But this made the dried corpse's face appear even more hideous and terrifying, the black spots wriggling on her face like countless black maggots.
Only after doing this did she cautiously lift her head, peering at Tuoba Feng through the gaps in her fingers.
When she saw that Tuoba Feng was still looking at her with a smile, she finally breathed a sigh of relief, as if she had done something right.
Then, she turned to Piao and spoke in a very small voice.
"I am not a monster..."
"I am my father's daughter. I have a name. I am called Xiaoyun."
Piao blinked and nodded in agreement, "Mm, I am also my mother's daughter."
"I also have a name. Mother gave it to me."
"Mother is very cultured. My name is Piao."
"Even though everyone says I am a monster, as long as I am my mother's daughter, if I am a monster, then so be it. It is no big deal."
The dried corpse was stunned.
"Is... is that so?"
"Mm!" Piao replied as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "Anyway, that is what I think."
Su Xue listened, dumbstruck.
Could the dried corpse actually be Tuoba Feng's daughter?
Had she been too shallow?
Had she been biased in thinking that a human's daughter must also be a human?
Su Xue glanced at Tuoba Feng, who was gently watching the two children interact from a short distance away, and then at Piao, who righteously admitted she was a monster.
In this world...
Indeed, no one had ruled that one could not adopt a dried corpse as a daughter.
Su Xue took a deep breath, struggling to convince herself to accept this premise.
Since her lord had sent her to assist, she had to complete his command.
No matter what this dried corpse was, she would assess the situation first.
"Very well."
Su Xue stepped forward, trying her best to make her voice sound professional and calm.
"Since your daughter is willing to cooperate, I shall help her see exactly what the problem is."
Su Xue and Tuoba Feng walked back to the tomb door together.
To ease the atmosphere, Su Xue activated the power of life-force within her body, condensing several fresh flowers in her palm.
These flowers were different from the petals earlier; they were real plants that would not explode upon touch.
She held the flowers out in front of the dried corpse.
"Xiaoyun, these flowers are for you," Su Xue said softly.
The dried corpse happily reached out her withered hand, wanting to take them.
But when her hand was only halfway there, she remembered the petals that had vanished into light earlier. Her body jolted, and she immediately pulled her hand back as if she had received an electric shock.
She hid her hands behind her back, only leaning her shriveled head forward with effort, her nostrils twitching as she carefully sniffed.
She tried her best not to let herself touch the flowers, terrified that the black spots on her body would ruin these beautiful things again.
"So fragrant..." the dried corpse said with intoxication. "Sister, are these flowers?"
"They smell so good."
Su Xue was kind-hearted by nature, and seeing the girl's cautious and self-restrained manner, her heart softened inexplicably.
She remembered the disappointed look on the dried corpse's face earlier when she had desperately waved her hands to catch the vanishing petals.
"Here, take them."
Su Xue spoke gently, proactively pressing the flowers into the dried corpse's hand.
"These flowers are different from the petals just now. They are just ordinary plants, and they will not disappear."
"Their vitality is very stubborn, and they are not afraid of you."
Only then did the dried corpse take the flowers with extreme care.
She pinched the flower stems gently with two fingers, finding that they truly did not explode like before, and the petals remained vibrant.
"They really didn't break!"
She instantly became very cheerful, like a little girl who had received candy. She even boldly grabbed Su Xue's sleeve and asked.
"Sister, sister, what kind of flowers are these?"
"Why are some of them red and others yellow?"
Su Xue patiently explained.
"These are orchids." Su Xue crouched down to look at the dried corpse at eye level.
"They grow in moist valleys and prefer cool environments."
"The Western Region is too dry, so they are not seen here."
"Valleys..." the dried corpse muttered to herself, as if the word were very foreign. "What are valleys like?"
"A valley is the low-lying area between two mountains," Su Xue patiently explained.
"There are streams, green trees, and all sorts of flowers and plants."
"In the spring, the valleys are filled with wildflowers, and butterflies dance among them."
The dried corpse said with envy, "There is nothing here in the Western Region. If only I could go out and see it too."
She held the orchids tightly with both hands, yet she was also desperately suppressing the black spots on her body that wanted to devour the flowers. Her body twitched from time to time due to the pain.
But she did not care at all; she was imagining that world she had never seen.
Looking at her like this, Su Xue's heart softened even more.
No matter what this dried corpse actually was, at this moment, she truly seemed like a little girl full of curiosity about the outside world.
Su Xue reached out and gently held the dried corpse's wrist.
That was one of the few places where the skin was not yet completely covered by black spots.
"Xiaoyun, let me see the black spots on your body."
As she spoke, she injected a wisp of gentle life-force into the dried corpse's body.
However, the moment the life-force entered the body, a sudden change occurred.
The black spots, which had been relatively quiet, suddenly began to surge violently upon contact with the life-force.
"Roar—!"
A low growl actually echoed from within the dried corpse's body. It did not sound like her voice; it was the sound of a black-spot monster.
The black spots proliferated madly, crawling up the dried corpse's arm and following the connection of life-force, attempting to spread back onto Su Xue.
"No!"
The dried corpse screamed, violently flinging Su Xue's hand away.
She stumbled back two steps and fell heavily to the ground.
The dried corpse hugged her own arms tightly, using all her strength to suppress the black spots back into her body.
This action made her whole body tremble, and even more black spots surfaced on the withered skin.
As for the orchids she had been holding, they withered the instant they were struck by the death qi.
The petals fell, and the stems and leaves dried up, turning into ashes that scattered through the gaps in her fingers.
The dried corpse stared at the withered flowers in her hand, stunned.
After several seconds, she slowly lifted her head, her empty eye sockets looking at Su Xue, her voice filled with disappointment.
"I-I am sorry. I didn't mean to."
"I am infected by the black spots. It is best not to get close to me."
"Those who approach me... will all go mad..."
Su Xue stood where she was, her expression grave.
She withdrew her hand, her fingertips still trembling slightly.
That brief moment of contact had allowed her to sense the abnormality within the dried corpse.
She did not know what other black-spot patients were like, but on Xiaoyun, it did not seem like an infection.
They were more like a part of the dried corpse's body, intimately linked to her origin.
When the black spots were weakened by the life-force, the dried corpse's control over them also weakened, causing more black spots within her to fight desperately to come out and fill the void.
Su Xue suddenly thought of the information her lord had previously shared.
The source of the black spots in the provincial capital and the Eastern Region was in the Western Region.
And the source of the black spots in the Western Region was the legendary divine remains.
Those black spots were the corpse spots from the corpse change of the divine remains.
Su Xue suddenly looked up at the small figure curled on the ground, her eyes filled with horror.
So, Xiaoyun was actually...
Rate on N.U.
