"If there's any possible rift between my mother and me, the only thing I can think of is what happened when I was born. My birth didn't go very smoothly..."
Recalling some details his father had once told him, Dai Yueheng spoke to Huo Yuhao with some hesitation.
Although his account was muddled and disjointed, Huo Yuhao understood what he meant.
Simply put, Dai Yueheng had been a difficult birth. The Duchess might have overdone the nutritional supplements back then, eating herself somewhat overweight and consequently making his delivery more difficult.
Put that way, it did more or less make sense.
Especially considering how smoothly Dai Yueheng had been delivered, everything fell neatly into place.
Huo Yuhao even felt a little sympathy for Dai Yueheng over this. After all, his soul belonged to someone from the modern world, and he possessed at least some basic medical knowledge.
A difficult delivery had nothing to do with the baby. Dai Yueheng had taken the blame entirely for the Duchess's gluttony.
"If that really was the reason, then you truly suffered a calamity out of nowhere."
After hearing Dai Yueheng out, Huo Yuhao shrugged and said this to him.
Dai Yueheng shook his head and declared with boundless bravado,
"None of that matters. If we really follow the Dai Family's ancestral teachings, even without this ordeal, I'd still have to compete with Huabin. Only the capable are qualified to inherit everything Father has."
Huo Yuhao instantly wiped away that trace of sympathy in his heart and looked at Dai Yueheng as though he were an idiot.
"When your ancestors played this game, at least they were fighting over a throne. Now you don't even have a throne anymore, yet you're still pulling this routine over some lousy noble title. Don't you feel like you're getting a rotten deal?"
Dai Yueheng froze, and Huo Yuhao continued,
"Could you aim a little higher? We're soul masters. If we really battered each other bloody over some lousy title, I'd be embarrassed even to tell anyone.
"The Three Former Empires of the Douluo Continent all have pretty similar systems for granting noble titles: a Soul Saint gets made an Earl, a Soul Douluo gets made a Marquis, and a Titled Douluo gets made a Duke. You're a student of Shrek Academy's Inner Court, for crying out loud. Don't you even have the confidence to become a Titled Douluo?
"Once you become a Titled Douluo, the imperial family grants you a brand-new dukedom outright. Isn't that worth much more than inheriting something from your father?"
Dai Yueheng smiled, scratched his head, and said to Huo Yuhao,
"I don't have ambitions that big. Inheriting Father's title is enough for me. But if that's how you see things, I think we could form an offensive and defensive alliance."
Huo Yuhao raised his eyelids and said to Dai Yueheng,
"An offensive and defensive alliance? Interesting. How exactly would that work? Let's hear it."
Dai Yueheng said to Huo Yuhao,
"I know your brain works better than mine and Dai Huabin's put together, and you have more military talent than both of us combined. Use your talents to help me make a good impression on Father, and we'll split whatever resources that earns us fifty-fifty. That way, you'll essentially get an extra half share of resources out of thin air, which will help you reach the Titled Douluo realm faster."
When Huo Yuhao said nothing, Dai Yueheng added another condition.
"Besides that, if there's any movement on my mother's side, I'll let you know. My mother might keep things from other people, but when it comes to dealing with you, she definitely won't hide anything from me. She won't think there's any need to, either."
Huo Yuhao nodded, then said to Dai Yueheng,
"All right. But you must hand over every last bit of the resources Father gives you to me first. Whatever's left after I've chosen my share is yours."
Dai Yueheng nodded without hesitation, then held out his hand to Huo Yuhao.
"We're half brothers, after all. I won't ask you to swear an oath. Let's seal the alliance with a high five!"
Huo Yuhao reached out and slapped palms with Dai Yueheng. Dai Yueheng felt no dissatisfaction whatsoever with Huo Yuhao's additional demand. Once someone reached Soul Emperor and beyond, resources became increasingly less effective at helping them advance, unless they used the special pills from the Sun Moon Empire that damaged their foundations.
The support the White Tiger Duke's Mansion could provide was gradually reaching its limit, too. Dai Yueheng now relied more on the resources he could obtain through Shrek Academy.
After their conversation, Huo Yuhao got up and left the teahouse. When he returned to the dormitory, Wang Dong came up to him almost immediately.
"You were way too bold this morning! You actually confronted a teacher head-on. Doesn't that count as making Shrek Academy history?"
Huo Yuhao shrugged and sat down on the edge of his bed. After taking a sip of water, he said to Wang Dong in exasperation,
"You only think that because you didn't pay attention in history class this morning. The first thing Senior Tang San did after enrolling in the original Shrek Academy was get into a huge fight with Senior Zhao Wuji, and he even injured him to some extent."
"From that perspective, beating up a teacher as soon as you enroll counts as a Shrek Academy tradition. I was merely paying tribute to our predecessors' deeds."
Huo Yuhao's words left Wang Dong stunned. She scratched her cheek uncertainly and murmured to herself,
"Did that really happen?"
Huo Yuhao nodded seriously, then told Wang Dong with a perfectly straight face,
"Of course it did. Who can you blame if you don't read your history book properly? Oh, right, it's not even a matter of not reading properly with you. You fell asleep outright in history class. If you ask me, you're the real hero, daring to sleep through class on the very first day."
The mention of "sleep" seemed to trigger Wang Dong's underlying code. She yawned and said, as though she still hadn't had enough,
"Now that you mention it, I really am sleepy. I'll take a nap first. Wake me before afternoon class."
Watching Wang Dong practically fling her jacket beside the bed and lie down in her underwear in one motion, Huo Yuhao couldn't help teasing her.
"Why don't I just ask for leave for you? You'll only be sleeping somewhere else in class anyway."
Wang Dong mumbled, "No, that won't do. It's the first day of classes, after all. If I ask for leave outright, the teacher will probably throw me out."
Huo Yuhao looked at Wang Dong and said nothing more. He simply leaned against the bed frame beside him and silently considered the day's events.
He hadn't formed an alliance with Dai Yueheng for the resources Dai Yueheng would share with him. Those were merely a bonus. What truly mattered to Huo Yuhao was how Dai Yueheng had forced Zhou Yi to back down today.
Since Dai Yueheng had already discovered him, he had to keep Dai Yueheng appeased for now.
Otherwise, it would be far too easy for the other party to make trouble for him using his status as an Inner Court senior.
Besides, Dai Yueheng was different from Dai Huabin. In the original story, Dai Yueheng had never actually done anything malicious to Huo Yuhao. He had only briefly harbored some killing intent toward Huo Yuhao after Dai Huabin suffered a setback.
Overall, he could be considered a normal person. It was merely his background that naturally placed him on the opposing side from the protagonist; later on, he had simply been treated as though he no longer existed...
Before you continue