Chapter 30: Outside the Star Dou Great Forest

Inside the Spirit Sea.

"I don't understand!"

Yao Ling grumbled and complained, like a kitten that had successfully hunted prey only to let it escape, its fur standing on end like a hedgehog.

Xiadie's consciousness entered the Spirit Sea.

"Why didn't you absorb such a good soul bone yourself? Do you think you've treated me fairly?"

Purple butterflies of varying sizes circled above the Flower Sea.

Chattering incessantly, hoarse and exhausted.

"Quiet."

Xiadie raised her hand, her fair palm pressing down gently.

Countless purple butterflies vanished rapidly, leaving only the nearest one, which Xiadie guided onto her finger.

"Your Excellency, I know you are very angry, but please do not be angry for now." Xiadie's voice was like a gentle breeze blowing through the Flower Sea, smoothing away all the clamor.

"Little Mistress, I don't understand." The butterfly landed on Xiadie's finger, flapping its wings incessantly to show its dissatisfaction, and said indignantly, "My Spirit Power Toubu Hunbone was power condensed specifically for you."

"Why give it to someone else so easily?"

"You defeated me, I sacrificed myself to you, and I acknowledge your strength."

"But what is that Xu Jiujiu?"

"A mere Soul King, the kind of trash that would make me wet my pants just by looking at her."

"Your Excellency Yao Ling, I am only a one-ring Soul Master, not even a Soul King." Xiadie felt it necessary to remind the other party.

"That's different." Yao Ling seemed to bristle again. "You say you're a one-ring Soul Master, but why don't you ask the two Title Douluo outside if they believe that?"

Xiadie: "..."

That, it seemed, made a lot of sense.

"I don't understand."

Yao Ling questioned her again, with the tone of someone determined to get to the bottom of things.

Xiadie was silent for a long time.

"I don't need a soul bone."

"What do you mean you don't need it? That's a soul bone! A Beast Spirit Bone that humans dream of."

Yao Ling bristled again. How could a human not want a soul bone? How was this any different from a Soul Master not needing a Spirit Beast to increase their strength?

"Little Mistress, it's not that I want to lecture you."

"You said you would resurrect me after you become a god, and I agreed."

"But is this how you squander things?"

"Even if you're kind-hearted, you can't be like this!"

"By the way, what was that saying in those human storybooks? In troubled times, kill the saintly first."

"I am not a saintly person, Your Excellency Yao Ling."

"But your actions are no different from a saintly person!" Yao Ling continued to chatter incessantly.

"Yao Ling."

Xiadie stood in the Flower Sea.

The Anti-Spirit Flower was every flower in the Flower Sea, and Yao Ling had become every butterfly dancing in this sea of flowers.

"I have a premonition that returning this time will not be peaceful. I need the Star Luo Empire to help me block external forces."

"Not peaceful!?" Yao Ling lost its composure. "You know it won't be peaceful, yet you still won't increase your strength."

"Yes, your Spirit Power is very strong, stronger than any human I have ever seen."

"But a soul bone—I mean that soul bone of mine—even if it is of the spirit attribute, it can still bring you improvements in physique and soul power."

"It is merely a 270,000-year soul bone." Xiadie's gaze was calm, as if she hadn't heard Yao Ling's exasperation.

"Merely... 270,000 years."

The butterfly struggled to break free from the restraint of Xiadie's finger, flying toward her forehead.

However, Xiadie suffered no harm at all.

Instead, the fluttering Yao Ling hit Xiadie's smooth forehead, bounced back, nearly cracked its wings, and crashed directly.

"Little Mistress, you are not acting like a human."

Yao Ling's thousands of words converged into one sentence.

"Your Excellency Yao Ling, I have my own considerations." Xiadie sighed. "I don't need a soul bone; I never have, from beginning to end."

Xiadie brushed back the purple bangs on her forehead and smiled lightly: "To use a line from a certain novel, 'Golden blood is the path of the invincible; why borrow the bones of others?'"

