A Despairing Gap (II)

A Despairing Gap (II)

Xiao Wu could have left the latter half of that sentence unsaid.

But as she watched Tang San's back, Clear Sky Hammer in hand, certain memories etched into her genes seemed to suddenly awaken, making her instinctively reject him.

The aura around Tang San abruptly turned oppressive.

Though his expression did not change, his eyes had.

The betrayal, condemnation, and disbelief in his gaze stabbed into Xiao Wu's heart like knives. She instinctively avoided that look again, unknowingly touching Tang San's sore spot once more.

Being betrayed felt terrible.

But being doubted felt even worse.

Emotionally, Tang San wanted nothing more than to rush over and embrace Xiao Wu, to tell her that he had never coveted her soul ring or soul bone. But reason told him that if he made such an intense move, Xiao Wu, whose sense of security was at an all-time low, might be frightened. It could leave a shadow in her heart and make her avoid him forever.

Realizing this, Tang San took a deep breath.

He turned away his predatory gaze.

And directed his hatred toward Ye Qingcang, the one who had exposed Xiao Wu's identity.

Seeing Ye Qingcang's usual calm expression, a vicious fire immediately rose in his heart. "You're very pleased with yourself for causing all this?"

"Such a familiar habit of pinning blame on others..." The calmer Ye Qingcang remained, the more starkly he contrasted with the Tang San struggling to suppress his fury. "Unfortunately, your methods are too crude. Has it ever occurred to you that I didn't cause any of this? She caused it herself. The problem lies with her. If she weren't a 100,000-Year Transformed Soul Beast, if she had obediently cultivated in the forest until level sixty before coming out, perhaps none of this trouble would have happened."

Ning Rongrong nodded repeatedly as she listened.

Oscar, Zhu Zhuqing, Flender, and the others who understood reason also silently nodded. Even those who did not nod tacitly acknowledged that Ye Qingcang was right.

Because Ye Qingcang was indeed correct.

It was not as though he had turned Xiao Wu from a human into a 100,000-Year Transformed Soul Beast.

Her exposure was indeed related to him.

But if Xiao Wu had possessed even a little self-awareness, she would not have exposed her identity.

Yet when it came to being unreasonable, Tang San, the founding master of double standards, had something to say. "Your life is a life, but the life of a 100,000-Year Transformed Soul Beast isn't? A 100,000-Year Transformed Soul Beast deserves to be killed by you?"

"Have you eaten meat?"

"Did that meat deserve to be eaten by you?"

"You must have killed soul beasts before, right?"

"No need to rush to deny it."

"Your soul rings have already explained everything."

"So those soul beasts deserved to be killed by you?"

"Just because they weren't 100,000 years old? Just because they couldn't transform? Just because they couldn't transform into a beautiful little girl, be completely fooled by you, and willingly call you brother?"

Every word Ye Qingcang spoke cut straight to the heart of the matter like a precise scalpel.

Then, he widened the scope of his attack.

Like nails driven deep into Xiao Wu's sensitive heart, and into the not-so-solid slab of trust among the Shrek Seven Devils:

"This world was never fair. Some are born to live in lofty towers, while others are born to hide in filthy gutters."

"Wine and meat rot behind vermilion gates, while bones of the frozen dead lie by the road."

"Do not assume your justice is right."

"Do not assume your reasoning is right."

"Take Miss Ning Rongrong, for example. The seemingly ordinary blue dress she wears was actually handmade by a privately commissioned tailor, using the finest Snow Crystal Silk. Snow Crystal Silk has always been renowned for costing one tael of gold per tael of silk. A farmer's annual income is only three or four Gold Soul Coins, yet this single outfit of hers could support a farmer working without food or drink for a thousand years, perhaps with several hundred more years added on top..."

"Is that just?"

"No."

"Is that fair?"

"No."

"But she is not in the wrong."

"Because she has the ability to earn money."

"She has the means to support her own expenses."

"Even if she did not, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect would provide for her material needs, because she was born the eldest daughter and little princess of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, with an outstanding father and two grandfathers who adored her."

"Yet when we place her beside Miss Zhu Zhuqing for comparison, Miss Zhu Zhuqing, who seems to hold such high status, becomes nothing at all—though Miss Zhu Zhuqing's life is also beyond what a farmer could imagine. A farmer could not afford a costly leather outfit like hers; their entire yearly income would not match even one month of her pocket money. But if she had two Titled Douluo grandfathers who adored her, she would not have been reduced to desperately staking her life on a useless prince who had been pushed out of the center of power."

"Is that just?"

"No."

"Is that fair?"

"No."

"But she is not in the wrong either."

"So, you are not wrong, and neither am I."

"This 100,000-Year Transformed Soul Beast is not wrong, but neither am I for wanting to kill her—just as the soul beasts whose soul rings you hunted were not wrong, yet neither were you for needing to obtain soul rings!"

"No one is wrong."

"There is only weakness and strength."

"As the strong one, I have the ability to decide her fate."

"As the weak one, she can only have her fate decided by me."

"These words may not align with your values, because the education you received has always taught you to believe in the truth, goodness, and beauty of this world. But we are different. Blue Tyrant Academy, which only recruits commoner soul masters, is different as well. Blue Tyrant Academy advocates the law of the jungle. Compared to noble soul masters, commoner soul masters have nothing. Therefore, if they wish to surpass noble soul masters, they must pay prices that certain noble soul masters are unwilling to pay."

"This, too, is a kind of fairness!"

Ye Qingcang's tone was calm and unhurried.

He left the Shrek group speechless.

Before the facts, all double standards, sophistry, blame-shifting, and similar behavior were utterly vulnerable—precisely in accordance with the law of the jungle.

"Then why don't you kill me?" Xiao Wu adapted quickly to this theory of the law of the jungle, because the rules of the Star Dou Great Forest were exactly that. "Could it be that you want me to sacrifice myself to you, squeezing every bit of value from me, including my soul ring?"

Sacrifice allowed one to absorb a soul ring without regard for one's physical condition.

This method was so heaven-defying that it could allow Huo Yuhao's first soul ring to reach a million years, even granting him a second martial soul.

But if Xiao Wu were merely killed, any soul master below eight rings who dared forcibly absorb this 100,000-Year Soul Ring would meet only one fate: their body would be blown apart by the energy within the 100,000-Year Soul Ring!

It was only natural for Xiao Wu to think of sacrifice.

"I have no need for your sacrifice..." Ye Qingcang's ambition was greater than anyone had imagined. "Blue Tyrant Academy is my territory, my hunting ground, my home. If you are fortunate enough to join Blue Tyrant Academy, then as the master of this territory, the administrator of this hunting ground, and a member of this home, I will not abandon my principles for the sake of a 100,000-Year Soul Ring or even greater benefits. But if you are a little rabbit from outside this hunting ground, who happens to wander into my hunting ground and still wishes to leave, then as the administrator of this hunting ground, I have every reason to hunt you down. Not only would that not violate my principles, it would add another insignificant achievement to my record. Having lived in the forest, you should understand what I mean."

"I understand." Xiao Wu took a deep breath, controlling her trembling body. Though she feared Ye Qingcang, after hearing those words, she trusted him more than Tang San, who had seemingly deceived her. "Like a tiger. It has an extremely strong sense of territory. Animals it sets its sights on, and animals that trespass into its territory, have only one outcome: being killed by it. Even if they escape its territory in time, it will chase them until they die..."