The heartbroken little angel actually did something like that to her little martial uncle...

Lu Xuan had not expected to be discovered.

Nor had he expected Qian Renxue to turn around.

He stood where he was, rapidly piecing the clues together in his mind, vaguely guessing what had happened.

Most likely, she had just run to the Papal Palace, full of anticipation, to see Bibi Dong.

But instead of receiving Bibi Dong's affection, she had been subjected to a torrent of abuse and driven straight out.

Should I go over and comfort her?

Lu Xuan scratched his head, an indescribable awkwardness welling up inside him.

Even counting both his previous life and his current one, he had absolutely no experience comforting girls.

On the contrary, girls had comforted him quite a few times.

But I'm Qian Renxue's little martial uncle!

Young as he was, taking Qian Daoliu as his master had automatically raised him a generation in seniority.

However, Qian Renxue had no idea that someone like him had joined the Worship Hall.

After all, the two of them had never even met before.

Forget it. This is too awkward. Maybe I should just say hello and make myself scarce, Lu Xuan thought, already beating a retreat.

"Hello? Are you all right? If you are, I'll get going!" Lu Xuan forced himself to offer a greeting, then shifted his feet, intending to leave outright.

"You, stop!"

A choked voice, thick with a nasal sound, suddenly rang out.

Qian Renxue stared fixedly at Lu Xuan. To conceal her vulnerability, she tried hard to make her expression look fierce, even giving him a hard glare.

But to Lu Xuan, Qian Renxue, the future Angel God, now looked like a Golden British Shorthair with her fur bristling, hissing at someone.

Haji Xue actually hissed. So cute~

"Yes, I heard you!" Lu Xuan stopped and nodded calmly.

Qian Renxue took a deep breath and rose from beside the pool.

At nine years old, she was already around a meter and a half tall and had begun to develop.

Lu Xuan, only six, had grown a little taller after absorbing his Soul Ring, but he was still only a meter and forty centimeters tall.

The top of his head only reached her chest. From this angle, Qian Renxue looked rather imposing.

But perhaps because of Lu Xuan's childish face and exceedingly young age, the wariness and hostility in Qian Renxue's eyes gradually faded.

She bit her lower lip, her voice carrying an almost pleading vulnerability. "Could you... talk with me for a while?"

Looking at her reddened eyes, Lu Xuan's heart softened, and he nodded silently.

And so, although they were still strangers, they walked in unspoken accord to the pavilion's bench and sat down together.

After a brief silence, Qian Renxue hugged her knees with both arms, gazed blankly at the water, and asked wistfully:

"What do you think a mother should be like?"

Lu Xuan froze slightly at the question.

His thoughts were instantly drawn away, recalling his mom from his previous life, then his mother in this one.

In his previous life, he had been rather lazy.

His mom had always followed him around, endlessly scolding him for not working hard, but she would still show her concern from time to time.

When he fell ill late at night, that same mom who always complained about him would stay by his side with reddened eyes, tending to him with care.

He did not know what would become of his mother after his passing, either.

In this life, his mother had been gentle as water, caring for him in every possible way, seemingly because people matured early on the Douluo Continent and he was her first child.

She had always wanted to give him the best.

But when he was two and a half, she had broken through to level 20 and gone with his father to hunt for a Soul Ring, never to return.

"A mother..." Lu Xuan's gaze grew deep and gentle as he spoke with a steadiness that did not belong to a six-year-old:

"She should be gentle, occasionally scolding her child sternly over some small fault."

"But deep down, she is always the one who worries most about her child, someone great who gives of herself in silence."

As Qian Renxue listened to Lu Xuan, her tears began to flow again, sliding down her fair cheeks, full of protein.

"Then tell me... why would a mother constantly insult her own child, or even despise them from the bottom of her heart?"

Looking at her trembling shoulders, Lu Xuan recalled Bibi Dong's agonizing past in that secret chamber.

He said softly, "Perhaps it's because of an extraordinarily unusual, painful past. She's trapped in those dark memories and hasn't been able to find her way out."

"So she loses control and vents her old rage and despair on an innocent child."

Like lightning streaking across the night sky, those words instantly cleaved through the gloom in Qian Renxue's heart.

She whipped her head around, as though clutching at a life-saving straw, and urgently sought confirmation:

"You mean... her past might be what made her this way? Not because the child herself is unlikable?"

Looking into her eyes, where a sliver of hope had reignited, Lu Xuan could not bear to tell her that Bibi Dong had brought everything upon herself.

So he nodded solemnly.

"Whew~"

Qian Renxue let out a long breath of stale air. The boulder that had weighed on her heart for years seemed to grow much lighter.

Her emotions finally settled. She wiped away her tears and forced a grateful smile onto her lips. "Little brother, thank you!"

She seemed to have found a direction to follow from here.

Once her emotions stabilized, Qian Renxue's reason gradually returned.

She suddenly realized that this was the Worship Hall's territory. Normally, no one came here except the Worship Hall's attendants and the relatives of the various Enshrined.

She knew all the Enshrined's relatives, and Lu Xuan was not one of them.

Then how had this unfamiliar child of around six ended up here?

Moreover, judging by the direction he had been heading, he seemed to be going straight into the Worship Hall.

"By the way, why are you here?" Qian Renxue studied Lu Xuan curiously. "Are you from the Worship Hall?"

"Yes!" Lu Xuan answered calmly. "My teacher is the Worship Hall's Great Enshrined-Qian Daoliu. He has long golden hair, just like you!"

"You're lying!" Qian Renxue instinctively protested, her face full of disbelief. "My grandpa hasn't taken any disciples!"

She had spent this time in seclusion, cultivating desperately, and had finally managed to reach level 40.

After emerging, she had rushed straight to the Papal Palace, brimming with joy, wanting to share that happiness with Bibi Dong.

And to ask whether Bibi Dong could accompany her to hunt for her fourth Soul Ring.

But what greeted her was Bibi Dong's icy gaze and vicious demands that she leave.

Then she had ended up in the state Lu Xuan had witnessed earlier.

That was why she knew nothing about Qian Daoliu taking a disciple.

Her timing and Lu Xuan's had missed each other perfectly. Only just now had the two finally met.

"It's true. My name is Lu Xuan!" Seeing that she did not believe him, Lu Xuan sighed helplessly, turned his wrist, and took the golden identification token from his Storage Bracelet, handing it over.

Qian Renxue accepted the token dubiously.

When she saw the Angel Token that represented one's standing in the Worship Hall, her entire body froze.

"This really is the token that only the people closest to Grandpa can get!" Qian Renxue murmured to herself.

The next second, she abruptly raised her head, her gaze turning exceedingly strange.

She stared fixedly at the little fellow before her, who only came up to her chest.

Grandpa's disciple?

Then, going by seniority, wouldn't this little brat named Lu Xuan be my... martial uncle?

Qian Renxue's cheeks instantly flushed crimson.

She recalled how she had not only cried her eyes out in front of this "little elder" just now.

She had even kept calling him little brother.

She was now so embarrassed that she wished she could claw an entire Spirit Hall out of the ground with her toes.