Xiao Wu Learns That Her Identity as a Soul Beast Has Been Exposed; Tang San's Forbearance Was Actually for Her Soul Ring!

Scene shift.

Nording Academy, late at night.

In a cramped student dormitory, moonlight filtered through the gaps in the torn window paper and fell on a boy sitting cross-legged. Tang San had his eyes closed, violet glimmers flowing beneath his eyelids.

Purple Demon Eye.

The Sky Screen noted: [Subtlety Realm · Activated.]

The boy opened his eyes. Violet light shot from his pupils, piercing the darkness and the walls before landing on the little girl curled up in the bed opposite him.

Under the Purple Demon Eye, Xiao Wu's body became a translucent outline of bones and meridians, her Soul Power circulation paths laid bare.

At the center of her dantian, a crystalline rabbit-shaped phantom lay curled up. Pale golden radiance flowed across its body, its long ears drooping slightly, its soft bones like jade.

Hundred-Thousand-Year Soft Bone Rabbit.

The comment section went dead for two seconds the moment the image froze.

Then it exploded.

[Hundred thousand years... a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast Transformation!!! Xiao Wu is a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast!!!]

[Wait, wait, wait—he saw through it back then???]

[The Purple Demon Eye at the Subtlety Realm can directly see through transformed soul beasts?? How many years did he live with Xiao Wu?? How many years did he pretend not to know??]

The familiar, nauseating panel popped up on the right side of the Sky Screen.

["A Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast Transformation! This beast is still in its juvenile stage, its intelligence newly awakened and its Soul Power far from solidified. If I wait until it matures and sacrifices itself, I will surely obtain a hundred-thousand-year soul ring and a Supreme Spirit Bone—this is a heaven-sent treasure."]

[A heaven-sent treasure!!! He called a living life a heaven-sent treasure!!!]

["Wait until it matures and sacrifices itself"—he was raising livestock!!! He had been raising livestock from day one!!!]

[Brushing her hair, blocking blades for her, stepping over my corpse—all of it was just a livestock farm management manual!!!]

[Before, I thought Heaven's Will went too far when it corrected Xiao Wu's spiritual domain. Now I think it was too light, way too light!!]

The Sky Screen did not stop.

The scene pulled away from the Nording Academy dormitory, passed through the night, and settled atop the branch of a towering tree.

Tang Hao.

He stood at the highest point of the canopy, bathed in moonlight. His gaze crossed hundreds of miles of forest and fell in the direction of Nording City.

The Sky Screen gave him a close-up from the side.

["San's Purple Demon Eye has reached the Subtlety Realm... He must have already noticed that transformed soul beast. Worthy of being my son. This beast will serve as the foundation for my son's future title. There is no need to rush. Raise her and wait until she reaches the hundred-thousand-year mark; only then will the soul ring's quality reach its peak."]

[One was raising her, and the other was supervising. So in the eyes of Tang Hao and Tang San, Xiao Wu was just a mobile hundred-thousand-year soul ring repository waiting to be slaughtered?]

[What was this called? Family-run animal husbandry?]

A comment appeared from the direction of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan.

[Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan · Elder Thunder: Tang Hao, your Clear Sky Sect calls itself the leader of the righteous path. Two generations of father and son conspiring to raise a hundred-thousand-year soul beast cub in captivity—this is the righteousness of your Clear Sky Sect?]

No one from the Clear Sky Sect replied.

Shrek Academy's training grounds.

Zhu Zhuqing and Ning Rongrong still stood in front of Xiao Wu. The three girls had not moved from their positions since the previous Sky Screen revelation.

There was no expression on Xiao Wu's face.

Zhu Zhuqing felt the hand gripping Xiao Wu's wrist turning cold—abnormally cold. She tightened her grip slightly and said nothing.

Ning Rongrong turned to glance at Xiao Wu. Her lips parted, but nothing came out.

What could she say? "Don't be sad"?

A comment with no source label drifted across the comment section. The words were tiny, almost invisible amid the overwhelming rage.

[She only wanted to make a friend.]

Star Dou Great Forest, core region.

The waters of the Lake of Life were no longer merely churning. They were boiling.

The Titan Giant Ape stood on the lakeshore, low-frequency vibrations rumbling from its chest as the entire forest resonated with them. Leaves fell in rustling showers, while flocks of birds burst from their perches and surged darkly toward the sky.

The Sky Azure Bull Python's body rose completely from the lakebed. Its massive form coiled seven or eight times, filling nearly half the lake. Its vertical pupils stared at the image of Xiao Wu sitting on the ground and crying on the Sky Screen, the gold within them contracting.

The outer forest began to tremble.

Soul beasts.

Tens of thousands of soul beasts poured from their nests, caves, and deep pools. Hundred-year, thousand-year, ten-thousand-year—different forms, vastly different sizes, but all headed in the same direction: toward the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest.

