[Fire-Breathing Dragon: These past few days, I've shut myself away and thought it over again and again. Your words from before were like a needle, popping the balloon weighing on my heart... Somehow, that's made me feel a little lighter.]
[Fire-Breathing Dragon: I waited for him for twenty years, hoping for him, resenting him... Maybe I stopped caring about what kind of person he was a long time ago. What I cared about was, why did I deserve to be treated like that? What did those twenty years of my life even amount to?]
[Fire-Breathing Dragon: I was just fighting with myself, punishing myself by waiting, and even dreaming of using my devotion to hold him hostage...]
[Fire-Breathing Dragon: Looking back now, it really wasn't worth it. Hate him? I'd say hating him would be a waste of emotion. If I'm going to hate anyone, I should hate myself for being blind and wasting the best years of my life on someone like him.]
Reading those words, Ye Qiong couldn't help but think more highly of Liu Erlong.
She was still a hopeless romantic, but Liu Erlong was the sort who loved and hated without reservation. Once she came to her senses, she could cut ties with the past and never look back—a decisiveness few women could match.
[Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero: The fact that you've figured it out is better than anything. Let the past rot in the past.]
[Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero: Who are you? You're Liu Erlong, the Fire-Breathing Dragon! Your life should be a raging blaze, wild and free. You shouldn't be trapped in a dry well called "the past," torturing yourself. Spending another thought on someone like him would be a losing deal.]
Ye Qiong took the opportunity to offer her a perfectly timed compliment.
There was a pause on the other end of the screen. It seemed the unexpected flattery had left her at a loss for words.
[Fire-Breathing Dragon: Heh... With that foul mouth of yours, you insult people like you're trying to make their ancestors' graves smoke. I never thought you could say something halfway decent.]
[Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero: Hey! You've got me all wrong! I'm a good person certified by the galaxy, quality guaranteed! You know the galaxy? It's a place countless times bigger than the sky over our heads! The standards for a good person there are all based on me!]
One bagful of Praise of High Morality was proof enough of the quality of a good person from the galaxy.
Liu Erlong seemed to choke a little on his clumsy words, then let out a quiet laugh.
[Fire-Breathing Dragon: "The galaxy"? What kind of nonsense is that... Fine, I'll give you this—you've got a little conscience after all.]
[Fire-Breathing Dragon: But from the way you tell it, was that "dream" of yours really just about all that miserable stuff? Was there nothing else? I didn't... stay unlucky forever, did I?]
Here it came!
Ye Qiong's heart stirred. Just like Bibi Dong, once Liu Erlong had seen her past clearly, she'd begun to desperately want to know what the future held.
[Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero: You want to know what happened later? Then I'll continue. In the "dream," your life afterward was a lot more "exciting."]
[Fire-Breathing Dragon: Quit stalling and tell me!]
There was unmistakable urgency in Liu Erlong's tone.
[Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero: First, your Blue Tyrant Academy will become Shrek Academy, and you'll meet a group of interesting, lively young people.
[Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero: One girl among them will be especially close to your heart. Her Martial Soul is a rabbit, and her name is Xiao Wu. You'll take to her at first sight, accept her as your goddaughter, and dote on her like she's your own daughter, giving her all the love you've had nowhere to spend.]
[Fire-Breathing Dragon: It'll become Shrek? I don't really care about that... Xiao Wu? A rabbit Martial Soul? She sounds sweet. If I meet her, I'll take her as my goddaughter. What else?]
Liu Erlong didn't care about the academy's name, but the girl called Xiao Wu had piqued her curiosity.
[Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero: After that... the future in the "dream" gets chaotic across the continent. Spirit Hall will launch a "Soul Hunting Operation" that sweeps across the entire Soul Master World. The Upper Three Sects will be the first to bear the brunt. Your family, the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan... will be completely wiped out in the upheaval.]
There was a long silence on the other end of the screen.
[Fire-Breathing Dragon: ...Oh. Is that so?]
Liu Erlong's tone was calm—unnaturally so.
