Dead First Love

In reality, what happened back then hadn't been a dead end.

Whether he killed his Soul Beast wife with his own hands or abandoned her and severed their relationship, even if he couldn't get away unscathed, he could still have kept the Clear Sky Sect out of the storm.

But... Tang Hao, for some reason, still took his pregnant wife with him and ran around in the human world. (Why not go to the forests and ice fields where Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts lived? At least a third party might join the fight, and perhaps they'd help Ah Yin, who was a Soul Beast.)

And if Blue Silver Emperor Ah Yin had abandoned her husband and child and fled back to the forest, her Blue Silver Grass vitality would have given her a chance to survive. After all, her Blue Silver Emperor abilities let her draw vitality from other Blue Silver Grass. As long as even a trace of life remained—like a grass seed or root—she could slowly recover and cultivate again.

But Tang Hao happened to be there, and he stubbornly refused to leave. If Blue Silver Emperor had run, Tang Hao would have been in grave danger. He wouldn't have survived.

In the end, she chose the only option that could truly kill her: sacrifice.

She gave up her life to protect her beloved and their child.

You could say they'd both gone all in for each other. Hmm... I respected other people's fate.

On the first day after arriving in Heaven Dou City, Yu Xiaogang had already secretly contacted the Yu Clan.

His father was currently looking for an opportunity to ambush his target and kill him in one strike. Making too much of a scene and exposing his identity would be a problem.

Once he got the pill, he would come to Heaven Dou City and meet up with Yu Xiaogang.

Hearing this, Yu Xiaogang felt somewhat reassured.

But he wasn't completely at ease. He wrote a letter to his former lover, Bibi Dong, at Spirit Hall.

He was making preparations on two fronts. If his father failed, he could seek help from Bibi Dong, who worked within Spirit Hall and was qualified to exchange for Soul Power Breakthrough Pills.

Yu Xiaogang had never changed at his core. He had always put himself first.

Take the original story, for example. He held an honorary teaching position at Notting Junior Academy.

Flender had founded Shrek Academy, but it only accepted geniuses. It had more teachers than students, mediocre educational resources, and higher fees than other academies. Its facilities were extremely rudimentary, and its admissions, study, and graduation requirements were exceptionally strict. In the twenty years before Tang San arrived, it had accepted only forty-two students, of whom just fourteen had actually graduated. Due to its lack of facilities, Shrek Academy had never registered with any country and wasn't a legitimate academy.

Just think about it: forty-two geniuses under the age of twelve, each with Soul Power at level twenty-one or above, were introduced through various channels to this unaccredited backwater school. They paid expensive examination and tuition fees and lived in dilapidated dormitories and classrooms.

Yet only fourteen actually graduated, reaching level forty and becoming Soul Ancestors by the age of twenty.

The remaining geniuses had either been eliminated or died.

An elimination rate of over sixty percent was absurd. Even Flender himself might not have met the academy's graduation standards when he was a student.

The academy's recruitment pitch was also misleading. It claimed to have trained a disciple who became Spirit Hall's youngest elder. (One of the requirements for promotion to elder at Spirit Hall was being a Titled Douluo.) Shrek Academy had been open for only around twenty years, and the youngest Titled Douluo on Douluo Continent was Tang Hao, who was forty-four. If Shrek Academy had trained a Titled Douluo, that person would have been no older than thirty.

Besides, Zhao Wuji of Shrek Academy was wanted by Spirit Hall, so its students had no chance of joining Spirit Hall either.

Later, it came out that a man named Shi Nian had been specifically hunting down Shrek graduates.

Apart from Qin Ming, most of Shrek's graduates had probably died, but the academy had no idea. It was still boasting about the impressive people it had supposedly trained, even though they were fictional.

The academy seemed to have been founded so Flender could follow the trend set by his former companions, indulge his desire to "teach others," and make money!

In modern terms, it didn't provide legitimate diplomas, charged sky-high tuition and exorbitant examination fees, and offered terrible food and lodging (Shrek rented old villagers' houses as dormitories). It was a blatant scam.

Compared to those two, Liu Erlong's Blue Tyrant Academy was a legitimate and reasonably run advanced Soul Master academy. It was also one of the few advanced Soul Master academies that accepted commoners (the other was Spirit Hall Academy).

It had none of those absurd admissions standards or graduation requirements, and its fees were reasonable.

Yu Xiaogang merely held an honorary post, and Flender's academy had more teachers than students. Its headmaster ran a business on the side, treating the position as a part-time job.

Liu Erlong had poured the most effort into Blue Tyrant Academy.

Yet after she had painstakingly founded it with her own hands, treating it like her own child, Yu Xiaogang brought the people from Shrek Academy there and took it over, renaming it.

All the competition slots belonging to Blue Tyrant Academy were taken as well, leaving the locals as substitutes.

Yu Xiaogang, who called himself a master and prided himself on being aloof and independent, silently agreed.

Flender, who was a simp and claimed to love Liu Erlong, had no hesitation about becoming the headmaster of this new Shrek Academy.

As for Liu Erlong, love mattered more than anything. Giving the academy she had founded to her old flame was no big deal.

Hmm... I respected other people's fate!

Chapter 66: The First Love Who Died

Back to the point.

Yu Xiaogang had abandoned his girlfriend and let his father capture and hurt her. Now he actually had the nerve to write to Bibi Dong and try to get his hands on a Soul Power Breakthrough Pill. He really had no shame.

Of course, his letter had been delivered in secret.

It had ended up on Qian Xunji's desk.

