Rainy Night at the Old Altar, Another "Her" Appears

After they approached the outskirts of the Sun-Moon Military Camp, rain suddenly began to fall.

It was no ordinary rain. Every drop carried an extremely faint Soul Tool interference wave. It made no sound when it landed on leaves, yet it caused brief double images in one's Spirit Detection.

Huo Yuhao withdrew his projected spiritual power, a faint ache pulsing between his brows. Seeing this, Wang Dong'er immediately raised a barrier of light. She moved quickly, almost instinctively.

Huo Yuhao looked at her.

"Don't overthink it." Wang Dong'er's voice was very soft. "I'm just afraid you'll collapse and affect the mission."

Her words were like cold water. Yet they both knew that the more she spoke like this, the more it proved she had never truly let it go.

Ma Xiaotao softly said from behind them, "This rain is a little irritating."

Her Evil Fire flickered under the rain, as though something were repeatedly provoking it. Ye Guyi raised her sword, Holy Light shining toward the treetops.

"There are remnants of Holy Spirit Cult souls in the rain."

The next moment, pairs of gray-white eyes lit up in the forest. They were not living people, but emotional shadows left behind after souls had been cleansed. They had no physical form. They merely slowly raised their heads in the rainy night and looked toward Huo Yuhao.

Huo Yuhao stopped, but those shadows did not attack him.

They merely repeated the same sentence over and over.

"Collect samples."

"Living subjects take priority."

Wang Dong'er's expression turned cold. Ye Guyi drew her holy sword, and Holy Light swept across the forest floor. Pair after pair of gray-white eyes went out, yet before fading, every one of them turned toward the Sun-Moon Military Camp.

"They're using remnant souls to probe your Spiritual Algorithm," Ye Guyi said.

Huo Yuhao nodded. "They're also probing each of your Soul Power and soul skill characteristics."

Wang Dong'er said coldly, "Then let them probe."

Her wings of light unfolded. Blue-gold radiance overwhelmed the curtain of rain and forced every remnant soul out of the shadows. Almost at the same time, Huo Yuhao struck. Ultimate Ice froze along the direction in which the remnant souls fled, exposing a miniature tracking spike hidden beneath the mud.

This tracking spike was not meant to kill anyone.

It was meant to collect samples.

It collected the Soul Power fluctuations produced when Huo Yuhao's group came into contact with residual frequencies from evil souls.

Ma Xiaotao stepped forward. Her red clothes had been soaked by the rain, clinging to her in sharp, dangerous lines. She glanced at the tracking spike, and her smile faded.

Just as Huo Yuhao was about to bend down, Ma Xiaotao had already lifted her foot and pinned the spike beneath it.

"Don't touch it."

She looked at him, firelight flickering in her eyes.

"The moment you see something like this, you want to pick it up and examine it. The moment you see someone hurt, you want to save them. The moment you see a woman, you want to take responsibility. Little junior brother, aren't you tired?"

Wang Dong'er's fingers tightened slightly.

Ma Xiaotao moved half a step closer, lowering her voice.

"Didn't sleep well last night?"

Huo Yuhao's throat tightened. "Sister Xiaotao."

"Don't be nervous." Ma Xiaotao smiled lazily. "I'm not asking what you and Dong'er did."

Wang Dong'er's ears instantly turned red.

Ye Guyi said coldly, "Ma Xiaotao."

Ma Xiaotao spread her hands. "Was I wrong? His Soul Power circulation is more chaotic than yesterday, and Dong'er's light aura is sharper than usual. Can't your Angel Martial Soul see that?"

Ye Guyi closed her eyes briefly, clearly disapproving of Ma Xiaotao's conduct. For the first time, Huo Yuhao felt that Ma Xiaotao's mature bluntness was truly difficult to handle.

She loved seeing through him, then laughing about it.

The rain grew heavier and heavier. The group could only stop at a half-collapsed old soul-hunting camp. Bei Bei and Sanshi held the perimeter, while Ye Guyi guarded the eastern side and Ma Xiaotao the western side. Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong'er temporarily remained in the main tent to examine the tracking spike and Ju Zi's Soul Tool paper slip.

