Tang San Returned Home, and Tang Hao Exploded with Rage

"Stop—!"

Xiao Wu hurriedly reached out and clapped a hand over Zhao Linchuan's mouth, her palm pressed against his lips as she stopped all his remaining words.

Her expression scrunched up like she had eaten bitter melon, carrying a hint of helplessness and pleading.

"Please, big brother, I won't say anything else, so you stop talking too."

"Let's turn in early today. Tomorrow, we'll go hunt Soul Beasts together."

She blinked rapidly, speaking at breakneck speed.

"I'll listen to whatever you say, really."

"I'm only begging you not to start preaching again, big brother. You go on and on—you can talk more than anyone I used to know... more than anyone I've ever known!"

Zhao Linchuan reached out and moved Xiao Wu's hand away, then shot her an irritated glare before changing the subject.

"You spend all day in that vegetable garden of yours. Have you forgotten about cultivation?"

"Your big brother is already level twenty, so why are you still stuck at level fifteen?"

"I've been cultivating really hard!"

Xiao Wu looked utterly aggrieved as she counted on her fingers for him.

"I stay home all day. I get up in the morning and make you breakfast, then start cultivating after we eat."

"I cultivate until noon, take a bath, and make you lunch. After cooking, I go right back to cultivating."

"I don't go to the vegetable garden for a stroll until evening, just to pull some weeds and stuff."

"I really haven't been slacking off!"

As she looked at Zhao Linchuan, a deep sense of powerlessness suddenly welled up inside her.

She was a dignified Hundred Thousand Year transformed Soul Beast who had lived for countless years, yet her cultivation speed was actually worse than a "human toddler's"?

Where was the justice in that?

She drooped her head listlessly, resting her chin on her knees as she muttered,

"Big brother, your cultivation speed is ridiculous. That's not a cultivation speed any human should have."

"Did you secretly eat some heavenly treasure?"

"Or are you not human at all?"

As she spoke, she probed cautiously,

"Big brother... are you really human?"

"If you aren't..."

"If I'm not human, then what else could I be?" Zhao Linchuan flicked her forehead irritably. "Enough. I'll give you a break for the next few days. You don't need to cultivate—do whatever you want and relax."

"Then can I play with the 'walnuts'?"

Xiao Wu's voice suddenly lowered, and the tips of her ears quietly turned pink.

"Lately, whenever I sleep, I always want to hold them... It feels like I can't fall asleep unless I'm holding them..."

"Why are you like some kind of perverted rabbit?" Zhao Linchuan sounded both exasperated and amused. "Your head is full of this nonsense all day."

"Then I'm a perverted rabbit." Xiao Wu raised her head, blinking at Zhao Linchuan. "Can I? Just like last time?"

Zhao Linchuan's face darkened. "..."

For some reason, the cicadas suddenly sounded especially piercing.

At the same time, in Holy Soul Village.

Tang San carried two jars of fine wine along the familiar dirt road back home.

Since Tang Hao had not encountered Xiao Wu, he was still living in Holy Soul Village and had not left.

Perhaps because he had nothing to do, or perhaps because he needed alcohol to numb himself, he continued drinking every day, drowning himself in drunken dreams.

"Dad, I'm back for break." Tang San pushed open the door and walked inside.

The room was thick with stale alcohol and mildew, making his throat tighten from the stench.

Tang Hao slumped crookedly against the wall, still clutching an empty wine jar in his hand.

"You're back?" Tang Hao glanced up at him, his voice hoarse and tinged with drunkenness. "How's school going? What level is your Soul Power now?"

"I'm already level fifteen (see the end for the level details)." Tang San placed the two jars of fine wine before Tang Hao, his tone carrying a trace of pride. "At most, I'll need another two years to break through to Soul Grandmaster!"

"You didn't expose your other Martial Soul, did you?" Tang Hao took the wine jar, broke the mud seal, tilted his head back, and took a large gulp before asking casually.

"Dad, I didn't reveal it on my own, but someone saw through the fact that I possess a second Martial Soul."

Tang San sat down opposite Tang Hao and briefly told him about Yu Xiaogang.

Tang Hao drank as he listened. Once Tang San finished, he said casually,

"It's nothing. That Yu Xiaogang has some unusual methods. Perhaps he can solve the problem of cultivating Twin Martial Souls for you."

And so, over the next several days, Tang San began caring for Tang Hao at home as he had before.

Cooking, washing clothes, cleaning the house, buying wine—the days were quiet and repetitive.

One night several days later.

The moonlight was hazy, and the autumn wind slipped through the cracks in the window with a chill.

Tang Hao drank a great deal again, even more than usual.

He slumped sideways in his chair, his gaze somewhat unfocused.

Tang San was clearing the dishes, his small, thin figure busy beneath the candlelight.

Tang Hao watched that figure with half-open eyes and suddenly felt a blurry silhouette gradually overlap with Tang San.

That silhouette... the silhouette he thought of day and night, the one he had felt guilty toward through countless days and nights... He remembered Ah Yin.

Perhaps it was because he had drunk too much, perhaps because the regret he had suppressed for so long had finally found an opening, or perhaps because tonight's moonlight resembled that night too closely.

Late at night, Tang Hao quietly rose and flew toward the mountains beyond Holy Soul Village.

Much later, inside the cave where Ah Yin had been planted.

"Ah—!"

A roar filled with rage exploded through the cave, shaking loose pebbles from the walls.

With a thud, Tang Hao dropped to his knees before the withered, yellow Blue Silver Grass. His trembling hands held up a dried leaf, his eyes nearly splitting apart as his hoarse voice came out almost inhuman.

"Ah Yin—! Who killed you?!"

His eyes were bloodshot and bulging, his entire body consumed by fury!

"No! The Spirit Bone!"

Suddenly, Tang Hao remembered something amid his raging anger.

He violently threw away the dead leaf and staggered toward the spot where Ah Yin's Spirit Bone had been buried.

There, an empty lead box lay silently on the ground. Its lid had been opened, and there was nothing inside.

"Ah—! Ah Yin—!!"

Tang Hao's eyes were crimson, his breath heaving like a bull's. He looked exactly like a wounded beast!

"Who stole your Spirit Bone—!!!"

This roar was more furious, more mournful, and more crazed than when he had first discovered Ah Yin's death.

He summoned the Clear Sky Hammer and began swinging it wildly.

For a time, rocks flew everywhere, dust filled the air, and the entire cave trembled.

Before long, the whole cave had collapsed into ruins beneath Tang Hao's furious outburst.

About half an hour later.

After venting his rage, Tang Hao returned unsteadily to his home in Holy Soul Village, covered from head to toe in dust.

Inside the house.

Tang Hao kept drinking, one jar after another.

His eyes were red as if they might drip blood, while his expression was twisted and ferocious.

No one knew whether he was grieving Ah Yin's death or grieving over the lost Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone.

"Crash—!"

Tang Hao smashed another empty wine jar onto the floor, sending shards flying everywhere.

The sound caught Tang San's attention. Still bleary-eyed, he rose from the inner room, rubbed his eyes, and walked toward Tang Hao.