Douluo Dalu 2: Reincarnated as the Auspicious Beast

"Aiya, you guys are finally on break!" Lang Xingying enthusiastically pounced out from the convoy, slinging an arm around both Wang Rui and Huo Yuqing's necks. His nonexistent big tail wagged wildly like a helicopter rotor. "I've been wanting to hang out with you two! I heard you're going north with the wolf pack?"

…This kid was a bona fide social terrorist.

Wang Rui's mouth twitched. For a brief moment, the Three-Eyed Cat truly understood the innate discord between cat people and dog people.

Before Lang Xingying could drape his arms over him and Huo Yuqing, Wang Rui stepped forward, preemptively wrapping an arm around Lang Xingying's shoulder and pulling him aside, positioning himself between this wolf pup and Huo Yuqing.

The Three-Eyed Cat smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes, as he hooked an arm around Lang Xingying's shoulders. "Yeah, we're going north too. Have you been really idle and bored lately?"

If the wolf pup was bored, they could just increase his training.

Lang Xingying, completely oblivious to the sinister intent behind those words, started whining without a care. "I really am bored to death! There's no one my age around to play with… I've been stuck in Shrek City for over half a year, wanting to hang out with you guys, but I never ran into you. Why don't you ever come out for a stroll? You need to balance work and rest—ah, right, we've been talking for so long, Rui Rui, you still haven't introduced this person who's traveling with you…"

He looked up, but as soon as he took in Jiang Nannan's appearance, his voice abruptly cut off. A suspicious red blush rapidly spread across his face.

"Uh… This sister, my name is Lang Xingying… I come from Moonshadow City." He stammered—an absolute miracle for a chatterbox afflicted with social terror.

Jiang Nannan was amused by his flustered state and smiled. "My name is Jiang Nannan. I'm from Emerald City."

"Um… I just want to ask… will you be my Moon Goddess?"

Wang Rui sucked in a sharp breath.

That one sentence instantly sent him back to the distant Dawn Throne on the Solar Divine Prairie… What kind of "Chaste King" behavior was this?!

[T/N: FInal Fantasy XIV reference]

Since wolves had a special connection with the moon, "Moon Goddess" didn't refer to any specific deity… Generally speaking, residents of Moonshadow City used "Moon Goddess" to describe their fated true love.

In other words, Lang Xingying had just asked Jiang Nannan—whom he'd met for the first time—if she was his destined wife.

"What did you just say?" As expected, Jiang Nannan's face darkened completely. She grinned, but it was a predatory smile that didn't match her beautiful features. She flexed her fingers, producing a crisp cracking sound. "Say that again if you dare?"

"Pretty sister, are you my—!" Lang Xingying, still blushing, hadn't even finished his sentence before Jiang Nannan, furious, flipped him over her shoulder and threw him straight to the ground.

With a resounding "splat," he flattened into a little pancake.

Even Huo Yuqing shrank her neck back.

"Good throw." A voice chuckled lightly. "That brat needed some discipline. Last time, he even called his own aunt his Moon Goddess."

[T/N: Ayo, the Kid is going places]

The speaker was a man, his voice low and hoarse, with a trace of weak breath.

Jiang Nannan was startled and turned to look. In the shadow beneath a carriage, there stood a man draped in a black cloak, his hood pulled up, obscuring his features. Standing in the sunlight beside him was Lu Mingyou, his head covered with a veiled hat.

"You scared my disciple." Lu Mingyou shook his head helplessly, chiding the man.

"Well, I suppose my attire is a bit eerie." The cloaked figure removed his hood.

He was a man with white hair. Even while standing in the shadows, he was dazzlingly pale.

His skin wasn't an unhealthy pallor but rather a nearly translucent shade tinged with blood, and beneath his pure white lashes lay a pair of peculiarly pink eyes. He was very thin, so much so that the wide black cloak seemed enough to crush him. His facial features were strikingly beautiful, but his extreme frailty emphasized his prominent cheekbones, which bore an unhealthy flush.

