Zhen Hua: Stay Away from Me!

"How did we lose?"

Once they were on the road, Qian Renxue asked Ye Guyi about the past again.

She couldn't understand it. Spirit Hall had so many powerful experts, the people's support, and a flourishing future. How could they have lost a game where they held every advantage?

I don't understand!

Ye Guyi scratched her head awkwardly.

She had grown up in the Sun Moon Empire and didn't know much about the history of Douluo's original three kingdoms.

She had only heard people say that Lord Sea God was wise and mighty, that all under heaven had given him their hearts, and that Spirit Hall had oppressed the people and committed every evil imaginable. Naturally, justice had triumphed over evil.

But none of that was what Qian Renxue wanted to hear.

So the two of them looked at Su Tianxuan in the driver's seat, waiting for his answer.

"Why else?"

Su Tianxuan clicked his tongue. "With three lovestruck idiots around, it would've been hard not to lose."

"Who were they?"

Qian Renxue asked through gritted teeth.

She'd been wondering how Spirit Hall had lost. So there had been traitors in their midst!

When she got back, she'd cut them all down!

"You, your mother, and your mother's disciple."

Su Tianxuan spoke calmly. "If even one of you three wastes had been a normal person, Spirit Hall wouldn't have lost so badly."

Qian Renxue froze for a moment, then her face filled with indignation.

She agreed wholeheartedly about her mother and her mother's disciple, but she utterly refused to accept that she was one of Spirit Hall's sinners.

"How could it have been me?

"For Spirit Hall's sake, I went undercover in the Heaven Dou Imperial Family as a child! How could I have harmed my own people?"

At those words, everyone both inside and outside the heavenly screen fell silent.

A long while passed.

Su Tianxuan sighed at Ye Guyi, who was sitting beside him with her eyes lowered and her thoughts to herself.

"Your ancestor was a fool."

Without giving Qian Renxue a chance to retort, he released a trace of a Limit Douluo's presence and sealed her mouth shut. Then he said coldly:

"Believe it or not, I'm only saying this once.

"You and that Hu Liena were known as Spirit Hall's two little fools. For no apparent reason, you fell for that Tang San and kept holding back against him, letting him grow strong enough to get a bunch of your Spirit Hall's Titled Douluo killed.

"Your mother was Spirit Hall's big fool. She couldn't stop pining for that waste Yu Xiaogang and would've sold out Spirit Hall to become his concubine if she could.

"Oh, and your grandfather was an old fool too. Indecisive, with the greatest strength but the most useless record to show for it—a shockwave through and through.

"Your whole family's a bunch of lovestruck wonders. I'm genuinely impressed. Somehow, your father actually counts as a normal person in that regard. Incredible."

Qian Renxue still looked indignant, but with her mouth sealed, all she could do was glare at Su Tianxuan, her face flushed red.

Meanwhile, twenty thousand years in the past, everyone implicated in those words wore strange expressions.

The most furious of them, Bibi Dong, raged at the sky:

"You're talking nonsense!"

How could Xiaogang be a waste!

That was the only thing she wanted to refute.

The worshippers around her exchanged glances and couldn't help whispering among themselves:

"Second Brother, do you think any of that's true?"

"Half true, half false, I'd say."

"Which part's false?"

"The part about Bibi Dong being from Spirit Hall. She might not be for much longer."

Golden Crocodile Douluo spoke in a low voice.

Though he didn't know everything about what had happened back then, he knew the general story. Qian Daoliu might have spared Bibi Dong in the past, but now, for Spirit Hall's sake, a traitor most likely couldn't be allowed to live.

"What about Xiao Xue, then?"

"Ahem, that's a separate matter..."

Yu Xiaogang was the calmest of them all.

Because

he was still unconscious.

So his good disciple spoke up for him:

"Teacher isn't a waste!"

Tang San roared at the sky, his eyes bloodshot and his breath coming in great snorts like a bull's.

As for the others, even Tang Hao couldn't help having doubts now.

A Titled Douluo with nine Hundred Thousand Year Soul Rings had called Yu Xiaogang a waste. That was a claim with considerable credibility.

This teacher of a god might have been a little watered down.

Qian Daoliu was the most puzzled.

He didn't care about being called a fool; letting spit dry on his face was what he did best. But why had Su Tianxuan said he was the strongest?

Wasn't Tang Chen stronger than him?

Qian Daoliu sank into thought.

As the scene on the heavenly screen changed, the cityscape of the future appeared beyond the car windows. Most people, who had no stake in the matter, turned to discussing the things of the future.

