Zhang Yong's eyes widened as a voice whispered in his ear.
'You still don't understand, do you? You are not destined to be happy.'
In an instant, before Zhang Yong's eyes, a tree appeared before him, and on that tree, a body was hanging by a rope from the neck.
It was a hanged person.
Nothing was clear, nothing except black hair draped over the face, and only one eye visible, staring at him vacantly.
Zhang Yong's expression froze as he stared at the scene before him.
Suddenly, his breathing became irregular; his breaths began to accelerate involuntarily.
Directly in front of him, a small spherical form rose from the ground, and then features began to clarify before him.
"Brother."
The head of Zhang Yong's younger brother appeared, bloodied, with a warm, bloody smile.
"Brother..." The voice echoed in his mind, but he couldn't banish the vision from his thoughts.
He quickly closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, everything had vanished, and it returned to normal.
Zhang Yong remained sitting, his eyes staring into the void before him, and he began trying to calm himself slightly.
He remembered those words: "You are not destined to be happy." A feeling of loss washed over him.
Within his Spirit sea , the others noticed Zhang Yong's strange movements, and the Empress couldn't help but worry.
"What's happening with Naoto?"
Ling Xi looked away. "Don't look at me, I'm confused too."
Meanwhile, Yami looked away, his eyes narrowing for a moment. For an instant, he seemed displeased with something, but he decided to remain silent.
Zhang Yong stared into the void before asking,
'Uni , what just happened?'
( Due to the effect of the Wild Heart, you didn't suffer from problems like these before because you possessed the Pure Heart, but you decided to corrupt it with the Primal Instinct ability. The former ensures your mental state remains stable enough, and therefore you don't suffer much from Heart Demons , On the other hand, Primal Instinct pushes your mental state to its extreme , This is because the human body can only use 30% of its power due to the mind's limitations, but Primal Instinct removes that barrier and pushes it towards 90%. )
Zhang Yong held his chin and thought.
'So an ability that pushes the mental state to its limit conflicts with an ability that stabilizes it, leading to both being destroyed and ultimately merging, giving me a new ability?'
( Exactly. And now you can permanently push your physical abilities to their maximum, but Heart Demons will follow you for as long as you live. So prepare to experience nightmares continuously. Luckily for you, you don't possess a Dantian, and you cannot break through, otherwise, you would have died because of it. )
'Isn't ability evolution supposed to help me?' Zhang Yong said vaguely.
( Evolution cannot always be confined to the better; it can also be for the worse, exactly like the host's mental state. )
Zhang Yong sighed deeply before closing his eyes and beginning to comprehend the Law of Death in the area.
Far from the area, a spatial portal opened in the middle of the sky, and a massive purple bird emerged, with a yellow-furred lion standing on its back.
Those two were Xiao Hong and Kuro.
Kuro descended quietly towards the ground and landed softly, sinking her claws into the earth while Xiao Hong jumped off her and stood on the ground.
"This place is strange. I wonder where Father is," Kuro wondered, looking around at the grey trees surrounding her, trying to understand the situation.
Xiao Hong cast a cursory glance over the area. "The place is surrounded by death. It looks exactly like the Master's aura."
Kuro's gaze turned towards Xiao Hong, her eyes wide: "Then... is Father here?!"
Xiao Hong shook his head. "I don't know. But if he is here, he will surely sense us."
Kuro puffed out her cheeks in annoyance, which made her look cute. "Father always makes me look for him! Why doesn't he come and look for me?!"
Xiao Hong laughed a little, then walked forward. "When it comes to my Senior, you act like a child. Are you really a fourth-rank beast?"
Kuro laughed lightly as she followed Xiao Hong with small steps, not taking his words seriously. "Hmph! Being fourth-rank doesn't mean I can't act how I want!"
Xiao Hong sighed and decided not to argue with her.
As Kuro walked beside Xiao Hong, she couldn't help but walk enthusiastically on the grey cracked ground beneath her feet. "If Father is here, will he be angry if I don't find him quickly?" she asked, tilting her head in confusion.
Xiao Hong glanced sideways at her before answering in a calm tone: "Are you acting as if you don't know, or are you just oblivious to him?"
Kuro looked at Xiao Hong in bewilderment. "What do you mean by that?"
Xiao Hong secretly scoffed at her naivety. "The Master clearly favors you. If something happened to you and he found out about it, he would surely skin me alive. I wasn't born that long ago, so I don't want to die early."
Kuro showed a mischievous smile, fluttering her wings lightly. "Oh! So Father loves me that much?! Are you jealous?"
