"Hiss~"
"Where am I?"
Ye Shu gasped in pain, then groggily opened his eyes.
What met his eyes were dark brown rock walls.
It was the Lion King's cave.
It seemed the Little Beast had brought him back.
His arms, thighs, chest, abdomen, and neck were all covered in bandages, making him look exactly like a mummy.
And not far beside him.
The Xiongyuan Sword, similarly wrapped in bandages, lay on his right side. It was obvious that Lin Qingxue had picked up the fragments piece by piece and barely pieced them together.
"Shattered sword, shattered person."
"And matching hospital gowns."
Ye Shu's mouth twitched.
To some extent, he and this sword were kindred spirits in misery.
But this wasn't what left Ye Shu the most speechless.
What left him the most speechless was...
When he struggled to raise his head, he realized that Xiaobai was wedged between his legs, his left arm was being hugged in Lin Qingxue's embrace, and the Little Beast was sprawled across his chest.
They were all sound asleep, sleeping very sweetly. Drool trickled from Xiaobai's mouth, the Little Beast's tail wagged back and forth, and Lin Qingxue kept mumbling indistinctly in her sleep.
None of them seemed to care whether he, the patient, was sleeping comfortably.
"You're awake?"
Just then, a faint voice drifted from mid-air. Immediately after, Danxia's breathtaking figure quietly emerged. She floated in the air, looking at Ye Shu with a complex gaze.
"Shu'er, how did you know Feng Mengli would appear?"
In this silent dead of night, Danxia finally asked the doubt in her heart. Even though she already had an answer, she still hoped to hear from Ye Shu's mouth... a denial.
Hearing this, Ye Shu spoke:
"I have the memories of your past lives."
Not a single word of justification, not a single stutter.
He just stated it bluntly.
This left Danxia stunned.
It was like this again, this completely candid attitude.
"Then why are you only saying it now?"
"Then why didn't you say anything?"
"..........."
"Then before... were you just acting?"
"Does it matter?"
Danxia froze.
She eagerly began to argue:
"How does it not matter? If you really are reincarnated, if you really did betray me, if you were faking it all, if you only did it to make me feel guilty, if you only..."
But halfway through, her voice grew quieter and quieter.
Until it completely disappeared.
Because she suddenly realized that Ye Shu was right.
Under the premise that their destiny together would end after leaving the Magical Beast Mountain Range.
Whether Ye Shu was reincarnated or not.
Actually... had no meaning at all.
Danxia fell silent once more.
Only this time, her silence lasted even longer.
If there was anything she had learned from Ye Shu over all these years, it was that asking a question with a preconceived answer would definitely lead to a miserable loss.
Ye Shu didn't spare Danxia another glance.
He wasn't going to explain things like how their memories were all fake, because trust is a very fragile thing.
If you believe, you believe; no explanation is needed.
If you don't believe, you don't believe; even if explained, there will be a next time. Therefore, he never cared about a person's personality.
He only looked at what people did, not what they thought.
"Judge by deeds, not by heart; if judged by heart, there is no perfect person in the world."
"Judge by heart, not by deeds; if judged by deeds, there are no filial sons in poor families."
He softly murmured this ancient proverb, having to sigh at the wisdom of the older generation; they saw things so thoroughly.
"Judge by deeds, not by heart..."
Danxia softly muttered these words, her heart filled with conflict. "Then everything from the past life... does it count as deeds or heart?"
She couldn't figure it out.
But looking at Ye Shu's indifferent eyes, she suddenly realized that everything seemed to have returned to how it was in the beginning.
The most familiar... stranger.
But seeing that Ye Shu didn't want to say more, she silently returned into the ring.
She needed time to think for a bit.
What exactly she herself was thinking.
Meanwhile, Ye Shu lay silently on the stone slab, looking up at the stalactites on the cave ceiling.
Just then, a dull sound of footsteps echoed.
Ye Shu subconsciously looked over.
The fierce Lion King was hurrying back to the cave under the moonlight, carrying a demonic beast in its mouth. It looked like a cow with four horns on its head, appearing quite delicious.
This must be dinner for today.
Huff...
The Lion King gently placed the cow demon on the ground, then let out a low nasal sound towards Ye Shu, gesturing with its head towards the depths of the cave.