"Golden blood, what is that?"

Yao Ling was puzzled, but quickly caught onto the words "golden blood" in Xiadie's tone.

"You will know in the future, Your Excellency Yao Ling." Xiadie did not continue, her gaze deep. "Yi Lao needs many things to recover, and I cannot gather them all alone in a short time."

"If Xu Jiujiu can satisfy me, what harm is there in giving her the soul bone?"

As a former executioner of Ochema and having served as Aglaia's deputy, Xiadie knew that sometimes, empty promises were not as effective as giving something substantial.

Seeming to sense Xiadie's determination, Yao Ling stopped insisting and asked worriedly: "Aren't you worried they will go back on their word?"

"I have been to the human world many times; the cunning of humans is countless times that of Spirit Beasts."

"Go back on their word?"

Xiadie raised her finger slightly, guiding the butterfly back onto it.

"The Limit Douluo of Shrek won't live long. The Star Luo Empire has no need to offend me for the sake of Shrek, nor to offend the teacher behind me. I can also bring them more."

"Having wealth without power invites covetousness, but having both wealth and power..."

"It will make people wary, and it will also make people respectful."

"I give them the benefits, and the pressure is also sufficient."

"If I ask for nothing, it will instead make them worry."

"You humans really have so many twists and turns." Yao Ling did not quite understand the content of Xiadie's words, but it could roughly determine that the master it recognized was not a saint, and that was enough.

"Lord Yao Ling, I hope you can help me monitor her through the soul bone."

"Monitor?"

"Yes." Xiadie nodded, "Besides maintaining this Flower Sea, you are quite bored, aren't you?"

"How did you do it? My soul bone shouldn't have this ability!"

A look of surprise appeared on Yao Ling's face; it sensed its own soul bone and indeed could feel a trace of a connection.

It could even faintly perceive the emotions Xu Jiujiu felt while absorbing the soul bone.

"Joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness; birth, aging, sickness, and death." Xiadie's eyes were deep, "As long as it is a life, it possesses these."

As she spoke, Xiadie shook her head lightly: "Even if I told you, Lord, you wouldn't quite understand, would you!"

"I know that you, Lord, have deleted some memories regarding the Star Dou Great Forest."

Yao Ling was silent, not asking how Xiadie knew.

"To what extent should I do it? I mean regarding that princess."

Yao Ling quickly changed the subject, seemingly subconsciously unwilling to discuss issues related to the Star Dou Great Forest.

"Monitoring is enough; if there is anything unfavorable to me, tell me." Xiadie said softly, "As for the soul bone, just as I said before, it depends on the performance of this Princess herself."

"I understand."

Yao Ling shook its head, and the butterfly transformed into specks of light and dissipated.

Throughout the entire Anti-Spirit Flower Flower Sea, butterflies of various sizes appeared once again.

It seemed as if every single one was transformed from Yao Ling.

The fluttering of the butterflies brought a hint of vitality and peace to this silent Flower Sea.

Xiadie's main consciousness withdrew from her Spirit Sea.

She sensed the situation on Xu Jiujiu's side, looking at it from the aspects of Spirit Power and soul power.

It would still take some time for Xu Jiujiu to fully absorb the soul bone.

"Cinder-Extinguishing Golden Blood."

Xiadie murmured these four words.

Theoretically speaking, with her body as a Soul Master, she could not withstand the appearance of Bolvkesi at all.

Not to mention Bolvkesi, even absorbing the soul power of two Titled Douluo and one Soul King.

Even with the help of a Domain, theoretically speaking, it was a very difficult thing to achieve.

But she had done it, and there were no side effects; moreover, at that time, there was that feeling of destroying everything.

Her own body, or rather the golden blood flowing within it, was likely not the same as it was the first time before she became a Death Titan.

Xilian, is it because of it that I can travel through the universe?

So, that is why you told Bolüxiya to let me be careful of the lackeys of Destruction.