Tang San, You Wouldn't Want Another Father, Would You?

Ning Rongrong tilted her head and leaned closer for a careful look, then glanced around the cave. "It's so dark in here there's practically no light. This is no place for a plant like Blue Silver Grass to grow. How did it end up here?"

"Brother Lin Ye, don't tell me... this is the treasure you were looking for? What's so special about it?"

Ning Rongrong simply couldn't connect this wilted little plant with the word "treasure."

Zhu Zhuqing said nothing, but her eyes were filled with the same questions.

She couldn't understand why Lin Ye had gone to such lengths, even paying three Gold Soul Coins to have someone watch their carriage, just to come to a cave behind this remote village and find a stalk of Blue Silver Grass that looked ready to die at any moment.

Looking at Ah Yin's nearly withered, lifeless state, then recalling what Tang Hao had done in the original story, Lin Ye sneered inwardly.

"That's right. This is it."

He walked over to the Blue Silver Grass and crouched down, gently touching a leaf with his finger before looking up at the two girls. "Rongrong, you've misjudged this one. This isn't ordinary Blue Silver Grass."

"She is the Blue Silver Emperor."

"The Blue Silver... Emperor? Blue Silver Grass... has an emperor too?"

Ning Rongrong's mouth instantly formed a perfect circle, wide enough to fit an egg!

Lin Ye's words had completely overturned everything she knew about Blue Silver Grass, universally recognized across the continent as a trash Martial Soul!

As the young lady of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, this was the first time she had ever heard that Blue Silver Grass even had an "emperor."

Beside her, Zhu Zhuqing's face also filled with utter shock!

The Blue Silver Emperor! The sovereign of plant-type Martial Souls? Was... was that even possible?!

"The emperor of Blue Silver Grass, the sovereign of all Blue Silver Grass on the continent."

Lin Ye planned to take this Blue Silver Emperor away. If he could later restore Ah Yin, then...

At that thought, the corners of Lin Ye's mouth lifted, and he took out a shovel.

This environment was slow torture for her. Later, Lin Ye would find somewhere brimming with vital energy and let her grow properly.

The Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well should be the most suitable place.

He hefted the shovel, then took out a bag made from a special material. He had asked Sword Douluo for it two years earlier. Similar to Dugu Bo's Wishful Treasure Pouch, it could hold living things.

Soon, Lin Ye began digging. With a single thrust of his shovel, he dug up the entire stalk of Blue Silver Grass, roots and clinging soil included, then placed her straight into the pouch.

Only after making sure she was properly settled did Lin Ye carefully put the pouch away.

"All right, we've got the Blue Silver Emperor."

Lin Ye stood up and said to the two girls, "Help me look around. See if any other 'treasures' have been left in this lousy cave."

Ning Rongrong was still reeling from the enormous shock of the "Blue Silver Emperor," her mind a little dazed, but she soon recovered and began searching the cave with Zhu Zhuqing.

The cave was small, and apart from loose stones and damp, rotting wood fragments, there seemed to be nothing else.

"Huh? Brother Lin Ye, look! What's this?"

Suddenly, in the shadows of a crevice formed by collapsed rocks, Ning Rongrong felt something hard, smooth, and warm to the touch.

She brushed away the dust and dirt, then carefully pulled it out.

It was an elegantly shaped leg bone, its entire surface radiating a pale blue glow.

Unlike the stark white of an ordinary bone, it was as translucent as sapphire, with what seemed like the breath of life flowing within it. At the same time, it emitted gentle yet powerful fluctuations of energy.

Holding the Soul Bone and sensing its immense aura of life, Ning Rongrong's breathing quickened.

"These... these energy fluctuations... they feel even purer than those of the Soul Bones treasured by our Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect! Brother Lin Ye, what grade is this Soul Bone?"

She hurried over to Lin Ye and held it out.

Lin Ye took it and examined it, a gleam of understanding flashing through his eyes. It really was here.

He gently brushed away the remaining dust with his fingertips and said calmly, "Of course it's powerful. This isn't a Ten Thousand Year Soul Bone, but a hundred-thousand-year Soul Bone. It's called... the Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone."

"The Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone? A hundred thousand years?!"

Ning Rongrong cried out in shock again! She abruptly covered her mouth, her wide eyes filled with disbelief!

First, this cave had held the wilted Blue Silver Emperor herself, and now a hundred-thousand-year Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone?! The connection between them...

Ning Rongrong felt as though her little head would burst from all these explosive revelations!

She asked urgently, "What... what's going on here, Brother Lin Ye? Why would a hundred-thousand-year Blue Silver Emperor Soul Bone be left in the same lousy cave as the Blue Silver Emperor herself? This is too strange!"

Rather than answer immediately, Lin Ye looked at the two girls and said, "We've got what we came for. Let's go. It's getting late, so let's leave this wretched place first."

"On the way, I'll tell you a tragic story about a brave, kindhearted woman who fell in love with a coward..."

Aboard the carriage continuing toward Vast Sea City, Lin Ye had just finished telling the story of Ah Yin and Tang Hao.

"And that's the story."

After listening, Ning Rongrong and Zhu Zhuqing were filled with emotion.

"I never imagined something like that happened back then. Ah Yin deserved so much better," Ning Rongrong sighed softly.

"So that Tang San is Ah Yin's child?" Zhu Zhuqing asked.

Lin Ye nodded in confirmation. "That's right."

"Rongrong, Zhu Zhuqing... tell me, we just killed Tang Hao, and now we've taken his wife away too... if that 'filial son,' whose head is filled with thoughts of killing me, sees his mother in my hands someday, what sort of expression do you think he'll make?" Lin Ye gave a faint, teasing smile.

Tang San, you wouldn't want another father, would you?

"He might go mad, but they brought it on themselves," Ning Rongrong said with some disdain.

If not for Tang San and the others, especially that Yu Xiaogang—if they hadn't pressed him relentlessly—Brother Lin Ye wouldn't have expended so much power that he was left weakened for an entire month.

Several days later, the three arrived in Vast Sea City.

The streets of Vast Sea City were even more unusual than they had imagined, the salty, damp sea breeze carrying the cries of vendors straight toward them.

"Brother Lin Ye, look at this!"

Tugging at Lin Ye's sleeve, Ning Rongrong stopped before a stall selling shell jewelry and lifted an iridescent pearl necklace with her fingertips.

"This would look beautiful around Zhu Zhuqing's neck!"

Zhu Zhuqing turned her face away and coughed softly, yet her gaze secretly drifted toward another item on the stall: a pearl hairpin carved with a subtle pattern.

Smiling, Lin Ye took out his money pouch and bought both items. As he slipped the hairpin into Zhu Zhuqing's hair, his fingertips accidentally brushed her earlobe, making the tips of her ears flush red.

The three browsed all the street stalls in Vast Sea City, sampling seafood snacks along the way. Finally, after listening to the legend "Sea Soul Masters Battle the Demon Whale" at a teahouse, they decided to go admire the beautiful sea at sunset.

Just then, however, Ning Rongrong suddenly pointed at an inconspicuous old stall at the end of an alley and exclaimed, "What's that?"

Startled, Lin Ye remembered Ning Rongrong's appraisal eye and immediately looked over.

The stallholder was a stooped old man wrapped in a tattered fisherman's cloak. Only a few objects coated in sea mud lay before him, and the most eye-catching was a conch the size of a palm.

The three approached, and the old man looked up at them with clouded eyes.

"Young folks, what would you like to buy?"