After Dong'er and Qiu'er finished sparring, Huo Yuhao was scolded alone by Xuan Zi for half an hour. "You are the core of the new generation of Shrek Seven Monsters, a genius seen only once in tens of thousands of years. You know perfectly well how highly the academy values you, yet you went and acted as someone else's shield." Xuan Zi tossed him some medicine for external injuries, though his tone carried a trace of helplessness.
Huo Yuhao's injuries were not serious, but Dong'er looked at him as though he had just returned from the gates of hell. Qiu'er, meanwhile, said nothing. Before leaving, she merely looked at him for a long time, then turned and departed alone.
As night deepened, Huo Yuhao sat alone in his room cultivating. Yet his Spirit Detection instinctively sought out Qiu'er's whereabouts—she was alone on the academy's back mountain. Worried that evil soul masters might have targeted her again, Huo Yuhao decided to go find her. However, he ran into Dong'er just as she was about to knock on his door. Both of them froze in surprise. Dong'er broke the silence first. "Are you going to find Wang Qiu'er?"
Huo Yuhao did not lie. He merely said quietly, "Yes. Xuan Zi told me to keep an eye on her safety. I'll be back soon."
The night wind on the back mountain was slightly cool. Qiu'er sat atop a bluish stone, moonlight outlining her slender back. When Huo Yuhao approached, she did not turn around, but softly said, "You came."
Huo Yuhao sat down beside her, deliberately leaving a little space between them. Qiu'er glanced at that gap. "You would still protect her without hesitation."
"Yes."
"Then why did you come to find me?"
Huo Yuhao looked at her. "Because you are here alone. I am responsible for ensuring your safety."
Wang Qiu'er lowered her head to look at her hands. Her voice was calm, yet carried a faint tremor. "Me? What danger could I possibly be in? My cultivation rivals that of a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. In the Star Dou Great Forest, many Soul Beasts fear me and care for me, but they are not seeking Wang Qiu'er. They are seeking the Emperor Auspicious Beast."
Huo Yuhao's chest tightened slightly. Qiu'er turned to look at him, her gaze burning without the slightest attempt at concealment. "That is why I do not want to leave you."
The night wind swept past, and the air between them seemed to grow thick. Huo Yuhao remembered her wild, powerful body in battle, remembered the scorching warmth of her touch in his dreams. For a moment, he did not know how to respond. Yet he knew that he did not want Qiu'er to return to the Star Dou Great Forest either.
Wang Qiu'er suddenly asked, "When you are intimate with her... what does it feel like?"
Huo Yuhao was somewhat startled and, for a moment, a little embarrassed. Wang Qiu'er continued, "I saw it. When she kissed you, your spiritual power softened, and your whole self became... different."
"Qiu'er." Huo Yuhao's voice was hoarse.
"I know that is between the two of you." She leaned a little closer. "But I want to know why kissing can make you different. If it were me, would you be like that too?"
The night seemed to suddenly press down. Her words were like a flaming arrow, striking directly into Huo Yuhao's chest. Qiu'er was not deliberately trying to tempt him. She truly did not understand. Beneath the moonlight, he looked at her profile, his Adam's apple bobbing lightly as the warmth and strength of her body when she drew close flashed uncontrollably through his mind.
He took a deep breath and said quietly, "Qiu'er... I cannot give you an answer right now."
Wang Qiu'er's gaze stirred slightly. "Why?"
"At first, I really only wanted to figure out why you had appeared. Later, when I learned that your origins were far from simple, and that someone had targeted you, I felt responsible for protecting you."
Wang Qiu'er looked at him as though she wanted to remember every word. Huo Yuhao's voice became even lower. "Perhaps I have selfish motives too. I cannot bear to leave you here alone." Qiu'er's expression changed, like an untouched forest receiving lamplight for the first time.
After a long while, she asked, "Is this liking someone?"
"I still do not know."
Qiu'er nodded. She was not disappointed. Instead, she seemed to have received an answer she could accept.
In the distance, the shadows of trees swayed lightly. Dong'er stood there, having heard everything.
Huo Yuhao rose to his feet. "We should go back."
At that moment, Huo Yuhao's brow warmed slightly. The black residual ripple he had left in the recording fragment suddenly resonated faintly with somewhere on the back mountain. His gaze turned cold at once, and his Spirit Eyes Martial Soul spread out instantly. Blades of grass, rocks, and tree shadows in the night unfolded layer by layer. Behind the bluish stone where Qiu'er had just been sitting, he discovered a grain of black sand that had almost been ground flat. After Ultimate Ice sealed it, an extremely faint evil soul pattern appeared within it. Dong'er ignored the bitterness in her heart and rushed out from the woods, ready for battle.
"They came for us." Huo Yuhao raised his head toward the southwest beyond Shrek City. "This was not a spur-of-the-moment decision. They had laid a net long ago and had been waiting for Qiu'er to approach."
The three exchanged looks through the night. The lingering ambiguity and tension in the air were instantly washed away by hostility. After thinking for a moment, Huo Yuhao continued, "The Holy Spirit Cult may have established an outlying stronghold in a hidden location outside Shrek City. If the three of us keep fighting among ourselves, we will only bring the danger closer."
The tension between them remained complicated, but for the first time, a shared threat forced them to stand on the same front.
And fate stood ahead, laying out an even crueler answer for him.
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