Orange Quietly Asked Yuhao, "Do You Still Trust Me?"

There was only one lamp in the eastern guest tent. Huo Yuhao was not asleep. A Soul Tool Fragment floated above his palm as bands of light patterns unfurled within its transparent crystal core, then drew back in again. He tried three times, and each time he touched the depths of the Beast Command Core Fragment, an unfamiliar force knocked his spiritual sea back.

That force was unlike the chilling coldness of the Holy Spirit Cult. It felt more like some shattered, lofty light. It carried an aura of radiance, yet had not taken complete form. Huo Yuhao closed his eyes and spread Spirit Detection across the camp. Ye Guyi had gone to the first floor of the Soul Engineering Tower, while Wang Dong'er and Wang Qiu'er were outside the camp. That kept him uneasy.

He knew Dong'er would be upset. What had happened with Qiu'er last night had already forced her to bury her emotions deep in her bones, and now Orange had appeared tonight. But he could not give up at a time like this. What lay behind the Soul Tool Fragment was no longer merely about the feelings between the three of them. If Sun Moon obtained the Military Beast Command and the Holy Spirit Cult mastered the method for contaminating Return Flow, then every future Soul Beast calamity, every special bloodline, and every ray of light cast down by a Divine Seal could be turned into containers.

Soft footsteps suddenly sounded outside the tent. There was no scrape of armor and no signal for a guard shift, only the sound of cloth shoes treading through wet grass.

"May I come in?"

It was Orange.

Huo Yuhao did not answer immediately. He first swept Spirit Detection over the wooden tray, her cuffs, the silver hairpin in her hair, and the darkness outside the tent—there were no guards, no triggers. There was only a new Soul Tool chip, a cup of water still steaming, and a box of ointment.

"Come in."

The tent flap lifted, and Orange entered carrying a wooden tray. On it were hot water, ointment, and the Soul Tool chip. She was not wearing the robes of a crown princess, only a simple long dress. Her hairpin had been removed, and her black hair fell over her shoulders. The cold light of the military camp fell across her face, stripping away some of the sharpness brought by power and revealing instead the shadow of the senior student she had once been.

The sight of the hot water moved Huo Yuhao for a second. During those years at the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy, Orange had often brought things in like this. Back then, he would sit in the soul tool laboratory all night, damaged cores piled at the corner of his desk. Even when tiny metal shards cut the back of his hand, he could not be bothered to tend to them. Orange would frown and place the ointment before him, saying, "Even geniuses need hands to draw blueprints," while already unwrapping his bandages herself.

Only later did Huo Yuhao understand that it had not been care between friends. Some tenderness had carried the shadow of overstepping from the very beginning. It was only that neither of them had said it aloud then.

Orange set down the wooden tray.

"Your hand."

Huo Yuhao froze.

Orange had already unscrewed the ointment. Her tone was as natural as if they were still in that late-night soul tool room at Sun Moon Academy. "You forcibly peeled away the Sampling Core just now. Your knuckles split open again. Don't tell me it doesn't hurt."

Huo Yuhao looked down and discovered that blood was indeed seeping from the web between his right thumb and forefinger. Ultimate Ice had suppressed the sting too deeply, and he had not noticed it at all.

He did not offer his hand right away. Orange looked at him, and her smile faded slightly. "Do you have to guard against even this now?"

Orange did not get angry. She pushed the ointment toward him but did not step back. Lowering her eyes, she added softly, "But the more you act like this, the more I know I was not nothing to you back then."

The lamplight in the tent flickered. Huo Yuhao did not respond. He reached for the ointment, but Orange caught his wrist first. Her fingertips were cool, and her movements steady. Yet when she pressed against his pulse, she lingered longer than necessary.

Huo Yuhao's breath caught for half a beat.

Orange naturally noticed. She did not laugh at him, nor did she deliberately tease it open as Ma Xiaotao would have. She merely lowered her head and wiped the blood from his wound. The cloth, soaked in hot water, was a little scalding when it touched the web of his hand. Huo Yuhao instinctively tried to pull back, but Orange held him in place.

"Don't move."

Those two words were too familiar, familiar enough that Huo Yuhao almost saw the lights of that old Sun Moon soul tool room before him. Back then, he had not yet been pushed to the brink by so many women and so many fates. Orange had not yet become the crown princess either. She had only been the senior student who left a lamp on for him late at night.

