Telling stories

[After settling in the Ancestral Land, Ah Yin let down the last of her guard, and her disposition grew noticeably more cheerful.]

[She led you through every corner of the Blue Silver Forest, introducing you to the scenery in her memories-the tender shoots newly sprouting on spring mountains, the thick shade blotting out the sun in summer woods, the clear dew touched with frost on autumn mornings, the branches cloaked in snow in winter...]

[She seemed to have lived through long ages. As the Blue Silver Emperor, she had ruled her clan for ten thousand years, witnessing the flourishing and withering of plants and the changing of mountains and rivers.]

[In truth, however, most of her memories were of the stillness of leaves stirring in the wind, the peace of rain and dew nourishing her, and the simplicity and innocence of a plant soul beast rooted in the earth.]

[When it came to worldly wisdom and experience in the mortal world, she might not even have matched an ordinary girl who had spent a dozen or so years struggling through human society.]

[You listened quietly, occasionally smiling and offering a few words in response, a strange tenderness welling up in your heart.]

[Nourished by the Ancestral Land's immense vitality, Ah Yin grew at an astonishing speed. Her true body grew ever taller, the golden patterns on her leaves flowed as though alive, and her spirit form grew more solid by the day, now able to remain in the outside world for several hours without dispersing.]

[Perhaps because she spent every day and night with you, she developed a keen curiosity about the bustle of everyday human life.]

[When she had lived in seclusion with you in the small town, she had always been cautious, suppressing her soul beast essence at every moment for fear that a passing soul master would detect her aura and bring disaster upon her, much less daring to interact with anyone else.]

[Now that she lived safely in the Ancestral Land, sheltered by her kin with the Blue Silver King standing guard, she had no worries left, and that long-suppressed curiosity naturally stirred once more.]

[With nothing else to do, you sat on a slanting vine branch of her true body and began telling her stories.]

[Love was an eternal theme in this world.]

[The first story you told her was, naturally, "Legend of the White Snake."]

[You adapted the story's supernatural beings to fit the common knowledge of the Douluo World, left out a few ill-fitting elements, and began your leisurely tale-]

["Legend has it that long, long ago, deep in the Star Dou Great Forest, there lived a little white snake who had cultivated for ten thousand years. She was gentle by nature and kind at heart, never disturbing other creatures of her own accord. She simply absorbed Heaven and Earth soul power in silence and devoted herself to cultivation, contending with no one."]

[Ah Yin's spirit form leaned quietly beside you, her translucent skirts trailing among the green vines as she listened in silence. Her vines lay obediently curled to one side, swaying gently with the cadence of your voice.]

["Her long, solitary cultivation gave her a full taste of loneliness. Over time, she grew curious about the humans who occasionally ventured into the forest."]

["Finally, one day, unable to resist the longing in her heart, she slipped into the hills on the outskirts of a human city, hoping to see the utterly different life of human society."]

["The first few days passed safely enough. She only watched from a distance, not daring to approach. But good times never last, and before long, a group of soul masters hunting for souls discovered her trail."]

[At this point, you glanced discreetly at Ah Yin and saw her spirit form tense slightly. Her fingertips unconsciously clenched her skirts, and a trace of instinctive fear appeared in her eyes.]

["These soul masters joined forces to lay a trap. Caught off guard, the little white snake was gravely wounded. Only by staking all her cultivation did she barely manage to break free and flee into the mountains in a wretched state."]

["Her wounds were terribly severe. Scales all over her body were shattered, and blood poured from her as she lay curled in a cave, powerless to move."]

["Just then, a little boy gathering medicinal herbs on the mountain happened to pass by. Seeing her curled in a crevice, covered in blood, he froze for a moment. He neither shouted nor drew a weapon. Instead, he found some healing herbs and carefully dressed her wounds."]

[Ah Yin asked curiously, "Why did that little boy help her? Wasn't he supposed to kill her and take her soul ring and soul bone?"]

[You smiled. "Because that boy's martial soul was just an ordinary oil-paper umbrella. He had no innate soul power and wasn't a soul master, so he had no need for her soul ring or soul bone."]

