The four of them did travel together for a while back in the day, but Long Xiaoyao and Mu En's relationship was not as close as it was in the original work.
Long Xiaoyao grew up in the Beast Clan, and his martial soul was the Dark Holy Dragon, making him equivalent to an elder of the Black Dragon Clan. As the leader of the Black Dragon Clan, Di Tian naturally took an interest in him and personally mentored him as his disciple. Long Xiaoyao's attributes were elevated to the extreme through the power of their contract. Later, he was nurtured as the future successor of the Beast Clan, which made it impossible for him to bond closely with Mu En, the future leader of the Sea God Pavilion.
With their difference in power levels, the martial soul fusion technique between the Black and White Twin Holy Dragons never came into existence.
Due to Wang Rui's interference, the Holy Spirit Sect underwent significant changes as well.
Ye Xishui still joined the Holy Spirit Sect as a saintess, but her mentor was not Zhong Li, the old ghost from the original story.
She never cultivated her second martial soul, the Demon Puppet, which tended to turn evil. Instead, she grew up proudly as the Bright Phoenix Maiden. Ye Xishui had no mission as a spy, and she was never forced to play both sides between Long and Mu, stirring up drama in the classic melodramatic love triangle of the Douluo universe.
Long Xiaoyao and Mu En were both outstanding individuals, and as a young girl, Ye Xishui admired them both. However, perhaps because Long Xiaoyao's strength was too overwhelming, making the gap between them too large, she ultimately chose Mu En.
After experiencing several life-and-death adventures together, the two young people who had mutual affections naturally pledged themselves to each other.
However, Ye Xishui's mentor strongly opposed their union.
So, she made a bet with her beloved disciple.
Ye Xishui went to Mu En and confessed to him that she possessed a twin martial soul—her second martial soul being the Demon Puppet, which had the potential to turn evil.
At that time, Mu En did not say anything to her.
Ye Xishui thought that their unwavering love had won her the bet.
She was moved that her lover was willing to let go of Shrek Academy's strict stance against evil soul masters and stay with her despite their differing affiliations. She was ready to embrace a bright future—until Mu En proposed a breakup.
This news struck Ye Xishui like a bolt from the blue, leaving her utterly stunned.
Like her mentor, the current Sea God Pavilion Master—Mu En's mentor—also disapproved of the relationship.
However, while Ye Xishui's mentor opposed the relationship out of concern for her disciple, believing that Mu En, raised in Shrek, was unreliable, Mu En's mentor had a different consideration—whether Ye Xishui could bring benefits to Shrek Academy.
And clearly, she could not.
In this timeline, the Holy Spirit Sect was established much earlier than in the original, operating secretly within the Sun-Moon Empire, monitoring and recruiting evil soul masters across the continent without outsiders knowing. Ye Xishui respected her mentor and never revealed her connection to the Holy Spirit Sect to anyone.
Naturally, the people of Shrek Academy were unaware as well.
In the eyes of the Sea God Pavilion Master, Ye Xishui was just an ordinary soul master without any significant background, with no exploitable value. She even refused to join Shrek Academy alongside Mu En. Of course, he would not allow his disciple to marry such a woman.
However, considering Ye Xishui's exceptional talent and the possibility that she might give birth to an outstanding descendant, the Pavilion Master did not intervene too much. After all, even if his disciple took her as a lover, it was not as if Mu En would be at a disadvantage.
But upon discovering that Ye Xishui's second martial soul had a high probability of mutating into an evil martial soul, he could no longer tolerate it and directly ordered Mu En to break up with her.
Mu En did love Ye Xishui, but in his heart, love was not his top priority—his responsibility to Shrek Academy was. Everything in his life, including himself, could be sacrificed for Shrek.
The future wife of the Sea God Pavilion Master could be the Bright Phoenix Maiden Ye Xishui or an ordinary soul master with average talent, but she absolutely could not be an evil soul master.
Even though Ye Xishui currently cultivated the Bright Phoenix martial soul, her second martial soul was like a ticking time bomb. With just a spark of negativity, she could fall into darkness.
Mu En could not afford to take that risk under Shrek Academy's name.
Thus, though filled with guilt, Mu En still chose to break up with Ye Xishui.
Stunned and heartbroken, Ye Xishui did not argue with him. She simply returned to the Holy Spirit Sect in a daze.
Along the way, the negative emotions from being abandoned by her lover seeped into her martial soul.
Her Demon Puppet martial soul ultimately mutated, falling into complete darkness as the Blood Soul Demon Puppet.
However, upon returning to the Holy Spirit Sect's headquarters, Ye Xishui discovered that she was pregnant with Mu En's child.
Perhaps she still harbored an unrealistic hope, or perhaps the presence of a new life softened her heart—Ye Xishui chose to keep the child instead of aborting it.
It was a beautiful baby boy.
She placed the baby in a small cradle and sent it straight to the doorstep of his father's residence.
Ye Xishui was utterly resolute. She did not even meet her former lover one last time—after all, five months ago, Mu En had obeyed his mentor and married a wife who would benefit Shrek Academy.
Ye Xishui found it all meaningless.
Mu En had no attachment to her, so why should she hold onto this child?
She had already spared its life. If Mu En refused to raise the child, then perhaps it was fate that the baby was never meant to exist in this world.
As for whether Mu En's newly wedded wife would be humiliated by this situation? What did that have to do with Ye Xishui?
After all, she was a Demon Puppet soul master—a cold, heartless, evil soul master. Wasn't she?
The scandal caused a major uproar, and half of the academy knew that Mu En's ex-girlfriend had delivered a child to him. Although the Sea God Pavilion Master tried his best to suppress the news, it was never truly a secret.
Fortunately, Mu En was not entirely heartless. Perhaps out of guilt, while he did not formally acknowledge his son to protect his wife's dignity, he privately took good care of the child.
The little boy inherited Ye Xishui's Bright Phoenix martial soul, but his talent was rather average, and she never achieved great cultivation.
Perhaps due to the world's timeline correcting itself, her son's name remained the same as in the original work—Yan Shaozhe.
However, unlike the original timeline, Yan Shaozhe awakened a never-before-seen mutated martial soul—the Light Dragon Phoenix.
Thus, even though Mu En never officially acknowledged his son, Yan Dean's bloodline was as clear as ink on white paper.
His origins were never a secret in Shrek Academy.
However, the Light Dragon Phoenix martial soul was difficult to pass on. It seemed that Yan Shaozhe's bloodline had some kind of issue—just like Elder Xuan, who possessed the Gluttonous Martial Soul, he was unable to have children. To this day, he only has an adopted daughter, Ma Xiaotao.
Alright, gossip session over—now, who wants to guess Ye Xishui's mentor?
If you already know the answer, keep quiet!
(End of Chapter)