Refusing to Be a Dog from the Start! Tearing the Tang Sect Apart and Bringing Sky Dream to Heel!

Firmament-Time Space, Star Dou Great Forest.

On the ground, the corpse of a ten-year Wind Baboon oozed pungent blood.

Beside it stood Lin Fan, playing the role of Huo Yuhao. Only eleven years old and dressed in thin, threadbare clothes, he slowly pulled the bloodstained White Tiger Dagger free.

He did not panic like the inexperienced boy in the original story, collapsing nearby and gasping for breath.

Lin Fan merely flicked the droplets of blood from the dagger.

Boom!

The space ahead twisted violently.

A terrifying surge of mental power sent the surrounding temperature plunging dozens of degrees. Then a gigantic Ice Silkworm descended before Lin Fan, its body translucent as white jade and circled by ten golden patterns!

"I'm finally free! Hahahaha!"

Sky Dream Ice Silkworm wriggled excitedly in midair. He looked down at the frail human child and sent a beguiling mental message:

"Poor human child, don't be afraid! I'm a Million-Year Soul Beast! Just open your mind and let me become your Soul Ring. I'll make sure you live like a king and turn you into the strongest person in the world!"

Sky Dream Ice Silkworm fully expected the feeble commoner child to fall to his knees at the words "Million-Year Soul Beast," kowtowing in gratitude as he accepted this supreme opportunity dropped from heaven.

But the expected bow never came.

Lin Fan held the White Tiger Dagger in a reverse grip. On his youthful eleven-year-old face spread the smile of a mastermind pulling strings from the shadows.

"A million years? Strongest in the world?"

Lin Fan gave a derisive laugh. There was not a trace of reverence in his eyes.

Far from opening his mind, he took a step forward, making even Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, with his million years of cultivation, shudder.

"A useless oversized caterpillar treated like a sweatshop by the Star Dou Great Forest, drained of his essence for ten thousand years. Your heavenly tribulation is coming, and you can't survive it, so you ran out like a homeless dog to find a host and cling to life."

"You came to me because you have no choice! With a mental body as unstable as yours, only a 'good-for-nothing' like me, with the Spirit Eyes Body Martial Soul and pure mental power, can barely contain you. Anyone else would have burst."

"So drop that benefactor act. This is a deal where you beg me to keep you alive!"

Sky Dream Ice Silkworm froze in midair, his golden eyes filled with horror!

"You... You're an eleven-year-old human! How do you know all that?!" His secrets and disguise had been stripped bare before a child who was not even a Soul Master!

"Enough nonsense."

Lin Fan gave him no time to think. His tone was imperious:

"If you want to live, forget that so-called equality of yours! From today on, you're my mental-power battery, my portable charger. Once you enter my Sea of Consciousness, you obey my will without question. If you so much as think of turning on me..."

Lin Fan pointed at his own head. "Then I'd rather smash the jade along with the stone. I'll blow up my Sea of Consciousness right here, and we'll both be reduced to ash!"

"Agree, and get in here! Otherwise, crawl back to the Star Dou Great Forest and wait to die."

Sky Dream Ice Silkworm was utterly cowed.

He had lived for a million years and had never encountered a human this insane!

Under Lin Fan's relentless pressure, his plan to take control crumbled like a house of dirt.

"I... I admit defeat! Kid, you're a monster!"

Sky Dream Ice Silkworm wanted to cry. He truly had no choice. Gritting his teeth, he turned into a brilliant platinum beam and obediently entered Lin Fan's brow.

As he settled into the Sea of Consciousness, a weak gray orb of light seized the chance to slip in as well.

In the original story, Huo Yuhao had been terrified of that gray light.

But within his Sea of Consciousness, Lin Fan gave the gray light a slight nod, addressing it as an equal. "With the sun and moon in my grasp, I pluck the stars from the heavens. None in this world can compare to me! Holy Necromancer, Electrolux, welcome to my mental world. Rest easy. One day, I'll wield your necromancy to remake this rotten world!"

The gray light trembled faintly, conveying a sense of approval, then fell quiet and dormant.

[Detected: Host has subdued Sky Dream Ice Silkworm and accepted Electrolux!]

[With the bearing of an emperor, you crushed every scheme! You rejected fate's handout and turned opportunity into absolute submission!]

[Main quest: Refuse to Be the God King's Dog—first step begun! Current imperial dominance: 10%!]

Looking at the system panel, Lin Fan sneered inwardly.

That Huo Yuhao in the original story let this worm lead him by the nose, then let Tang San's divine consciousness toy with him. Now that I'm here, every cell in this body answers to me alone!

