The Titan Giant Ape, carrying Xiao Wu, Ying Xuan and an unconscious Liu Yan.
Thump, Thump, Thump
After reaching deep into the Star Dou Forest, the ape abruptly came to a stop.
It had gently placed the three of them on to the ground, Ying Xuan immediately kneeled beside Liu Yan to check for injuries.
After a thorough checking, there were a lot of bruises, thankfully, none of the injuries were on the head.
Sigh
She breathed a sigh of relief, before looking at the Titan Giant Ape in slight anger.
"Why did you hurt him?! I told you he was our friend!" She was angry, angry at the ape for injuring her unofficial lover, but also angry at herself for letting the situation escalate to this point.
Xiao Wu comforted Ying Xuan, before looking at the ape in sorrow.
"Er Ming, why have you come…"
"Sister Xiao Wu, I just missed both of you. Da Ming does too" the ape spoke with a tone of longing. He just simply misses his two friends.
"We know, Er Ming. But you canmt keep doing things like this… what if other people used us to lure you out and take your soul ring." Xiao Wu was worried, such reckless behaviour was not optimal, and not expected from an intelligent soul beast.
"You should apologise to Ying Xuan." Xiao Wu understood Er Ming's worry, but currently he still hurt her friend.
"Xuan' Er, I'm sorry for hurting your friend" the Titan Giant Ape apologised while looking down.
"…" Ying Xuan simply nodded, she doesn't know how much strength the Titan Giant Ape had used on Liu Yan.
After a few moments…
"Er Ming, while we wait for our friend to wake up. Protect us, while we form our soul rings."
Xiao Wu said before sitting crossed leg, ready to form her third soul ring.
"…"
After a brief moment of silence, Ying Xuan looked at Er Ming.
"Er Ming, can you bring me a hippopotamus soul beast?" She asked.
"Huh? Xiao Wu was shocked, why did she require a soul beast.
Looking expectantly at Ying Xuan for an explanation,
Sigh
"You've never been with me when I need a soul ring, but unlike other human transformed soul beasts, I am required to kill a soul beast for soul rings." Ying Xuan's soul beast lineage were crystal phoenixes. To be allowed the special ability to resurrect when they were soul beasts, it came with the cost of bloodshed. A life for a life.
Er Ming then jumped away, coming back with an unconscious thousand year flaming hippopotamus soul beast.
Shing
With a precise slice of her sharp edged crystal wings, the soul beast died painlessly.
Xiao Wu winced at the sound of the slice, after a moment of deep breathing, she calmed down and began creating her soul ring.
An hour had passed, Ying Xuan finished absorbing her soul ring. Opening her eyes slowly
Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Liu Yan stir.
She immediately rushed to his side, holding his hand to her chest.
"… ugh… ow." Liu Yan slowly, struggled to get up. When he finally could sit up, he saw Ying Xuan looking at him with relief, and the Titan Giant Ape looking at him with caution.
"Thank god, you're alive!" She hugged him tightly, tears flowing down her cheek.
After being in a daze for a bit, he slowly wrapped his arms around her and rubbed her back. "Don't cry…" he offered her some words of comfort.
"Ying Ying… I want you to answer me truthfully." Liu Yan said slowly, after Ying Xuan calmed down.
"Are you… a soul beast?" He asked, he had figured it out by now, but he wanted to hear the truth from her. Wanted her to assure he can trust her.
Ying Xuan was momentarily stunned, before nodding slowly. She turned away, it wasn't his business to know the truth, but she still felt guilty about hiding her secret.
"… Yeah, I am a soul beast." She said guiltily as she explained the whole process of human transformed soul beasts to Liu Yan.
"LiYan, do you… dislike me now. Since you know I'm a soul beast." She asked, avoiding his gaze.
"… Ying Ying, I won't dislike you for being a soul beast. If I were to do so, I would be heartless." Liu Yan said slowly, letting her digest his opinion. Her eyes slowly brightened at his words.
He continued, "Even though you're a soul beast. You're still the Ying Xuan I knew, the one who supported me and helped me get to where I am, a soul elder." Words of assurance slowly flowed out his mouth, she was relieved.
After he stopped talking, she hugged him again.
Liu Yan smiled and let her stay there for a bit, but in his heart, he was in a turmoil.
"This was not what I expected of my love story in Soul Land. I thought I had fallen in love with a human. Guess when you're with the protagonist, weird things can happen."
Fate. It was a weird concept no one could fully grasp.
One more hour later, Xiao Wu had finished forming her soul ring.
When she opened her eyes and saw Liu Yan was already awake, she tried to shoo away Er Ming.
She was scared that they would be exposed.
"Xiao Wu, it's okay. He already knows" Er Ming said to her.
Shock registered on her face, if he knew, why was he still letting Ying Xuan cling to him.
"He took it better than I expected from a human" Er Ming chuckled, what strange beings humans are. Such a bombardment of information and Liu Yan digested it quite well.
After they had exchanged a few words, Er Ming, carrying the three of them, jumped back to the rest of Shrek were.
With his keen sense of smell, he located the group before dropping them nearby.
They bid farewell before Er Ming jumped away.
"Come on, let's head back. Hopefully you have thought of your excuse for you escape." Liu Yan said.
Xiao Wu simply smirked, "heh, leave it to your big sister Xiao Wu" as they continued to walk to the group.
However, Xiao Wu's confident demeanor immediately changed when she saw Tang San absorbing his third soul ring.
She took one look at the Man Faced Demon Spider and exclaimed in shock, "Brother!" She ran to Tang San who was sweating a lot, his face showed he was struggling to absorb the soul ring.
"Xiao San, why are you so clumsy" Liu Yan couldn't help but complain. Tang San when he was you ger was too emotional.
Though getting the eight spider lances was determined by fate, he couldn't believe that Tang San, who was once a disciple of a sect of assassins was so reckless. He had clearly wanted to absorb the soul ring of the spider to instantly recover his soul power, but he had forgotten that the spider had already exceeded the age limit of the third soul ring set by Grandmaster.
"Though, I won't say much… all my soul rings also surpass the limit set by Grandmaster" Liu Yan recalled when he absorbed his soul rings, all of them were painful and took very long to absorb.
"It's simply the fair exchange of pushing limits for power. You'll feel pain" he said to Xiao Wu.
———————
Hello my readers.
Yes, I know I said I would not publsih a chaoter on Sundays but I felt bored and wrote a chapter anyways.
Now for the whole conversation between Liu Yan and Ying Xuan, I would like to know your thoughts about it. Because I wrote what I think would happen but I don't know how real it would be. So please do tell if you think it's natural or forced.
As always, hope you all enjoyed this chaoter and have a great day!!
Bye!!