A Sharp Critique of Huo Yuhao

Breaking through to Titled Douluo at nineteen, then Super Douluo at twenty-five.

Beside the familiar little river outside the Star Dou Great Forest, Mu En and Zhang Lexuan looked at each other, neither able to speak.

Zhang Lexuan had broken through to Soul Douluo at eighteen, making her the youngest Soul Douluo in Shrek's recorded history.

But breaking through to Titled Douluo at nineteen—what did that even mean?!

Then again, under the Tang God King's Ten-Thousand-Year Grand Plan, anyone below the god level was nothing more than a chess piece.

"Sigh, Lexuan, I want you to ask about the little one's future. But... I'm afraid it might draw the attention of the other people who have a Diary Copy. Sigh..."

Mu En was curious about Shen Yichen's future, but Zhang Lexuan's concern for Shen Yichen was no less than his.

After all, the attack with which little Yichen had destroyed Shrek Academy a few days ago was still vivid in her mind. With such formidable talent, he couldn't possibly remain unknown.

The fact that the diary hadn't mentioned his name was already bad news.

"Mu En, I'll find a way. If nothing else works, even if my identity is exposed, I have to get to the bottom of what happens to the little one!"

In all of Shrek Academy, even in the entire world,

the little one was the person she cared about most.

That concern held no debt of gratitude, no self-interest. She had long regarded the little one as family, her only family!

"There's still time, still time..." Mu En looked up at the sky. There should still be time... shouldn't there?

He couldn't neglect Zhang Lexuan for Shen Yichen's sake.

In the past, he had already gone against his own conscience and made a mistake once. He couldn't compound one mistake with another...

[Back to the point. As a Child of Luck, Tang San doesn't get a high rating from me. So what about Huo Yuhao, another Child of Luck?]

[There's a saying that describes Huo Yuhao: even a pitiful person must have something hateful about them!]

Huo Yun'er looked at little Yuhao curled up in her arms and sighed softly.

She didn't know why little Yuhao had earned such an assessment. But as his mother, her feelings were complicated...

[Huo Yuhao, son of the White Tiger Duke, with the Body Martial Soul Spirit Eyes. His mother was Huo Yun'er, a maid at the White Tiger Duke's Mansion...]

[Because of his mother's low status, and because he failed to awaken the White Tiger Martial Soul, every step of his life was difficult.]

[But with his mother by his side, Huo Yuhao didn't feel that life was hard. Until... his mother Huo Yun'er's death made Huo Yuhao bitterly hate the White Tiger Duke's Mansion, as well as the father he had never met.]

[After cultivating to level ten, he ran away from home and went to the Star Dou Great Forest to obtain a Soul Ring. Fortunately, the Million-Year Soul Beast Sky Dream Ice Silkworm sacrificed himself for him. He joined the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's God-Creation Plan!]

[Afterward, he met Tang Sect Master Tang Ya and her boyfriend Bei Bei, and joined the Tang Sect.]

Boyfriend...

Zhang Lexuan paused as she read the diary aloud to Mu En.

Then, as though nothing had happened, she read the sentence aloud with a composed expression.

Mu En's face darkened. What a sin...

The Diary Copy had even revealed the Tang God King's Ten-Thousand-Year Grand Plan, so naturally it couldn't be lying about a small matter like this.

If Bei Bei liked Zhang Lexuan, then with the marriage engagement he had arranged, the girl Lexuan would slowly come to love Bei Bei, even if only to repay her debt of gratitude.

In that case, it would only mean that he, an old man, had behaved like a brute.

But Bei Bei had fallen for someone else, while Lexuan loved Bei Bei without having her feelings returned because of the engagement he had arranged.

Then he truly deserved to die!

"Lexuan, you..."

"Mu En, I understand..."

"Sigh..."

[He obtained an examination-exempt spot through the Tang Sect, joined Shrek Academy, and met one half of the Tang God King's daughter, who was disguised as a man.]

[Later, he shone brilliantly at the Continental Soul Master Tournament and was taken in as a disciple by the Sea God Pavilion Elder Mu En.]

[Immediately afterward, he went to the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy as an exchange student. By secretly learning from them, he single-handedly advanced Shrek Academy's Soul Tool Technology, which had fallen thousands of years behind.]

"Pah!"

Jing Hongchen felt as though he'd been screwed by a dog!

[He cheated his way forward, only to be schemed against every step of the way.]

[Until the "dog leash" tightened, and the Wang Dong'er he loved and Wang Qiu'er, who loved him with all her heart, were used as materials and fused into Tang Wutong.]

[Huo Yuhao, whom the Tang God King had tormented with love until he was barely human, finally went mad. He became the very thing he had once hated most.]

[The ending was a happy one. The Tang God King gained a Child of Luck as his lackey, Huo Yuhao became a god, his mother was resurrected, and the Soul Beasts who followed him all ascended to heaven along with him, like chickens and dogs following their master to immortality.]

[So... what was the price of this seemingly perfect ending?]

[Was it Wang Dong'er, who had loved Huo Yuhao as he had loved her? Was it Wang Qiu'er, the Emperor Auspicious Beast who loved him and had even undergone Human Transformation for him?]

[Was it the Huo Yuhao who had been abandoned by his father in his youth, only to abandon his own child after growing up?]

[Was it the continent, on the verge of being unified, splitting apart once again?]

[Or... was it the complete fall of the Plane Consciousness and the Life Core?]

Of course, Shen Yichen wouldn't reveal all the information at once.

There was a threshold for shock. For the fun to last, he had to take it slowly...

He believed that even the topics he had tossed out were enough to shake the continent.

If the holders of the diary copies included a Ferocious Beast from the Soul Beast camp, then the name Wang Qiu'er, the Emperor Auspicious Beast, was bound to draw attention.

The next Current Affairs Review would probably revolve around the Emperor Auspicious Beast as well.

Otherwise, it would prove that none of the current three belonged to the Soul Beast camp.

A little devil's smile appeared on Shen Yichen's face. Wasn't matching wits and courage with the tide riders of the age a kind of fun too?

[What makes Huo Yuhao pitiful is that his entire life was a joke. Everything he did was a product of the struggle between the Douluo Plane and the Tang God King...]

[So we can't judge Huo Yuhao the way we judge Tang San. Many of the things Huo Yuhao did were because the times were pushing him forward, leaving him very, very few chances to choose freely...]

[Putting aside all the factors behind the scenes... no, we can't put them aside. We can't put them aside at all!]

[His friends, his lovers, his teachers and elders, everything he had—it was all arranged for him.]

[Even a transmigrator with a normal outlook on life wouldn't necessarily be able to escape the Tang God King's grasp, much less a child born and raised here.]

[If that were all, he would merely be pitiful, tragic, and lamentable. But when he chose Tang Wutong, when he gave up his own biological son despite having experienced "abandonment" by his own father, and even used the child to threaten the child's mother...]

[The very essence of Huo Yuhao's character changed. He became exactly what Tang San wanted him to be!]

[In other words, we can simply treat Huo Yuhao at that point as a second Tang God King.]

[And as for the Tang God King's character, those who know, know.]

[The above is only an objective assessment. As for my subjective assessment...]

[As a Child of Luck, when facing an enemy, he should either win to his heart's content or lose with his head held high. Instead, he was taken in as someone's dog and even wagged his tail. Tsk~]