1189 A Sign of Awakening
Inside their room, Xi Shengmo said by his desk while Xi Mingze was resting on the bed.
"If you're going to convince me to let our daughter marry Yuan, you don't need to anymore." Xi Shengmo said while looking at her. "I am fully convinced that he's more than worthy to marry her."
Xi Mingze smiled and said, "That's not the only thing I want to talk to you about today. There is still so much that we don't understand about Yuan."
"What do you mean?" Xi Shengmo raised an eyebrow.
Xi Mingze then said, "For starters, the Dragon Ancestor knew that he'd arrive in the Ancient Dragon City. This means he has some kind of relationship with our Ancestor."
"I thought he was only a very talented individual at that time and didn't think too much about it, but Yuan… He's an unfathomable existence."
After pausing for a moment, she continued, "As you witnessed today, during our fight, his Soul Strength was on par with mine— if not a little stronger. I believed that it was due to a powerful spiritual treasure at first, but when he revealed his Soul Strength, I knew that wasn't the case and that his Soul Strength is truly that strong. How can a human at his age have such powerful Soul Strength? Even if he could somehow increase his Soul Strength at a tremendous pace, his soul would still need to be able to withstand it. This applies to one's cultivation, too. It's just countless times harder since the Soul is more complicated than the Dantian."
"I have been thinking about this since then. This might sound crazy, but I think he's absorbed the soul of an expert, hence his unexplainable prowess."
"What?! You think he consumed another's soul?! But that's imp—" Xi Shengmo halted his mouth at that moment.
If he thought about it, anything was possible with Yuan.
After pondering some time, he spoke, "If I recall correctly, there exists a technique that allows one to consume another's soul, but this technique has been lost since the Primordial Era. It is also a demonic technique, so if Yuan learned this technique, we would've sensed his demonic aura."
Demonic techniques are evil techniques that demand immoral practices for unimaginable strength and are highly frowned upon and forbidden everywhere in the Nine Heavens. Those who ignore such rules and choose the demonic path are known as Demonic Cultivators.
Due to the nature of demonic techniques, its users will always have demonic auras that cannot be hidden.
Xi Mingze frowned and said, "I'm not saying that he's a demonic cultivator! There are other ways to consume one's soul without using demonic techniques, but these methods are very niche and insanely rare, so it isn't known by the majority of the world. I'm just saying that he somehow managed to increase the strength of his soul by absorbing another soul. Of course, this is all just speculation."
"Now, let's talk about another topic." She continued, "Sometime after I transformed, the Dragon's Soul showed signs of awakening."
"What?! Are you sure?!" Xi Shengmo stood up with a shocked look on his face.
Despite the Dragon's Soul being a family heirloom that has been passed down for many generations, it has never responded to anyone within the Xi Family, meaning nobody has been able to wield it, which the family always found weird.
She nodded, "I'm sure, and the signs were the most obvious when it clashed with Yuan."
"Are you telling me that it's responding to Yuan? A Soul Weapon that is rumored to have the Soul of an ancient dragon within is responding to a human instead of a dragon?" Xi Shengmo was utterly speechless.
Xi Mingze then asked, "I never really cared enough to ask, but where did the Xi Family acquire the Dragon's Soul? What is its origin?"
Xi Shengmo pondered for a moment before responding, "I never questioned it either since it has always been with the family even before we isolated ourselves in this world, so I have no clue. Maybe one of our ancestors wrote it down. I will check the family library later to make sure."
"The real question is, what should we do with the Dragon's Soul? We can't just give our family's heirloom to a human that we barely know anything about…"
Xi Mingze smiled and said, "Why not? If he marries our daughter, he will be part of our family, anyway."
"That's assuming they will really get married…" Xi Shengmo sighed, and he continued, "He already has a child with another Divine Beast, after all…"
Hearing this, Xi Mingze suddenly realized that she'd forgotten about this important fact.
"..."
Xi Mingze suddenly retrieved a communication jade slip.
"What are you doing?" Xi Shengmo asked her.
"Calling our daughter here."
Sometime later, Xi Meili knocked on the door.
"Mother, I have arrived."
"Come in."
Xi Meili entered the room, and when she saw her mother sitting on the bed, she asked, "Are you okay?"
Xi Mingze nodded. "I am just resting. Anyways, we called you here to talk about your future."
And she continued, "We are well aware of your desire to choose Yuan as your husband, but there is something that you should know about him."
"What is it?" Xi Meili raised an eyebrow.
"I don't know if you know this already or not, but Yuan… He's already had a child with another Divine Beast, and she's even that Divine Serpent who is currently by his side."
Xi Mingze revealed this bombshell of a news to her.
"..."
However, Xi Meili did not react to it even in the slightest, which surprised both her parents, as they expected her to start crying or something along that line.
'Seeing how she's not reacting to it, I guess she already knew…' Xi Mingze thought to herself.
'Hmm?'
But when Xi Meili did not show any reactions even a few moments later, they realized that something was wrong.
"Wait… Don't tell me…"
"Meili?! Are you okay?!"
The parents eventually realized that the reason Xi Meili didn't react was because she was so shocked by the news that she passed out on the spot while managing to remain standing with her eyes open.