Recognizing Fathers as Fast as Lü Bu

Xu Qianqian calmed herself. Though she was not entirely certain, she roughly understood what had happened.

Xiao Yuanshan's journey to the Heaven Dou Imperial Capital this time had likely been fraught with hardships.

There was no need to sense anything. One look at the city lord, covered in bandages, haggard-faced, and reeking of medicine, made it clear.

"Qianqian, your father has other matters to attend to and won't be back for some time. You'll stay at the City Lord's Manor for now. I've already arranged a place for you."

"Where is his body?" Xu Qianqian was silent for a long while before adding, "I want to see him."

"Qianqian, you..."

Xiao Yuanshan froze in astonishment. His eyes widened, and he opened his mouth to say something, but Xu Qianqian's voice stopped the words at his lips.

Xu Qianqian shook her head, her voice calm. "I know being a soul master isn't a safe profession. Given your injuries and what you've said, it isn't hard to piece together some of it."

Hearing this, Xiao Yuanshan sighed. "Sigh! Come with me."

Xiao Yuanshan left the hall through the back door, and Xu Qianqian followed.

Neither of them spoke along the way.

Seven or eight minutes later, Xiao Yuanshan brought Xu Qianqian to a large side room.

Inside lay a redwood coffin in silence. Its lid had already been closed, and a faint smell of blood drifted from the cracks.

"Your father's injuries were too severe. He couldn't hold on before reaching Notting City."

Notting City was merely a small town and had no high-level healing soul masters. Xu Qianqian's father's injuries could not receive timely treatment. Moreover, he had died while saving their convoy.

Xu Qianqian nodded and did not ask any further questions.

"Do you want to open it?" Xiao Yuanshan asked.

"Uncle Xiao, please leave first. I want to spend some time with Dad."

"This..."

"I won't do anything foolish. I just want to stay here for a while."

"Then I'll wait outside. Call me if you need anything." Although it was not ideal to leave a child who had only recently awakened her martial soul alone in such a place, Xiao Yuanshan swallowed the words that had reached his lips when he saw the resolve on Xu Qianqian's face.

Xiao Yuanshan left the room and closed the door behind him.

"Sigh! If the convoy had had a better healing soul master, Brother Xu might have survived."

Thinking of what had happened on the way back, the lingering fear in his heart had yet to fade.

He had originally thought there would be no accidents during this trade trip to Heaven Dou City. To be safe, he had hired Xu Qianqian's father as protection. Just as expected, the journey there had been safe, without encountering any bandits.

But on the return trip, just as they neared Notting City's borders, they encountered a ten-thousand-year soul beast—the Gale Wolf King, famed for its speed.

"A ten-thousand-year Gale Wolf King... why would it appear in a place like that?" Even now, Xiao Yuanshan could not make sense of it. Looking at the still-closed door, he said, "Brother Xu, I will raise your daughter as my own. Rest without worry."

Xiao Yuanshan recalled what his subordinate had told him not long ago about Xu Qianqian's awakened martial soul.

"An unusable trash martial soul... perhaps that is exactly what Brother Xu hoped for." Xiao Yuanshan sighed softly, shook his head, and stopped dwelling on it.

Suddenly, the trees, shrubs, and flowers in the courtyard began to sway.

Within seconds, the shaking grew more violent.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—"

Gusts of wind blew in from nowhere.

Xiao Yuanshan was first taken aback, then instinctively turned toward the door.

"This pressure is coming from inside!"

Xiao Yuanshan hesitated no longer and reached out to push open the door.

But the moment he stepped into the room and saw the scene within, his pupils contracted sharply. His eyes were filled with shock, and even his voice began to stammer.

"Th-that..."

Three soul rings—white, yellow, yellow—rose from beneath his feet. Only after soul power surged forth to cover his body did the pressure surrounding him ease.

Xiao Yuanshan stared fixedly at Xu Qianqian, whose hand rested on the coffin.

