Xiao Wu Takes Human Form

Beside the Lake of Life in the core region of the Star Dou Great Forest.

A huge pink-and-white rabbit was irritably pawing at the dirt with both front paws, her face a picture of utter despair.

A slightly smaller Soft Bone Rabbit hopped over, knelt on the ground, and said respectfully in rabbit language:

"Your descendant of the seventy-eight-thousandth generation pays respects to the venerable ancestor. What are your orders, venerable ancestor?"

Already irritated, Xiao Wu bristled the moment she heard how the other rabbit addressed her. She sprang up and sent the little rabbit flying with a flying rabbit kick.

"Shut up! I've been telling you for eighteen thousand years not to call me venerable ancestor. Sister Xiao Wu is only a hundred thousand years old. I'm not old at all."

The little rabbit curled up into a ball, aggrieved.

"Yes, venerable ancestor. As you command, venerable ancestor."

Xiao Wu was struck speechless on the spot.

At the rabbit clan's astonishing rate of reproduction, with several litters a year and seven or eight kits per litter, every rabbit in the Star Dou Great Forest could trace its bloodline back tens of thousands of generations to Ah Rou and her over the past hundred thousand years.

But Xiao Wu flatly refused to acknowledge her status as a super-ancestor.

"Forget it. I can't be bothered arguing with you." Xiao Wu curled her lip. "Tell me, have you seen my mom in the outer region these past few days?"

The little rabbit answered honestly:

"Reporting to the venerable ancestor, I haven't seen her. The supreme venerable ancestor left the forest more than half a year ago and still hasn't come back to the nest."

"All right, all right, get lost."

Xiao Wu sent the little rabbit away irritably, her heart itching and scratching with anxiety.

Ah Rou had been gone for more than half a year without a word.

And before she left, Ah Rou had spent every day telling Xiao Wu how wonderful the human world was and how touching human love could be.

Things like "The domineering Titled Douluo dotes on his little wife to the heavens" and "The little bunny girl from the forest is his only darling"...

Every day, Ah Rou had filled Xiao Wu's head with these storybook romances. This old rabbit, who before gaining intelligence had only followed her instincts in carrying out the great task of reviving the rabbit clan, had long since been stirred up until her head was full of pink bubbles, and she yearned for the sweet romances of the human world.

Why did her mother get to run off to the human world and fall in love while she had to stay cooped up in this boring forest?

In the distance, the simp beast Titan Giant Ape Er Ming saw that his Sister Xiao Wu was unhappy and immediately came scampering over. Holding out a large bunch of freshly washed carrots, he offered them to her ingratiatingly:

"Sister Xiao Wu, have some carrots."

The Sky Azure Bull Python Da Ming also slowly poked his head out of the Lake of Life and asked with concern:

"Sister Xiao Wu, what's wrong?"

Xiao Wu glanced at the two simp beasts and turned her head away in distaste.

Talking to them would be nothing but a waste of breath on these two simp beasts.

"No. Carrots every day-Sister Xiao Wu's mouth is so sick of bland food a bird could hatch in it."

Xiao Wu yawned and made a show of lying down.

"I'm sleepy. Go do whatever you need to do, and stop bothering me."

Da Ming and Er Ming exchanged a glance and thought nothing of it, assuming Xiao Wu had reached her hundred-thousand-year menopause. They both withdrew.

Once she had made sure the two simp beasts were gone, Xiao Wu thought of the human world her mother Ah Rou had once described, and the yearning for love in her heart became impossible to suppress.

She was going to the human world too.

She too would find a human like the male leads in those storybooks and have a grand, earthshaking love affair for the ages.

"Sister Xiao Wu is going to find true love herself."

Xiao Wu's figure flickered, and she used her Teleportation Soul Skill to leave.

Soft pink radiance blossomed from within her, and before long she had finished taking human form.

A human girl of sixteen appeared in the outer region of the Star Dou Great Forest.

She wore a pair of rabbit-ear ornaments on her head, with a scorpion braid hanging down her back and a pretty pink short skirt.

Xiao Wu touched her delicate face, her heart full of joy.

