Chapter 25: Beasts

The young girl, Yin Xingyue, did not answer Shen Siyuan immediately. She stood in the doorway, fingers interlaced, picking at her thumbs, clearly caught in a state of hesitation.

Shen Siyuan did not press her. He sat down on the sofa, pulled out his phone, and began scrolling.

"I've arrived home. Goodnight."

Five minutes ago, Jiang Tingyu had sent him a WeChat message. Shen Siyuan hurriedly replied, "I just got home too. Goodnight."

He then opened his social media feed and saw that Jiang Tingyu had posted a status. It was simple, just a single short sentence:

[Wind, goodnight.]

Accompanying the post was a casual snapshot of the night sky. It was impossible to tell if the "wind" she referred to was a person or just the breeze itself.

Shen Siyuan did not "like" the post. He scrolled down further: Tian Yunrui had posted about food, Wang Chao about movie tickets, Cai Weiqiang about his cat, and Lu Ran about a night run... everyone was living their own lives.

Just then, the little girl, Yin Xingyue, suddenly spoke up: "The uncle bullied me."

Hearing this, Shen Siyuan looked up, eyes widening, thinking to himself, *When on earth did I bully you?*

Seeing Shen Siyuan’s expression, the girl seemed to realize the misunderstanding and whispered, "It was the uncle who is with my mom."

Shen Siyuan frowned; there seemed to be something deeply wrong here. "Where is your father?" he asked.

"He died."

"Did you not see his spirit?"

Yin Xingyue shook her head, her expression pained. As a soul herself, she knew there was only one reason she hadn't seen her father's ghost: he had let go of all his worldly attachments and vanished from existence. Yet, she had always missed him, and the fact that he was gone left her, already deprived of fatherly love, feeling even more desolate.

"What exactly is going on with this 'uncle' you mentioned?" Shen Siyuan pressed.

The girl hesitated again, appearing both frightened and unable to find the words.

Shen Siyuan offered some comfort: "Don't be afraid. I think I have enough skill to help you."

Yin Xingyue nodded gently. Shen Siyuan was the first person who had been able to see them. Besides, that little girl with him was also incredible—not only could she conjure fire, but she could fly in the sky.

"Mom married that uncle. He is my new father, but I don't like him..."

The girl was logical and articulate, and Shen Siyuan quickly pieced together the story. Her biological father had passed away when she was very young. Because her mother worked and couldn't look after her, she had been sent to live with her grandmother in the countryside. A few years ago, her mother married a new man and brought her back.

It was clear that this man was not a good person. He appeared refined, but was a wolf in sheep's clothing. Yin Xingyue had tried to tell her mother, but her mother refused to believe her, even scolding her as a "jinx," accusing her of having a dirty mind at such a young age, and claiming she was trying to destroy their family.

Once her stepfather found out, he didn't hold back; he grew even more vicious, frequently beating her with a belt, claiming he was "teaching her how to behave" so she wouldn't go astray. When teachers noticed the bruises and contacted her parents, the stepfather slandered her, claiming she was a thief and that she looked at inappropriate websites and videos. Her parents, enraged, would beat her even harder.

Ostracized at school and unloved at home, Yin Xingyue eventually chose to commit suicide.

Hearing this, Shen Siyuan’s brow furrowed tightly. This stepfather was deeply disturbed; he wasn't just abusing her, but systematically destroying her life to exert total mental and physical control. It was a terrifying form of manipulation. Had her life remained under his control, the future would have been grim. However, the stepfather hadn't expected Yin Xingyue to choose suicide, which ruined his plans.

"You must be very disappointed with a life like that, right?"

Yin Xingyue remained silent.

"Since that's the case, what is there left in this world for you to hold onto?" Shen Siyuan asked. "Resentment? Or is there someone you miss?"

He remembered the faint smile that had touched her lips when she mentioned her grandmother.

Sure enough, Yin Xingyue whispered, "Grandma is sick. I'm waiting for her."

"Since your stepfather is so evil, don't you want to take revenge on him?"

Yin Xingyue looked up abruptly, staring straight at Shen Siyuan.

"You don't need me to do anything extreme to him; just scaring him should be enough of a punishment," Shen Siyuan said calmly.

He couldn't let such scum walk free. It would weigh too heavily on his conscience.

"But... but I can't do anything," Yin Xingyue said, her expression sorrowful. It was clear that she had been full of resentment, anger, and had tried to lash out, but it had all been in vain.

"That's why I'm here," Shen Siyuan smiled.

He reached out and summoned the Myriad Soul Banner into his palm. With a gesture, a ball of ghostly blue flame appeared in the air and descended toward Yin Xingyue. She flinched back in fear, but seeing Shen Siyuan's encouraging gaze, she stood her ground. When the flame touched her, her entire body ignited.

She felt no pain, only curiosity as she watched the blue fire dancing on her hands. Before she could study it further, she felt a pulling force that dragged her into the air and toward Shen Siyuan's palm.

Looking at the tattered banner in his hand, Shen Siyuan whispered, "Behave in the banner for the night. I'll let you out tomorrow." With a thought, he stowed the banner away.

He then resumed his training for the day. Since he had committed to the *Eighteen Phases*, he couldn't afford to skip a single day. The stretching of his tendons and bones brought intense pain, his muscles trembling uncontrollably. His face twisted, and he felt the urge to give up. It was no wonder most cultivators in the Great Wilderness chose internal cultivation—it was easy, simple, and fast. External cultivation was excruciatingly painful, and there was no guarantee of results; it was only chosen by those with poor talent or a lack of resources. Even the Lan Tuo Temple, the origin of the *Great Arhat Eighteen Phases*, only used it to temper the bodies of new disciples before they transitioned to internal cultivation.

After a grueling "battle," Shen Siyuan was drenched in sweat. It dried and soaked again, leaving a pungent odor. He downed a large glass of water, took a shower, and collapsed onto his bed.

The thought of going back tomorrow gave him a headache. He wondered what kind of girl his mother had lined up for him this time. Last time, she had asked a friend to introduce someone, but when he added the girl on WeChat, she sent him a message saying, "300 for a one-time thing, 800 for the night." It had left him completely speechless.