Bu Had Drifted Through Half a Lifetime, Regretting Only That He Had Never Met a Wise Lord. If Uncle Does Not Spurn Me Today, Bu Is Willing to Take You as His Adoptive Father

"It's not that serious. Thinking back, I don't seem to have helped you all that much back then."

Medicine that could raise someone to five rings with virtually no side effects, along with returns more than ten times the Gold Soul Coins he had invested back then, treated merely as interest—Bai Qingshan truly regretted his past self.

Why had he given Xiao Qiang so few resources back then? Why had he not found a way to borrow more money and obtain more resources? Now, Xiao Qiang was treating returns more than tenfold as interest, and had paid them back so quickly. Bai Qingshan almost felt too embarrassed to accept them.

"Uncle Bai, don't say that. When we first met, I had nothing. Other than you, no one else was willing to help me."

Zhao Yuanbu: "..."

It felt as though someone had jabbed him, yet somehow not.

"Without your help, I never could have obtained those two soul rings so close to the absorption limit. Without laying a solid foundation, there would be no me today."

Xiao Qiang meant every word. At the beginning, he truly had nothing. Innate Rank 5 Soul Power did not make him much of a genius. It could only be considered outstanding in the Sun Moon Empire, where martial soul grades were generally not high; it was nowhere near worthy of the word genius.

And since he was not a genius, there was naturally not much kindness around him. Even when others had tried to recruit him before, they had directly refused when Xiao Qiang asked for resources.

Fortunately, Xiao Qiang had met Bai Qingshan then. Whatever other motives Bai Qingshan might have had, the benefits Xiao Qiang received were real. Without the resources Bai Qingshan had given him, Xiao Qiang would most likely have met Tian Meng with nothing but a white soul ring.

Under those circumstances, all of Xiao Qiang's plans would have been impossible. He could only have gambled on luck and the Son of Destiny, ultimately ending up without even a whole corpse.

Only Xiao Qiang knew how helpless he had been at the time, and only he understood just how important Bai Qingshan's resources had been to him.

That was precisely why Xiao Qiang had wanted to get Bai Qingshan the best possible medicine at the first opportunity.

"Uncle Bai, there is no need for words between us. Just as you risked your life to help me back then, if you fail to reach Soul Douluo in this life, that will not be your fault. It will only mean that I have not climbed high enough. It will be my incompetence."

"You don't need to care so much about me. Honestly, I'm already very satisfied with these things. After all, when I helped you back then, my motives weren't entirely pure either," Bai Qingshan said somewhat sheepishly.

Right now, he wanted to beat up the self from a few minutes ago. Xiao Qiang cared so much about him, yet he had actually been swayed by a few words from Zhao Yuanbu. He truly should not have.

"A gentleman judges deeds, not intentions. No matter how you put it, Uncle Bai, you were the only one genuinely helping me at the time. That is an indisputable fact. As for impure motives, who doesn't have their own little thoughts? Does having a few intentions mean that the benefits I received from you were fake?"

"When I needed help the most, you were the only one who came to help me. That is enough."

"The benefits I received were real, and the effort you put in was real. Nothing else matters."

"Pfft!" Listening to Xiao Qiang's words through the Soul Communication Device, Zhao Yuanbu grew angrier the more he thought about it. Under Xiao Qiang's successive, seemingly casual heart-piercing blows, Zhao Yuanbu was enraged to the point of coughing up blood.

"Hm? What was that sound?" Xiao Qiang asked upon hearing an odd noise from the Soul Communication Device.

Bai Qingshan glanced at Zhao Yuanbu, who had been angered into vomiting blood. "Nothing important."

"Oh."

Since Bai Qingshan said it was nothing important, Xiao Qiang did not ask further. It did not sound like Bai Qingshan was the one with a problem anyway, so Xiao Qiang did not care.

Using his coughing blood as an excuse, Zhao Yuanbu quietly left. He felt that if he listened any longer, he might just die there.

As the son of the Great Elder, he had been taught from childhood to defeat his cousin and become the next Chieftain of the Zhao Family. Zhao Yuanbu possessed an almost obsessive determination to cross the class divide.

Yet the door to crossing that divide had already opened for him, and he had stubbornly walked around it instead.

It would have been one thing if he had not known, but now that he did, the blow was the opposite of Fan Jin passing the imperial examination. The only reason he had not been enraged into a mental breakdown was because he was a soul master, with physical qualities far beyond those of someone like Fan Jin, who could barely afford a meal.

Now, Zhao Yuanbu could only stay alone in the washroom, clean away the bloodstains, and adjust his mindset by himself.

He absolutely could not tell the family that he had refused Xiao Qiang. If word got out, not only would he be in trouble, but even his grandfather, the Great Elder, might lose his position.

Although his choice had been understandable without the ability to foresee the future, understanding was not the same as acceptance. Having cost the family an opportunity to rise to a higher level, he would become a sinner of the family.

Zhao Yuanbu did not dare imagine the consequences then, but after gradually calming down, he had no mood to worry about how the family might punish him. Once calm, Zhao Yuanbu began thinking about something else.

He had been the one to find Xiao Qiang first. Xiao Qiang had given him a list of the resources he needed, and Zhao Yuanbu had refused without hesitation.

Normally, that would not have meant anything. Transactions were based on mutual consent; if negotiations failed, then they failed. No one would say anything about it.

But if Jing Hongchen had taken Xiao Qiang as a disciple, then Xiao Qiang becoming a Rank 9 Soul Master was likely only a matter of time.

A Rank 9 Soul Master stood at the pinnacle of power in the Sun Moon Empire. An existence of that level would not even need to say anything for countless people to rush over and curry favor with him.

Theoretically, there was nothing wrong with Zhao Yuanbu refusing the weak Xiao Qiang. But theory was only theory. Once there were enough people, every kind of person existed, especially when his family itself was extremely weak in the eyes of the strong.

To curry favor with a Rank 9 Soul Master, there was a high chance someone might casually wipe out his family. What was more, after refusing Xiao Qiang, he had even considered cutting the requested resources in half and taking Xiao Qiang in as a dog.

Although he had not had time to do it, he had still planned it. There were no walls without cracks in this world. If word leaked that he had intended to humiliate a Rank 9 Soul Master, then even if his entire family were exterminated, he would have nowhere to seek justice.

This was a world where the strong preyed on the weak. As long as you were weak enough, even a strong person merely suspecting you could mean death.

"Damn it, what am I supposed to do about this? A Rank 9 Soul Master... the only people I can reach who are even barely connected to a Rank 9 Soul Master are probably Xiao Qiang and Bai Qingshan."

"Xiao Qiang is already beyond my reach. I can't possibly go cling to Bai Qingshan's thigh, can I?"

"Hm?" Wait, cling to Bai Qingshan's thigh?

What if he knelt before Bai Qingshan later and said, "Bu has drifted through half a lifetime, regretting only that he never met a wise lord. If Uncle does not spurn me today, Bu is willing to take you as his adoptive father."

It felt like a complete mess, and the intent to curry favor was far too obvious, so it did not seem particularly reliable. But...

It should be better than doing nothing, right?