Chu Yuan shook his head with a wry smile. “No, no, no! I am merely a remnant soul sealed in the black ring to protect the bloodline! I have even forgotten my own true name! Of course, words are meaningless. Later, you can check the child’s body yourself and see!”
Seeing him so open, Su Xuanxuan was a little stunned. In truth, she had already believed most of Chu Yuan’s disguised identity. “So you’re only occupying the Holy Son’s body? Then please remove the Dharma Garment you’re wearing and let me examine you properly.”
Now it was about whether he had possessed the body or not. If this Ring Spirit Elder hadn’t possessed the body, then everything could still be settled. But if she found even a single shred of evidence, the Fox Venerable would absolutely disperse his soul and find a way to restore her dear Yuan’er’s soul.
Chu Yuan nodded and shook his head. “You can check, but taking off the Dharma Garment is out of the question! I’m not sure about the loyalty of this Supreme Guardian! If necessary, I must protect this child and preserve the bloodline of my Chu Clan.”
Faced with the Chu Clan “ancestor’s” suspicion, Su Xuanxuan felt a pang of pain in her heart. For years, she had walked the line between good and evil, believing her loyalty to the Sacred Domain was as clear as the sun and moon. But Chu Yuan knew that the careful planning of an enemy was nothing compared to the impulsive actions of a fool. In his past life, her chaotic moves were complicit in ruining the Holy Son. In this life, he wasn’t going to let this fox micromanage like his Holy Lord father had.
Facing Chu Yuan’s increasingly disdainful gaze, Su Xuanxuan wanted to explain, but for the Holy Son’s safety, she said, “First, deactivate the Dharma Garment’s effect and let me examine you.”
Chu Yuan nodded and deliberately shivered, as if waking from a long dream. His experience acting according to the script for three hundred years in his past life made his performance flawless. He blinked blankly, his gaze falling on Su Xuanxuan’s face. His expression carried three parts caution, three parts unfamiliarity, and four parts perfectly appropriate bewilderment. “Lady Fox… the ancestor said you are the Supreme Guardian? Am I… the Holy Lord’s only son?”
Huh? Su Xuanxuan’s fox eyes widened slightly, and for a moment, she didn’t know how to respond. In these past decades, she had simulated countless scenarios in her mind of formally meeting her dear Yuan’er. For example, in a bamboo grove under the moonlight, she would stand with her hands behind her back, turn to look at him, and say, “Child, you’ve grown up.” Or in a palace, she would sit at the head, looking down at him, and say, “Child, welcome home.” Or in a beast forest, she would block an attack for him and, under his worried gaze, smile and say, “It’s nothing, just a small wound.”
She had imagined that he might ask her why she sent him away, ask about his mother. But she never imagined that their first formal meeting would be in a dim dressing room. Nor did she expect that his gaze toward her would contain no affection or closeness, only wariness.
An indescribable bitterness welled up in Su Xuanxuan’s heart. After all the effort she had put into the Holy Son’s education, all she received was his instinctive caution. But things being what they were, Su Xuanxuan could only lower her head and sigh. “Please, Your Highness the Holy Son, deactivate the Dharma Garment and let me examine your body.”
Seeing this, Chu Yuan said no more and deactivated the effect of the [Phantom Ethereal Dharma Robe]. As the words left her mouth, a faint light condensed on her fingertip. “Relax.” Seeing his muscles tense, Su Xuanxuan’s voice softened, as if coaxing a child unwilling to sleep. “I won’t hurt you.”
With that, she touched the faint light toward him. Chu Yuan didn’t dodge. He closed his eyes and let the wisp of light slowly penetrate his brow. The touch was cold, like snowflakes falling on skin. Through his divine sense, he could feel the light wandering through his spiritual platform.
Su Xuanxuan examined him very carefully. She probed from his spiritual platform to his dantian, from his dantian to his meridians, inch by inch, thread by thread. The Fox Venerable breathed a silent sigh of relief: Chu Yuan’s soul and body showed no signs of disharmony. The restriction she had secretly placed on the Holy Son back then was also intact, with no signs of damage. If there was anything wrong with the Holy Son, it was that his spiritual power was severely depleted. His meridians were also somewhat withered, like a riverbed that had been dry for a long time, almost cracking.
Thinking about the Holy Son’s experiences over the past few days, the Fox Venerable could easily guess that this was the aftermath of being drained dry by that Crown Prince. Apart from that, there was nothing serious. His foundation was intact, his meridians were unharmed, and his dantian was still good. As long as he rested properly for a while, his spiritual power would naturally recover.
But there was one strange thing. Su Xuanxuan’s divine sense lingered in the depths of Chu Yuan’s dantian for a moment, and her brow slightly furrowed. The Taixu bloodline had already been activated. She could feel the pulse of that power, steady and strong, gradually improving his constitution. Her divine sense hovered above his dantian, not moving for a long time.
A young man who had just come of age, and he was already at the Domain Transformation Realm??? What shocked her even more was Chu Yuan’s cultivation: Domain Transformation Realm.
This was wrong! Very wrong! No matter how powerful the Taixu bloodline was, it couldn’t allow a sixteen-year-old youth to break through to the Domain Transformation Realm on his own without any resource support. That required the accumulation of heavenly treasures, the guidance of famous masters, and centuries of hard cultivation. The timeline didn’t match.
Su Xuanxuan was puzzled. Could this be the awakening of the ancestor’s remnant soul? Was the ancestor’s cultivation superimposed on his own? This was truly unprecedented. In any case, one thing was certain: the Holy Son had not been possessed.
After a long while, Su Xuanxuan withdrew her divine sense. The wisp of light slowly exited from Chu Yuan’s spiritual platform, dissipating like a wisp of smoke in the air. Chu Yuan opened his eyes accordingly and asked instinctively, “Well? Lady Fox, is there anything seriously wrong with this disciple?”
Su Xuanxuan’s expression was complicated. Despite her doubts about the ring spirit, she hadn’t found any anomalies. But this was wrong. A sixteen-year-old youth shouldn’t have such powerful cultivation. The Domain Transformation Realm was a height that many cultivators couldn’t reach in a lifetime. How could he? How could he have achieved this at this age?
Su Xuanxuan looked at Chu Yuan, her gaze mixed with confusion and shock. “Your body is fine. You’re just a bit depleted in spiritual power. Rest and recover. But… how did you get this cultivation?”
Seeing that the Fox Venerable no longer suspected him, Chu Yuan let out a heavy sigh and made up a random excuse. “I… I don’t know. You’d have to ask my ancestor!” With that, he shivered again and put on a weathered expression. “Well, Lady Fox, do you still suspect that I’ve possessed our child?”
Faced with Chu Yuan’s sudden change in demeanor, Su Xuanxuan was a bit dazed. The switch between the two personas was so seamless that she couldn’t sense any spiritual power fluctuation. If she didn’t know better, she would think Chu Yuan was acting. But if it was acting, it was too perfect. Moreover, some things couldn’t be faked without experience: for example, this worldly and weary aura, as if he had lived for hundreds of years as a cultivator.
Su Xuanxuan bowed slightly with cupped hands. “Please forgive me, Ancestor. I was too suspicious. What are your plans from here?”
Chu Yuan waved his hand. “No need for formalities. I am merely a remnant soul assisting the Holy Son. I am already quite unfamiliar with the current Sacred Domain. It depends on your arrangements, Lady Fox. Since this child now knows his identity as the Holy Son, what do you think the next step should be?”