Xiao Hong let out a long sigh, then muttered without looking at her: "There's no use talking to you when you're too arrogant." Then he turned his gaze forward.
But Kuro didn't stop; she moved closer to him and began to circle around him lightly, fluttering her wings:
"Heh! Heh! Just admit you're jealous!"
Xiao Hong slowly closed his eyes, then muttered in a barely audible voice. "...I regret accompanying you."
As they advanced through the silent grey forest, the ground began to tremble lightly beneath their feet, followed by a faint crawling sound, slow and steady.
Kuro suddenly stopped, raising her wings cautiously. "Did you hear that?"
Xiao Hong didn't reply, but fixed his gaze on a point between the intertwined trees. "This aura... I didn't expect we'd meet him."
Emerging from the shadows was a tall, massive form, slithering lightly like water.
Its gleaming scales shimmered with a deep purple color, and its eyes were narrow, glowing blood-red.
"A snake..." Kuro muttered, taking a step back, then fluttered her wings, space visibly distorting. "Let me deal with him. I'll make him a light snack!"
But the moment she prepared to attack, Xiao Hong stood in front of her, stopping her firmly. "Stop. This is not an enemy."
Kuro looked at him in disbelief. "What? He's crawling towards us! Don't you see those eyes?!"
The snake stopped in front of them, slowly raised its head, hissed a little, then lowered its head to Xiao Hong.
"I didn't tell you, but the Master took this snake under his wing, so he is a younger brother to us," Xiao Hong explained calmly, but smiled secretly. 'Finally, someone younger than me to bully.'
Kuro's beak widened in surprise. "But... but it's a snake! How can it be a younger brother?! Besides, it's stronger than you, so why would it be the younger one?"
Then, suddenly, a light breeze changed the air current, and an eerie silence descended upon the place.
From behind a massive grey tree, a man emerged wearing simple Buddhist monk's robes, his head shaved and his face bearing a smile as calm as a lake on a cold morning. He wore a robe of a chestnut color, a mix of brown and gold, and around his neck was a long necklace made of brown beads.
He walked slowly, leaving no trace behind him. His hands were clasped behind his back, and his eyes were half-closed as if looking at something no one else could see.
"Amitabha..." he said in a soft voice, but it carried an indescribable weight. "I did not expect to see three non-human souls in the heart of this grey forest."
Kuro stepped back and whispered to Xiao Hong, "Who is this? He doesn't seem like an ordinary human... he's..." She hesitated to finish her words, then added softly: "He gives me chills."
Xiao Hong nodded slowly, his features no longer playful, but completely serious.
The snake slithered slowly forward, standing in front of the two, its red eyes fixed on the monk, watching him cautiously.
The monk continued his steps towards them. He showed no fear, despite the presence of two fourth-rank beasts and a first-rank beast before him.
The monk approached until he was just a few meters away from them, then stood firmly. The monk looked at them contemplatively, his eyes reflecting no clear emotions, but he spoke kindly:
"The soul is not bound by form... You are not human, but you are not enemies either... It seems there is a mark on the souls of some of you. You harbor no hatred towards your master. Rare for someone on the path of enslavement."
Kuro raised her wings slightly, as if preparing to fly, but she didn't move. She tilted her head, whispering: "He talks as if we understand him, but he doesn't know we don't understand what he's saying."
The monk approached further, calmly raised his hand, then extended it towards the purple snake.
The snake's movement suddenly stiffened, its red eyes staring intently at the monk... then... slowly, it raised its head and allowed its head to touch the monk's fingertips.
The monk smiled kindly. "As I see... You hold no malice towards your master... This is truly very rare... Oh, kind creatures."
The monk smiled gently as he slowly withdrew his hand, as if the purple snake's touch had confirmed something profound to him. Then he placed his hands behind his back again, his eyes still half-closed. He said in a low voice, as if speaking to himself:
"Hmm, beasts with emotion instead of instinct, yet emotion cannot arise without instinct."
"Due to the law of Karma, we were destined to meet. According to the teachings of Ahimsa, I care about your matter. According to the teachings of Karuna, I will help you."
Kuro kept looking at him with wide eyes, tilting her head as if trying to analyze his every move. Then she whispered softly:
"Is he an idiot? What is he talking about?"
Then the monk turned towards the beasts and walked towards them again, patting Kuro and Xiao Hong's heads simultaneously.
"You are cute and calm creatures. I do not understand you, I feel you." There was a peaceful smile on his face.
Then he stepped back without taking his eyes off them.
"I will accompany you."