The tent was very dark.

Rain rolled down the tent fabric. Both of them had been soaked through. There was only one Soul Tool lamp, its dim glow casting a damp, warm hue over everything inside.

Dong'er removed her outer clothes first and wrung out a thin stream of water. She moved quickly, but Huo Yuhao happened to see it all—Dong'er's thin, light blue inner garment. He unconsciously swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing faintly. Seeing this, Dong'er quietly cursed, "Pervert." Then she turned around.

Huo Yuhao also hurriedly turned away, flustered.

Wang Dong'er looked at his back, her expression softening as a smile appeared on her face.

"Here." Dong'er tossed him a towel.

"Dry yourself. Tomorrow we still have to infiltrate the Sun-Moon Military Camp and follow them to the Soul Engineering Tower. Don't get yourself sick again."

Huo Yuhao caught the dry cloth, his fingertips brushing against her hand.

The rainy night was too cold.

Yet her hand was warm.

That tiny warmth made them both pause for a moment.

Wang Dong'er withdrew her hand first.

"Pervert."

Huo Yuhao said quietly, "I'm not."

"You are." Wang Dong'er looked at the Soul Tool paper slip on the table. "You're especially good at making all kinds of women feel sorry for you."

Her words stabbed painfully into Huo Yuhao's chest.

Thunder rumbled outside the tent. The tracking spike on the table suddenly lit up. Silver-blue patterns projected a brief image into the air.

The Sun-Moon Soul Guidance Tower.

Ju Zi.

And a transparent core sealed by golden chains.

Huo Yuhao abruptly raised his head.

Wang Dong'er saw it too.

In the image, Ju Zi raised a hand and pressed it against the transparent core, as if she knew Huo Yuhao would definitely see it. She did not speak. She merely tapped the table three times with her fingertips.

Three taps.

An old coded signal used among Sun Moon Soul Engineers.

It meant: Don't trust the main entrance.

Wang Dong'er suddenly said, "She understands you well."

Huo Yuhao did not deny it.

Only the sound of rain remained inside the tent.

After a long time, Wang Dong'er softly said, "Huo Yuhao, when we enter and leave the Sun-Moon Military Camp tomorrow, be careful. Stop always disregarding your own life."

"If something happens to you, I won't be able to settle my score with you."

Warmth spread through Huo Yuhao's heart.

Before dawn, the mist around the Sun Moon Camp suddenly dispersed.

It did not disperse naturally.

It was drawn away by an abandoned altar hidden beneath the earth veins.

At the end of the forest, ancient stone steps slowly rose from the mud. Every step was carved with long-blurred Soul Beast patterns. Rainwater flowed along those patterns like lines of fate being awakened.

Wang Dong'er stood before the steps, and her expression gradually changed.

She heard it.

It was not a sound.

It was a pull from the depths of her Martial Soul and bloodline. The Light Goddess Butterfly silently spread behind her, and a faint ring of dragon-scale patterns surfaced along the edges of its blue-gold wings before quickly vanishing.

Huo Yuhao immediately noticed. "Dong'er?"

Wang Dong'er pressed a hand to her chest.

"Someone is calling me."

Ye Guyi drew her sword. Holy Light shone onto the first level of the altar. There was no shriek from evil souls, nor did black mist scatter. The Holy Light merely stopped upon the stone steps, as though it had encountered something that should never have been judged.

Ye Guyi frowned. "This isn't something belonging to evil soul masters."

Ma Xiaotao sneered. "It looks like an old thing bad people used to do bad things."

"More or less," Huo Yuhao said.

He crouched down, pressing his fingertips against the edge of the first stone step. A Soul Tool Fragment adhered to it, and dozens of old patterns immediately surfaced across its surface. Some of these patterns belonged to ancient Star Dou clans, some were Sun Moon Soul Tool inscriptions, and some were blood-red marks later added by the Holy Spirit Cult.

Three powers were tangled together.

Like an artifact of fate that had been contaminated.

Huo Yuhao's gaze darkened.

