"Oh, right."
Feeling wonderful after showing off, El withdrew his martial soul and blinked at the two of them, who were still stunned.
"You came to the Star Dou Great Forest to hunt for soul rings too, right?"
"Hm? Ah, that's right!"
Bei Bei came back to his senses and answered.
Tang Ya, standing beside him, went a step further and revealed her own blue silver grass martial soul. Two yellow hundred-year soul rings appeared around her blue silver grass.
"Bei Bei came to the Star Dou Great Forest with me this time to help me hunt for my third soul ring."
"Do you have any particular soul beasts in mind?"
El tilted his head, staring straight at the lush little tuft of blue-green grass in Tang Ya's hand, his eyes gleaming with curiosity.
"I've been in the Star Dou Great Forest for a while. Maybe I've already come across the soul beast you need."
At those words, Tang Ya's eyes lit up. Without the slightest intention of standing on ceremony, she rattled off several soul beast names like beans pouring out of a bamboo tube.
"A thousand-year Mandala Snake or Man Faced Demon Spider. A Cave Demon Spider or ghost vine would work too!"
"Um..."
El did not answer immediately. Instead, he studied Tang Ya's blue silver grass, thought for a moment, and mused:
"Tang Ya, did a teacher recommend those soul beasts, or did you choose them yourself?"
"Those soul beasts are all barely compatible with blue silver grass, but they aren't the best matches for your martial soul."
"What?"
Tang Ya froze at first. Then, as though something had occurred to her, her pupils abruptly contracted.
"After all, if you want to strengthen your devouring blue silver grass's properties and make it evolve into dark blue silver grass, you should look directly for plant-type soul beasts with the dark attribute..."
"Devouring blue silver grass? Dark blue silver grass?!!"
What on earth?!!
Hearing those terms, Bei Bei, her boyfriend, cried out in shock before Tang Ya, whose face had instantly turned deathly pale, could react.
Bei Bei turned toward Tang Ya with a grim expression, his eyes filled with disbelief.
A moment later, he spoke hesitantly:
"Xiaoya, what does that mean?"
Devouring and darkness-either word on its own would have been manageable.
After all, Bei Bei had his background to rely on.
But whenever they appeared together, they almost always pointed to one kind of existence-
An evil soul master!
Of course, unlike ordinary soul masters without powerful backing, Tang Ya had Bei Bei, a direct descendant of the Sea God Pavilion Master. As long as she had not actually harmed others by draining their life force to cultivate, she would not truly be branded an evil soul master.
Still, if something could be prevented, it was better to prevent it in advance.
"Xiaoya, say something!"
He had still clung to a sliver of hope, but seeing Tang Ya standing there, deathly pale and silent, how could Bei Bei fail to understand?
Tang Ya's martial soul really did have the potential to degenerate into an evil martial soul!
Even if she had not become an evil soul master yet, what if she did?
Among Shrek Academy's upper ranks, there really were accounts of people who had degenerated into evil soul masters because of a single accident.
If Tang Ya became an evil soul master, what would he do then?
"Uh..."
Amid the deathly silence, Bei Bei instinctively turned toward the voice.
It was El, looking awkward, along with Huo Yutong, who had no idea what was happening and had merely noticed that things had suddenly gone wrong.
The two were huddled together.
El, who had triggered all of this, scratched his cheek and said sheepishly:
"...So you didn't know.
I'm sorry, Tang Ya. I exposed your secret."
He lowered his head to Tang Ya, his voice full of apology.
"Right, El!"
Tang Ya said nothing, but the agitated Bei Bei's eyes lit up instead.
He hurried over in a few long strides and grabbed El's shoulders, his voice urgent.
"El, since you can tell there's something wrong with Xiaoya's martial soul, do you know any way to fix it?"
"A way to fix it? You mean keeping her martial soul from developing the dark attribute?"
El pretended to think for a while, then gave the panicked Bei Bei an affirmative answer.
"There is a way."
"Really?!"
Hearing that answer, Bei Bei's eyes instantly lit up. Tang Ya, who had kept her head lowered so that her expression was hidden, also instinctively looked up, a gleam flashing through her dim eyes.
"Start with the soul rings."
El explained.
At the same time, he gently pulled free of Bei Bei's hands on his shoulders, found a comfortable position against a tree, and continued.
"In Tang Ya's case, her blue silver grass martial soul possesses a devouring trait. Blue silver grass's inherent life attribute has caused that devouring trait to mutate into the ability to devour life force."
"Under these circumstances, if the soul rings and soul bones she absorbs lean toward darkness, her blue silver grass martial soul will begin transforming into dark blue silver grass. If she also absorbs the life force of other living beings, that will accelerate the process."
"To avoid that, besides not cultivating by devouring life force, she needs to avoid absorbing soul rings and soul bones with sinister or dark traits and absorb those with opposing traits instead."
Bei Bei calmed down and considered it, finding no fault in El's explanation.
Since they needed to stop her martial soul from sliding toward the dark attribute, adding a light-attribute soul ring was undoubtedly a good choice. And as a plant, blue silver grass did not conflict with the light attribute.
"You mean having Xiaoya absorb a light-attribute soul ring to suppress any potential dark transformation?"
"That isn't certain yet."
El shook his head and asked Tang Ya:
"What soul beasts did your first two soul rings come from?"
"A Mandala Snake and a ghost vine, respectively."
Realizing that she might not have to worry about becoming an evil soul master in the future, Tang Ya lost her earlier lifeless air.
Like a patient who had discovered that her terminal illness could be cured, she began cooperating with Doctor El's diagnosis and treatment.
"In that case, directly absorbing the light attribute isn't suitable for this soul ring."
Doctor El nodded lightly and explained to Bei Bei, the patient's family member:
"Of ghost vine and Mandala Snake, one is already a plant-type soul beast with a dark nature. The other has the poison attribute, but snakes inherently have dark traits, and the poison attribute itself isn't much better."
"Directly adding a light-attribute soul ring could easily conflict with the first two soul rings and damage her martial soul."
"What should we do, then?"
Bei Bei tightly clasped Tang Ya's small hand beside him and asked anxiously.
"First, absorb a soul ring from a soul beast with more balanced, mild traits. Preferably a plant-type soul beast."
El pondered for a moment.
"For example, lone bamboo!"
"This soul beast's defining trait is toughness, which suits blue silver grass very well. It also has tenacious vitality and no other traits, making it ideal as a transitional soul ring for correcting her martial soul."
El smiled and raised a finger toward Bei Bei and Tang Ya as he said:
"Oh! I happen to know where there's a thousand-year lone bamboo!"
"Really?! Thank you so much, little brother El!"
Bei Bei let out a heartfelt sigh of relief and gave El a refined smile.
"I have no way to repay such a great kindness. If you ever need anything in the future, come to me. I'll do everything in my power to help!"
With that, Bei Bei drew Tang Ya along with him, and they bowed deeply.
"Oh, please, there's no need!"
El hurried forward to help them up.
"We'll be fellow students at the same academy in the future. Helping each other is only natural!"
Okay, this one's in the bag!
Where no one could see, a smile called "all according to plan" appeared on El's face.
With this favor to the original story's ill-fated lovebirds, along with the talent and knowledge he had displayed and their possible familial connection, becoming Mu En's disciple was now practically guaranteed.
And with the backing of this "only normal person in Shrek," his grand plans as Lord Huang could proceed steadily.
The way I see it, even Shrek Academy might someday bear the name "Huang"!
Before you continue