While the two were making a racket, Su Yuntao cleared his throat and turned his gaze to the last six-year-old child. He announced loudly, "Next, Young Master Tang San, it's your turn!"
Everyone's eyes instantly turned to Tang San in unison.
Bibi Dong gave him a gentle nod and said softly, "Don't be afraid. Go ahead."
Tang San took Bibi Dong's outstretched hand. The moment his fingertips touched the warmth of her palm, he felt his heart settle.
Gui Mengguan, Qian Gujue, and Oupai stepped forward and said together, "Third Brother, believe in yourself. You'll definitely awaken a good Martial Soul. Even if you awaken a Trash Martial Soul, we'll always protect you..."
"I know, Mother. I know, brothers."
He nodded slightly and walked slowly to the center of the formation. Then he held out his right hand, closed his eyes, and focused, eagerly sensing for his Martial Soul.
Ever since he could remember, he had heard all sorts of strange things.
Students in classes beyond the beginner class would sneak away from him and call him cruel nicknames. Some elders in Spirit Hall always looked at him with an indescribable wariness and distance. He had even read the Human Alliance Declaration, which had spread across the entire continent, in the library. Every word condemned Transformed Soul Beasts as heretics, along with the children they had with humans, calling them Human Traitors and their children bastards who sullied the human bloodline—disgusting creatures like Wolf Bandits...
He had also asked his adoptive mother, Bibi Dong, who his birth parents were. Bibi Dong had only patted his head and told him she would explain when he was older.
All he knew was that Bibi Dong had found him, an orphan, in a barren wilderness. She had given him a name and a home. This cold yet tender woman was the only mother he had.
He had heard those rumors and forgotten them. He had never taken them to heart, much less looked into his origins. Not until this moment—
The instant he focused, a tender sprig of Blue Silver Grass appeared in his palm. But as soon as it emerged, it burst into a warm blue-gold radiance.
Its slender leaves grew long and resilient, covered in golden imperial patterns. A vast aura, the majesty of a sovereign among Plant-type Martial Souls, spread out in an instant.
The smile on Su Yuntao's face froze. He leaned in and stared for a long while before crying out in shock, "This isn't ordinary Blue Silver Grass! This is... the Blue Silver Emperor! A top-tier Plant-type Martial Soul!"
The moment he said it, the hall fell silent. Then a storm of voices erupted.
"The Blue Silver Emperor! It really is the Blue Silver Emperor!"
"Just as I thought! He's the offspring of a human and a beast! How else could he have awakened the Blue Silver Emperor Martial Soul?!"
"Before, it was only a rumor. Now it's confirmed! He's the child that Soul Beast gave birth to!"
The voices stabbed at him like needles. Tang San snapped his eyes open and stared at the blue-gold Blue Silver Emperor in his palm. His mind went blank, then suddenly he understood everything.
So the whispers had been true. The wary looks had been real, and so had those cruel nicknames.
He was the son of Tang Hao, the Human Traitor hated by everyone on the continent, and Ah Yin, the Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Silver Emperor. In the eyes of the world, he was a human-beast hybrid born carrying original sin.
At last, he understood why so many people had been hostile to him despite his good behavior and exceptional talent; why he had been able to grow up safely in Spirit Hall, yet people still pointed at him behind his back.
In Douluo Continent, someone with his identity was an outcast everyone wanted to hunt down—the "bastard" denounced in black and white by the Human Alliance Declaration.
Forget giving him the finest education and the best resources. Just being allowed to live until now without someone killing him on the spot was already an enormous blessing.
And he owed it all to his mother, Bibi Dong.
This woman, who had no blood ties to him, had withstood the pressure within Spirit Hall and stubbornly sheltered him beneath her wings. She had given him a safe home and all her warmth and love.
An indescribable ache and gratitude welled up in him. Then came a bone-deep disappointment and resentment toward the birth father he had never met.
If he had dared to love a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, and dared to have a child with her, he should have done everything in his power to protect his beloved and his family.
But what had he done? Rather than taking his wife and hiding away, he had made sure the whole world knew.
When the old enshrined elder urged him to turn back before it was too late, he had not only refused to listen but gone into qi deviation and killed the old enshrined elder. In the end, he had failed to protect his wife, forcing her to sacrifice herself, then casually abandoned his newborn child—leaving him to bear the slur "mongrel" from the moment he was born and live surrounded by the world's malice.
What puzzled him even more was this: why had she sacrificed herself at precisely that moment?
There was something wrong with the whole thing. If you had been scheming to get a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast's Soul Ring and Soul Bone, then why, after succeeding, had you still not come forward to explain yourself? At least your reputation wouldn't be quite so foul. I could accept that.
The teacher in his beginner class had taught him the full Three Bonds and Five Constants, saying, "The father guides the son; if the father is unkind, the son may flee to another land." He had also taught him, "If the ruler is not benevolent, the subject need not be loyal; if the father is not kind, the son need not be filial."
But he had never believed that only the father guided the son.
The teacher had specifically warned them not to study incomplete versions of the classics, or they might lose their way. The same was true of the principles of life.
Take "struggle against Heaven" and "fight Heaven." A single character separated them, yet their meanings were worlds apart.
As he put it, studying incomplete cultivation techniques made it all too easy to go into qi deviation.
He wholeheartedly agreed.
The kindness of being given life was real, but so was the kindness of being raised.
Bibi Dong had given him a new life and dignity.
So in this life, Bibi Dong was his only mother.
Even if she was only his adoptive mother.
As for that irresponsible birth father, there was no need to acknowledge him.
At the thought, the panic in Tang San's eyes vanished, leaving only resolve.
He didn't hide his second Martial Soul in a panic like he had in his previous life.
This was his home, and beside him was the mother he would protect with every ounce of his strength.
He couldn't let the people who looked down on him laugh at him, much less let anyone point fingers at his mother because of him.
Black light burst from his left palm. The shadow of a pitch-black, incredibly heavy hammer slowly appeared. The moment it took shape, it unleashed an overbearing, unmatched pressure that made the entire Awakening Hall tremble faintly. It was none other than the top-tier offensive Tool Martial Soul passed down through the Clear Sky Sect for ten thousand years—the Clear Sky Hammer!
"Twin Martial Souls! Another Twin Martial Soul!"
Su Yuntao practically jumped into the air, his voice cracking. "A Tool Martial Soul! The Clear Sky Hammer! A top-tier offensive Tool Martial Soul! The Blue Silver Emperor and the Clear Sky Hammer—Twin Supreme Martial Souls!"
The whole hall fell dead silent, then erupted in an uproar!
"Twin Martial Souls! Another person with Twin Martial Souls!"
"The Blue Silver Emperor and the Clear Sky Hammer! He inherited both parents' top-tier Martial Souls! How is that possible?!"
"Innate Soul Power! Test his Innate Soul Power, quick!"
Su Yuntao hurriedly held the crystal ball out to Tang San, his hands trembling.
Tang San reached out his small hand and gently placed it on the crystal ball.
PS: How should I put it...
Before you continue