This clearly wasn't a disposable bottle, and after recovering it from Tang Wulin, Lan Fuozi turned to the Holy Spirit Douluo, and asked, "Who's this?"

Tang Wulin smiled, and replied, "My mother." His reply was very natural, and Yali was very pleased to hear it. In her current disguise as an old woman, her smile was extremely benevolent.

A hint of envy flashed through Lan Fuozi's eyes upon hearing this, and she turned to Yali with a respectful expression. "Greetings, Auntie; please forgive me for my rudeness."

Yali shook her head in response. "It's alright. You're quite a beautiful little girl; why are you posing as a man?"

Even if Qiangu Dongfeng had been in Yali's place, he may not have been able to identify Lan Fuozi's true gender, but as the number one healing-system Soul Master in the world, Yali was far too familiar with human biology and the natural scents that the human body gave off. As such, she was able to identify Lan Fuozi as female even without being informed by Tang Wulin.

Lan Fuozi's expression changed slightly, and she aimed a vicious glance, thinking that Tang Wulin had revealed her secret to Yali. She bit down on her lower lip and extended a slight bow toward Yali before quickly departing.

Yali looked on at her departing figure, and an amused smile appeared on her face. "Looks like you're just as much of a chick magnet as your godfather was."

"Huh?" Tang Wulin turned to her with a flabbergasted expression, and asked, "What do you mean by that, Mother?"

Yali chuckled, "Can you not see that she has feelings for you? If I can't even see something this obvious, then all of the years I've lived would be in waste."

Tang Wulin was stunned to hear this. "How is that possible? She's always posed as a man, and she seems to be into women, which is why she entered this joust for a spouse event. She was telling me about how much she loved Gu Yue before; surely you've misjudged the situation here, Mother."

A resigned look appeared on Yali's face. "You're still too naive; if your godfather were in your place, he would've most likely already figured everything out. The way she looks at you tells me everything I need to know; perhaps even she doesn't know that she's already attracted to you. I don't know what's happened between the two of you, but you tell me what kind of friend would bring you water as soon as your match ended; even the other members of Shrek’s Seven Monsters aren't that thoughtful. On top of that, she came back not because she wanted the bottle back; she came back to check on you.

"The most important point is that a lot of her aura has accumulated on that bottle, which indicates that she's used it for quite some time; is it normal for someone to offer such a personal item to someone of the opposite sex?"

Tang Wulin was rendered completely speechless. This came as a complete shock to him as he had never even regarded Lan Fuozi as a woman, and on top of that, he had always thought that she harbored animosity toward him.

"There's no way, Mother; you know that I only love Gu Yue." Tang Wulin shook his head vigorously, and it was as if he had seen a ghost.

"Hehe, Gu Yuena really is a lucky girl; even I'm envious of how deeply you trust and love her. If your godfather had been this decisive in his younger days, we would've been spared a lot of trouble. What's commendable about you is that you don't give other girls even the opportunity to misinterpret your feelings; I hope you can keep that up."

Tang Wulin's lips twitched slightly upon hearing this.

Yali continued in a meaningful voice, "There are too many temptations in this world!"

After resting for a while longer, Tang Wulin departed from the sports stadium with the Holy Spirit Douluo. In order to keep his identity a secret, they shouldn't have left together, but the Holy Spirit Douluo was concerned for his safety, so she accompanied him back to the blacksmith association.

A luxury sedan stopped in front of the blacksmith association, and the door was opened, upon which a butler emerged before extending an inviting hand gesture toward Yali.

Yali smiled as she got into the car, which quickly departed.

There was another man in the car, and he said with a smile, "I'm glad to see you so happy."

"It's been a long time since I've been this happy. Everyone needs hope, and hope brings joy. Back when I was young, I was never satisfied with what I had, so I continued to pursue more and see more. Now that I'm older, all I want to do is protect the happiness I currently have. Instead of being bored by a repetitive life, I've come to enjoy it."

"I'm glad you think that," the man sighed.

Yali smiled, and continued, "Sometimes, I think that the heavens have been very good to me. I had a husband like Brother Ming and lived happily with him for decades; what do I have to complain about? He's taken me to see all of the most spectacular sights in this world, and I wanted to follow him to the other world, but the heavens have blessed me again with such an outstanding son. I really am very, very happy, and I'm going to spend the rest of my life protecting this happiness."

The man turned to Yali with a slightly surprised expression, and an indescribable feeling welled up in his heart at the sight of her smile. He wanted to say something, but couldn't muster up the words in the end.

"Didn't you say that you were going to take me to eat the most delicious meatballs in the world? Let's go now," Yali said with a smile. [1]

Even though she currently resembled an old woman, the man was still enchanted by her smile, and he felt as if they had returned to the days of their youth.

......

A beam of dazzling light shone through Tang Wulin's mind, like sunlight peeking through the clouds.

He didn't know how long he had been meditating for, but he could clearly sense that his mind was being elevated.

There was a qualitative and fundamental change taking place, and even he hadn't imagined that such a change would be possible after reaching the Spirit Domain realm.

A layer of rainbow light had appeared over his enormous sea of spiritual power, and even though it was only a very thin layer, it gave off a sense of indescribable mystique.

This layer of rainbow light had appeared after he had unleashed that attack, and there was very little of it, but it really did exist.

The majority of the power of laws Tang Wulin had absorbed from his past elemental tribulations had been passed onto his Infernal Lightning Vine, and it took the Infernal Lightning Vine a lot longer to absorb this type of rainbow lightning than it did normal lightning.

His other soul spirits were also attempting to absorb this energy, but their rate of absorption was also very slow. Even Tang Wulin himself could only use this elemental lightning to refine his own body, but couldn't actually make it become a part of his body.

However, the situation had undergone a minute change, the most prominent facet of which was that the power of laws had entered his spiritual world to become one with his mind. Tang Wulin didn't know how much this would elevate his mind, but it was undoubtedly the case that an evolution was taking place.

All of the elemental lightning accumulated within his body had disappeared; part of it had been released during his previous two battles, while the rest was inside his mind.

[1] [I don't think they have the same meatballs in mind ( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°)]