A Thirty-Year-Old Man Pretended to Be an Innocent Boy and Tricked Ten-Year-Old Xiao Wu from the Start!

The golden divine throne in the heavens hummed once more.

Everyone thought new images would appear. But this time, there were none.

Only a line of blood-red text condensed above Tang San's head, stroke by stroke:

[Heavenly Dao Judgment · Additional Verdict: Thieving Scholar's Mark.]

[Thieving Scholar's Mark activated: the Mysterious Heaven Skill's meridian circulation speed is permanently suppressed by 15%. This mark cannot be removed, transferred, or concealed.]

Permanent. Fifteen percent.

[That punishment is brutal. It's like cultivating with a sandbag on your back for the rest of your life.]

[Serves him right. Stealing should come at a cost.]

[I'm more concerned about "cannot be removed"—can the Sea God's Legacy wash away this mark?]

[Whether the Sea God has enough clout, we'll see after he gets past Heaven's Will.]

The Sky Screen ignored the discussion in the comments.

The image shifted again. There were no longer towering mountains from another world; it returned to Douluo Continent.

Nording City, the Elementary Soul Master Academy, an old wooden dormitory building that looked ready to collapse. At the end of the corridor, the sign on the door read, "Dorm Seven."

The door was pushed open from outside.

A boy around six years old walked in. He wore blue, with delicate features and eyes far too calm for a child.

The Sky Screen displayed a line above his head: [Physical age: six. Actual soul age: thirty-six.]

The boy stood in the doorway, his gaze falling on the only other bed in the dormitory.

A little girl with a scorpion braid sat on the bed, hugging her knees and tilting her head as she watched him...

The Sky Screen displayed translated text on the right side of the image—

[Deep Consciousness Activity · Live Capture]

["This girl is young, inexperienced, and simple-minded. Emotional dependence can easily be established. If I bind her to me as a sister, she can become an excellent source of support in the future."]

[Was that really a six-year-old's first reaction upon seeing someone his own age???]

[He wasn't six! He was thirty-six! A thirty-six-year-old man was staring at a little girl and calculating how to control her!]

["Emotional dependence can easily be established"—that isn't a love confession. That's a taming manual.]

[My stomach is churning. Is anyone else feeling the same?]

From the direction of the Heaven Dou Empire, a comment with gold trim was pinned to the top.

[Heaven Dou Royal Soul Master Corps · Liu Erlong: I've taught students for half my life. I've seen geniuses and scoundrels alike. But a soul in his thirties scheming against a child like this—for the first time.]

[Spirit Hall · Hu Liena: Suddenly, I feel His Holiness the Pope's kill-on-sight order was rather farsighted.]

[Star Luo Empire · Female Soul Master: All female soul masters across the continent request that Heaven's Will increase the sentence. Thank you.]

The Sky Screen did not wait for him.

The scene continued.

The same dormitory, several months later. Late at night, the six-year-old girl curled beneath her blanket with half her face exposed, her bright eyes watching the boy on the opposite bed.

"Tang San, will you always be my friend?"

"I will."

The boy smiled. His voice was as soft as that of a genuine six-year-old.

[That smile was a deliberate imitation of a child's expression, executed with 97.3% accuracy. The remaining 2.7% deviation originated from residual adult facial muscle memory.]

[97.3%?? He practiced it? How many times did he practice that fake smile??]

[A thirty-six-year-old man lying on the bed opposite a ten-year-old girl, practicing smiles at thin air. Think about that yourselves.]

[Everyone shipping Tang San and Xiao Wu as childhood sweethearts—can you still ship them now?]

The image jumped forward.

Morning. The boy sat on the edge of the bed, holding a wooden comb. The little girl sat with her back to him, her scorpion braid undone and her black hair cascading over her shoulders.

"Xiao Wu, let me comb your hair."

His fingers gathered up her black hair, his movements practiced and gentle.

"Anyone who wants to hurt you will have to step over my corpse first."

The moment he finished speaking, the Sky Screen enlarged the boy's eyes.

The comments translated it into plain language:

[He didn't protect you because he cared about you. He protected you because protecting you benefited him.]

