"Who's speaking?" Huo Yuhao was badly startled by the voice that suddenly rang out. He looked around and discovered that, at some point, he had arrived in a pure white space filled with countless points of light, stretching beyond the limits of his sight.
Yet his vision seemed able to reach every corner of this space.
A multicolored ball of light captured all his attention. It radiated a gentle glow that made it impossible to look away after a single glance.
Within it, Huo Yuhao seemed to see blue skies, white clouds, rainbows, the earth, mountains, and rivers. Everything in the world flashed before his eyes, those magnificent, sweeping vistas drawing him irresistibly into their vastness with a single glance.
Above all, that indescribable sense of closeness made it impossible for Huo Yuhao to look away from the moment he saw it.
"No need to look. I'm right in front of you." Huo Yun's voice came from the ball of light, drawing Huo Yuhao back from his thoughts.
"Who are you?" Huo Yuhao asked as he looked at the multicolored ball of light right before him, which gave him such a sense of familiarity.
"Me? My identity is quite something. I am the Douluo Consciousness, the consciousness of this entire world! You could also call me the planet beneath your feet, the world you live in. You and everything in this world are children I brought into being." Although this had happened suddenly, Huo Yun still wanted to give some consideration to her status and her air of grandeur. As she spoke, her voice unconsciously grew resonant and full of authority.
Little Huo Yuhao had never witnessed anything like this. A single declaration from Huo Yun left him completely overawed.
What did it mean to be the consciousness of the entire world? If everything in the world was a child she had brought into being, didn't that make her the head of the whole world's family?
And in Huo Yuhao's understanding, such a being was like the White Tiger Duke in the Duke's Mansion-that father he had never met, the true master of the White Tiger Duke's Mansion.
Without question, Huo Yun's words equated her with the master of the entire world in his mind.
Looking at Huo Yuhao, who seemed utterly frozen, Huo Yun began to feel uneasy. Had she released a little too much authority and scared the child witless?
He was the last child of destiny she could rely on. He couldn't go out like this; she was still counting on him to let her lie back in comfort in the future.
"Ahem." Huo Yun cleared her throat twice, her voice softening somewhat. "Anyway, all you need to know is that I am this world, and you could also be called my child."
"Then do you mean you're my mom too?" Hearing Huo Yun say this, Huo Yuhao blurted the question out instinctively.
"Yes, I'm your mom too!" Huo Yun thought it over. When she worked it out, that really was their relationship.
Everything in the world could be considered something he had brought into being, and everyone had the right to call her mother. But Huo Yuhao was undoubtedly the one most entitled to do so, and their relationship was a little closer.
That was because he was a child of destiny, and an innate child of destiny at that, although the Douluo Consciousness had originally brought Huo Yuhao into being only to resist Tang San.
There had been a purpose behind it, but the moment Huo Yuhao was born, the destiny he carried automatically made him this world's darling.
Throughout all of Douluo's history, only one person had ever enjoyed the distinction Huo Yuhao did. Huo Yuhao was the second.
It could be said that, in all of Douluo's history, only that person and Huo Yuhao had the right to call the Douluo Consciousness mother.
Realizing this, Huo Yun couldn't help adding, "What's more, you're the one in this world most entitled to call me Mom. Although I brought everyone else into being too, none of them has as much right as you do, including your mother."
"Why?" Huo Yuhao asked curiously.
"I'll explain that later. Anyway, listen to your mom first. Take that mother of yours outside and leave the Duke's Mansion right away.
"The duchess learned about your innate full soul power, and she's preparing to send people to kill you and your mother." Huo Yun unconsciously slipped into the role of a mother, although before this, having only just arrived, she hadn't had a single child or any experience being a mom.
"Why?" Huo Yuhao was startled. If his earlier question had come from curiosity, this one came from bewilderment.
He didn't know what the White Tiger Duchess was thinking, but he had often heard people say that innate full soul power marked a genius. Weren't geniuses supposed to receive better training from their families?
