“Huo Yuhao, where do you think you’re going?”
Inside the Divine Realm Center, Huo Yuhao’s fingertips were mere millimeters away from the core when the voice drilled into his ears.
He slowly turned around and looked at the figure that had appeared out of thin air.
The face he had once revered above all others now held nothing but sickening hypocrisy.
“Father-in-law.” Huo Yuhao’s address carried an imperceptible trace of mockery.
“I just wanted to go back home and take a look.”
“The Divine Realm is your home.”
Tang San stood with his hands clasped behind his back, the divine power of the Sea God forming an invisible pressure that blanketed the entire Divine Realm Center.
“God of Emotion, you have disappointed me greatly.”
“Disappointed you?”
Huo Yuhao sounded as though he had just heard the funniest joke in the world.
He let out a low chuckle that grew louder and louder, ultimately turning into a near-deranged interrogation.
“Yes, I truly have disappointed you!
I actually discovered your secret instead of staying quietly in my place like a loyal dog to your Tang family, just as you planned.
Of course you’re disappointed!”
Tang San’s expression darkened instantly.
“What nonsense are you spouting?”
“Nonsense?”
Huo Yuhao took a step forward, the fluctuations of the seven emotions and six desires around him boiling alongside his fury.
“Wang Dong’er!
Wang Qiuer!
Tang Wutong!
Tang San, do you dare swear you never manipulated their souls?!
“Do you dare swear that you didn’t split your own biological daughter’s soul into three just to cultivate a tool with absolute loyalty to the Tang family?!
“Do you dare swear that you didn’t take the soul fragments of Wang Dong’er and the Emperor Auspicious Beast, Wang Qiuer, and stitch them into a primary soul like scraps of cloth—all so she could approach me flawlessly, control me, and make me willingly serve as your family’s watchdog?!”
Every single accusation fell like a heavy sledgehammer, violently shattering the silence.
Tang San’s gaze shifted from initial indifference to a flicker of surprise, before finally returning to calm.
He remained silent for a moment.
That silence was, in itself, a confession.
Along with that silence, Huo Yuhao’s heart plummeted entirely into the abyss.
It had all begun three months ago.
After ascending as the God of Emotion, Huo Yuhao had gained the privilege of limited movement within the Divine Realm.
Yet he constantly felt that the gods looked at him with strange expressions—a complicated gaze mingled with pity, sympathy, and a hint of ridicule.
Even his wife, Tang Wutong, always remained somewhat distant, as if separated from him by an impenetrable fog.
Three months ago, seeking to dispel his growing unease, he had inadvertently stumbled into an area sealed by a powerful divine barrier.
The barrier had not been unfamiliar to him; it carried Tang San’s Sea God divine power.
Relying on his familiarity with that energy and several soul secret techniques taught to him by Teacher Electrolux before his passing, Huo Yuhao had miraculously bypassed the seal.
Behind the barrier lay a secret laboratory.
In the center of the room, two faint clusters of soul fragments floated inside separate crystal vessels.
One was a warm pink-blue, and the other was a brilliant, radiant gold.
Huo Yuhao had recognized their auras in an instant.
They were Wang Dong’er and Wang Qiuer.
The two girls etched into the deepest recesses of his memory—one bright and warm, the other fierce and resolute.
Had they not merged with Tang Wutong long ago?
Why were their soul fragments preserved here separately?
A horrifying thought had sprouted in his mind.
He had thought of Teacher Electrolux.
Unfortunately, down in the mortal world’s Qiankun Love Valley, everything pertaining to his teacher had already been erased by God King Tang.
To save him, the last wisp of his teacher’s divine soul had completely dispersed, never again able to guide him through the darkness.
Yet Huo Yuhao still remembered the soul exploration arts left behind by his teacher.
With trembling hands, he had cautiously extended his divine sense into those two clusters of soul fragments.
Fragmented memories had surged forth like a tidal wave.
He saw Wang Dong’er having her soul forcefully torn away by Tang San, her desperate cries mercilessly muffled by divine power.
He saw the golden soul of Wang Qiuer after her sacrificial offering, interwoven with reluctance and love, forcefully detained and severed by Tang San’s divine power.
He uncovered an earth-shattering truth.
