It was as though a beam of light had fallen before the shabby tea stall.
It was Qian Renxue.
Dugu Bo sprang to his feet, while Dugu Yan practically bounced off her stool. "Sister Qian!"
Qian Renxue entered the tea stall and gave Dugu Bo a slight nod. "Senior Dugu, have you been waiting long?"
Dugu Bo hurriedly waved his hands. "Not at all, not at all. You're too kind, Young Master."
His gaze swept over Qian Renxue, and something suddenly struck him. Her soul power was far stronger than it had been at the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well two months ago.
That restrained yet immense pressure was certainly not something that could have accumulated naturally in just two months.
"Young Master, what level are you now?"
Qian Renxue waved a hand. "Eighty. I've made a little progress."
Dugu Bo: "..."
A little progress?
She shot straight from Soul King to level eighty in two months, and she called that "a little progress"?
Then what did his decades of arduous cultivation amount to? Running in place?
Qian Renxue noticed Dugu Bo's shock but offered little explanation. She simply turned to Dugu Yan. "Little Sister Yan, how has your recovery been?"
Dugu Yan nodded vigorously. "I'm completely better! The prescription you gave me worked so well, Sister Qian! Even my old menstrual irregularity is gone!"
Qian Renxue nodded in satisfaction. "Good. Come with me in a little while. I need to go somewhere and take care of something first."
"Where?" Dugu Yan asked curiously.
Qian Renxue looked toward Nuoding City, a meaningful smile curling her lips. "I'm going to steal a march on someone."
Dugu Bo: "Steal a march?"
Nuoding Junior Soul Master Academy.
The entrance to Nuoding Academy was a little livelier than usual that day, as it was the last day of registration for new students.
Children carrying luggage and their parents came and went in twos and threes.
Under an old locust tree diagonally opposite the entrance, a little girl of about six or seven sat on her small bundle, two long braids hanging over her chest.
The girl wore plain clothes. Her large eyes blinked as she studied the passing crowd, her little face showing three parts curiosity, four parts nervousness, and the remaining ninety-three parts a vigilance far beyond her years.
Just then, a blonde girl dressed in white appeared before her, seemingly out of nowhere.
The little girl raised her head, her eyes meeting a pair of smiling golden ones.
"Little sister." The girl in white crouched to meet her gaze, her voice gentle. "What's your name?"
The little girl instinctively shrank back, watching the impossibly beautiful stranger warily. "Who are you?"
Qian Renxue smiled, in no hurry to answer.
Within her sea of consciousness, Cheng Ran's languid voice rang out. "Xiao Xue, Xiao Wu is a very wary girl. She's a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast who took human form, after all, so she's naturally distrustful of humans. Use the fact that her mother saved Bibi Dong to get closer to her."
Qian Renxue acknowledged him inwardly, then said softly, "I know your mother."
The little girl's gaze changed instantly.
Shock, panic, and suspicion welled up in her bright, large eyes, all those emotions tangling together.
"You know my mother?" Her voice trembled slightly.
Qian Renxue spoke unhurriedly. "Yes. Back then, deep in the Star Dou Great Forest, your mother saved a woman who had come out of the Core Circle gravely wounded. Am I right?"
Xiao Wu's eyes widened. "How did you know? Who are you?"
Qian Renxue's voice was soft. "Because I'm the daughter of the woman you saved. I'm here to help you."
"Help me?"
"I know your mother later went deep into the Great Ferocious Land to look for your father..." Qian Renxue's tone grew serious. "After that, your mother never came back.
"If you're willing, I can help you find out exactly what happened to your mother back then. Whoever the enemy is, I'll help you get justice."
Tears swam in Xiao Wu's large eyes, but she forced them back.
"Th... thank you, big sister. My name is Xiao Wu. Wu as in 'dance.'"
Qian Renxue stood and held out a hand. "Little Sister Xiao Wu, my name is Qian Renxue."
Xiao Wu hesitated before finally placing her little hand in Qian Renxue's palm.
That hand was very warm.
"Sister Qian Renxue," Xiao Wu asked quietly, "can you really help me find whoever killed my mother?"
