Xiao Wu is Actually My Daughter!

What?

The moment he heard Er Ming's words, Jiang Li rose to his feet instantly.

The rattan chair overturned behind him, and the foxtail grass in his mouth drifted to the ground. Every trace of indifference and leisure on that face, which had always been calm and composed, vanished in an instant, replaced by a gaze so sharp it was suffocating.

"What did you say? Say it again."

Er Ming was so stung by that gaze he could barely keep his eyes open, yet he gritted his teeth and repeated, "Xiao Wu is Aunt Xiao Rou's daughter. Before Aunt Xiao Rou transformed and recultivated, she left Xiao Wu behind."

Jiang Li finally connected the invisible threads.

Soft Bone Charm Rabbit, Xiao Rou.

She had married him a hundred thousand years ago, and in these long, drawn-out years, she had left behind her child.

That child was named Xiao Wu!

Xiao Wu was actually his, Jiang Li's, daughter!

And yet, his own daughter had been schemed into Martial Soul Hall by Tang San?!

Jiang Li knew the story from that book all too well.

What kind of place was Martial Soul City?

It was the headquarters of Martial Soul Hall, a place where Title Douluo gathered in droves.

If Xiao Wu exposed her identity there, there was only one outcome.

Sacrifice!

That little rabbit would offer up everything she had—her spirit rings, her spirit bones—all to become a stepping stone for that boy named Tang San to reach the pinnacle.

And all of this had been a foregone conclusion long before that boy led Xiao Wu into Martial Soul City.

Good!

Very good!

A fine job you've done, Tang San, scheming against my daughter!

Jiang Li's aura spiraled out of control in that instant.

BOOM—

A force of indescribable terror erupted violently from within his body.

It was the aura of slaughter accumulated over a hundred thousand years of guarding the abyss, the blood and violence deposited after countless abyssal creatures had been slaughtered to extinction.

The plants in the small courtyard snapped in unison, the divine stones on the floor hummed and trembled, and the air was compressed until it emitted a sharp, mournful wail.

In the basement, behind the great gate, countless spirit beast armies prostrated themselves on the ground, their entire bodies trembling in fear.

The abyssal creatures that had fought them for countless years were even more terrified; those scarlet monsters didn't hesitate for a second, turning tail and fleeing deep into the abyssal rift, not even daring to look back.

In this moment, every living soul in the entire Abyssal Plane seemed to see a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.

This scene was not unfamiliar to the abyssal creatures.

A hundred thousand years.

A full hundred thousand years.

This human named Jiang Li, though he spent the vast majority of his days lazily lying on a rattan chair, appearing as if he had no interest in worldly affairs, did not have a temperament as stable as a spirit beast.

Over the long span of a hundred thousand years, this man would go mad from time to time, and when he went mad, he would slaughter the abyss at any cost.

Sometimes he would be drinking wine, suddenly decide he wanted to go mad, and charge into the abyss with his sword.

Sometimes he would look at the sky and say he missed Xiao Rou, and go mad, turning the abyss upside down.

The Abyssal Demon Emperor expressed extreme helplessness regarding this.

If you miss your wife, go find her! Why are you taking it out on us?

We are abyssal creatures, yes, but we aren't masochists!

Besides, you've blocked the abyssal rift so tightly, can we even get out?

Could we even stop you from going to find your wife?

Now, this man was going crazy again.

And this time, he was crazier than ever before.

That terrifying aura crushed across the abyss like a physical weight, and countless low-level abyssal creatures exploded into blood mist on the spot.

The Abyssal Demon Emperor huddled on his throne, feeling the rage that threatened to overturn the entire plane, and sighed silently.

What was he angry about this time?

The humanity of this taboo existence named Jiang Li was growing weaker and weaker, becoming increasingly untraceable.

If this continued, he would sooner or later become a heartless Heavenly Dao.

Forget it, I'm used to it...

On the surface, Jiang Li's rage was far from subsiding.

He looked up at the sky, his gaze piercing through the arrays that obscured the heavenly secrets and through layers of clouds, as if intending to stab into the God Realm.

"Damn system!" he cursed in a low, furious voice, filled with the violence and resentment suppressed for one hundred thousand years. "I'm done guarding this Abyss! You can find someone else to do it!"

"I have suppressed the Abyss for a full one hundred thousand years. If I'm not the Son of the Plane, I'm at least the Father of the Plane, right? For these one hundred thousand years, I have been diligent and never left my post, guarding this rift for you. Yet, this is how you treat me? Letting my daughter be schemed against?"