Star Dou Great Forest. Core region.

The water of Lake of Life began to churn from the bottom, sheets of bubbles rising to the surface as though the entire lake had been set ablaze.

A giant ape that blotted out the sky emerged from the depths of the forest. Every step it took cracked the ground beneath its feet into radiating fissures.

The Titan Giant Ape raised its head and stared at the Sky Screen.

In the image, the boy was combing the little girl's hair, saying, "Step over my corpse," while calculations of profit glowed in his mind.

It raised its right fist and smashed it into the nearest towering mountain behind it. The mountain broke at the waist, its upper half crashing down with a roar that carried hundreds of miles.

At the center of the lake, the body of the Sky Azure Bull Python rose from beneath the water. Its vertical pupils fixed on the little girl on the Sky Screen—its big sister, being treated as a chess piece in the calculations of a thirty-six-year-old adult soul.

The serpent raised its head, and a long howl shot from the center of the lake into the heavens. Within ten miles, the treetops were shaken bare of branches and leaves.

A message marked as originating from the Star Dou Great Forest appeared in the comment section:

[Titan Giant Ape · Da Ming: Humans. Give Sister Xiao Wu back.]

A comment squeezed in from the direction of Nording City.

[Plagiarist · Yu Xiaogang: Feelings between soul masters that withstand the test of life and death are true feelings! Everyone has seen how many fatal attacks Tang San blocked for Xiao Wu! You cannot use deep-consciousness analysis to deny the actions themselves! Intent is not the same as action!]

The Sky Screen's response came so quickly that it seemed prepared in advance.

The image split into two side-by-side data panels.

The title on the left read: [Number of times Xiao Wu shielded Tang San: 17. Of those, life-threatening instances: 6.]

The title on the right read: [Records of Tang San's deep tactical simulations when facing powerful enemies.]

The first entry appeared—

[Zhao Wuji's surprise attack · Tang San's deep simulation: three retreat routes. Shrubs on the left flank can block line of sight and delay pursuit; Xiao Wu on the right flank can serve as bait to restrain them for 2.3 seconds...]

Bait.

2.3 seconds.

The comment section did not even have the energy left to curse.

[Seventeen times risking her life to block attacks, in exchange for one line on a tactical panel: "Bait can restrain them for 2.3 seconds."]

[Yu Xiaogang, you can shut your mouth now.]

Shrek Academy's training ground.

Xiao Wu stood five steps away from Tang San.

Her messages flooded the comment section one after another—

[Shrek Academy · Xiao Wu: ???]

[Shrek Academy · Xiao Wu: Third Brother, is this true?]

[Shrek Academy · Xiao Wu: Answer me.]

Tang San took a step forward.

Xiao Wu took two steps back.

Zhu Zhuqing stepped in from the left, grabbed Xiao Wu's wrist, and pulled her behind herself. At the same time, Ning Rongrong stepped forward from the right and stood shoulder to shoulder with Zhu Zhuqing.

The two girls separated Xiao Wu from Tang San.

Zhu Zhuqing did not look at Tang San. Her gaze rested on Xiao Wu's face, and she lowered her voice until only those beside her could hear. "Don't go over there."

The Shrek Seven Devils had split into two sides.

Golden words surfaced on the Sky Screen.

[Heavenly Dao Judgment · Mental Domain Correction.]

[Target: Xiao Wu.]

[Implementation: remove the accumulated influence of Tang San's long-term disguise of an affinity aura on the target's spiritual sea; eliminate cognitive impairments caused by childhood emotional dependence; Heaven's Will shall nourish the spiritual sea and restore independent judgment.]

Tang San's outstretched hand froze halfway.

The Sky Screen ignored the deathly silence on the training ground. The image shifted again.

An enormous double-sided scale rose from the center of the Sky Screen.

The left pan bore several blood-red words—"Already on the Path to Death."

The right pan bore eight words—"Ice-Clear Jade-Pure, righteous and upright."

A line of golden text scrolled across the bottom of the Sky Screen:

[Collection of double standards · Coming soon—using the same ruler to measure whether Tang San is truly a saint, or a beast.]