At that moment, Xu Qianqian's silver hair fluttered in the wind swirling through the room. Before her floated the book that had been called a trash martial soul, its pages slowly turning.

A tangible pressure spread from the floating book.

"Th-that is definitely not some trash martial soul!"

A superior martial soul could sometimes exert powerful suppression over an inferior one.

From the situation alone, Xiao Yuanshan concluded that the blank book Xu Qianqian had awakened could not possibly be a trash martial soul. Even if it was, it was no ordinary trash martial soul.

After closing the door, Xiao Yuanshan let out a long breath.

Xu Qianqian's situation reminded Xiao Yuanshan of that person at Moon Pavilion in Heaven Dou City. It was said that the master of Moon Pavilion was also an ordinary person unable to cultivate into a soul master, yet even Soul Kings willingly obeyed her commands.

"Perhaps she may one day reach that level as well."

No one knew how much time passed.

"Creak—"

Xiao Yuanshan's thoughts were running wild when he heard the sound and turned his gaze toward the door again.

The little girl, her eyes slightly red, pushed open the door and walked out.

"Qianqian, about your father..."

"This isn't Uncle Xiao's fault. Father already told me what happened." Xu Qianqian gently shook her head. "He even helped me awaken my martial soul again. Though I still have no soul power, perhaps I might still become a soul master."

Xu Qianqian's words left Xiao Yuanshan utterly speechless.

Her dead father had told her what happened and even helped awaken her martial soul? Had this child fallen ill from grief and started imagining things?

"Don't be afraid, Qianqian. From now on, I'll treat you as my own daughter. Even if your father is gone, no one in all of Notting City will dare bully you."

Xiao Yuanshan felt that the little girl before him was far more pleasing to the eye than his own troublesome brat.

A life-saving debt could never be repaid. If Brother Xu had not fought the Gale Wolf King with everything he had, Xiao Yuanshan—and perhaps even the entire convoy—would have perished at the Gale Wolf King's claws. By all rights, he could not repay kindness with ingratitude.

Xu Qianqian looked at Xiao Yuanshan. After a long silence, she nodded. "Your daughter greets her foster father. If Father knows in the afterlife, he will surely be very pleased."

"Uh..." Xu Qianqian's decisive adoption of him as her foster father swept away the whole basketful of procedures Xiao Yuanshan had prepared.

He nearly failed to react in time.

That was far too direct.

Even if she was taking a foster father, shouldn't there have been some sort of process?

What had originally only been meant as words of comfort, to keep Xu Qianqian from overthinking, had somehow led her to spout nonsense about her father helping awaken her martial soul and telling her the truth.

Before Xiao Yuanshan could recover, Xu Qianqian spoke again. "Foster Father, I'll leave Father's funeral arrangements to you. I'm a little tired and want to rest for a while... Should I go back, or stay at the City Lord's Manor?"

"Stay at the City Lord's Manor. This will be your home from now on." Realizing belatedly that the die had been cast, Xiao Yuanshan stopped struggling.

After arranging everything and having the maids take good care of Xu Qianqian to prevent any accidents, Xiao Yuanshan went off to handle his own affairs. After all, it was not only Xu Qianqian's father who had died this time, but also a large number of his trusted subordinates. There was a mountain of trouble to deal with, both before and after their deaths.

"Phew—" Lying quietly on the bed, Xu Qianqian stared blankly at the ceiling and murmured, "My biological father just died and hasn't even been buried yet, and I've already taken a foster father. This is practically Lü Bu with his Fangtian Halberd, specializing in stabbing foster fathers."

She might need to rely on someone else's power to cultivate her martial soul, and in Notting City, the only important figure who met her expectations and whom she, a non-soul master, could reach was Xiao Yuanshan, the City Lord of Notting City.

So, at an inappropriate time, she said inappropriate words, even taking advantage of Xiao Yuanshan's guilt before her father's corpse to achieve the result she wanted in one stroke.

She really was excessively rational. Was she afraid that Xiao Yuanshan's momentary sentiment would expire if she did not seize it now?