An Unexpected Encounter with Wang Dong!

For Zichuan, a five-day journey was nothing more than a leisurely stroll.

He declined Du Busi's offer to send guards or elders to accompany him, setting off toward the Star Dou Great Forest alone with a massive pack strapped to his back that stood nearly half his height.

The pack was stuffed to the brim with durable, high-calorie supplies: dried meat, flatbreads, smoked bacon, and several large waterskins.

There was no helping it; the terrifying metabolism brought on by his two hearts had turned him into an absolute "bottomless pit." He was hungry every step of the way, and if he didn't carry enough rations, he feared he might end up gnawing on the livestock in the pens of the villages he passed.

The journey was uneventful, consisting of nothing but eating and walking.

Life was simple and monotonous, but Zichuan enjoyed it. The steady improvement of his strength and the anticipation of the opportunities ahead made his footsteps feel all the lighter.

By the evening of the fifth day, the familiar, vast, and boundless dark green silhouette of the Star Dou Great Forest was already visible in the distance. The air grew humid, and the wind carried the pungent scent of vegetation and soil, along with the faint aura of soul beasts.

Zichuan estimated that at his current pace, he would reach the outer perimeter of the forest in less than a day.

He found a clearing beside a stream and unloaded his pack, which had become significantly lighter. He prepared to build a fire, roast his last few rock-hard meat pies until they were soft for dinner, and then get a good night's sleep to recharge his spirit before officially entering the forest tomorrow to begin tracking that million-year-old Sky Dream Ice Silkworm.

However, just as he skewered a meat pie on a branch and leaned it toward the campfire—

"Wait! Stop!"

The voice of God of Destruction exploded in his mind. It was no longer the usual lazy or teasing tone, but one filled with unprecedented shock, vigilance, and even... a trace of unbelievable fury?

Zichuan's movements froze, his heart tightening. "What is it, Old Zi? Did you find the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm? Or... is there danger?"

He became instantly alert, secretly gathering his soul power as his spiritual perception spread outward like spilled mercury.

Could something so formidable have appeared that it made God of Destruction lose his composure? Surely he wasn't so unlucky as to run into Bear Lord again?

"No... it's not the bug, nor is it that old blind bear..."

God of Destruction's voice carried an incredibly complex emotion, as if he were confirming something while simultaneously suppressing a roiling rage. "It is... the aura of Tang San!"

"What?!" Zichuan's hair stood on end, his heart skipped a beat, and he nearly dropped the meat pie into the fire.

"Tang San?! He descended to the lower realm?! Nearby?! Don't scare me, Old Zi!"

He was only at level 60 soul power. Although his combat strength far exceeded his peers, facing a God King-level existence like Tang San—even if it were just an avatar or a sliver of divine sense—was like an ant trying to shake a tree; it was suicide! He hadn't even started grabbing his "meal" yet, and the creditor was already at his door?

"No, that's not right..." God of Destruction's consciousness acted like a precision radar, carefully scanning the extremely faint yet fundamentally terrifying aura fluctuations in the distance.

"The aura is weak, very weak, and... very strange. It doesn't feel like his true body, nor does it feel like a complete divine sense descent... It's more like..."

He fell silent for a moment, seemingly discerning the details. Then, Zichuan could "feel" the dark red divine sense of destruction in his Sea of Consciousness fluctuate violently, radiating a mixture of disgust, realization, and... an even more intense, nauseating emotion.

"It's his daughter! Xiao Qi! The daughter of Tang San and Xiao Wu! That little girl with the Twin Martial Souls of the Radiant Goddess Butterfly and the Clear Sky Hammer!"

God of Destruction's voice was bone-chilling, every word squeezed out from between his teeth.

"No, she shouldn't be called Xiao Qi anymore... According to the arrangements of that hypocrite Tang San, she goes by Wang Dong, or is it Wang Dong? She disguised her gender and went to Shrek Academy as the young master of the Clear Sky Sect to 'accidentally encounter' Huo Yuhao!"

Zichuan was stunned, his mind racing. Wang Dong? Huo Yuhao's roommate in the original story, his future wife, whose true identity was Tang San's daughter, Tang Wutong, the little princess of the God Realm?

Why was she here? According to the timeline, she should indeed be on her way to Shrek Academy...

"Tang San's aura... is it a divine sense imprint left on his daughter? Or is it that part he split off..."

God of Destruction seemed to be talking to himself, the disgust in his tone nearly overflowing.

"Disgusting! It's fucking disgusting! To bind the Child of Destiny to his Tang family's war chariot, he actually had the heart to peel away his own daughter's soul, splitting it in two, and later even created that Wang Qiu'er... all to ensure nothing went wrong, so that kid Huo Yuhao could never escape his daughter's palm! To commit such a vicious act against his own flesh and blood, does this even count as a father?!"

Listening to God of Destruction's undisguised hatred and contempt, Zichuan's own perception of Tang San plummeted to rock bottom.

Although he had known about this plot, hearing it from God of Destruction—a "former colleague" and "victim"—with such intense emotion felt entirely different.

It was no longer just calculation; it was an absolute, spine-chilling control and distortion of the fate of his own kin.

"No wonder I felt this aura was strange—weak, yet of an incredibly high essence, and carrying those nauseating 'blessings' and 'shackles' belonging to Asura and the Sea God..."

God of Destruction sneered repeatedly. "Tang San, oh Tang San, you really have gone to great lengths!"

Just then, God of Destruction's mood shifted abruptly. That monstrous rage and disgust strangely receded, replaced by a... familiar, mischievously wicked excitement.

"Kid!" God of Destruction's voice echoed in Zichuan's mind, carrying obvious mockery and incitement. "Let me ask you something."

A sense of foreboding rose in Zichuan's heart. "...What do you want now?"

"Do you want a wife?" God of Destruction's voice was full of temptation.

"This Wang Dong is Tang San and Xiao Wu's biological daughter, the little princess of the God Realm. In terms of looks, talent, and background... tsk tsk, she is absolutely the cream of the crop! Although she's currently disguised as a boy, she's a delicate girl at heart! How about it? Consider it? Add her to your list of potential wives?"

Zichuan: "..."

He felt the veins on his forehead throbbing rhythmically. Not again?!

Old Zi, how obsessed are you with "finding me a wife"?! And who is the target this time? Tang San's daughter!

The little princess of the God Realm! You want me to pry the corner off Tang San's wall and snatch the wife he's already earmarked for his "son-in-law"?

This isn't just snatching food from a tiger's mouth; this is digging up Tang San's ancestral grave! As exciting as it sounds, but...

"The key is, how do I even do that?" Zichuan rubbed his forehead, sighing helplessly.

"Just walk up and hit on her? 'Hi, beauty, I'm the son of your father's enemy, I've taken a fancy to you, come with me'? Besides, she thinks she's a boy right now. If I go up and say that, I'll be treated like a pervert, won't I?"