The more he spoke, the angrier he became. The aura around him surged like boiling magma, and fine cracks began to appear on the divine stone floor beneath his feet.

"You lot sure know how to calculate! You make me guard the Abyss, use me as a tool, and in the end, I can't even protect my own flesh and blood? I'm done with this deal!"

With that, Jiang Li turned to leave.

For one hundred thousand years, he had never stepped out of this small courtyard. But now, he was going to Martial Soul City.

Yet, the moment he took his first step, that familiar notification sound rang in his mind.

[Ding! Congratulations to the host, you have checked in for one hundred thousand years. A brand new feature is now available for you—Offspring Cultivation Module!]

Jiang Li's footsteps halted.

Offspring Cultivation Module?

For one hundred thousand years, the system's functions had been nothing but checking in and distributing rewards; it had never produced any new tricks. This was the first time a new functional module had been unlocked.

Before he could even think it through, the system's notification continued.

[Detected host's bloodline—Xiao Wu, identity: Soft Bone Charm Rabbit in human form, current coordinates: Martial Soul City. Status: Exposed.]

Jiang Li's brow twitched.

[Releasing the first task for the Offspring Cultivation Module.]

[Task Objective: Have your daughter Xiao Wu escape Martial Soul City using her own strength or that of her friends.]

[Task Reward: Twin Martial Souls (Eligible recipient: Xiao Wu); Host's Humanity +1]

Jiang Li stopped all movement.

Twin Martial Souls.

He knew better than anyone what those four words meant on the Douluo Continent.

It was a talent found in one out of a billion, a pass to the pinnacle, and a heaven-defying opportunity capable of changing a soul master's fate. In the original story, which holder of Twin Martial Souls wasn't a figure standing at the forefront of their era?

If this reward were for him, he wouldn't even spare it a glance.

Having checked in for one hundred thousand years, he held so many trump cards that he could barely count them himself.

To others, this was a priceless treasure, but to him, it was nothing more than dust-gathering inventory in his warehouse.

However—the recipient of this reward was Xiao Wu.

Jiang Li fell silent.

Regarding this daughter he had never met, his inner emotions were incredibly complex.

For one hundred thousand years, he hadn't even known that there was a child in this world who shared his bloodline.

While she grew up alone in the Star Dou Forest, while she made the decision to take human form and cultivate anew, and while she faced all the storms alone, he had been guarding the Abyss rift in that small courtyard, completely oblivious.

Indebted.

That was the first word that surfaced in his mind.

If he could present that child with Twin Martial Souls as a gift upon their first meeting, perhaps it could be considered a small measure of compensation.

What's more, the task itself...

Jiang Li narrowed his eyes, a curve slowly forming at the corners of his mouth.

Let Xiao Wu escape Martial Soul City using her own strength or that of her friends?

What was difficult about that?

In the original story, even a half-crippled Tang Hao could kill his way in and out of Martial Soul City to get Xiao Wu out.

The real difficulty wasn't strength, but the choice Xiao Wu made at that moment.

In the past, she had been completely trapped by Tang San's bitter-meat scheme, willingly jumping into the fire pit.

But this lifetime, it would be different.

Tang San's bitter-meat scheme, Tang Hao's sacrificial rescue—these interlocking dramas would never again ensnare Xiao Wu.

Jiang Li saw it very clearly.

The system's task requirement was for Xiao Wu to escape "using her own strength or that of her friends," which clearly told him:

Dad, don't intervene personally; don't abandon your duty of guarding the Abyss.

To put it bluntly, this restriction was just the system fearing he would stop guarding the Abyss.

But finding a loophole in the rules was simpler than eating or drinking for a Jiang Li who had lived for one hundred thousand years.

As a Beast Tamer, his greatest specialty was strengthening soul beasts; he could even strengthen a soul beast that surpassed Bibi Dong!

Jiang Li turned around and strode toward the entrance of the basement.

He pressed his hands against the stone door and slammed it shut.

BOOM!

The stone gate slammed shut, sealing the Abyss rift along with the countless soul beast army and the fleeing Abyssal creatures deep underground.

He casually cast a restriction upon the gate and dusted off his hands.

For the first time in one hundred thousand years, this gate was closed.

Jiang Li then walked to the center of the courtyard, grabbed Er Ming by the arm, and hauled the massive Titan Giant Ape into the yard.

Er Ming stumbled from the sudden force, his colossal frame nearly knocking over the stone table in the courtyard.

"Er Ming," Jiang Li said, staring into his eyes with a solemn tone, "you are a friend of my Xiao Wu, aren't you?"