"Yes." Qian Renxue's answer was unequivocal. "If I promise you something, I'll see it through."
Within her sea of consciousness, Cheng Ran praised her. "Well done, Xiao Xue! Bringing Xiao Wu into the fold will strengthen our forces, and it's another step along our road to revenge."
She felt that Tang San must truly have done something terrible to deserve encountering the Evil God in this lifetime.
But she would show no mercy. He was the son of her father's killer! Not to mention that, in the timeline without the Evil God, Tang San would destroy her in the future!
When Xiao Wu followed Qian Renxue out of the locust tree's shade and over to the tea stall, Dugu Yan had already been craning her neck waiting for them.
"Sister Qian!" Dugu Yan bounded over, then spotted Xiao Wu, her eyes lighting up. "Oh, who's this little sister?"
Qian Renxue introduced her. "Her name is Xiao Wu. She'll be coming with us from now on."
Dugu Yan crouched and studied Xiao Wu curiously. "Wow, your hair is so long! Your braids are so thick! How old are you?"
Startled by her enthusiasm, Xiao Wu shrank behind Qian Renxue, but still answered quietly, "Six."
"Six?" Dugu Yan rubbed her chin. "I'm eleven. Then you have to call me big sister!"
Xiao Wu: "..."
Watching the two stare at each other, Qian Renxue couldn't help laughing.
Cheng Ran remarked, "A Jade Phosphorus Snake and a Soft Bone Rabbit. Let's get a cat later, too. We can open a zoo someday."
Qian Renxue: !!!∑(ﾟДﾟノ)ノ
Standing to one side, Dugu Bo sensed a faint aura from the little girl that felt peculiar even to him.
But he asked no questions. He had already experienced the Young Master's way of doing things over the past few days.
There was no need to ask. He only needed to do as she said.
"Young Master." Dugu Bo cupped his hands. "Where are we going next?"
Qian Renxue glanced back toward Nuoding Academy, her gaze lingering on its iron gate for a moment before she looked away.
"To Spirit City."
"Spirit City?" Dugu Bo was taken aback.
Qian Renxue nodded. "Senior Dugu, I promised you and Little Sister Yan a place to call home. There's a place for me in the Spirit Hall Worship Hall, so naturally there's a place for you as well. From now on, you'll also be an elder of our Spirit Hall and receive an elder's benefits. Once we're back, I'll take you to complete the formalities."
Dugu Bo's eyes widened, and he could barely suppress his grin. "Hehe, you have my thanks, Young Master."
Dugu Yan muttered, "Grandpa, didn't you say you didn't care about empty titles..."
Qian Renxue waved a hand, then turned to Xiao Wu. "Xiao Wu, will you come to Spirit City with me, too?"
Clutching her little bundle, Xiao Wu looked at Qian Renxue, then at the green-haired big sister named Dugu Yan, and finally nodded firmly.
"Yes."
Qian Renxue smiled faintly and tipped her head back to look at the sky.
The sunlight was just right, and there wasn't a cloud in sight.
Eight wings spread behind her, platinum light flowing over them in the sunshine.
"Let's go. From now on, your big sister will help you show off and take you flying."
Meanwhile.
In the work-study students' dormitory at Nuoding Junior Soul Master Academy.
"Hah, hah!" Tang San suddenly clutched his chest and gasped several times. An inexplicable, dull pain filled his chest, as though something had been forcibly torn out of his body.
"What's wrong, Xiao San?" asked the roommate in the next bed, startled by his reaction.
"...Nothing." Tang San shook his head, but he couldn't suppress the sense of loss inside him.
He left the dormitory and looked at the people coming and going through the academy, inexplicably feeling a wave of loneliness.
It was as though something that should have belonged to him had been silently taken away at that very moment.
"How strange," he murmured. "Why would I suddenly feel like this?"
Tang San closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The hollow feeling didn't ease at all; instead, it only grew clearer.
It was like finishing a thoroughly satisfying session of handiwork, only to suddenly discover afterward that he had lost several hundred million.
He couldn't explain or describe it, but he simply felt he had suffered a terrible loss.
He shook his head, casting those thoughts out of his mind.
Before you continue