"It's done."
Huo Yuhao suppressed his joy and stood up, looking around. Where the Qiankun Questioning Love Valley had once been, there was now only emptiness. Beyond that void, the space Elder Electrolux had condensed was operating stably, supporting the outside Star Dou Combat Network's central battlefield.
Huo Yuhao's figure flickered as he appeared in the central battlefield outside.
Snow Empress, Elder Electrolux, and the others were all there, along with Tang Wutong's divine consciousness.
They approached. Snow Empress's gaze swept over him, and after confirming he was unharmed, she asked softly, "Smoothly?"
Huo Yuhao smiled slightly without saying much.
Everything was understood without words.
With this matter settled, Huo Yuhao turned his gaze to Tang Wutong.
"So, what do you plan to do now?"
Tang Wutong was startled by the question.
What did she plan to do?
What could she do?
Aunt Rongrong and Uncle Oscar were trapped in the secret realm, with no telling when they would come out. She was only a wisp of divine consciousness. She couldn't win in a fight, and they wouldn't let her go. What else could she do?
Weren't you asking the obvious?
"I'll follow you."
She finally forced out the words, her voice as soft as a mosquito's buzz. "When Aunt Rongrong and the others come out, I'll go with them."
Huo Yuhao raised an eyebrow at this and smiled. "Alright then. I'll arrange accommodation for you at the Spirit Transmission Tower later. By the way, besides the Spirit Transmission Tower, I have another place I can offer you."
Tang Wutong, seeing his intrigued expression, shuddered. She inexplicably thought of the seven Old Demons who had been enslaved by Huo Yuhao. She quickly crossed her arms over her chest, looking at him warily.
"Don't even think about it! I can help you with things that don't violate my principles, but I will never be your servant!"
"You're overthinking it."
Huo Yuhao was somewhat speechless. "Your younger brother has also come to the Douluo Continent. He's currently at the Spirit Transmission Tower. I'm asking whether you want me to arrange a suitable identity and residence so you can see him often."
Tang Wutong froze.
Younger brother?
She blinked, not registering it for a moment.
"My... younger brother?"
Huo Yuhao nodded. "Tang Wulin. You should know of his existence, right?"
Tang Wutong was silent for a moment.
Of course she knew.
After all, Tang Wulin had been born before the space-time turbulence came. She had even held him.
But she didn't understand why her younger brother had also come to the mortal world. What exactly had happened in the Divine Realm?
"How is he now?" After a long while, Tang Wutong asked, her voice trembling slightly.
"Very well."
Huo Yuhao said, "When your Divine Realm encountered trouble, he was sent to the Douluo Continent, adopted by a couple, and grew up slowly. Now he is the disciple of Xiong Jun at the Spirit Transmission Tower."
Xiong Jun?
You don't mean Xiong Jun, one of the Ten Great Savage Beasts, do you?
Tang Wutong's expression turned somewhat strange at the thought of her brother apprenticing to a bear, but she could accept that much, so she didn't comment. Instead, she frowned and asked, "How do you know Wu Lin is my brother? Does he know about his origins?"
In truth, she had many more questions—like why Huo Yuhao and the others were taking care of Wu Lin when they had a grudge against the Sea God—but considering that her own divine consciousness was still intact and Ning Rongrong and Oscar were merely imprisoned, she wasn't surprised.
Clearly, the person before her had his own principles.
"Wu Lin has Tang San's divine consciousness on him."
Huo Yuhao casually explained, then added, "Wu Lin doesn't know about his origins. His adoptive parents treat him like their own son, so they haven't told him the truth yet."
"He just thinks he's special, so he believes he might be a reincarnated deity."
Tang Wutong: "..."
A reincarnated deity?
That kid sure had an imagination.
She'd heard that Xiong Jun was a reckless bear who only had brute force. As Xiong Jun's disciple, had Wu Lin inherited the bear's astonishing strength and astonishing wisdom?
Huo Yuhao: "If you plan to see him, I can arrange it. But there are some things I hope you'll consider carefully regarding the timing of telling him. His current impression of Tang San isn't good."
Tang Wutong's divine consciousness twitched.
Understood. Her brother was a rebellious son.
Huo Yuhao looked at Tang Wutong's complex expression and added one last thing. "By the way, one final reminder. The Tang San divine consciousness on Wu Lin has a history of mischief. It wasn't well-behaved. Wu Lin was worried it would do something bad, so he helped us erase its memories."
Tang Wutong's divine consciousness: "?!"
Was this a threat? It had to be a threat, right?
If she didn't behave, would they do the same to her as they did to her father's divine consciousness?
And Wu Lin—she had thought he was just a little rebellious, but she hadn't expected him to be so filial as to erase their father's divine consciousness memories. She admired that!
Tang Wutong's divine consciousness was filled with mixed emotions. For a moment, she didn't know what expression to make.