"Because she already told your father that your mother was dead. Your father doesn't even know you exist. Now that you've caused this stir, other people will report it to him, so of course she wants to kill you to silence you. Once you're dead, the prestige she's built up over all her years managing the Duke's Mansion will be more than enough to convince everyone else and smooth this over." As Huo Yun spoke, she made a throat-slitting gesture.
In the scene Huo Yuhao saw, the multicolored ball of light before him transformed into the duchess and made a throat-slitting gesture in front of him.
"She wouldn't dare!" Huo Yuhao was furious. He had only just said that he would be able to protect his mom in the future, and now someone was telling him that people intended to harm her. How could he possibly accept that?
"In her eyes, you and your mother are nothing but two ants. Any Soul Elder she sends could take your lives.
"You have talent, but that doesn't mean you have strength. You've merely become a bit of a threat in her eyes, so she's preparing to wipe you out.
"And for certain reasons, I can't intervene freely. Now listen to your mom: pack your things and hurry up and take your mother out of this Duke's Mansion. Ideally, leave the Star Luo Empire. The farther you get from here, the safer you'll be," Huo Yun said.
"I understand." Huo Yuhao nodded firmly. Although this was Huo Yun's first appearance, that innate sense of closeness, which seemed carved into his very bones-and perhaps especially the closer relationship between a child of destiny and the Douluo Consciousness-left him naturally unguarded toward her. He believed her immediately.
"Right, don't tell anyone else about my existence. If you have any questions, just call for Mom in your heart," Huo Yun instructed Huo Yuhao. She didn't know whether Tang San was watching him right now. She had merged with the world, so it should be very difficult for Tang San to discover her, but if Huo Yuhao spoke about her, she might be exposed.
"Got it." Although Huo Yuhao didn't understand, he still agreed.
Then he felt his vision blur, and he was back outside. The stove was before him, and he still held the unshaped dough in his hands. Someone beside him seemed to be tugging his clothes and shaking him.
"Yuhao, Yuhao, what's wrong?" Huo Yun'er had clearly noticed something unusual about Huo Yuhao and was calling to him.
"I'm fine, Mom." Huo Yuhao shook his head. "Mom, let's pack our things and leave the Duke's Mansion right away."
"Huh? Why?" Huo Yun'er froze for a moment. She didn't understand why Huo Yuhao suddenly wanted to leave the Duke's Mansion.
"I..." Huo Yuhao was truly frantic now. He wanted to explain that the planet's consciousness had told him, but then he remembered Huo Yun's instructions not to tell anyone else about her existence.
That left him caught in a dead loop. He couldn't very well tell his mom that he thought the duchess was going to attack them out of jealousy.
"Yuhao, just tell her the explanation I gave you-that she lied to your father." Huo Yun realized the problem too and hurriedly transmitted another message to Huo Yuhao.
Huo Yuhao's eyes immediately lit up when he heard this, and he hurriedly repeated what Huo Yun had just said.
"So she wants to attack us to cover up her lie? How could she do that? Isn't she afraid the duke will find out and settle accounts with her?" Huo Yun'er's face was full of disbelief. After all these years in the Duke's Mansion, she had thought the duchess only targeted her and her son at every turn because she was jealous that the duke favored her more.
She had never expected the other woman's jealousy to run so deep that she had actually lied to the duke, saying she had died long ago.
"What wouldn't she dare do? Even if Dai Hao finds out afterward, he'll just give her some token punishment and leave it at that. If she cared about you and your mother at all, she should have checked on you when she came back before.
"Incidentally, Yuhao, as far as that father of yours is concerned, you haven't even been born. He doesn't know you exist. In my opinion, you're better off without that kind of father." Huo Yun scoffed at this. She had records here.
To Dai Hao, Huo Yun'er was, at most, a maid who had followed him since childhood and with whom he shared a deeper bond, now taken as a concubine.
Besides, if he really cared, how could he not know that the girl he liked had borne him a son, ignoring them for all these years?
In short, as far as Huo Yun was concerned, he had no favorable feelings toward Dai Hao. She even wondered what her predecessor, the Douluo Consciousness, had been thinking, arranging such a background for the birth of its own child.
