Ah Yin panicked!
Why had she survived her sacrifice? Why had she lived for six years in Mountain Cave, where no daylight ever reached? Wasn't it all thanks to her noble Blue Silver Emperor bloodline?
Ordinary blue silver grass could barely survive being pulled out of the soil, let alone a sacrifice.
It could be said that her blue silver emperor bloodline had been the source of all Ah Yin's confidence over the years.
But today...
As the saying went, two kings could never share a throne!
Before Lu Xuan arrived, a few faint golden patterns had still been barely visible on Ah Yin's true body.
But the moment Lu Xuan summoned his Blue Silver Emperor, Ah Yin felt as though something deep within her soul had been drained away in an instant. Her true body completely lost its last traces of blue silver emperor bloodline, becoming a stalk of blue silver grass so ordinary it could not have been more commonplace.
Ah Yin was instantly at a loss, desperately trying to hold on to what should have belonged to her yet was slipping away without end.
Before long, Lu Xuan received the feedback and spoke.
"Perhaps your clansmen thought you were irresponsible, so they gathered the power of faith from countless blue silver grass soul beasts again and chose a new emperor."
Ah Yin's expression turned frantic. "No! That's impossible! My clansmen would never betray me."
Lu Xuan said, "You betrayed your clansmen first!"
He turned to Xiao Wu and said:
"Xiao Wu, look at this from a soul beast's perspective."
"If the Soft Bone Rabbit Clan needed an emperor's protection to survive better in the forest, would you choose to take human form?"
Xiao Wu fell silent at his words.
In truth, the moment Lu Xuan asked that question, the answer was already clear.
Xiao Wu knew it, and Ah Yin knew it too, but what had happened all those years ago...
"..."
"Sigh..."
"N-no... I wouldn't..."
Torn, Xiao Wu squeezed out those few words.
Seeing this, Lu Xuan asked another question:
"Even if we take ten thousand steps back and assume you refused to perish under a heavenly tribulation, wanting to take human form and gamble on that sliver of a chance to become a god."
"Would you then fall in love with a human and pass your bloodline on to the child born of your union?"
This time, both women fell silent.
Especially since Ah Yin had just been insisting that soul beasts and humans were like fire and water, and that no human could be trusted.
Yet this woman had turned around and borne Tang Hao a child? She had even betrayed the trust of her entire clan and passed on her precious bloodline.
All that could be said was that being as love-addled as Ah Yin already bordered on madness.
Lu Xuan truly had no idea what magic Tang Hao possessed to train a woman into behaving like this...
Lu Xuan took a step forward.
"I came here today because I pitied you and wanted to give you a chance to live."
"But now it seems you've long since stopped caring whether you live or die. You only have eyes for your Brother Hao."
Even when Lu Xuan's expression suddenly hardened, Ah Yin remained stubborn.
"Heh..."
"Don't expect me to beg for mercy."
The woman's eyes brimmed with defiance, like a steadfast believer fighting evil to the bitter end, as though she were utterly righteous and would rather break than bend.
Lu Xuan looked contemptuous.
"How boring."
"Your pleas mean nothing to me. Do you think I'm here to play tug-of-war with you?"
He controlled the Blue Silver Emperor, uprooting Ah Yin's true body and holding it in his palm.
Ah Yin's soul form instantly weakened, nearly unable to maintain its shape.
Then Lu Xuan added:
"You foolish woman!"
"Tang Hao dumped you in Mountain Cave for six years without a care, yet you remain utterly devoted to him."
"For six whole years, in Mountain Cave, where no daylight ever reaches, did you never wonder why Spirit Hall discovered you back then?"
"Tang Hao knew perfectly well that you were a soul beast who had taken human form. Why did he take you wandering everywhere?"
"You had clearly already entered your mature stage. Why was Spirit Hall able to discover your identity?"
"Ah Yin, despite living for a hundred thousand years, despite being the emperor chosen by the Blue Silver Grass Clan, you're stupid to the bone."
Lu Xuan's voice was full of contempt, every word painfully grating to Ah Yin's ears.
"N-no... it wasn't like you said..."
"Don't you dare slander Brother Hao! Don't..."
"Wait, what are you doing?"
Before Ah Yin could figure out how to refute him or defend the Brother Hao she yearned for, she felt her true body coming under immense pressure, her soul trembling uncontrollably.
She was afraid!
Without her blue silver emperor bloodline, if she died now, she would truly be dead!
In fact, even if Lu Xuan did not kill her today, she would no longer live long enough for "Brother Hao" to come see her.
Fear spread through her heart. Ah Yin wanted to weep but had no tears. She wanted to beg for mercy...
But a savage grin curled across Lu Xuan's lips first.
"What am I doing? Sending you to hell, of course!"
With that, he abruptly clenched his hand!
Ah Yin's true body turned to dust in an instant, as though she had never existed in Mountain Cave at all.
Her soul form also began rapidly vanishing from the bottom upward.
The woman lowered her head and watched her own soul slowly dissipate, her eyes filled with despair and pleading. She seemed to want to say something as she turned her gaze toward Xiao Wu and Lu Xuan.
But the next second...
The dissolution of her phantom form had already passed the top of her head!
Ah Yin-dead!
She died so completely that not even a seed remained, much less the tiniest scrap.
Silence returned to Mountain Cave. Xiao Wu stood to one side, utterly dumbfounded.
No matter how wild the girl's imagination, she could never have guessed that Lu Xuan had come out tonight to do something like this!
Ah Yin, a hundred-thousand-year soul beast, had sacrificed herself for a human. Not only had that human failed to take her seed back to the Blue Silver Forest, he had imprisoned her instead.
As if imprisoning her weren't enough, Ah Yin was so love-addled that she defended that human at every turn.
And in the end...
Uh...
Thinking of it that way, Lu Xuan's actions actually seemed somewhat reasonable!
Xiao Wu was still digesting what had happened tonight, but Lu Xuan had already begun walking toward one of Mountain Cave's stone walls.
There was something there that held a special allure for him! The Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone!
Whether Ah Yin lived or died had only been a side matter for Lu Xuan tonight. This soul bone was his real objective.
Click!
Lu Xuan lightly tapped the stone wall, triggering a mechanism.
A heavy lead box suddenly popped out before him.
With the lead box in his hands, its reassuring weight made Lu Xuan feel particularly secure.
"Now things are looking up!"
"The blue silver emperor martial soul paired with the Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone... Now that I'm already a Peerless Douluo, I wonder what two skills I'll gain?"
Lu Xuan opened the lead box, and a torrent of blue-and-gold motes identical to those in Mountain Cave burst forth.
The two streams of energy met, creating a scene like two galaxies converging.
At the same time, at the Ye Residence in Heaven Dou City.
Under the treatment of the head of the Ye Family, a Nine Heart Begonia Soul Saint, Tang Hao's injuries had finally stabilized, and the stump of his right arm had healed.
Having resolved such a tremendous crisis, Tang Hao ought to have looked happy, or at least relieved.
Yet...
An inexplicable emptiness in his heart left him persistently listless.
"What's going on? Why do I suddenly feel as though I've lost something more important than anything else in my life?"
Before you continue