A message from the Star Dou Great Forest appeared in the comment section.

[Titan Giant Ape · Er Ming: Sister Xiao Wu was raised as livestock by humans for six years. The beast tide order takes effect immediately. Any human who dares block our path will be trampled flat.]

[Sky Azure Bull Python · Da Ming: Tang San, Tang Hao. Remember your names.]

An urgent military comment appeared from the Heaven Dou Empire's southern border garrison.

[Heaven Dou Southern Border Garrison · Deputy General: Soul beasts are stirring on the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest! Their numbers have exceeded fifty thousand! Requesting reinforcements from the imperial capital!]

Tang San's comment appeared over the Shrek training grounds.

[Shrek Academy · Tang San: I never knew Xiao Wu was a transformed soul beast! The Purple Demon Eye can only see through illusions; my cultivation level at the time was nowhere near sufficient to identify transformed soul beasts! That record of consciousness was altered by the Sky Screen! My feelings for Xiao Wu have always been genuine!]

Before the comment section could even curse him, the Sky Screen moved on its own.

The image shifted to a close-up of an old notebook. Its cover was badly worn, and "Martial Soul Notes: Basic Volume" was written in ink at the bottom right.

The notebook opened.

The first page, the second page... all the way to the thirteenth.

The entire page had been heavily marked in red ink, the handwriting messy but clear.

The title read: [Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast Transformation · Key Identification Points for the Juvenile Stage].

Seven points were listed beneath it.

Point one: During the initial stage of transformation, spiritual energy fluctuations are pulsed, fundamentally different from the stable Soul Power of human soul masters. The Purple Demon Eye at the Subtlety Realm can directly observe this.

Point two: A beast-shaped phantom remains within the body, and beastly instincts occasionally leak out during cultivation.

Before anyone could finish reading points three through seven, the comments had already blown apart the screen.

[He said he didn't know what transformed soul beasts were??? Page thirteen of his notebook was marked in red ink!!! The Purple Demon Eye at the Subtlety Realm can directly observe them!! Black ink on white paper, with red markings!!!]

[So he first learned how to identify them, then trained the Purple Demon Eye, and then "just happened" to discover that Xiao Wu was a transformed soul beast. And he calls that not knowing???]

[Tang San, what else do you have to say? You could not even be bothered to make up a new lie!!]

Tang San did not post another comment.

Shrek training grounds.

Zhu Zhuqing released Xiao Wu's hand.

She straightened up, reached into the hidden weapon pouch at her waist, and took out its contents one by one.

Sleeve arrows. A miniature imitation of the Pear Blossom Storm. Three poisoned throwing daggers.

Tang San had given them all to her over the years.

She gathered them in her hands, walked to within five steps of Tang San, flipped her hand, and threw them all to the ground.

Ning Rongrong immediately rose to her feet as well.

She took a silver chain from around her neck—a tiny Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Fragment hung from its end. Tang San had obtained it for her at an auction in Heaven Dou City, saying it was a protective charm.

"From today onward, Tang San, I have nothing to do with you. And don't touch anything belonging to the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect."

Zhu Zhuqing said nothing. Her way of speaking was to kick that pile of hidden weapons half a foot farther away, as though she were kicking filth.

Tang San stood where he was.

Flender stood in the second-floor corridor of the teaching building, both hands braced on the railing as he looked down.

He watched for a long time.

This old headmaster, who prized money like his life, excelled at calculations, and had spent his entire life balancing accounts, looked at the words "wait until it matures and sacrifices itself" on the Sky Screen. He looked at Xiao Wu crying on the ground. He looked at Zhu Zhuqing and Ning Rongrong throwing Tang San's things all over the ground.

He sighed.

Flender's comment appeared on the Sky Screen.

[Shrek Academy · Flender: I have run a school my whole life. I have taken in geniuses, trash, and scoundrels. But never... someone who raised a companion as livestock.]

[Headmaster Flender, you were deceived too.]

[Headmaster, don't blame yourself. Tang San's fake smile fooled even Xiao Wu for six years. How could you have known?]

The Sky Screen lingered on Flender's comment for two seconds, then slowly moved downward.

The camera focused on two other people on the Shrek training grounds.

Oscar.

Ma Hongjun.

The two stood at the edge of the training grounds, neither on Tang San's side nor fully alongside Zhu Zhuqing and Ning Rongrong.

They were stuck in the middle, their expressions different.

Oscar's right hand was in his pocket while his left hung at his side, his fingers unconsciously rubbing against the seam of his pants. His lips were pressed into a line, and his eyes stared unblinking at the discarded hidden weapons on the ground.

Ma Hongjun's fists clenched, loosened, then clenched again. He looked at Tang San, then at Xiao Wu, the veins on his neck twitching twice.

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

[Shrek Seven Devils · Crossroads of Fate]