The Clear Sky Sect elders had practical grounds for objecting so strongly. After all, creatures like the Wolf Bandits existed on the Douluo Continent.
Even if Ah Yin was a Transformed Soul Beast, who knew what sort of thing she might give birth to? Would it refuse to recognize even its own family?
Rather than take that risk, they might as well find Tang Hao a human woman with exceptional talent.
Meanwhile, Tang Fan continued to dissect the unreasonable parts of this story with Bibi Dong.
They had nothing to do anyway, so taking Bibi Dong out to look around could wait until the afternoon. They might as well spend the morning discussing the plot of Douluo Continent. She enjoyed listening to it anyway.
"What I just mentioned was the first unreasonable point. There's a second one: a long time actually passed between Spirit Hall discovering that Ah Yin was a Transformed Soul Beast, Tang San's birth, and her eventual sacrifice to Tang Hao.
"So how did Spirit Hall pick up Tang Hao and Ah Yin's trail again and again during that time?
"Spirit Hall had tremendous influence, but transportation and communications weren't very advanced in your era. Pinpointing someone's location was very difficult.
"The fact that Tang Hao and Ah Yin were found time and again is quite intriguing."
"That's right. Why did Spirit Hall keep finding them? Could someone have leaked their whereabouts?"
"There's a conspiracy theory that explains all of this. I'll tell you about it in a bit."
"A conspiracy theory?"
"It's a way of using a conspiracy to explain the unreasonable parts of a story, though people have different opinions about that kind of interpretation.
"Some think it's reading too much into things and scoff at it. Others think it makes perfect sense and fills in the wicked side of human nature missing from the story."
"I see. Then whose conspiracy could it be?"
"You can take a guess. I'll give you the answer in a bit, and you can see if you were right."
Over on the Douluo Continent, Qian Xunji was startled when he heard Tang Fan mention a conspiracy theory. "Does that mean someone was scheming against me behind the scenes? Who? Who has the ability to do that?"
For some reason, Qian Xunji felt a chill down his back.
Qian Daoliu's expression also grew grave. He had more on his mind than Qian Xunji. Tang Fan had previously revealed that the protagonist, Tang San, would ultimately become the Sea God, and Spirit Hall was the villain in the story.
He had reason to suspect that the Sea God was the one scheming against Spirit Hall from behind the scenes.
If someone really is scheming against my Spirit Hall and my Qian Family, even if you're a god, I'll never let you get away with it.
That was what Qian Daoliu thought to himself.
Tang Fan had no idea how great a reaction the words "conspiracy theory" had caused on the Douluo Continent. He continued dissecting the unreasonable parts of the plot.
"The third point is the route they took."
"The route?"
"Mm. Put yourself in Ah Yin's shoes. If you were being hunted, where would you run? To a desolate valley devoid of life, or to a Soul Beast forest?"
"Obviously, a Soul Beast forest. Finding a transformed Ten Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast in a Soul Beast forest would be incredibly difficult."
"Exactly. It's the most basic common sense, yet Ah Yin and Tang Hao took their newborn child and chose a death trap. Do you think that makes sense?"
"It makes no sense at all. That's just too stupid!"
"Mm, Ah Yin really is a stupid woman in the book, and so are you. The book Douluo Continent is jokingly called Love Continent, you know."
"Love Continent? Why?"
"Because any plot in the book that has anything to do with love becomes utterly unreasonable.
"You and Yu Xiaogang are a classic example, and so are Ah Yin and Tang Hao... The female characters the book focuses on are all love-brained to some degree."
"Love-brained?"
"It means having nothing but romance on the brain, with everything else having to make way for your love."
Bibi Dong thought of the things her counterpart had done in the book. They fit the definition of love-brained perfectly.
"I'm not love-brained!"
Bibi Dong muttered under her breath.
"What did you say?"
"N-nothing. You said all those unreasonable things could be explained by a conspiracy theory. What exactly is it?"
"Who do you think it was?"
Bibi Dong shook her head. "I can't guess. Stop keeping me in suspense."
"All right, I won't keep you in suspense. The conspiracy theory actually rests on one premise: whoever benefited in the end could be the one pulling the strings behind the whole affair.
"Now, with that premise in mind, take another guess."
"The one who benefited in the end? Tang Hao? His wife sacrificed herself for him, and he became a Titled Douluo, but to scheme against his own wife, that's..."
Bibi Dong found it a little hard to accept. That was simply worse than a beast. Of course, there were no shortage of people worse than beasts on the Douluo Continent.
"Some people do suspect that Tang Hao deliberately schemed against Ah Yin, but if you follow that line of reasoning, there are still many unreasonable things in between that it can't explain.
"Actually, Tang Hao wasn't the only one who benefited in the end. Have you forgotten who Tang Hao is? He's the next heir to the Clear Sky Sect."
"The Clear Sky Sect! You mean the Clear Sky Sect was pulling the strings!"
There were intelligent people on the Douluo Continent too. Ning Fengzhi, for example, connected all the pieces as soon as he heard Tang Fan say that the Clear Sky Sect was pulling the strings.
"So that's how it is. If the Clear Sky Sect was pulling the strings behind the scenes, then everything makes sense."
Meanwhile, the Clear Sky Sect elders had already begun cursing Tang Fan on the sky screen.
"Ignorant brat! How dare he slander our Clear Sky Sect? He truly knows no fear."
"Our Clear Sky Sect is the number one sect under heaven, yet he makes us out to be some kind of scheming villain. Ridiculous!"
At that moment, Sect Master Tang Wei slapped the table and shouted, "Enough! If you're so capable, why don't you cross that sky screen, go over there, and drag that man back here? Cough, cough..."
Tang Wei was strong, but his health was poor. Otherwise, he wouldn't have died of anger.
Still, his outburst silenced the Clear Sky Sect elders.
If Tang Fan had known that the Clear Sky Sect elders were cursing him, he would certainly have had plenty to say about them. After all, there were quite a few conspiracy theories about those elders too.
"Think about it. The Clear Sky Sect's heir became the youngest Titled Douluo in history, and with Ah Yin dead, the stain of having consorted with a Ten Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast could also be concealed.
"Their son Tang San's talent would surely be great too, barring any accidents, so the Clear Sky Sect wouldn't have to worry about its next generation either.
"Most importantly, Tang Hao defeated Spirit Hall's Pope, Qian Xunji. That could let the Clear Sky Sect's title as the number one sect under heaven completely overshadow Spirit Hall."
"That's right. Looking at it from that angle, the Clear Sky Sect really did benefit the most.
"So the reason Spirit Hall was able to pinpoint Tang Hao and Ah Yin's location was that the Clear Sky Sect deliberately leaked their whereabouts to Spirit Hall.
"Weren't they afraid that doing so would get Tang Hao killed?"
"They were probably confident that, since Tang Hao was the Clear Sky Sect's heir, Spirit Hall absolutely couldn't kill him without completely falling out with the Clear Sky Sect."