"Of course I wasn't pretending!"
Xiao Wu clung to Lu Xuan's arm as she felt her way forward, pouting as she grumbled.
"Soul beasts only develop intelligence comparable to a human baby's when they reach eighty thousand years, and their intelligence grows very slowly. At a hundred thousand years, we're just about equivalent to a six-year-old human."
"That's also why soul beast transformation starts us off as six-year-old humans instead of newborns."
Understanding dawned on Lu Xuan. "So that's it. Those first hundred thousand years of yours were all lived for nothing."
Xiao Wu: "..."
The pitch-black Mountain Cave was utterly silent. Without a Blue Silver Domain or vast spiritual power, Xiao Wu could only cling tightly to Lu Xuan's arm.
Tap, tap, tap...
Their footsteps rang out with particular clarity. Suddenly, as though something had occurred to him, Lu Xuan spoke without warning.
"Oh? There's something else. You've lived for a hundred thousand years. Didn't you ever date another soul beast or anything?"
Before Xiao Wu could cover her wildly pounding heart, her little face flushed red.
"N-no, I didn't!"
"Why not?"
"My mom wouldn't let me!"
Lu Xuan:
"Uh..."
"All right, then."
"I thought you might have left a whole brood of... in the Star Dou Great Forest."
"Don't say it!" Before Lu Xuan could finish, Xiao Wu cut him off with a sharp cry. "I'd never do anything like that!"
The girl's embarrassment plunged them into silence again, but that silence had barely lasted before Xiao Wu noticed something unusual.
"Teacher, I suddenly sensed a soul beast's aura, and it feels very familiar."
Lu Xuan's lips curled as he looked toward the only faint glimmer in the darkness ahead.
"Of course you sensed her. She's the reason we came here."
At his words, Xiao Wu followed Lu Xuan's gaze.
The glow was faint, dimmer than even the feeblest firefly in the forest. Despite the darkness surrounding them, Xiao Wu hadn't noticed it at first.
The girl stopped to study it, the sense of familiarity in her mind growing stronger and stronger. Before long...
"Is that... Ah Yin?"
As Xiao Wu's words fell, a hazy silhouette suddenly appeared above the faint glow. It gradually solidified into the image of a woman in a blue dress.
The woman had blue hair, blue eyes, and gentle features. An ordinary man would feel an urge to protect her after just one look at her appearance.
Ah Yin looked at Xiao Wu.
"Are you... Xiao Wu?"
"Ah Yin? Why are you here? Didn't you sacrifice yourself?"
Xiao Wu released Lu Xuan's arm and hurried over to her "old friend." As a fellow soul beast, the girl naturally felt a sense of kinship with her, and she asked urgently.
"After you sacrificed yourself, didn't your human partner send your grass seed back to the Blue Silver Forest?"
At those words, Ah Yin visibly froze.
The joy that had just appeared on her face at seeing Xiao Wu instantly turned to embarrassment.
"I... Brother Hao, he..."
The woman stammered, unable to offer a proper explanation.
Only after a long while did she manage to squeeze out a reply. "Perhaps Brother Hao left me here because he was afraid the people from Spirit Hall would discover me."
As her words fell, Lu Xuan suddenly laughed beside them.
"Afraid you'd be discovered? Would Spirit Hall search the entire continent for a Blue Silver Grass soul beast less than ten years old? Even if they found you, what value could you possibly offer them?"
Ah Yin: "..."
Lu Xuan's retort left Ah Yin speechless. It was only because she was a spirit that she couldn't blush; otherwise, her expression would have been quite a sight.
"Who are you? Why did you come here?"
"What do my affairs with Brother Hao have to do with you?"
Seeing Ah Yin grow hostile toward Lu Xuan, Xiao Wu hurried forward to explain.
"Ah Yin, he's my teacher! He isn't a bad person!"
"Not a bad person?" Facing this human who had slandered her Brother Hao, even Ah Yin's usually gentle features grew sterner.
"Xiao Wu, you're too naive. Humans and soul beasts have been irreconcilable enemies since ancient times. He's keeping you by his side so he can take your soul ring and soul bone when the time is ripe."
Ah Yin wore a solemn expression, adopting the air of someone who had been through it all as she lectured Xiao Wu.
At that, Lu Xuan sneered. "So you know Tang Hao treated you the same way, then?"
Ah Yin frowned. "You... what nonsense are you talking about? Brother Hao is different!"
"Heh, hahaha!"
"Fine, fine, fine! What a wonderful 'he's different'!" Lu Xuan laughed wildly, his laughter dripping with mockery. "If I'm with Xiao Wu, I have sinister intentions, but this Brother Hao of yours is a good man? Would a good man bury you in this sunless Mountain Cave for six years?"
In truth, Lu Xuan had come today intending to rescue Ah Yin.
In his previous life, he had always thought Ah Yin was terribly pitiful. Leaving aside whether Tang Hao had deliberately set her up, abandoning a conscious little blade of grass in a wretched place like this for over a decade was already cruel enough.
Lu Xuan had figured that since he now possessed the Blue Silver Emperor Bloodline anyway, and was on good terms with Xiao Wu, who was a soul beast, he might as well rescue Ah Yin too.
Now it seemed that this kindness of his had been foolish after all!
This woman, whose mind was already hopelessly consumed by romance, wasn't worth a shred of his sympathy.
And Ah Yin was still trying to justify herself:
"What do you know? This is love!"
"Blue grass had no home to return to in all its life; through years of wind and rain, it was blessed by the east wind's favor."
"Every moment I spent with Brother Hao deserves to be cherished. I've never regretted sacrificing myself for him."
Right then, Lu Xuan could only think that Ah Yin was a fucking idiot!
"No home to return to? Never regretted it?"
"Heh..."
Lu Xuan sneered again and said:
"Wasn't the Blue Silver Forest your home? Countless Blue Silver Grass soul beasts gathered the power of their faith to raise you to the imperial throne. Yet you chose to take human form and fall in love with a human, and even personally passed the Blue Silver Emperor Bloodline on to the child you had with that human."
"Ah Yin, your clansmen have suffered so much."
That last sentence brimmed with Lu Xuan's boundless mockery of Ah Yin. Hearing him mention her clansmen, Ah Yin also fell into a daze.
"N-no... it wasn't like that..."
"I only wanted to pursue love. What did I do wrong? I did nothing wrong!"
Lu Xuan:
"Perhaps!"
"But... it seems the growing conditions here have already made you gradually lose the instincts a soul beast should have."
Ah Yin raised her head. "What do you mean?"
This time, Lu Xuan didn't answer her. Instead, he directly summoned his Blue Silver Emperor Martial Soul.
Blue-and-gold blades of grass slowly rose, and gentle life energy instantly filled the entire Mountain Cave. The darkness, once so complete that they couldn't see their hands before their faces, was suddenly transformed into something resembling a dazzling starry sky.
Against a blue backdrop, golden specks swirled. It was truly breathtaking!
Even Ah Yin's true body was nourished within that vast "starry sky," growing sturdier.
"W-what? Why is your martial soul the Blue Silver Emperor?"
"I'm the emperor!"
"Without my abdication, you couldn't possibly inherit the imperial throne. Where did your Blue Silver Emperor Martial Soul come from?"
Before you continue