Will the Two of Them Disappear and Become Someone Else?

When Huo Yuhao woke up, it was already daylight. The rain outside the tent had stopped, while the lingering warmth from last night's soul power healing remained inside. Wang Dong'er was asleep against his left side, her fingers still clutching the corner of his clothes. Rather than sitting by the entrance, Wang Qiu'er leaned against his other side, her blue-gold hair draped over her shoulders, the Golden Dragon Spear within arm's reach.

Huo Yuhao moved slightly, and Wang Dong'er immediately woke up.

"Don't move around."

Her voice was somewhat hoarse. Seeing her reddened eyes, Huo Yuhao felt a tightness in his chest. "I'm fine."

Wang Dong'er gave a cold laugh. "Those words have no credibility left coming from you."

Wang Qiu'er walked over and pressed directly on his shoulder. "You're obviously not better yet."

Huo Yuhao was pressed back down and gave a bitter smile. "You two are surprisingly united against me now."

Wang Dong'er and Wang Qiu'er exchanged a glance. Before last night, Huo Yuhao had stood between them. After last night, he still stood between them, but there was also a pull neither of them could deny. It was neither forgiveness nor reconciliation. They had merely both witnessed one thing: if, one day, some god high above sought to take them back, the other would not stand by and watch.

The tips of Wang Dong'er's ears reddened slightly, and she turned her face away first. "Don't get smug."

The Soul Tool Fragment lay beside the tent. The two intercepted broken coordinates from last night had been sealed in icy patterns, while three extremely thin traces of pale gold, black-red, and silver-blue floated across its surface. Huo Yuhao reached for it, but Wang Dong'er stopped him.

"Eat first." The two spoke in unison.

Huo Yuhao looked at them and finally obediently lowered his hand. Satisfied, Wang Dong'er brought over a bowl of hot soup. Her movements paused as she handed it to him, as though remembering how unreasonable she herself had been last night, and the tips of her ears turned even redder. Wang Qiu'er sat beside him and watched him drink. It felt strange—like being guarded, yet also cared for. More than that, it felt as though the two of them had finally pinned him down somewhere he could not escape.

When Ma Xiaotao entered and saw the scene, she smiled with great interest.

"Junior Brother, you're really impressive."

Huo Yuhao nearly choked on the hot soup. Ye Guyi followed behind her, holding a white crystal shard.

"If his life were any better, he wouldn't be tangled up in so many threads."

Ma Xiaotao shot her a glance. "Didn't the Saintess come to see him first thing in the morning too?"

Ye Guyi ignored her. She placed the shard beside the Soul Tool Fragment. "I reexamined the Holy Light Shard. What we saw last night was not an evil formation, but the shattered afterimage of divine consciousness."

The tent fell silent. Wang Dong'er and Wang Qiu'er both looked toward the Soul Tool Fragment. Huo Yuhao embedded the shard into the formation's core. An icy blue light lit up, and the characters for "Dong," "Qiu," and a third incomplete stroke appeared at the same time.

This time, the third lingering trace did not flash away as it had before. It became clearer, yet was still veiled by a layer of pink-gold mist. Wang Qiu'er asked softly, "Whose name is that?"

Huo Yuhao still did not know what that name meant, but the reaction from the Soul Tool Fragment was far too intense. The instant the third lingering trace appeared, Dong'er's residual light markings and Qiu'er's auspicious beast golden markings both drew close to it. They were not being forcibly dragged over. It was more like echoes hearing their source.

Dong'er stepped back half a pace, and Huo Yuhao immediately took her hand.

"Dong'er."

Wang Dong'er did not look at him. Gazing at that blurred name, she spoke softly. "If she appears, what will happen to me?"

Huo Yuhao had no way to answer.

Wang Qiu'er was more direct. "Will I no longer be myself?"

Those words were harder to withstand than any enemy's blade. Huo Yuhao tightened his grip on their hands. "I won't let you be erased."

Ye Guyi said, "But what if this isn't erasure? What if it is simply a return arranged by fate?"

Huo Yuhao looked at her. Ye Guyi's voice was quiet, yet sharp. "That afterimage does not resemble an evil formation. It resembles a torn fragment of divine consciousness searching for completeness. Dong'er and Qiu'er—perhaps their origins are connected to that name."

Wang Qiu'er was quiet for a long time before suddenly asking, "Then what about me?" No one answered. She looked at Huo Yuhao. "If I'm only a part of her, then who was the one who liked you and kissed you before?"

Her words startled everyone, and Huo Yuhao did not answer immediately either, because this was not an answer he could brush aside. After a long while, he said, "In my heart, you will always be Qiu'er."

Wang Qiu'er's golden eyes flickered slightly. He looked toward the incomplete name that had yet to fully emerge within the Soul Tool Fragment. "That name may explain where you came from, but it cannot erase the choices you have made."

Wang Qiu'er calmed down somewhat. Dong'er looked at Huo Yuhao, and the bitterness in her eyes eased a little as well. He had not called Qiu'er a mistake, nor had he treated Dong'er as a fragment that could be merged away. That was what made Huo Yuhao so difficult—he always wanted to hold on to everyone.

The Soul Tool Fragment suddenly trembled. It was not the Holy Hall activating again, but the latter half of the silver-blue signal intercepted last night emerging from within the icy patterns. It was a Sun Moon military secret order.

"Return-flow response sample. Transfer it to Her Highness the Crown Princess."

Huo Yuhao's gaze turned cold. Orange.

Bei Bei frowned. "Will Sun Moon make a move even faster than the Holy Spirit Cult?"

Huo Yuhao said, "They already have. What the Holy Spirit Cult obtained was a mystery, while Sun Moon obtained the sample's name. One wants to turn the clues into evil arts, and the other wants to turn them into soul tool engineering."

He Caitou lowered his head and checked the coordinates. "There's a third location. At the edge of the Shrek Old Battlefield. Last night's Soul Nail and the Sun Moon signal both made a detour through there."

Tang Ya's expression darkened. "In other words, the Holy Hall isn't the next battle. The next battle is on the road, in the Sun Moon Camp, and at the old battlefield."

Huo Yuhao nodded. He looked at Wang Dong'er, then at Wang Qiu'er.

"From now on, we won't keep circling that old site. It was only a lock that had been opened. The people running around outside with the real key are already out there."

Dong'er set down the hot soup, the aura of the Goddess of Light Butterfly gathering around her once more. Wang Qiu'er lifted the Golden Dragon Spear. "I will fight for my own fate too."

Ma Xiaotao smiled lazily. "Now that's more like it. I'm getting sick of staring at broken rocks all day."

Huo Yuhao finally smiled as well. But the smile was quickly suppressed deep in his eyes. He knew the road ahead would be even more chaotic. Orange, the Sun Moon Imperial Family, the Holy Spirit Cult's hidden threads, the Shrek Old Battlefield—all of them had been stirred by the answer that leaked out last night.

And the shadow that might make them both disappear, yet also make them whole, was drawing closer and closer beyond everyone's sight.