Bei Bei nodded. Though it defied common sense, it had happened right before his eyes.
Just as Bei Bei was about to ask the remarkably knowledgeable boy his name, Huo Yuhao woke up.
He first tested Spiritual Detection. Once he confirmed that he was not dreaming, wild joy surged uncontrollably through his heart, and he could not help shouting, "I did it!"
The mental fluctuations radiating from his eyes even drew a slight glance from Tang Yin.
Even the trash Martial Soul of ten thousand years ago had been developed.
Bei Bei asked curiously, "Little Yuhao, could your Martial Soul have the Mental Attribute? I sensed powerful mental fluctuations just now."
Only then did Huo Yuhao notice Tang Yin's presence. He answered:
"My Martial Soul is Spirit Eyes. It has the Mental Attribute."
Bei Bei's eyes lit up, but then he heard Tang Ya cough. After a brief hesitation, he left his prepared words unspoken.
After signaling Bei Bei with her eyes, Tang Ya changed the subject and asked:
"This young fellow was so observant and knowledgeable just now. Could you also be a Mental Attribute Soul Master?"
Naturally, Tang Yin would not tell her that this was the visual acuity of the Purple Demon Eye that came with this incarnation of his. He shook his head and said:
"Tang Yin. Martial Soul: Blue Silver Grass. Rank twenty-nine Soul Grandmaster!"
Blue Silver Grass?! Tang Ya's eyes shone. "We even share a surname! How old are you?"
"Eleven and a half."
Tang Ya's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. At eleven and a half, she had only just obtained her second ring!
So the Tang Sect's ancestors had actually been right to insist on choosing sect masters with the Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul?
"Little Brother Tang Yin, who else is there in your family?"
These questions left Tang Yin baffled, but he could not possibly tell the truth:
"No one else. I'm all that's left."
Overjoyed, Tang Ya blurted out, "That's wonderful!"
Tang Yin: "?"
Huo Yuhao, who had been trying hard to adopt a spectator's perspective from the sidelines, was instantly stunned. Tang Ya's joy was absolutely genuine; the Chaos Qi condensing in his Sea of Consciousness made that clear.
Bei Bei looked utterly speechless. He raised a hand and rapped Tang Ya on the head. "What kind of thing is that to say?"
He thought for a moment, then asked Huo Yuhao:
"Little Brother Huo, what about your family?"
"My situation is the same as Tang Yin's."
Tang Ya clapped her hands and smiled. "Oh, perfect! Little Yuhao, Little Brother Tang Yin, since neither of you has any plans, why not join my Tang Sect? The Tang Sect was once the greatest sect under heaven!"
Huo Yuhao keenly picked up on the word "my." Did joining this so-called Tang Sect really seem like a good choice?
Tang Yin, however, was inwardly delighted. He had actually run straight into members of the Tang Sect!
Although, when he had ascended to the Divine Realm ten thousand years ago, he had hidden the complete Poison Scripture at the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, where the poisonous miasma stretching a hundred li around it kept anyone from finding their way inside.
To prevent a future sect master from becoming too powerful and bringing evil upon the world, what he had left behind was a mutilated version of the Mysterious Heaven Skill, with the section on the Eight Extraordinary Meridians removed, making it forever impossible to enter the Great Circulation.
He had also established the ancestral teaching, "There are no trash Martial Souls, only trash Soul Masters," encouraging the selection of successors with the Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul.
But as he watched the Tang Sect decline day by day from the Divine Realm, it was impossible not to feel disappointed.
Now he actually had a chance to join the Tang Sect himself, restore its glory, and continue searching for the Child of Destiny through it.
There was no way Tang Yin would pass this up. He said at once, "All right! I'll join."
"First come, first served. Ancestor Tang San's Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges is yours!" Tang Ya giggled and offered it as a welcoming gift.
Huo Yuhao, however, hesitated and asked quietly:
"Sister Xiaoya, I've heard some legends about the Tang Sect, such as the Four Single-Attribute Clans, but I don't know where the Tang Sect is."
With Tang Yin having agreed, Tang Ya's tone grew much more relaxed:
"The Four Single-Attribute Clans have already vanished into the dust of history. The Tang Sect's holdings were seized, and we no longer have a residence. Right now, Bei Bei and I are the only two people left in the Tang Sect. I'm its current sect master, and Bei Bei is my founding disciple."
Tang Yin frowned and said:
"I know about the extermination of the Four Single-Attribute Clans. It happened after the great war four thousand years ago, when the Douluo Continent collided with the Sun Moon Continent."
"The Sun Moon Empire's Soul Tools dealt a blow to the Douluo Continent's Hidden Weapon market. Rather than weathering the storm alongside the Tang Sect and researching Hidden Weapons, those four clans actually wanted to turn around and try their hand at external aids like Soul Tools. In the end, internal and external conflicts erupted, and they were made an example of."
"Huh?"
Huo Yuhao stared at the two of them in shock. He had not known this. Were the Tang Sect's rules really so harsh? With Tang Ya as sect master as well, judging by the emotional intelligence she had displayed earlier, the Tang Sect's future looked worrying too.
Bei Bei coughed twice and said:
"You've seen the situation, Little Brother Huo. Right now, the Tang Sect consists of just Xiaoya and me. Oh, with Little Brother Tang Yin, that makes three now."
"But we will certainly work hard to restore the Tang Sect's glory. If you're willing, you're welcome to join. Xiaoya was right about one thing: the Tang Sect has a cultivation method that should suit you very well. It will greatly benefit your future development."
After hesitating for a moment, Huo Yuhao asked, "Then what would I need to do after joining the Tang Sect?"
