Save, Must Save! My Daughter, I Will Spoil Her!

Hearing the system prompt.

Li Hao's first reaction was not the ecstatic joy of finding a treasure.

It was fear.

It was the instinctive fear of trouble that a salted fish feels deep within its marrow.

Run!

Immediately!

Right now!

This thought occupied almost his entire brain.

Queen Medusa?

Are you kidding me!

She is the queen of another novel's set, famous for her cruelty and tyranny, killing people as casually as stepping on an ant.

More importantly, what level of existence must an enemy be to beat her into such a near-death state?

Dou Emperor? Dou Zong? Or the legendary Dou Venerable powerhouse?

Terrifying!

He is currently just a six-and-a-half-year-old fisherman whose soul power is entirely gifted by his daughter, and his only martial soul is a broken fishing rod.

Save her?

And then what?

Wait for that terrifying enemy who could hunt down Queen Medusa to track the energy fluctuations to his doorstep and grind both him and his daughter into dust?

This deal has a risk-to-reward ratio that is completely out of proportion.

A massive loss!

"Daddy..."

Just as Li Hao prepared to pick up Xiao Wu and flee this place of trouble at a sprinter's pace, the corner of his clothes was tightly tugged by a small hand.

Xiao Wu looked at him with teary eyes, her small body trembling slightly from sadness.

Her little finger pointed at the massive crater, and with a sobbing voice, she spoke each word with absolute clarity.

"Save her... she is so pitiful..."

"Her heart... is so unwilling... she doesn't want to die like this..."

As a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, Xiao Wu could clearly feel the unyielding wail emanating from the depths of that seven-colored giant snake's soul.

It was a pride belonging to a ruler; even if the body decayed, the soul would never bow.

This feeling made her empathize, as if she were seeing herself, once hunted by countless powerful soul masters, eventually forced to sacrifice herself.

Li Hao's heart was fiercely tugged by these words.

But he still hardened his heart, putting on a stern face toward Xiao Wu for the first time.

"No!"

His answer was ironclad, without a hint of hesitation.

"Xiao Wu, be good. This thing is too dangerous; we can't afford to provoke it."

He tried to reason with his daughter, though he didn't know if a two- or three-year-old child could understand.

"If we save her, some very, very bad people might come to cause us trouble, and then Daddy won't be able to protect you."

This was the truth.

He could sacrifice his salted fish life.

But his daughter's safety was a bottom line he could never cross.

However, Xiao Wu shook her head stubbornly, tears sliding down her pink, delicate cheeks and dripping into the dust.

She didn't throw a tantrum; she just looked at Li Hao without blinking, her eyes clear and pure.

"Daddy said you would protect me."

"Daddy is so amazing, you can protect her too!"

Boom!

These words, like a bolt of lightning, struck the softest part of Li Hao's heart with pinpoint accuracy.

His entire body froze.

Five years since transmigrating to this world—two years spent in the ignorance of infancy, three years muddled in the village, and two weeks lying flat by the river.

He had always been an outsider, a passerby.

Until yesterday, when this little girl, carved from pink jade, descended from the sky, wrapped her arms around his neck, and called out "Daddy."

Only then did his life finally have an anchor.

For the first time, he felt needed.

For the first time, he felt the urge to protect someone.

Dad is so amazing...

Li Hao gave a bitter smile in his heart.

"Amazing, my ass."

"I'm just a complete and utter loser, a salted fish who only wants to slack off and wait for death."

Yet, looking into his daughter's eyes—filled with trust and expectation, reflecting his own small figure as something so tall and omnipotent—an unprecedented emotion surged from his chest.

It was sour, yet scorching.

If...

If he couldn't even fulfill this small, kind wish of his daughter...

Then he was a failure of a father.

Screw this salted fish life!

Screw the danger!

Today, I'm going to show you just how amazing your father really is!

Li Hao took a deep breath, as if to expel all his hesitation and fear.

He crouched down and used his rough fingertips to gently wipe the tear stains from Xiao Wu's face.

"What if—and I mean, what if—after saving her, we attract a terrifying enemy? We might be hunted down forever and never be able to bask in the sun in peace again. Are you afraid, Xiao Wu?"

Xiao Wu sniffled and shook her head without a moment's hesitation.

She reached out her small hands, wrapped them tightly around Li Hao's neck, buried her little head in his shoulder, and said in a muffled voice.

"I'm not afraid!"

"As long as I'm with Dad, Xiao Wu isn't afraid of anything!"

Good.

That's enough.

That sentence is enough.

Li Hao asked the system one last time in his heart.

"What is the worst-case scenario if I save her?"

The system's reply was cold and direct.

[Worst-case scenario one: The enemy who wounded this unit tracks us down, and the host and the Soul Beast Girl team face total annihilation.]

[Worst-case scenario two: The energy fluctuations generated by this healing/evolution will be sensed by all top forces on the Douluo Continent (Martial Soul Hall, Upper Three Sects, Two Great Empires Royal Families) as well as the God Realm, exposing the host to the vision of all chess players prematurely.]

Every outcome pointed toward eternal damnation.

Yet, Li Hao laughed.

"Exposed?"

"I already trampled Tang San's protagonist halo into the dirt at the gate of Nuoding Academy yesterday."

"Still afraid of being exposed?"

"If you have enough lice, you don't itch; if you have enough debt, you don't worry!"

"Damn it, let's do it!"

Li Hao cursed under his breath, as if to bolster his own courage.

He was no hero.

He was just a father.

An inadequate father, forced into a corner by his daughter.

He stood up and ruffled Xiao Wu's hair one last time; his heart, previously in a panic, became incredibly firm at this moment.

His movements were impossibly gentle.

"Alright, Dad will save her."

"Xiao Wu, go stand behind that big rock. Cover your eyes and ears, and no matter what happens, don't come out."

"The scene in a moment might be... a bit spectacular."

Xiao Wu nodded, half-understanding, and obediently ran behind a massive boulder in the distance. She poked half her little head out, watching him with a mix of nervousness and anticipation.

Li Hao turned around and walked alone toward the massive crater.

The closer he got, the more intense the aura of tyranny and destruction became; the purple-black poison gas even caused the air to distort.

The giant snake's body was so enormous that its head alone was larger than Li Hao himself.

The seven-colored scales were shattered and ruined; one eye was already blind, while the other golden vertical pupil held only a final, flickering glimmer of defiance.

Li Hao stood before her, as insignificant as an ant.

He felt not a shred of fear, slowly extending his small hand, the hand belonging to a six-year-old child.

Gently, he pressed it against the massive, blood-stained and scarred head of Queen Medusa.

The touch was cold and silky; it felt truly remarkable.

After stroking it for two seconds, Li Hao finally snapped back to reality.

The next second, he issued a command to the system in his mind.

"Heal!"

"And initiate, Bond Evolution!"

The moment the command was issued.

BOOM!

A seven-colored pillar of light, a hundred, a thousand times more intense than when Xiao Wu evolved, erupted violently from Queen Medusa's body and shot into the sky!

The pillar of light was as thick as a mountain, piercing through heaven and earth, like a sword of divine retribution from the creation, instantly tearing through the dense clouds above the Star Dou Forest!

The entire core area of the forest was, at this moment, completely illuminated by this overbearing and peerless seven-colored divine light!