Ming Father Pats His Head

[After you left, you kept a clone behind to torment Bibi Dong. Day and night, it whispered in her ear, imitating Yu Xiaogang's voice or, at times, using the voices of other victims to question her.]

"Su Ming, you really are wicked. But I love it! Heh heh heh, that's right. Bibi Dong, that madwoman, deserves her punishment! I never even did anything to her, and she came after me like a lunatic!" Su Ming spoke loudly, but the wind kept his voice contained so no one else could hear.

[After leaving, you headed to Heaven Dou City and took the Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud while you were there. You planned to give it to your godson, Little Scumbag, as a coming-of-age gift.]

[In the seventh year of the Simulation, you returned to Holy Soul Village. By then, Tang San and Ah Yin had moved to Nuoding City. They lived in the house outside Nuoding Academy where you had stayed before.]

[You were in no hurry to find them. First, you looked for Tang Hao. He was still drinking himself senseless in the blacksmith's shop in Holy Soul Village. You were pleased with what you saw and hoped he would keep playing the part of a useless father.]

[You left Holy Soul Village and found Ah Yin. She was now a Soul Ancestor and not far from becoming a Soul King. After checking that everything was fine with her, you went to Nuoding Academy to see how Tang San was doing.]

[Without Yu Xiaogang around, Tang San had suffered no unfair treatment at Nuoding Academy. With his current looks and the bearing he displayed, he resembled a polished young gentleman from a noble family.]

[You met Tang San on the academy grounds. "Ming Father, you're back! Where did you go this past year? Godmother missed you so much." Calling you Ming Father came naturally to Tang San. He felt no embarrassment about it.]

[You closed your eyes. To Tang San's astonishment, the two of you appeared in a forest a moment later. You handed him a Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone, then told him a story that left some details vague.]

["Long ago, a Soul Master set his sights on a Hundred-Thousand-Year Transformed Soul Beast and coaxed her into becoming his wife. Later, the man failed to restrain himself, and they had a son. To protect his reputation and obtain a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring, he took his Soul Beast wife right under the nose of a powerful faction. As a transformed Soul Beast who had reached maturity, she should not have been exposed. Unfortunately, she was pregnant, and pregnancy made it easy for her Soul Beast aura to leak out. In the end, the wife died, and the Soul Master got what he wanted. But he never expected the bastard child to survive. Later still, unable to return to his sect, he took the child to live in a small village. What the Soul Master had not foreseen was that the Soul Beast had a friend. That friend saved her, and she lived. But for the child's sake, she did not break with the Soul Master."]

[The story felt both long and short. Before Tang San knew it, tears were running down his face. "What happened after that, Ming Father? What became of them?"]

[You gave Tang San a long, meaningful look. Then you pressed the Soul Bone into his hand and motioned for him to absorb it.]

[Tang San was overwhelmed by the gift. He wanted to refuse, but you were so insistent that he could only absorb it.]

[Thanks to your and Ah Yin's teaching, Tang San understood Soul Masters better than 99.99 percent of the Soul Masters on the continent. Naturally, he knew what a Soul Bone was and what it could do.]

[Tang San absorbed the Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone without trouble. It suited him so well that it triggered Martial Soul Evolution, advancing his Blue Silver Grass into a Blue Silver King ahead of time.]

[You briefly assessed Tang San's physique. Aside from a slight shortfall in Mental Power, he could just barely absorb a ten-thousand-year Blue Silver King as his Second Soul Ring.]

[After giving him a few instructions, you took Tang San home. Absorbing the Soul Bone had taken a long time, and classes were already over. There was no need to return to Nuoding Academy.]

[You saw Ah Yin, who immediately came over to hug and cuddle you. She was openly affectionate, paying no mind to Tang San's presence.]

[Tang San watched the two of you and recalled the story you had told him. He seemed to have guessed something, but he said nothing.]

[Under your and Ah Yin's care, Tang San grew up much like an ordinary child, receiving both parental affection and parental discipline. Affection without restraint would only harm the child and the parents.]

[Although Tang San still retained many habits from his previous life, a person's character changed gradually, not overnight.]

[For the time being, you returned to family life. You usually taught Tang San about Soul Masters, and before you knew it, patting his head had nearly become muscle memory.]

[Tang San resisted a little at first. But he discovered that his mind became remarkably clear after you patted his head, so he often came to you and asked for it.]

[You liked patting Tang San's head, but he was not a cat you could pet every day. So you told him it only worked when you did it at set times.]

[You then worked with Ah Yin to investigate why your head pats cleared the mind. After much study, you suspected the ability was related to your constant awareness of the time.]

[After prolonged research, you reached one conclusion: pat someone's head enough, and they really could become addicted. Ah Yin had helped you test it, and now, if you went a day without patting her head, she grew restless all over, as though hooked on something she should never have touched.]

[You badly wanted to refuse, but Ah Yin's approach left you no choice. If you did not pat her head, she would undress and have her way with you. If you did, she would not.]

[As for Tang San, with the help of your head pats, he quickly gained insight and overcame the occasional obstacles he encountered in his cultivation.]

[You drew a rough conclusion about how the ability worked, then classified it as a skill that granted enlightenment.]

[Through continued research and experimentation, you discovered that when you patted—or, more precisely, stroked—any intelligent being, a spark of insight appeared in their mind. Unless they hit a bottleneck, that spark remained, keeping their mind clear for a long time. The state ended only when the spark was used up.]

[You named the technique Ming Father's Care.]

[Perhaps out of a mischievous streak, Ah Yin would blink her big, watery eyes and call you "Daddy" every time you patted her head.]

[When Tang San occasionally saw this, he made it clear he knew nothing about the little games you and Ah Yin played as husband and wife. He would rather focus on cultivating and grow closer to Xiao Wu while he was at it.]

[In the eighth year of the Simulation, Tang San brought Xiao Wu home to live with you after you and Ah Yin encouraged him. After some thought, you bought the balconies and apartments above and below yours to avoid any awkward situations, turning the property into a standalone apartment building.]