I get it! You're the Tang Sect's child of destiny!

Tang Ya opened her mouth, her gaze darting between Tang Qi and Huo Yutong. For a moment, she had no idea what to say.

"Xiaoya, you're not angry, are you?" Huo Yutong blinked, carefully studying her expression.

"I... of course I'm not angry." Tang Ya gave a couple of awkward chuckles, though her smile was rather stiff.

Haki Ya, who spoke without engaging her brain, had finally met both her strictest father and her strictest mother today.

Presumably, after this incident, she would put her brain to work before opening her mouth.

"So? Are you two going to join the Tang Sect or not?"

Tang Ya rubbed her hands together and leaned forward, anticipation written all over her face.

Huo Yutong clearly had a favorable impression of the Tang Sect. Her mother had mentioned it often, even if the Tang Ya before her seemed somewhat unreliable.

But a favorable impression was one thing. She still needed to return to her Sea of Consciousness and ask Tian Meng's opinion.

"You really want my opinion?" Tian Meng poked her head out from beneath her soft mental covers, her golden hair a tangled mess and impatience written all over her pretty face.

Huo Yutong nodded repeatedly like a chick pecking at grain.

"Do you even need to ask? Obviously, wherever Tang Qi goes, you go!"

Tian Meng let out an enormous yawn. "Our happy life together in the future depends entirely on this number-one big spender."

"Number-one big spender...?" Huo Yutong froze.

"All right, all right, stop interrupting my beauty sleep."

Before Huo Yutong could speak again, Tian Meng waved a hand, rolled over, and burrowed back beneath her covers.

After years of wandering from place to place, when had she ever enjoyed a good night's sleep? Now, at last, she had recovered those heavenly days of eating and sleeping in the Far North.

Sleeping once felt great; sleeping every day felt great every day.

"Why is Tian Meng so lazy?"

Huo Yutong muttered and helplessly left her Sea of Consciousness. When she opened her eyes, she found herself looking straight into Tang Ya's expectant gaze.

Seeing the girl remain silent, Tang Ya's eyes darted about. From somewhere, she produced a copy of the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record, waved it before Huo Yutong's eyes, then showed it off to Tang Qi as well.

"This is our Tang Sect's Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record! The Mysterious Heaven Skill inside is the cultivation technique our ancestor Tang San practiced back in his day!"

Tang Ya flipped vigorously through the pages, her tone brimming with temptation. "Well? Interested? Why just feel tempted when you can act? Join the Tang Sect!"

Huo Yutong swallowed involuntarily, thoroughly tempted, but ultimately turned her head to look at Tang Qi.

Bei Bei stood to one side, gazing longingly at the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record in Tang Ya's hands, a trace of resentment flashing through his eyes.

Xiaoya... you can't favor one so heavily over another!

I have to pass a test before I can get the Mysterious Heaven Skill, so why do other people get it as a starter gift pack?!

But Bei Bei didn't dare voice any of this. He feared that the little affection he had painstakingly earned from Tang Ya would instantly drop to zero. Then he would want to cry but have no tears left.

Naturally, Tang Ya knew nothing of Bei Bei's grievances.

At that moment, all her attention was focused on Huo Yutong and Tang Qi.

When Tang Ya noticed Huo Yutong's action, delight welled up in her heart.

I originally had to win over two people, but now I only need to secure Tang Qi, and won't Huo Yutong, with her body Martial Soul, come as a buy-one-get-one-free deal?!

As for why she was so certain Tang Qi would join the Tang Sect...

Wasn't that obvious? Did anyone understand the significance of a boy whose Martial Souls were the Blue Silver Emperor and the Clear Sky Hammer, who just happened to have the surname Tang, suddenly descending from the heavens to meet a down-and-out Tang Sect Leader?

Anyone who didn't know better would think you were Tang San reincarnated! Tang Ya thought.

"So, what do you say, Teacher Xiaoqi?"

Tang Ya's eyes curved into crescents. "As long as you join the Tang Sect, you can study the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record with every right to do so."

"The Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record?"

Tang Qi chuckled, a hint of amusement in his voice.

"That's right."

Tang Ya still hadn't noticed anything amiss in his tone and continued her enthusiastic sales pitch. "Only the Tang Sect has it anywhere under heaven!"

