Wang Dong's Collapse Exposes Her Identity, Tang San's Scheme

In the end, Ling Tianchen still had the Treasure Beast transform the silkworm molt into a skin-like External Soul Bone.

Then he removed his hand from Huo Yuhao's shoulder. The latter immediately slumped limp in his chair, his pupils unfocused, as though every bone had been pulled from his body.

Ling Tianchen smiled apologetically at those around him. "Sorry, I only pressed lightly, and this kid ended up like this."

With a flash, he was already standing before Wang Dong.

"What did you just say?"

Wang Dong shuddered at his sudden approach. What speed was that?

He instinctively rose to his feet. A pair of enormous blue-gold moth wings abruptly unfolded behind him, and one yellow and one purple soul ring emerged, faintly showing signs of lighting up.

Ling Tianchen also spread his Frost Wings, deep blue within and light blue without. The radiance from Wang Dong's magnificent Light Goddess Butterfly wings instead made every pattern and feather on Ling Tianchen's icy wings shine all the more brilliantly.

Wang Dong felt the bloodline suppression of the ancestor of all flying creatures descend upon him. His Light Goddess Butterfly paled before Ling Tianchen, even its wing tips trembling slightly, as though it wanted to turn from a butterfly back into a cocoon.

"The continent's most beautiful martial soul? I don't think so. Before me, it can only serve as a green leaf for contrast."

As his words fell, Ling Tianchen finally stopped concealing his aura. It burst forth: a rank thirty-eight Soul Elder!

In an instant, Class One fell silent again. Although this was the second time they had seen Ling Tianchen's martial soul, its beauty and power still left them stunned.

Ling Tianchen simply stared Wang Dong down, their eyes locked.

Wang Dong only felt as though a humanoid savage beast had fixed its gaze on him. His legs began shaking uncontrollably, and he could already picture Ling Tianchen cutting him down.

"Father, Mother, First Dad, Second Dad... whoever it is, please come save me..."

He muttered with a faint sob in his voice, feeling like a tiny boat struggling amid towering waves, liable to be swallowed at any moment.

Having been pampered and doted on by everyone at Haotian Castle since childhood, how could he ever have endured such terrifying mental pressure?

Yet the sobbing tone that escaped Wang Dong in her despair exposed her most natural voice.

Everyone looked at one another. That voice was thin and soft—it was clearly a girl's voice!

But how could Wang Dong notice that she had already given herself away? She was on the verge of breaking down completely. Finally, unable to hold on any longer, her legs gave out, and she collapsed to her knees before Ling Tianchen in a duck-sitting posture. Tears streamed down her face and into the corners of her mouth.

That posture completely confirmed everyone's suspicions.

Ordinary boys simply could not sit in a duck-sitting posture. Coupled with that feminine voice from earlier, there was only one truth: Wang Dong was a girl disguised as a boy.

Of course, there were always one or two psychologically twisted people who stubbornly believed that he was merely a feminine boy—and still had the equipment.

However, the position where Wang Dong had knelt was rather delicate.

She had collapsed directly in front of Ling Tianchen's lower abdomen. Her slightly raised face was aimed right at that awkward spot, and with the glistening liquid smeared across her mouth, the view from behind Ling Tianchen made it look like she was doing something indescribable.

Zhang Lexuan happened to be standing at exactly that angle. Her expression stiffened slightly as she walked over.

"Enough, Tianchen. Wang Dong is already like this, so stop scaring her. And Wang Dong, you need to learn your lesson from this as well. You cannot let people with ulterior motives provoke you into acting rashly again."

"Hmph. For Teacher Zhang's sake, we'll leave it at that."

Ling Tianchen retracted his wings and pressure, turned, and walked back toward his seat, tossing out a sentence without looking back.

"If you dare challenge my authority again, we'll settle it in the Soul Fighting Arena. I'll give you a taste of the stick!"

Under normal circumstances, this would have been an entirely ordinary threat. But now that Wang Dong's identity as a girl had been exposed, even the most innocent students caught the suggestive undertone. They exchanged looks and smiled knowingly.

Ling Tianchen returned to his seat with a carefree air, leaving behind Wang Dong, who was still kneeling there and drooling, and Huo Yuhao, whose eyes remained vacant.

