An Unwelcome Guest

The joy of choosing a name lasted until the little feast was over.

By the end of the meal, everyone had eaten their fill and enjoyed themselves.

"Delicious! Xiao Jiang, your mother's cooking is really good!"

Rui'er lay in Fang Le's arms, letting him rub her fluffy fur up and down.

She had the posture of a lazy fish, but every so often her tongue licked her lips, as if she were still reminiscing about the delicious meal.

"Of course! My mom's cooking is the best!"

Jiang Nannan, nestled in her mother's arms as well, declared proudly.

"If Miss Rui'er likes it, you can stay a few more days. My ingredients may not compare to those of the wealthy families, but I'm still quite confident in my cooking.

"And since you helped Nannan hunt for a Soul Ring, I should thank you as her mother. My family is struggling, so this is all I can offer in return."

Mother Jiang gently stroked Jiang Nannan's hair as she spoke, her face soft and warm.

"Xiao Le~~"

At that, Rui'er's two big eyes sparkled as she looked at Fang Le, seemingly asking for his opinion.

"Staying a few more days sounds nice. We don't have anywhere in particular to be, anyway, so we'll shamelessly freeload off Auntie Jiang for a few more meals!

"We'll bring our own ingredients. After that, we'll leave everything to your cooking, Auntie."

Fang Le was quite carefree now. He no longer needed to run around snatching up opportunities.

Besides, given his current circumstances, and considering the plot of Douluo II and the current timeline, those opportunities from the original story were either useless to him or not yet available for the taking.

Thinking back on Huo Yuhao's opportunities, the two most important ones were undoubtedly the million-year Soul Beast Sky Dream Ice Silkworm and Electrolux, the Necromancer Holy Law God.

First, there was Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's Soul Ring. Fang Le didn't rely on Soul Skills to deal damage; he relied entirely on Steve's mechanics and stats.

Even if all nine of his Soul Rings were white, he could still point at a Ten-Year Soul Ring and claim it was a million-year one.

Besides, he now had Di Tian and the entire Star Dou Forest backing him.

All he had to do was ask, and plenty of Soul Beasts in the Star Dou Forest would be willing to sacrifice themselves for him.

As for Elder Yi, Fang Le admitted that the Necromancer Holy Law God's legacy was incredible.

It could be said that Elder Yi was Huo Yuhao's greatest opportunity. Unfortunately, he was ultimately no match for the God King's schemes, and vanished completely.

Never mind anything else. Just the Soul Spirit Method and the Undead Demiplane, if used well, could make the path to becoming a God King smooth sailing.

More importantly, there was one-on-one tutoring from a master. When danger struck, he could even use the Heaven-tier Battle Skill, Ghost Possession, and take over the account to fight for him.

That was far better than some Gangzi from tens of thousands of years ago. No, Gangzi wasn't even worthy of being compared to Elder Yi.

Electrolux was practically Douluo Continent's version of Medicine Elder: the perfect mentor for a protagonist who needed to level up and fight monsters, a guiding light on the path of life.

But the problem was, even if Fang Le wanted to intercept him, no one knew where Electrolux's scattered soul fragments were drifting now.

Only later, by catching a ride on Huo Yuhao's absorption of Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, would he have a chance to try his luck.

That was at least many years away.

So for now, all Fang Le could do was cultivate in peace and regain his power step by step by passing the assessments.

And, along the way... enjoy the scenery.

As for that God King secretly stirring up trouble in the heavens, what should Fang Le do if he decided to target him?

Simple. He'd push him until he snapped.

If the ancestor of Evil Soul Masters in the heavens was going to oppress Fang Le, then Fang Le would just have to oppress the Evil Soul Masters on the ground.

He could easily cosplay as a Holy Angel, purging evil to level up, and his leveling speed would be even faster than Ye Guyi's in the original story.

With Di Tian and the Star Dou Forest backing him, he could lead the Ferocious Beasts to raid the Holy Spirit Cult's headquarters a few times and soak up plenty of experience.

If he couldn't reach Titled Douluo in three months, he'd consider himself a dud.

As for what other abilities he'd unlocked by the time he reached Titled Douluo, that could wait. Just the super strength stacked up by Steve would deal a fixed one hundred million points of damage.

A God King?

Fang Le would need only one punch.

