After an all-night conversation with Ma Xiaotao, Zhu Ziyang prepared to return to his room for a short rest. However, before he could even close his eyes, something else happened that interrupted his rest.
Inside Zhu Ziyang's room, the light cocoon that Xingcai had transformed into, after nearly four years of dormancy, finally showed signs of activity. Cracks appeared on the huge light cocoon, and a rich aura of light emanated from within, attracting much attention.
Zhu Ziyang was somewhat dazed, but then he quickly perked up, carefully watching Xingcai, who was about to emerge from the cocoon. To be honest, with his current strength, even if Xingcai was now reborn and progressing rapidly, for him, she was more of a mascot. Unless this little one could reach the 100,000-Year Soul Beast level, she really couldn't provide him with much help.
Of course, Zhu Ziyang hadn't expected her to provide him with help anyway.
Soon, more and more cracks appeared on the light cocoon. Finally, under Zhu Ziyang's gaze, it shattered with a boom, revealing an exceptionally majestic unicorn. The unicorn stood over three meters tall, was over five meters long, and was covered in golden fur. A pair of shimmering, colorful wings sprouted from its ribs, and a crystal horn, radiating colorful light, topped its head. Its eyes were a captivating amber gold.
This was, astonishingly, a fully grown Starry Unicorn.
"Xingcai, congratulations, you've matured!" Zhu Ziyang exclaimed with emotion. To be honest, he hadn't expected Xingcai to directly enter adulthood by relying on her cultivation. Although, even after maturing, Xingcai could still only serve as a mascot.
"Hehe! Thank you, Senior Ziyang!" Xingcai's voice hadn't changed much; it was still full of innocent childishness.
"No need to thank me, it's all thanks to your own efforts!" Zhu Ziyang said with a smile, stroking Xingcai's head and horn.
Four years of dormancy allowed Xingcai to directly cross the chasm between a Thousand-Year Spirit Beast and a Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Beast, becoming a Starry Unicorn with a cultivation level approaching fifteen thousand years. At the same time, the inheritance of the Unicorn King left to her by her mother, Luo Xingxiya, was finally absorbed and refined by her. Now, she could be considered the true Unicorn King.
"Senior Ziyang, I want to go for a run." Xingcai said expectantly. As a unicorn, after three or four years of slumber, the genes yearning for freedom and running could no longer be contained.
"Alright, let's go!" Zhu Ziyang agreed with a smile upon hearing this. Then, he led Xingcai out of the room.
Outside the room, Zhu Ziyang flipped onto Xingcai's back. Xingcai let out a long, melodious cry, and with a powerful flap of her colorful wings, she carried her body and Zhu Ziyang into the air, then flew towards the grassy area beneath the Golden Ancient Tree.
The Starry Unicorn galloped across Tian Yuan Island, attracting the attention of many Inner Courtyard Disciples along the way. The older students were fine; they all knew Xingcai and knew she was Zhu Ziyang's pet. However, the disciples who had joined the Inner Courtyard in the past three years were unaware. They all widened their eyes, surprised to see this Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Beast daring to gallop on Tian Yuan Island.
Zhu Ziyang and Xingcai didn't pay attention to these people's gazes, but they also knew that running on Tian Yuan Island wasn't appropriate, so they quickly flew over Sea God Lake to the Outer Courtyard. Compared to the Inner Courtyard, the Outer Courtyard truly had more land and fewer people, with large areas of forests and grasslands perfectly suited for a unicorn to gallop.
Xingcai happily ran around in the secluded open spaces of the Outer Courtyard, and only then did Zhu Ziyang take 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, saying, "How did she get so big?"
"She received a gift from her teacher, and her cultivation grew very quickly. She also slept for three years and just woke up this morning." Zhu Ziyang replied with a smile, "Sister Xiaotao, are you two going to eat?"
"That's right." Ma Xiaotao nodded and said, "I'm taking Huan Er to get familiar with the Inner Courtyard's environment."
"Is this a Starry Unicorn?" Fifth Huan'er's gaze was entirely fixed on Xingcai at this moment, her eyes filled with an unusual brilliance, 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 foal 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 of emotion.
"Oh!" Fifth Huan'er nodded, a mysterious smile appearing on her pretty face. For some reason, this smile made Zhu Ziyang feel a hint of curiosity and surprise.
He followed Fifth Huan'er's gaze and found that Xingcai was also staring intently at Fifth Huan'er, her golden eyes full of confusion and curiosity.
"Let's leave it at that for now, Ziyang. We'll be going ahead!" Ma Xiaotao said, then pulled Fifth Huan'er away.
Zhu Ziyang watched the two girls' retreating figures and asked in a low voice, "Xingcai, what's wrong? You seem very interested in Huan Er."
"Senior Ziyang, Huan Er's aura feels so familiar. Have we met her before?" Xingcai's voice was full of distress, she said.
