Unwelcome Guests

The joy of naming continued until the small banquet came to an end.

The meal was enjoyed by both host and guests alike.

"Delicious! Little Jiang, your mother's cooking is truly excellent!"

Rui'er lay in Fang Le's arms, allowing him to rub her fluffy fur.

She maintained the posture of a salted fish, though her tongue flicked out from time to time to lick the corners of her mouth, as if still reminiscing about the previous delicacies.

"That's right! My mother's cooking is the best!"

Jiang Nannan, also curled up in her mother's arms, said with great pride.

"If Miss Rui'er... likes it, you are welcome to stay for a few more days. Although the ingredients cannot compare to those of wealthy families, I am still quite confident in my own skills.

Besides, since you all were able to hunt a soul ring for Nannan, as a mother, I naturally feel grateful. Our family is poor, so this is the only way I can show my appreciation."

Mother Jiang stroked Jiang Nannan's hair gently, speaking with a soft expression.

"Little Le~~"

Hearing this, Rui'er's large eyes shone as she looked at Fang Le, seemingly seeking his opinion.

"Staying a few more days sounds good. We don't have any fixed destination anyway, so we'll shamelessly sponge a few more meals off Auntie Jiang!

We will provide our own ingredients; the rest will depend on Auntie's skills."

Fang Le's current mindset was very carefree; he no longer needed to run around scrambling for opportunities.

Moreover, given Fang Le's current situation, according to the plot of Douluo Continent II and the current timeline, those original opportunities were either useless to him or the timing was not yet right to seize them.

Recalling Huo Yuhao's opportunities, the two most important were undoubtedly the million-year Soul Beast Sky Dream Ice Silkworm and the Necromancer Electrolux.

Regarding the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm and the soul ring, Fang Le did not need soul skills to deal damage; he relied entirely on Steve's mechanics and stats.

Even if all nine of his soul rings were white, it wouldn't stop him from pointing at a ten-year soul ring and calling it a million-year one.

Furthermore, he now had Di Tian and the entire Star Dou Forest standing behind him.

As long as he expressed the desire, there were plenty of Soul Beasts in the Star Dou Forest willing to offer themselves as sacrifices.

As for Elder Yi, Fang Le admitted that the inheritance of the Necromancer was top-tier.

It could be said that Elder Yi was Huo Yuhao's greatest opportunity, but unfortunately, he ultimately could not withstand the schemes of the God King and dissipated completely.

Not to mention anything else, just the method of Soul Spirits and the Undead Half-Plane—if played well, the path to becoming a God King would be smooth sailing.

More importantly, there was one-on-one tutoring from a master, and in times of danger, one could even use the Heaven-tier Dou Technique "Ghost Possession" to have the master take over the account.

Compared to a certain "Gangzi" from tens of thousands of years ago—no, wait, Gangzi didn't even deserve to be compared to Elder Yi.

Electrolux was essentially the Douluo Continent version of Yao Lao, the essential guide for a protagonist to level up and fight monsters, a beacon on the path of life.

But the problem was, even if Fang Le wanted to intercept him, he didn't even know where Elder Yi's soul fragments were drifting.

He would only have a chance to try his luck by hitching a ride when Huo Yuhao absorbed the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm later on.

That would be pushing the timeline back by at least several years.

Therefore, all Fang Le could do now was cultivate with peace of mind and retrieve his power step-by-step through the assessments.

And by the way... enjoy the scenery along the way.

As for that certain God King secretly causing trouble in the heavens, what if he wanted to target him?

Simple: provoke him until he's desperate.

If the ancestor of the Evil Soul Master in the sky was oppressing Fang Le, then Fang Le could only oppress the Evil Soul Masters on the ground.

He could perfectly cosplay as a Holy Angel purging evil to level up, and Fang Le's leveling speed would only be faster than the original Ye Guyi.

When the time came, with the assistance of Di Tian and the Star Dou Forest, he could lead the fierce beasts to raid the headquarters of the Holy Spirit Cult a few times and absorb some experience.

If he didn't reach Title Douluo within three months, he would consider it a failure.

As for after reaching Title Douluo, not to mention whether other abilities would be unlocked, the super strength stacked by Steve alone could reach a fixed damage of 100 million points.

God King?

Fang Le would only throw one punch.

If that wasn't enough, he would just add a few more.