Standing before Qian Xunji was a member of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan who had pledged allegiance to Spirit Hall.

Don't be surprised.

Of the Upper Three Sects, the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect had the most severe internal conflicts, with a grossly unequal distribution of resources.

With Sikong Zhen acting as Qian Xunji's informant and leaking information about those who resented the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan over unfair treatment, Qian Xunji's plan to turn them had gone very smoothly.

The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect was rich, and its fighting strength depended entirely on its spouses. Its internal conflicts weren't very noticeable, so there was no opening yet.

As for the Clear Sky Sect...

Hmm...

How should I put it?

The main source of conflict in the Clear Sky Sect was Tang Hao. Tang Hao had run off and vanished without a trace, claiming he'd left the clan and would take responsibility on his own. In reality, all the pressure fell on the Clear Sky Sect. After Tang Hao disappeared, his older brother Tang Xiao had to bear the fury of both the clan and outsiders in his place. The Clear Sky Sect was now mainly divided between the elder faction and the sect master's faction. In the wake of the Tang Hao incident, the sect master's faction had remained at a disadvantage.

If Tang Xiao's younger sister, Tang Yuehua, hadn't built connections with various nobles and provided the clan with information and supplies, his position as sect master probably wouldn't have been secure.

Without the old man's knowledge, Qian Xunji had already used Qian Daoliu and Tang Chen's old friendship as an excuse to contact the Clear Sky Sect's elders. He was supporting them in seizing the sect master's position, wiping away the Clear Sky Sect's shame, and purging the traitor from their ranks.

This fishing plan had also been cooked up by Qian Xunji behind Qian Daoliu's back.

Having these informants keep an eye on the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect's activities had just been a convenient bonus.

The letter was a complete surprise. Qian Xunji hadn't expected Yu Xiaogang to be so shameless.

Should he have expected anything less from a scumbag from the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan?

"I've prepared the envelope, sealing wax, and stamp. Your Holiness, there's no need to worry about anyone noticing that the letter was opened. Once you've finished reading it, I can make a new one," the man below him volunteered.

Normally, they, as members of the branch families, didn't have access to these items used to secure letters. Only direct descendants did. But when their informant network joined forces, they had plenty of influence. They'd each contributed a little, and together they'd managed to gather everything.

This was a great chance to earn the Pope's favor, so everyone had been eager to help. He'd only needed to mention it, and they'd all pitched in.

There was one reason: the rewards were generous.

Gold Soul Coins, medicinal baths, Dragon-type Soul Beasts, even Spirit Bones and the pill being offered this time—all of it could be exchanged for, as long as they earned enough merit.

It was countless times better than being exploited as laborers by the Yu Clan's direct line.

They worked themselves to the bone on their missions, only to receive pitifully little in return.

He remembered a cousin who had discovered a Dragon-type Soul Beast and returned to the clan, hoping his fellow clansmen would help him hunt it.

Instead, the clan's direct descendants had taken it from him with ease.

When he tried to seek justice, they beat him up and threw him out.

After that, he'd lost all faith in the clan. Spirit Hall had appeared at just the right time, giving him another option.

Even he thought the timing was uncanny. He'd suffered a setback, and Spirit Hall had approached him the very next day. He guessed there must be another hidden informant within the clan, one tasked with providing information about people like him so Spirit Hall could recruit them.

Qian Xunji didn't care at all about what he said.

So what if he read the letter? What could Bibi Dong do about it?

He was the Pope, and he'd recently been looking for an excuse to make things difficult for Bibi Dong.

The letter was a thick stack of pages.

Most of it was about the sweet memories Yu Xiaogang and Bibi Dong had shared in the past.

Then he mentioned his research.

He never said a word about the terrible things his father had done back then.

Finally, he didn't mention that he needed a Soul Power Breakthrough Pill to break through. Instead, he said one of his research projects shared similarities with the Soul Power Breakthrough Pill and that he wanted to "borrow" some pills to study.

He'd deftly avoided the sensitive points. His writing was natural and well-organized, and his self-interest was nowhere to be seen. He came across as a scholar and master consumed by a passion for research.

Yu Xiaogang might have been useless in a fight, but he still had the polish of a noble Soul Master.

Just from this letter, he seemed like a passionate young man devoted to research... no, a passionate middle-aged man!

Qian Xunji thought it over, then took the letter to Bibi Dong to make things difficult for her.

"Why would the son of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan's patriarch come to you for a Soul Power Breakthrough Pill?"

"Have you been secretly in touch all these years?"

"You haven't? Then how should I know? You'll have to show me proof."

The perceptive Qian Xunji was still being unreasonable.

He extended Bibi Dong's probation period again, just as she'd been close to finishing it.

She could only serve as an acting deacon. Returning to her former position would be difficult, and promotion to bishop was nowhere in sight.

After working herself to the bone for so many years, she'd finally cleared her record and was about to be promoted.

Now, because of a single letter from Yu Xiaogang, she was back under review.

Bibi Dong clenched her teeth, wishing she could tear the letter to pieces. The murderous aura and baleful energy hidden within her began to seep out, and her mature face, with its trace of cool detachment, became intimidating.

She was no longer the kind and innocent Bibi Dong she had once been.

During her escape and her missions for Spirit Hall, Bibi Dong had experienced countless dark schemes and deceptions.

She saw through Yu Xiaogang's intentions with ease.

They hadn't been in touch for so many years, yet just after Alchemy Hall had been established and the Soul Power Breakthrough Pill had appeared, he'd written to her to reminisce about the good times.