Recommendation ticket, please.
Ten years ago.
The child awakened his martial soul and inherited his mother's attribute.
Dou Jing was delighted, but his heart sank.
This martial soul's attribute was completely out of place in the Underground City's darkness and damp.
More importantly, as Barton secured his position as leader, Spirit Hall's feelers—Blood Fang and the others—sank deep into the Bone Excavation Group's marrow, and he, the Vice Leader, was watched by countless eyes as well.
His wife and child had become his fatal weakness—his wife had originally been a female soul master he had secretly saved during a human trafficking deal many years ago.
"The child isn't suited to stay underground," Dou Jing confided his worries to Barton.
Barton pondered for a moment, then proposed a cold but "effective" plan: arrange a carefully designed "accident" that would make Dou Jing's wife and child "die an unnatural death," allowing them to live under assumed names on the surface from then on.
There was no other choice.
Enduring the pain, Dou Jing cooperated and personally "buried" his own happiness.
His wife and child were secretly moved to a hidden residence in Heaven Dou City.
Ordinarily, he used chances to come up on official business to visit his wife and child.
A year later.
A Soul Sage's keenness allowed him to immediately notice something was wrong—there were obscure Soul Power fluctuations around the residence. They were being watched!
Someone capable and motivated enough to arrange manpower on the surface, while doing it without a sound—in Huagai District, who else could it be besides Barton?
When confronted, Barton did not deny it.
"It's protection." Barton brewed tea unhurriedly, the curling steam blurring the expression beneath his metal jaw guard. "Old Dou, it's not like you don't know what the situation underground is