Chapter 34

Back mountain, late at night.

Gu Yue had been summoned out alone by Lu Menge. The message contained only four words—"Back mountain, urgent matter." She had not even had time to change out of her uniform before heading up the mountain. Yet when she reached the crooked-necked tree, what she found was not an urgent military report, but a grill already blazing hot and Lu Menge sitting cross-legged on a rock, brushing honey onto chicken wings.

"Urgent matter?" Gu Yue stood before the rock, the dancing coals reflected in her black eyes, her tone colder than the night wind.

"Very urgent. Chicken wings won't taste good once they get cold." Without even raising her head, Lu Menge flipped a wing over with a turn of her wrist. Its skin had roasted golden and crisp, the heat drawing the honey into a translucent glaze of sugar. She held up the freshly grilled wing and waved it at Gu Yue like a flag of truce. "Sit down. There's serious business tonight."

Gu Yue took the chicken wing, blew on it twice, and bit down. It was so hot that she kept huffing, but she still would not let go. Watching her eat, Lu Menge narrowed her fox-like eyes in satisfaction. She turned over the remaining wings on the grill and set them on a plate, then added two ears of corn to the coals—the honey water was the jar Gu Yue had mixed last time. There was less than half a bottle left, so Lu Menge had brought it along when she left.

Only after Gu Yue had finished gnawing on her second chicken wing and was wiping her fingertips with a wet wipe did Lu Menge set the grilling tongs aside. She folded her hands over her knees, tilted her head at Gu Yue, and asked, sparks from the coals flickering in her amber fox eyes, "Let's talk serious business. Tang Wulin—what exactly do you think about him?"

Gu Yue paused while wiping her fingers, then quickly resumed as though nothing had happened. "What do you mean, what do I think? He's a teammate."

"A teammate." Lu Menge repeated the words, sounding as though she were tasting something bland. "He shares Dragon God bloodline with you. Your martial souls resonate so perfectly that you know how the other wants to fight without saying a word. You never let your guard down in front of him, and he can't hide any secret from you. In battle, he's the first one you protect, and every time he turns back, you're the first person he checks on. Three years ago, I put the Golden Dragon King into his martial soul. Three years later, he refined it into dual spears, showed you the Dragon God Armament—and you say you two are teammates?"

Gu Yue folded the wet wipe and set it aside without answering.

"Do you like him?" Lu Menge asked bluntly.

Gu Yue lowered her lashes. The coals crackled, sparks jumping up before falling back down. She was silent for so long that Lu Menge thought she intended to brush the question aside. Then she spoke, her voice soft, as if she were speaking to the fire rather than Lu Menge.

"...Sometimes, I sense the Dragon God's aura from him. Not the Golden Dragon King—the Dragon God. When he holds a spear, the angle at which his shoulder blades exert force is exactly the same as the Dragon God's. When he calls forth the Golden Dragon Spear, the fingers of his left hand always spread first. That was the Dragon God's habit when striking with a spear. Even he doesn't know it."

Lu Menge did not interrupt.

"But he knows nothing." Gu Yue's voice remained soft, nearly drowned out by the crackling coals. "He doesn't know who I was in my previous life. He doesn't know that whenever his martial soul goes berserk, I use my own elements to suppress his seal. He doesn't know that when I see the names of those soul skills—Undying Dragon God Body, Dragon God Armament—I remember the Dragon God saying the same things. He doesn't know that every time he calls me 'Gu Yue,' I think to myself, when will you call me by my full name?"

She paused, then lifted her eyes to Lu Menge. The coals reflected in those black pupils, like some shadow long asleep rising from the depths of an icy lake.

"Even if I like him—could he like someone so deeply connected to his past life? Would he like Gu Yue, or the 'Silver Dragon King'? Or—"

"Stop right there." Lu Menge raised the grilling tongs and lightly pointed them at Gu Yue's nose. "Just say, 'I like him.' Don't worry about anything else. Liking him is enough. So when are you planning to let him know you like him?"

The question struck Gu Yue head-on. Her lips moved. "...Why do I have to be the one to take the initiative? He's the Golden Dragon King, and I'm the Silver Dragon King. According to our bloodline—"

"According to your bloodline, you're both halves split from the Dragon God, a pair made by nature." Lu Menge set the tongs aside, leaned forward slightly, and lowered her voice. "Then have you considered—what would happen if you two got together? What would you give birth to?"

A tiny crack appeared in Gu Yue's expression. She had never considered it.

"The Dragon God." Lu Menge answered for her, her tone as certain as if she were reciting a prophecy already carved into a stone monument in the Star Dou Great Forest. "You and Tang Wulin, the Silver Dragon King and the Golden Dragon King—your bloodlines combined would make a complete Dragon God. If you two had a child, it would be the Dragon God reborn."

