Chen Xin's Crushing Defeat-Who Exactly Are You?!

Chen Xin struggled to turn his head, looking at the young figure standing calmly in midair.

At that moment, Chen Xin, the Sword Douluo who had struck awe across the continent, felt for the first time just how insignificant he was.

Like an ant by the roadside, facing a divine dragon high in the heavens.

The swordsmanship he had painstakingly cultivated for decades, the Level 98 cultivation he had just broken through to— in his opponent's eyes, they were nothing but a joke.

His Dao heart shattered in that instant.

Tang Xiao didn't look at them again.

He lowered his hand, and the enormous Blue Silver Grass behind him slowly faded away into the void.

He started walking toward the depths of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, his expression cold and indifferent.

His steps were slow, yet each one carried him several yards, as if he could shrink the earth beneath his feet.

Amid the ruins.

Chen Xin watched Tang Xiao's retreating figure, his eyes unfocused.

"He... didn't kill us?"

He remembered the look Tang Xiao had given him just moments before.

There had been no hatred, no killing intent—only indifference toward something utterly insignificant.

"So... in your eyes, we're not even worth the effort of killing?"

Chen Xin squeezed his eyes shut in pain, and a single tear slid from their corner.

Being treated with such contempt hurt more than being killed.

Deep within the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, in a secret chamber sealed by layers of formations,

a blade of grass radiating a faint blue glow rested quietly in the soil.

Faint golden patterns marked its leaves, but at that moment they were dim and lifeless.

It was Ah Yin.

Ah Yin was bound in place by the powerful force Tang Hao had left behind. She couldn't move even a fraction, and even her consciousness had grown hazy.

Yet—

the moment the blue-gold light erupted outside,

Ah Yin's body suddenly shuddered.

A bloodline connection welled up inside her.

It was a tremor that came from the depths of her soul, filled with boundless warmth and familiarity.

"This aura..."

A trembling voice echoed in Ah Yin's sea of consciousness.

She could clearly feel an aura of unimaginable power rapidly approaching her.

It came from the same source as hers, and was even purer and more noble than her Blue Silver Emperor Bloodline.

But—

it wasn't Tang San's aura.

She knew Tang San's aura very well. Although he was also a Blue Silver Emperor, his aura was nowhere near so vast and sacred.

"Could it be..."

A scene suddenly surfaced in Ah Yin's mind, one she'd nearly forgotten, buried deep in her memories.

It was the child she'd given birth to decades ago.

The eldest son Tang Hao had claimed was stillborn because his Soul Beast bloodline had been too strong.

"Impossible... Haotian clearly told me he was already dead..."

Ah Yin's consciousness surged violently, filled with excitement and disbelief.

But the call coming from the depths of her bloodline could not possibly be mistaken.

"My child... are you still alive?"

"Th-this isn't really a hallucination, is it?"

Ah Yin cried out frantically in her heart. The leaves that had been dim and lifeless began to shine with a rapid, flickering light.

Boom!

Under a gentle yet unstoppable force, the secret chamber's heavy stone door crumbled into dust.

A tall, slender figure in blue slowly entered the chamber.

Tang Xiao paused when he saw the Blue Silver Grass rooted in the soil.

A pale golden, sacred barrier enveloped the grass before him.

It was the divine power seal Tang Hao had left behind, so sturdy that even an ordinary Titled Douluo couldn't have broken through it.

Yet—

Tang Xiao merely waved a hand.

The moment the pale golden barrier touched his power, it dissolved silently, like snow melting away.

With the seal broken, Tang Xiao walked up to the Blue Silver Grass.

Looking at the frail blade of grass before him, Tang Xiao—the million-year-old Soul Beast emperor who had wielded absolute authority on the Sun Moon Continent and built a vast empire—felt a rare nervousness rise in his heart.

He slowly crouched down and extended his trembling right hand, wanting to touch the soft leaves, yet afraid the power in his hand might hurt her.

In the end,

Tang Xiao simply held his hand suspended in midair and called to her in the gentlest voice he could manage:

"Mother."

The word "Mother" rang through the silent chamber.

The Blue Silver Grass trembled violently from top to bottom.

Two long leaves rose unsteadily and gently pressed against Tang Xiao's palm, still suspended in the air.

A warm stream of consciousness instantly flowed into Tang Xiao's mind.

"Y-you really are my child?"

Ah Yin's voice rang out in Tang Xiao's mind, trembling and choked with sobs.

Feeling the warmth in his palm, the coldness in Tang Xiao's eyes melted away in an instant, replaced by boundless tenderness.

He gently stroked Ah Yin's leaves and nodded.

"It's me, Mother."

"I'm your eldest son, Tang Xiao."

"I didn't die. I survived."

Hearing Tang Xiao confirm it with his own lips, Ah Yin's sea of consciousness surged like a storm-tossed ocean.

"Xiao'er... my Xiao'er!"

"You really are still alive... This is wonderful, truly wonderful..."

Ah Yin was so overcome with emotion that she could barely speak. Flecks of gleaming blue light slipped from her leaves, like tears of joy.

"But... Haotian clearly told me that you'd died shortly after birth because your bloodlines conflicted..."

"All these years, I've lived in anguish, thinking I was the one who caused your death..."

Ah Yin's voice brimmed with pain and confusion.

At the mention of "Haotian," a flash of icy coldness glinted deep in Tang Xiao's eyes.

He drew a deep breath and spoke calmly to Ah Yin.

"Mother, he lied to you."

"I wasn't stillborn, and there was nothing wrong with my bloodline."

"He said that because he hated the Soul Beast blood in me. I'll never forget the look in his eyes on the day he abandoned me."

"He was lying. He personally abandoned me, a newborn, in the wilderness on the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest, leaving me to fend for myself."

Every word Tang Xiao spoke pierced Ah Yin's heart.

As Ah Yin listened, her entire body went rigid.

"What... abandoned you?"

"He... he threw you away with his own hands?"

An anger unlike anything she'd ever felt before erupted within Ah Yin's consciousness.

She had never imagined that the husband who had once cherished her so tenderly and sworn such solemn vows could do something so utterly heartless and cruel.

"Even a tiger won't eat its own cub. How could he... how could he be so cruel to his own flesh and blood!"

"Not only did he abandon you, he deceived me with lies for decades!"

Ah Yin remembered her resolute sacrifice for Tang Hao, and how she had spent all these years thinking of him and blaming herself in the darkness.

Now, it all seemed like one enormous joke.