Haozi's Scheme

Hidden away in the barren mountains, they saw the seasons pass from cold to heat and back again.

Since the brothers had met Ah Rou and Xiao Wu in succession all those years ago, they had sunk into a haven of tenderness, and several more years had slipped by before they knew it.

In the early years, Tang Xiao and Tang Hao had traveled far and wide in glory, intoxicated by romance.

Everything changed after the second and third elders lost their lives in the Star Dou Great Forest, and the fourth elder led dozens of disciples in pursuit, only to be vaporized by Tang Hao and Tang Xiao working together.

Over the past few years, the Clear Sky Sect's covert search had shown no sign of stopping. Had the brothers not been familiar with the sect's search markers, allowing them to move the two women to new hiding places by the skin of their teeth several times, they would likely have been surrounded and trapped by the sect long ago.

One morning, those tense, oppressive years of exile were quietly interrupted.

Ah Rou and Xiao Wu sat side by side, identical blushes spreading across their pretty faces.

"Big Bwother Hao, I'm pregnant."

Xiao Wu gently stroked her flat belly, her eyes brimming with joy.

"We're going to have a little bunny baby of our own!"

During Xiao Wu's long years as a Soul Beast, she had given birth to so many tens of thousands of litters of baby rabbits for the great cause of reviving the Soft Bone Rabbit clan that she had lost count herself.

But as far as she was concerned, that had been nothing more than acting on instinct, dull and tedious. How could it possibly compare to the romance of being in love?

Now that she was carrying her Big Bwother Hao's flesh and blood, Xiao Wu saw this as the first true fruit of love in her life, so sacred and immaculate.

So what did the purity of Xiao Wu the Soul Beast have to do with Xiao Wu the human? She was pure as ice and clean as jade now.

Tang Hao was still reeling from the news, utterly unaware that hundreds of thousands of green hats were already piled on his head.

Tang Xiao was also stunned for a long moment. Then the hand holding Ah Rou's trembled slightly, and his grin spread from ear to ear.

Ah Rou's feelings were equally complicated.

Back then, she had chosen Tang Xiao purely because he was the future rightful sect master of the Clear Sky Sect. She had planned to hook herself a long-term meal ticket and an obedient good doggie.

During their years on the run, Ah Rou had played with Tang Xiao's emotions until she had trained him into complete submission. He neither fought back when struck nor retorted when scolded, and in daily life he was attentive to her every need.

Faced with this tireless old ox, the old rabbit who had weathered many storms truly felt a measure of warmth at the thought of settling down with him.

Although this was by no means her first pregnancy since taking human form.

In her early years, to savor the joys and sorrows of love and hate in the human world, Ah Rou had enjoyed many a tryst in the maple grove at dusk. She had experienced pregnancy several times along the way, but for the sake of her fish pond, she had aborted them all.

Looking at Tang Xiao, whose old face was streaming with tears of excitement, Ah Rou's eyes held a faint, meaningful smile.

Poor Tang Xiao was still being played in the palm of the old rabbit's hand.

But when it came to their places in the family, the relationships were truly impossible to untangle.

Xiao Wu usually called Tang Xiao "eldest uncle," yet in private, Tang Xiao was Ah Rou's husband.

Tang Xiao was both Tang Hao's elder brother and his rightful father-in-law.

Now that both women were pregnant, when the two demon orbs were born, no one could figure out whether they should call each other cousins or each use their own relationship and call each other uncle and nephew.

Tang Hao sat beside Xiao Wu, a timely smile on his face as he raised a hand to gently stroke the top of her head. He seemed considerate in every way, but his thoughts were elsewhere.

Far away in the Great Ferocious Land, Gu Yue sensed that this journey across time was nearing its end. Watching Little Scumbag, the demon orb about to be born, she thought of making things a little harder for him before his birth, but Tang Hao himself could already hold back no longer.

Over the past few years, as the sect's search grew increasingly urgent, Tang Hao had used every means at his disposal to complete the set of Soul Bones in his body. His cultivation had nearly caught up to Tang Xiao, who had only one Soul Bone, but the thorn he could never pull from his heart remained his Eighth Soul Ring.

From that time on, Tang Hao had begun to scheme.

If he hoped to reach his grandfather Tang Chen's realm in this lifetime, his only path was to make Xiao Wu's Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring his own.

But he loved his little sister Xiao Wu dearly. During their days in hiding, Tang Hao had visited various forests in an attempt to find traces of a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, but his efforts had all come to nothing.