If that still didn't work, he could go be neighbors with the Silver Dragon King, endure and cultivate for a few decades, and then come out to beat Tang Buddha to death with a flurry of punches.

Just as Fang Le and the others were enjoying their harmonious time, Mi Long finally saw Mi Hu, who had been carried to him.

"Brother! Avenge me! Avenge me!! I want to kill him! Kill that brat, he crippled me! He ruined me!!

Brother, you must avenge me! I want to tear him into ten thousand pieces!"

Mi Hu, carried before Mi Long by two lackeys he was close with, saw his backer and roared in agony, his face twisted and his eyes bloodshot.

"This... Little Brother, who did this! Who on earth dared to cripple you like this! And who is that brat!"

Mi Long stared at Mi Hu, who lay on the stretcher missing limbs and screaming frantically for revenge.

He leaned down, intending to inspect his brother's crudely bandaged, blood-soaked stumps, but pulled his hand back as if electrocuted just before making contact.

Watching his brother descend into madness, Mi Long slammed his fists into the ground, causing cracks to spiderweb across the solid bluestone tiles before him.

"Speak! What exactly happened!? Who did this to my brother? I will make him wish he were dead!!"

After briefly venting his towering rage on the floor, Mi Long forced himself to stay composed, unable to bear looking at his brother any longer.

Instead, he turned his eyes, brimming with murderous intent, toward the two men who had brought Mi Hu back.

"It was like this..."

The two men were merely Soul Masters who hadn't even obtained a single soul ring; they could not withstand such a gaze.

Instantly, they spilled the story like beans, rambling incoherently as they recounted the events of the morning to Mi Long.

"A kid!? A middle-aged man in black? Two pieces of trash from Lingdou Intermediate Academy? Good! Very good! Where is that kid now? Take me to find him! Brother, I am going to avenge you right now!"

The rage he had suppressed once again eroded Mi Long's sanity. He cupped Mi Hu's tear-streaked, snot-covered face and spoke with grim determination.

"Brother!"

"Little brother!!"

"Auntie, I can see that you are a Soul Master, but you've been coughing constantly, even coughing up blood. This is..."

Inside the small courtyard, Fang Le and the others were chatting about daily life, eventually turning the conversation to Mother Jiang's illness.

"Mom..."

At Fang Le's inquiry, Jiang Nannan's hand tightened on her mother's lapel.

This was a question she had wanted to ask as well; it made no sense for her mother to be a Soul Master yet possess such a frail body.

Whenever she asked, her mother would always clam up.

Moreover, the physicians and even Healing-type Soul Masters she had hired would always sigh and shake their heads after examining her mother, leaving behind a prescription before hurrying away.

Even as a child, she could see that something was wrong.

Her mother was definitely hiding something from her.

"Sigh! It's just a cruel twist of fate, really. Years ago, I absorbed a soul ring that exceeded my limit. I barely managed to save my life, but I ended up in this state. Nannan's father never returned from that Soul Hunting Forest trip either..."

Seeing that the matter had been pressed this far, and looking into Jiang Nannan's eyes filled with worry, Mother Jiang sighed and spoke.

There was no grand, epic story.

Mother Jiang and Jiang Nannan's father were both commoner Soul Masters; their meeting and falling in love had been entirely ordinary.

It wasn't until she reached the breakthrough to Soul Elder that they, lacking the money to hire a professional hunting team, decided to hunt for a soul ring on their own.

However, the Soul Hunting Forest was treacherous. Father Jiang lost his life, and although Mother Jiang successfully absorbed the soul ring, the age limit had been too high, and she barely clung to half a life.

Her cultivation had been permanently stunted ever since.

Perhaps this was the tragedy of most commoner Soul Masters.

She had originally wanted to follow Father Jiang into death, but her daughter had just been born, and she couldn't bear to leave her alone in this world to suffer.

Thus, she forced herself to hang on, raising Jiang Nannan to adulthood.

However, the damage to her meridians from the soul ring absorption left even Healing-type Soul Masters helpless, leaving her to rely on herbal medicine to suppress the condition.

But the more she suppressed it, the more it damaged her; it was already a miracle that she had lasted this long, but she truly could not hold on much longer.

Yet, she hadn't even seen her Nannan start a family! She couldn't rest easy! But it seemed she had already become an obstacle on her daughter's path forward...

Just as the mother and daughter were lost in sorrow and Fang Le was deep in thought:

"Everyone inside, get out here!"