"Are you sure?" Xingcai's words made Zhu Ziyang's heart tremble. He also had an inexplicable sense of familiarity with Fifth Huan'er, which he initially thought was an illusion. But now it seemed that Fifth Huan'er, he, and Xingcai must have had some interaction!
"Who could it be?" Zhu Ziyang murmured. On the way back to his room with Xingcai, he began searching his past memories for possible clues.
"...Fifth Huan'er... Di Wu..." After reviewing all of Fifth Huan'er's information, Zhu Ziyang keenly grasped a connection. He murmured, "Sister Xiaotao said her Spirit is Suan Ni... Suan Ni... the fifth son of the Dragon God... the son of the Dragon God and the Golden Lion... Dragon Lion!"
"Three-Eyed Golden Lion!" Zhu Ziyang's body suddenly shook, and he immediately thought of a possibility. Fifth Huan'er's Spirit was Suan Ni, known as the ancestor of the Dragon Lion, and she had interacted with him and Xingcai. Stringing these together, besides the Emperor Beast Three-Eyed Golden Lion in the Star Dou Great Forest, who had once been subdued by Xingcai's mother, Luo Xingxiya, and whose destiny had intertwined with his, he couldn't think of any other possibility.
"But why?" Although he was eighty percent sure that Fifth Huan'er was the Emperor Beast Three-Eyed Golden Lion, Zhu Ziyang became even more confused. "Clearly, that Three-Eyed Golden Lion's cultivation didn't exceed fifty thousand years, so how could she have transformed into a human? Her state is clearly not the re-cultivation of a 100,000-Year Soul Beast transforming into human form, nor is it the human form of a fierce beast. And she could even evade the perception of me, a Titled Douluo. How did she manage to do it?"
He now really wanted to find Fifth Huan'er immediately, then capture her and interrogate her thoroughly. However, he only thought about it; he couldn't really be that reckless. Not to mention Fifth Huan'er's relationship with Ma Xiaotao, just the fact that she could receive the favor of the God of Fire and participate in Ma Xiaotao's God Position assessment meant that he shouldn't lay a hand on her for now.
"Forget it, 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 in the future to probe and slowly gather information.
After sending Xingcai back to the Golden Ancient Tree, Zhu Ziyang let her play by herself under the tree. He then turned around and went to the cafeteria to eat. Resting was out of the question, but he couldn't skip a meal.
Arriving at the cafeteria, he coincidentally ran into Jiang Nannan, Tang Ya, Xue Weiwei, and Xiao Xiao. A smile appeared on his face, and he immediately went to them, saying, "What a coincidence."
"Brother, you haven't eaten either!" Jiang Nannan immediately smiled when she saw Zhu Ziyang, and said sweetly, "Here, sit!"
She patted the seat next to her, signaling Zhu Ziyang to sit beside her. Zhu Ziyang didn't refuse and sat down directly, smiling as he said, "What are you all talking about? You seem so happy."
"Zhu Ziyang, let me tell you, Xu Sanshi and Weiwei have already agreed to join my Tang Sect team!" Tang Ya announced excitedly to Zhu Ziyang.
"Is that so? How did you convince Xu Sanshi?" Zhu Ziyang asked, very curious.
"Hehe! I didn't convince Xu Sanshi, Bei Bei did." Tang Ya laughed sheepishly, feeling that she, as the Sect Master, seemed very unqualified.
"Oh!" Zhu Ziyang made a meaningful sound and said with a smile, "That's good. Xiao Xiao, what about you and Wang Dong? Do you have no thoughts of fighting for the Tang Sect?"
"Me?" Xiao Xiao was startled, then smiled shyly, "Sister Ya did ask me, but I don't know yet. I want to wait until Yu Hao comes back and ask for his opinion."
"I see, that's fine. Once you've decided, you can just tell Elder Xuan." Zhu Ziyang said with a smile. He understood Xiao Xiao's little thoughts very well. "Elder Xuan also mentioned this to me before. It seems he also agrees."
"Really? That's great!" Tang Ya was immediately overjoyed upon hearing this, saying, "I was worried that the elders wouldn't agree, after all, Bei Bei's and my idea, how should I put it, actually feels a bit ungrateful, hehe!"
"Don't think that way. The revival of the Tang Sect is also beneficial to our academy." Zhu Ziyang looked at the awkward smile on Tang Ya's face and comforted her, then changed the subject, "Nannan, you still haven't told me what you were discussing just now? You were so happy."
"It's like this..." Jiang Nannan immediately leaned close to Zhu Ziyang's ear and whispered something.
"Oh? She finally decided to come clean!" Zhu Ziyang raised an eyebrow, not looking very surprised.
"Zhu Ziyang, aren't you surprised?" Zhu Ziyang's calm reaction completely went against Tang Ya and the others' expectations. Tang Ya asked in surprise.
"Uh... why should I be surprised about something I already knew?" Zhu Ziyang waved his hand, helpless.
"Ah?" Tang Ya was very surprised and asked, "How did you know?"
"Read more books, Great Sect Master Tang!" Zhu Ziyang looked at Tang Ya, speechless, and said.