Although her hundred thousand years of cultivation were gone, the human body she had shaped after her mother filled her with a sense of novelty.

Meanwhile.

A thread of divine sense, like an invisible breeze, quietly pierced through the void and descended upon her.

"Huh? I can smell Mom's lingering rabbit musk."

Xiao Wu, who had just finished taking human form, immediately brightened.

"Once I find Mom, I'll have her teach me more about love."

In the outer region, thanks to the lingering rabbit musk of a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, no low-year Soul Beast dared approach her.

And so, following the scent guided by the divine sense, Xiao Wu raced out of the forest like a streak of smoke.

In a noisy little border town within the Heaven Dou Empire.

A burly man with a scruffy beard and reeking of alcohol was slumped dejectedly beside several rotten wooden crates.

It was Tang Hao, whose Dao heart had shattered.

Tang Hao's world had collapsed into a heap of rubble last night.

He had originally hoped to use his position as a third party to disgust his elder brother into backing off, so that at least things between them wouldn't progress so quickly and he would have at least a tiny chance of winning Ah Rou back.

But Ah Rou, pushed beyond endurance, stopped pretending and laid her cards on the table.

Just last night, she had dealt him a devastating blow.

Right in front of him, Ah Rou casually took the food Tang Hao had handed her as a pretext, then turned and walked into the room with her arm linked through Tang Xiao's, locking the door behind them.

No matter how Tang Hao shouted outside, all that came from the room was Tang Xiao's piercing remark: "Second brother, it's late. Get some rest."

Then Tang Hao stayed outside and listened to the sounds of raging battle all night long.

For example, Tang Xiao asked in some confusion, "Third sister... why is there no blood on the sheets?"

Ah Rou's indignant scolding immediately rang out from the room:

"Tang Xiao! What kind of feudal relic of an idea is that? Do you have any idea how fragile that thing is for a girl? I worked in the fields every day when I was little. It broke long ago from strenuous activity. You actually care about that? Do you love me as a person, or do you love it? You're objectifying me. You disgust me!"

That was followed by Tang Xiao's frantic, self-reproachful pleas for forgiveness: "Third sister, I was wrong. I was narrow-minded. I deserve to die. I'll slap my own mouth."

Another time, Ah Rou absentmindedly murmured "Da Gang," and Tang Xiao abruptly stiffened. "Third sister, who did you just call out to?"

Once Ah Rou realized what had happened, she angrily scolded him, her voice choked with tears:

"Tang Xiao! You're actually being suspicious at such a romantic moment? I called that name on purpose just to test your trust in me. True love is unconditional acceptance and understanding. You can't even give me the most basic emotional value. You don't understand love at all! You don't care about my feelings at all!"

Tang Xiao was instantly overcome with remorse. He slapped his own mouth repeatedly in the room and, weeping bitterly, swore never to doubt her again for the rest of his life.

On another occasion, when they discussed returning to the sect to get married, Ah Rou said as if it were only natural:

"After we return to the sect, my name must be added to the deed to Clear Sky Castle, and I must be given full control of the sect treasury. Love without material security is nothing but a heap of loose sand. You take care of the sect and provide for the family, and I'll be beautiful as a flower. You can't even bear to hand control of the sect over to me, so how am I supposed to feel secure?"

Tang Xiao, already trained into a loyal dog, immediately thumped his chest and promised that as soon as he became sect master, he would present her with the keys to the sect treasury in both hands.

Tang Xiao even just cautiously reminded her, "After we return to the sect, don't wear your skirts with the slits too high, or the elders might have something to say."

Ah Rou found another opportunity to train him and launched into a tirade:

"Do you understand freedom of dress? What I wear is my right. If they stare, it's because their minds are filthy. Not only do you refuse to stand up for me, you actually think you can control me? Keep that stink to yourself. They're mentally abusing me.

And so, while the two engaged in Soul Fighting, Ah Rou could always find a chance to train her dog, anytime and anywhere, picking Tang Xiao apart until he had not an inch of skin left intact.

All night long, the sound of Tang Xiao slapping his own mouth and admitting his mistakes could be heard from time to time.

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