Just as Lin Fan finished the fusion and prepared to leave,

"Young man, are you all right?"

Two figures followed the smell of blood and sped out of the depths of the forest.

They were a man and a woman.

The man was refined and handsome; the woman was pretty and lively.

They were Tang Ya, the current master of the Tang Sect, and senior disciple Bei Bei!

At this moment, the gears of fate from the original story should have meshed.

This was where Huo Yuhao should have been coaxed by Tang Ya into signing away his future and joining the Tang Sect, all for a meal of grilled fish and a few words of supposed concern. The sect was already a setting sun, and even its grounds had been taken from it.

From then on, he would have walked the path of an "ultimate bootlicker," bound fast to God King Tang San's chariot.

But in the Firmament, the one standing before them was Lin Fan!

Tang Ya glanced at the Wind Baboon's corpse, then at the frail Lin Fan. Surprise flashed through her eyes. "Young man, did you kill this Wind Baboon? You came to the Star Dou Great Forest alone?"

Lin Fan gave them an indifferent glance.

"None of your business. Move." Lin Fan put away the White Tiger Dagger and started past them.

"Hey, why can't you appreciate a good turn?" Tang Ya's temper flared at his coldness.

But Bei Bei caught her arm. His sharp gaze fixed on Lin Fan. "Young man, do you have a mental-type Martial Soul? You have extraordinary potential. Your cultivation may be low now, but with guidance from a renowned teacher, your future would know no bounds."

Bei Bei had cast the bait. Tang Ya understood at once. Hands on her hips, she struck what she thought was an alluring pose and made the same proud announcement she had in the original story:

"Young man, today's your lucky day! We're from the greatest sect under heaven—the Tang Sect! I'm its current master!"

Tang Ya lifted her chin and delivered the trump card she thought would make any commoner in the world bow at her feet. "You look all alone, so on behalf of the Tang Sect, I'm making an exception and granting you the supreme honor of joining us! Join the Tang Sect, and I'll teach you the invincible Tang Sect Secret Arts! Well? Hurry up and kneel to thank me!"

Lin Fan stood still, looking at these two self-satisfied Tang Sect leaders.

Then a mocking smile suddenly spread across his eleven-year-old face.

"Heh... Hahahaha!"

Lin Fan laughed aloud. The sound struck Tang Ya and Bei Bei across the face like a ringing slap.

"What are you laughing at?!" Tang Ya's face flushed red.

"At you two beggars, waving scraps of broken metal around as you swindle people!"

Lin Fan's smile vanished. He stepped forward.

"The greatest sect under heaven? The Tang Sect?"

"A bankrupt outfit whose grounds were stolen and whose signboard was torn down for firewood! A hollow shell with just you two left to command!"

"And you call that a supreme honor?!"

Tang Ya and Bei Bei shook from head to toe, their faces deathly pale!

They could never have imagined that this child, who looked like a country bumpkin, would see through them at a glance!

"You... You're lying! The Tang Sect still has secret arts! And Hidden Weapons!" Tang Ya stammered.

"Secret arts? Hidden Weapons?"

"A few poison-coated iron nails and some shabby mechanism blueprints? In an age when Soul Tool cannons can blast down city walls, you call that pile of scrap metal a legacy?!"

"You want to recruit me because I was ruthless enough to kill a Wind Baboon alone, and because I'm a commoner with no one to protect me—easy to control! You want to snare a White Wolf with empty hands and make me the unpaid muscle for your bankrupt sect! Cannon fodder to charge into battle!"

"You think a few tattered techniques that should've been left behind by the times can buy Huo Yuhao's entire life? That I'll be your dog?!"

"Put away those lofty, charity-giving faces! This rotten, sickening Tang Sect, these chains reeking of hypocrisy—I! Don't! Want! Them!!!"

As Lin Fan spat out those last three words,

he swept his sleeve and walked away, leaving Tang Ya and Bei Bei rooted to the spot.

Their cheeks burned. Before this boy, the sect's glory they had taken such pride in was worth less than a rag used to shine shoes!

[Detected: Host has forcefully shattered the chains of servility from the original story!]

[You rejected the Tang Sect's brainwashing recruitment! You tore apart the first net of fate cast by the God King!]

In the Firmament, Lin Fan strode through the snow, exhilaration surging through him. To hell with Shrek! To hell with the Tang Sect! This time, I'm heading straight for the Sun Moon Empire! I'll use magic and technology to crush those sanctimonious hypocrites beneath the wheels of history!

At that very moment,

outside the Firmament, in the real world of the Peerless Tang Sect era,

Lin Fan's furious, airtight takedown of the Tang Sect—stripping it bare in his famous "Refusing to Be a Dog from the Start" moment—was projected in the highest possible clarity across the skies of the entire continent!

