Xiao Wu: How Long Has Third Brother Been Away from Holy Spirit Village? Old Jack: That Drunkard Was Actually a Titled Douluo?!

"Ah..."

Looking at the tall man before him, dejected and downcast, with an infant in his arms.

Kind-hearted Old Jack's eyes were full of pity and heartache.

"Young man, how... how did you end up like this?"

"This child looks barely a month old. How could the little one endure such suffering?"

The infant in Tang Hao's arms had no idea how long he had gone without food. He did not even have the strength to cry.

Tang Hao raised his head woodenly, his voice as hoarse as sandpaper scraping against wood.

"Is there anywhere I can settle down?"

Old Jack sighed, looking him over from head to toe before asking tentatively.

"You look strong and healthy. What did you used to do for a living?"

"You need some kind of trade to support this child, don't you?"

Tang Hao fell silent for a moment and looked down at the large hands that had once gripped the Clear Sky Hammer, making the entire Spirit Master World tremble in fear.

A self-mocking bitter smile curled across his lips.

"I know how to use a hammer."

"Use a hammer?"

Old Jack's eyes lit up, and his formerly clouded gaze immediately brightened.

"You're a blacksmith?"

"That's wonderful!"

"Our village happens to be short on a blacksmith. Whenever we need to repair farming tools or anything else, we have to run to the neighboring village."

"If you're willing to stay, you'll definitely have food to eat!"

As he spoke, Old Jack warmly led Tang Hao toward the western end of the village.

The scene shifted, and the two stopped before a dilapidated wooden house that let in drafts from every direction.

"This is it."

Old Jack pushed open the rickety wooden door that looked ready to collapse, pointing into the dust- and cobweb-filled room.

"The house is a little shabby, but it'll be livable once it's cleaned up."

"From now on, this will be your and the child's home."

Old Jack patted Tang Hao's dust-covered shoulder and spoke earnestly.

"Young man, pull yourself together for the child's sake."

"If you ever lack anything in life, just come find this old bag of bones."

Tang Hao said nothing. He merely nodded silently and carried Tang San into the dim wooden house.

Looking at the elderly man on the Heavenly Screen, stooped over with a kindly face as he struggled to help his father push open that old broken door.

A rare moment of dazed confusion appeared in Tang San's eyes, which had been filled with hostility.

"Grandpa Jack..."

Tang San murmured, his voice too low to hear.

So many years had passed. Amid the fierce, cruel spirit master tournaments and his endless cultivation and pursuit of revenge.

He had nearly forgotten that face.

Now, as he watched the scene, memories came flooding back like a tide.

He remembered the dark bread and carrots Old Jack had sent over from time to time during those six years.

He remembered the eager anticipation in Old Jack's eyes on the day his martial soul awakened.

More than that, he remembered how, when he was leaving, Old Jack had stroked his head with those rough, callused hands and told him to behave at the academy and make sure he ate enough...

Those were among the few warm colors in his bleak childhood.

"So... Grandpa Jack had accepted us like that from the very beginning."

An indescribable bitterness welled up in Tang San's heart.

Ever since he had gone to Shrek Academy, ever since he had taken Master as his teacher.

That tiny Holy Spirit Village seemed to have been cast beyond the clouds.

Over the past few years, he had traveled, cultivated, and killed outside, yet he had actually...

Never returned even once.

Standing beside Tang San, Xiao Wu also raised her head. Her lively eyes stared intently at Old Jack on the Heavenly Screen, and a trace of reminiscence flashed through her pink pupils.

"It's that old grandpa..."

Xiao Wu murmured softly.

She remembered that old man.

That had been a very, very long time ago.

Back then, she had only just taken human form and entered the human world, arriving at Nuoding Junior Soul Master Academy, where she and Tang San had become friends after fighting.

At the end of their first semester at Nuoding Academy, she had nowhere to go, so she followed Tang San back to Holy Spirit Village.

That was the first time she had visited Tang San's "home."

She remembered that the old man had been very welcoming.

Though his family was poor, he had still brought out the best things he had to entertain her.

She also remembered that the Blacksmith Shop was in terrible condition, and Tang San's father was nowhere to be seen...

But...

Xiao Wu's gaze left the Heavenly Screen and fell on Tang San beside her, whose expression was complicated. Her delicate brows furrowed slightly.

An inexplicable doubt rose in her heart.

"Third Brother..."

Xiao Wu thought silently to herself.

"Ever since we went back at the end of our first year, it had been a full six or seven years...

Third Brother seemed to have never taken me back to Holy Spirit Village even once. He had barely even mentioned Grandpa Jack."

Xiao Wu could not understand it.

From what the Heavenly Screen showed, when Tang San and his father had been at their most destitute and helpless.

It was Old Jack who had given them shelter.

Who had given them hope to survive.

For humans who valued loyalty and sentiment, such a debt of gratitude should have been enormous.

But why?

Why was it that, ever since Third Brother had left Holy Spirit Village for Shrek, it was as though he had completely cut off all contact with that place?

Was it because he had been too busy?

But they had gone to Heaven Dou City, to Sunset Forest, and even participated in all kinds of competitions.

When they passed through Fasinuo Province.

There had clearly been many chances to return and take a look.

"Could it be because..."

Xiao Wu looked at the dilapidated thatched house on the Heavenly Screen.

Then she looked at Tang San as he was now, dressed in fine clothes.

As the "disciple of Master," the "Asura of a Thousand Hands," and a core member of Shrek's Seven Devils.

A thought that chilled Xiao Wu's heart surfaced uncontrollably.

"Was it because Third Brother disliked that poor place?"

"Or did he think...

"Now that he had become a noble spirit master, it did not matter whether he ever returned to that little village filled with the smell of dirt?"

"Did he even... think that place was a stain on his life?"

The moment that thought appeared, Xiao Wu forcibly suppressed it.

Xiao Wu shook her head, trying to convince herself.

"No, that couldn't be. Third Brother was so kind and valued feelings so deeply. How could he be that kind of person?"

"It had to be because cultivation kept him too busy. It had to be..."

Yet as she watched Old Jack's stooped figure on the Heavenly Screen, then thought of Tang San's years of silence and neglect.

The seed of doubt ultimately took root quietly in Xiao Wu's heart.

Holy Spirit Village.

On that peaceful afternoon, the villagers of Holy Spirit Village had all gathered in the open space at the village entrance.

Every one of them stood with their mouths agape, as though they had been frozen in place, staring fixedly at the massive light screen in the sky.

At the front of the crowd, even the hand Old Jack used to grip his cane was trembling slightly.

His old eyes, which usually crinkled with smiles, were now filled with unbelievable shock.

"Th-this... this, this, this..."

Old Jack trembled as he pointed at Tang Hao on the Heavenly Screen, holding a giant hammer and radiating an aura that oppressed heaven and earth.

Then he looked at Tang San beside him, who was the focus of countless gazes, as though a stone were lodged in his throat. For a long while, he could not form a complete sentence.

"Tang Hao... that drunkard Tang Hao who only knew how to drink and sleep, who even made his son cook for him... was actually a Titled Douluo?!"

"The legendary Titled Douluo who stood at the pinnacle of the Spirit Master World?!"