Huo Yuhao said quietly, "Orange."

"Mm?"

"You're doing this on purpose."

Orange's hand paused slightly as she applied the ointment, then she gave a soft laugh. "I am."

She admitted it too quickly, leaving him unable to blame her. She wrapped the bandage around his palm, her voice as gentle as water, but her words as sharp as a blade. "They told me to use old feelings to get close to you, to make you lower your guard. But Yuhao, the troublesome part is that I do not need to pretend very hard. Because those old feelings were real from the start."

Huo Yuhao looked at her.

Orange did not evade his gaze. She leaned closer than before, the hem of her skirt brushing the table leg as the ends of her hair hung down, nearly touching the back of his hand. She wore none of the incense from the crown princess's chambers, only a faint scent of medicinal herbs and the damp night wind.

"Are you afraid of me?" she asked.

Huo Yuhao said, "I am. I'm afraid you'll scheme against Shrek, scheme against the other three empires, scheme against me."

"And what else?"

Huo Yuhao fell silent.

Orange lifted her eyes, their depths dark. "Aren't you afraid that you'll soften toward me?"

That sentence finally tore open the thin veil inside the tent. Huo Yuhao had to admit that he could not completely guard against Orange. The most dangerous thing about her was not that she could deceive him, but that even when she deceived him, she could offer a part of her true heart.

Huo Yuhao pulled back his hand.

"The chip."

Orange looked at her empty fingertips, and her smile faded somewhat. She pushed the Soul Tool chip over. "Records from the first floor of the Soul Engineering Tower. Miss Ye had investigated halfway through when she was stopped by a military elder. I had someone send this chip out."

Huo Yuhao accepted it. "You're helping me again."

"Mm."

"And helping yourself?"

"Of course."

Orange answered calmly. Huo Yuhao looked at her. "You're quite frank about it."

Orange's lashes lowered slightly. "Would lying to you help?"

Huo Yuhao inserted the Soul Tool chip into the Sampling Core. A light screen unfolded, displaying records from the first floor of the Soul Engineering Tower. The Holy Spirit Cult had not appeared in Sun Moon Camp as allies, but as "consultants" assisting with Return Flow sampling. They had proposed a method: use intense emotions to draw out the auspicious beast's Return Flow reaction, then preserve it with a soul tool core.

The final line of the record was marked in red.

Sample target: Huo Yuhao. Strong reactions to Wang Dong'er and Wang Qiu'er. The three can be induced to synchronize, amplifying Return Flow fluctuations.

Huo Yuhao did not immediately look at those glaring words. His Spirit Eyes instead swept over the three sets of discarded serial numbers in the lower left corner of the record. Ordinary soul engineers would have regarded them as failed samples, but Huo Yuhao saw at once that the final digits of those three sets were not random. They matched the coordinate compression method used by old Sun Moon military supply routes.

"Orange."

His voice suddenly turned cold. Orange looked at him. Huo Yuhao tapped the edge of the light screen. "The first-floor records are incomplete. Someone hid the real transport routes in the discarded serial numbers."

Orange's expression shifted slightly. She only knew that there was something wrong with the chip; she had not expected Huo Yuhao to identify it so quickly.

Huo Yuhao continued, "Three routes. One leads to the second floor of the Soul Engineering Tower, one to a remnant site on the outskirts of Star Dou, and the other..."

He paused.

"To the Sun Moon Inner Court."

The atmosphere in the tent changed instantly. Orange said quietly, "That is why I brought you into the camp. If you keep moving outside, they will only arrange more traps for you."

"You arranged things too."

"Yes." Orange looked at him. "But I arranged for you to come in so I could put the trap in plain sight."

Huo Yuhao did not refute her.

Just then, a flash of white-gold holy light flickered in the corner of the tent. Ye Guyi lifted the flap and entered from outside, a streak of black ash on her shoulder and her holy sword still hot. She looked at the ointment on the table, then at the fresh bandage around Huo Yuhao's hand. Her gaze was clearly cold.

"Did I come at a bad time?"

Huo Yuhao coughed. "What did you find?"