Thud!

Huo Yuhao's knees buckled, and he fell onto the cold floor.

He clutched at his hair, his Spirit Eyes filled with anguish and regret!

Tears poured down his face!

How commanding that eleven-year-old version of himself in the Firmament was! How clear-eyed! How utterly unwilling to bow to anyone!

And what about his real self?!

"Back then... how could I have been so stupid...?"

Huo Yuhao wept as he pounded his chest, every blow heavy with remorse.

He remembered meeting Tang Ya and Bei Bei in the Star Dou Great Forest.

For a meal of grilled fish, for a few hollow words like "You have talent" and "We'll protect you,"

he had signed the contract to join the Tang Sect with tears of gratitude, like a stray dog that had wandered too long!

After that, he had trained in the Mysterious Heaven Skill with everything he had and fought to bring honor to the Tang Sect at Shrek Academy. He had nearly died several times trying to revive a sect that had long since rotted away!

He had thought he had found a home.

But Lin Fan's version of Huo Yuhao in the Firmament had used the cruelest logic to slap the real Huo Yuhao across the face hundreds of times!

"That's right... What right did a bankrupt sect have to recruit me?"

"They just wanted the potential of my mental-type Martial Soul. They wanted a commoner they could control... With a few shabby manuals, they bought Huo Yuhao's entire life! I spent a whole year as their unpaid muscle!"

"I wasn't just a servant at the White Tiger Duke's Mansion... I even willingly became the Tang Sect's groveling watchdog!!!"

Huo Yuhao let out a howl of despair!

As his faith collapsed and he recoiled from his own servility, towering waves surged through this child of fortune's Sea of Consciousness!

Within his Sea of Consciousness, Sky Dream Ice Silkworm and Electrolux looked at the host in the Firmament, then at the real Huo Yuhao. Both let out long, helpless sighs.

Outside the dormitory,

the real Tang Ya and Bei Bei stood under the faintly mocking gazes of countless Shrek students.

"So... when we recruited junior disciple Yuhao back then... to everyone else, it looked like we were trying to snare a White Wolf with empty hands?"

Tang Ya's face turned bloodless.

Her efforts to revive the sect looked so base, so ridiculous, when reflected in the Firmament's demon-revealing mirror!

Bei Bei clenched his teeth so hard his whole body trembled.

The Tang Sect's last shred of dignity had vanished under Lin Fan's scathing ridicule!

Yet the one who felt the greatest terror and despair

was none other than the figure seated high in the Divine Realm, the one whose Divine Core had only just been cracked by torment—Sea God Tang San!

Divine Realm, the God-Demon Prison Abyss.

Nine chains of Destruction Divine Thunder pierced Tang San's Pipa Bones. He hung there, head raised, staring at the Firmament.

He had watched Lin Fan bring Sky Dream Ice Silkworm to heel, expose Tang Ya and Bei Bei's scheme to their faces, and refuse to join the Tang Sect without a backward glance.

"No... That's impossible! How dare he defy the script this God King laid down?!"

Tang San's face, twisted by pain, was covered in an uncontrollable tremor!

Huo Yuhao was the pawn he had chosen to restore the Tang Sect!

He was the most vital leash Tang San had laid upon the lower realm in his ten-thousand-year scheme!

In the original story, every opportunity Huo Yuhao received, his joining the Tang Sect, and every step he took toward Shrek had all been caught in Tang San's great net called "fate."

But now, the Huo Yuhao in the Firmament had done it on the very first day.

In the very first second!

Without the slightest regard for his plans, he had torn Tang San's "net of fate" to shreds!!!

"He didn't go to Shrek... He rejected the Tang Sect..."

Tang San watched Lin Fan's retreating figure in the Firmament, his heart seizing.

He could feel the vast fortune of the lower realm, once firmly in his grasp, draining away at a terrifying, irreversible rate!

And not only in Firmament-Time Space.

Even in the real world, Huo Yuhao, the child of fortune who had once been utterly loyal to him,

had begun to change. The last few golden threads of karma linking the Divine Realm to the mortal world, threads representing "faith and enslavement,"

reached their breaking point as the final word of this chapter fell.

Awakened and rebelling against his old faith, the real Huo Yuhao caused those threads to ring through the void with crisp snapping sounds!

Snap! Snap! Snap!

"Argh!!!"

The karmic backlash from the severed threads of fate made God King Tang San, suspended in the abyss, scream in agony once more. Great mouthfuls of golden Divine Blood spilled through the air.