Douluo Dalu II: The Peerless Tang Sect

Chapter 322 Xingcai as an adult and the not-so-mysterious Fifth Huan'er!

After finishing his all-night talk with Ma Xiaotao, Zhu Ziyang prepared to go back to his room for a short rest, but before he could even close his eyes, something else happened that interrupted his rest.

Inside Zhu Ziyang's room, the light cocoon formed by Xingcai, after nearly four years of silence, finally showed signs of movement. Cracks appeared on the huge light cocoon, and a rich aura of light emanated from the cracks, which was very attractive.

Zhu Ziyang was momentarily stunned, but he quickly regained his composure and stared intently at Xingcai, who was about to emerge from her cocoon. To be honest, with his current strength, even though Xingcai had undergone a complete transformation and was progressing rapidly, she was still more of a mascot to him. Unless this little guy could reach the level of a 100,000-year-old soul beast, she really couldn't offer him much help.

Of course, Zhu Ziyang didn't expect her to be able to help him.

Soon, the cracks on the cocoon of light multiplied, and finally, under Zhu Ziyang's gaze, it shattered with a crash, revealing an exceptionally magnificent unicorn. The unicorn was over three meters tall and over five meters long, its entire body covered in golden fur, with a pair of iridescent, shimmering wings on its ribs, a crystal horn on its head that shone with colorful light, and captivating amber-gold eyes.

This was none other than a fully grown Starry Unicorn.

"Xingcai, congratulations on becoming an adult!" Zhu Ziyang exclaimed with great emotion. To be honest, he hadn't expected Xingcai to be able to directly enter adulthood through her cultivation. Although, after becoming an adult, Xingcai could still only serve as a mascot.

"Hehe! Thank you, Lord Ziyang!" Xingcai's voice hadn't changed much, still filled with innocent naivety.

"No need to thank me, it's all thanks to your own hard work!" Zhu Ziyang said with a smile, stroking Xingcai's head and unicorn horn.

Four years of slumber allowed Xingcai to directly cross the gap between a thousand-year-old soul beast and a ten-thousand-year-old soul beast, becoming a Starry Unicorn with a cultivation of nearly fifteen thousand years. At the same time, she finally absorbed and refined the inheritance of the Unicorn King left to her by her mother. Now, she can be considered a true Unicorn King.

"Lord Ziyang, I want to go out for a run." Xingcai said expectantly. As a unicorn, she had been asleep for three or four years, and the genes in her body that yearned for freedom and running could no longer be suppressed.

"Okay, let's go!" Zhu Ziyang agreed with a smile, and then led Xingcai out of the room.

Outside the room, Zhu Ziyang flipped over and jumped onto Xingcai's back. Xingcai let out a melodious cry, and with a powerful flap of her seven-colored wings, she and Zhu Ziyang took off into the air and flew towards the grass under the golden ancient tree.

The Starry Unicorn galloped across Tianyuan Island, attracting the attention of many inner court disciples along the way. The older students were fine; they all recognized Xingcai and knew she was Zhu Ziyang's pet. However, the disciples who had joined the inner court in the last three years were unaware of this. They all stared wide-eyed in astonishment at this ten-thousand-year-old soul beast that dared to gallop across Tianyuan Island.

Zhu Ziyang and Xingcai didn't care about the stares of the people, but they knew that running around on Tianyuan Island wasn't appropriate, so they quickly flew over Poseidon Lake and arrived at the outer courtyard. Compared to the inner courtyard, the outer courtyard was truly more sparsely populated, with vast forests and grasslands perfect for unicorns to roam.

Xingcai ran happily in the secluded open spaces of the outer courtyard before Zhu Ziyang led her back to the inner courtyard.

As soon as they returned to the inner courtyard, they ran into Ma Xiaotao and Fifth Huan'er.

"Ziyang, is this Xingcai?" Ma Xiaotao was quite surprised to see Xingcai and said, "How come she's so big already?"

"She received a gift from her teacher, and her cultivation level increased rapidly. She then slept for three years and just woke up this morning," Zhu Ziyang replied with a smile. "Sister Xiaotao, are you going to eat?"

"That's right." Ma Xiaotao nodded and said, "I'll take Huan'er to familiarize himself with the inner courtyard."

"Is this a Starry Unicorn?" Fifth Huan'er's gaze was fixed on Xingcai, her eyes filled with an unusual light as she murmured.

"That's right. Xingcai was brought back by Ziyang from the Star Dou Great Forest. At that time, she was just a little colt with only four or five thousand years of cultivation. I never expected her to grow so big now." Ma Xiaotao explained to Fifth Huan'er with a sigh.

"Oh!" Fifth Huan'er nodded, a strange smile appearing on her pretty face. For some reason, this smile aroused Zhu Ziyang's curiosity and suspicion.

He followed Fifth Huan'er's gaze and found that Xingcai was also staring intently at Fifth Huan'er, her golden eyes filled with doubt and curiosity.

"That's all for now, Ziyang, we'll be going now!" Ma Xiaotao said, then pulled Fifth Huan'er away.

Watching the two women leave, Zhu Ziyang asked in a low voice, "Xingcai, what's wrong? You seem quite interested in Huan'er."