["Of course, there was another reason. The boy was a physician who saved lives and healed the injured. Whenever he encountered an injured creature, he could never bear to stand by with his hands tucked in his sleeves."]

[Ah Yin nodded in hazy understanding.]

["Before leaving, the boy deliberately headed in another direction and made some noise, luring the pursuing soul masters away. Only then was the little white snake able to escape completely."]

[Ah Yin quietly let out a breath. Her taut shoulders and back relaxed, and her spirit form unconsciously edged closer to you.]

["After escaping danger, the little white snake was still shaken. No longer daring to approach human territory, she hurried back into the depths of the Star Dou Great Forest."]

["Time hurried past, and a thousand years went by in a blink."]

["The little white snake devoted herself to cultivation and, through a chance encounter, consumed several immortal herbs. Her cultivation soared, and she finally reached a hundred thousand years."]

["With her heavenly tribulation approaching, she chose to transform into a human, sealing all her essence within her body and beginning the path of cultivation anew."]

["High-ranking soul masters could very easily see through the true forms of transformed soul beasts."]

["The little white snake dared not enter a large city. She settled in a small town on the human frontier and gave herself a lovely human name-Bai Suzhen."]

["Drawing on her knowledge of medicinal herbs from ten thousand years of cultivation, Bai Suzhen became a physician who saved lives and healed the injured, just like the boy who had saved her back then."]

["She opened a small clinic in town, practicing medicine and saving people while steadily cultivating."]

["In just over a decade, she successfully cultivated to the mature stage. Her soul beast aura was completely concealed, and she would no longer be recognized."]

["One day, while gathering medicinal herbs on a mountain, she was caught in a sudden downpour. Taking shelter in a mountain pavilion, she encountered a young man."]

["The young man had gentle features and a slender build. Holding an oil-paper umbrella, he had likewise come to the pavilion to shelter from the rain."]

["Most importantly, the young man looked remarkably like the herb-gathering boy who had saved her a thousand years earlier. Stranger still, the oil-paper umbrella he used to shelter from the rain was identical to the boy's martial soul."]

[At this, Ah Yin could not help widening her eyes slightly. "Could this young man be the little boy who saved her back then?"]

[You nodded. "This young man was indeed that boy from back then."]

["But mortals only live a few short decades. How could he possibly have lived for a thousand years?"]

[You patiently explained concepts such as reincarnation and past and present lives to her.]

[Ah Yin nodded with only a vague understanding, her blades of grass unconsciously winding around your wrist as she urged you to continue.]

["Unable to suppress her curiosity, Bai Suzhen secretly observed him for several days. She discovered that the young man was kindhearted but had led a bitter life. Both his parents had died when he was little, and he had lived under others' roofs, often met with cold eyes."]

["So Bai Suzhen approached him as a traveling physician, taught him medicine and how to identify medicinal herbs, then invited him to become the resident physician at her apothecary."]

["Together day after day, affection quietly blossomed between them, and their hearts drew ever closer..."]

[You told the story slowly, your voice gentle.]

[When you reached the part where the two confessed their feelings and decided to spend their lives together, Ah Yin tilted her head slightly. Her spirit form leaned toward you as she asked softly, "Can pure love arise between humans and soul beasts too?"]

[You smiled and reached out to gently play with two of her dangling grass blades, cool and soft to the touch. "When the heart falls in love, it never asks about race."]

[Yet what the heart bound itself to could not escape race.]

[You did not speak that second half aloud.]

[Ah Yin noticed nothing and continued waiting quietly for you to go on.]

[You were just about to tell the climactic part that followed when you suddenly froze.]

[Because the next person to appear was the story's great villain, who tore the couple apart and pressed them at every turn-Fahai.]

[On the Douluo Continent, the most suitable stand-in for this role was undoubtedly Spirit Hall.]

[If you really developed the story that way, wouldn't it vaguely overlap with her past experiences, with even the later course following much the same path-]

[Bai Suzhen's son became the top imperial examination scholar and toppled Leifeng Pagoda, while Ah Yin's son attained dual godhood and destroyed Spirit Hall.]