After a moment, she gave her answer.
"Thank you for the proposal, Lord. Let's go with the original arrangement. I'll visit him when there's an opportunity."
Her brother had already turned against his own family. She didn't want to wander around in front of him and arouse suspicion, ending up like her father's divine consciousness.
Better to visit him when the time was right.
In the central battlefield, while Huo Yuhao was refining the Qiankun Questioning Love Valley, a tremor struck, but it quickly subsided.
Although it drew some puzzled looks, the selection continued after the Federation calmed the crowd.
In the stands, Sima Jinchi watched the battle in the arena, a hint of regret in his eyes.
Having encountered a Limit Douluo early on, he had been eliminated at the quarterfinals.
But watching the current battle, Sima Jinchi felt it was only natural.
He couldn't compete for a spot in the semifinals anyway, since there were three Limit Douluo and a Four-Word Battle Armor Master among the remaining contestants. Losing here wasn't unjust.
At this moment, the semifinals competition had reached its climax.
On the arena, two figures crisscrossed in battle, spirit power surging, drawing gasps from the audience.
Gu Ruiqiu's Golden Dragon bloodline surged as she threw a punch. A golden dragon head roared, and the air itself was torn apart by black fissures.
Her opponent was none other than Yuanen Zhentian, equally skilled in power.
Seeing this, Yuanen Zhentian did not dodge or evade. He met her fist with his own.
Boom!
As the two fists collided, a visible shockwave spread outward. The protective barrier at the arena's edge trembled violently.
Both took a step back. Yuanen Zhentian had not gained any advantage in strength.
"Impressive power!" Yuanen Zhentian's eyes gleamed as he spoke in a low voice. "Truly worthy of the ultimate power of the Golden Dragon. Truly worthy of Lord Dragon God!"
Gu Ruiqiu's mouth twitched.
Lord Dragon God...
Honestly, she was already tired of hearing that title, but every time she did, she still felt deeply uncomfortable.
"Again!" She let out a low shout. The dragon scales covering her body flared brilliantly. She transformed into a streak of golden light and charged forward.
In the stands, Huo Yuhao, Gu Yuena, and the others appeared quietly.
"This girl's strength has improved again."
Huo Yuhao smiled. "It seems the high-intensity combat in the selection has helped her grow."
Gu Yuena nodded.
"She's good, but this is as far as she goes."
Against a quasi-semi-divine who had just entered the Limit realm, Gu Ruiqiu could still fight. But not now.
Even without using Er Ming's essence blood to advance to the quasi-divine level, Yuanen Zhentian was still a seasoned semi-divine. Such an opponent was clearly beyond Gu Ruiqiu's ability to defeat.
Tang Wutong listened to their exchange without speaking, silently watching the battle before her, her eyes full of curiosity.
Although she had seen some things about this era from the Old Demons' memories, witnessing it firsthand was clearly a different experience.
So that was Battle Armor?
And this virtual space.
Soul tool technology had developed to this point—it was becoming more and more interesting.
After satisfying her curiosity for a while, Tang Wutong turned her gaze back to the arena.
As Gu Yuena had predicted, as the battle went on, Gu Ruiqiu gradually fell behind.
But what Tang Wutong was interested in wasn't victory or defeat—it was Gu Ruiqiu herself.
"Is that the Auspicious Beast?"
Tang Wutong looked at Huo Yuhao in surprise. "You let her come out? Aren't you afraid something might happen?"
"Something might happen?" Huo Yuhao laughed. "I've also heard the stories of your mother and grandmother. They were both hundred-thousand-year spirit beasts in human form who dared to come out, even in an era when humans and spirit beasts were completely hostile. By comparison, now that human-spirit beast relations have eased, and with our protection, why shouldn't she come out?"
"That's true." Thinking of her grandmother and mother's stories after they transformed, Tang Wutong was speechless.
Compared to her mother and grandmother, the Auspicious Beast's conditions after transforming were far too good. Protected by many savage beasts, with human-beast harmony, now watched over by deities, and with her own strength reaching the early Limit level—why couldn't she go out and have some fun?
It just showed that comparing people was infuriating.
"But achieving such a scene is largely thanks to the first-generation Tower Master of the Spirit Transmission Tower, isn't it?"
Tang Wutong tapped her chin with her finger, looking at Emperor Tian and Snow Empress. She had long recognized both of them. "I don't know much about him. What kind of person is he? You two should know, right?"
Emperor Tian and Snow Empress silently averted their gazes, barely suppressing the smiles at the corners of their mouths.
He's right beside you. But unfortunately, you can't recognize him, and you even think he's a reincarnated God King.
Their reactions puzzled Tang Wutong, but Gu Yuena's question temporarily made her set aside this strangeness.
"Why do you want to know about him?"
Gu Yuena glanced at Huo Yuhao out of the corner of her eye and asked Tang Wutong, "Besides, you're both from ten thousand years ago. You should know something about him."