[Fire-Breathing Dragon: That place, those people. To be honest, I stopped thinking of myself as one of them a long time ago. Hearing this leaves me feeling a little hollow, but I can't say I'm sad. Forget it, let's not talk about that. What happens next?]
Ye Qiong could tell that she truly had no deep affection for the family that had treated her as a disgrace.
[Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero: After that, the last awkward barrier between you and him—the one caused by blood ties and family—will vanish completely in the face of a shared crisis. You'll fight side by side and stand against Spirit Hall together. Once the war is over and everything has settled...]
Ye Qiong deliberately paused. He knew the next part was the key.
[Fire-Breathing Dragon: Wait. After the war, will I go right back to the same old path? Will I be tied together with Flender and him again, the three of us continuing this so-called "Golden Iron Triangle"?]
Liu Erlong cut him off sharply, her tone wary.
[Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero: In the "dream"... yes. You, Flender, and Yu Xiaogang will devote the rest of your lives to Shrek Academy.]
Ye Qiong gave her a definite answer.
[Fire-Breathing Dragon: Ha... I knew it.]
[Fire-Breathing Dragon: In your dream, I still never escaped that circle. Thanks, but I don't want a "future" like that. What Iron Triangle? What Shrek? When you get down to it, isn't it still just circling around the same people and matters from the past?]
[Fire-Breathing Dragon: I, Liu Erlong, waited twenty years. I finally spat out the foul air in my chest today and figured things out. Why should I spend the rest of my life bound to the "past" too?]
A sense of relief welled up in Liu Erlong's heart. The boulder that had weighed on her for twenty years seemed to have finally fallen.
Seeing the message, Ye Qiong smiled.
[Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero: You mean...]
[Fire-Breathing Dragon: I mean, this strange dream of yours gave me a chance to "know beforehand." Why shouldn't I choose another path?]
[Fire-Breathing Dragon: If the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan is gone, then it's gone. I had nothing to do with them anymore. And as for my old score with Yu Xiaogang, I waited twenty years for him. I'll consider that feeding a dog. From now on, he and I owe each other nothing. I'm going to walk a path that belongs to me alone.]
She said it with absolute conviction.
[Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero: You... You're absolutely right.]
Ye Qiong gave her a thumbs-up.
[Fire-Breathing Dragon: In the first half of my life, I was bound hand and foot by a man, an old romance, and a family. For the second half, I should live for myself.]
[Fire-Breathing Dragon: Maybe I'll go see the snow in the Extreme North, explore the seas, or find a place I like and open an academy that only accepts female students. I'll teach whoever I want and fight whoever I want to fight. Yu Xiaogang, Shrek—all of it belongs in the "past" now. That's the path I should take.]
[Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero: You've severed ties with the past and stepped fully into a future of your own... Dean Liu, your perspective has just grown by leaps and bounds!]
[Fire-Breathing Dragon: That's enough. You helped me see what a scumbag he was, and helped me see myself clearly, too. As for how I walk the road ahead, that's up to me! I'm logging off. I need to plan my own "future" properly!]
[ Ding! "Fire-Breathing Dragon" status changed to offline.]
Watching the avatar turn gray, Ye Qiong let out a long breath.
He'd only revealed a few things, yet he'd managed to wake up a hopeless romantic. Could he have a knack for being an "inspirational counselor" like Lu Xiaobu?
"I wonder if Bibi Dong will have as easy a time moving on."
Ye Qiong rubbed his chin, lost in thought.
Liu Erlong's situation was relatively simple. She was dealing only with emotional betrayal and cowardice.
But Bibi Dong also bore the legacy of the Rakshasa God. That evil divine will wasn't something she could cast off through sheer willpower alone.
Just then, Ye Qiong's gaze swept over the group chat interface. In a corner he hadn't noticed before, an icon labeled "Level Rules Manual" had appeared.
Curious, he tapped it open.
"This is..."
Ye Qiong saw the information displayed inside, and his eyes lit up.
With this new feature unlocked, Bibi Dong might have a chance to resolve her problem. Other people might also be able to do things they'd never thought possible—and he himself would have a chance to earn even more Emotion Points!
"Looks like I need to work harder and level up to LV3 as soon as possible!"
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