"Meowmeow, use Vine Strangle on the trees across the river."
Lu Yuan gave Meowmeow the order, but Meowmeow looked utterly confused.
"Meow?"
"Extend your vines and pull us both onto the bank, but don't rush to land. Keep using Vine Strangle ahead of us and carry me through the woods, swinging from tree to tree."
Lu Yuan continued explaining, and a flicker of delight appeared on Meowmeow's face.
"Meow!" (Master, Meowmeow understands, meow!)
Meowmeow had no idea why, after taking those two things from the Water Curtain Cave, Lu Yuan had avoided the normal path and spent so long wading through the river. Was it to travel faster?
Afterward, Meowmeow would even have to carry him with vines, swinging through the mountain forest like a savage.
But after soaking in the water with Lu Yuan for so long, Meowmeow really wanted to get out as soon as possible.
Although Meowmeow was a Grass-Type Elf, Meowmeow was still a cat, and still disliked water.
Meowmeow kept feeling that a Blue Plastic Bag might suddenly emerge from the water, stare over with sinister malice, and say things like...
"I'm going to kill all the Grass-Type Elves."
"I'm going to turn you into Grass-Type powder."
"I'm going to give you to Uncle Enzo." Such bizarre things.
Meowmeow shook that thought away and used Vine Strangle, sending vines from one paw toward a thick tree trunk on the bank.
Thorn-covered vines shot from Meowmeow's claws and wrapped around the trunk with a snap. Meowmeow pulled hard, shortening the vines.
Splash!
The trunk bent toward the water without snapping. Lu Yuan and Meowmeow burst out of the river and shot into the dense woods. Just as they were about to crash into the trunk,
Meowmeow withdrew the vines created by Vine Strangle in time, then used it again on a more distant tree. Repeating this over and over, Meowmeow and Lu Yuan swung through the woods like apes.
The corners of Lu Yuan's lips curled upward as he looked back. Only a few drops of water had fallen to the ground along their route, and the blazing sun would soon dry them up.
Mountain Apes lived in this stretch of forest, and nearly every tree trunk bore traces of their climbing. An ordinary person would struggle to discover that Lu Yuan, who had taken Ah Yin and her Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone, had escaped this way.
There was still a slight chance that someone might spot Lu Yuan's trail from the differences between vine marks and Mountain Ape claw marks, along with the telltale line those marks formed.
But Lu Yuan believed this was absolutely beyond a muscle-headed oaf like Tang Hao.
Then Lu Yuan's expression grew somber again. From inside his clothes, he took out a tuft of pink fur threaded onto a cord with colorful beads, fashioned into a little ornament.
"Lu Yuan, once you've grown stronger, or if you ever encounter danger or coercion in the human world, you can take this to the Lake of Life. I'll be there."
"You must... you must come visit Xiao Wu. Don't forget Xiao Wu, Lu Yuan!"
Xiao Wu's pleading voice, tinged with tears, echoed in Lu Yuan's mind. It was a keepsake she had secretly slipped to him under the covers one night, back when they were still studying at the Nuoding City Junior Soul Master Academy.
It was Xiao Wu's fur, bearing a trace of her aura.
Lu Yuan stared blankly ahead, clutching the pink fur tightly in his palm as he murmured inwardly.
I wonder whether Xiao Wu managed to escape.
Back in the hills behind Holy Soul Village, Tang Hao had gone berserk after failing to find Ah Yin and the Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone, turning the entire stretch of mountain forest upside down.
Yet he found not so much as a thread of a clue left by Lu Yuan. He had also considered whether the culprit might have fled straight down the river after leaving the Water Curtain Cave.
But after spending a long time searching both banks downstream, Tang Hao still came up empty-handed and could only return dejectedly to his home in Holy Soul Village.
"Huh? Dad, why are you back?"
With Xiao Wu gone and Tang Hao having left behind a heavy farewell letter before departing as well, Tang San had spent the past few days downcast and listless.
When he saw Tang Hao return home looking utterly dispirited, Tang San's first reaction was delighted surprise.
"Hmm? Something's wrong!"
The moment Tang Hao saw Tang San and noticed that Xiao Wu was nowhere beside him, his whole body jolted, and he froze in place.
"San, have you been home alone these past few days?"
Tang Hao's first words to Tang San were not concerned questions about the year he had spent studying alone in Nuoding City. Instead, he hurried to seek Xiao Wu's whereabouts.
Tang San looked bewildered, unsure why Tang Hao was asking him this, but he still nodded slowly, confirming what Tang Hao had said.
"This!"
Tang Hao looked as though lightning had struck him, scorching him inside and out.
He had deliberately concealed his identity, unwilling to let Tang San learn too early about his background or the bitter blood feud weighing on his shoulders. Nor had he mentioned that he sometimes watched Tang San in secret and had discovered that Xiao Wu was a transformed hundred-thousand-year soul beast.
Tang Hao turned to leave, but Tang San anxiously called out to stop him.
"Dad, you just got back. Where are you going now?"
Tang Hao's tone was icy. He could only think how foolish he had been, blindly casting Lu Yuan, Xiao Wu, and Tang San as Tang Xiao, Ah Yin, and himself from his own past, even assuming that Tang San winning Xiao Wu over was a foregone conclusion.
But now, something seemed suspicious.
Xiao Wu treated Tang San more like Ah Yin had treated Tang Xiao. It was her time with Lu Yuan that resembled the days when he and Ah Yin had begun developing feelings for each other.
Tang Hao was now eighty, even ninety percent certain that Xiao Wu had escaped. There was still time. He could still intercept the Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring and Soul Bone that had so obligingly delivered themselves to his doorstep.
"I only came back to see whether you were all right. This time, I'm truly leaving. San, while you're on your own, keep cultivating and work hard to grow stronger."
"Ah..."
Before Tang San could speak again, Tang Hao quickly disappeared from his sight.
"I understand, Dad."
Tang San stood alone, lonely and forlorn. Tang Hao's sudden return and departure had undoubtedly cut another wound into his heart.
Over the next few days, Tang Hao carefully searched the routes leading from the area between Holy Soul Village and Nuoding City toward the Star Dou Great Forest, but found no trace of Xiao Wu.
She had followed Lu Yuan's advice and taken an enormous detour back to the Star Dou Great Forest after leaving Holy Soul Village. Naturally, he could not find her.
In this timeline, with Lu Yuan's help, Xiao Wu had truly escaped the conflicts of human society.
Tang Hao alone remained at the edge of the Star Dou Great Forest, staring into its depths with bulging veins and a flushed face, rage boiling in his chest.
He raised his Clear Sky Hammer Martial Soul and smashed it into a passing deer-like soul beast with a bang, venting his anger.
The pitiful soul beast was blasted apart by the hammer. Only then did Tang Hao release some of his pent-up fury and calm down, thinking with his walnut-sized brain.
"Xiao Wu... why did she suddenly run away? Did she discover something? Perhaps she noticed that a Titled Douluo like me was nearby and realized her identity had been exposed."
"No, that doesn't make sense. Xiao Wu should have fled in blind panic at once. How could everything line up so perfectly that she escaped the palm of a Titled Douluo like me with only a Soul Master's strength?"
Suddenly, the image of the little boy who stayed beside Xiao Wu, who was closest to her and got along with her best, surfaced in Tang Hao's mind.
"Could it have been him?"