Tang Hao and Ah Yin's Story

Tang San stood where he was, watching Tang Hao's back as she was about to disappear at the end of the mountain path. It felt as though two hands were tearing at his heart. Reason told him that now was not the best time to lay everything bare.

Yet another voice told him that if he did not make things clear today, he had no idea when they would meet again. He gritted his teeth and finally stepped forward to chase after her.

"Wait!"

Tang Hao paused and turned her head slightly. Sunlight brushed across her profile, illuminating her drunken face.

She did not turn around completely, merely tilted her head. There was a trace of impatient irritation in her voice at being interrupted. "Hm?"

Tang San hurried over and stopped in front of her. He took a deep breath, steadied his racing heart, and lowered his voice. "Tang Hao... Clear Sky Douluo."

It was as if the air had been pierced by an invisible needle.

Tang Hao's drunkenness vanished without a trace in that instant. Her phoenix eyes narrowed like a beast whose reverse scale had been touched.

Tang San felt a fierce pressure erupt from her body. The air around them seemed to grow heavier, and the wild grass beneath their feet bent low in unison despite the absence of wind.

It was the bone-deep oppression unique to a Titled Douluo. Tang Hao's voice was low and hoarse, carrying icy vigilance. "...Where did you hear that?"

Facing that pressure, Tang San's throat tightened, but he still forced himself to continue.

"Mom, don't be nervous. Your bearing really is extraordinary. I've looked through a lot of information and asked some people. Teacher Yu Xiaorou at Nording Academy—you know her, right? Her research into martial souls runs deep... and her knowledge is vast. She knows you!"

Tang Hao said nothing, her lips pressed into a thin line. But Tang San noticed that when she heard the name "Yu Xiaorou," the fierce pressure eased ever so slightly.

Yu Xiaorou's reputation truly was formidable. The entire soul master world knew that Nording Academy had a "master" who held no post in Spirit Hall yet was even more learned than Spirit Hall's elders.

Although she had remained tucked away in the remote little city of Notting City all these years, her theoretical expertise had always held a place in the true inner circles.

If Yu Xiaorou could discern clues from a martial soul's aura, then it was only natural for Tang San to know some of the details.

Tang Hao remained silent for a long while. She stared at Tang San for a long time, and he could feel her gaze repeatedly sweeping over his face, as if she were confirming something.

At last, as though she had finally lowered her guard, she let out a long breath. The suffocating pressure receded like the tide.

She leaned back against the bluestone, pulled out the wine gourd at her waist, and took a swig. Then she wiped her mouth with her sleeve and looked at Tang San with a complicated expression. "I never thought that after hiding for so many years, I'd be exposed by a single sentence from my own son."

Tang San silently breathed a sigh of relief, though little emotion showed on his face. "I want to grow stronger. Can you... help me?"

Tang Hao did not answer at once. She lowered her head and looked at the wine gourd in her hand, her thumb repeatedly rubbing the faint crack in its surface as if she were struggling to remember something. After a long while, she finally spoke softly.

"Do you know... why I became like this?"

Tang San said nothing. He merely watched her quietly.

Tang Hao took another drink. The fiery liquor slid down her throat as she gazed at the outline of the distant mountains, yet her eyes seemed to pass beyond them and fall upon a time long, long ago.

The wind tossed her dark green hair into a mess, but she did not bother to straighten it, allowing those flowing locks to dance wildly in the breeze.

"When I was young, I was the direct daughter of the Clear Sky Sect," she said.

"At six, I awakened the Clear Sky Hammer and possessed Innate Full Soul Power. Among my peers, no one could last more than three exchanges against me, except my twin brother Tang Xiao. The elders all said that the hope of the Clear Sky Sect's next generation rested on me. I thought I would live that way for the rest of my life—cultivating, breaking through, becoming a Titled Douluo, and then inheriting the sect."

"Until I met someone."

Tang Hao's voice suddenly lowered, as though she had touched a scar buried in the deepest part of her heart.

She spoke more slowly, each word soft and careful.

"His name was Ah Yin. He was a Hundred Thousand Year Blue Silver Emperor who had taken human form under the name Blue Silver Sovereign. He was... beautiful. The most beautiful man I had ever seen in my life."

"He wore a pale blue robe. Whenever he smiled, the plants across the mountains and plains seemed to shine along with him. The first time I saw him was in a valley within Sunset Forest. He was crouching beside a stream, looking at a flower. His brows and eyes were so gentle, as if they could melt all the snow of spring."

Tang San's eyelid twitched. The Blue Silver Emperor... was a man.

Still, that made sense. Otherwise, where would he have come from?

Tang Hao did not notice Tang San's expression. Lost in her memories, her voice grew gentler still.

"We fell in love. That time was the happiest period of my life. He took me to see Starlight Lake in the deepest part of the Star Dou Great Forest, took me to the Extreme North to see ice peaks that had not melted for ten thousand years, and taught me to identify rare flowers and exotic herbs that were not even recorded in Spirit Hall's library."

"He did not like fighting and killing. He always said that strength was meant to protect people, not hurt them. Back then, I thought that even if I did not become the Clear Sky Douluo or remain the sect's direct daughter, my life would still be worthwhile as long as I could be with him."

Her tone paused, then slowly sank.

"But that secret did not stay hidden. After word reached Spirit Hall, the Pope at the time—Qian Xunji, that woman—set her sights on him."

A mocking smile tugged at Tang Hao's lips, sharp with thorns.

"A dignified Pope mobilized the entire Spirit Hall for the sake of one man. She sent word that if Ah Yin was willing to go with her, he could even become Pope outright. Naturally, Ah Yin refused. He did not even meet Qian Xunji once before rejecting her directly."

"And then?" Tang San asked dryly.

"And then?" Tang Hao's smile turned sharp and vicious. "Then that bitch flew into a rage out of humiliation. She could not have Ah Yin, and when she learned that he was with me, love turned into hatred and she decided to kill him. She brought two Titled Douluo and ambushed him while he was alone, intending to kill him—or capture him alive and bring him back."

Tang San's mouth twitched. In the version of the story he had heard in his previous life, Qian Xunji had coveted Ah Yin's Hundred Thousand Year Spirit Ring and Soul Bone, which was why she had launched the hunt for the Blue Silver Emperor.

But in this life, Qian Xunji was a woman, and her reason for coveting Ah Yin had changed from his Spirit Ring and Soul Bone to nothing more than unrequited love.

He muttered under his breath, "What the hell... is this supposed to be?"