Tang Ya said, "You'd need to grow stronger and contribute to the sect. Our Tang Sect has indeed fallen on hard times, but we still have the entire set of cultivation methods Ancestor Tang San used to become a god."
"There's one more thing. Our Tang Sect has special privileges at Shrek Academy. Every year, we receive one admission slot that requires neither an entrance examination nor a recommendation letter. If you're willing to join our Tang Sect, this year's slot is yours."
"Once you join the Tang Sect, you belong to it for life. If you ever want to leave, you'll have to return all the Tang Sect Secret Arts."
Huo Yuhao detached himself from the conversation and calmly analyzed Tang Ya's words purely from a spectator's perspective.
The cultivation methods that had allowed the Tang Sect's ancestor Tang San to become a god sounded good, but over ten thousand years, countless members of the Tang Sect had practiced them. Not only had they failed to produce another god, but the sect had also declined to this state. That was enough to show they were chicken ribs-of little value, yet hard to discard.
Huo Yuhao's Spectator ability allowed him to see his heart and nature clearly, while Brother Sky Dream's foundation as a Million-Year Soul Beast gave him the confidence to refuse.
Whether he benefited or not, joining the Tang Sect would bind him to it. It was like being promised a great painted pie. Leaving aside whether that pie could ever become real, Tang Ya's performance as sect master alone made him shake his head.
But... that was Shrek Academy!
It was the continent's foremost academy, the one his mother had spoken of so longingly before she passed away, saying he would certainly have been able to attend if he had been a legitimate young master of the Duke's Mansion.
It possessed the finest Soul Master resources on the entire continent. If he could study there, surely he would have a better chance of avenging his mother?
Huo Yuhao hesitated, but Tang Yin, beside him, frowned and said:
"Sect Master Xiaoya, I don't have a recommendation letter."
There had been no such thing as recommendation letters ten thousand years ago. Who had invented this? Did they not know it would hinder the academy from admitting talented commoner Soul Masters? Heaven could scarcely tolerate such a thing.
Tang Ya gave an easy smile:
"Then what else is there to say? I'll just give you the examination-free slot!"
Tang Yin nodded. It seemed this recommendation-letter system did have its merits.
Not only could it screen for talented prospective Soul Masters with strength and powerful backgrounds, but it could also effectively control the scale of the entrance examinations and systematically scoop up the finest Soul Master talents from the Douluo Three Kingdoms.
As for what the Douluo Three Kingdoms would do? Didn't they still have commoner Soul Masters?
Tang Ya glanced at Huo Yuhao and chose her words:
"Little Brother Huo, your talent is a little lacking. Even if you entered Shrek Academy, it would be difficult for you to keep up with the lessons there. Why not join the Tang Sect and help Bei Bei and me look after the Tang Sect Base in Shrek City? Bei Bei and I will come guide your cultivation whenever we have time."
The so-called base was nothing more than a tiny, empty warehouse.
Tang Ya did not want to let Huo Yuhao leave purely because she felt a mental-type Martial Soul might accomplish something with Soul Tools.
Huo Yuhao calmly watched Tang Ya finish allocating the examination-free slot, then adjust her terms to recruit him again. Even his desire to let them experience Spiritual Detection died away.
Inside his Sea of Consciousness, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, who had been about to recuperate, could no longer sit still after hearing this. He cursed outright:
"Utterly rotten!"
"Yuhao, she's just taking advantage of your youth and lack of experience."
"There's a reason the continent's greatest sect dwindled to just two people."
"It would be one thing if this lousy sect simply had nothing to offer, but they even look down on people! You might as well not join!"
Huo Yuhao soothed him within his Sea of Consciousness. "Calm down, Brother Sky Dream. Her obsession with her sect seems so deep that it's affecting her behavior. Could she have suffered some kind of shock as a child?"
Who treated people like this?
He was young, but he had seen plenty-far too much-of the world's coldness. By putting himself in others' shoes and combining that with his Spectator ability, he could judge whether this was concern or contempt.
Even if I refuse, I'd better not make them resent me. After all, they're much stronger than I am right now.
He thought for a moment, then pretended to be tempted:
"This path does seem to suit me. Although my Innate Soul Power is only rank one, I'll work hard. I just have one request."
Tang Yin interjected, "Go ahead, Little Brother Huo. We'll do our best!"
Though he had only just joined, he already regarded himself as a member of the Tang Sect.
With the Tang Sect in decline, there was a need for people everywhere. Recruiting a watchdog, even if only to keep him in reserve, was only right.
As for whether Huo Yuhao might be the Child of Destiny, Tang Yin had already stopped considering that possibility.
"I've been frail and sickly since childhood, and my Primordial Yang was long since... ahem. Every year, I need to take quite a lot of medicine to regulate my health, and I also need some pills for cultivation..."
Huh? This will cost money?
I just recruited a genius. There are plenty of things I'll need to spend money on.
Tang Ya looked troubled. She was just about to speak when Bei Bei, unable to watch any longer, stopped her.
Bei Bei said apologetically, "Little Brother Huo, I'm sorry. Xiaoya is like this when it comes to the sect."
"Our Tang Sect isn't very well funded. Junior Brother Tang Yin has only just joined, and he'll be enrolling at Shrek Academy later..."
Huo Yuhao nodded in understanding. He could tell that Bei Bei was the most normal person in the Tang Sect.
Although Tang Ya had made him aware of recommendation letters, this was still Shrek Academy, the sacred ground in the hearts of Soul Masters across the continent.
Huo Yuhao still wanted to see whether he had a chance to enter, so he simply headed to Shrek City with the three members of the Tang Sect.
Before you continue