[At this thought, your heart lurched: Oh no. I've made a clown of myself.]

[You had only meant to tell her a casual story to relieve her boredom and broaden her experience of life along the way. You had never expected that, after all those twists and turns, you would instead strike upon the original course of her fate, nearly reinforcing her love-addled thinking with your own hands.]

[You had not forgotten the mission of this simulation-to change the fate of the Blue Silver Emperor, Ah Yin.]

[In your view, if she cast aside her stance and abandoned her clan, then loving you and loving someone else were, in essence, no different.]

Outside the simulator, Su Yi curled his lip. As the person who understood himself best, he was certain that this fellow's original intention in telling this story had been to lead the innocent, uncomprehending Ah Yin to follow Bai Suzhen's example-repaying the debt of a saved life by giving herself in marriage.

[You instinctively turned to look at Ah Yin beside you, meeting her bright eyes filled with anticipation.]

[Changing tack, you stopped following the original plot and instead brought "Legend of the White Snake" to a hasty close-]

["Later... war broke out across the continent. The two avoided the strife and found a valley of clear waters and beautiful mountains, where they lived in seclusion, undisturbed, together for the rest of their lives."]

[Ah Yin froze slightly.]

[Though innocent, she was not dull. She vaguely sensed that you had deliberately skipped many parts, brushing past the twists, conflicts, and hardships that should have appeared with a few light strokes.]

[But looking at your slightly awkward profile, she ultimately asked no further questions. She simply murmured a soft "Mm," her spirit form edging closer to you again, and said quietly, "That... is good too."]

[Having learned from this lesson, you no longer told her poignant, lingering love stories. Instead, you resolved to gradually turn her away from her love-addled thinking.]

[You began telling her tales from "Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio"-not those tangled romances between humans and spirits, but stories of independent, resilient heroines from its "Extraordinary Women" series.]

[You told her about Xin Shisiniang, who held all living beings in her heart and, to save the common people, abandoned ascension to immortality and dispersed a thousand years of cultivation in exchange for peace in the mortal world.]

[You told her about The Chivalrous Woman, who bore a blood feud and, to avenge her father, cast aside romantic attachments, slaughtered every enemy with one sword in her lone hand, and vanished into the wind and snow.]

[You told her about Liancheng, who valued promises above life and, to honor an old pledge, gave up reincarnation, preferring to have her soul scattered rather than betray her original resolve.]

[...]

[They were independent and resilient, neither dependent on others nor blindly following them, each with a world of her own within her heart.]

[Their endings were not necessarily perfect, but their lives were splendid enough.]

[Ah Yin listened, spellbound, sometimes frowning with a soft sigh, sometimes breaking into a moved smile, tiny glimmers gradually lighting the depths of her eyes.]

[The days passed one by one. Together day and night, she grew accustomed to following you around to hear stories, and you grew accustomed to having her quietly by your side.]

[Your relationship grew ever closer.]

[One evening, with brilliant sunset clouds burning along the horizon, Ah Yin manifested her spirit form and sat quietly beside you. She asked softly, "Su Yi, why do the heroines in your stories all have such difficult lives?"]

[You looked at the golden patterns flickering in and out of sight amid her hair and smiled. "Their lives were difficult, but weren't they all dazzling?"]

[You paused, your gaze settling on the profile of her illusory form, and said gently, "Ah Yin, in my eyes, you are the sovereign of the Blue Silver Clan, a gentle sovereign, and the most spiritually gifted being in this forest."]

["I believe that, in the future, you too will surely become a truly great sovereign who protects her clan, just like the women in those stories."]

[At your words, Ah Yin froze slightly, then lowered her eyes. Her long lashes trembled gently in the shifting light, while the corners of her lips quietly curved into a faint smile.]

["Of course, even the greatest sovereign grows tired sometimes." Your voice softened a little. "If one day you feel tired and weary, Sister Ah Yin, tell me. I'll help you protect your clan, and I'll protect you too."]