Chapter 177: 195. The Children's Game Is Over
When Zhu Zhuqing regained consciousness, she found herself in a place that felt both familiar and strange. Familiar, because she could sense that this was the Divine Realm; strange, because she had no idea which divine palace she was in.
"You're awake," said Huo Yuhao.
Zhu Zhuqing's soul phantom looked toward Huo Yuhao, sensing a trace of familiarity. "You are…"
"My name is Huo Yuhao. Strictly speaking, I should be calling you Ancestor," he said.
"You're Yuhao," Zhu Zhuqing replied. "You saved me?"
"I killed you—but I also saved you," Huo Yuhao said calmly.
Zhu Zhuqing fell silent. Soon she began to piece together what was happening. The flow of time in the Divine Realm differed from that of the Douluo Continent, yet they were synchronized. So why was Huo Yuhao, who existed tens of thousands of years later, appearing now in the Divine Realm of her era?
"I arrived long before you all did," Huo Yuhao explained. "I became a god and returned to the Divine Realm more than forty thousand years ago by Douluo standards."
"So," Zhu Zhuqing asked, "you killed me for revenge?"
Huo Yuhao was a descendant of hers and Dai Mubai's. Tang San had once proposed that their two families be joined by marriage and that he would personally mentor Huo Yuhao. Dai Mubai had been delighted, seeing it as a union that would tie the Dai and Tang families even closer together. But Zhu Zhuqing had different thoughts. How could the child of destiny born from the fortune of the Douluo Continent be a simple existence? Across ten thousand years, that fortune had birthed countless gods—the Dragon God, the Ice God, the Angel God, the Sea God, and Tang San himself—none of whom were ordinary beings.
A child of fortune needed no help from the Tang family to ascend to godhood, perhaps even to become a ruling power within the Divine Realm. Getting entangled with Tang San would create karmic ties; Tang San intended to absorb this child of fortune into his own bloodline, making him one of the Tang family.
If Huo Yuhao had grown independently, he would have been a god of the Dai family. But if Tang San took him in, though he bore the name Dai, he would, in essence, belong to the Tang family.
Dai Mubai could not see this truth, and Zhu Zhuqing's influence was too small to change anything. So she could only accept it.
Events unfolded exactly as Zhu Zhuqing had predicted. Tang San molded Huo Yuhao perfectly, turning him into a devoted follower of his daughter. Huo Yuhao obeyed Tang San's every word, never daring to go against him. Though he kept the Dai name, he effectively became Tang family through marriage. Ultimately, the question arose: did this infinitely powerful new god belong to the Dai family or to the Tang family? The answer was obvious.
But later, something unexpected happened.
Faced with Zhu Zhuqing's question, Huo Yuhao shook his head. "I harbor no hatred toward you. As I said—I killed you, but I also saved you."
"Saved me?"
"You gained the memories of your past life after death. But did you know? Among the Shrek Seven Devils, four possess memories of their previous lives. Dai Mubai is one of them."
"He was reincarnated?" Zhu Zhuqing remembered how, upon their martial soul awakening and signing their contract, Dai Mubai had immediately fled—a sharp contrast to her first life. That meant in this life, Dai Mubai had run to Shrek Academy early to train.
"Unfortunately, the truth isn't quite what you think," Huo Yuhao interrupted her thoughts. "Do you want to know what Dai Mubai has been doing these past six years?"
"Would you tell me?" Zhu Zhuqing asked quietly.
Opening his Divine Eye, Huo Yuhao projected the last six years of Dai Mubai's life before her eyes.
In the scenes that appeared, Zhu Zhuqing saw Dai Mubai after leaving Star Luo. His desires were unleashed like a beast freed from its cage. For six years, he devoted only a small portion of his days to training—sometimes not training at all. And the rest of the time?
He spent it at brothels in Soto City. At his most "impressive," he managed five dates in a single day, scheduling them with precise efficiency.
Huo Yuhao even revealed Dai Mubai's explicit conversations with Ma Hongjun and Oscar, showing everything clearly to Zhu Zhuqing.
Zhu Zhuqing watched the scenes grimly as dark mist began to seep from her body. She recalled the vows Dai Mubai had once sworn to her, the pledges of eternal love he had made, and then she saw him laughing and flirting with women everywhere, telling Ma Hongjun and Oscar that he had grown tired of her, that he did not want to be tied to one tree when he could have an entire forest.
In that moment, Zhu Zhuqing felt her former life had become a cruel joke.
"So all his so-called affection before his rebirth—was it all fake?" she demanded bitterly.
"This is not something I can answer," Huo Yuhao said with an indifferent smile. "Because he already answered you himself, didn't he?"
"How disgusting," Zhu Zhuqing spat. "A dog never stops eating filth. But what does this have to do with you saving me?"
"Knowing what Dai Mubai did after his rebirth, would you have forgiven him again?" Huo Yuhao asked.
"Absolutely not," Zhu Zhuqing declared with resolve.
"No, you would," Huo Yuhao said. "In your past life, he crafted an image of devotion, and it trapped him into loving only you forever. In this life, he intends to correct that mistake—keeping you as his mainstay at home while having countless lovers outside. But no matter how far he goes, you would still forgive him. Do you know why?"
"Because you share a martial soul fusion technique. He is the primary, you are the secondary. As long as you live, you will always be bound to him. No matter what he does, you will always forgive him and reconcile with him in the end. That's the source of his confidence."
"Don't you think that's tragic?"
Zhu Zhuqing's eyes dimmed. It had always been this way among the women of the Zhu family. The betrayal always came from the men of the Dai line; never had a woman of the Zhu clan betrayed her fusion partner.
"So," Huo Yuhao continued, "your death liberated you from that destiny. Isn't that a kind of salvation?"
"Thank you," Zhu Zhuqing said at last, then added coldly, "But saving me wasn't your only purpose, was it?"
Huo Yuhao smiled. "Of course not. There are many reincarnators now on the Douluo Continent—four among the Shrek Seven Devils alone. They all share one thing in common: arrogance. Given another life, they still believe the world should revolve around them."
"So I used your death to tell them—the children's game is over. It's time for the adults to take the stage."
Zhu Zhuqing fell silent, offering a silent prayer for her former companions—though, of course, that did not include Dai Mubai.
Meanwhile, elsewhere, under Tang San's persuasion, Xiao Wu finally agreed to return to Shrek Academy.
Over the six years, Tang San's cultivation barely reached level 29. The time he spent attending to Xiao Wu had consumed what could have been dedicated to forging hidden weapons and training in the Tang Sect's secret arts.
(END CHAPTER)
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