Spirit Hall... Such Good People!

Just as Yun Chuan lay contentedly in someone's arms, enjoying the Female Pope's gentle, maternal nursing and drifting off in comfort...

Elsewhere, his twin brother Tang San was having an entirely different experience!

In a small village—Holy Soul Village.

Inside the village's only Blacksmith Shop.

The Blacksmith Shop was filthy, perpetually filled with the smell of smoke and rusty iron, along with the irritating clanging of hammering.

In the inner room, atop a relatively clean bed.

A swaddled infant suddenly opened his eyes. His gaze was alert and lively, nothing like that of an ordinary baby. It was more like the gaze only an adult could possess.

"Clang! Clang! Clang!..."

Listening to the hammering outside and feeling his stomach begin to rumble, Tang San had no choice but to open his mouth and start wailing. "Wah! Wah!!!"

He was not like the exceptionally gifted Yun Chuan. He was only three months old now, unable even to crawl, with vocal cords that had not fully developed—let alone speak.

"Clang..."

The hammering outside abruptly stopped.

A moment later.

The door opened.

A dispirited middle-aged man in his thirties or forties walked in, reeking of sweat. In his rough hand was a small bowl of pale yellow liquid. From the faint milky scent drifting from it, it was evidently some kind of animal milk.

When the dispirited middle-aged man entered, baby Tang San promptly stopped crying. His eyes widened as he stared fixedly at the small bowl in the man's hand. To him, starving as he was, that little bowl of milk was the Source of Life!

Holding a bowl of heated goat's milk left over from the night before, Tang Hao slowly walked to the bedside. He picked up the infant and leaned him against his chest. A stench of unwashed body, sour sweat, urine, smoke, and rusty iron—built up over several days without bathing—engulfed Tang San!

Blech~

If Yun Chuan, currently enjoying the Female Pope's tender care, had come here, he would probably have been sickened into vomiting! But Tang San was already used to the smell. Though it had made him uncomfortable at first, he had gradually grown accustomed to it.

After all, this was his biological father, and he still had to rely on him to survive. There was nothing he could do but endure it.

Tang Hao held the small bowl in one hand and a spoon in the other, while little Tang San leaned against his chest, staring eagerly at the goat's milk on the spoon...

Spoonful after spoonful, Tang Hao fed the child in his arms. His expression never changed throughout the process, still dispirited and downcast. Even feeding his child was merely a task to him. There was not the slightest trace of a father's love. From the moment his wife sacrificed herself and died, his heart had died with her.

Tang San drank the goat's milk one small mouthful at a time, and his empty stomach gradually warmed. Honestly, this small bowl of overnight goat's milk did not taste good. Setting aside its naturally gamey odor, it had also developed a faintly sour taste after sitting overnight.

But he had no choice. If he did not drink it, he would go hungry. Besides, he had been raised on this sort of goat's milk since birth. After getting used to it, it was tolerable enough.

If Yun Chuan could see the treatment his twin brother Tang San had received since childhood, he would definitely feel immensely fortunate that Spirit Hall had snatched him away.

Such good people!

The people who had taken him were not hurting him at all—they had practically saved him from a sea of suffering!

Spirit Hall.

Ever since Yun Chuan had awakened Bibi Dong's maternal instincts with that indistinct "Mama," his already comfortable life had become even more blissful.

He soon moved out of the tiny nursery where he had lived for over three months and into Bibi Dong's private chambers. He slept in the same bed as the Female Pope and personally enjoyed her close care. As for the Wet Nurse who had previously cared for him, she was dismissed. Clearly, the Female Pope intended to take over the task of nursing him herself—both to pour out her overflowing maternal love and to ease the breast engorgement that had troubled her for years.

After handling the necessary social obligations and official duties of the Pope each day, Bibi Dong spent all her remaining time on Yun Chuan. She truly raised him as though he were her own child.

Yun Chuan also acted as spoiled as he pleased, doing his utmost to win over the woman who would serve as his protector within Spirit Hall. He employed every trick he had to play the role of a lovable little child.

And so.

A month passed.

Yun Chuan was four months old.

He could now barely stand and toddle about unsteadily. His speech had also become clearer, especially when he called out "Mama"—it was sweet enough to melt Bibi Dong's heart!

Of course, he still could not speak in complete sentences. Yun Chuan did not want to arouse anyone's suspicions. A four-month-old infant being able to barely say a few words could still be considered exceptionally gifted. But if he could communicate like a normal person, that would be far too abnormal. It would be practically announcing to everyone that there was something wrong with this baby.

Thus, Yun Chuan had always kept himself at a level that was talented but not absurdly so. He was afraid that acting too monstrously gifted would invite harm from malicious people.

That day.

After Bibi Dong finished nursing him, she went out as usual to handle official affairs, leaving Yun Chuan alone in the room to play. Much of the furniture that could potentially hurt a child had been cleared away, replaced by a huge pile of toys.

After becoming a baby, perhaps because his body had influenced his mind, Yun Chuan found these toys rather interesting whenever he was bored and played with them. He behaved no differently from an ordinary child. It could only be said that playing the role of a child had seeped into his bones—habit had become second nature.

"Click!"

The door gently opened.

Yun Chuan was sitting on a blanket spread across the floor, fiddling with something like a Rubik's Cube. Thinking Bibi Dong had returned, he instinctively turned his head. A "Mama" was about to leave his mouth when it suddenly caught in his throat, unable to come out.

After the door opened, the figure standing in the doorway was not Bibi Dong's mature, elegant form. Instead, it was a small, slender, youthful figure.

She was a little girl around ten years old.

Her long golden hair seemed to glow, while her equally golden eyes were bright and watery. Her enchanting features were exquisitely delicate, like heaven's most perfect creation. Paired with her petite frame and little white dress, she was simply the most flawless little loli imaginable!

At that moment, however, the golden-haired little loli was glaring at the baby sitting on the blanket, still holding a Rubik's Cube-like toy. Her beautiful eyes were filled with hostility, as though he had stolen her favorite toy. Her fair little cheeks gradually puffed up as she glared angrily at him!

"Qian Renxue!"

The moment Yun Chuan saw the golden-haired little loli's distinctive features, he immediately knew who she was. With that appearance, along with the fact that she could boldly push open the Pope's private chamber door without a care, she could only be the Pope's biological daughter. No one else would dare.