Dai Mubai's expression was grave, his brows tightly furrowed. He looked at Tang San and spoke urgently, a trace of panic in his voice. "Xiao San, we can't put this off any longer. I'll go get Yuhao's parents. They're connected to him by blood, and if they try to persuade him with you, they might be able to make him turn back. I'll come back and meet you shortly."
Tang San nodded slightly. "Then I'm counting on you, Mubai." At that moment, he cursed inwardly, Damn it, why did something have to go wrong now? Huo Yuhao, oh, Huo Yuhao, I hadn't intended to kill you yet, but who would have thought you'd come seeking death? Faced with this sudden change in Huo Yuhao, he too urgently needed a solution, and Dai Mubai's suggestion might well be a good one.
Having said that, he nodded slightly, turned, and left.
Just then, the God of Evil stepped forward slightly and looked at Tang San. "Asura God, the situation is so urgent. Do you need help from the two of us?" he asked in a steady voice.
Tang San waved a hand and replied calmly, "There's no need. Huo Yuhao is my son-in-law, after all. I know him, and I don't think he'll rashly lay a hand on Wulin." Despite his words, a trace of barely perceptible worry remained hidden in his eyes. He was not entirely confident about Huo Yuhao's current state.
"So Teacher really is in your hands. Hand over Teacher's fragment!" Huo Yuhao's eyes were bloodshot as he stared fixedly at Tang San, his voice full of anger and urgency.
"Huo Yuhao, you've truly suffered Qi deviation," Tang San scolded as he moved toward him.
"Don't come any closer!" Huo Yuhao's face suddenly twisted like that of a wounded beast, and he roared wildly, "If you come any closer, I'll throw him into the lower realm and leave him to fend for himself!" As he spoke, he held Tang Wulin tighter in his arms, blood spreading through his eyes.
"You dare!" Tang San's face twisted instantly, his eyes widening like bronze bells as he stared fixedly at Huo Yuhao. Seeing Huo Yuhao in such a frenzied state, he understood that Huo Yuhao had lost his reason and that this madman might really do something so insane. With no other choice, he had to compromise for the moment. Gritting his teeth, he said, "How can a mere fragment compare to my son? Fine, follow me. This isn't the place for a trade."
Hearing this, Huo Yuhao's eyes flashed with wariness. He carefully put away the Divine Core, then followed closely in Tang San's footsteps. One behind the other, their figures gradually receded into the distance. The air around them seemed to freeze, filled with a tense, oppressive atmosphere.
They arrived in a forest somewhere in the Divine Realm. Tang San stopped and waved his large hand through the air. A spatial rift opened instantly, and as gray light flashed, an extraordinarily weak figure slowly emerged from it. It was Electrolux. His body was illusory, as if it might dissipate into the air at any moment, and his presence was so faint it was almost imperceptible.
"Yu... Yuhao..." Electrolux called to Huo Yuhao in an exceedingly faint voice, with a trace of gratification and a hint of helplessness. He had watched Huo Yuhao's entire journey. That once-weak child had now ascended to godhood; how could he not be happy? But he had never expected their reunion to take place under such circumstances.
At the sight, Huo Yuhao's eyes instantly grew wet. He rushed forward and gently supported Electrolux with his right hand, pouring his own divine power into him in an endless stream, trying to help him recover. Yet it was all in vain. Electrolux's body remained like a dying candle in the wind, and in the end, he turned into fragments and entered Huo Yuhao's sea of divine consciousness once more. Huo Yuhao stared blankly at the light dissipating in his hand, grief overwhelming his heart and self-reproach written all over his face.
At that moment, Tang Wulin awoke from his stupor and burst into tears with a wail.
Hearing the crying, Tang San immediately said, "Huo Yuhao, I've released your teacher. Now give Wulin back to me."
"Fine. I'll give your son back to you now." Huo Yuhao took a deep breath. Since he had achieved his goal, and he was not one to go back on his word, he slowly handed Tang Wulin back to Tang San.
"Huo Yuhao, my son has returned to me. Now it's time for you to die!" Tang San took Tang Wulin, and the warmth on his face vanished instantly, replaced by coldness and killing intent. His hands swiftly formed seals, divine power surging around him, and just as he was about to strike...
"Wait!" Huo Yuhao suddenly called out. He quickly took out the Golden Dragon King Divine Core and held it high, saying coldly, "This is still very important to you, isn't it? Let me leave this place. Otherwise, I can't say which will be destroyed first, me or this thing. You understand too, don't you, Father-in-law? Even without the core, if a god close to the God King level self-destructs, wouldn't that set off a temporal-spatial turbulence in this space as it is now?"