"They didn't directly modify the altar."

Ye Guyi asked, "What do you mean?"

"They made the altar believe it was protecting a certain Return Flow."

Wang Dong'er's breathing caught. "Return Flow?"

Huo Yuhao did not answer immediately.

Because what surfaced on the Soul Tool Fragment was not a complete name.

It was two residual traces.

One resembled Dong, and the other resembled Qiu.

But the second was very faint, so faint it seemed distant beyond reach.

Wang Dong'er looked at the residual trace of the character "Qiu," her fingertips turning slightly pale. Of course she knew who it was, and Huo Yuhao knew as well.

The first level of the altar suddenly lit up. A pale golden pillar of light rose from beneath the earth and directly enveloped Wang Dong'er. Huo Yuhao immediately activated the Eye of Destiny.

"Dong'er, suppress the old pattern on the left!"

Wang Dong'er spread her wings of light, and platinum radiance fell with perfect precision.

"Ye Guyi, use Holy Light Slash on the blood mark!"

Ye Guyi swung her sword, and Holy Light cleaved through the blood-red lines added by the Holy Spirit Cult.

"Sister Xiaotao, burn the Sun-Moon Conduction Pattern directly!"

Wang Dong'er stood within the pillar of light as the Light Goddess Butterfly collided head-on with the altar. The altar seemed to be confirming her, yet it also seemed to be searching for its missing other half.

The Soul Tool Fragment in Huo Yuhao's palm grew scorching hot.

He finally understood.

Sun Moon and the Holy Spirit Cult did not merely want to collect Wang Qiu'er's Auspicious Beast aura. They also wanted to know why Wang Dong'er and Wang Qiu'er possessed a same-origin pull between them. He had once dreamed of a three-person fate connection, and he had also conducted resonance experiments with Destiny Records in Shrek's Soul Tool laboratory. He wanted to know as well what connection there truly was between Dong'er and Qiu'er.

Huo Yuhao forcibly shifted the altar's judgment.

The first deviation: shifting the name.

Within the altar's pillar of light, he forcibly moved the Return Flow designation of that ancient identity half an inch aside.

The second deviation: shifting the cause.

The altar had originally intended to draw out the strand of higher divine consciousness deep within Wang Dong'er, but Fate Deviation made it misjudge that strand as an external blood mark requiring purification.

The third deviation: shifting the result.

The Sun-Moon Soul Tool conduction patterns should have collected Dong'er's response to light, but Huo Yuhao diverted them toward a blank Soul Tool imprint.

Boom!

The first level of the altar shook violently. The blood-red marks exploded. The Sun-Moon Conduction Pattern shattered.

Wang Dong'er stepped out of the pillar of light, her face pale but her body still steady.

Huo Yuhao reached out to support her. She did not avoid him, but neither did she lean into his embrace as she had before.

"I sensed her just now," Wang Dong'er said quietly.

Huo Yuhao's heart sank.

"Who?"

Wang Dong'er looked at the residual trace of the character "Qiu" on the Soul Tool Fragment.

"Qiu'er, but I didn't see her in person. I could feel that she was far away from me, yet a line kept pulling me closer to her."

For once, Ma Xiaotao did not smile.

Ye Guyi said softly, "If this altar continues to awaken, that line will be pulled even tighter."

Wang Dong'er closed her eyes. In that brief instant just now, she had clearly felt that if the line were forcibly severed, some part of her body would be forever missing as well.

After a brief silence, the second level of stone steps lit up.

This time, what surfaced on the Soul Tool Fragment was not the pattern of the Light Goddess Butterfly, but a wisp of extremely faint pink-gold residual light.

Huo Yuhao's pupils contracted.

Dong'er.

No.

That did not resemble the current Dong'er.

That light and shadow was more distant and lofty than Dong'er, yet more complete than the faraway "Qiu'er."

Like a fragment of light that had fallen from an incomparably high place.

From deep within the altar came a second toll of a bell.

Wang Dong'er raised her head. She heard a vague syllable, one that sounded like "Wu," yet also like light scattered by the wind.