Xu Jiujiu's cheeks flushed crimson in an instant. Almost instinctively, she met Dai Youheng's gaze. The questions that had been circling in her mind, the careful inquiries she had intended to make about how thoroughly his Martial Soul had been purified, suddenly seemed so unnecessary and pale.
Some things needed no lengthy explanation. A change in presence and bearing was enough to reveal the truth at a glance.
She had wanted to confirm whether he had truly succeeded in taming that terrifying Abyssal Demon Tiger Martial Soul, but now the answer was written plainly upon him.
The young man before her stood straight as a pine, his bearing calm as a mountain. Not a trace of cold, sinister malice lingered around him. Instead, he possessed the radiant clarity of sunlight breaking through clouds and a confidence that shone from within. Compared with when he had left, hardship had not worn away his edges; it had only lent him a deeper, more inscrutable charm and a commanding presence that stirred the heart.
If the Abyssal Demon Tiger truly remained a source of evil and brutality that corroded his character, he could never have stood so upright and dazzling, as though he had brought every shred of its power completely under his control and made it his own.
All her doubts vanished like smoke in an instant. The longing she had forcibly suppressed for nearly half a year could no longer be contained. Xu Jiujiu parted her crimson lips, and the name she called carried a tenderness, affection, and faint catch in her throat that even she had not expected. "Youheng-"
That brief name held far too many emotions.
Just as Dai Youheng and his predecessor had become almost polar opposites, was Xu Jiujiu's treatment of the two Dai Youhengs not as