"Your Majesty, the White Tiger Duke requests an audience."
The Star Luo Imperial Palace.
Emperor Xu Jiawei was preparing for bed when an attendant brought him the news. He got dressed again.
"Let him in."
Xu Jiawei rubbed the space between his brows.
That Dai Hao...
He came running straight back from the front without orders, and only now has he come to see me.
A general charged with guarding the border deserted his post. He's utterly lawless!
This put him in a difficult position.
He wanted to see what excuse Dai Hao had for coming to see him in the middle of the night.
"Your Majesty."
"Your subject pays his respects, Your Majesty."
Dai Hao came before Xu Jiawei and bowed.
"Sit, brother."
"This is private time, and we're in private. There's no need to stand on ceremony. Come, sit beside me."
Xu Jiawei smiled warmly and pulled Dai Hao down to sit beside him, as though delighted by his late-night visit.
Keeping joy and anger off one's face was a basic skill for an emperor.
"Your Majesty, I didn't mean to disturb your rest, but the matter is extremely urgent."
Dai Hao looked troubled, as though he wanted to speak but hesitated.
"Oh?"
"Has something happened in your family?"
Xu Jiawei's interest was stirred.
The intelligence he had received said that the White Tiger Clan's patriarch and several highly respected clan elders had hauled Dai Hao back as though he were a prisoner.
Could something have gone wrong within the White Tiger Clan?
Or had Dai Hao betrayed his family and come to him for help?
"Your Majesty is perceptive."
"Recently, my youngest son's Martial Soul awakening has left me at my wits' end."
Dai Hao's expression turned bitter.
"Your youngest son?"
"If I remember correctly, Huabin awakened his Martial Soul six months ago, didn't he?"
Xu Jiawei was puzzled.
Dai Hao only had two acknowledged sons, Dai Yueheng and Dai Huabin. Wasn't his youngest Dai Huabin?
"Not Huabin."
"Besides Yueheng and Huabin, I have another son, also born to my wife. He was frail from childhood, so he was raised in the clan."
"The time recently came for the boy to awaken his Martial Soul, and he caused quite a stir. The clan elders dragged me back by force from a thousand miles away because of him."
"I'm ashamed that family affairs have interfered with state affairs."
Dai Hao complained bitterly as he explained how he had ended up deserting his post.
It wasn't that he had neglected his duties.
He had no choice either.
"Oh?"
"Another son? Then you must tell me all about it, brother. Just how much of a stir did this son cause?"
"They even dragged my border general back."
Xu Jiawei voiced his displeasure in a joking tone while also giving Dai Hao a warning.
As a general charged with guarding the border,
that excuse wasn't enough to justify deserting his post.
A third son.
They said that of a tiger's three cubs, one was bound to be a fierce beast. Dai Hao's third son really was a beast.
Because of him,
the White Tiger Lineage had even dragged Dai Hao back. Xu Jiawei wanted to see what Martial Soul the third son had awakened to make the White Tiger Lineage go to such lengths and cause such a fuss.
Could he be a super Evil Soul Master with twin Evil Martial Souls?
"I'm sorry to make a spectacle of myself before Your Majesty."
"My unworthy son awakened Twin Martial Souls, the White Tiger and the Hell Spirit Cat."
"I've been stationed on the border all these years and neglected the child. The clan elders gave me a terrible dressing-down for it."
"Your Majesty, I'm afraid I'll have to set aside my position as marshal for now as well."
Dai Hao really didn't want to be marshal.
How could being marshal compare to taking care of his son?
He felt no attachment to the White Tiger Lineage's ten-thousand-year prestige and foundation in the military, either.
Those things were all hollow.
His precious son was what mattered.
"It's no spectacle. Wait..."
"The White Tiger and the Hell Spirit Cat?!"
At first, Xu Jiawei hadn't noticed anything amiss.
But once he heard Dai Hao clearly, his whole world fell apart.
Twin Martial Souls of the White Tiger and the Hell Spirit Cat?
Twin Martial Souls were already a path to invincibility.