Ye Guyi tossed a shattered white soul tool piece onto the table. "The first floor is only a front. The real Holy Spirit Cult consultant room is on the second floor. Also, Wang Dong'er and Wang Qiu'er are being watched outside the camp. Someone wants to use their agitation as external bait."

Huo Yuhao's gaze turned icy.

Orange frowned as well. "Whose people?"

Ye Guyi replied coldly, "Your Sun Moon people."

Orange did not defend herself.

Huo Yuhao immediately used Spirit Detection to touch the communication line he had left outside the camp. A moment later, Wang Dong'er's voice sounded from the Soul Tool Fragment, pressed very low.

"We're fine."

Wang Qiu'er's voice followed. "Three people were watching the outer camp. Ma Xiaotao already scared them off. Investigate what you need to. Don't let us distract you."

Wang Dong'er paused, but still asked, "Is Orange in your tent?"

Huo Yuhao was silent for a moment. "She is."

There was silence on the other end for a while. Then Wang Dong'er said softly, "I understand. Don't get hurt."

She asked nothing else. The more she was like this, the worse Huo Yuhao felt.

After the communication ended, Orange looked at him and asked softly, "Do you still trust me?"

At last, the question landed where tonight had truly been heading.

Huo Yuhao looked at her. Orange stood beneath the lamp, her fingers still stained with a little ointment from treating his wound. She looked as if she had just stepped out of the past, only to be dragged back into a hard and cold reality by the identity of crown princess. She did not cry or beg. She simply laid her tenderness, calculations, and unwillingness before him, letting him see them clearly before deciding whether to accept them.

After a long time, Huo Yuhao said, "I trust that you'll leave me a way out."

Orange's eyes brightened slightly.

The next moment, Huo Yuhao continued, "Nothing else."

Orange smiled. It was neither a polite smile nor the smile a crown princess gave her subjects. It was as though she had finally heard an exact answer.

"That is enough."

She placed a smaller black chip on the table and pushed it toward Huo Yuhao. "This is the entry key to the second floor. The Soul Engineering Tower changes shifts at midnight tomorrow. I can only give you half an hour."

Ye Guyi said coldly, "Why didn't you take it out earlier?"

Orange withdrew her hand. "Because until just now, I had not decided whether to give it to him."

"You were using him to test yourself?"

"Yes."

The tent suddenly fell silent. Orange turned to leave, but Huo Yuhao stopped her. "Orange."

Orange faced away from him, the lamplight stretching her shadow long. She said nothing, only raised her hand and pressed the cloth she had used to wipe his blood into her palm. That touch of red was clenched in her hand like a dangerous bargaining chip.

"Once, I wanted a home very badly," she said quietly. "Later, I wanted power."

She turned back, a hint of a smile in her eyes and a darkness Huo Yuhao could not see through.

"Now, I want to see if I can ask for both of those things again from the same person."

Ye Guyi frowned, but Orange had already lifted the flap and left. The night wind poured in. Huo Yuhao lowered his head and looked at the black chip on the table.

Ye Guyi suddenly said, "She likes you."

Huo Yuhao did not deny it.

Ye Guyi added, "It isn't just liking."

"Mm."

"She hopes you can help her find a path out of the future."

Huo Yuhao closed his eyes briefly. "I know."

Ye Guyi looked at him. "And you'll keep going?"

Huo Yuhao lifted his eyes.

"Mm."

That single word made Ye Guyi's grip on her sword tighten slightly. Huo Yuhao did not evade it.

"But that does not mean I'll hand my fate over to her as well."

Outside the camp, Wang Dong'er stood at the edge of the barrier, watching from afar as the light in the eastern guest tent flickered on and off. She could not see what was happening inside, but she could sense Huo Yuhao's faint moment of hesitation. Suddenly, she wanted to rush in. Yet she was also afraid that after entering, she would find not an enemy, but Huo Yuhao softening once again.

Ma Xiaotao leaned lazily against a tree. "If you want to go in, then go in."

Wang Dong'er shook her head. "He has important things to do."

"Important things and women have never necessarily been separable."

Wang Dong'er looked at her. Ma Xiaotao smiled carelessly. "Especially your man. The more he tries to be a proper gentleman, the easier it is for others to see where he is vulnerable."