Ju Zi's second letter arrived the night before the first round of the finals. This time, it was no ordinary letter but a miniature Soul Tool core. A Sun Moon Empire military serial number was engraved on its outer layer, while inside it hid a recording meant for Huo Yuhao alone. In the recording, Ju Zi stood in a dim Soul Tool warehouse, her face a little pale.
"Yuhao, if you're seeing this, it means I was right."
She still called him Yuhao, not Junior Huo.
In that instant, the first thing that came to Huo Yuhao's mind was neither the military serial number nor the traps the core might contain. It was the cramped laboratory at the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy. Ju Zi had once set a bowl of hot soup beside him and scolded him for getting so caught up dismantling a Soul Tool core that he forgot to eat. When he had stayed up past midnight after a Soul Tool array failed, she had sat across from him and helped him sort out the schematics.
Huo Yuhao wasn't made of stone. Of course he remembered.
Ma Xiaotao leaned against the doorway with her arms folded, wearing an expression that said, Another one? Ju Zi's voice continued.
"Someone on the Sun Moon Frontier is secretly making Soul Tool cores that simulate a golden aura. It's incomplete, but it's enough to disrupt your judgment for a short time."
Ju Zi paused, as though afraid she hadn't made herself clear.
"This isn't ordinary Soul Beast mimicry. Someone in the military wants to wrap a Soul Tool in a layer of the Emperor Auspicious Beast's aura. They could use it to suppress Soul Beasts, steer beast tides, and even keep groups of Soul Beasts from attacking a Soul Tool legion the moment it enters the Star Dou Great Forest."
The image flickered, revealing a Soul Tool schematic. Huo Yuhao's expression changed at once. This diagram was far too valuable; Ju Zi must have taken an enormous risk to get it. More importantly, she knew what to give him. Rather than a complete answer, the diagram held three deliberate gaps: the energy circuit, the stabilizing ring for the simulated aura, and a reverse-sensing aperture that only a spiritual-type Soul Master like Huo Yuhao would notice.
Ju Zi hadn't handed him the answer. She trusted, with all her admiration for him, that one glance would be enough for him to grasp the secret. Huo Yuhao pressed a fingertip to the diagram. In barely ten breaths, he had worked out the enemy core's true purpose.
His voice sank. "They don't mean to interfere with me while I act. They want the interference to reach me afterward, so I make the wrong decision."
More precisely, they weren't counting on a single strike to defeat Shrek.
Sun Moon couldn't create a true Auspicious Beast aura, so it meant to use a false shell to confuse spiritual-type Soul Masters. If Huo Yuhao misread the situation even once in the arena, Shrek's formation would fall into disorder. Wang Dong'er would have to fill the gap, and Ma Xiaotao would have to act early. The whole team would lose its rhythm, giving the enemy a better look at each person's weaknesses and how Shrek responded to a mistake.
Wang Dong'er saw Huo Yuhao's expression and felt a pang in her chest, but she said nothing. What Ju Zi had given him was intelligence. That made her more dangerous than an old attachment, because she was useful. At the end of the recording, Ju Zi raised her head and seemed to look straight at Huo Yuhao.
"Don't trust the Sun Moon Soul Engineer team you see in the tournament. And don't trust me."
She smiled, gentle as sincerity and sharp as a knife.
"Yuhao, I still hope you win."
The recording went dark, and silence settled over the laboratory.
"She knows you well," Wang Dong'er said evenly.
Huo Yuhao did not deny it.
Ma Xiaotao gave a short laugh. Huo Yuhao looked at her with a headache coming on.
Wang Dong'er pushed the Soul Tool schematic in front of Huo Yuhao. "Look at the diagram first."
Moved by how Dong'er put the team first, Huo Yuhao said softly, "Dong'er, thank you for understanding."
Xiao Xiao stared at the diagram. "This core is like a fake piece of Star Dou."
Huo Yuhao nodded. "It can simulate the outer aura given off by Qiu'er's Soul Power, but it doesn't carry the aura of a real Auspicious Beast."
Dong'er frowned. "So what they want isn't just a jammer."
"It's a Military Beast Command." Huo Yuhao's voice was low, and he clenched his fists. "If they make it work, the Sun Moon Legion won't just hunt Soul Beasts when it enters the Star Dou Great Forest. It'll be able to drive them into war, turn them into a Soul Beast army, and invade other countries."
"But tomorrow, the enemy will still use that false aura to interfere with your Spirit Detection first," Ma Xiaotao said.
Huo Yuhao smiled with contempt. "Then let them think it worked."
Wang Dong'er understood immediately. "Turn the trap around?"
Huo Yuhao nodded and revised their tactics. For the first time, Ju Zi's schematic, Dong'er's Light Goddess Butterfly, Ma Xiaotao's evil-fire phoenix, and Bei Bei and Xu Sanshi's frontal pressure as Power Attack System fighters all came together on one tactical chart. Half an hour later, Huo Yuhao finished engraving the first countermeasure. He did more than defend: he fitted a layer of spiritual echo into the reverse-sensing aperture Ju Zi had left on the diagram. If the enemy tried to spy on how he corrected the interference, he would first get a glimpse of how they had made the Soul Tool jamming plate.
Ma Xiaotao eyed the nearly invisible Soul Tool pattern and raised an eyebrow. "Junior, are you planning to let them try to steal a chicken and expose the whole coop?"
Huo Yuhao looked up. "If they reach for me, I'll follow their arm straight back to them."
Late that night, Wang Dong'er stayed with Huo Yuhao until they had finished organizing the tactical notes.
Then she said quietly, "She told you not to trust her too much."
Huo Yuhao nodded.
"Will you?"
"I'll be careful."
Wang Dong'er looked at him.
"What did you and she go through together back then? Could you tell me?"
