The Root of All Evil

Note: [This is an explanatory chapter, mainly breaking down my settings for the Tiger Talisman's abilities. The content ties into the main plot and does not count as a side story.]

"This is what you call keeping a low profile?"

Mo Lin was utterly speechless. To lure Tang Hao out, the other Mo Lin had nearly beaten Tang San into Chaoshan Beef Balls.

What exactly did that have to do with keeping a low profile?

"I already held back a lot. Otherwise, he'd be a lump by now."

"You can't use your standards to judge me."

Mo Lin thought nothing of it. Leaving the guy with an intact corpse would have been generous enough. What more did he want?

The important thing was that the guy wasn't dead yet, right? At most, he was half-paralyzed.

With Tang San's own abilities, healing himself would only take a little effort.

As far as he was concerned, an injury that could be healed was the same as no injury at all.

"I can't be bothered arguing with you. Just one reminder: don't let him escape."

It had already happened. Saying anything else was pointless.

Now there was only one thing he needed to do: eliminate the threat for good.

After all, Evil Face had approached Ye Lingling. What if that bastard Tang Hao went mad and attacked her?

So no matter what, Tang Hao had to die. He wouldn't sleep while the man was still alive.

"Don't worry. He won't get away."

"Good."

On this matter, he could still give his absolute guarantee. If all else failed, couldn't he go after the Blue Silver Emperor?

He might abandon his son, but could he abandon his wife too?

In any case, Tang Hao was as good as dead. Not even the king of heaven could save him.

"Oh, right, did you cripple Tang San? I mean down there."

"Guaranteed. He'll never piss standing up again."

At that, the two exchanged a smile.

"I already had Xiao Hei take Lingling somewhere safe. I'll finish things quickly on my end."

Just as they were discussing Ye Lingling, Ye Xingmeng's voice suddenly came from the other end of the light screen.

"What are you muttering about over there, brat?"

"And what are you grinning like an idiot for? Have you lost your mind?"

Ye Xingmeng suddenly appeared in the light screen, her gaze meeting Mo Lin's on the other end.

When Ye Xingmeng saw someone inside the light screen who looked exactly like the Mo Lin beside her, she initially thought it was a mirror.

But she soon realized that this must be the so-called other half Mo Lin had split off.

What had Mo Lin called him again? Evil Face?

She had stumbled across him once a long time ago, but had hardly concerned herself with that side of things since.

"Hi, Aunt Ye. Long time no see. Miss me?"

Faced with Ye Xingmeng's sudden appearance, Mo Lin showed no restraint at all and greeted her outright instead.

That shameless, instantly familiar way of talking-it was definitely him.

"No."

Ye Xingmeng denied it crisply, but a faint smile lingered on her face.

To be honest, compared with the "well-behaved" Mo Lin beside her, she preferred this livelier one.

The reason was simple too. Teasing the one here was no fun. His emotional reactions were seriously lacking, while the other was relatively more entertaining.

"I'm heartbroken. You didn't miss me? I've been thinking about you every day."

On the other end of the light screen, Mo Lin clutched his chest, looking utterly devastated.

"Oh, get lost. If you missed me, why didn't you come back to visit? Also, I never asked before, but with this situation of yours, should I treat you as twins or something else?"

Even though Ye Xingmeng had seen this special ability of Mo Lin's before, she still instinctively treated them as two people.

It couldn't be helped. Their personalities differed too much. Apart from their faces, they seemed to have nothing in common.

There was also the fact that she only had one daughter-not enough to go around.

Still, she had a close friend (Tang Yuehua), though she didn't know whether he could accept someone a little older.

"Let me explain this."

Mo Lin spoke up. He would have needed to tell Ye Xingmeng about this eventually anyway, or some misunderstanding might arise in the future.

"Neither he nor I actually counts as the complete me. The me you see now is only half. Only when the two of us merge am I in my complete form."

The Tiger Talisman's ability to divide Yin-Yang was a rule-based skill, different from so-called clone skills.

The other half it split off suffered no reduction in power, and even the energy they used was independently separated.

From a certain perspective, it could be considered to have used him as an anchor to clone two entirely new beings.

When he first obtained the Tiger Talisman's power, Mo Lin had only regarded it as an ordinary cloning ability.

He had even found the ability rather worthless. After all, a clone's strength depended entirely on the original body's strength before the split.

He had only been six then. Creating another copy of himself hadn't seemed particularly meaningful.

Only later had he discovered that his understanding of the Tiger Talisman had been far too shallow.

Its actual uses were far more powerful than he had imagined.

Separating his good and evil sides was merely the surface. What lay beneath was its true function.

His innate Soul Power was five. Everyone who knew him knew that.

After splitting, both halves also had innate Soul Power of five, with the total unchanged.

