Even without the little demon's comfort, Chen Yu wasn't one to dwell on the summoning matter.
Their personalities had changed!
Kuka was cold and sinister, Jack was volatile, Black Donkey was lazy, and Rou Si was deceptive. Apart from Er Gou, who remained his usual傻憨憨 (simple and honest), they were all vastly different from their past selves.
Chen Yu did regret it for a moment.
When he first sensed their changes, Chen Yu had experienced self-doubt, wondering if transforming them with the Summoning Tiger Tally was the right thing to do.
However, as the little demon had said.
Everything changes!
Chen Yu was skilled at understanding people's hearts, and had been so since childhood. His major in psychology later in life allowed him to see people's hearts and human nature with even greater clarity and insight.
It was with these abilities that he quickly analyzed whether others were benevolent or malicious towards him.
And responded accordingly.
The Summoning Tiger Tally was indeed an unfamiliar artifact to him, but from the changes in Kuka and the others, Chen Yu had discerned its nature.
Fusion was, in fact, an illusion.
The divine generals within the Summoning Tiger Tally were not truly merging with those being summoned. Instead, it was a temporal alteration that amplified the inherent nature of the summoned individuals.
Recalling the past, Kuka and the others had already shown signs of these amplified traits.
Chen Yu was not an arrogant person by nature. On the contrary, he was quite cautious, and any outward displays of bravado were always based on a foundation of confidence.
But he knew that if he was fortunate enough, he would have a future spanning many years.
If he hadn't perished from a devastating blow in the underground caves.
He would become a powerful overlord controlling a region.
Those who had followed him from the very beginning, Kuka, Jack... they would, as the little demon had said, be dispatched by him to guard various territories.
This was inevitable!
At that time, would they truly remain the same as they were in the past?
It was quite regrettable,
Growth always meant losing some precious past. This was perhaps the price of growth.
A long time ago, Chen Yu had no confidence in how many people from the seemingly harmonious camp would steadfastly remain by his side in the end.
He never harbored extravagant hopes, content to let things remain as they were.
He only silently hoped that it would happen later, but unfortunately, the appearance of the Summoning Tiger Tally had accelerated everything.
He could only accept it.
The trajectory of destiny is never solely determined by oneself. On the path of life, there are always numerous reasons that force one to alter course, all pushing you forward like an invisible hand.
To resist them is to invite utter destruction.
This was not mere ramblings, nor an excuse.
Just as many young men once dreamed of the stars and the sea, only to abandon their youthful, wild dreams for the sake of their families.
Or consider the maidens who once adorned themselves with flowers; how many of their dreams were eventually smoothed away by the demands of daily life, their edges and countenances dulled by the need for sustenance?
Change is inevitable, and no one can resist it.
Having cleared these thoughts, Chen Yu no longer bothered himself with the matter. Since change was inevitable, he might as well think in a positive direction.
At the very least, they now possessed abilities.
Kuka, who had once aspired to be the king of a mole kingdom as a mere magic apprentice, was now a great mage of the Black Obsidian realm, controlling fire, wind, space, and dark magic.
How many in the entire underground realm could match him?
Jack and Rou Si, who had once wished to be king and queen of the jungle on the outskirts of the underground, were now body cultivators of the Black Obsidian and Golden realms.
Their strength and physique far surpassed those of the same realm by several, or even dozens of times.
In the future, they would be overlords commanding powerful armies in their respective territories.
Black Donkey, who had mastered the arts of spiritual thought and object control, and Er Gou, who had grasped the true essence of the greatsword, had all acquired in the present phase abilities that might otherwise require years or decades of immersion. They held great prospects for the future.
Was this a bad thing for them?
If it was not a bad thing, why should Chen Yu trouble himself with their affairs?
"Miss... miss home?"
The little demon, who had prepared countless comforting words, was stunned into silence by Chen Yu's words.
She truly hadn't expected this!
Home was not an unfamiliar concept to her, but she didn't feel a strong sense of belonging to it, possibly due to the overall environment of the underground caves.
Chen Yu's sudden mention of missing home left her speechless.
"Yes, I miss home." Chen Yu nodded with a slight smile, pointing to the bright moon over the lake, his voice suddenly choked with emotion, "This moon, it truly resembles the moon of my hometown."
In the past, Chen Yu hadn't fully understood why so many ancient poems expressing homesickness featured the moon.
After the 'Ju Xiao Lian' fusion, when a bright moon appeared in the dim underground, and in the quiet depths of the night, looking up at the moon overhead, the longing for home would truly surge forth.
He had been restraining himself, but tonight, he found himself unable to do so.
Perhaps it was the regret he felt about the potential future separation from Kuka and the others, but that hidden emotion had surfaced without any warning.
"Oh, this..."
The little demon, not fully understanding the sentiment of homesickness, didn't know how to comfort him.
"Counting the time, I've been in the underground for almost half a year." Chen Yu murmured to himself, "People are dying day and night in the underground. I don't know how my parents are now, how many relatives are left, or if my friends are still alive. Barbara, tell me... could it be that I am all alone?"
The little demon, who had instinctively intended to offer some perfunctory words, froze when Chen Yu turned to her.
His eyes were brimming with tears.
She suddenly didn't know what to say, feeling a sense of panic.
"Chen Yu, you... you're crying."
In her memory, Chen Yu was a shameless fellow, a vampire, black-hearted, full of schemes. She knew that these were merely outward manifestations, more like a disguise, a hard shell, and beneath that shell, he was a person with immense empathy, pure and gentle.
She knew it, Sona knew it, and the core members of the camp all knew it.
But she hadn't expected to be the first one to witness Chen Yu shedding his hard shell, nor had she expected someone so seemingly unyielding to show such helplessness.
At this moment, the little demon's mind was in turmoil.
She didn't know what to say.
Comfort?
She wasn't good at comforting others; she was excellent at scolding. Her subordinates in the past were often severely reprimanded by her.
Furthermore, did Chen Yu truly need comfort right now?
After a long silence,
The little demon suddenly clenched her fist.
"What are you doing, doing what?!" the little demon suddenly raised her voice, pouting with feigned disgust, "No way, no way, a grown man still crying? Can crying solve problems? If crying could solve problems, the mediocre kings of the human race would have already unified the underground."
"Chen Yu, as I recall, you are not such a weak person!"
"You are now the lord of a city, and if you continue to develop like this, your influence will grow endlessly. At that time, will you still be afraid of not finding your relatives?"
"From now on, have Kailin send people to search, isn't that enough?"
"Even in the worst-case scenario, if your relatives and close friends have truly turned to dust, then what? Are you going to be buried with them, are you going to die, slit your own throat?"
"Look at this city, this city-state that you have granted freedom!"
"Look at the orcs with smiles on their faces, look at the refugees who smile because they are full, look at the slaves who have been liberated and reignited their hope for life, look at the survivors you have rescued, their faces filled with anticipation for the future."
"Look at Kailin, look at Nuoya, look at Black Bean, look at... me..."
The little demon bit her lip, her gaze sharp.
"All of us trust you, rely on you. Behind you stand tens of thousands of survivors and natives of the underground, and there will be more in the future."
"You carry the hopes and aspirations of so many people for the future!"
"And now, you are shedding tears?"