Chapter 21

– Em… – Xiao Wu directed a wavering gaze at Shen Qingxue, not entirely sure what to call him. In the presence of someone who knows all of her secrets, even a brisk girl like Xiao Wu would think about every word she said.

– Ah, don't be embarrassed by me, I'm Xiao San's older brother, which means we're practically one family, you can call me Brother Qingxue. – Shen Qingxue smiled patronizingly at the girl, using the illusion skill on the girl's animal aura.

Xiao Wu only smiled uncertainly, still not used to Shen Qingxue's abrupt change of attitude. At first, the boy, you could say, did not stop mocking her, constantly mentioning her secrets, but after achieving this unexpected promise, he abruptly changed his attitude, as if the stranger in front of him had become part of his family.

– Well, I made it so that no one with less soul power than me could see you as a beast reborn into a human, and I hope you will keep your promise. – Shen Qingxue spoke with a smile, but with a serious light in his eyes as he finished hiding the girl's aura. His illusion skill, like his cloning skill, does not need to be constantly refreshed or refreshed, and the illusion will remain in place even if Shen Qingxue somehow dies.

– Thank you... Brother Qingxue. – The perky Xiao Wu still mumbled uncertainly in an unfamiliar environment. Remembering the promise she had made earlier, Xiao Wu lowered her head in embarrassment, blushing from her forehead to her shoulders. After these words, the boy again seemed to find something interesting in the sky and continued to observe them, which caused an awkward silence for a moment.

– Ah, did you know that when Tang San was still a child, he...– Shen Qingxue spoke sharply, breaking the silence between them. He, like his older brother when he met his daughter-in-law, began to wash all the bones of Tang San, while Xiao Wu gradually regained her usual briskness, temporarily lost due to the constant shocks that fell on her almost in an instant.

– Really?! What did Brother Sun say then? – With excitement in her eyes and undisguised interest on her pretty face, Xiao Wu waited for the continuation of the story, almost bouncing on the spot and looking at Shen Qingxue sitting on the ground, whose gaze did not leave the clouds he was interested in.

And then Xiao San stopped dead in his tracks and was silent for about twenty seconds. Looking up at the sky, Shen Qingxue recalled the old days with a gentle smile on his face. While still in the village of the Holy Spirit, Shen Qingxue suggested that Tang San should still try to meet the village children, since Tang San's emotional development was too low even for his age at that time, not to mention that he was much older than other people think.

Fearing that the original story was a little false or that his actions might change it, Shen Qingxue wanted to introduce Tang San to society in every possible way, fearing that Tang San would remain a child at heart for the rest of his life.

So, after arranging a meeting between Tang San and the already grown-up children, with whom one can somehow find a common language, Shen Qingxue began to observe the events from the outside. As expected from a person who is not developed in terms of communication, Tan San was not slightly stunned at the first question about his hobbies, leaving him in the unknown astral plane.

– What happened next? – Xiao Wu almost burned a hole in Shen Qingxue's head with her gaze, unexpectedly receiving such a rich source of information about her beloved brother San, not disdaining to freely transmit this information.

– Then the village kids seemed to forget about Xiao San's existence and went to play their games… Eh, I wish you could have seen Xiao San's face at that moment. – Shen Qingxue shook his head regretfully, more than ever wanting to get his hands on the gallery of all the expressions Tang San had shown throughout their entire life in the Holy Spirit Village and show it to the girl in front of him.

– Haha, who would have thought that Brother San was so sloppy as a child. – A laugh like silver bells rang out from Xiao Wu's side, while her eyes were slightly unfocused, as if she had seen all the events from Shen Qingxue's story.

– Er... Xiao Wu, Brother Qingxue, where are we? – Xiao Wu's loud laughter also woke up the protagonist of the story told by Shen Qingxue. Looking around awkwardly, Tang San seemed to remember something terrible and looked sharply at Shen Qingxue with embarrassment in his eyes. – Uh... Brother Qingxue…

– Ah, Xiao San, don't worry, I was still able to create a soul halo for my spirit, so I didn't need your protection, and it was my fault that I couldn't contain the explosion of residual soul energy. – Shen Qingxue looked at Tang San with a smile, ignoring the look of indignation sent to him by Xiao Wu, who had been reminded of this assumption more than once.

– Although… – Shen Qingxue smiled as he noticed that Tang San had broken through from the eighteenth spirit level immediately to the twentieth. – So I guess we're even now."

– I think your help is a little more helpful. – Tang San put his hand on his head and awkwardly confessed, but when he saw the look Shen Qingxue was sending him, he stopped abruptly. – Haha, you're right, Brother Qingxue, even so even…

Shen Qingxue and Xiao Wu pretended that there was no conversation about Tang San's past between them, and they began to remember the times they spent in the village of the Holy Spirit in Tang San's presence. There was a tacit agreement in the group that no one even tried to ask about the childhood of the only girl in their group, because Tang San was far from stupid and could understand from some hints that it was not characterized by happy moments, and Shen Qingxue even knew the tragedy of what happened to the cheerful and innocent-looking girl sitting next to Tang San in front of him.

Six years after Xiao Wu was reborn from a hundred-thousand-year-old beast into a human, just when she was about to enter human society to enter some spirit academy, Bibi Dong, with the support of several Titled Martial Spirits, killed her mother and absorbed her halo to break through to the ninety-first spirit level.