The Tang Sect? No Thanks

"At last, I've found a human with the mental attribute! Too bad I can't cry, or my face would be drenched in tears!"

"With the sun and moon in my grasp, I pluck the stars; none in this world can rival me. To think a wisp of this old man's soul still remains in the world!"

"Who dares fight me over him?"

Hearing those familiar voices, Huo Yuhao knew he had returned to where his dream began.

But didn't that sound a little too poetic? Calling it the place where his real nightmare began would be more fitting.

After using his divine will to stabilize Electrolux's divine consciousness, Huo Yuhao concealed nothing and explained the whole story: how he had left the White Tiger Duke's Mansion, how he had begun meeting everyone here, how he had sided with Tang San against the God of Destruction in the Divine Realm's power struggle, how he had racked his brains for the Tang family's faction inside the black hole, how he had lent the Undead Scourge Staff Elder Yi left behind to his senior brother Long Haochen to redeem the God of Anathema and help the Tang family win him over, how he had made plans for his son Huo Zhanji before the Tang family sent him to Falan Star to establish a Divine Realm, and how the explosion of the God Star after Tang San's ultimate God Star plan failed had sent him back here...

"Elder Yi, I couldn't resurrect you. Brother Sky Dream, although I became a god and took you to the Divine Realm, you know what kind of position beasts occupy in a Divine Realm ruled by humans. I never even truly accomplished anything. Will you still follow me this time?" Huo Yuhao asked.

Electrolux and the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm fell silent, taking a long time to digest everything Huo Yuhao had told them.

"In my current state, I'm probably a little stronger than a Level 100 Soul Master on the Douluo Continent. Given that this version's chosen one has the mental attribute, I could probably trade my life for that Silver Dragon's in the Star Dou Great Forest."

"But anything beyond that is out of reach." At this point, Huo Yuhao spread his hands. "Especially when it comes to you, Elder Yi. Right now, I can't think of any good way to prevent what Tang San is going to do to you."

"That loss of control when I went to cultivate at the Clear Sky Sect wasn't even just God-King Tang San's doing. It was the work of this universe's true Creation God." Huo Yuhao's face darkened. "If the Creation God granted me the authority to resurrect you, Elder Yi, he would overturn the contract he made with the people of his universe."

"He won't do that." Although Huo Yuhao tried his best to appear at peace with it, a faint sorrow remained. "And without his approval, even at my peak, I couldn't do it."

The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm wriggled about in Huo Yuhao's Sea of Consciousness. "Little Yuhao, are you saying your solution is to freeload until you die?"

Huo Yuhao knocked on Sky Dream's head inside his Sea of Consciousness. "Brother Sky Dream, could you use a more elegant expression? It's called living like an idle cloud and a wild crane!"

The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm seemed to remember something. He asked, "But Little Yuhao, do you think that fellow in this era's Divine Realm will agree to let you freeload until you die-er, no, live like an idle cloud and a wild crane?"

At Sky Dream's question, Huo Yuhao paced back and forth inside his Sea of Consciousness. After a long stretch of thought, he said, "If I don't join the Tang Sect, don't go to Shrek, and don't meet that woman, Tang Wutong, then every arrangement God-King Tang San has made for me in this era will come to nothing."

"I can't think of a better way." Having said that, Huo Yuhao sat beneath the gray ball of light Electrolux had become. "Looking back, life after I entered the game was so dreary. Getting those abridged Tang Sect Secret Arts as my first pot of gold? Growing into 'Huo Yuhao'? Before my rebirth, I might have worshipped Shrek and Tang San as some sublime, absolute Other. But I can't do that now."

"But if you want to avenge your mother, boy, lying flat won't do," Electrolux suddenly said.

Though Huo Yuhao had tried to recount everything calmly, Electrolux could hear the unwillingness in his words.

"At the very least, you can't act too stiffly in front of that girl outside," Electrolux's aged voice said slowly. "You wouldn't want the one watching you from the Divine Realm to notice anything amiss, would you?"

"Elder Yi, that reminds me." Huo Yuhao scratched his head.

"Why isn't he waking up yet?" When Huo Yuhao's consciousness took control of his body again, he felt Tang Ya patting his face while giving Bei Bei, who stood beside her, a questioning look.

When Huo Yuhao once again heard Bei Bei's familiar, gentle voice saying, "...His body needs to merge with this power, then adapt to the soul power from his breakthrough. Naturally, that takes some time. What a pity-it was only a ten-year-old Wind Baboon," he was utterly speechless.

