled. If he didn't try to pursue the Second Young Lady, he would have had plenty of time."

"Clan head, I found Zhu Lie's corpse, as well as a severed arm that had crystallized. His chest was pierced through by spikes, and his body was full of deadly poison. The arm was severed at the shoulder. Judging by the cut, Zhu Lie likely did it himself."

"Clan head, Zhu Lian's corpse was cut in half at the waist. The cuts were unusually clean, and his waist was severed into several sections. We suspect it may have been done by a soul beast's claws. Most likely... it may have been the Dreadclaw Bear." He seemed doubtful of his own conclusion and hesitated for a moment.

Reports came in one after another. Zhu Mo kept his eyes closed and listened quietly, giving him the feeling of being back in the military camp, hearing battlefield reports.

Zhu Mo had only held a superficial impression of that boy before and had not paid him much attention. But as more information came in, the figure in his mind gradually became clearer and more three-dimensional.

When all his subordinates had finished reporting, Zhu Mo slowly opened his eyes. A trace of surprise flashed through those narrow eyes.

"Tut, I really misjudged him!" Zhu Mo praised. Now that his anger had somewhat subsided, he found himself seeing Cheng Xiao in a new light. "What a crafty little brat. He's got some brains."

Zhu Zhuyun raised a brow and asked, "Didn't that boy merely hide his strength? What kind of scheming is that? If I went out alone, I wouldn't casually reveal all my strength either."

"That boy probably deceived us from the very beginning." Zhu Mo sneered. "Those so-called elders were all nonsense he made up to fool us!"

Zhu Zhuyun froze, unable to quite understand. Zhu Zhuqing's delicate brows furrowed as she fell into thought.

"The seven elders he mentioned might not have had any relationship with him at all! And there's a very good chance that he was the one who killed them!" Zhu Mo explained to his two daughters. "Perhaps that Soul Ancestor squad took a liking to his soul bone, or perhaps he stole the soul bone from them. Either way, the result is the same."

As he spoke, Zhu Mo pointed at Zhu Lian and Zhu Lie's collected corpses. "Look. Zhu Lian and Zhu Lie are covered in wounds inflicted by soul beasts. Do you see even the slightest sign of human involvement? If Zhuqing hadn't told you that boy had a Soul Bone Skill that could summon more than ten thousand-year soul beasts, would you have thought the person who killed them was a soul master?"

"By the same logic, most of that Soul Ancestor squad's injuries were inflicted by soul beasts. As for the final blows, they must have been dealt by him personally. And as for why he knew those seven people so well..."

A flash of insight struck Zhu Mo, and he finally figured out something that had long puzzled him. His gaze shifted at once. "He once hired that Soul Ancestor squad! Or he had dealings with them before! Otherwise, he wouldn't have known every member of the squad so well!"

"He lied to us the whole way!" Zhu Zhuyun suddenly realized, then found it unbelievable. "That boy could actually throw himself over the corpses of people he killed and cry? He should be..."

As she spoke, Zhu Zhuyun turned her gaze toward Zhu Zhuqing. "About the same age as Zhuqing, right?"

Could a child barely over ten years old really do something like that?

The Zhu Family was rather oppressive because of its clan rules, and Zhu Zhuqing was already more mature than most children her age.

Yet that boy was even more calculating than Zhu Zhuqing. He showed no fear even before a Soul Douluo. The lies he invented on the spot were nearly flawless. Before the corpses of his sworn enemies, he could shamelessly call them his elders and burst into tears whenever he pleased, grieving as deeply as he wanted.

Was that really a child?

If his age were concealed and this whole account were told to others, probably not a single person would believe it had been done by a child in his early teens. They would absolutely take him for some grown-up bastard!

Zhu Zhuyun drew in a sharp breath. It was hard for her to imagine that such an unremarkable boy possessed such cunning—and that she had once ordered him around without ever seeing the slightest displeasure on his face!

Zhu Zhuqing's expression was even more complicated. Only after Zhu Zhuyun's reminder did she gradually grasp it: that person was the same age as her, yet he already possessed such methods! Meanwhile, she had fled in panic, driven by a trace of fear.

Faced with such a gap, Zhu Zhuqing actually felt a touch of inferiority and longing. If only she were him. Then she would never again fear Zhu Zhuyun and Dai Weisi joining forces. She would not need Dai Mubai—she alone could face them.

"He really is quite the monster." By now, even Zhu Mo had no choice but to offer praise.

"Let's go!"

"J-Just like that?" Zhu Zhuyun could not understand. "We're not sending anyone after him? If we let him escape, won't that cause quite a bit of trouble?"

"No need. It's been so long already; we can't catch him." Zhu Mo had thought it through clearly. "That boy was cautious enough to use a fake name. Tang San, Tang San—what elder would give their child a name like that? Only uncultured mud-legged peasants."

"Could a commoner family like that raise such a monster? That name was surely something the boy made up on the spot. Even if we investigated it, we wouldn't find anything."

"Fine, I don't really care." Zhu Zhuyun curled her lips. "I just think that if we let him go, certain people will never get over it for the rest of their lives."

As she spoke, she shot Zhu Zhuqing a disdainful glance. Zhu Zhuqing showed no reaction whatsoever. With an indifferent expression, she turned her head away, as though she could not be bothered to argue with Zhu Zhuyun over such childish, low-level nonsense.

"Hmph!"

Seeing this, Zhu Zhuyun snorted coldly. Finding it terribly boring, she turned her head away as well.

The two sisters could not stand the sight of each other.

"Who said we're letting him go?" The corners of Zhu Mo's mouth lifted slightly. "Since he had dealings with that Soul Ancestor squad, hand this matter over to Spirit Hall! Tell them that boy is a Fallen One, with strange methods, and that he slaughtered an entire Soul Ancestor squad when he was barely over ten!"

"Let Spirit Hall investigate him slowly!"

After saying that, the group headed in the direction of the Star Luo Empire. Zhu Zhuqing silently followed among them, still quiet and withdrawn, thoroughly out of place. No one noticed the trace of complexity lingering on her usually frost-like face.

Zhu Zhuqing looked at Zhu Zhuyun, surrounded by others like stars around the moon. She pressed her lips, which had yet to regain their color, together, her expression unreadable.

If the offer she had made then had been enough to move him, would the outcome have been different? If he helped her, she would surely be able to defeat that woman, wouldn't she?