"Yours is the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record," Tang Qi said leisurely. "Then what's this one of mine?"

As he spoke, he took a book out of his Storage Ring. The words "Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record" were clearly visible on the cover.

"What?!"

Everyone present widened their eyes in disbelief.

Inside the Sea of Consciousness, Tian Meng, who had already fallen sound asleep, suddenly rolled over and mumbled indistinctly, "I think... I smell some juicy gossip."

"Let me see!"

Almost instinctively, Tang Ya lunged forward, ready to snatch it.

Only one thought filled her mind.

How could the Tang Sect's Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record be in an outsider's hands? If some generation had carelessly allowed it to spread outside the sect, that would be a terrible affront to our ancestor.

Yet she had only taken a single step when her body suddenly seemed to stop obeying her.

A compulsion to submit, arising from her Martial Soul Origin, welled up from the depths of her soul. Her knees buckled without warning, and with a thump, she fell onto the ground.

"Owww... that hurt!"

Tang Ya sucked in a breath, rubbed her reddened knees, and looked up at Tang Qi with an aggrieved expression.

"Teacher Xiaoqi, just let me have a look. Just one look!"

"I never said you couldn't look."

Tang Qi helplessly pressed a hand to his forehead and casually tossed over the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record.

"Hey! Don't throw it!"

Tang Ya scrambled to catch it. Taking a deep breath, she carefully opened the book.

Silence settled over them, broken only by the rustle of turning pages.

Tang Ya's expression changed little by little.

Her initial nervousness and anticipation gave way to confusion, then shock, and finally a face ashen with despair.

In mere moments, she had gulped down the book like swallowing dates whole, flipping all the way to the final page.

Tang Ya froze.

"Xiaoya, what's wrong?" Seeing her look broken and utterly bereft, Bei Bei couldn't help stepping forward.

"How is this possible... how could this be possible...?"

Tang Ya murmured, then abruptly raised her head to look at Tang Qi, her eyes filled with helplessness and bewilderment.

"What's impossible about it?"

Tang Qi spoke calmly. "They're both the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record. They're both genuine."

"The difference is..."

"Yours is female, and mine is male."

The others, who had been listening with rapt attention, all twitched at the corners of their mouths. Tang Ya's face darkened in exasperation.

Since she couldn't get any useful information out of Tang Qi, Tang Ya immediately decided to switch on that brain of hers, which had lain dormant for over a decade and was practically rusting!

After a brief silence, Tang Ya suddenly sprang to her feet and shouted, "I've figured it out!"

Tang Ya held up the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record passed down through generations of the Tang Sect in one hand and cradled Tang Qi's copy in the other, her expression excited.

"The one on the left was handed down from the Divine Realm after our ancestor ascended there. But the one on the right is more comprehensive and more refined than the version passed down through the Tang Sect, which means..."

Haki Ya, have you actually comprehended the truth?!

"This one must be a divine-level enhanced edition!" Tang Ya declared with absolute conviction.

"A divine-level enhanced edition?"

Tang Qi was taken aback. Huo Yutong and Bei Bei looked equally bewildered.

"Now this is something you don't understand!"

Tang Ya planted both hands on her hips, thoroughly enjoying everyone's dumbfounded expressions.

She felt as though she stood at the very pinnacle of wisdom, radiating brilliance from head to toe.

"Our ancestor is a god! With nothing to do in the Divine Realm, couldn't he improve the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record? This has to be his improved version!"

Tang Ya scratched her head, then swept her hand grandly through the air.

"As for why it ended up in your hands, Tang Qi, isn't that obvious?"

"Our ancestor couldn't bear to see the Tang Sect decline and perish, so he specifically chose you on the Douluo Continent! Using his supreme divine powers, he delivered this Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record Plus Edition into your hands!"

"And you, Tang Qi! You're the child of destiny!"

Tang Qi's mouth twitched. "Me? The child of destiny?"

"Of course! How else could you explain having both the Blue Silver Emperor and the Clear Sky Hammer, and just happening to have the surname Tang?"

Tang Ya's eyes shone as she lunged forward and wrapped her arms around Tang Qi's head. "O great child of destiny, please join the Tang Sect! The Tang Sect needs you!"