Huo Yuhao sensed Dong'er's unhappiness and gently reassured her. "Ju Zi was a senior of mine during my exchange at Sun Moon. We studied and worked together, nothing more."
She asked no more questions. Before turning to leave, she placed the Soul Tool core back in his palm.
"We have to win tomorrow."
Huo Yuhao raised his head. "We could win even without her intelligence."
Huo Yuhao set the Soul Tool core down.
"Dong'er."
He rose and walked up behind her, but did not touch her right away.
"Please don't be angry with me anymore. You have no idea how much I missed you while you were gone."
Wang Dong'er's shoulders trembled, and at last she turned around. Her eyes were a little red, though she had not cried. She looked at Huo Yuhao's pale face and the body that still had not fully recovered from the battle at the Clear Sky Sect. Her heart ached for him, but she still gave him a gentle shove.
"You really know what to say now!"
Huo Yuhao took her hand. Only the faint glow of the Soul Guidance Lamp lit the room.
Dong'er looked up at him and spoke softly.
"Huo Yuhao, I don't like how well she knows you." All the brisk decisiveness Dong'er had shown during the day was gone. She looked like a young girl, jealous and seeking comfort, giving honest voice to her hurt.
"I know."
"It isn't just her... I... I don't like any other woman getting close to you."
"I know."
Wang Dong'er suddenly smiled. There was bitterness in it, but also a little pride that refused to yield.
"All you ever do is say you know."
Huo Yuhao lowered his head and kissed her.
The kiss was light at first, as if he feared hurting her—or the bond they had only just managed to piece back together. Dong'er's breath caught. Her eyes reddened, and then she shoved hard against his chest.
"Don't kiss me."
Huo Yuhao stopped and looked at her, breathing unevenly.
Tears gathered in Dong'er's eyes. Her voice shook despite its anger. "Hmph. I haven't forgiven you yet..."
Yet her hands gripped his clothes tightly. She did not truly push him away. Huo Yuhao swallowed and leaned down to kiss her again, but she turned her head aside.
"No. I haven't forgiven you."
"Dong'er..."
"Don't call me that." Dong'er glared at him through reddened eyes. "Do you think I'm that easy to coax?"
Huo Yuhao did not argue. He lowered his head and kissed her earlobe, his voice husky.
"I know you're angry... but I really missed you."
Dong'er trembled, but still pushed at him. "Missing me doesn't make it all right... I hate you so much..."
Before she could finish, Huo Yuhao caught her by the waist, lifted her, and laid her on the bed. Dong'er struggled for a moment in his arms, but he held her tightly beneath him. He bent down and kissed her fiercely, deeper and harder this time, as if trying to give her back every bit of longing he had felt during their time apart.
At first Dong'er was still angry enough to bite his lip. But when his hand slipped beneath the hem of her clothes and rubbed against the hot skin at her waist, her body gave an involuntary shiver, and the force with which she pushed him slowly faded.
"Huo Yuhao... how can you be such a bastard..." she scolded between breaths, even as tears fell.
Huo Yuhao bent to kiss away her tears, his voice terribly hoarse.
"...But I really missed you."
Huo Yuhao's kisses fell as thick and warm as spring rain. They traveled down from the trembling corner of her mouth, past the rise and fall of her breasts, lingering over each tender stretch of skin and setting it alight. Dong'er arched her neck and bit her lower lip, but could not hold back her soft, broken moans. They carried the hurt and longing of their reunion, yet she stubbornly voiced her grievance in a trembling voice.
"Don't think this means I can forgive you..."
Huo Yuhao laughed softly and held her closer, though his touch was so gentle it made her heart ache. At last Wang Dong'er reached up of her own accord, hooked her arms around the back of his neck, and deepened the kiss. There was jealousy in it, and a stubborn insistence that tonight he belonged to her alone. Dong'er's fingertips dug into his broad back, leaving faint red marks, and each time she responded to him, she pulled him closer. Her eyes glistened, her tear tracks still wet, and she murmured his name with a nearly defiant possessiveness, as if she wanted to carve it into the deepest part of her soul.
She was still angry, yet her body missed him desperately.
She missed the strength of his embrace, the warmth of his kisses, the guilt and irrepressible longing in his husky voice when he softly called her "Dong'er."
That longing made her angry and ashamed at once.
"Dong'er..." Huo Yuhao's voice was painfully hoarse. His fingers shook as he undid her buttons, and his palm settled against her smooth, heated skin. "I really missed you... Every day, all this time." Tears slid down Wang Dong'er's cheeks, but she raised her legs and wrapped them around his waist, drawing him closer. She glared at him with red eyes, her voice trembling.
"Then how could you still do that with Qiu'er..."
Huo Yuhao did not defend himself. He simply bent to kiss away the fresh tears at the corners of her eyes, with a tenderness that was almost reverent.
"I'm sorry..."
"Don't say you're sorry."
Wang Dong'er caught his hair and pulled him up. Her eyes were red, and there was an almost fierce possessiveness in her gaze. "I missed you too, Huo Yuhao." Then she moved astride his waist and met him, as if to tell him with her body that her heart had never left him for a moment.
Their passion rose in waves, one higher than the last, before ebbing into a tender afterglow. There in that room on the eve of the finals, they forgot the schemes, war, and suspicion beyond its walls. All that remained was the simplest, purest longing, flowing freely between them.
At last they held each other close, their breaths mingling and their hearts beating together.
Huo Yuhao rested his chin against her slightly damp hair and whispered, "Dong'er, I love you. I did before, I do now, and I always will." Wang Dong'er buried her face against his chest, listening to the steady, powerful beat of his heart. She said nothing more. She only wrapped her arms around him more tightly, while a small, contented smile quietly spread across her lips.
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