In order to groom a God King successor who was unconditionally loyal to the Tang family—namely, Huo Yuhao himself—Tang San had orchestrated a deception spanning ten thousand years.
He had split his own daughter Tang Wutong’s soul into three parts.
Two of those parts were fused with the core soul memories of Wang Dong’er and Wang Qiuer, creating a brand-new “Tang Wutong” whom Huo Yuhao did not truly know.
A perfect patchwork creation.
Wang Dong’er’s love for him and Wang Qiuer’s love for him had both become threads used by Tang San to weave this massive web.
Tang Wutong was merely a vessel executing a mission, an instrument ensuring that Huo Yuhao would be firmly shackled to the Tang family’s chariot.
Everything in the past instantly made sense.
Tang Wutong was sometimes as gentle as Dong’er and sometimes as domineering as Qiu’er, yet she kept her distance at critical moments.
That was because she was neither of them.
She was merely playing a role.
Tang San’s so-called “trials” and “tempering” had merely been designed to forge him into a more useful pawn.
The strange looks from the gods of the Divine Realm were because some of them had likely known the truth all along, yet dared not speak under the terrifying authority of the Sea God King.
He, Huo Yuhao, the God of Emotion, had lived inside a colossal lie from beginning to end.
The love he cherished, everything he had fought so hard for, was nothing more than a farce scripted in someone else’s playbook.
Struck as if by lightning, all hope had turned to ash.
He had resolved to return to the Douluo Continent, back to where it all began, to search for the true answers, even if it meant deceiving himself.
And that led to his intrusion into the Divine Realm Center today.
“Why?”
Huo Yuhao stared at Tang San, his voice raspy and his eyes bloodshot.
“They loved you so much.
Dong’er is your daughter, and Qiu’er was just a spirit beast.
Why did you have to treat them like this?”
Tang San finally spoke, his tone as detached as if he were discussing an inconsequential trifle.
“To pave the path for you, to serve the future of my Tang family—that was their honor.”
Honor?
Huo Yuhao laughed out of sheer fury until tears welled in his eyes.
“Haha…
Hahahaha!
What an honor!
Tang San, you truly are…
utterly shameless!”
“Insolent!”
A cold glint flashed in Tang San’s eyes.
“God of Emotion, it seems your mind has become unhinged.
In light of your past contributions, I shall only cripple your cultivation and cast you into the divine prison to reflect on your transgressions.”
Before his words faded, an insurmountable, terrifying divine power descended like a collapsed celestial river, crashing down upon Huo Yuhao’s head.
That was the power of a God King, far beyond what a first-class god like him could contend against.
Huo Yuhao closed his eyes.
He did not resist.
His heart was already dead; what use was a divine throne?
Yet the moment that divine power was about to strike his body, an ice-blue figure stepped resolutely in front of him.
“Snow Empress!” Huo Yuhao’s eyes snapped open in horror.
It was the Snow Empress, his most trusted Spirit Soul and one of the most important figures in his life.
Using her body as a Spirit Soul, she condensed her purest origin energy in an attempt to block that world-destroying strike from the God King.
*Pfft!*
The divine power pierced right through the Snow Empress’s body.
Her form became transparent at a visible rate, and her soul origin began shattering inch by inch.
“No…
No—!!!”
Huo Yuhao let out a heart-wrenching roar.
He lunged forward to embrace the dissipating form, only to pass right through an illusion.
The Snow Empress turned her head with great difficulty.
Her breathtaking face showed no pain, only her usual gentleness and deep attachment.
Gathering the last ounce of her strength, she lightly kissed Huo Yuhao on the lips.
Her breath was cold and familiar.
“Don’t cry…”
Her voice was ethereal, as if it could scatter in the wind at any second.
“Being able to meet you in this life…
was my greatest fortune…
Yuhao…
I love you…”
As her words fell, her body completely transformed into a shower of ice-blue specks of light, scattering across the divine hall.
Among them, the core essence radiating extreme frost and boundless vitality soared like a weary bird returning to its nest, instantly sinking into Huo Yuhao’s body.
Huo Yuhao stood frozen in place, his hand outstretched, as if still trying to grasp onto something.
The Snow Empress…
was gone too.
To protect him, she was gone.
