The Whole Family Isn't Simple

The Red-Grade Mecha began to decelerate while still on the outskirts of the villa district. Mu Ye clearly recognized who was lying on the ground—the Spirit Pagoda Master, Qiangu Dongfeng.

This guy had actually been defeated by someone?

And the battle had ended so quickly.

The car doors opened, and the three of them saw the scene in the courtyard at the same time.

The lawn had been turned completely upside down, with crushed stone and soil mixed together.

Qiangu Dongfeng lay on his back in the pile of rubble, a blade mark stretching from his right shoulder to his left ribcage, his white undershirt dyed crimson with blood.

Xiao Ming stood on the steps, holding a Tang Dao in his hand. He was dressed in casual black loungewear, his sleeves rolled up to his forearms. Hearing the engine, he tilted his head and glanced over.

"You're finally back. My wife already told me." His tone was natural, as if he had known everything all along.

Xiao Mu glanced at Qiangu Dongfeng on the ground, then at the blade in his father's hand.

"Dad, your strength is actually this high?"

Xiao Ming put the Tang Dao away casually. "It's just that he's too weak."

Standing behind Xiao Mu, Mu Ye shifted his gaze back and forth between Xiao Ming and Qiangu Dongfeng three times. This family was very strange; Xiao Mu hadn't contacted his parents in advance, and he remembered that clearly—his memory definitely hadn't failed him.

How did this family seem to know he was coming? What was going on?

Mu Ye swallowed hard.

"Xiao Mu, your dad is a Titled Douluo? Did you know that?"

"I knew, I just didn't know how powerful he was."

"Oh, I see." Mu Ye's voice sounded a bit dry.

Xiao Ming turned toward Mu Ye, his face expressionless, though his tone was slightly more polite: "Come in and sit."

"Don't worry about these people."

Mu Ye nodded and followed the father and son into the villa. The moment the door closed, a light shone outside.

The light spread out from within the villa like a rising tide, silently washing over the entire ruined lawn.

The overturned soil automatically returned to its place, the shattered stone slabs pieced themselves back together, and even the paintwork was restored to its original state.

The blades of grass straightened up, broken branches reattached to their original positions, and even the pollen blown off the flower petals drifted back one by one.

It was like material reconstruction, or perhaps time flowing backward.

A leaf drifted down.

It was a very ordinary leaf, falling from some unknown tree. It flipped twice in the air before landing lightly on the blade mark on Qiangu Dongfeng's chest.

The wound began to heal. It closed from both ends toward the center, as if an invisible pair of hands were stitching it shut. The flesh aligned, the blood vessels reconnected, the skin sealed, and in the end, not even a scar remained.

Qiangu Dongfeng opened his eyes abruptly.

He propped up his upper body, gasping for air, his palm instinctively pressing against his chest—there was nothing there.

The pain was gone, the wound was gone; only the tear in his clothes where the blade had sliced through proved that what had just happened was not a hallucination.

The next instant, he heard a voice shout, "Get out!"

"Come back to see us only when you have brought an apology."

Qiangu Dongfeng did not speak; he turned and left the courtyard. He was certain now: the person he had offended was here in the East Sea, and it was this family.

But how he had offended them, he had absolutely no memory.

The door closed behind him, cutting off the emerald light outside, and the living room returned to silence.

Mu Ye walked in, his footsteps suddenly faltering. Five cups of hot tea were set out on the coffee table, the tea clear and emitting thin wisps of white steam, as if they had just been brewed.

The cups were placed with perfect uniformity—exactly five, corresponding to the five people in the room.

The woman sitting on the sofa stood up, her posture composed. She wore a simple, plain-colored house dress and looked to be only in her twenties. She nodded at Mu Ye, her tone flat, as if everything were under her control.

"You're here because of the martial soul secondary awakening, aren't you?"

A row of question marks popped up in Mu Ye's mind. He was certain he hadn't mentioned his purpose, and he hadn't lost track of time.

Yet, she knew it directly?

"How did you know?"

Ye Ran sat back down on the sofa, picked up her own cup of tea, and blew the foam away.

"I guessed a thing or two, and I have a vague perception of the future."

Hearing this, the first to be alert was Xiao Mu; this seemed somewhat similar to his third soul skill...

He couldn't help but ask Jun Wu in his heart: "True Monarch, what abilities do you have again?"

"True Fire innate ability, soul pressure that all soul beasts possess, special effects under the Gravitational Great Sun state, and Rainbow Transformation for escaping—it ignores obstacles. If it weren't for the fact that you humans had special methods back then, how could I have been caught? Of course, there is also the instinct to seek good fortune and avoid disaster, though it's useless; you can't avoid the big things, and you don't need to avoid the small ones."

Xiao Mu double-checked and felt it was purely a coincidence; his three soul skills all happened to align with Jun Wu's abilities and his martial soul.

Mu Ye stood where he was, suddenly feeling that everyone in this house was not quite right.

A husband who chopped up a Spirit Pagoda Master like he was cutting vegetables, a strange wife, and that smell coming from the kitchen—it felt like a person was about to die. And then there was the son, who was also a future top-tier powerhouse.

Looking at it this way, only Na'er seemed like a normal person.

He sat down, picked up the cup of tea on the table that was clearly prepared for him, took a sip, and decided to stop asking questions.

Mu Ye set the teacup back on the table, the bottom of the cup clicking against the surface with a soft sound. He felt the pleasantries had gone on long enough; it was time to get down to business.

"I'll get straight to the point then." He looked at Xiao Mu, then turned to Xiao Ming and Ye Ran. "I need to take this kid to undergo the second awakening of his Martial Soul. We will need to be away for a while."

He paused, then added, "Given his talent, it will take at least forty-nine days."

Forty-nine days was a conservative estimate. With innate full soul power combined with a Body Martial Soul, he had only ever seen such talent once in all his years. Once the awakening ceremony began, the longer it lasted, the deeper the effect.

Forty-nine days might just be the baseline.

Na'er had been sitting quietly beside Xiao Mu, but upon hearing the number "forty-nine days," her fingers suddenly tightened around the hem of her clothes. She looked up, her eyes darting from Mu Ye to Xiao Mu, before blurting out.

"I want to go too."

Ye Ran set down her teacup and looked at Na'er, her expression serious. "Na'er, this isn't a trip for fun."

The second awakening of a Martial Soul involved overcoming countless hardships.

A forty-nine-day awakening ceremony would be an extreme test of both Xiao Mu's body and his willpower.

Na'er acted spoiled. "Mom, I want to go."

Mu Ye looked at the little girl. Her silver eyes were quite adorable.

"It's fine, let them both come."

Xiao Ming had been leaning against the window without a word since earlier. Only then did he speak, his voice indifferent. "Sect Master Mu, I leave both of them to you."

Mu Ye picked up his teacup and drained the remaining tea in one gulp.

"Rest assured, the Body Sect may not be able to claim much else, but we are certainly capable of protecting our own."

"There won't be any danger, and I will ensure Xiao Mu's second Martial Soul awakening is a success."