Gu Yue completely let go of the bamboo skewer in her hand. Her pupils widened slightly, her lips parted and then closed, and the tips of her ears slowly began to redden in an irreversible spread. It was not embarrassment—it was the physical reaction of her mind shutting down after being struck by a proposition too grand for her imagination.

"Think about it." Lu Menge picked up her thermos and took a sip, her tone growing increasingly certain. "After the Dragon God fell, the soul beast lineage never produced another true god. You're the Silver Dragon King, he's the Golden Dragon King, and the fusion of your bloodlines is the only hope. This isn't dating—it's a mission. To put it more bluntly, your marriage concerns the future of the entire soul beast lineage."

Gu Yue's lashes trembled, and her fingers unconsciously tightened around the bamboo skewer on her knee. She had only come for grilled skewers. But Lu Menge's words had elevated "liking Tang Wulin" from a private concern to the level of racial revival—making both her instinctive vigilance and emotional inclinations fall silent for the first time.

"What if... the child doesn't inherit the Dragon God bloodline?" Her voice was awkward when she spoke, as though she had forcibly pulled out the one assumption she most did not want to face from the bottom of a chest.

This was exactly the question Lu Menge had been waiting for. She set her thermos on the rock and began counting on her fingers, her tone shifting from certainty to casual matter-of-factness. "If one doesn't work, have two. If two don't work, have three. The Dragon God bloodline is so powerful—if you try a few more times, one will surely succeed. Di Tian told me that back when the dragon clan was trying to continue the Dragon God's collateral bloodline, there was a record of one clutch producing three dragon eggs. You and Tang Wulin are both direct descendants of the Dragon God—your efficiency will only be higher."

At that moment, the tips of Gu Yue's ears turned completely red. She lowered her head and pressed the back of her hand to her cheek to cool it, speaking to the blazing coals, "Have three—what if they all inherit it?"

A smile flashed through Lu Menge's fox eyes, one she could barely suppress. Looking at Gu Yue's flushed profile, she used every bit of her life experience to swallow back the laughter rising in her throat. "Then you'd hit the jackpot. Three little Dragon Gods, and the Star Dou Great Forest could just rename itself Dragon God Hall. Then Di Tian can guard the gate for you two, and I'll help you raise the kids—Little White Tiger can look after little Golden Dragons and little Silver Dragons. What an adorable sight." She pushed the plate of chicken wings toward Gu Yue and lowered her voice, soft and coaxing. "Do you think he'll take the initiative if you don't? Tang Wulin is a complete blockhead—he can analyze Xie Xie's love life from every angle, but when it comes to his own, he doesn't understand a thing."

Gu Yue pursed her lips without arguing. She remembered the last Class Zero group meal. Xie Xie had drunk too much soy milk and complained to Tang Wulin that a junior girl was not replying to his messages. Tang Wulin had seriously analyzed the problem for him for quite a while. Then Gu Yue had asked, "What about your own situation?" Tang Wulin had blanked out before asking, "What situation do I have?" At the time, she had nearly bitten her chopsticks in half. This person was truly appallingly dense when it came to romance.

"So you have to take the initiative." Lu Menge held up one finger. "First step: let him know you're more than just teammates. As for exactly how—you're better at that than I am. Those eyes of yours are cold when you look at everyone else. When you look at him, linger a few breaths longer. He'll feel it."

Gu Yue's black eyes flickered slightly in the glow of the coals. She understood what Lu Menge meant—her gaze at Tang Wulin in battle had always been different from the way she looked at others. Lu Menge merely wanted her to bring that difference from the battlefield into daily life, to linger for a few extra seconds so that this dense blockhead could slowly realize it was another kind of attention.

Lu Menge stood and stretched, her white lab coat billowing in the night wind. Looking down at Gu Yue, who was still sitting on the rock, she suddenly softened her voice until it was nearly a whisper. "You like him. And he'll only ever like you. He's just slow—you need to give him a few hints. Having two children was a joke, but the Dragon God needs both of you. My mission is to bring you two together—not just as a team, but for a lifetime. You asked me when to let him know? Tonight would be good—he's in the forging room."

Gu Yue rose from the rock, pulled up the zipper of her school uniform jacket, and brushed the bits of leaves from her skirt.

"...Two children. Don't tell him yet." She stuffed the last piece of grilled corn into her mouth and turned toward the foot of the mountain. After a few steps, she looked back and glared at Lu Menge. Her black eyes shimmered in the firelight, while her tone regained some of its usual icy bluntness. "The chicken wings—use less cumin next time. The honey water is almost gone. Mix another bottle."

