"Mom, Dad?" She tentatively called, afraid that they would turn out like Cassias, a little dragon without his human consciousness. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

"Zee." Her father, Alaric, called.

She was incredibly delighted and called out again, "Dad, is it you?"

Then, she gazed at her mom worriedly. The snow-white fox with a faint pinkish tip hadn’t said anything from the start.

Alaric was silent for a moment, scanning the surroundings and gathering his thoughts. With a complex expression, he asked his daughter. "How are you? Did you get injured?"

"I am fine, Dad. It’s been a long time." Her voice was like a whisper in the last sentence. More than a year, indeed it was so long.

"How is Mom?" She suddenly asked worriedly, wondering if her dad would have any idea about her condition.

They were each other’s companions and already had some sort of bond to each other, so he would know better.

Alaric glanced at his wife who still had a dazed expression. He nuzzled her with his head. The fox nuzzled back, rubbing herself against him.

He stole a glance at Zerra, a bit embarrassed. They were blatantly showing off their affection in front of a fox cub. He cleared his throat; his voice was full of concern, but it was clear. "Your mom is fine. She just needed a bit longer to adjust."

Zerra had a complex look on her face. Adjust...?

Her dad had awakened an earth ability, but her mom hadn’t awakened any power. She had been very worried about it. If it was before, she might have stayed just to witness how Gideon would help the tribe members to awaken their power.

She could try to reduce the damage and maximize the awakening possibility. However, she found out her mom was her real mom from the Celestial realm, so it wasn’t needed anymore.

Besides their thin appearance, Zerra noticed something else with the current humans. Some of them couldn’t retract their beast-like characteristics, whether it was their tails or ears.

It made her recall the only member from Jasmine’s little group who wasn’t from the tribe. He also had such a transformation.

No one of the tribe members had an obvious animal-like transformation. Could it be that they had a plant type bloodline instead? It would explain so many tribe members awakening wood ability.

A look of hesitation crossed Zerra’s face. Ultimately, she still pushed herself to ask. "Dad... are you really Dad?" She stumbled upon her own words.

At the last moment, she didn’t know which correct words she should pick. What if he wasn’t her dad from the Celestial Realm? But the fox form... although they were smaller, she believed her memory wasn’t that faulty yet.

Alaric stared at his daughter, and slowly he nodded. "Whatever you think in your little head, it’s correct."

Zerra’s pupils dilated, eyes widened in shock.

He pursed his lips. During the time Cassias forcefully pulled them both into his inner space, he began to remember a lot of things.

Actually, he had gradually seen flashes of memory ever since the apocalypse happened. These memories were too strange, too foreign yet also familiar at the same time.

Most of the time, he only remembered it in his dreams. When he woke up again, he had forgotten about it all.

Only at the last moment did these fragmented images rush to his head. Then, everything seemed to make sense.

He also remembered the reason why he and his wife did this...

"Then, how about the previous souls? Is there something like that at all?" She bit her lip, sounding anxious and afraid at the same time. Were they safe?

They were the people who had taken care of her since she was little, after all.

Ever since her power had grown along with her illusion mastery, she felt like a fog was gradually removed from her head. In this round of reincarnation, or maybe even the previous rounds too...

She wasn’t transmigrated to this body at all. It was her all along. This body was also hers!

The clash of personalities had given her an illusion they were two different people. After all, once someone reincarnated without the previous life’s memories, they were essentially a brand new person.

They grew up with different environments and experiences. Some habits were inevitably similar, but the environment and experience would play a bigger role to the personality.

She had lived as a celestial fox for nearly two thousand years. Compared to a human’s life cycle which was incredibly short, of course, her two thousand years old personality would win.

And in this life, the human personality also slowly became one with her.

Alaric snapped back to reality. "The previous souls..." he trailed off, then shook his head. Before he could answer, his voice was cut off. He fell unconscious again.

When her mom saw that the fox beside her had curled up on the pillow again, she snuggled to him.

Zerra couldn’t bear to see it, so she hurriedly returned them to the inner space. She was dying to know her dad’s answer too. Alas, their conversation was cut short.

She could only wait until the next opportunity her parents woke up again. Perhaps in a day? She could only give them the potion once a day because of its potency, not daring to give too much.

In the room, she became restless for the whole night, thinking about a lot of things.

She couldn’t help but wonder whether Cassias and Nyra’ case were also like her parents. Where were their previous souls...? Or was it them all along?

Her heart was extremely conflicted.

Zerra and Azir left the base when the sun rose. The people she tied up were still on the tree. She didn’t bother with them, sitting on top of the tiger’s back again.

Azir was still afraid of the tiger, but his fear had lessened greatly compared to yesterday. He stared at the road ahead, pursing his lips.

"Miss Zerra..."

She raised her eyebrow, waiting for her to speak.

Azir bit his lip. "I think some people are following us."

Her lips curled up. Indeed, she had cast an illusion on them as soon as the tiger appeared. In the eyes of the people following them, they were not sitting on a tiger, but a horse.

Zerra’s eyes held an appreciative gleam, making Azir a little stunned. "You already know about it, right?"

He had sensed them as soon as they were out of the base. However, he still thought positively; maybe they were ability users going out to find crystal cores.

Until he found that they always followed him and Zerra no matter which direction they took. Their behavior... didn’t they resemble a thief? They looked like they didn’t want anyone finding their existence, blending into the bushes, hiding behind the trees.

It was just increasingly strange, so he decided to tell Zerra about it. Unexpectedly, she already knew?

"You are quite good." She praised him.

Azir scratched the back of his head, a little embarrassed.

"What’s your ability?" She asked.

"It’s also wood ability..." he answered, looking at her with an unsure gaze. "Nothing too special."

It didn’t help to boost his fighting skill and he found out many people had the same ability as him, so he didn’t think it was that impressive.

Zerra pursed her lips. "Your tribe is special. They mostly have wood ability, but in the outside world, this ability isn’t so common. There are only a few people who have this ability and each of them is sought after by the human base."

Azir’s eyes went wide. "Really?"

He hesitated for a bit before telling her. "Actually, it’s the plants who are telling me there are people who have been following us."

Zerra revealed a look of surprise. However, since the tribe seemed to have a plant bloodline, it was only natural. Even so, such beings were still rare even in the Celestial realm.

Few plant demons would have offspring with spiritual beasts or even humans.

"Keep it a secret and don’t reveal it to anyone." She gave him some advice.

Azir nodded seriously and asked, "So, what are you going to do with the people following us?"

Since they had the tiger, they could just outrun them, right? However, currently, their pace was steady, not too fast nor slow, just enough for these people to catch up. He didn’t understand Zerra’s intention.

He didn’t know about Zerra’s power, so he thought that their main fighting force came from this tiger she had tamed.

Zerra thought about it and an excellent idea struck her head; these people would make a good labor force!

"Boss, they are gone?" Norman rubbed his eyes in disbelief. He just blinked and they were no more in his sight!

"What do you mean gone? They are obviously–" The boss, Mateo’s words stuck in his throat.

In total, they had four people. Wasn’t it strange that the four of them had opened their eyes wide yet were unable to catch where the two people had gone?

"Looking for us?"

Suddenly, they heard a youthful voice. Their heads snapped toward the source of the voice, Azik.

The next second, they were bound, dangling on a tree. Azir turned to Zerra, looking for approval. "How is it? High enough yet?"