Who knew? Perhaps the Silver Dragon King's amnesia had been no accident. Maybe she truly wanted to experience a life free from everyone's expectations.
Standing outside the villa, Jiang Mingyuan took his keys from his pocket and prepared to unlock the door. That feeling of being watched returned. The sun had yet to set, but no matter where he looked, he could not spot anyone.
"This is seriously weird."
"Wow! It's so big and beautiful here!"
Na'er ran into the living room, looked around, and shouted excitedly. She had spent the past two days wandering, without enough food or anywhere she could truly call a place to stay.
"All right. Go take a bath first. I'll make dinner in a bit." Jiang Mingyuan led Na'er to the bathroom and showed her how to use the shower and adjust the temperature.
"All right, Na'er, wash up on your own." Jiang Mingyuan turned to leave, but Na'er suddenly grabbed him.
Jiang Mingyuan looked back.
"What is it? Do you need something else?"
Na'er held her little hands in front of her chest, tapping her fingertips together. Looking embarrassed, she asked bashfully, "Could you... join me?"
So that was it. After wandering alone, a child like her must have been afraid of being on her own.
"No. You're a little girl. What would it look like if we bathed together? Boys and girls shouldn't be so intimate."
Looking doubtful, Na'er brought her face close to Jiang Mingyuan's chest and poked it with a finger.
"Hey! What are you doing?!" Jiang Mingyuan immediately backed away. What was wrong with this Lewd Dragon King?
In theory, Na'er in her current state should have had little understanding of such things. Yet somehow, inexplicably, she understood. She lowered her head, pulled open the collar of her tattered clothes, and took a look before staring intently at Jiang Mingyuan's chest again.
"Huh?"
Jiang Mingyuan sensed something was off. Things had already felt strange on the way home. For some reason, every time Tang Wulin looked at him, he seemed to have something to say but held back.
He took a few steps over to the mirror and finally discovered the problem.
"Wait, since when was my hair this long?"
"Crap! I forgot to switch back!"
During dinner, Jiang Mingyuan was very curious about how such a tiny body could hold three large basins of noodles.
Why did people with dragon attributes, king attributes, adorably ditzy attributes, and a stray tuft of hair sticking up from their heads all eat so much?
Perhaps he could make some mashed potatoes tomorrow evening.
After dinner, Jiang Mingyuan spent a great deal more breath explaining to Na'er that he was a boy. Boys and girls should not be so intimate, and since they were neither family nor relatives, they could not sleep in the same bed.
Lying in bed, Jiang Mingyuan reviewed everything he had experienced that day.
Essentially, the elementary Soul Master class at Red Mountain Academy was the equivalent of kindergarten in his previous life. It taught very little and mainly guided the children through cultivation. Unfortunately, federal law prevented him from skipping this stage.
Still, Jiang Mingyuan had applied to his homeroom teacher for a few privileges. For example, he only needed to attend school one day a week to confirm that he remained a student there. Even when he came to school, he could do whatever he wanted in class as long as he did not disturb anyone else.
Jiang Mingyuan planned to set aside some time for cultivation and learning a second profession. As for the rest? Aolai City was a small city. Spending money here was not actually all that easy.
Even after lending Tang Wulin money to buy a Soul Spirit, he still had several million left. He was not short of money at all, but Jiang Mingyuan was not the sort to sit idle and eat through his mountain of savings.
At his age, he should spend when he needed to. There was no need to save money, so cutting expenditure was unnecessary. As for opening up new sources of income, though, he could give that some thought.
No sooner said than done. He immediately sat up in bed, went over to his desk, took out a pen and paper, and wrote down nine large characters.
Douluo Continent: Peerless Tang Sect.
At home, Tang Wulin thought about it all evening and still could not figure it out.
Was Brother Yuan really a boy?
Three years later.
Outside the Spirit Pagoda's Aolai City branch.
Now nine years old, Tang Wulin had reached a height of 1.52 meters. His appetite had grown steadily over the past three years, and none of the food he ate had gone to waste. It had all gone into his body. It was not just his height, either; three years of constant forging had given him lean, powerful muscles. They simply did not show beneath his loose outer clothing.
Jiang Mingyuan tilted his head up slightly and patted Tang Wulin on the back. Tang Wulin was now half a head taller than him, enough to make Jiang Mingyuan wonder whether he should start wearing height-boosting insoles.
"Go on. Your path as a Soul Master is about to truly begin."
Tang Wulin tightly clutched the bank card in his hand, which held a total of 3.03 million Federation Coins. His eyes brimmed with complicated emotions: gratitude toward Jiang Mingyuan, recognition of the hard work he had put in over the past three years, joy at soon becoming a Soul Master, and anticipation for the future.
"Brother Yuan, thank you."
After a staff member led Tang Wulin away, Jiang Mingyuan sat in a chair in the entrance hall and waited quietly.
The Spirit Transmitter at the reception desk had been replaced by a young woman. Jiang Mingyuan had heard that both the old Spirit Transmitter who had awakened his Martial Soul and the Spirit Transmitter who had chosen his Soul Spirit had been promoted to positions at Spirit Pagodas in other, larger cities.
With hardly anyone needing assistance, the female Spirit Transmitter at the desk had some free time. She opened a novel, letting out silvery, bell-like laughter as she read.
Curious about what she was reading, Jiang Mingyuan quietly rose onto his toes to look over.
It turned out to be none other than the monumental masterpiece he had spent two and a half years creating and published six months ago under the pen name Jiang San.
"Douluo Continent: Peerless Tang Sect"
Of course, Jiang Mingyuan had made extensive changes to the book. After all, if he wrote out certain parts of the original, Shrek, the Spirit Pagoda, and the Sun Moon Federation would all come after him.
He had deleted all the outrageous plotlines, such as Shrek's glory, the supreme elder, the evil soul imperial preceptor, dog training in the Heaven-and-Earth trial, the emperor and empress war gods, borrowing seed to conceive a child, the Three Ultimate Haodong Techniques, the God King's descent, the reunion of grandfather and grandson, and the return to one's ancestral roots. Jiang Mingyuan had also added quite a few stories about the Spirit Pagoda and the Tang Sect.
Thanks to the extreme scarcity of entertainment on the Douluo Continent, Jiang Mingyuan's book became an instant bestseller upon release. In less than half a year, sales exceeded eighty million copies.
When the Sun Moon Federation, Shrek, the Spirit Pagoda, and the Tang Sect saw that all four of their factions had moments to shine in the book, they all gave it their approval and glowing reviews.
As a result, many people with literary talent were inspired to put pen to paper and write about their own ideal protagonists. Jiang Mingyuan had already seen eight versions on the market that told Huo Yuhao's story alone.
Thus began the era of Great Fictional History (fabricated history)!
About thirty minutes later, Tang Wulin emerged, holding a brand-new Soul Spirit Ball in his arms, his face covered in an excited smile.
"Brother Yuan! Look at my Soul Spirit!"
Tang Wulin excitedly ran over with the Soul Spirit Ball in his hands. Jiang Mingyuan looked closely and saw a short, stout plant-type Soul Spirit resting quietly inside.
"A Dragon-Scaled Iron Tree."
Jiang Mingyuan recognized the plant-type Soul Spirit at a glance. The Dragon-Scaled Iron Tree got its name from the dragon-like scales covering its trunk and branches.
Although its name contained the word "dragon," it had absolutely nothing to do with dragons.