The duchess's expression turned ugly at Dai Hao's words, even taking on a vicious edge. "How much effort have I poured into helping you all these years, dressing you up as a god of war who passed his own doorstep three times without entering, wholly devoted to his country? And outside, you painted yourself as a man of utmost restraint when it came to women, telling everyone, 'If a man cannot control his desire for women, he will never achieve anything great.' What, now that paper can no longer wrap up the fire and your first image is on the verge of collapse, are you afraid that I, your witness, will shatter your second gilded idol?"
The duchess parted her crimson lips, but the words that emerged brimmed with venom.
That bitch! A vicious glint flashed in Dai Hao's eyes. If the Zhu Family's ancestor Zhu Zhuqing had not been a deity just like the Dai Family's ancestor Dai Mubai, making open conflict between the two families inadvisable, he would have killed his wife in name long ago.
Marshal Dai Hao commanded the Western Army Group's six hundred thousand troops in the Star Luo Empire, but beyond that, he held a million people in his grasp: apart from the Western Army Group's three hundred thousand combat personnel and three hundred thousand logistics troops, he also controlled another four hundred thousand people engaged in public opinion management, intelligence gathering, and artistic performances. Ultimately, when Sun Moon invaded all those years ago, the Dai Family had lost the throne because of that generation's incompetent White Tiger Douluo, but as descendants of a deity, they still wielded the power of a state within a state in the Star Luo Empire.
By Dai Hao's generation, the Dai Family did not even send its heirs, Dai Yueheng and Dai Huabin, to the Star Luo Royal Academy as nominal "hostages," sending them straight to Shrek Academy instead. After all, the Xu Family with its star crown martial soul was nothing but remnants of Spirit Hall-rats that had climbed onto the banquet table by taking advantage of the Dai Family's decline during Sun Moon's invasion. How much face did the Dai Family need to give them?
In the Dai Family's plans, the Xu Family was now suffering its "retribution," with as few descendants as the Dai Family had during Sun Moon's invasion: among the younger generation, only Princess Xu Jiujiu was capable in battle.
When war broke out between the Star Luo Empire and Sun Moon in the future, the Dai Family would only need to rely on Shrek Academy's strength and stage a performance of "saving the nation from peril" in the Star Luo Empire to reclaim the throne.
Of course, the Xu Family, the Star Luo Empire's current imperial house, were no fools either: whenever an opportunity arose, they would attempt to centralize power, using this struggle to delay the arrival of that moment in the Dai Family's plans.
"So you want to watch your husband die and become a widow?" Seeing that his wife intended to lay her cards on the table, Dai Hao said coldly, "It seems you want Yueheng and Huabin to become orphans!"
The Dai Family knew perfectly well that the only family in the Star Luo Empire capable of bringing them down was the Zhu Family, who were also descendants of a deity. Now that Dai Hao had lost his army and disgraced his country, if the Zhu Family chose to cooperate with the imperial house and seize this opportunity to attack the Dai Family, they would be finished. And just days earlier, the Star Luo Emperor Xu Jiawei had extended an olive branch to the Zhu Family by taking Dai Hao's wife as his adopted daughter. So Dai Hao retreated in order to advance, invoking Dai Yueheng and Dai Huabin's need for a father.
The duchess said calmly, "So you still remember Yueheng and Huabin. I thought you beast had forgotten they were your Dai Family's heirs while you were wallowing in those tender nests at the Drunken Dream House, the House of Joy..."
At his wife's words, Dai Hao finally softened. His eyes narrowed slightly as he said, "Then let's talk. What do you want me to do before you'll cooperate with me? What I can promise you here is that I won't mistreat Yueheng and Huabin. They are my heirs, after all..."
"Very simple. That woman, and Dai Luoli, the bastard she bore, cannot be allowed to live." Seeing Dai Hao's eagerness, the duchess named her price. "Aren't you worried about our Zhu Family growing close to the Xu Family? Then what makes you think we aren't worried that your Dai Family might turn its back on us one day and deny its obligations? So you should at least offer up that bitch from a distant branch of the Xu Family as a gift to prove your sincerity, shouldn't you?"
"Deal..." Dai Hao hesitated only a moment before accepting the duchess's demand.
At that moment, outside the window, Huo Yuhao and Huo Yun'er's soul listened quietly to the conversation inside, their auras concealed.
"You see, Mother? This is the man you love! If you want to reunite with him, I can take you inside right now. I won't object." As Huo Yuhao spoke, he made as if to push open the door.
Huo Yuhao's words left Huo Yun'er dazed. Had she not existed only as a soul, tears would already have spilled from her eyes.
Huo Yun'er instinctively caught Huo Yuhao's hand. From his mother's reaction, Huo Yuhao could tell that the fantasy she had always harbored about Dai Hao had shattered.
Once a maid who served Dai Hao in the White Tiger Duke's Mansion, Huo Yun'er had understood him to be a great hero who resisted the foreign armies of Sun Moon, a pillar of the nation. After Dai Hao drunkenly raped her that day, her first reaction had been to kill herself to preserve his reputation. When Dai Hao stopped her and told her that "life alone must never be forsaken," Huo Yun'er had been moved beyond measure.
Thus, "feelings" had developed between them—at least, that was what Huo Yun'er believed. And so Huo Yuhao had been born. Then, on the eve of Dai Hao's departure for the front, he had given her the White Tiger Dagger. She had known what it meant: Dai Hao still wanted her to kill herself, while he would raise her little Yuhao. She had believed him again! If the duchess's sudden attack the following day, just as she decided to kill herself a few days later, had not made her realize that things had changed, she would have killed herself long before she fell gravely ill in the Wood Shed.
Until the moment she breathed her last in that dark Wood Shed during that bitter winter, all she had hoped for was Dai Hao's promise: once he returned from the war, he would take her child, little Yuhao, away to "enjoy a good life."
Feeling his mother's soul clasp his hand, Huo Yuhao turned to look at her and said, "Mother, what's wrong? Don't you want to see that great hero of yours anymore?"
Huo Yun'er's soul spoke in a near-sobbing voice, repeating herself fretfully. "Little Yuhao, let's go! This isn't our home."
After mother and son left the Duke's Mansion, a trace of relief appeared on Huo Yuhao's face. Still, he restrained the urge to cry. In his previous life, the last words his mother had spoken to him that day in the dim, freezing Wood Shed had been, "Don't cry, little Yuhao. You're a man, and a man does not shed tears lightly! Be strong! Live on, and be strong!"
In his previous life, Huo Yuhao could only hold his mother and feel her body gradually grow cold. Then, after setting out on the path of a soul master and reaching its end, he had seen his mother's soul again, fished out of the Netherworld by Tang San and brought into the Divine Realm to become one of the key tools used to tame him from Huo Yuhao into [Huo Yuhao].
At last, at long last, he had changed all of it in this life. All the struggles and helplessness beneath those false pretenses had dissolved after he brought his mother to witness, clearly and unmistakably, the truth of the Duke's Mansion.
After leaving the Duke's Mansion, Huo Yuhao looked toward Shrek Academy with a decidedly amused expression. "This is only the beginning. Dai Hao was merely the smallest idol to be destroyed. Just you wait, oh pure-as-ice, flawless-as-jade God-King Tang. You larger idols will crumble one by one, too."
Before you continue