Huo Yuqing and Lu Mingyou, still inexperienced, couldn't discern much, but Jiang Nannan immediately recognized that this man suffered from a severe congenital illness… and yet, his aura carried a profound, unfathomable strength.

"May I ask who you are?" Jiang Nannan cautiously inquired.

"I am Xu Jiakang," the man said with a reassuring smile. "A steward of the Moonshadow Chamber of Commerce… My son has quite the loose tongue. If Miss Jiang is still upset, feel free to discipline him as you see fit."

The "dead" Lang Xingying groaned and muttered, "…Are you really my biological father?"

Xu Jiakang shot him a glance, took two steps forward, and kicked him. The moment he did, that sickly, frail aura of his vanished without a trace.

Lang Xingying, still flattened like a pancake, nimbly rolled to the side twice, narrowly avoiding getting crushed under his father's foot.

"You're such an embarrassment." Xu Jiakang took a deep breath, feeling like his dignity had been completely shredded by this wolf pup—especially with the Ruishou watching! "When are you going to fix this ridiculous habit?!"

"Pa, don't be mad!" Lang Xingying grinned cheekily. "Nan Nan-jie is so pretty, why can't she be my—"

He actually blushed again.

Xu Jiakang, now livid, wheezed as he chased after him with the intent to kick. "Just you wait! Your mother will deal with you when we get home!"

Jiang Nannan: …I am suddenly very entertained.

Huo Yuqing, however, was looking at them with a complicated expression.

Even as an outcast in the Duke's Mansion, she still knew the name of the Emperor of the Star Luo Empire.

The Star Luo Emperor's name was Xu Jiawei… a name that differed from this man's by just one character. Moreover, Lang Xingying had mentioned that his father's martial soul was related to the stars. And the most famous Xu family with a star-related martial soul was none other than the Star-Crowned Xu Clan of the Star Luo Empire!

That woman… was also from the Xu family. Back then, she had been the former emperor's most beloved youngest daughter before marrying Dai Hao.

At the sudden encounter with someone related by blood to her enemy, Huo Yuqing pressed her lips together. She couldn't help but search the white-haired man's features for any resemblance to that woman.

Thankfully, she found none. Otherwise, she really wouldn't know how to treat her friends anymore.

Her guess was correct—Xu Jiakang was indeed the youngest brother of the current Star Luo Emperor.

He was the youngest son of the previous emperor and empress. Perhaps due to his parents' old age at the time of his birth, he was plagued with severe congenital illnesses—so severe that there was hardly anything healthy about him.

But the former emperor doted on his youngest child, filling his name with hopeful aspirations and even humbling himself before Emerald City to seek their help, offering numerous tributes in gratitude.

…Illnesses from the womb were the hardest to cure, and most congenital conditions couldn't simply be healed with an infusion of life energy. To put it bluntly, without Lu Mingyou, Xu Jiakang wouldn't have had a chance of survival.

Lu Mingyou kept him alive long enough for him to awaken his martial soul.

Perhaps to compensate for his frail body, Xu Jiakang's martial soul underwent a beneficial mutation—manifesting as a strange star disk, far surpassing the Star Crown in quality. It was a true first-rate auxiliary martial soul—one that could even rival the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda.

And he himself had extraordinary talent… but unfortunately, his illness severely limited his achievements.

To put it bluntly, his emperor brother didn't feel the slightest threat from him.

Xu Jiakang was, of course, also the Duke Consort's younger brother.

—But while the Duke Consort had been the former emperor's most beloved youngest daughter, the old empress had long lost her ability to bear children. The emperor had sired younger children with his concubines—Xu Jiujui and Xu Yun.

Xu Jiujui was even younger than the Duke Consort's eldest son, let alone Xu Yun.

Compared to Xu Jiujui, whom he had practically raised as his own daughter, Xu Jiawei's relationship with the Duke Consort, who had married into the Dai Clan early on, was likely much less close.

After all, he had no shortage of wariness toward the White Tiger Duke.