Now there were Twin Martial Souls that could perform a Martial Soul Fusion Skill.
After ten thousand years of marriage between the Dai and Zhu families, had they finally bred the ultimate Gu king?
Xu Jiawei's vision went black. Hearing such terrible news in the middle of the night, he nearly fainted on the spot.
A spectacle?
You want to see me laugh, is that it?!
Damn your grandmother...
That old bastard Dai Hao is a real dog!
Had he come to complain and ask for help?
He was clearly showing off!
Flaunting it, nakedly flaunting it!
"That's right, twin White Tiger and Hell Spirit Cat Martial Souls. And the boy can even use the Martial Soul Fusion Skill, Hell White Tiger, all by himself."
"He calls this kind of Martial Soul Fusion Skill a Self Martial Soul Fusion Skill!"
"A Self Martial Soul Fusion Skill is truly unheard of. It's made history."
As if afraid he wouldn't anger Xu Jiawei to death, Dai Hao dropped another bombshell.
The blast left Xu Jiawei dizzy and seeing stars.
You feared your brother might live in hardship, but you also feared he might drive a Land Rover.
Everyone had been getting along just fine,
but that blockhead tiger Dai Hao had sired a Land Rover. This hurt Xu Jiawei worse than death.
"A Self Martial Soul Fusion Skill?"
"He can become a Hell White Tiger on his own?!"
For all his imperial composure, Xu Jiawei's scalp went numb with shock at this news.
Now he understood the White Tiger Clan.
A heaven's chosen like that
really did need to be carefully protected. Calling Dai Hao back was only right; Dai Hao had to come back.
But this was bad news for the Xu Family.
The White Tiger Lineage had produced such a peerless genius.
Where did that leave the Xu Family?
"Brother, you came here to show off to me, didn't you?"
"Stop flaunting it."
"If you keep this up, I'll go mad with envy."
Xu Jiawei spoke irritably, his words full of sourness.
Enough.
He was jealous!
"Your Majesty, I'm not showing off. It really isn't convenient for me to remain marshal."
Dai Hao brought it up again.
"This..."
Xu Jiawei found himself in a quandary.
On the one hand, he didn't want to lose such a useful golden nameplate as Dai Hao.
On the other hand,
Dai Hao's family had produced such a qilin child. His heart was tied to home, so it was understandable that he no longer wanted to return to the front.
But Xu Jiawei couldn't find a replacement for Dai Hao for the time being, and didn't know how to deal with him.
"There's one more thing."
"Your Majesty, Princess Jiujiu is intelligent and graceful, and she's close to my son in age. I'd venture to ask for Princess Jiujiu's hand on his behalf."
Seeing that Xu Jiawei didn't want to let him go home, Dai Hao hurriedly spoke up.
"A marriage proposal?"
Xu Jiawei's eyes lit up.
A genius with Twin Martial Souls, and one who also had a Self Martial Soul Fusion Skill, was more than a match for Xu Jiujiu.
If the two were to marry,
and Xu Jiujiu bore Dai Lingfeng a child or two, the Star Crown Xu Family would at least have a way out.
Dai Hao had given him a tremendous sense of relief.
"Your son is a young genius, brother. It's that girl Jiujiu who would be marrying above her station."
"Since you have this in mind, I naturally approve with both hands."
"Only, I won't be able to call you brother anymore."
"With your son together with my sister, you'll be a generation above me."
Xu Jiawei spoke with a smile.
The White Tiger Clan was certainly forthright. Rather than hide such a genius away, they had openly revealed him to Xu Jiawei and proposed a marriage alliance.
Their sincerity greatly reassured Xu Jiawei.
"Then, Your Majesty, about my position as marshal..."
Dai Hao seized the chance to ask again.
"Step down. You've devoted your youth to the nation all these years and neglected to spend time with your family. It's time you spent some proper time with your son."
Xu Jiawei waved a hand.
Now that his sister Xu Jiujiu was to marry into Dai Hao's family,
Dai Hao's retirement was easy enough to settle.