115: Chapter 115: Ah Yin is nothing more than a stepping stone for Tang Hao's rise!

This plant was crystal-clear blue throughout, its leaves appearing as if carved from the finest sapphire, with clear textures and edges shimmering with a faint golden light.

It was only about a foot tall, yet its form was extremely elegant, its branches and leaves stretching out with an innate nobility and resilience.

Most striking was its tip, where a tiny sprout emitting a soft blue-gold halo was gestating, as if containing endless vitality.

This was exactly what had been obtained from the stone room in Tang Hao's former residence in Saint Spirit Village—the life core of the 100,000-year Spirit Beast Blue Silver Emperor Ah Yin, the Blue Silver Emperor plant.

Wang Donger fixed her gaze on the Blue Silver Emperor in her hand, her eyes filled with complexity.

After four years of nourishment from the rich life energy and Sea God's power on Sea God Island, combined with Lu Jing occasionally refining it with the intent of creation and destruction contained within his destruction divine force, this Blue Silver Emperor's life source had not only stabilized but was even more vibrant than it had been in the stone cave.

However, its sapience seemed to remain dormant, or rather, in a strange state of sealing and slumber.

"Lu Jing..."

Wang Donger's voice carried a hint of afterward hoarseness, making it sound even more lazy and full of Charm. She asked softly, breaking the silence in the cabin: "What should we do with this Blue Silver Emperor next? Are we just going to keep carrying it with us? That doesn't seem like a long-term solution."

Hearing this, Lu Jing also looked down, his deep gaze falling upon the plant emitting the faint blue-gold halo.

He reached out to take it, his fingertips touching the leaves that were as warm as jade. He could clearly feel the majestic vitality and the unyielding imperial Spirit Beast will contained within.

He fell silent for a moment, appearing to organize his words, or perhaps recalling some distant and complex past events.

"Ah Yin... she is actually a pitiful person." Lu Jing's voice lowered, carrying a hint of inexplicable emotion and a sigh.

"A pitiful person?" Wang Donger blinked her large eyes, which were still slightly misty. Hearing this evaluation, her spirit immediately surged, her previous laziness mostly vanishing, replaced by a look of intense gossip and curiosity.

She shifted her body slightly to lean more comfortably, tilting her small face up to look expectantly at Lu Jing's chin, and asked: "How so? Is there more gossip to hear? Tell me quickly!"

Seeing her suddenly energetic state, her face practically screaming "tell me, tell me," Lu Jing couldn't help but chuckle. He reached out and lightly flicked the tip of her perky nose, teasingly saying: "You were just complaining about being tired, but as soon as you hear there's a story, you're full of energy?"

"Oh, don't change the subject! Tell me already!" Wang Donger twisted her body coquettishly, persistently urging him. Her girlish manner made Lu Jing's heart stir once again.

Lu Jing reined in his smile and turned his gaze back to the Blue Silver Emperor in his hand, his eyes becoming somewhat distant.

"Think carefully about everything we know regarding Ah Yin and Tang Hao. From their meeting to her identity being discovered, and finally to Ah Yin's sacrifice and Tang Hao going into hiding... don't you think there are too many coincidences?"

Hearing this, Wang Donger's delicate brows furrowed slightly as she also fell into thought.

The version she had heard within the Clear Sky Sect was nothing more than a deeply moving tragic romance: a 100,000-year Spirit Beast Blue Silver Emperor fell in love with a human genius Spirit Master; their identities were exposed, leading to them being hunted by the Spirit Hall; in a desperate situation, Ah Yin sacrificed herself for her husband and child, fulfilling Tang Hao and establishing his fame as the Clear Sky Douluo, while also protecting the newborn Tang San. Tang Hao, driven by the death of his beloved wife, formed an irreconcilable enmity with the Spirit Hall and lived in seclusion in Saint Spirit Village with the child, dejected until Tang San's rise...

However, at this moment, reminded by Lu Jing and combined with the unusual traces they later discovered in the stone room at Saint Spirit Village, as well as Tang Hao's almost prison-like arrangement for Ah Yin's remaining life core, the once deeply moving romantic filter in Wang Donger's heart quietly began to crack.

"Your meaning is..."

Wang Donger's voice lowered unconsciously, carrying a hint of uncertainty and alarm as she asked: "Ah Yin's sacrifice... wasn't just a simple accident of sacrificing for love?"

Lu Jing nodded, his fingers unconsciously stroking the leaves of the Blue Silver Emperor, feeling its weak yet resilient pulse of life.

"Too many coincidences make it look deliberate. For example, how was Ah Yin's identity leaked? Even if she concealed her aura perfectly after her Transformation, given her nature as the Blue Silver Emperor's source, how could she be so easily tracked by the Spirit Hall? Unless... someone exposed her, intentionally or unintentionally."

"Another example is the timing. Ah Yin had just reached level seventy and had just given birth to Tang San, being at her weakest, when the Spirit Hall found them. This is far too convenient. It's as if... someone had calculated everything."

"And..."

Lu Jing paused, his tone turning cold as he reminded her: "How did Tang Hao treat the life core left behind after Ah Yin's sacrifice? He placed her in a sealed stone cave where there was no sunlight, far from water sources, surrounded only by hard rock. Donger, think about it—what is the essence of Blue Silver Grass, or even the Blue Silver Emperor? It is life, it is vegetation! Life needs sunlight and dew, it needs the vitality of the earth. By placing Ah Yin in such a desolate place, he cut off all her possibilities of self-recovery and rebirth! Is this a choice a husband who deeply loved his wife and suffered her loss would make? This seems more like... imprisonment, a deliberate suppression, an arrangement to keep her silent forever so she can no longer be an obstacle!"

"Imprisonment? Suppression?"

Hearing this, Wang Donger couldn't help but cry out in shock, her beautiful eyes filled with disbelief: "Tang Hao... he did it on purpose? But why would he do that? Ah Yin was his wife! She even bore Tang San for him!"

A cold arc curved at the corner of Lu Jing's mouth; the smile held no warmth, only the mockery and a hint of pity that came from seeing through the truth.

"Because, for some people, from beginning to end, Ah Yin's existence—her greatest value—might not have been her status as a wife."

He looked down into Wang Donger's shocked eyes and said slowly: "Tang Hao was a once-in-a-century genius of the Clear Sky Sect, the designated successor to the next Sect Master, carrying the hope for the Clear Sky Sect's resurgence. And a powerful 100,000-year spirit ring, a 100,000-year spirit ring that could allow him to burst forth with terrifying power at a critical moment and break through his bottleneck—what does that signify?"

Wang Donger's heart skipped a beat as a terrifying thought took shape in her mind, making her feel cold all over. She heard her own voice sounding somewhat dry: "It signifies... the fastest shortcut for growth, the strongest guarantee of strength... a... stepping stone?"

"Exactly."

Lu Jing's voice was very soft, yet every word struck Wang Donger's heart as he explained: "A powerful asset that would, in a short time, give him the strength to contend with or even surpass geniuses of his generation, stabilize the Clear Sky Sect's position, and even seek revenge against the Spirit Hall in the future. There is no better stepping stone than a 100,000-year Spirit Beast wife who willingly sacrifices herself. It not only causes his strength to explode but also wins him the world's sympathy, while adding an incredibly tragic and righteous footnote to his hatred for the Spirit Hall."