"Do you... want me to go with you?"
Seeing the Lion King's gentle movements, clearly not wanting to disturb the resting Little Beast and Lin Qingxue, Ye Shu opened his mouth somewhat uncertainly, asking silently by mouthing the words.
The Lion King nodded.
Calling him alone?
Ye Shu couldn't help but feel a strange doubt in his heart, unsure of what the Lion King wanted to do, but it certainly wouldn't harm him anyway.
So he carefully pulled his hand out of Lin Qingxue's grasp.
"Don't... don't go..."
"Heartless man... big liar... playboy... it's all your fault... it's all because of you... I'm sorry..." Lin Qingxue muttered restlessly in her sleep, holding Ye Shu's left arm tightly, as if afraid he would run away.
Damn it, this won't work.
Ye Shu frowned. If he forcefully pulled his arm out, Lin Qingxue would definitely wake up.
Don't misunderstand, he wasn't being tender towards a woman.
It was just that the Lion King only called him alone. This matter was clearly some kind of secret of the Lion King, not suitable for Lin Qingxue to know. If she woke up and insisted on following, it would be very troublesome.
She might even be silenced.
But the Lion King was still waiting, and couldn't wait too long.
After pondering for a moment, Ye Shu had a flash of inspiration and shoved the Xiongyuan Sword, which was also wrapped up like a mummy, into Lin Qingxue's arms.
This actually worked.
Lin Qingxue subconsciously hugged the long sword tightly, and her sleep-talking changed from "heartless man" to, "Mom, Dad... I'm sorry... Qingxue broke the sword... wu..."
"Poor child."
Ye Shu shook his head, then delivered a light hand chop to the already sleeping Little Beast to make it sleep even more soundly.
Thus, he finally climbed up.
As for Xiaobai?
Irrelevant.
It didn't matter if she woke up or not, the Lion King couldn't see her anyway.
"Waah!"
Xiaobai, who was flipped over when Ye Shu got up, fell hard on the ground and let out a melodramatic scream.
She rubbed her butt, bearing her teeth in pain.
"You... you hateful guy, don't you know how to be tender to a lady at all?"
"Where is the lady? I only see a little idiot."
Ye Shu smiled faintly, then stepped forward, keeping up with the Lion King's pace, and slowly walked toward a certain rock wall in the cave.
The Lion King stopped here.
Immediately, it sat down and used its claws to draw on the hard ground. In a short while, a lifelike picture took shape on the floor.
Ye Shu looked closely.
On the drawing, there was an old scholar with a beard, holding a scroll, standing in front of a podium, and below was a little girl drawing and writing.
The Lion King raised its claw, pointed at Ye Shu, and then pointed at the Little Beast snoring on the stone platform.
"You mean..."
"You want me to teach it how to read?"
Ye Shu pondered for a moment before these words popped out of his mouth in disbelief. It was not because he could not understand the drawings, but rather because he did understand them, yet could not comprehend what the Lion King was thinking. That was why he found it so unbelievable.
"Huff..."
The Lion King let out a breath and nodded.
"But what are you after? Even if your demonic beast clan learns to read, you still cannot speak. What is the point?" Ye Shu asked with a frown.
In the next second, the Lion King resolved his doubts.
It slowly turned its body sideways, and only then did Ye Shu notice a small crevice in the rock wall behind the Lion King. Inside that crevice sat a fruit radiating brilliant, flowing colors.
"That is!"
Xiaobai exclaimed.
"A Transformation Fruit?!"
Allowing the Little Beast to take human form was, of course, an excellent thing.
However, Ye Shu frowned slightly, because teaching the Little Beast meant he would inevitably have to stay here... and just four chapters ago, he had declared that he would not stay for anything.
"Roar..."
The Lion King seemed to see through his hesitation and extended a paw toward the cave full of spatial rings. The meaning was obvious: As long as you teach my daughter, all of these are yours.
"Damn it, what do you take me for?"
Ye Shu's expression looked awful.
Immediately after, he reached out and firmly grasped the Lion King's paw. "Deal."
"Hey, didn't you say you wouldn't stay for anyone?"
Xiaobai was a bit indignant.
Ye Shu replied with a completely straight face.
"She is not a person, she is a magical beast."