The Girl

"Gladly. As it happens, this old one truly has some matters that will require City Lord Xiao's help in the time ahead." Li Ang naturally understood Xiao Yan's intentions, but he did not think there was anything wrong with them.

After all, the Xiao Clan would indeed be useful to him from here on out.

The system's main quest had tasked him with stirring up trouble and rewriting the original plot, so he would likely have to remain near Notting City for some time.

Finding a local boss in Notting City to serve as his underling would bring Li Ang nothing but benefits.

Thus, Li Ang did not stand on ceremony with Xiao Yan. After accepting the Xiao Clan's allegiance, he stuffed the Bone Growing Blood Melting Pill in his hand into Xiao Chenyu's mouth.

The Bone Growing Blood Melting Pill was a high-grade medicinal pill from the Battle Through the Heavens World. A normal Bone Growing Blood Melting Pill should have been a high-tier seventh-grade pill, said to save someone's life as long as they still had a breath left. In the Battle Through the Heavens World, it could be considered a top-tier healing pill.

Using it to treat Xiao Chenyu, who had been severely injured by the Demonic Dismemberment Technique, was naturally more than sufficient. It was practically a waste of something precious.

Therefore, after taking the pill, Xiao Chenyu recovered quickly and returned to normal before long.

However, this experience left quite a psychological shadow on young Xiao Chenyu. It even changed his personality drastically. At the very least, he was no longer as unbearably arrogant as before.

Of course, for the Xiao Clan, this could be called an unexpected delight. Forget outsiders—even the Xiao Clan members themselves had been plagued with headaches over that troublesome brat.

Now that Xiao Chenyu had received a harsh beating from reality and become obedient, even Xiao Yan felt pleasantly surprised.

What Li Ang found unbelievable, however, was that Tang San, who had been badly injured by Xiao Chenyu, recovered even faster than Xiao Chenyu. After recovering, his Soul Power even rose several levels.

Li Ang did not know exactly how Tang San had recovered. In any case, only a few days later, Tang San was lively and kicking again as if nothing had happened, returning to Notting Junior Soul Master Academy to continue his classes.

Of course, although he had not died, Tang San's life in Notting City was far from pleasant afterward.

After all, the Xiao Clan's young master, Xiao Chenyu, had nearly been crippled in his duel with Tang San. Though Li Ang later healed him, the Xiao Clan clearly could not swallow that insult.

With Li Ang, a Titled Douluo who wanted to rewrite the plot, secretly supporting the Xiao Clan, Tang San's life over the following years could truly be described as exceptionally "colorful."

Logically speaking, after Tang San suffered such humiliation from the Xiao Clan, Tang San's father, Haotian Douluo Tang Hao, should not have been able to endure it.

Given Tang Hao's temper, he should have long since carried his hammer over and smashed the entire Xiao Clan. He might even have dragged out Li Ang, the mastermind behind it all.

Yet in the days that followed, Haotian Douluo Tang Hao vanished without a trace. He never appeared in Notting City at all.

Instead, high-ranking Spirit Hall soul masters were often seen moving about in the southwest of the Heaven Dou Empire. Rumor had it that they were hunting a wanted criminal of Spirit Hall.

The reason was simple. Shortly before Tang San was seriously injured by Xiao Chenyu, Spirit Hall suddenly received a report. A certain ordinary righteous soul master who wished to remain anonymous reported that the major criminal wanted by Spirit Hall was hiding in Holy Soul Village, Notting City, Fasinuo Province, in the southwest of the Heaven Dou Empire.

After confirming that the intelligence was accurate, Spirit Hall dispatched several Titled Douluo to join forces with the Spirit Hall Holy Temple in Heaven Dou City, vowing to kill the heinous fugitive who had murdered the Pope.

It was said that the two sides fought fiercely, but Li Ang did not know the exact details. He was merely an ordinary righteous soul master—how could he possibly know such things?

Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, five years went by.

Over those five years, the situation within Notting City changed considerably as well.

All he could say was that a protagonist truly deserved to be a protagonist. This Protagonist Halo was terrifying indeed.

Even though Li Ang had secretly pulled strings and temporarily taken Tang San's greatest cheat—his father, Tang Hao—out of the picture,

Tang San still managed to thrive in Notting City.

At first, the Xiao Clan had been able to crush Tang San with absolute strength. It was only because Yu Xiaogang stepped forward and invoked the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Family behind him that the Xiao Clan became wary and did not dare openly kill Tang San.

However, the situation soon changed. Following a series of idiotic moves by the Xiao Clan, Tang San rapidly grew stronger and joined forces with the two major families in the southern part of the city, standing against the Xiao Clan as an equal.

At this pace, the Xiao Clan would probably be wiped out by Tang San within a few months.

Fortunately, the Xiao Clan now had a cheat as well. With Li Ang hiding in the shadows and stirring up trouble, the Xiao Clan managed to hold on for a full five years without being destroyed.

But allies as useless as the Xiao Clan were beyond even Li Ang's ability to carry.

These people usually looked quite shrewd, but for some reason, whenever they faced Tang San, their intelligence seemed to drop instantly. Their IQs plunged to an outrageously low level, leaving Li Ang utterly exhausted.

Fortunately, Li Ang had not gained nothing during those five years. Through his efforts, the progress of rewriting the original plot had finally exceeded 10%.

Five years later, Murphy City, Balak Kingdom.

Murphy City was not considered a major city within the Balak Kingdom. It was even somewhat smaller than Notting City.

Of course, although Murphy City was not large, it was prosperous. The reason was simple: it lay close to Suotuo City, a major stronghold of the Balak Kingdom known as Balak's granary, and was a necessary stop on the road to Suotuo City.

Because the two cities were only several dozen kilometers apart, Murphy City's economy had been boosted as well. In recent years especially, housing prices had skyrocketed.

Housing prices in Murphy City had long since broken through the ten Gold Soul Coin per square meter mark. (Since the original work's currency system was rather chaotic, for convenience of reading, this book set the purchasing power of one Gold Soul Coin as equivalent to one thousand yuan.)

At such prices, not only ordinary people but even typical soul masters could not afford a home.

At that moment, on Murphy City's commercial street, where every inch of land was worth a fortune, a girl who looked around ten years old was selecting goods inside a shop decorated in an antique style.

The girl had long black hair cascading over her shoulders and fair skin. Though her features still appeared somewhat immature, she was unmistakably a beauty in the making.