The Jade Pool.
Taichu and Jiang Ling sat on opposite sides of a stone table.
They had already exchanged a few brief words.
"Luo Hou?"
Jiang Ling made no attempt to conceal the disgust in her eyes.
"If you intend to reshape this world, why take such filth under your command? Why even bestow a name upon him?"
Even knowing now the tremendous power possessed by the man before her, she showed not the slightest courtesy in her tone.
Taichu did not grow angry at her manner.
For that very temperament was why she had been chosen.
"Luo Hou is no longer merely Filth," Taichu said calmly. "He has now fused with a fragment of the Demon Realm's Heavenly Dao and undergone a complete transformation."
"Born of destruction, nurtured in chaos-it would hardly be an exaggeration to call him an 'innate being.'"
Jiang Ling gave a cold snort without committing herself, clearly unconvinced by his explanation.
"Such a creature will always be a hidden danger. I don't believe he'll obediently follow your orders forever."
Taichu smiled faintly. "Of course he won't."
"But what of it? A tool is still only a tool."
"If you find him an eyesore, once this old world has been swept clean, I'll leave the opportunity to slay him to you. How does that sound?"
Jiang Ling narrowed her eyes slightly at this, but ultimately offered no further objection.
"Now that we have finished discussing Luo Hou, let us turn to you."
"Those decades in the mortal world may have brought you suffering..."
Taichu spoke slowly. "But they also ground away all the weakness that belonged to your 'humanity.'"
"Your Dao heart is now flawless. You have already reached that door."
Jiang Ling faltered slightly. Indeed, after experiencing birth, aging, sickness, and death, after enduring separations