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"Phew! That was a really hard bite. My tongue is still bleeding!" Ye Qiu spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva, glanced twice in the direction Zhu Zhuqing had left, and then returned to the cave.
Looking at the empty space, Ye Qiu felt a bit unaccustomed. Humans truly are social creatures; when someone you've spent so much time with leaves, you feel empty.
He walked over to Zhuqing's bed, intending to put the bedding into his Divine Might Space.
But when Ye Qiu saw what she had left on the bed, he couldn't help but cover his face, his mouth twitching. "Did she leave this for me on purpose?"
Lying on the bed were several black stockings. Ye Qiu felt as if she might have misunderstood something about him; he truly just wanted to cover his eyes!
He sighed helplessly, activated Divine Might, and put all those things away, out of sight, out of mind.
He sat down cross-legged in front of the Blue Silver Emperor, gently stroking its leaves, a little worried. "I wonder if it was right or wrong to ask her to protect Xiao Wu. They shouldn't start fighting, right?"
He carefully considered his relationship with Zhu Zhuqing.
To say he didn't like her? That would certainly be a lie! Who doesn't like pretty girls? Moreover, he had looked and touched...
As for love? When they kissed, it did feel very good... And when he applied medicine for her...
The problem was he already had...
"Damn it! What am I even thinking about?!" Ye Qiu grabbed his hair.
He simply collapsed onto the ground, lying there with his eyes closed. He needed peace and quiet.
The branches and leaves of the Blue Silver Emperor also swept across Ye Qiu's face at the right moment, gently caressing him, as if comforting him.
A faint green light emanated from its trunk, and life energy continuously flowed into Ye Qiu's forehead.
Ye Qiu's chaotic mind slowly calmed down.
"I didn't expect the Blue Silver Emperor to have a calming effect! It seems having a plant companion isn't bad after all!" After a long while, Ye Qiu got up, looked at the Blue Silver Emperor, and sprinkled some water on it.
Since being brought out by him, the Blue Silver Emperor had grown remarkably. Originally knee-high, it now reached Ye Qiu's waist.
As if it understood his praise, the Blue Silver Emperor's leaves swayed wildly, as if it were very happy.
"Hehe..." Ye Qiu stroked it a couple more times. It felt quite nice.
Suddenly, a childish voice appeared in his mind.
"Hehe...!"
"Who's talking?!" Ye Qiu suddenly turned to look at the cave entrance. Only his echo resonated within the cave, and the entrance was empty.
'What's going on lately? Why do I keep hearing a girl's laughter?' Ye Qiu frowned. Three strikes and you're out, and he had heard it more than three times!
"Brother! Over... over here."
'I heard it again!' Ye Qiu opened his Sharingan.
"Where are you?" Purple light flickered in his eyes, and various Spirit Beasts within a hundred-meter radius were within Ye Qiu's search range.
"!" Ye Qiu's body stiffened! A sudden chill ran down his neck, and Ye Qiu broke out in a cold sweat. To be able to approach him silently, it must be an expert!
Ye Qiu dared not move rashly.
"Brother... over here," the clear voice echoed in his mind just then.
He slowly looked down, only to see that the Blue Silver Emperor in the flowerpot had grown considerably longer, its tip already coiled around his neck... The chill on Ye Qiu's neck came precisely from the Blue Silver Emperor.
"Blue Silver Emperor?!" He looked at this beautiful plant in shock. He had just been scared by a plant?
"Brother... smart... smart."
Hearing its voice, several black lines appeared on Ye Qiu's forehead. He felt as if it was mocking him. Not only had he been too scared to move just now, but last night, because of its voice, he had given himself two slaps!
Ye Qiu recalled now that after he had slapped himself twice, he did seem to hear a mocking sound.
His gaze towards the Blue Silver Emperor began to turn dangerous.
"Brother... pat... pat."
Hearing its somewhat unclear response, Ye Qiu couldn't really hold a grudge. Who would have thought that what he thought was a hallucination was actually coming from this potted plant? "The Blue Silver Emperor can actually talk in its current state?"
Ye Qiu sat down again, suddenly remembering that this was Tang Hao's wife, Ah Yin's, leftover seed. So he asked it, "Are you Ah Yin?"
"Sister Yin... Sister... left."
Listening to its fragmented voice, Ye Qiu felt that it didn't seem very intelligent yet.
He then looked at it strangely.
It actually called Ah Yin 'sister'?
"Ah Yin left? Does that mean she died?" Ye Qiu stroked his chin, carefully digesting the information provided by a plant.
The Blue Silver Emperor beside him actually nodded in a human-like manner.
"Do you know Tang Hao?" Ye Qiu became interested and continued to communicate with it.
The Blue Silver Emperor, which had been swaying, stopped. Its tip tilted slightly backward, as if it were thinking.
Then it swayed left and right a couple of times, meaning it didn't know, hadn't heard of him.
So Ye Qiu changed his way of asking, "That dog who planted you in that pitch-black cave!"
After changing the wording, the effect was immediate.
As soon as Ye Qiu finished speaking, the Blue Silver Emperor began to shake violently, as if it were accusing Tang Hao of his abusive treatment of plants.
Ye Qiu originally wanted to ask more questions, but to his surprise, after its vigorous shaking, it withered, becoming listless and unable to stand straight.
"..." Several black lines appeared on Ye Qiu's forehead. Was this plant's consciousness really so fragile?
He shook his head helplessly and added some more water to it.
After this little interaction with it, much of the melancholy in Ye Qiu's heart faded away.
"It's time to leave!"
He picked up the flowerpot containing the Blue Silver Emperor, and a vortex appeared. Ye Qiu, holding it, vanished from the spot.
He had been delayed in the outer reaches of the Star Dou Great Forest for over a month; it was time to continue his journey towards Heaven Dou Imperial City.
...
In the dense jungle, Ye Qiu sat cross-legged on top of a tiger. The tiger beneath him was carrying him, moving rapidly towards the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest.
He had a new black silk ribbon over his eyes. Although he didn't really want to tear up what Zhu Zhuqing had left, he still needed something over his eyes. He could only say that tearing it felt quite stress-relieving.
In his arms, he held a potted Blue Silver Grass with golden patterns on its branches and leaves.
Since Ye Qiu knew that the Blue Silver Emperor had developed consciousness, keeping it cooped up in the Divine Might Space didn't seem right.
Anyway, when traveling, he was idle, so he took it out to bask in the sun.
As for its way of addressing him, Ye Qiu also had a guess.
He speculated that the reason it called him 'brother' was likely due to the Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone, which made it feel a sense of closeness similar to Ah Yin.
Perhaps the Sharingan was also a reason, but he couldn't be sure, after all, he hadn't really tried to use that improper ability to entice certain female Spirit Beasts... humanoid ones excluded.
Since the ten-year Spirit Beast Iron Hoof Horse that had accompanied Ye Qiu for a long time was taken by Zhu Zhuqing.
He had no choice but to recruit another one using his Sharingan's ability.
This was a Spirit Beast that had just reached a thousand years old, an Emerald Cloud Winged Tiger.
Its body was only about three meters long, but the key was that it was good-looking, with soft, shiny fur. When encountering steep slopes or cliffs, he could also experience the thrill of gliding.
"It shouldn't take more than a few days to reach the towns on the edge!"
Slap! He grabbed the tiger's tail and used it as a whip to smack the tiger's butt.
Did this count as self-production and self-consumption, or self-inflicted pain?
"Roar~" The majestic Emerald Cloud Winged Tiger let out a low growl and immediately dashed forward.