"Of course it's true. What would I gain by lying to you?"
That was fair. So his bargain-basement dad really was his dad! Bian Chunchou slapped his thigh. "Then I shouldn't call you Second Dad. I should call you Ancestor."
"What ancestor? I don't like the sound of that. Call me Second Dad." Black Mist waved a hand, leaving no room for argument. "The Shu Household bloodline in Shu Wenzhou was already faint. By the time it reached you, it was barely detectable. No wonder the Shu Household didn't recognize you when you arrived in Pingshui City."
If that bloodline had been recognizable from the start, Black Mist would surely have recognized him in the secret realm too.
Having found himself an excuse, Black Mist promptly suppressed his guilt over nearly performing a Soul Search on Chunchou. "Well? Let me hear you call me Second Dad."
How to put it? Calling someone Dad was just about acceptable, but Second Dad... that was a little too strange. "Didn't you say my birth parents were someone else?"
Black Mist answered as though it were obvious. "They gave you away to Shu Wenzhou. Are you planning to go looking for them?"
"No, not really."
"Then that settles it. Your birth father doesn't get a say. Come on, say it."
Bian Chunchou had never encountered anyone so determined to make him a son. But on reflection, he had nothing to lose. If it meant acknowledging another dad, so be it. He knelt without hesitation. "Second Dad."
He said it loud and clear, to Black Mist's great delight. Once Black Mist slipped into the spirit sword, his presence vanished completely. Clearly, everything he had said back in Pingshui City had been an excuse.
What a spectacular display of double standards.
This grave...
Bian Chunchou thought