Like a Helpless Husband

Tang Hao stood where he was, a sense of foreboding rising in his heart.

Tang Hao raced back to Holy Soul Village, headed straight for Back Mountain Valley, passed through the waterfall, and rushed into the cave.

Deep within the cave, Ah Yin's Blue Silver Emperor body was gone!

There was a pit in the ground. Clearly, someone had dug her out completely, roots, soil, and all.

Tang Hao's pupils contracted sharply. He whipped around toward the stone wall on the left, only to find an empty hole where the hidden compartment holding the Soul Bone had been.

The lead box was gone.

Tang Hao's breathing grew rapid, his eyes bloodshot.

Ah Yin's body and Ah Yin's Soul Bone-both were gone!

"Aaaaah! Who did this? Ah Yin! My Ah Yin!!"

He roared hoarsely, his body trembling with rage.

But the only answer was his own echo in the cave.

At that moment, Tang Hao was like a helpless husband, forced to watch his wife being abducted...

And all he could do was rage impotently.

Just then, he noticed the poem on the stone wall.

Tang Hao walked up to the wall and read it word by word. "Secretly learning our Tang Sect Secret Arts... Tang Sect enforcement elder Tang Laoya!"

"Secretly learning? Tang Sect Secret Arts..." Tang Hao froze. He sorted through his thoughts, putting it into plain language in his mind.

An elder from the Tang Sect accused someone of secretly learning their sect's secret arts.

As punishment, they had taken Ah Yin's body and Soul Bone, and left a harsh warning.

Within three days, all the secretly learned cultivation techniques had to be left here for them to collect and verify.

If he dared hold anything back or falsify anything, they would use Ah Yin to refine medicine.

Tang Hao recalled the words the mysterious person who had fought him earlier had left before departing. Now everything fell into place!

So that was it. Was that how it was? There was only one truth...

He spun around, rushed out of the cave, charged through the waterfall, and headed for the Blacksmith Shop.

Holy Soul Village, the Blacksmith Shop.

Six-year-old Tang San was sitting on the bed in his room, secretly practicing Mysterious Heaven Skill.

Boom!

The door was kicked open.

Tang Hao charged in, his eyes bloodshot, like an enraged beast.

Startled, Tang San hurriedly got off the bed.

He had never seen his father like this. Tang Hao radiated a terrifying aura, like a volcano that could erupt at any moment.

Tang San ventured cautiously, "Dad, what's wrong?"

Without a word, Tang Hao grabbed Tang San by the collar and lifted him into the air.

"What cultivation technique are you practicing?"

Tang San was frightened. "D-Dad? What are you talking about? I don't understand."

"Talk!" Tang Hao's voice thundered. "Someone took your mother's body! They said you secretly learned their sect's secret arts, and if you don't return them within three days, they'll use your mother to refine medicine! Just what have you been practicing? Where did you get it?"

Tang San's mind went blank.

The words "secretly learning secret arts" struck him like a thunderbolt.

Memories of his previous life surged up.

How was that possible? How could the Tang Sect exist in this world?

"I didn't! I haven't! Who said that nonsense!" Tang San blurted out. "I didn't secretly learn anything!"

"Then what were you practicing just now?" Tang Hao's voice was low and thunderous. "You're a six-year-old child. Who taught you a cultivation technique for circulating Soul Power? Where did you learn it?"

Tang San was speechless.

He could not tell his father that he had reincarnated with the memories and cultivation techniques of his previous life.

He could not tell anyone that secret.

When Tang San did not answer, Tang Hao's anger surged, and he swung his hand at him.

Smack!

Tang San was slapped across the room and struck the wall, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth.

He held his cheek and stared at his father in disbelief.

Tang Hao had never hit him in all his life.

"The Tang Sect." Tang Hao enunciated each word. "Isn't that right? The secret arts you secretly learned belong to the Tang Sect!"

Tang San's pupils contracted sharply. "How did you know..."

"A Super Douluo-level expert came looking for us today!" Tang Hao roared. "He said you secretly learned their Tang Sect's secret arts, and you'd already given them cause to kill you! Tell me, where did you get the Tang Sect Secret Arts?"

Tang San's heart sank to rock bottom.

He had thought that after reincarnating, everything would start anew and no one would ever know. He had never expected his previous life to haunt him like a nightmare.

"I... I found them." Tang San bit his lip, his voice trembling. "I found a tattered book with no cover. I didn't know which sect its cultivation techniques belonged to..."

"Found them?" A cold gleam flashed through Tang Hao's eyes. "A six-year-old child like you found a book of cultivation techniques out in the wilderness and learned to practice them without a teacher? Do you think I'd believe that?"

He advanced on Tang San step by step, his gaze filled not only with anger, but also suspicion, fear, scrutiny, and other tangled emotions.

Tang Hao recalled the legends about Evil Soul Masters.

It was said that some Evil Soul Masters could possess other people's bodies and use them to cultivate.

Those who were possessed would suddenly gain powers and knowledge that did not belong to them, undergo drastic changes in personality, and behave strangely.

Thinking it over carefully, his son really had been different from other children since birth.

If this child had been possessed by an Evil Soul Master...

Then the one living in his son's body now was not his son at all...

"Who exactly are you?" Tang Hao asked quietly.

Tang San looked up and met his father's gaze.

There was no trust in that gaze, only suspicion, as though he were looking at a stranger.

Tang San's voice trembled slightly. "Dad, I'm your son."

Tang Hao snorted coldly. "Hand over that cultivation manual you found! If it's not returned within three days, your mother's body will be refined into a potion!"

Tang San said stubbornly, "I-I already burned it. I burned the book after memorizing it!"

"What?" Tang Hao drew a deep breath. "Write it out from memory, damn it!"

He turned and went back inside, rummaging through chests and cupboards for paper and something to write with.

Tang San stood in the room, his face burning with pain, his body covered in bruises.

The night breeze swept through Holy Soul Village.

Six-year-old Tang San crouched in a corner, hugging his knees.

He did not understand. Throughout his childhood, Tang Hao had never fulfilled his responsibilities as a father for even a single day. All he did was drink and forge iron, paying him no attention.

Never mind that he ignored him when he had a fever, went hungry, or hurt himself falling during training-he even made him take care of his daily needs.

He had long since grown used to Tang Hao being a father in name only.

But now, because of a stranger who had come to their door, Tang Hao had hit him, berated him, and even looked at him that way.

What the actual fuck was this!

A shadow passed through his eyes.

On the other side of the wall, Tang Hao silently read the "Tang Sect Secret Arts" Tang San had written from memory by moonlight.

There were six in total: the Internal Cultivation Method, Mysterious Heaven Skill; the light-footed movement technique, Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track; the hand-training method, Mysterious Jade Hand; the eye-training method, Purple Demon Eye; the grappling method, Controlling Crane Capturing Dragon; and the hidden weapon usage method, Hidden Weapons: Hundred Solutions.

He sat in the darkness, tightly clutching the stack of papers. The more he read, the more startled he became. These cultivation techniques really had something to them!

No wonder the Tang Sect had come demanding their return.

It was not that Tang Hao did not want to believe his son, but every word of that poem was lodged in his mind like a nail.

He could not take that gamble.

If Xiao San really had been possessed...

Tang Hao slammed his fist onto the table.