Teacher Electrolux was gone, Dong’er and Qiu’er had been used, and now even the Snow Empress…
Why?
Why did everyone who loved him have to meet such an end?
While the true culprit remained seated high above, lording over everything!
An unprecedented rage and despair erupted from the deepest recesses of Huo Yuhao’s soul.
Clutching the space where the Snow Empress had just vanished, he let out a furious roar.
“Ahhh!”
His eyes turned crimson in an instant, and the divine power of the seven emotions and six desires went completely berserk within him.
“Tang San!!!”
“I’ll fucking kill you!!!”
Huo Yuhao snapped his head up, his gaze stripped of all sanity, leaving only a madness that sought to incinerate all existence.
He burned his divine power, burned his divine soul, and burned his very divine throne as the God of Emotion!
“Not good!”
Tang San’s expression changed drastically.
He had never expected Huo Yuhao to be so decisive; the self-detonation of a first-class god possessed enough power to threaten even a God King!
He immediately unleashed his Sea God Domain, attempting to suppress the berserk energy.
However, it was too late.
Centered on Huo Yuhao, a destructive ring of light blending seven colors and ice-blue violently erupted!
*Boom—!*
The entire Divine Realm trembled violently as a horrifying energy storm swept across nearly half of the realm.
Tang San took the brunt of the self-detonation head-on and let out a furious roar.
Though he did not perish, his God King physique suffered severe damage, and he spat out a large mouthful of golden divine blood.
“Huo!
Yu!
Hao!”
He roared the name in fury, but at the center of the explosion, not a trace of life remained.
Huo Yuhao’s consciousness drifted in boundless darkness and destruction.
He felt himself being torn apart and disintegrated, about to vanish completely between heaven and earth.
*Is it over…?*
*Perhaps this is for the best…
Dong’er, Qiu’er, Snow Empress, Ice Empress, Brother Tianmeng, I’m sorry…*
*Mother…
Teacher…
I’m coming to join you…*
Just as his consciousness was on the verge of total extinction, an incomparably warm and gentle power wrapped around his fracturing soul core like a mother’s embrace.
A gentle, loving voice laced with a faint sigh echoed from the depths of his soul.
“Child, your journey should not end like this…”
“Who is it…?” Huo Yuhao’s fading consciousness transmitted a trace of inquiry.
“You may call me the Mother of the Plane,” the voice replied.
“I am the will of the Douluo Continent, the land that gave birth to and nurtured you.”
“Mother of the Plane…”
“Yes, child.
I have watched over you from the moment of your birth, through your growth, to your ascension to godhood.
You are one of my most outstanding children, and the hope I chose to shatter the shackles of this world.”
The warm power continuously repaired Huo Yuhao’s soul core, carefully preserving all of his memories and emotions.
“Tang San’s actions have long severely disrupted the balance of the plane.
He plundered the plane’s destiny, manipulated the fates of living beings, and turned the entire continent into his family’s private garden.
I have been searching for an opportunity to resist, and your emergence—your awakening—is that opportunity.
“I will use the origin power I have accumulated over ten thousand years to protect your soul and memories, and send you back to the beginning of time.”
Following the words of the Mother of the Plane, Huo Yuhao felt a vast power far exceeding his comprehension pour into his soul.
At the same time, an eye-shaped brand radiating an aura of eternity was deeply imprinted upon his soul origin.
“This is a gift I prepared for you.
It was originally your natal pseudo-super divine artifact, the Eye of Eternity.
I have enhanced it with the plane’s origin, elevating it to the rank of a true super divine artifact.
It is currently sealed and will gradually unlock as your strength grows, becoming your greatest asset.”
Enveloped by that power, Huo Yuhao’s consciousness was cast into a rushing river of time.
Surging through the torrent, he saw his childhood, his first encounter in the Great Star Dou Forest, his struggles at Shrek Academy, and each of the victories he had once taken pride in…
Looking back now, everything appeared to be a meticulously staged play.
“Go, my child.”
The voice of the Mother of the Plane, filled with boundless affection and anticipation, became the final beam of light before his consciousness plunged into darkness.
“Go change everything…
In this life, do not let anyone control you again…”
“Live…
as yourself…”
Huo Yuhao’s consciousness sank completely into the boundless darkness.