Lu Yuan opened the box. Sure enough, a Soul Bone radiating a gentle blue light lay inside.
This was the Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Silver Emperor's Right Leg Bone.
But something had always puzzled Lu Yuan. Ah Yin was clearly the Blue Silver Emperor, so why did the Soul Bone she produced have a flight skill? Could it mean...
Blue Silver Grass could fly!
"Hm!"
The instant Lu Yuan opened the box, he suddenly sensed an unusual trace of Soul Power dissipating. It was immensely forceful, presumably a measure Tang Hao had put in place to check whether the Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone Ah Yin had left behind remained safely stored.
Lu Yuan's expression hardened. "Looks like we need to leave, fast."
He looked at Meowmeow.
"Meowmeow, let's go!"
"Meow?"
Confusion covered Meowmeow's green feline face as a little paw pointed at the Blue Silver Emperor, Ah Yin, basking in thin strands of sunlight.
Lu Yuan slapped his forehead. I nearly forgot you.
In the original timeline, when Tang San came to this Water Curtain Cave to see Ah Yin at fourteen, almost fifteen, her cultivation after starting over had only reached three thousand years.
Only seven years had passed since Ah Yin sacrificed herself to Tang Hao, so her current cultivation should only have been a little over a thousand years.
Lu Yuan approached the Blue Silver Emperor, and she extended vines bearing golden patterns to resist him.
Unfortunately, although Ah Yin still possessed the Blue Silver Emperor Bloodline, the noblest among all Blue Silver Grass, she was only a thousand-year Soul Beast.
But neither the blue silver race nor Ah Yin was particularly skilled at fighting. Their means of attack were even more limited at lower ranks.
Ah Yin wound herself around Lu Yuan.
A fierce look flashed in Meowmeow's eyes, and a few swipes of those little claws severed the blue silver bindings.
Lu Yuan took a piece of gray cloth out of his Storage Soul Tool. After forcibly pulling Ah Yin out of the ground, he wrapped her in the cloth and slung her onto his back to carry her away.
Ordinary Soul Tools could not store living things. Lu Yuan only remembered Poison Douluo Dugu Bo possessing a bag that could preserve the vitality of medicinal herbs, but he had no way of obtaining it now. He could only carry Ah Yin away like this.
"There's no time to waste. Once Tang Hao senses the Soul Power on the Soul Bone box dissipating, he could arrive here at any moment. We have to escape, fast!"
"Meowmeow, quick! Jump into my arms."
Lu Yuan directed Meowmeow, who complied. Hajimeow nestled obediently beneath his right arm.
Lu Yuan turned back and took one last look at the crude cave.
Come to think of it, Ah Yin's fate had been rather tragic. She had taken human form to cultivate, only for Tang Hao to expose her identity. Hunted by Spirit Hall, she had ultimately sacrificed her hundred thousand years of cultivation to him.
Yet Tang Hao had not only failed to properly care for their child, Tang San, but had also placed her in this sunless, prison-like place.
After making certain he had overlooked nothing, Lu Yuan carried Meowmeow toward the waterfall at the cave entrance, exhaled deeply, and jumped straight in.
Splash!
Water splashed up behind him, and bubbles rose beneath the waterfall. After a few gurgles, Lu Yuan's head emerged, his whole body soaked like a chicken caught in the rain.
But Lu Yuan did not rush ashore. Instead, he followed the river, racing downstream.
He would never even have dared imagine doing this back on Blue Star in his previous life. Who knew what a mangled wreck the rocks and hidden currents in those rapids would have battered him into?
Fortunately, the river carried plenty of water-enough for its waterfall to conceal an entire Water Curtain Cave.
Lu Yuan's size was still within the normal range for an eight-year-old child. Though the current was swift, the water was deep enough that he was unlikely to strike a rock.
Moreover, after becoming a Soul Master and absorbing ten-thousand-year whale glue, Lu Yuan's physical abilities had long since improved dramatically. Brimming with strength and as nimble as a fish in the water, he could use this river to flee far downstream at great speed.
Yu Xiaogang's office at the Nuoding City Junior Soul Master Academy.
After handing Yu Xiaogang the Elder Token Spirit Hall had originally given the Clear Sky Sect, Tang Hao was instructing him to take care of Little San.
Suddenly, Tang Hao's brow twitched, and his entire body froze on the spot.
"Your Excellency Haotian, what... what's wrong?"
Yu Xiaogang looked Tang Hao up and down, wondering whether an old ailment had flared up.
"I've said everything I needed to say. Something urgent has come up. I must leave."
Flustered, Tang Hao immediately turned around.
"Huh?" Yu Xiaogang reached out to stop Tang Hao, hoping to ask him more questions.
But Tang Hao had already sensed that something had happened at the hiding place of Ah Yin and her Soul Bone. How could he possibly have the patience to stay here and get bogged down with Yu Xiaogang?
He ran out of the office in several long strides and immediately used the ability to fly through the air that only Titled Douluos possessed, heading straight for Holy Soul Village.
Tang Hao was frantic. He flew openly over Nuoding City, leaving Soul Masters throughout the city trembling in fear.
Since when had such a powerful figure appeared in their Nuoding City?
Tang Hao had not shown himself to the world for a long time. Moreover, he was deliberately concealing his identity now, dressed in shabby clothes, with unkempt hair and a grimy face. No one recognized him. They merely assumed that a Soul Saint or someone even stronger had used some flight Soul Skill to sweep over Nuoding City.
After all, the strongest Soul Master in Nuoding City was only a Soul Ancestor. With such an enormous gap in strength, they could not even gauge the furious pressure Tang Hao was radiating.
Besides, Tang Hao looked so flustered and disheveled that they were even less likely to connect him with a Titled Douluo-much less the Clear Sky Douluo who had become renowned seven years ago for entering a forbidden romance with a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, being hunted by Spirit Hall, and killing Spirit Hall's Pontiff in retaliation.
Tang Hao raced to the waterfall behind Holy Soul Village and plunged straight through it.
By the time he arrived, the Water Curtain Cave was already a mess. Only an empty pit remained where Ah Yin's Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone had been buried.
As for the patch of earth where Ah Yin had been growing, all that remained was loose soil torn up by the roots and a few lifeless Blue Silver Emperor vines.
Tang Hao fell to his knees with a thud. At the spot where Ah Yin had been cultivating anew, he scooped up the loose soil and roots with trembling hands. A few tears fell onto them, wetting them.
Then Tang Hao raised his head, squeezed his eyes shut, and let out a long howl to the heavens:
"No! My Ah Yin!!!"
It felt like learning that his wife had met with disaster at home and, frantic with worry, breaking through the door—only to discover that she had fought Blondie, a thug, until she was weak and helpless, then been tied up and taken away with the light gone from her eyes. That same despair.
"Achoo!"
Lu Yuan, who had been soaking in the water just moments earlier, sneezed, but he did not assume anyone was thinking about him.
"Even in broad daylight, this water is far too cold. I need to find a chance to get ashore soon."
Lu Yuan pondered this. The boy and cat had drifted along the river for most of the day. Returning a thousand li to Jiangling in a single day was no joke.
After fleeing in a panic for nearly a thousand kilometers, Lu Yuan prepared to go ashore, but he still wanted to leave as few traces as possible so Tang Hao would have trouble tracking them down.
"Awoo~"
As Lu Yuan was deep in thought, a distant howl reached his ears from the dense forest beside the river.
Lu Yuan turned to look and spotted a Mountain Ape swinging between the tree trunks in the dense forest. His eyes suddenly lit up.
"I've got it!"