Within Wang Dong's sea of consciousness, a wisp of the God King Tang's divine sense quietly awakened.

"Why are Xiao Qi's emotional fluctuations so intense? Who did this?"

With a slight movement of his divine sense, he investigated the entire sequence of events in an instant.

"What an impressive young man! Rank thirty-eight at eleven years old—he has a little of my talent from back then."

A rare hint of praise appeared in Tang San's voice, but it soon turned to puzzlement.

"But why is the fortune around him so hazy, as though obscured by clouds and mist? Is this also interference from the plane's consciousness? It seems the Douluo Plane has a death wish too. I need Father's side to speed up the plan."

His divine sense swept to the side and landed on Huo Yuhao, who was slumped in his seat. His voice immediately took on a tone of disappointment.

"What happened to the original child of fortune? It has only been a few minutes, and he is already this dejected? His temperament is completely inferior to that person from before. Sigh, I invested too early. The two of them can already use a Martial Soul Fusion Skill together, so it is too late to replace Xiao Qi's partner now."

Tang San pondered for a moment before saying, "It would be such a pity for such an outstanding junior not to join my, Tang San's, faction. Fine, I'll make another small move. I'll have Xiao Qi gradually develop favorable feelings toward him as well. This way, Xiao Qi will form bonds with both of them and create a triangular relationship between them."

The more he spoke, the more brilliant he found the plan, and his tone grew increasingly confident.

"When the time comes, the loser will have Xiao Qi's other fragment of divine sense occupy the Emperor Auspicious Beast's body and take on Xiao Qi's appearance to accompany him. It may be a fake, but given his state of mind after losing the competition for a woman, he will surely accept it gladly. That way, both the real and fake children of fortune will be tied to this God King's rope."

"It will just be hard on Xiao Qi, with her soul split in two. But if I can rope in both of them, that is no issue."

"Hahaha, Douluo Plane, you never expected this, did you? This God King has seen through your scheme of swapping the beams for pillars. You first released an obvious child of fortune to draw all of this God King's attention, then concealed the aura of the true child of fortune. A clever method indeed. Unfortunately, this God King sees all, and Xiao Qi has successfully met both of them. Whether the child of fortune is real or fake, I, Tang San, want them all!"

After saying that, this wisp of divine sense released its power and silently merged into Wang Dong's sea of consciousness.

On one hand, it stabilized her sea of consciousness and soothed the fear and trembling she had just experienced. On the other, it planted an exceedingly subtle seed deep within Wang Dong's heart, causing her to quietly develop an indescribable fondness for Ling Tianchen during their future interactions.

As for Wang Dong nearly having her Dao heart shattered by Ling Tianchen's scare? In his eyes, it was not a big deal at all.

Fighting was affection, and scolding was love. A few conflicts between a man and a woman were not necessarily a bad thing.

He believed that with his daughter's charm, so long as he gave her a slight push and had her take the initiative to show affection, not a single man in the world would be able to resist. They would all obediently fall at her feet.

He was already considering how to scheme against Rong Nianbing so that he would happen to discover an exceptional inheritor. While making Rong Nianbing owe him a favor, he could also add strength to his own camp.

The only problem was where to find another divine position. His Sea God divine position was the foundation of his standing and absolutely could not be passed on, while the Shura God divine position was at the God King level and even less transferable.

The Seven Deadly Sins belonged to Destruction's side, so he had no power there. That left only asking the Elemental Gods for help. With the strength of the person he had chosen, he should not be like that fatty, unable to even pass the assessment for the first-level Fire God divine position.

Or perhaps he could make use of the Ice God Ruins, where the Ice God had fallen in ancient times? It was exceptionally compatible with that kid.

Nearly all the ruins on Douluo Continent had been thoroughly explored within the several decades after he became a god, including the Ice God Ruins in the Far North.

It was just that he had already been the Sea God at the time and held no interest in the masterless Ice God divine position, so he casually sealed it away again.

Now it would come in handy. When the time came, he only needed to have Xiao Qi guide him there. He would open a passage for that kid now.

As he thought this, he manipulated something. At the deepest point of Ice God Lake in the Far North, an ancient door that had been sealed for countless millennia quietly opened...