Once their Soul Power and mental strength had more or less recovered, the two set off.
They had not gone far when they returned to the vicinity of the river where they had met Tang Ya and Bei Bei. Huo Lingtong suddenly said to Nan Zhuliu, "There's a river nearby. Why don't we take a break here? You can wash the blood off yourself, too."
Nan Zhuliu looked down at the bloodstains on his body, unsure whether they were his own blood, his enemies' blood splashed on him when he killed them, or both, then nodded.
Seeing Nan Zhuliu nod, Huo Lingtong immediately grew excited.
Nan Zhuliu had helped her so much, while she had been unable to help him with anything. Now she could finally repay him in a small way with the grilled fish she was good at making.
At the riverside, Nan Zhuliu washed the blood off himself and changed into clean clothes.
Meanwhile, Huo Lingtong took out the White Tiger Dagger to sharpen a branch, magnified the details with her Spirit Eyes, and speared several large fish in quick succession.
But as soon as she looked up, she saw Nan Zhuliu watching her with a look she could not decipher.
Nan Zhuliu slowly extended his index finger into the water. Amid flickering, sizzling lightning, more than a dozen large fish immediately floated to the surface, their white bellies turned up.
Huo Lingtong: "..."
Now Huo Lingtong finally understood what that look from Nan Zhuliu had meant.
The first grilled fish naturally went to Nan Zhuliu.
Nan Zhuliu naturally did not expect much from the food on the Douluo Continent, which lacked science and ruthless tricks. But Huo Lingtong's grilled fish had, at least, been praised from beginning to end, so he was still quite curious about what it actually tasted like.
With that curiosity, Nan Zhuliu took a small bite.
In terms of flavor, Huo Lingtong's grilled fish naturally could not compare with science and ruthless tricks. If it could, science and ruthless tricks would not be called science and ruthless tricks.
But he had to admit that, on the Douluo Continent, this fish grilled with nothing but salt and perilla tasted absolutely first-rate.
After all, he really had eaten plenty of awful food. The worst of it had been so hard to swallow that even he, who had never been a picky eater, could barely stomach it.
The vast majority of the twenty-odd grilled fish ended up in the stomach of Nan Zhuliu, the "big eater."
Looking at the remaining fish, Huo Lingtong felt a little troubled. She had originally planned to bring some grilled fish along to fill their stomachs on the road.
But Nan Zhuliu had electrocuted just a teensy billion too many fish, and she could not bear to throw them away.
Seeing her troubled expression, Nan Zhuliu simply handed over a Storage Soul Tool Ring. "Put them in this."
"What's this?"
"A Storage Soul Tool. Inject Soul Power into it, and you can store and retrieve things freely."
Huo Lingtong was instantly shocked. Although she did not know how much a Storage Soul Tool was worth, she knew that Soul Tools were always expensive. She hurriedly waved her hands. "No, this is far too valuable."
Nan Zhuliu said casually, "Just consider it a loan. It wasn't mine originally, anyway."
"Uh, what do you mean, it wasn't yours originally?"
Nan Zhuliu smiled faintly. "You'd better not ask. I don't think you'd want to hear my answer as you are now."
After that little interlude, and several days spent together, Huo Lingtong finally could not hold back. "Zhuliu, may I presumptuously ask you a presumptuous question?"
"If you know it's presumptuous, why ask?"
Hearing no anger in his tone, Huo Lingtong stuck out her tongue. "I'm just too curious."
"What do you want to ask?"
Huo Lingtong tilted her head. "Your horns, and the scales on your hands..."
"My Martial Soul mutated when it awakened. That's how I ended up with some of its features."
Nan Zhuliu's explanation to others had always been that they came from a mutation during his Martial Soul awakening.
"How amazing," Huo Lingtong marveled. "Can I touch them?"
Nan Zhuliu touched his golden horn. It was ice-cold, with a texture closer to the frosted-glass back of his phone in his previous life. A little puzzled, he asked, "What's there to touch?"
Despite saying that, when faced with Huo Lingtong's hopeful gaze, he still crouched down to let her touch them a few times. Years of malnutrition had depleted her body, leaving her so short that she did not even reach his chest.
The strange sensation reached Huo Lingtong through her hand. Her large, deep-blue eyes filled with wonder, and she almost could not bear to take her hand away.
But she also knew her question had already been rather intrusive, and she could not take a mile after being given an inch. She could only reluctantly withdraw her hand.
Shrek City was not far from the Star Dou Great Forest, only a few hundred kilometers away. Even on foot, traveling during the day and cultivating at night, Nan Zhuliu and Huo Lingtong arrived after just a few days.
Shrek City's bustling prosperity was full of novelty for Huo Lingtong, who was only just venturing out into the world. Her gaze darted everywhere, and she nearly bumped into Nan Zhuliu several times.
Nan Zhuliu first took Huo Lingtong to a clothing shop to buy a few new outfits.
While trying on clothes, Huo Lingtong, who had never been waited on before, blushed scarlet and was like a rag doll being arranged however others pleased. In the end, Nan Zhuliu grew a little impatient with waiting and simply waved his hand, buying every outfit she had tried on.
Nan Zhuliu and his parents had agreed from the outset that, if they became separated, they would meet at a certain hotel in Shrek City.
After several days of anxious waiting, Nan Zhou and Jiang Jingyan finally saw Nan Zhuliu return safe and sound. Their eyes immediately brimmed with hot tears as they rushed up and hugged him tightly. "Thank goodness you're all right."
Watching the happy family of three, Huo Lingtong could not help revealing a glimmer of envy in her eyes. If only Mom were still alive, too. It would've been fine if my biological father had died.
After being checked over several times, Nan Zhuliu smiled helplessly. "Dad, Mom, I'm really fine. It's not like you don't know how strong I am. If I really wanted to escape, those few people couldn't possibly catch me."
"The only reason I took so long to come back was that dealing with them took a little extra effort."
"As long as you're all right. As long as you're all right."
Only through Nan Zhuliu's conversation with his parents did Huo Lingtong learn that he had encountered a team of soul masters in the Star Dou Great Forest who harbored ill intentions toward them and wanted to kill them. He had been forced to separate from his parents so that they could better "escape with their lives."
Only then did Nan Zhou and his wife, who had been so worried that they had unconsciously overlooked Huo Lingtong standing nearby, notice that their son had brought back a little girl who looked like a bean sprout. "Zhuliu, who is this child?"
"Her name is Huo Lingtong. She helped me. I couldn't just leave her alone in the Star Dou Great Forest, could I?"
Huo Lingtong immediately greeted them sweetly. "Hello, Uncle, Auntie."
Hearing that Huo Lingtong had helped Nan Zhuliu, then learning that she had gone alone to the Star Dou Great Forest to obtain her first Soul Ring, and seeing how she looked just like a little bean sprout, the couple could not stop their hearts from aching for her. They drew her close, chatting about her family and everyday life and fussing over her for quite a while.
Warmth filled Huo Lingtong's heart. Apart from her mother, this was the first time anyone had cared about her so much.
Considering that the two children had traveled a long way without getting much proper rest, Nan Zhou booked a separate room for each of them. Whatever they had to say could wait until they were rested, when they could recount everything one thing at a time.