He was a child of destiny, after all. With such a miserable arrangement, no wonder he had grown up starved for love and was ultimately reeled in by Tang San using his daughter as bait.
"Hmph!" Hearing Huo Yun's words, Huo Yuhao couldn't help giving a little snort. Her words had undoubtedly reminded him.
He remembered that, although his father spent most of his time away, stationed with the army and guarding the Star Luo Empire, he had a younger brother. That proved his father had come back, yet he hadn't shown the slightest concern for him and his mother when he returned. He really didn't care.
Then why should he hold out any hope for him?
"Anyway, Mom, let's hurry and go. Let's get out of here first. As long as we're alive, that duchess won't get her wish." Even as Huo Yun's words stripped the mystique from his father, Huo Yuhao hadn't forgotten the pressing matter at hand.
"But if we leave, what will we do if your father comes back and can't find us?" What worried Huo Yun'er now was whether the White Tiger Duke would become anxious if he returned and couldn't find them.
"She really is hopelessly love-brained." Huo Yun couldn't help pressing a hand to her forehead. As expected of the continent of love, there were so many love-addled people that even she, the world's consciousness, couldn't bear to watch.
Being willing to love truly and purely was a good thing, but could they please not be so love-brained? At a time like this?
"At a time like this? If he cared about us, he should have visited you when he came back before. Clearly, he never cared at all. Why should you care whether he'll see us when he returns? If we stay here, never mind whether he gets to see us-we'll lose our lives here." Huo Yuhao was getting anxious too. He couldn't quite understand why his mother was dwelling on all this right now.
"Well..." Huo Yun'er knew Huo Yuhao had a point, but she had her own concerns.
"Yuhao, tell your mom you're going to find your dad. Trick her out of the Duke's Mansion first. Stay alive first, and there'll be room to think about the rest later." Huo Yun truly wanted to strangle this woman whose name was so similar to her own, but she was Huo Yuhao's birth mother, so she had no choice but to intervene.
"Then, Mom, let's go find Dad. He doesn't know we exist. If he finds out, he can get justice for us. But if we stay here, Dad might never even learn about us. In his eyes, we're already dead, and I was never even born." Huo Yuhao's mind was working at lightning speed now too.
"All right." Hearing this, Huo Yun'er stopped hesitating. What she cared about-or rather, what she had been waiting for all along-was really just that one person. She was utterly love-brained.
Having convinced his mom, Huo Yuhao immediately hurried to pack their things.
In fact, the mother and son had very few possessions. The bowl of white flour they were kneading now counted as their most valuable possession, followed by a dozen or so Copper Soul Coins and a few changes of clothes. Packing took less than ten minutes.
Once everything was packed, Huo Yuhao led Huo Yun'er away from their home, which was little more than a woodshed.
"Yuhao, go through that little grove to the west. There's no one there." Huo Yun became his navigator, telling Huo Yuhao where people were and how to avoid them. Even in broad daylight beneath a clear sky, slipping out of the Duke's Mansion was no problem at all.
Under Huo Yun's guidance, Huo Yuhao and Huo Yun'er took less than half an hour from packing up and setting out to leaving the Duke's Mansion.
Pushing open the heavy red back gate with its antique elegance, Huo Yuhao held Huo Yun'er's hand and rushed out of the Duke's Mansion without looking back.
While Huo Yun'er glanced back from time to time at the increasingly distant mansion as he pulled her along, Huo Yuhao pressed onward without hesitation.
Deep down, Huo Yuhao didn't care about anything in the Duke's Mansion. The one he had always cared about was his mother. As long as Mom was all right, he didn't care where they went.
So he felt not even the slightest reluctance about leaving the Duke's Mansion, especially since it was a place that could cost them their lives.
But Huo Yuhao was only six, after all. Although he had awakened his Martial Soul and gained soul power, making him a little stronger physically than Huo Yun'er, his ordinary mother beside him, the difference wasn't all that great.
Besides, years of grueling labor had long since worn Huo Yun'er's body down. Even running from noon until dark, for several hours, the two of them only covered about fifty kilometers.
Both had long since run themselves breathless, and finally stopped to rest beside a large rock by the roadside.
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