He had chosen not to ask Ah Rou and Xiao Wu. Both were Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts in human form, and his purpose was to hunt a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. If he asked, it would inevitably sow a rift between them.

To that end, while on the run, Tang Hao had secretly bought many ancient books and gathered a great deal of information, trying to find the slightest clue about Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts.

But these sources ultimately all came from minor factions, and information on Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts was almost entirely blank, as though they were legends.

Not long ago, Tang Hao had been astonished to discover a thin sheet of paper tucked between the pages of a book, though he had no idea when it had been placed there.

The paper clearly stated that a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast's Sacrifice could take two different forms.

One was an Ordinary Sacrifice, in which the Soul Beast's origin became a Soul Ring and Soul Bone, while its soul remained within the body left behind after the Sacrifice. It could be revived simply by raising its cultivation.

The other was a Soul Sacrifice, in which the Soul Beast willingly fused its soul and origin into the Soul Ring, making it almost impossible to revive.

Regardless of which form of Sacrifice was used, a Soul Master of any level could bear and absorb the Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring and Soul Bone, even if they had not reached the threshold for advancing to the next major realm.

At the words "almost impossible to revive," Tang Hao's breathing grew heavy.

"Almost? Doesn't that mean... there's still a sliver of a chance, after all?"

A whole new line of thought opened up before Tang Hao, and he felt that the predicament that had weighed on him for years had been solved at a stroke.

Was heaven itself helping him?

Not only did he no longer need to struggle on until Level 90, he would not have to bear the infamy of hammering his little sister Xiao Wu to death with his own hands.

As long as his beloved little sister Xiao Wu willingly sacrificed herself for him, every problem would vanish like smoke in the wind.

Besides, there was still hope of reviving Xiao Wu, however faint that hope might be.

Afterward, he could have a clear conscience and continue playing the devoted man who had sworn to tread every corner of the continent in search of a way to revive his dead wife.

Tang Hao believed every word on the paper, not because anyone had tampered with him, but because, with time pressing ever harder upon him, he could only place his faith in this sole hope.

The paper had naturally come from Gu Yue.

As the common ruler of Soul Beasts, heaven only knew how much mental preparation she had needed before passing such knowledge of Soul Beasts on to a human.

Lord Gu Yue was beginning to feel like a traitor to the Soul Beast Clan, personally taking the field to aid the enemy. But shrewd as she was, she had instigated Gu Yuena to do the deed.

That being so, what did something Gu Yuena had done have to do with her, Gu Yue?

She would have to make Tang Hao thank her properly someday. If he learned the truth in the future, he would be letting down all her painstaking efforts if he didn't kowtow a few extra times to Lord Gu Yue.

By now, Tang Xiao had reached Level 90 and become a Quasi-Titled Douluo.

Tang Hao had completed the set of Soul Bones in his body, and on top of his considerable talent for cultivation, he was also the future Child of Fortune's very own father. Over the past few years, his Soul Power had risen by more than one level almost every year, climbing all the way to Level 88.

It could only be said that the Douluo Continent's leveling system was far too overpowered. As long as one absorbed enough high-quality Soul Bones, one's level would shoot up.

In Tang Hao's eyes, it had been three whole days since Tang Xiao broke through to Level 90. Rounded up, that was three years.

Yet he still had not absorbed a Soul Ring. Whether it was because he feared exposing their whereabouts or had no time for Soul Hunting, his elder brother's thoughts were surely the same as his own.

He hypnotized himself with this notion, as though seeking a reason to set his mind at ease over what he would do in the future.

Judging others by himself, Tang Hao thought:

Elder brother, oh, elder brother, you usually put on such a devoted act, but the abacus in your heart is probably clicking even faster than mine.

You've refused to absorb a Soul Ring all this time. Clearly, you're just like me-you've had your eye on Ah Rou's Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring and Soul Bone for ages, haven't you?

Since we both understand each other without saying a word, what do I, Tang Hao, have left to hesitate over?

A chill touched the corners of Tang Hao's pressed lips. To make Xiao Wu willingly surrender her Soul Ring and Soul Bone, he had to drive the situation into a truly desperate corner.

Boiling a frog in warm water would never get him far. Only at the brink of life and death could he stage an act of self-inflicted suffering.

If this grand drama could play out when the demon orb was born, Xiao Wu would surely sacrifice herself for him of her own free will.

So, before the grand drama began, all he needed to do was keep raising Xiao Wu's favorability.