After giving his new shelter a quick tidy, Xu Qing sat back on the living room sofa and let out a long breath of stale air.
At last, the job was done.
"Wait, did I forget something?"
Suddenly, Xu Qing's eyes widened. As though he had remembered something, he rose from the sofa.
He took a phone out of his storage ring. As its screen lit up, Xu Qing quickly saw the time displayed on it.
Two months had passed since he entered, which meant he had vanished into thin air from the outside world for a month.
Damn!
With that thought, Xu Qing put away his phone, then left the parallel world with a thought.
Douluo Continent, Aolai City.
Space rippled slightly inside Xu Qing's room. The next moment, his figure appeared within it.
Before he could do anything, a cool female voice tinged with anger suddenly sounded behind him.
"So you still remembered to come back!"
Xu Qing turned to look behind him. A girl of seven or eight was sitting on his bed. It was Gu Yuena.
Looking at the anger on the girl's little face, Xu Qing swallowed and stammered out a greeting. "Hello~ Nana, long time~ no see!"
Gu Yuena rose from the bed and walked over to Xu Qing, her gaze fixed on his short golden hair and the incredibly rich presence of her own kind coming from him.
"Have you... awakened your bloodline?"
Xu Qing nodded. "I should have... probably... I guess?"
"If you have, you have. What do you mean, 'should have... probably... I guess'? Tell me where you went and what you did this past month! Also, Xu Qing, you're not allowed to lie to me. If I'm not mistaken, you went somewhere else."
"Well..."
But faced with Gu Yuena's utterly serious gaze, Xu Qing finally sighed.
He explained, "There really is a special space inside my body..."
Then Xu Qing explained to Gu Yuena how the bloodline within his body had devoured the gold of life on its own.
"So that piece of gold of life was devoured by you."
Xu Qing nodded, then shook his head and said,
"The gold of life should still be inside me!"
As he spoke, Xu Qing closed his eyes and sensed within himself. He soon found it. At that moment, the gold of life was floating quietly above his Sea of Consciousness, constantly releasing threads of life force that merged into his body.
Then, with a thought from Xu Qing, the gold of life that had been inside his Sea of Consciousness appeared in his hand.
Gu Yuena looked at the gold of life in Xu Qing's hand and nodded slightly.
Afterward, Xu Qing returned the gold of life to his body.
The anger faded from Gu Yuena's voice, replaced by a measure of gentleness.
"I'll forgive you this time."
Xu Qing let out a small breath of relief.
But Gu Yuena suddenly changed her tone, her gaze returning to Xu Qing's golden eyes.
"But Xu Qing, remember this. No matter what happens from now on, you're not allowed to vanish into thin air like that again. If there's a next time, you know the consequences!"
As she spoke, Gu Yuena raised her tender little fist and waved it in front of Xu Qing.
Xu Qing nodded firmly, his eyes utterly earnest as he promised,
"I promise! There absolutely won't be a next time!"
Seeing how solemn he was, Gu Yuena's lips curved slightly, a faint smile quietly appearing.
"By the way, your mom and dad were worried sick while you were gone these past few days. But I reassured them by saying you'd spent these days absorbing a pill I gave you."
"Thank you, Nana."
"If you really want to thank me, treat me to some barbecue! From that place in the south of the city!"
"No problem!"
"Oh, and you'd better think about how you're going to explain your hair and eyes!"
With that, Gu Yuena vanished from Xu Qing's room without a trace.
"When did that girl become so elusive, appearing and disappearing like a ghost?"
Xu Qing sighed. Still, he really did need to think about how to explain it.
Got it!
An idea suddenly came to him, and he opened the door and went out.
In the living room, Tang Xue froze for a moment at the sight of the blond boy coming downstairs.
"Are you Xiao Qing?"
"Morning, Mom!"
Overcome with excitement, Tang Xue hurried over to Xu Qing and hugged him.
"You child! Refining a pill is such an important matter. Why didn't you tell us?"
"Huh?"
Tang Xue wiped the tears of excitement from the corners of her eyes and released Xu Qing from her embrace.
"By the way, Xiao Qing, what happened to your hair and eyes?"
"Well, it's like this..."
"So that pill accidentally caused your Martial Soul to evolve, and that's why your hair and eyes changed?"
Xu Qing nodded. "Yes, Mom."
As he spoke, Xu Qing extended his right hand. A blue glow immediately bloomed in his palm, and a stalk of Blue Silver Grass radiating rich life force slowly grew out of it.
The life force this stalk of Blue Silver Grass radiated was several times stronger than that of Xu Qing's previous Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul. Even Tang Xue felt an immense sense of physical comfort standing beside Xu Qing's Blue Silver Grass. Moreover, tiny golden stripes had now appeared on its stem and leaves.
Set among a patch of Blue Silver Grass, it seemed to possess an innate nobility.
Xu Qing himself had not expected his Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul to change so much.
This form... could it be the Blue Silver Emperor?
No!
Xu Qing kept feeling that his Martial Soul was missing something.
What was it missing?
Xu Qing soon figured out exactly what his Martial Soul lacked!
The Blue Silver Emperor bloodline!
That's right, the Blue Silver Emperor bloodline.
His Martial Soul was merely the most ordinary Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul. Because those two existed, the limit his Blue Silver Grass could currently grow to on the Douluo Continent was the Blue Silver King.
A total of two Blue Silver Emperors had appeared in the original story, apart from the Blue Silver Emperor Martial Soul. The first was Ah Yin, and the other was the one on the Sun Moon Continent during the Peerless Tang Sect era.
However, the one on the Sun Moon Continent seemed to have become a Blue Silver Emperor by toughing it out, and likewise lacked the Blue Silver Emperor bloodline.
Still, not even a ghost would believe Tang San hadn't arranged things behind the scenes.
And the most ridiculous thing was that the animation had made her near death to whitewash Tang Ya.
Blue Silver Emperor: You're already dying. What the hell would I fuse with you for?!
Xu Qing gave a helpless, bitter smile, but soon calmed down.
If he didn't have the Blue Silver Emperor bloodline, then so be it.
Xu Qing placed more faith in the saying: of the Great Dao's fifty, heaven unfolds forty-nine, leaving one for man to escape through.
Tang Xue seemed to notice the subtle shift in his mood and asked in confusion, "Xiao Qing, what's wrong?"
Xu Qing shook his head gently and smiled, rubbing his stomach as he said, "Mom, I haven't had a proper meal in a month. I'm hungry."
Hearing this, Tang Xue smiled tenderly. "All right, Mom will go cook for you right now."
With that, she turned and went into the kitchen, where she began bustling about.
Watching the figure busy in the kitchen, Xu Qing felt a warm current flow through his heart.
Before long, Tang Xue brought a lavish spread of dishes to the table.
Xu Qing ate in great mouthfuls.
Although he had felt no hunger at all during his transformation on Parallel Earth, now that he had a moment to relax, an intense hunger surged up at once.
After eating, Xu Qing told Tang Xue he was going to cultivate in the backyard, then plunged straight into the patch of Blue Silver Grass there.