The square, filled with a hundred thousand people, fell silent in an instant.
Qin Chuan stood before Tang San, considering his question.
With truth or dare, what you asked mattered.
Ask something too trivial, and he would waste his chance. Ask something too private, and he would miss the point-he was after Tang San's reputation.
A hundred thousand people were watching. The pope of Spirit Hall was watching. The heads of all the great clans were watching.
This question had to be something everyone could understand, remember, and spread.
Qin Chuan spoke.
"Tell me, who arranged for Xiao Wu to stay by your side?"
Tang San clenched his teeth.
His cheeks bulged, veins rising one after another. He wanted to grit his teeth and endure it. He just had to hold out. As long as he kept his mouth shut, nothing could slip out.
He lasted three breaths.
On the fourth, he felt it.
Soul power backlash.
Agony exploded inside him. His soul power surged backward through his meridians, sweeping through every limb and bone. Every inch of his meridians felt as though it were being torn apart, and the bone-piercing pain made his entire body shake violently.
Tang San dropped to his knees. They slammed into the paving tiles hard enough to crack them.
He wanted to lie, but something else came out of his mouth.
"My dad, Tang Hao."
No one in the square made a sound.
Tang San knelt on the ground, his mouth opening and closing as each word spilled out. "My dad saw through her identity as a hundred-thousand-year soft bone rabbit long ago. He had his sights on her long ago, too."
After those words, Tang San pitched forward, bracing both hands against the tiles and digging all ten fingers into the cracks.
Xiao Wu stood where she was, the color slowly draining from her face.
She took a step forward, then stopped.
Her pink skirt trembled violently in the wind.
She had heard him. She had heard every word.
A hundred-thousand-year soft bone rabbit.
This was the secret she had hidden so carefully for so many years. She had never told anyone except Tang San. She had thought it would be all right.
It turned out his father knew, too.
Tang San was still kneeling, his mouth still moving.
His eyes rolled upward, exposing the whites. The tendons in his neck stretched into two taut lines as his whole body fought against his own mouth. But his mouth no longer obeyed him.
"She's been under house arrest all along. If she dares to run away, or get close to another boy, my dad will dispose of her."
Dispose of her.
Those words echoed across the square.
A hundred thousand people drew in a breath together. The sound traveled from the front rows to the back, then rolled back again-a long, drawn-out hiss.
[Ding! Congratulations, host. Emotion points +18. Source: Tang San. Fear, humiliation.] [Emotion points +9. Source: Xiao Wu. Shock, heartbreak.] [Emotion points +108. Source: Audience. Shock.]
Qin Chuan did not rush to press him. He gave everyone time to digest it. The more thoroughly they digested it, the more emotion points his second question would earn.
In Spirit Hall's stands, several elders exchanged glances.
A hundred-thousand-year soul beast. A hundred-thousand-year soul beast that had taken human form.
There was shock in their eyes, along with something else. None of them voiced it, but every one of them understood-a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring, a hundred-thousand-year soul bone. Those were treasures precious enough to let a Soul Douluo break straight through his bottleneck.
The Tang father and son had kept something like that beside them, nurturing her for years.
Chrysanthemum Douluo murmured something to Ghost Douluo beside him, and Ghost Douluo's aged face twitched.
On the papal dais, Bibi Dong shifted her gaze from Tang San to Xiao Wu and let it linger for a long time.
She said nothing. But the index finger of her right hand tapped twice against her armrest.
In the VIP seats, Ning Fengzhi remained silent for a long while before finally cursing under his breath. "Beast."
Behind him, Bone Douluo added, "That madman Tang Hao is capable of it."
Sword Douluo said nothing. He lowered his hand from his sword hilt, then gripped it again.
On the arena platform, Xiao Wu's knees buckled. She swayed sideways and only kept from falling by catching the railing.
She remembered many things.
Every time she said she wanted to visit the Star Dou Great Forest, Tang San would take her hand and tell her gently that it was dangerous outside, and that he would go with her someday.
Whenever a boy exchanged a few extra words with her, Tang San would smile at the time, then ask her afterward who he was and what they had talked about.
Once, she had sneaked out of the academy. Halfway along, she had inexplicably felt someone watching her from behind. Frightened, she had run back. When she returned, Tang San had been waiting at the gate, asking where she had gone.
She had always thought that was concern.
All along, that hand had been a chain.
Ning Rongrong covered her mouth. Her eyes reddened instantly, tears welling in them.
Only one thought filled her mind: Xiao Wu has been locked up all this time? She was locked up, yet she smiled with us every day?
Zhu Zhuqing did not cry. She moved one step closer to Xiao Wu, putting herself between Xiao Wu and Tang San. She stared at Tang San, her gaze cold enough to freeze ice.
Ma Hongjun's mouth hung open. After a long while, he finally managed to choke out, "Third Brother, you... you're joking, right?"
No one answered him.
The sausage in Oscar's hand fell to the ground. He did not pick it up.
Dai Mubai's face was livid, his clenched fists crackling. He turned to glance at Xiao Wu, then turned back to stare at the back of Tang San's head. His lips moved, but no words came out.
In the teachers' seats, Flender nudged Yu Xiaogang with his elbow.
"Xiaogang, this... did you know about it?"
Yu Xiaogang said, "I don't know the details. I only know that on the first day of school, Zhao Wuji was beaten up by a mysterious man."
On the arena platform, Tang San seized a moment's respite. He raised his head and roared at Xiao Wu, "Xiao Wu! He's controlling me with dark arts! He's forcing me to tell lies! Don't believe him!"
He strained his voice so loudly that even the spectators in the back rows heard him.
Xiao Wu lifted her head and looked at him.
Her lips trembled. She did not answer a single word.
Someone in the stands spoke for her. "Lies? Is it a lie that you know she's a hundred-thousand-year soft bone rabbit, too?"
"Exactly! That's her own secret. How did you know?"
"Forcing him to lie? I think every word he said was true!"
Tang San's face went white.
His words had silenced no one. Instead, they had torn the hole in his story even wider.
Qin Chuan mentally credited Tang San for that.
[Thanks, brother. Splashing filth on your own face saves me the trouble.]
The chatter in the stands grew louder and louder.
"My god, his dad wants to kill the girl beside him?"
"A hundred-thousand-year soul beast in human form? Is that real?"
"Is he even human? Keeping her beside him and threatening her life?"
"So this is what Shrek's champion really is?"
The students traveling with Shrek huddled in a corner of the stands, their heads lowered. None dared make a sound. One female student wiped her tears and said, "Senior Xiao Wu is always so kind to me..."
The male student beside her said nothing, his face flushed crimson.
Holding the railing, Xiao Wu slowly straightened and demanded loudly, "Then bringing me to Spirit City... was that part of the plan, too?"
Tang San went rigid.
He looked at Xiao Wu, opened his mouth, then closed it again without saying anything.
He did not dare speak.
Xiao Wu waited for a while, but no answer came.
Tears rolled from her eyes, one after another, landing on her collar and soaking into two small, dark circles. She neither wiped them away nor made a sound.
Then Qin Chuan spoke. "Xiao Wu! Stop crying! That kind of man isn't worth it!"
"That's not it, Xiao Wu. Let me explain!" Tang San said.
The corners of Qin Chuan's mouth lifted, and he snapped his fingers. "Not so fast. I'll ask the second question for you."
Before you continue