The moment Di Tian rose and crushed the avatar of Uncle Da Ming, Gu Yuena's true appearance was revealed, no longer obscured.
She lay half-unconscious on Di Tian's bed, her silky silver hair clinging to her forehead, covering half of her beautiful face. Her chest heaved with ragged, uneven breaths.
The silver high heels Tang Wulin had bought for Gu Yuena had been tossed—one to the east, one to the west.
But what made Tang Wulin's eyes nearly burst in fury was that the smooth, flat belly of Gu Yuena—once devoid of even the tiniest bit of fat in his memories—was now visibly swollen and bulging.
Pain! Such pain! Heart-rending, soul-tearing pain!"Ahhh—!"
Tang Wulin cried out in grief and rage, his vision going black as he stiffened and collapsed straight onto the ground, falling unconscious.
The freshly awakened life-type ability within him—Kiss of Life—was surging with an overwhelming amount of life force. Unable to release it, it built up inside his body.
So dense was the life force that it seeped to the surface of his skin, causing his flesh to unnaturally swell, his skin tinting an intense, deep green.
A Hulk-like version of Tang Wulin.
Fortunately, Tang Wulin's physical constitution was unbelievably powerful. Otherwise, any ordinary person would've already been furiously dead by now.
Seeing his foolish son have such weak mental resilience, Tang San couldn't help feeling a mix of anger and disappointment.
He, Tang San, had once endured separation by death from his beloved Xiao Wu, yet here was his idiotic son, unable to hold himself together. He should be channeling his rage toward their enemy Di Tian—not bottling it up and hurting himself.
Was bringing your beloved back really such a hard thing?
Back in the day, Tang San had done it all on his own—gathering a Nine-Rank Blood Dragon Ginseng, a Lovesick Heartbreak Red, and the Sea God's divine power to resurrect his Xiao Wu.
And even if that wasn't possible…
"There are so many flowers in the world—why cling to just one dragon?"
There were so many ways to move forward—why trap yourself in a dead end?
Lifting his infuriatingly foolish son into his arms, Tang San didn't forcibly disperse the clogged life force in Tang Wulin's body.
Everything has two sides—even life force, something nearly universally welcomed.
If he forcibly dispersed it, Tang Wulin would lose part of his life-force foundation and possibly suffer lasting damage.
The best cure for heartache? Is still a balm for the heart.
Who knows a husband better than his wife? Who knows a son better than his mother? The two perfect cures: his bride and his mother.
For Tang Wulin, that meant Gu Yuena and Xiao Wu.
Gu Yuena was the source of the wound, and they couldn't retrieve her now to play therapist—so the only option left: Xiao Wu.
No sooner thought than acted—Tang San's divine consciousness reached out to his true self on the God Realm, hidden inside a cosmic black hole.
He would allow Xiao Wu and Tang Wulin to have a heartfelt, healing conversation.
Divine intent surged through the void, stirring the winds of fate.
Like a transparent silkworm, it burrowed into Tang Wulin's mind.
It brought a touch of clarity to his muddled consciousness and mental realm.
In the emerald-green sea of his spirit—suffused with life force—a whirlpool suddenly formed.
From within the whirlpool, a Soft Bone Rabbit soul-form emerged, its eyes blood-red.
The figure appeared ghostly and faint, perhaps because of her own weak state, or perhaps because crossing the starry void had drained her power.
Landing on the ground, the little rabbit rubbed its fuzzy head with short limbs, and then transformed into the human form Tang Wulin recognized as Xiao Wu.
Seeing her, Tang Wulin froze in place, momentarily forgetting the heartbreak caused by Gu Yuena.
This wasn't the first time he'd seen his birth mother. He had glimpsed a statue of Xiao Wu when first entering Shrek Academy.
To honor the heroes who overthrew the evil Spirit Hall 20,000 years ago, lifelike statues of the original Shrek Seven Devils, including Tang San and Xiao Wu, had been erected.
But this was the first time he had met his living, breathing mother.
Softly, he whispered: "Mom…"
In that moment, Tang Wulin—now that he had a mother—forgot all about his fiancée.
Even though it was their first real meeting, there was no distance between them. The two talked as though they'd never been apart, filling in the blank years of over twenty missed years of life.
Tang San's divine sense, still watching from within Tang Wulin's spiritual sea, wanted to join in—maybe listen in on what mother and son were talking about, and even sneak in some cuddles with Xiao Wu, to enjoy a little family reunion.
But no such luck. Xiao Wu wouldn't allow it.
With a snap of her long scorpion braid, combined with her waist strength and flexibility, she grabbed Tang San's divine sense by the head—and yeeted him straight out.
Then, switching immediately back to her doting mother role, she tiptoed up and gently stroked Tang Wulin's head.
"Linlin, your wife Gu Yuena's situation—your father already told me."
"You're just like your father—a wonderful young man. I know you still love Gu Yuena deeply."
"It's just that Di Tian, that shit-stirring rod, got in between you two, like a thorn stuck in your throat, creating a rift that didn't need to be there."
"But I think… the world of soul beasts is like a primitive culture. Compared to human society, it's like a completely different dimension."
"What happened to Gu Yuena in that soul beast world—that's the past. But your life together in the human world—that's the future."
"If you love a girl, don't dwell on her past."
"Just like me… my own mother was the same. In the primitive world of soul beasts, mating was a common thing. That's how I was born. And I didn't even know who my father was."Xiao Wu's voice faltered slightly at this part, but she pushed on smoothly.
"And yet your father—the one so many admire, whose legacy spans twenty millennia—never once cared about my past. He loved me with all his heart."
"Once a soul beast becomes human through transformation, everything about their beast past disappears completely."
"Your father is now the most powerful voice in the God Realm Committee. He can easily promote Gu Yuena to godhood and purify that tainted soul beast lineage, turning her entirely into a human."
"Besides, Gu Yuena once protected you, kept you safe from Di Tian's pursuit."
"My son… how can you wallow in self-pity, stuck in place, letting your common enemy Di Tian run amok and live freely?"
Then, Xiao Wu's upright rabbit ears twitched. She leaned close to Tang Wulin's ear and whispered:
"Unlike my Soft Bone Rabbit clan, the True Dragon clan Gu Yuena belongs to is notoriously hard to impregnate. Divine dragons especially."
"The stronger their power, the harder it is to reproduce."
"Besides, both Gu Yuena and Di Tian are first-class divine-level dragons—and they've both suffered heavy injuries. That makes having children practically impossible."
(End of Chapter)