On the other side, at the Yuanen Family estate.
The night was as dark as ink, and moonlight spilled across the Yuanen Family's manor, cloaking it in a heavy, mournful atmosphere.
Yuanen Tiandang carefully supported his wife, Yehui, as they slowly walked along the flagstone path.
Both were silent, their lips pressed tightly together. They said nothing, only moving mechanically, as though their souls had left them.
The horrific scene of the clan members' misfortune that day remained vivid in their minds. Though the Yuanen Family's elders were heartbroken, they knew that Yuanen Tiandang was a once-in-a-century genius. None of them truly wanted to drive to his death the family's hope of reaching Limit Douluo.
With Yuanen Tiandang risking his life to protect Yehui and staying by her side without ever leaving, the elders hadn't continued to hound her.
But Yehui could lose control again at any moment. The Demon Plane hung over them like a sword poised above their heads, leaving everyone unable to eat or sleep in peace.
Yuanen Zhentian had brought out the family law from the ancestral hall and, in full view of the clan, beaten Yuanen Tiandang mercilessly. Then he had made him kneel until nightfall before allowing the loving couple to return home.
But the most thorny problem still remained unsolved.
After all the reassurances, the clan members had agreed not to pursue the day's calamity, but they absolutely couldn't allow such a ticking time bomb to remain within the family.
The cold moonlight fell across Yehui's face, making the despair in her eyes all the more unmistakable. After a long silence, just as they were about to reach home, she finally spoke. "Tiandang, can you promise me something?"
Yuanen Tiandang's heart sank. He knew all too well what his wife was thinking, and immediately refused in a low voice, his tone stubborn and leaving no room for argument. "No."
He knew better than anyone that Yehui had become irrevocably bound to the Demon Gate. If they couldn't find a way to seal her Martial Soul completely, the only solution was to destroy the gate. Yehui had already made up her mind to die.
Now that she'd brought it up, she surely wanted him to promise that if she was gone, he would go on living and raise their daughter, Yuanen Yehui, well.
Seeing Yehui's lips move as she tried to persuade him again, Yuanen Tiandang hurriedly cut her off, his voice full of pleading and evasion. "Don't think about that. If we don't get back soon, Huihui will be scared."
He was in agony. He simply couldn't bear to hear the woman he loved speak of death in front of him and entrust their daughter to his care.
Strength—he desperately longed for strength right now!
If he'd had a set of Four-Word Battle Armor today, its amplification would have let him kill all the demons' high-ranking fighters at once. With so many elders left to deal with the rest, none of the clan members would have been caught up in the disaster.
Yuanen Tiandang clutched Yehui's cold hand tightly, his gratitude toward Leng Qingning and Le Lingzhao reaching its peak.
If the two of them hadn't arrived in time, today's situation would have been impossible to contain.
Especially Tian Shang. If his younger brother's wife had died, Yuanen Tiandang wouldn't have known how to face him.
He hadn't had a good impression of An Lan before. Not because An Lan had done anything wrong, but because, as a father, he naturally disliked any member of the opposite sex who got close to his daughter.
Even if it was just a child, he'd still felt hostile.
But after learning from his father that An Lan was a disciple of both Her Excellency Purple Phoenix and Her Excellency Judgment, his opinion of An Lan had changed considerably.
Remembering the plan his father and the clan elders had discussed that day, Yuanen Tiandang felt a glimmer of hope.
The Phoenix Family and the Angel Family each had two Limit Douluo, and their foundations ran unfathomably deep. Perhaps they really did possess a divine artifact capable of sealing his wife's Martial Soul.
Though the Demon Plane was powerful, it had no god-level beings. As long as his father's alliance plan went smoothly, the dangers hanging over his wife and daughter could both be eliminated.
But all of it still depended on strength.
Seclusion wouldn't save his wife and daughter.
At that thought, a look of resolve flashed through Yuanen Tiandang's eyes. He had to leave—not only to break through to Limit Douluo as soon as possible, but also to obtain a set of Four-Word Battle Armor of his own.
The resource-poor Yuanen Family couldn't provide him with any of that. Otherwise, his father, a demigod, wouldn't still be wearing Three-Word Battle Armor.
Burdened by their worries, the two unknowingly reached the entrance to their courtyard.
Yehui didn't want their young daughter to see how haggard she looked, much less realize that something had happened at home.
She quickly stopped Yuanen Tiandang as he reached for the door, then stood outside and took several deep breaths, slowly composing herself as she tried to summon a gentle smile.
A moment later, she turned to her husband, her voice tinged with unease. "How do I look? Don't let me scare Huihui."
Seeing his wife force herself to perk up, Yuanen Tiandang's heart ached. He put on a smile and said, "Perfect."
"Good. That's good," Yehui murmured softly, breathing a sigh of relief.
They gently pushed the courtyard gate open. Seeing the light still on inside, they quickened their pace.
Yehui was the first to open the door and step inside. At a glance, she saw that Yuanen Yehui hadn't gone back to her room. She was curled up on the living-room sofa, her little body drawn into a ball, asleep with a cushion in her arms.
Yehui's eyes instantly reddened, and her nose prickled. She almost burst into tears.
It didn't matter what happened to her, but Huihui was still so little. How had she inherited Yehui's Fallen Angel Martial Soul?
Yuanen Tiandang gently patted his wife's shoulder. "Don't worry. There'll be a way."
With that, he tiptoed over, wanting to carry his sleeping daughter back to her room.
But just as he bent down, before his fingertips could touch the hem of her clothes, Yuanen Yehui rubbed her sleepy eyes and drowsily woke up.
The moment she saw her father, she sat up and blurted out her first word. "Dad."
"Yes, sweetheart," Yuanen Tiandang answered gently.
Looking at his daughter, whose red hair matched her mother's, and whose nose and eyes were almost identical, his heart melted in an instant.
She was the fruit of his and Yehui's love. How could he not love her?
Yuanen Yehui seemed to suddenly remember something and asked earnestly, "Dad, can you forge? I want to learn blacksmithing."
Yuanen Tiandang was taken aback, then smiled and drew his daughter into his arms. "Sweetheart, how did you find out about blacksmithing?"
It had been three months since Yuanen Yehui's Martial Soul Awakening, but Yuanen Tiandang had thought that One-Word Battle Armor required a cultivator to reach the fifth ring before they could wear it. So he'd planned to wait until his daughter reached the third ring and became a Soul Elder before introducing her to a secondary profession.
Besides, there was no harm in waiting until she reached the third ring to start preparing her Battle Armor. For now, she could focus on cultivating Soul Power; she didn't need the burden of two disciplines at such a young age.
"An Lan told me. It's all your fault, Dad. An Lan only awakened her Martial Soul today, and her teacher already helped her make plans to study a second profession. But I awakened mine ages ago, and I don't even know what Battle Armor is."
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