As the capital, Mingdu was bustling. Fortunately, Su Tianxuan took the lane reserved for the esteemed councilors and soon reached the Blacksmith Association.

After they got out, Ye Guyi, who had been silent the whole way, suddenly asked:

"If things hadn't happened that way, what would our era have been like?"

"No need to beat around the bush. If you want to give her a beating, I can hold her down for you."

"...Your Majesty, that's not what I meant."

"Where's the fun in that? We can't change the past anyway, so you might as well take this chance to beat her up."

Su Tianxuan glanced sideways at Qian Renxue.

"Mm! Mm!"

Qian Renxue desperately wanted to say a few words in her own defense, but unfortunately, her mouth was still sealed, and she couldn't get a word out.

"Give it a rest. Nobody wants to hear you talk."

Su Tianxuan paid her no further attention.

Ye Guyi gave a helpless smile. Noticing that people on the street were giving them strange looks, she changed the subject:

"Should we go change our clothes first?"

Both women were wearing clothes from the past, which looked completely out of place among modern people.

"Forget it."

Su Tianxuan chuckled. "Walking with me is bound to draw attention anyway. A little more won't matter."

Only then did Qian Renxue and Ye Guyi notice that the passersby were actually looking at Su Tianxuan first, then at them.

Who exactly is he?

Everyone instinctively thought of that question.

Before they could ask, Su Tianxuan suddenly called out to a group of people:

"Zhen Hua, how come you didn't tell me you were coming to Mingdu?"

In the crowd, a handsome middle-aged man with black hair and eyes, whose face looked somewhat weathered and deep-set, whipped around with a constipated expression.

"Su... Time Douluo, y-you're back!"

At the sight of him, the Divine Craftsman Zhen Hua couldn't help trembling. He instinctively took several steps back, as though he had encountered some natural predator.

But before he could turn around, Su Tianxuan had already come up beside him and thrown an arm around his shoulders.

"Hey, we've worked together for years, haven't we? You came to my city without even giving me a call?"

Zhen Hua had no choice but to force out a smile uglier than a crying face.

"Your Majesty, I'm feeling a little unwell. I'm in no condition to forge lately, so I didn't come and bother you."

"Unwell?"

Su Tianxuan raised an eyebrow. "Since when? Today or yesterday? I'll rewind you."

He waggled a finger, and a terrifying power of time rippled gently outward.

Looking at a power more familiar to him than his own Martial Soul, Zhen Hua steeled himself and gave up trying:

"My laziness is acting up. I don't want to hammer iron!"

"Tsk, all right. I don't have any orders today. I'm not here to put you to work."

"Really?"

"No."

Su Tianxuan rolled his eyes and let him go.

He and Zhen Hua had been partners for years, and he had come to help with practically every Heavenly Refinement.

Though he couldn't forge, the Time Blade controlled the laws of time, and its quality surpassed even the law power of Heavenly Refinement's Heavenly Tribulation. He could directly rewind Zhen Hua to his state before he was struck by lightning.

Zhen Hua's Heavenly Refinement speed was now even more outrageous than Tang Wulin's in the original story.

Little Golden Dragon still had to think about eating and cultivating. It was much simpler for Zhen Hua: one stroke of the blade, and his blood Qi and Soul Power were instantly restored. If mental fatigue couldn't be rewound so easily, he could have kept forging indefinitely.

Zhen Hua had been excited at first. With this kind of help, wouldn't he no longer have to worry about the Heavenly Tribulation of Heavenly Refinement? He could undertake Heavenly Refinement without fear!

But before he had finished celebrating, Su Tianxuan had spread the news far and wide. Once everyone knew the Divine Craftsman could perform Heavenly Refinement without harm, the Divine Craftsman's nightmare began.

In just a few years, the Federation's Limit Douluo, Super Douluo, and more than half its ordinary Titled Douluo all acquired Four-Word Battle Armor of their own, and Red Mecha Legions were established one after another...

The Federation's strength had leaped to another level.

A cause for celebration.

As for the Sea Soul Beasts that had died miserable deaths in the ocean, and Zhen Hua's overworked mind...

Those were merely insignificant prices to pay.

"What are you doing here?"

Zhen Hua managed to relax a little. Heavenly Refinement aside, the two of them got along reasonably well.

"Taking two friends out for fun." Su Tianxuan pointed at Qian Renxue and Ye Guyi.

Hearing that, Zhen Hua's eyes widened as if he had seen a ghost in broad daylight. He couldn't help pinching his face hard.

It hurt.

It didn't seem to be a dream.

"You actually have friends!?"