"Son? You… are you calling me?"
While immersed in the Blue Silver Grass Meditation Technique, Tang Chuan's spirit connected with Ah Yin's. Upon hearing her voice transmitted through their spiritual link, he asked hesitantly, uncertainty evident in his tone.
"Yes! You are my son. Can you not feel the bond of blood between us?" Ah Yin replied, her voice trembling with excitement and emotion. "All this time, I have longed to see you. Now, at last, we are reunited."
"I do feel a sense of closeness to you, but… I am human. How could my mother be a blade of grass?" Tang Chuan struggled to accept the truth, his emotions visibly unsettled and confused.
"Child, listen to me."
Ah Yin understood his turmoil. With a gentle yet bittersweet smile, she began to explain everything, revealing her identity as a hundred-thousand-year spirit beast who had taken human form, her love for Tang Hao, and the events that followed.
"So that's how it is…" Tang Chuan seemed both shocked and enlightened as he absorbed her words.
"Xiao Chuan, did you come here alone? Where is your father?"
After recounting the past, Ah Yin could not help but ask about Tang Hao, her voice filled with expectation and longing. Ever since he had placed her here, she had not seen him again for many years.
Hearing this, Tang Chuan fell silent. After a brief pause, he spoke indifferently.
"Mother, I have no father."
…
White World, Shrek Academy.
"Well said!"
Seeing Tang Chuan firmly declare that he had no father, Ning Rongrong's eyes lit up as she clapped enthusiastically, openly cheering for him.
"This Tang Chuan is far better than that Tang San from the Black World!"
"A normal person should know whom to love and whom to hate."
Her tone was filled with approval and satisfaction.
"Unlike Tang San, who behaves like both a fool and a fanatic. He talks about repaying kindness and respecting teachers, yet in his previous life at the Bashu Tang Clan, he stole their supreme secret manual, the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record."
"And in this life, he still blindly reveres Tang Hao, who shows no sense of responsibility and spends his days drinking, as well as Yu Xiaogang, who is all reputation and no substance and nearly got him killed."
"He flatters them without question. It is completely unreasonable!"
Ning Rongrong vented her frustration without restraint.
Dai Mubai, Zhu Zhuqing, Ma Hongjun, and Oscar all nodded in agreement. As ordinary people, they found Tang San's behavior incomprehensible.
…
Black World, Shrek Academy.
"Hmph! What an ungrateful and unfilial wretch!"
Upon seeing Tang Chuan deny his father, Tang San snorted coldly, unable to tolerate it as he loudly criticized him.
As someone who prided himself on traditional filial values, he believed that a father who gave him life deserved absolute respect, no matter the circumstances, unless it required something as extreme as sacrificing one's life.
Yet Tang Chuan, simply because his father had fallen short, refused to acknowledge him and even rejected the name given to him. In Tang San's eyes, this was nothing short of rebellion and ingratitude.
He felt nothing but contempt.
To the side, Ning Rongrong and the others exchanged glances, utterly speechless at Tang San's rigid beliefs.
Tang Hao had never acted like a proper father during Tang Chuan's childhood. Any ordinary child in such conditions would have struggled to survive.
A man who fathered a child but failed to raise him, who drowned himself in alcohol and neglected both his son and the sacrifice of his wife, hardly deserved to be called a father.
And yet, aside from Tang San, who else would endure such circumstances and still show blind devotion?
…
"What? You have no father?"
Ah Yin was instantly stricken with grief. "Could it be that Brother Hao failed to escape the pursuit of Spirit Hall and only managed to secure your safety?"
Seeing that his mother still imagined Tang Hao as a devoted father, Tang Chuan could no longer remain silent. His voice turned cold as he revealed the truth.
"Mother, things are not as you think. Tang Hao is still alive, but I do not acknowledge him as my father."
Ah Yin was shocked and confused, quickly asking, "What happened? Why would you refuse to acknowledge him? Is there some misunderstanding between you?"
"Mother, listen to everything, and you will understand."
Tang Chuan calmly recounted Tang Hao's actions since his birth, describing each failure as a father without embellishment.
"Impossible… how could Brother Hao be like that?"
Ah Yin was on the verge of collapse. She had sacrificed herself so that her husband and child could live, entrusting Tang Hao with their son's future. She never imagined that he would raise the child in such a harsh and neglectful manner.
A child barely over a year old had been forced to cook, fetch water, and chop wood just to survive.
How could she possibly accept such a reality?
Yet her deep affection for Tang Hao made her hesitate. Forcing herself to believe otherwise, she tried to persuade Tang Chuan, her voice strained but gentle.
"Xiao Chuan, you must try to understand your father. Perhaps he was overwhelmed by grief after my death and could not accept reality, so he drank to numb himself. He may have had his own difficulties…"
"Mother, you are not even dead!"
Tang Chuan interrupted sharply, his voice cold.
"You left behind a seed after your sacrifice. Is Tang Hao incapable of understanding that? How could he believe you were gone?"
"And regardless of anything else, I am still his son. No matter how much pain he felt, he had no right to abandon me."
"I was only one year old, yet he made me cook, carry water, and chop wood. If the villagers had not taken care of me, I would have starved or worked myself to death."
"He even forced me to use the name Tang San. When I refused, he beat me. I do not have such a father."
…
White World, the back mountain of Saint Spirit Village.
Inside the valley.
Hearing Tang Chuan expose everything so mercilessly, Tang Hao was furious beyond measure. His teeth clenched, his eyes bloodshot, and his breathing grew heavy as he roared in anger.
"Unfilial son! Truly unfilial!"
"No matter what, I am your father. How dare you deny me!"
"This is completely outrageous!"
"If you had shown your Clear Sky Hammer martial soul back then, would I not have acknowledged you?"
"And look at Tang San in the Black World. He is in the same situation, yet he remains filial to his father. Why can you not learn from him?"
Amid his rage, Tang Hao could not help but feel a deep sense of envy toward his counterpart in the Black World.
Yet as he watched Ah Yin continue to believe in him, defend him, and even try to persuade Tang Chuan to trust him, a different emotion began to stir within his heart.
His anger gradually subsided, replaced by a flicker of hope.
"Although this unfilial son is difficult, Ah Yin still believes in me and even speaks on my behalf…"
"It seems… I still have a chance to make things right."