["Wait, you're trying to become my grandpa!"]
["I just hope that once Erlong has a child, she'll settle down and live a proper life."]
[Repeating his reason for coming here once more in his heart, Yu Luomian nodded, acknowledging it.]
["...More or less. But we won't mistreat you. Publicly, we'll say you're a child I adopted." The corner of Yu Luomian's mouth twitched. He was going all out for his daughter.]
["Hiss..." Yu Tiansheng's expression suddenly changed. With a strange look in his eyes, he sized Yu Luomian up and down, as though seeing this uncle for the first time.]
["Bro, come here a moment. The two of us need to have a serious discussion about this!"]
[After throwing out those words, Yu Tiansheng raced back to his room.]
["Uncle Luomian, please excuse me." Yu Tianming nodded to Yu Luomian, then turned and followed Yu Tiansheng into the room.]
["Bro, I suspect that old rascal Uncle Luomian has improper designs on me!"]
["Pfft!" Yu Luomian, who had just taken a sip of tea, immediately sprayed it out when he heard that.]
[Yu Luomian had not meant to eavesdrop, but he was, after all, a Soul Douluo-level powerhouse.]
[The brothers' room was not very large, and Yu Tianming was currently only a Two-Ring Soul Grandmaster. Even without intending to, Yu Luomian heard their conversation.]
["...Why would you say that? Uncle Luomian is doing this for your own good. Otherwise, relying solely on the resources I give you, you'll probably find it difficult to achieve much on the path of a Soul Master."]
[Yu Tianming's words also formed the basis for making the adoption happen.]
[It was precisely because Yu Tiansheng had undergone a martial soul mutation and had only half a level of innate soul power that Yu Luomian had the right to propose adopting him.]
[Although Yu Tianming was a genius, he had yet to mature and was still using the clan's resources himself. By the time he matured and had resources to spare, who knew how much time Yu Tiansheng would have wasted?]
[Otherwise, if Yu Tiansheng's martial soul, soul power, or the like had been even a little better, Yu Luomian would not have needed to come. Yu Tianming, as his older brother, could have raised his younger brother to success all by himself.]
["Bro...take a look. What do you think of your little brother's looks?"]
["..."]
[Inside the room, Yu Tiansheng struck a coquettish pose for Yu Tianming, successfully earning himself a hefty rap on the head.]
["Anyway, bro, I know you mean well. But you just haven't read enough books."]
["If you'd read a little more of the continent's gossip and unofficial histories, you'd know that the last person as useless as me was someone called Yu Xiaogang, the clan leader's son."]
["...What does that have to do with gossip and unofficial histories? Pretty much everyone in the clan knows about Uncle Xiao Gang." For his little brother's sake, Yu Tianming had naturally looked into other cases within the clan, only to find just one Yu Xiaogang.]
["See? That's what comes of not reading enough, bro. Who doesn't know that Yu Xiaogang had a thing with Uncle Yu Luomian's illegitimate daughter?!"]
["Crack!" Yu Luomian crushed the teacup in his hand.]
["Although things didn't work out with Yu Xiaogang in the end, judging by what Uncle Luomian said, Liu Erlong still hasn't married. She probably still can't forget that guy."]
["Tsk, tsk. I really admire this predecessor. Though the martial soul theory he wrote was a pile of crap."]
["His martial soul and soul power are just as useless as mine, but his martial soul is uglier, a pig. Not as cute as my Golden Tangerine."]
["Yet he's still managed to thrive. They say he even had something going on with the Spirit Hall's Holy Maiden back then."]
["...What does that have to do with Uncle Luomian adopting you? Besides..." Yu Tianming studied his little brother, a trace of suspicion flashing through his eyes.]
["Besides, where did you hear all this? How come I've never heard of it?"]
["I already told you, I learned it from gossip and unofficial histories. As for the connection...oh, my dear brother!"]
["I can hardly imagine that I'll actually have such a creature as a sister-in-law someday," Yu Tiansheng said, looking utterly heartbroken.]
["Liu Erlong is already getting on in years, yet she still can't forget Yu Xiaogang."]
["And now Uncle Yu Luomian suddenly proposes adopting me. I don't believe for a single hair's worth that Liu Erlong has nothing to do with this."]
["To put it in the language of those books I write, they're making me Yu Xiaogang's stand-in!"]
["Your little brother did inherit our family's good looks, after all. I'm the very picture of a perfect pretty little boy."]
["Are you sure Liu Erlong won't drain your little brother dry after adopting me?!"]
["Pfft!"]
[Yu Luomian spat out not tea, but blood.]
[An unusual flush rose over his face, and all manner of expressions swept across it like shifting winds and clouds.]
[Yu Luomian very much wanted to go over and refute him, to make it clear that his daughter probably was not a beast who would lay hands on a child, especially one who shared some blood ties with her.]
[But after thinking it over carefully, he discovered, to his despair, that what Yu Tiansheng said might be reality.]
[The scene of Liu Erlong making a rare request of him, her father, flashed through his mind.]
[At first, Yu Luomian had thought that, at most, Liu Erlong had taken pity on Yu Tiansheng because the child's martial soul and soul power were the same as Yu Xiaogang's.]
[But now, after hearing Yu Tiansheng put it that way.]
[Even Yu Luomian himself no longer believed that his Liu Erlong simply wanted to experience being a mother.]
[After all, there was already the overturned cart of her past with Yu Xiaogang as a warning.]
["Pfft! Cough, cough, cough!"]
[What a disgrace to the family!!!]
[Countless thoughts churned through his mind, and Yu Luomian spat out another mouthful of blood.]
[He had no face left to show anyone!]
[Especially these two children, who were not even ten yet.]
["Tianming! I have something to attend to, so I'll be leaving now!!"]
[Almost roaring those words, Yu Luomian fled the house.]
"Pfft!!!"
In reality, outside the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan's main hall, Yu Luomian's face flushed red as he spat out a mouthful of blood, a measure of despair in his eyes.
On the one hand, Liu Erlong really had begged him, her father, a few days earlier, proposing the idea of adopting Yu Tiansheng.
On the other hand, before this matter had even been put into action, everyone on the continent knew about it.
Everyone on the continent knew about that thing between Liu Erlong and Yu Xiaogang, as well as Liu Erlong's plan to take Yu Tiansheng as a stand-in.
Especially now.
Feeling the pitying gazes of the clan elders, Yu Luomian wished he could undergo Dragon Transformation on the spot, dig a hole, and bury himself in it.
"...Luomian, you ought to pay more attention to the children's affairs."
Yu Yuanzhen also looked at his younger brother with some embarrassment. There was no helping it; Yu Xiaogang was his son.
By rights, he also bore responsibility for what had happened back then.
"No! I never imagined that Erlong would still be unable to forget Xiao Gang even now, or that because of it...because of it..."
Casting a red-eyed glance toward the rear courtyard where the two brothers were, Yu Luomian simply did not know.
How was he supposed to face those two children after this?