Repay Grudges, Repay Kindness

The first person to show Ye Guixu kindness after he came to this world was Old Jack, the chief of Holy Soul Village.

Back then, he had still been lost and bewildered. Old Jack had extended a helping hand and taken him to Spirit Hall for his awakening.

He knew perfectly well that if Ye Guixu awakened with substantial Soul Power, the work-study student quota shared by several villages might well be taken by a wandering child of unknown origins.

But Old Jack had taken him anyway.

He had kept showing him kindness and asking about his background.

At the time, he could only invent an identity as a wandering orphan, though he had indeed been an orphan in his previous life too.

The old village chief's appearance had also reminded him of the elderly director of his orphanage in his previous life.

A kindness as small as a drop of water should be repaid with a gushing spring.

He might not be able to look after everyone else, but he had accepted the kindness of the first person to show him goodwill after he descended into this world.

That was why, after awakening his Martial Soul back then, he had not dared gamble on Tang Hao's character.

He had wanted to escape first, then quietly build up his strength nearby.

Before leaving, he had told the old village chief, "I'll repay you someday." That had not been a pleasantry. He had meant it.

A person could not go back on his word.

If he ignored even someone who had shown him kindness, someone to whom he had personally made a promise, how would he be any different from Tang San, that pure-as-ice-and-jade hypocrite with his double standards?

He could commit evil, kill, and torture, but he would never abandon someone who had shown him kindness and whose favor he had personally accepted.

Besides, this matter had been connected to him in the first place.

When he had used Mysterious Universe on Tang Hao back then, Void Star God Sauron had possessed the ability to influence other people's minds.

"Brainwave Connection" could not only read memories and implant nightmares, but also leave a brand in the Spiritual Sea, making it an anchor for resurrection.

He simply had not actively used that ability at the time.

The gap between their Spiritual Power had been too great. Using it rashly would only have invited a backlash.

But after his Martial Soul transformed to possess the Ultimate Evil attribute, this ability had become an invisible passive trait.

Ultimate Evil inherently carried an aura that corroded the mind, like a drop of ink falling into water, silently seeping into the cracks.

Tang Hao's mind had long been riddled with cracks from years of guilt and regret. That sinister aura had slipped through those vulnerabilities, magnifying the negative emotions deep in his heart bit by bit, making the words "a useless wretch who couldn't even protect his wife" especially grating, his irritation especially unbearable, and his anger especially uncontrollable.

On top of that, he had been insulted and toyed with that day by a boy who had only just awakened his Martial Soul, had his old injuries aggravated, and returned empty-handed. Under those repeated blows, the dam holding back his emotions had completely burst.

Ye Guixu had not expected the man to return to that cave out of guilt, only to discover that he had taken both the Blue Silver Emperor's original body and the Soul Bone.

After all, ever since making that cave, the man had never gone back there. He had drowned his sorrows in alcohol every day, willingly sinking into depravity like a puddle of rotten mud that could never stick to a wall.

As for the claim that, later, after Tang San the transmigrator repeatedly displayed behavior unlike an ordinary person's, Tang Hao suspected that his wife had died and his child had been possessed by some old monster-

That he was not his and Ah Yin's child at all, and only then had he completely fallen into despair and drowned his sorrows in alcohol.

That excuse was even more laughable.

Before Tang San could behave unlike a child, he at least had to be able to move, didn't he?

According to the original story's setting, Tang San had only started practicing Mysterious Heaven Skill when he was over a year old.

What about before that?

What abnormalities could he see in a baby who could not even speak? Had he not treated him as his own son then either?

Ye Guixu had examined the man's memories and could see no deep devotion at all.

He had plainly done wrong after angering his father to death, then wallowed in guilt and put on a hollow show...

But before confirming that Tang San was someone who "didn't resemble his son at all," he had never visited that cave.

The devotion he displayed was nothing more than a performance for himself in a rubbish heap.

That was why, after Tang Hao hunted him down, he had been too angry to let it go and had gone into the cave to take both the Blue Silver Emperor and the Soul Bone.

Who could have known that when the man later came to the cave and discovered that the things had been taken, he would actually faint from rage? Even more absurdly, he had then sexually assaulted Tang San.

