At the entrance to the junior Soul Master Academy in Nuoding City.
Tang San was getting ready to go home when Xiao Wu suddenly came looking for him.
"Tang San."
"Xiao Wu, did you need something?"
Seeing Xiao Wu smile at him, Tang San pretended to be calm, but joy blossomed in his heart.
"Well, Tang San, before coming to Nuoding City, I'd always stayed in my hometown and never gone anywhere else. Could I... visit your home?"
What!
Xiao Wu's words made it impossible for Tang San to suppress his smile.
Does this... mean Xiao Wu wants to meet my family? Tang San's heart brimmed with delight.
Oh, Lu Yuan, Lu Yuan. So what if you stole all the limelight? In the end, you're only her sworn brother. The one she truly cares about is me, Tang San, after all.
At that moment, Tang San felt that Xiao Wu was perceptive enough to see who truly loved her, who she could rely on and entrust herself to in the future.
"Xiao Wu, let's go."
Excited, Tang San was just about to take Xiao Wu's hand when panic flashed across her face. She held both hands against her chest and stepped back to dodge him.
Embarrassed, Tang San scratched his head with a wry smile.
Looks like Xiao Wu still has some reservations about me. But that's all right. One step at a time.
Xiao Wu and Tang San boarded a carriage together, following behind Lu Yuan toward Holy Soul Village.
At that moment, someone else was just as excited as Tang San: his father, Clear Sky Douluo Tang Hao, who was watching him from the shadows.
"Hahaha! Well done, Little San. You've got quite a bit of my old flair."
Tang Hao laughed. The recent trio of Lu Yuan, Tang San, and Xiao Wu reminded him of the days when he and his older brother Tang Xiao, the Clear Sky Twin Stars, had traveled across the Douluo Continent with Ah Yin.
Even the details lined up: Lu Yuan and Tang Xiao were around the same age, while Ah Yin and Xiao Wu were both hundred-thousand-year soul beasts who had taken human form.
Back then, Tang Xiao and Ah Yin had ended up as nothing more than brother and sister, while Tang Hao himself had married her.
Brimming with conceit, Tang Hao naturally believed Tang San would stand out in this trio just as his father had and eventually marry Xiao Wu.
The current situation really did seem to confirm Tang Hao's prediction.
Once I've escorted Tang San and Xiao Wu some distance out of Nuoding City and made sure no one is following them, I'll go see Yu Xiaogang.
Tang Hao worried that someone in Nuoding City might have discovered Tang San's and Xiao Wu's true identities and would follow them to abduct them.
After that, once he was certain there was no danger, Tang Hao would seek out Yu Xiaogang and entrust Tang San to him.
As for Tang Hao himself, his hands were itching for action. Injured or not, he would settle his long-unavenged score with the Spirit Hall, along with the "special care" they had given Tang San over the past seven years.
In the hills behind Holy Soul Village, Lu Yuan had arrived several hours earlier and let Meowmeow out.
The human and beast searched the mountain forest for something.
"Meow!" (Master, I found something big, meow!)
Meowmeow narrowed its eyes happily, ran up to Lu Yuan, and rubbed its broad face against his leg.
"Meowmeow, what did you find?"
"Meow~" Meowmeow pointed in a direction with its stubby little paw.
A golden light flashed in Lu Yuan's eyes.
"You're saying you sensed a faint but rich aura of life in that direction? Hurry and take me there."
At Lu Yuan's urging, Meowmeow bounded off, leading him toward the direction it had sensed.
They had not gone far before they heard the soft murmur of flowing water, and the air grew more humid.
Only when Lu Yuan pushed aside a thicket blocking their view, with Meowmeow beside him, did he see the true source of the sound.
Mist swirled before them, and above it thundered a waterfall.
Lu Yuan held his hand flat above his eyes and peered toward the middle of the waterfall. Sure enough, there was a spot whose color, seen through the water, differed from the surrounding rock.
"Just as I thought. This is it!"
Lu Yuan was certain this was where Tang Hao had hidden Ah Yin and her Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone in the original timeline.
Meanwhile, the carriage carrying Xiao Wu and Tang San stopped on a road not far from Holy Soul Village.
After getting out, Tang San earnestly offered his hand, hoping to help Xiao Wu step safely down.
But Xiao Wu did not move, and she looked somewhat distracted.
"Xiao Wu, what's wrong?"
Tang San's voice was full of concern. Xiao Wu looked at him, and just as his sincerity was about to move her, she remembered what Lu Yuan had told her the night before.
"Xiao Wu, from now on, whether you meet humans or soul beasts, watch carefully and think things through. Don't let anyone easily cheat you out of your money or your feelings."
At that moment, Xiao Wu's gaze grew resolute. She shook her head and put on an act, just as she had learned from Lu Yuan.
"Tang San, um... I just remembered there's something urgent at home. I have to hurry back, so I can't stay with you. Sorry."
"But..."
Because Xiao Wu had chosen him instead of going home with Lu Yuan, a blazing hope had ignited in Tang San's heart. Now, her words doused it once more.
Tang San stood rooted to the spot, as though turned to stone.
But he quickly came to his senses. Tang San, what's wrong with you? Stay calm. This is just an accident. Xiao Wu has already made the right choice between you and Lu Yuan. You just need to wait. Don't pressure her.
"All right, Xiao Wu. I'll see you when school starts, then."
Tang San swallowed the bitterness in his heart and spoke dispiritedly.
"Mm." Xiao Wu's expression was cool. Covering her mouth, she quietly told the coachman a destination, then drew the curtain shut, denying Tang San another glimpse of her.
The coachman turned the carriage around and drove away from Holy Soul Village-and from destiny.
Tang San stood alone, his face blank, watching Xiao Wu disappear into the distance.
For some reason, a faint, twisting pain stirred in his heart. With Xiao Wu's departure, Tang San felt as though something unseen had left him as well.
Beneath the waterfall at Water Curtain Cave, Lu Yuan swam to the slick rocks with Meowmeow on his back.
He looked at Meowmeow on his back and shouted, "Meowmeow, hold on tight!"
Meowmeow's little claws gripped Lu Yuan's clothes. Then, continually burning through his stamina points, Lu Yuan made several gravity-defying leaps up the slippery rock face.
In one burst of effort, he leaped through the curtain of water and entered Water Curtain Cave, hidden behind the waterfall.
As soon as he entered, Lu Yuan sat on the ground, panting heavily. He wiped away the beads of sweat clinging to his wet hair and gulped down air.
An ordinary soul master in the teens would never have been able to enter Water Curtain Cave without Lu Yuan's stamina-point cheat.
Time was short. After resting for a while and recovering most of his strength, Lu Yuan hurriedly rose and began examining the cave's interior.
Compared with an ordinary rocky cave, it was merely a little damper, with moss and plants, including blue silver grass, growing inside.
At the center of the cave, a shaft of light fell through a small natural skylight onto a stalk of blue silver grass.
She was sturdier than ordinary blue silver grass, and her leaf veins were golden.
"So this is Tang San's mom? The hundred-thousand-year Blue Silver King, Ah Yin?"
Lu Yuan's eyes widened. Unfortunately, only seven years had passed since Ah Yin had sacrificed herself to Tang Hao. Though she still possessed the blue silver emperor bloodline, her age was only a little over a thousand years.
Lu Yuan rummaged around the cave some more and finally discovered an antique-looking box beneath a patch of loose soil.
He picked up the box, delight spreading across his face. If he was right, it contained the greatest prize of this trip, the soul bone he had coveted for years: the Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone!
"Tang San, your mom's soul bone is gone!"