"I'm just a little curious about someone from the same era." Tang Wutong said, "Besides, I didn't have much contact with him. By the time he started becoming active, my father was already eager for me to inherit the Butterfly God's divine seat and called me back to the Divine Realm."
Huo Yuhao mentally commented: To be precise, it was after you ascended and Tang San gave up some of his plans that I officially started becoming active.
Tang Wutong continued reminiscing. "The first time I heard of him was when Uncle Rong Nianbing—the first Emotion God—told me about him. He said he had found an interesting person and originally wanted to pass on his divine seat to him, but the other party refused."
"That was a first-class deity divine seat. According to Uncle Zi and my father, it was a divine seat with the potential to advance to God King. Yet he just gave it up. Don't you think such people are strange?"
Emperor Tian's pupils contracted sharply upon hearing this. He instinctively looked at Huo Yuhao.
You refused a first-class deity divine seat?
One with the potential to become a God King?
Was that something a human could do?
A full man doesn't know a hungry man's hunger. He couldn't even become a god, yet this guy had turned down such a divine seat.
Emperor Tian had to admit, he was envious.
Even Gu Yuena looked at Huo Yuhao with some surprise.
"Don't look at me like that. Tang San kept a close eye on the Douluo Continent. The fact that Senior Rong Nianbing could find me clearly meant Tang San had permitted it."
Seeing their expressions, Huo Yuhao knew what they were thinking and transmitted directly.
From the original story, the reason Rong Nianbing was able to discover him was because Tang San had entrusted him to oversee the Douluo Continent while in seclusion. In other words, this was likely a scheme of Tang San's own design.
The moment he met Rong Nianbing, Huo Yuhao knew Tang San still hadn't given up. If one scheme didn't work, try another—if worldly things couldn't attract him, then use a divine seat.
In Huo Yuhao's view, if he had chosen to inherit the Emotion God's divine seat, who knew what he might have encountered during the inheritance process.
After all, the previous Sea God had a history of this. The content of the Heaven's Nine Trials appearing within the Sea God's divine trials was itself questionable.
Not to mention that in the original story, Tang San had used the excuse that Rong Nianbing had stolen his intended inheritor to make Rong Nianbing owe him a favor and be forced to stay in the Divine Realm. If Tang San used the same method this time and also interfered in the Emotion God's trials, what then?
Divine trials were different from other things. Deities could openly interfere, and the Divine Realm would turn a blind eye without holding anyone accountable.
At that point, it might be the Qiankun Questioning Love Valley trials, battles with Tang San, and all sorts of ordeals combined. Huo Yuhao felt that he and Elder Electrolux would probably be done for.
So, ten thousand years ago, after sighing that "Blue Silver Entanglement is still chasing me," he decisively refused the Emotion God's divine seat.
By not entering the game, Tang San's options were limited. By entering, he would no longer have control.
Tang Wutong, unaware of the two's reaction, continued with emotion. "Uncle Rong Nianbing also sighed that that person was the most unique he had ever seen. With a chance to rise to the top in one step, he chose to stay in the mortal world and showed no regret afterward—completely different from another deity with a similar experience that I know of."
"At first, I didn't understand either. But after watching my friends age and die in the mortal world, I think I can understand a little. Eternal life isn't necessarily a good thing. Staying in the mortal world to grow old with your loved ones is also a choice."
No, you misunderstand. I didn't grow old and die, and neither did my loved ones. Don't curse me.
With that thought, Huo Yuhao said, "If you want to understand the people and events of ten thousand years ago, you can read some historical records after you go out—try to read the widely circulated ones. Some records at the Spirit Transmission Tower are somewhat biased."
Somewhat biased? Why would the Spirit Transmission Tower's records be biased?
Tang Wutong's expression turned strange, but Huo Yuhao's next question interrupted her thoughts.
"You mentioned the former Emotion God Rong Nianbing many times. It seems you were close to him. Do you know his whereabouts?"
"Uncle Rong Nianbing?"
Tang Wutong was startled, not understanding why Huo Yuhao was asking, but she still replied, "I'm not sure either. He didn't mention it to me before he left the Divine Realm. However, according to what he said himself, although he left this star region, he would return eventually, since his homeland was here."
Huo Yuhao nodded thoughtfully.
What they didn't know was that while they were conversing, on the other side, Rong Nianbing—currently wandering the cosmos like a drifter—was watching a powerful plane devour a planet, his eyelids twitching uncontrollably.
Should he intervene in this matter, or not?
***
->Support me with power stone
->for 100 Power Stones = 1 extra chapter
***
Dive deeper into the story with 30+ advance chapters, available now on Patreon!
patreon.com/CNBLUE
If you're enjoying the novel, please consider leaving a review. Your support is crucial and helps the story grow immensely. Thank you!