Ah Yin bit her red lip, her body trembling faintly. She said nothing and simply closed her eyes. She knew that the moment Qian Xunji appeared before her, her fate had been sealed.
What difference would speaking or staying silent make now?!
"Looks like she has no intention of telling you herself," Qian Xunji said calmly. "Then I'll be generous and tell you."
"The young woman traveling with you isn't human at all. She's a Blue Silver Emperor Soul Beast who reached a hundred thousand years of cultivation, then took human form and started over!"
"A Hundred-Thousand-Year Transformed Soul Beast. I trust you know what that means without me explaining it?"
"I can overlook your rudeness just now, but I must take this Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Silver Emperor with me today!"
Qian Xunji's voice turned domineering. "If you insist on stopping me, you'll make yourselves enemies of Spirit Hall!"
Boom...
The words "Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast" struck Tang Xiao and Tang Hao like lightning. They could hardly believe Ah Yin was a Soul Beast!
A Hundred-Thousand-Year Transformed Soul Beast?
The gentle, captivating, seemingly harmless young woman who had traveled with them was a Soul Beast that had lived for a hundred thousand years?
"A... a Soul Beast," Tang Hao stammered.
Tang Xiao stared at Ah Yin in shock, but a fervor and greed he could barely suppress flashed in his eyes. She was a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast!
What did that mean? A guaranteed Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone and a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring!
No Soul Master could stay calm before an opportunity like that. How could they?
If he had known Ah Yin was a Soul Beast, he would have taken her back to the Clear Sky Sect and kept her captive, no matter what!
Then, when Hao needed them, they could hunt her for a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring and a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone!
Ah Yin slowly opened her eyes. Pale-faced, she looked at the two brothers before her.
She saw the shock and helplessness in Tang Hao's eyes, and the greed in Tang Xiao's. Neither escaped her notice.
Humans... They really are all the same!
Faced with a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone and Soul Ring, friendship and everything we've shared on the road mean nothing!
"Ah Yin... Is what he said true?"
Tang Hao's voice was hoarse and dry. "You really aren't human? You're a Transformed Soul Beast?"
"That's right!" Ah Yin gave a bitter smile. Rather than evade the question or hide the truth, she answered Tang Hao directly.
What would refusing to answer change? A Titled Douluo blocked her way. Where could she run? She couldn't escape anyway!
She stepped forward to face Qian Xunji. "Your Holiness, since you came for me, I'm willing to go with you."
"I haven't known these two men from the Clear Sky Sect for long. We were only traveling together."
"They knew nothing of my identity as a Soul Beast. Please let them leave, Your Holiness. Don't make things difficult for them."
"Of course. I'm a reasonable man!" Qian Xunji smiled warmly. At least this Blue Silver Emperor knew when to yield.
"Ah Yin, I..." Tang Hao reached toward her, wanting to take her hand, but then he saw Qian Xunji's faintly amused expression.
With his elder brother's hand pressing down on his shoulder, Tang Hao finally let his outstretched hand fall limply to his side.
"Hao! We're leaving!"
Tang Xiao seized Tang Hao's arm and all but dragged him toward the edge of the forest. "She admitted it herself. What are you still trying to do? Let's go! This is beyond us."
"Even if it were our father here instead of the Pope, he'd capture her the moment he learned she was a Transformed Soul Beast!"
"She isn't one of the Clear Sky Sect. She's a Hundred-Thousand-Year Transformed Soul Beast. Don't be foolish, Hao!"
Tang Xiao's voice was cold and rational.
With a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast at stake, any conflict between the Clear Sky Sect and Spirit Hall became a different matter. Go to war with Spirit Hall to protect a Soul Beast? What a joke!
Tang Hao closed his eyes in anguish. As though all the strength had left his body, he stumbled away step by step in the direction Tang Xiao pulled him.
Their footsteps faded. Only Qian Xunji and the Blue Silver Emperor remained in the forest, facing each other.
"Anything you'd like to say?" Qian Xunji asked with a smile, looking at Ah Yin, who had given up resisting.
Ah Yin gave a bitter laugh. "When I chose to take human form, I knew I might face a moment like this!"
"What I don't understand is when I came to Spirit Hall's attention. No matter how capable your informants are, surely they couldn't have found me this quickly?"
"Came to our attention?"
Qian Xunji laughed. "To tell you the truth, I happened to pass by today. I'd only come out for a change of scenery."
"I didn't expect a quick look around to lead me to a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast like you."
"You just happened to find me?!" Ah Yin felt utterly miserable. Had it really been nothing but bad luck?
"Enough small talk. Now we should discuss what to do with you," Qian Xunji said with a teasing smile. "Are you wondering whether I'll kill you for your Soul Bone, or take you back and keep you captive until the right time..."
"Isn't that what you'll do?" Ah Yin lightly bit her red lip. She did not argue.
What else could he want with a Hundred-Thousand-Year Transformed Soul Beast like her? Surely he wasn't keeping her around for pleasure?
"No, no. I'm not that crude!" Qian Xunji raised a finger and wagged it gently. "Since you've been cooperative, I'll give you two choices!"
"Two choices?" Something stirred in Ah Yin's beautiful eyes. "I... can still live?"
Who would choose death if they could live?
"Of course you can. It depends on your choice," Qian Xunji said. "The first is that I take you back to Spirit Hall and keep you captive. You'll be well fed and cared for, until the day Spirit Hall needs your Soul Ring and Soul Bone!"
"The second choice..." Qian Xunji's smile deepened. "Stay by my side and bear my children, continuing the Angel Clan's bloodline! Agree, and you'll become the most honored woman on all the Douluo Continent!"
"I'll put every resource Spirit Hall has toward protecting you until you safely reach the Mature Stage! Under Spirit Hall's protection, no one will be able to threaten you!"
"Those are your choices. It's up to you."
After hearing them, Ah Yin stood frozen. So he really did want to keep her for pleasure?!
Was there even a choice? She didn't know why he wanted her to bear his children... but it wasn't out of the question.
As long as I'm alive, there's still hope!
He was powerful and the Pope of Spirit Hall. If she secured his protection, what danger would she face in the human world?
And bearing children? Was that such a hardship? Anything was better than becoming a Soul Ring and Soul Bone!
"I choose the second..." Ah Yin answered without hesitation.
Before you continue