If that wasn't enough, he'd throw in a few more.

And if that still didn't work, he could go live next door to the Silver Dragon King, cultivate in seclusion for a few decades, then come back and beat Tang Buddha to death with a flurry of punches.

While Fang Le and the others were enjoying themselves, Mi Long finally saw Mi Hu being carried over to find him.

"Brother! Avenge me! Avenge me! I'm going to kill him! Kill that brat! He crippled me! He ruined me!!

"Brother, you have to avenge me! I'll tear him limb from limb!"

Mi Hu had been carried over on a stretcher by two cronies he'd once been close with. When he saw his backer, his face twisted in rage, his eyes bloodshot as he howled through his tears.

"This... Little brother, who did this to you? Who dared to hurt you like this? Who's that brat?!"

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

He bent down, about to inspect his little brother's severed limbs, which had been crudely treated but were still covered in blood. But just before he touched them, he jerked his hand back as if he'd been shocked.

Seeing his little brother in such a frenzy, Mi Long slammed both hands into the ground. Cracks instantly spread across the hard stone slabs in front of him.

"Speak! What happened? Who did this to my little brother? I'll make him wish he were dead!"

After briefly venting his overwhelming fury on the ground, Mi Long forced himself to stay clear-headed and avoided looking at his little brother.

Instead, he turned his murderous gaze on the two men who had brought Mi Hu to him.

"It happened like this..."

The two of them were nothing but Soul Scholars without even a single Soul Ring. How could they withstand that gaze?

At once, they spilled everything like beans from a pod, recounting the morning's events to Mi Long in a jumbled rush.

"A child?! A middle-aged man in black? Two punks from Lingdou Intermediate Academy? Good! Very good! Where's that child now? Take me to him! Little brother, I'll go avenge you right now!"

His suppressed fury once again clouded Mi Long's mind. Cradling Mi Hu's tear-streaked face, he spoke with grim resolve.

"Big brother!"

"Little brother!!"

"Auntie, you seem to be a Soul Master too, but just now you were coughing constantly, even coughing up blood. Is that..."

In the little courtyard, Fang Le and the others were chatting about everyday things. Before long, the conversation turned to Mother Jiang's illness.

"Mom..."

At Fang Le's question, Jiang Nannan's hand tightened around her mother's clothes.

It was something she wanted to ask too. Her mother was a Soul Master, so why was she so frail?

She had never had any problems, but her mother always refused to talk about it.

The doctors she had invited, even the healing-type Soul Masters, would sigh and shake their heads after examining her mother. They would leave behind a prescription and hurry off.

Even though she was still a child, she could tell something was wrong.

Her mother was definitely hiding something from her.

"Alas! It was just fate playing tricks on me. Years ago, I absorbed a Soul Ring that exceeded my limit. I barely survived, but it left me in this state. Nannan's father never came back from that same Soul Hunting expedition..."

Seeing that the matter had come to this, Mother Jiang looked at the worry in Jiang Nannan's eyes and sighed.

There was no grand, sweeping story behind it.

Mother Jiang and Jiang Nannan's father had both been commoner Soul Masters. They met and fell in love, and their lives had been simple and ordinary.

Then she broke through to Soul Elder. The two of them couldn't afford to hire a Soul Hunting team, so they had to hunt for Soul Rings by themselves.

But Soul Hunting Forest was dangerous. Jiang Nannan's father lost his life, and although Mother Jiang absorbed a Soul Ring, a mistake in its age left her barely half alive.

Her cultivation could never advance again for the rest of her life.

Perhaps this was the sorrow of most commoner Soul Masters.

At first, she had wanted to follow Jiang Nannan's father in death, but her daughter had just been born. How could she bear to leave her alone in the world?

So she clung to life and raised Jiang Nannan.

But absorbing the Soul Ring had damaged her meridians, and even healing-type Soul Masters could do nothing. She could only use medicinal herbs to suppress the damage.

But the more she suppressed it, the worse it became. The fact that she had managed to hold on for so long was already a blessing, but she really couldn't go on much longer.

Yet she still hadn't seen her Nannan get married! She couldn't bear to leave her! But it seemed she had already become an obstacle on her daughter's path...

Just as mother and daughter Jiang were overcome with sorrow and Fang Le fell into thought,

"Everyone inside, get out here!"