But after merging again, his innate Soul Power became ten-in other words, innate full Soul Power.

After reaching level ten, splitting and merging again made it level twenty, and so on.

It was practically a case of stepping on his right foot with his left and taking flight on the spot.

However, this ability had a cooldown. It couldn't be triggered whenever and wherever he pleased.

Initially, it was one year. Merging again after a year would trigger the ability.

After that came two years, then four years, then eight, the interval increasing step by step.

This timing wouldn't be interrupted by merging ahead of schedule. It was counted from the moment he obtained the Tiger Talisman, though Soul Power cultivated during that period would not be included.

In other words, subsequent increases were calculated from his original level-five Soul Power.

So far, he had activated it three times: at one year, two years, and four years.

The next time would be at eight years, when he was twenty-one.

By now, his innate Soul Power had risen from its original level five to level forty.

For ordinary people, the maximum was ten. For a God Rank Martial Soul, it was level twenty, with ten of those levels bestowed by a Deity. At present, only Qian Renxue met that requirement.

Everyone else's innate Soul Power was fixed from birth, while his could grow.

"I understand. So you're both Mo Lin, but neither of you is completely him. Only when you come together are you the filthy little brat I originally picked up. Is that right?"

Hearing that, Mo Lin's lips involuntarily twitched on both sides, but they still nodded.

"That's more or less what it means, but..."

"Oh, the rest doesn't matter. Knowing you're one person is enough for me."

Ye Xingmeng seemed entirely unconcerned about Mo Lin splitting into two. As for why he could split into two, what did that have to do with her?

She was in business, and prying too deeply into other people's secrets was the greatest taboo for a businessperson.

Know too much, and someone might club you over the head in the middle of the night.

"You two talk. I won't disturb you."

"Oh, right, what's that bottle of stuff you left on the table? It smells pretty nice."

Only as she was about to leave did Ye Xingmeng remember what she had come for.

She had been so busy paying attention to other things that she had nearly forgotten her actual business.

"It's a potion I made for you. It can beautify your skin and preserve your looks."

"Beautify my skin and preserve my looks? What do you mean by that, brat? Are you calling me old?!"

Mo Lin's brain promptly crashed. He couldn't understand how those two things were connected at all.

"Why aren't you saying anything? Did you put something else in it?"

"Well, well, you brat! With Lingling away, you're actually plotting something improper against me? I'm your future mother-in-law!"

With that, Ye Xingmeng made a show of stepping back, eyeing Mo Lin warily.

"Aunt Ye, I didn't! Don't say things like that!"

All he had done was use the immortal herbs he had filched from Dugu Bo's medicinal garden to make a potion suited to Ye Xingmeng's constitution, hoping it might resolve her Martial Soul's flaw and raise her strength another level.

Calling it a beauty treatment was really just an excuse.

After all, he couldn't exactly say that it was juice squeezed from immortal herbs and that he was giving it to her as a beverage.

But he hadn't lied to her either. Immortal herbs cleansed the sinews and marrow and strengthened one's foundation and vitality. Didn't that beautify the skin and preserve one's looks?

How had it turned into him drugging her when she said it?

What kind of reasoning was that?

"Hahaha, I'm teasing you. Look how scared you got."

Seeing Mo Lin's flustered expression, Ye Xingmeng dropped her wary look and revealed the satisfaction of someone whose scheme had succeeded.

"So cute. You really are still a little brat."

She stepped forward, pinched Mo Lin's cheek, and left looking thoroughly satisfied.

"Hahaha, you're killing me! Doesn't your brain usually work pretty fast? Doesn't look like it now. How about we switch? You run around outside, and I'll stay back there?"

"Get lost."

He could see it now. His so-called Evil Face had very likely been influenced by Ye Xingmeng. They both particularly enjoyed teasing others.

And that was probably also why Ye Lingling had previously sensed something familiar about him.

After all, how could a combination of the two people she knew best not feel familiar?

Meanwhile, over at Shrek.

Flender, Yu Xiaogang, and the others looked at Tang San lying half-dead on the bed, their faces as dark as could be.

"Still haven't found him?"

"No. That brat seems to have some special way of hiding his tracks. I can't find him."

Flender was helpless. A dignified Soul Saint had actually lost a mere Soul Elder while tailing him. It truly was rather embarrassing.

"I also went to ask at the Suotuo Great Spirit Arena. They have too little information about him to be of any real use. It's as though he prepared for this in advance."

"Prepared in advance? He was targeting San!"

Something was wrong. As though something had suddenly occurred to him, Yu Xiaogang's expression turned ugly.

Knock, knock, knock-!

A knock at the door drew everyone's attention.

"Who is it?"

"Is Dean Flender here? It's me, Qin Ming."