After the villagers of Holy Soul Village discovered it, he had slaughtered the entire village to keep people from pointing fingers at Tang San.

The only survivor had been Old Jack, who happened to have gone out to attend a banquet that day.

Back then, he had lacked the ability to do anything, so that had been that.

Now that he had captured Tang Hao and brought him back for revenge, he ought to go find the old village chief no matter what.

This began because of me, so it should end because of me too.

He would not spare those who hated him, nor would he leave those who had shown him kindness bitterly disappointed.

Afterward, Ye Guixu spent several days repeatedly searching the nearby villages, towns, and cities, using Brainwave Connection to search people's memories.

Using the Full-Spectrum Sensing Array to probe every corner, he finally found the old village chief in a corner of a remote little town.

But the old village chief no longer looked as kindly as he once had.

His hair was disheveled, his face filthy, and his clothes in tatters. He looked even more wretched than the beggars on the street.

He looked as though his soul had been drained away, his eyes vacant and unfocused. He crouched in the shadows of a corner like a madman, constantly muttering unintelligible words.

Beside him, a large, skeletal yellow dog pressed close to him, carrying a piece of hard, dry bread it had picked up somewhere. It set the bread before the old village chief, wagged its tail, then rubbed its head against his arm.

That gesture seemed to restore a trace of awareness to the old village chief. He slowly stroked the yellow dog's head, and then the man and dog crouched there in the corner, sharing that piece of bread.

Yet even with the old village chief reduced to such a state, there were still people who could not stand the sight of him.

At a street corner, several burly men were eating and drinking around a small food stall.

One of them, a Soul Master with a brutish face, covered his nose in disgust and walked toward the old village chief, cursing.

"You old bastard, you stink! Get lost! And you, you damned dog, along with this beggar..."

Before he finished speaking, the scrawny yellow dog suddenly arched its back, bared its teeth, and let out a low growl at the Soul Master.

The old village chief also trembled at being shouted at and cursed.

Just then, a hand silently appeared in front of the Soul Master.

Rip!

With a dull sound, the entire lower half of the Soul Master's face was torn off. Blood gushed out, splashing a shocking red across the ground.

He froze for a moment, as though he had yet to register what had happened. Only when the excruciating pain hit did he reach for his mouth, but all he felt was a bloody, mangled hole.

"Ah-my mouth-" His piercing scream had barely begun when Ye Guixu sent him flying with a backhanded slap. He slammed heavily into the stone wall beside him, becoming embedded in the gaps between the bricks.

His vocal cords ruptured from the impact, leaving only broken, rasping breaths of "hh, hh" in his throat.

The surroundings instantly fell silent.

Every gaze turned toward them.

The stall owner shrank behind a table in fright, and the nearby commoners backed away in panic. The Soul Master's companions, meanwhile, abruptly changed expression and slapped the table as they rose. "Boy, you..."

Ye Guixu tilted his head slightly, and two streaks of scarlet light suddenly lit up in his eyes.

A terrifying, suffocating pressure descended as though it were solid. Before those Soul Masters even had time to react, they were crushed flat against the ground, their bones creaking beneath the unbearable weight and their twisted faces pressed against the cold stone slabs.

"My lord... spare us!"

"Let us go!"

"We shouldn't have run our mouths... it was our fault..."

Their pleas mingled together like the buzzing of insects being crushed.

Ye Guixu ignored them and merely raised his hand gently.

Under the force of gravity, the Soul Masters' jaws shattered one after another with crisp cracks. Their lower lips tore, their teeth snapped, and blood seeped out.

Their screams caught in midair, only to be blocked by the pressure until nothing remained but distorted whimpers.

The yellow dog in the corner shrank back beside the old village chief, trembling and whining softly.

The old village chief likewise huddled in the corner, shaking all over, his cloudy eyes filled with nothing but bewilderment and fear.

Seeing the old village chief like this deepened Ye Guixu's hatred of Tang Hao severalfold.

"Old village chief, come with me."

Ye Guixu slowly approached the old village chief and helped him up himself. At the same time, he stroked the trembling yellow dog and offered it a word of praise.

"And you, too. You did very well. Thank you."