Tang Hao, Want a Wife?

Inside the cave.

Tang Hao stared silently at the little mound of earth, now completely empty.

His lips twitched as he held back his rage.

His grand ambitions—finding a wife, holding a wedding ceremony, and giving his parents an explanation—had all become a joke.

And now?

Tang Hao bared his teeth inwardly, grinding them viciously like a stray mutt with nowhere to call home.

He fixed his gaze on the cave floor, looking for possible footprints or traces of soul beasts.

He took out a luminous pearl from his Storage Soul Tool and slowly began investigating for signs the possible thief might have left behind.

He wanted to find that thief!

A wedding! A ceremony!

He just wanted a wedding ceremony to comfort the parents he might never see again for the rest of his life!

But who the hell could tell him whether this was an accident?!

Or was it that a Corporate Slave was still a Corporate Slave, destined to put work before family forever?!

Tang Hao remained silent as he searched through the cave step by step.

Then—

"It was a person!"

Tang Hao stared at the clearly human footprints in the cave, stretching from the depths of the cave all the way to the entrance.

They went from deep to shallow; without careful inspection, they would have been impossible to notice.

This was obviously a premeditated theft.

So, an accident?

Heh!

To hell with an accident.

But who could the thief be?

Tang Hao's eyes turned cold. He followed the traces from the cave to the valley, then toward the forest.

Unlike the secluded peace of the valley, the forest was bustling.

Whether it was villagers from elsewhere chopping firewood or the small animals living in the forest, any traces left by the thief could easily have been wiped clean.

But this was a remote wilderness. Within dozens of miles, Holy Soul Village was the only place with human habitation.

If the thief wanted to come here, they would certainly have passed through Holy Soul Village.

Even if they had not passed through it, they would have followed the paths trampled out by the people of Holy Soul Village.

Otherwise, without knowing the route, finding the waterfall at the back of the mountain would take at least half a month.

After all, this was a forest!

An undeveloped primeval forest!

As for matters in Holy Soul Village... asking Village Chief Old Jack should reveal whether any outsiders had recently entered the mountains.

Tang Hao raised his gaze toward Holy Soul Village.

Holy Soul Village.

Old Jack walked through the village with a worried expression.

Recently, the village seemed to have been shrouded in dark clouds. Every household had hung white mourning banners.

Even those that had not were filled with fear, their eyes full of dread whenever they looked toward the mountains.

Even the blacksmith he had hired from another village was packing his belongings, planning to move away in a few days.

"Ugh, what kind of mess is this?!"

Old Jack looked deeply troubled. He wanted to curse the heavens and ask why they hated his village so much.

The village had finally produced a soul master. They were about to become famous and enjoy great fortune, yet something like this had happened.

"Old Village Chief."

Just as Old Jack was about to unleash a torrent of curses at the heavens, a steady voice suddenly sounded behind him.

Old Jack jumped, startled by the sudden voice.

"It's you, Tang Hao?!"

He turned around and found Tang Hao standing behind him.

Bronze-skinned, broad and tall, with messy hair but bright, slightly cold eyes.

It was Tang Hao, who had left the village six years ago.

"It's me, Old Village Chief." Tang Hao nodded.

"Whew. You nearly scared me to death just now. This old man's heart almost leaped out of his chest." Seeing that it was Tang Hao, Old Jack let out a breath.

Someone had suddenly called out to him from behind. His heart had nearly stopped from fright.

"But why did you suddenly come back? Forget it, it's good that you're back. Your old house in the village has been kept for you. Clean it up a little and you can still live there."

"It's just that the village already has a blacksmith now. If you want to do that work again, you can't be as lazy and drunk as you used to be."

"Otherwise, if you won't do it, plenty of others will." Old Jack glanced at Tang Hao, worried that he was still as outrageously lazy as before, and his tone became a little sterner.

Tang Hao was momentarily stunned as well, because whenever others had said such things to him before, it had usually meant exploitation.

It was rare for those words to be spoken out of concern.

Tang Hao tugged at the corner of his mouth and shook his head. "Old Village Chief, I came to ask you something. Have any outsiders recently appeared in the village who wanted to enter the mountains?"

"Outsiders?" Old Jack looked puzzled, then shook his head. "No. Forget outsiders—recently, it's already good enough if people don't leave the village."

"Leave?"

Tang Hao frowned in confusion. Thinking back, when he had been looking for Old Jack in the village, he had noticed that more than ten households had hung white mourning banners outside their doors.

That was abnormal, because Holy Soul Village only had around a hundred people in total.

More than ten households meant nearly one-tenth of the village's population!

Could it be related to the thief?

Tang Hao's expression darkened. "Old Village Chief, what happened in the village recently?"

"What happened?" Old Jack sighed.

"Forget what happened. The whole village is about to disappear at this rate." Old Jack looked miserable, his already bent back curving even lower.

"Six days ago, Kui Sang at the eastern entrance of the village wanted to lead some people into the mountains to drive away the Wild Boars that had suddenly appeared."

"You know those beasts love rooting through farmland. With them around, the people in our village won't even be able to leave home to tend the fields."

"But who would have thought that twelve strong young men would go into the mountains and simply never come back?"

As Old Jack spoke, he became so agitated that his hands trembled.

Twelve strong young men—twelve families' pillars.

And just like that, they were gone!

All of them were gone!

Tang Hao listened to Old Jack's account from the side.

He remained silent, while his brow furrowed.

Six days ago?

Wasn't that when he had been at Shrek Academy?

That day had also been Shrek Academy's recruitment day. He had watched Tang San get brutally beaten there.

Then that night, he had lured Zhao Wuji out, and Zhao Wuji had gotten brutally beaten.

So, with timing this coincidental, had something gone wrong at Shrek Academy?

Or had someone known that he would specifically appear at Shrek Academy at that time?

Tang Hao sank into thought.

After calming down, Old Jack looked at Tang Hao's large frame and suddenly recalled something.

"Tang Hao."

"Yes, Old Village Chief."

"Um, if I remember correctly, you should be single right now."

"Yes." Tang Hao did not understand, but he still nodded.

He really was single now—a grand mage who had not even gone through a wedding ceremony.

Old Jack's eyes lit up at this, and he looked over Tang Hao's sturdy body again before saying,

"Being single is good, very good. But, Tang Hao, while you're alive, you should still get married and find a wife to live your life with.

"Although you used to be a little lazy and drank too much, so the women in the village didn't think highly of you.

"But if you're willing to change that lazy temperament of yours, then how about this? I can personally help you find a few wives.

"They're all fertile and healthy, with youthful faces, around twenty years old."

The village's disaster had already happened. There was no use continuing to look miserable.

As the village chief, he ought to find new husbands for the women who had lost their families' pillars.

Although Tang Hao had not had a good personality in the past, he was at least a man in his prime.

He was also a blacksmith, someone capable of becoming the pillar supporting several families.

Tang Hao: "..."