"The Golden Dragon King Core! That belongs to my son. My future plans can't be ruined because of this!" Hearing those words, Tang San's face instantly darkened. He knew the Golden Dragon King Divine Core was vital to his subsequent plans, and he absolutely could not afford to lose it.
"Huo Yuhao, are you courting death?" Tang San roared through gritted teeth, his fists clenched and his body trembling slightly. Clearly, he was furious to the extreme.
"Make way! Otherwise, we'll all die together. I know that might not mean much to you as a God King, but can the child in your arms withstand the force of a self-destruction? Do you dare gamble? Did you think I'd hand him over to you so readily? I'm betting my life against your son's. As long as I self-destruct here, I guarantee not even his bones will remain." Huo Yuhao looked Tang San straight in the eye, his voice cold as ice.
A faint smile curved Huo Yuhao's lips. What other bargaining chips do I have, Lord Sea God? As long as I can leave here, the Golden Dragon King Core for your son's life is quite a bargain.
Tang San was secretly irritated. He felt that Huo Yuhao was even more cunning than he had imagined.
His anger turned to laughter, and a sinister smile appeared on his face. "Do you think I really care about that thing?" Though he said that, his eyes involuntarily flicked toward the Golden Dragon King Divine Core, betraying his true thoughts.
"If you didn't care, Sea God, you wouldn't be standing here talking so much nonsense with me." Huo Yuhao snorted coldly, seeing through Tang San's thoughts. He understood that the Golden Dragon King Divine Core was his greatest bargaining chip at the moment. As long as he held tightly to it, he still had room to maneuver.
Damn it, without the Golden Dragon King Divine Core, there's no way to carry out the rest of the plan, Tang San lamented inwardly. He knew full well that he could not act rashly now, or all his previous schemes would come to nothing. He forced down the anger in his heart and squeezed out a smile, trying to keep Huo Yuhao from leaving. "Huo Yuhao, don't be so quick to go. Don't you want to know why?"
"Why what?" Huo Yuhao watched Tang San warily, his heart full of doubt.
"Why I captured your teacher, why I plotted against you like this. Don't you want to know about my plans?" As Tang San spoke, he secretly calculated how to retrieve the Divine Core. First, keep him here. Take back the Divine Core when his guard is down, get Tang Wulin away as quickly as possible, and kill him once and for all.
"So you planned this long ago." Huo Yuhao's heart jolted. He had a vague sense of how serious the matter was, but he still wanted to hear Tang San speak the truth himself.
"That's right." Holding Tang Wulin in his arms, Tang San raised the corners of his mouth in a smug smile, boasting of his great scheme. "I discovered you very early on back then. You possessed a flood of providence, accumulated over ten thousand years. That was what gave rise to a child of providence like you." As he spoke, he paced slowly, a fanatical gleam in his eyes, and began to relate his plan step by step.
"I never expected your damned teacher would be willing to sacrifice himself to help you through that ordeal. As expected of a child of providence-even the people around you are so extraordinary.
"However, I changed my plan. Your teacher was an outer god from another plane, so he was bound to have plenty of good things. I pretended to save him and bring him to the upper realm, then forced him to hand over his inheritance. That way, no one would ever again be able to shake my control over providence or ruin my plan.
"The plans that followed were all very successful. Qiankun Asks About Love, two souls becoming one, half the providence of the Star Dou Great Forest all going to my Tang family bloodline. The Douluo Continent was mine to rule in the first place. The providence of the Star Dou Great Forest and the Douluo Continent should have belonged to me all along.
"So I put some pressure on you, and sure enough, you fell for it. Just like that, step by step, I raised you into a dog that drew in providence and could be manipulated at my whim. That old thing, your teacher, would rather die than submit, right to the end. I had no choice but to extract the inheritance of light magic from him. As for the remaining necromancy, he actually passed all of it on to you."
"And you, Huo Yuhao, a rising star nurtured by the Douluo Continent, should have relied on providence to attain godhood. But if I let you become a God King and take charge of the Douluo Plane, how could I be at ease? I possessed Dual Godhood myself, so why would I want to give up a godhood? At that point, Rong Nianbing came along. His Emotion Godhood happened to be seeking an heir, so I had him owe me a favor, become your teacher, and pass his godhood on to you.
"As for my daughter, she is a goddess, lofty in both identity and status. How could a person from the lower realm like you be worthy of laying a hand on her? This Golden Dragon King Divine Core is a perfect match for my son's status, and I can use it to carry out the next step of my plan while I'm at it. That Silver Dragon King, heh heh heh..." As Tang San spoke, he burst into loud laughter.
"What a scheme. Truly, what a scheme."