You just can't forget the god-slaying Wind Baboon, can you? he couldn't help grumbling inwardly. Will this ever end?

Then he heard Tang Ya speak up for him. "Being able to kill a Wind Baboon all by himself is already pretty impressive."

Huo Yuhao's eyes reddened at once. Even with this second chance, even knowing what lay behind his encounter with Tang Ya, he still couldn't help being moved.

"What happened...?" A weak voice escaped Huo Yuhao's lips, but his eyes were no longer hazy. They were clear.

He immediately heard Tang Ya answer, "Little Yuhao, you really are bold, daring to enter the Star Dou Great Forest all alone..."

As the God of Emotion, Huo Yuhao could tell that Tang Ya's concern for him, a stranger she had only recently met, was genuine.

And the more genuine it was, the more he loathed the Tang Sect. Because Huo Yuhao knew that the more sincere a feeling was, the better a price it would fetch in the hands of the man behind the Tang Sect and Shrek: his former father-in-law, the [pure as ice and jade], [possessed of astounding wisdom], dual god who served as both the [Asura God] and the [Sea God], the [Thousand-Hand Asura], Tang San.

Soon, Huo Yuhao heard Tang Ya's invitation. "Little Yuhao, why don't you join our sect? Our sect, the Tang Sect, used to be the greatest on the continent!"

Join the Tang Sect? What kind of joke was that?

Having become a [Spectator] in this life, Huo Yuhao was different from the immature boy who had emerged from the White Tiger Duke's Mansion's bitter winter all those years ago. He knew exactly how the Tang Sect had flourished, declined, and risen again.

There was no need to dwell on why it had flourished: it was entirely because his [dear father-in-law] had encountered Qian Renxue and the angel family, who observed martial honor far too faithfully, and used them to establish the illustrious reputation of the Tang Sect Secret Arts.

The reason for its decline was the most interesting part. On the surface, because its [founder], Tang San, had possessed a Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul, every successive sect master had been forcibly selected from soul masters with ordinary Blue Silver Grass Martial Souls, leaving the sect's members useless at soul master cultivation. Then there were the enormous expenses of charitable relief for orphans and widows. Once the Soul Tool technological revolution rendered its main business of hidden-weapon arms sales obsolete, the sect could no longer make ends meet and went bankrupt. In short, Tang San's successors had driven the Tang Sect into decline by handling everything with absolute dogmatism.

But Huo Yuhao, who had become a [Spectator] in this life, knew that the direct cause of the Tang Sect's decline was that his dear father-in-law, [Tang Pure-as-Ice], and his followers never mentioned that the martial soul he possessed when he rose from Holy Soul Village was the Blue Silver Emperor, or that the Tang Sect Secret Arts he left behind were only incomplete fragments.

Put plainly, to package God King Tang's image as someone who had [risen from humble beginnings], they had destroyed any possibility of this Tang Sect on the Douluo Continent developing in the field of soul master cultivation. And because God King Tang didn't want anyone reverse-engineering "his" craft, the secret arts he left behind were incomplete too, cutting off any chance for later generations to build on the old and create the new, reaching or even surpassing him.

If that had been all, Huo Yuhao could still have persuaded himself to join. After all, demanding that someone else be a saint-even if that person was Tang San-was far too hypocritical.

But what Huo Yuhao saw in this life through his [Spectator] authority was the true root of the Tang Sect's decline: it was merely a sacrificed pawn. Once he saw that, he had no goodwill left for the sect. After becoming a [Spectator], Huo Yuhao could see this world's underlying code, and one of its rules truly was [every gain must come with a loss].

Tang Hao and the Blue Silver Emperor, who had no chance of becoming gods in their own era, would first seize the plane's consciousness and become such "gods" as the Plane Master and the life core, "contributing to the Douluo Continent for their entire lives," then become God-Kings when the Douluo Continent advanced into a Divine Realm. Such a wonderful outcome... but what was its price?

The first price his father-in-law paid was, of course, the Tang Sect.

Looking at the anticipation filling Tang Ya's face, then toward distant Shrek City and the Golden Tree at Shrek Academy, where Tang Hao and the Blue Silver Emperor were seizing the plane's consciousness, Huo Yuhao hardened his heart. He shook his head and told Tang Ya, "No, thanks. I'm not suited to cultivation."