Standing beneath the ancient tree, Lu Menge watched that slender figure vanish down the forest path and finally could not resist laughing softly. Whether or not they gave birth to a Dragon God did not matter that much to her—the Dragon God had fallen long ago, and honestly, she had no idea whether two children could bring it back to life. But she cared about Gu Yue and Tang Wulin being together. Two children should not have to bear the heavy mission of reviving the soul beasts, but they deserved each other. She unscrewed her thermos and took a gulp, then pulled out her phone and sent Di Tian a message.

"Today, I had a talk about life's major matters with your former boss's daughter. She said she'll go back to see you next time."

Deep within the Star Dou Great Forest, Di Tian slowly opened his golden beast eyes beneath a towering ancient tree. He stared at that cryptic message in silence for a long time. His reply contained only one line: "Senior Lu, what have you done again?"

Lu Menge did not reply. She wrapped the last few grilled chicken wings in foil and placed them in the bamboo basket, nudged Little White Tiger dozing on a branch, and headed down the mountain in her thin high heels. The moonlight was beautiful tonight, and the wind on the back mountain carried the scent of grilled meat and ginkgo leaves. She could push those two little brats only this far. They would have to walk the rest of the road themselves.

At the same time, in the forging room, Tang Wulin raised his head from the anvil and rolled his stiff shoulders. Just as he was about to place the newly formed rough blank of a short blade into the quenching tank, the door was pushed open. Gu Yue stood in the doorway without a coat over her school uniform. Her black hair was slightly tousled by the night wind, and a small ginkgo leaf still clung to her shoulder. Her eyes were on him—somehow different from how she usually looked at him. He could not explain it, but he could feel it.

"Why are you here?"

"Passing by. I heard you forging." Gu Yue walked in and sat on the old bench beside the forge, offering no explanation for why she happened to be "passing by" the forging room at this hour.

"...It's past midnight. Are you sure you were passing by?"

"Mm. I just went to the back mountain for grilled chicken wings. Want one?" She handed him a foil-wrapped chicken wing that was still warm.

Tang Wulin took it and bit into it, then realized she was looking at him from the side—the focus she usually had on the battlefield was somehow different today. He could not say exactly what had changed, but he felt like he ought to do something. So he picked up the short blade he had just quenched, wiped the black ash from its surface with a clean cloth, and held it out to her. "I made this for Xie Xie. The dimensions are the ones he gave me last time. The balancing requirements for the Light Dragon Dagger are trickier than I expected. I ruined several before getting this one. Take a look and see whether the blade shape is right—if it isn't, I'll have to redo it."

Gu Yue took the short blade and turned it once in her hand. The blade reflected half of one eye. She examined it very carefully, then returned it to him and pointed from the guard to the tip.

"The edge isn't sharpened completely straight. The blade shape is sharper than his original one. He'll be happy."

"Then I'll refine it a few more times. Do you want to tell me your requirements for elemental control too? I'll forge one for you later—you mainly use water element, right? The balance for an Ice Spear needs to be twenty percent heavier than an ordinary short blade."

Remembering Lu Menge's words, "You need to give him a hint," Gu Yue turned the short blade halfway in her hand and lifted her eyes to look at him. "You aren't the first person to forge a weapon for me. But you're the first person who knew I needed the balance adjusted."

Tang Wulin had just turned the short blade toward the light for a closer look. At those words, he paused, then gave an "Oh" and placed the blade back on the anvil. The tips of his ears slowly reddened. As he lowered his head and pretended to adjust the temperature of the quenching fluid, Gu Yue saw that his ears were a little brighter red than the reflected glow of the forging furnace. She stood and walked to the doorway, then glanced back at him.

"Training tomorrow morning. Don't stay up too late."

"Got it."

Tang Wulin watched her leave, then lowered his head to look at the unfinished short blade in his hand. He returned to the anvil and lit the furnace again, his mind replaying her words over and over—he was the first person who knew she needed the balance adjusted. He lowered the quenching fluid's temperature by a few more degrees. Until lights-out, he kept refining the blade's shape, always feeling it could be altered to fit her better. Outside the window, ginkgo leaves rustled in the night wind. As he dozed off with his head resting on the unfinished blade blank, the Golden Dragon King spoke lazily in his sea of consciousness, its voice carrying several parts long-suppressed disdain. "'Oh'? She made a special trip to bring you chicken wings, and all you said was 'oh'? Even when I was courting the Silver Dragon King in the God Realm, I wasn't as dense as you. At least I took the initiative to invite her to wipe out a few gods with me."

"Can you shut up...?"

"No. When she mentioned that an Ice Spear needed twenty percent more balance weight, her eye color deepened by several shades. I've seen that warmth in the Dragon God—you brat, when are you going to wake up? If you don't, that wisp of her origin power in your seal is going to suffer insomnia with you."

Tang Wulin pulled the blanket over his head, and the tips of his ears stayed hot in the darkness for quite a while.