"Lord Ziyang, Huan'er's aura is so familiar. Have we met her before?" Xingcai asked, her voice filled with confusion.

"Are you sure?" Xingcai's words startled Zhu Ziyang. He also had a strange sense of familiarity with that Fifth Huan'er. He thought it was just a misperception, but now it seemed that Fifth Huan'er must have had some interaction with him and Xingcai!

"Who could it be?" Zhu Ziyang murmured. On the way back to the room with Xingcai, he began searching his past memories for possible clues.

"...Fifth Huan'er...Fifth..." After reviewing all of Fifth Huan'er's information, Zhu Ziyang keenly grasped a clue. He murmured, "According to Sister Xiao Tao, her martial soul is Suanni...Suanni...the fifth son of the Dragon God...the son of the Dragon God and the Golden Lion...Dragon Lion!"

"The Three-Eyed Golden Lion!" Zhu Ziyang's body trembled suddenly. He immediately thought of a possibility: Fifth Huan'er's martial soul was the Suanni, known as the ancestor of dragons and lions, and he had also had interactions with him and Xingcai. Connecting these things, apart from the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, the imperial auspicious beast in the Star Dou Great Forest that Xingcai's mother, Luo Xingxi, had once subdued and whose fate was intertwined with his, he could not think of any other possibility.

"But why?" Although he was 80% certain that Fifth Huan'er was the Emperor-level Auspicious Beast, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, Zhu Ziyang was even more puzzled. "That Three-Eyed Golden Lion's cultivation level is clearly no more than 50,000 years, so how could it transform into a human? Its state is obviously not that of a 100,000-year-old soul beast undergoing transformation and cultivation again, nor is it a human form at the level of a ferocious beast. How could it evade my perception as a Title Douluo?"

He desperately wanted to find Fifth Huan'er immediately, capture her, and interrogate her thoroughly. However, he only thought about it; he couldn't possibly be that reckless. Putting aside the relationship between Fifth Huan'er and Ma Xiaotao, the fact that she was favored by the Fire God and allowed to participate in Ma Xiaotao's divine appointment assessment made it inconvenient for him to touch her right now.

"Never mind, we'll talk about it later!" Zhu Ziyang murmured. Anyway, Fifth Huan'er had already joined Shrek Academy, so there would be plenty of time to subtly probe and slowly find out more later.

After Zhu Ziyang returned Xingcai to the Golden Ancient Tree, he let her play under the tree by herself. He then turned around and went to the cafeteria for a meal. He couldn't rest, but he couldn't skip a meal.

Upon arriving at the cafeteria, he ran into Jiang Nannan, Tang Ya, Xue Weiwei, and Xiao Xiao. A smile spread across his face, and he immediately went to their side, saying, "What a coincidence!"

"Brother, you haven't eaten either!" Jiang Nannan smiled upon seeing Zhu Ziyang and said sweetly, "Hey, sit down!"

She patted the seat next to her, gesturing for Zhu Ziyang to sit beside her. Zhu Ziyang didn't refuse and sat down directly, saying with a smile, "What are you two talking about? You seem so happy."

"Zhu Ziyang, let me tell you, Xu Sanshi and Weiwei have agreed to join my Tang Clan team!" Tang Ya excitedly announced to Zhu Ziyang.

"Really? How did you convince Xu Sanshi?" Zhu Ziyang asked, very curious.

"Hehe! It wasn't me who persuaded Xu Sanshi, it was Beibei who persuaded him." Tang Ya said with an embarrassed smile, feeling that she was quite incompetent as the sect leader.

"Oh!" Zhu Ziyang let out a meaningful sound and said with a smile, "That's good. Xiao Xiao, what did you and Wang Dong say? Don't you have any plans to fight for the Tang Clan?"

"Me?" Xiao Xiao was taken aback, then smiled shyly, "Sister Xiaoya did ask me, but I don't know either. I want to wait for Yuhao to come back and ask him for his opinion."

"I see. Okay, once you've made up your mind, just tell Elder Xuan directly." Zhu Ziyang said with a smile. He understood Xiao Xiao's little thoughts quite well. "Elder Xuan mentioned this to me before, and it seems he agrees as well."

"Really? That's wonderful!" Tang Ya exclaimed with delight. "I was worried the elders wouldn't agree. After all, how should I put it, Bei Bei and I are a bit ungrateful, hehe!"

"Don't think like that. The revival of the Tang Sect is also beneficial to our academy." Zhu Ziyang comforted Tang Ya, seeing the smirk on her face, and then changed the subject, "Nannan, you still haven't told me what you were discussing just now? You seemed so happy."

"It's like this..." Upon hearing this, Jiang Nannan immediately leaned close to Zhu Ziyang's ear and whispered something.

"Oh? She's finally decided to come clean!" Zhu Ziyang raised an eyebrow, seemingly not very surprised.

"Zhu Ziyang, aren't you surprised?" Zhu Ziyang's calm reaction completely contradicted Tang Ya and the others' expectations, and Tang Ya asked in surprise.

"Uh... I already knew this, so why be surprised?" Zhu Ziyang waved his hand helplessly.

"Huh?" Tang Ya was very surprised and asked, "How did you know?"

"Read more books, Sect Leader Tang!" Zhu Ziyang said, looking at Tang Ya speechlessly.

(End of this chapter)