Douluo Continent: Peerless Angel Qian Renxue.

Chapter 30 Huo Yuhao's Nightmare

About three days ago, outside the Duke's Mansion of the Star Luo Empire.

"Why?!"

Why is God so unfair to me? Why did He give me this fate?!

"What...did I do wrong...?! Why, answer me?!"

A boy was weeping bitterly while hugging the tombstone in front of him. In his mind, past scenes kept flashing: on a cold winter day, he and his mother hugged each other to keep warm in the dilapidated house. His mother took out a sesame seed cake from her bosom and handed it to her child, but all he could see was his mother's skin that was burned red.

"Mom—Mom—" In his mind's eye, the boy wept bitterly, hugging his mother as if he were hugging the tombstone engraved with her name. He finally sobbed, "Mom, I don't like sesame seed cakes. Please don't give me any more... I, I don't like sesame seed cakes..."

"It's Mom who's sorry." The voice echoed in the boy's mind. "Mom... can only accompany Xiaoyuhao this far..."

"No, no!" The boy clung to his mother in his mind's eye and to the tombstone in reality, curling up in fear. "Mom, I'll protect you. Your Xiaoyuhao is already level ten! He'll soon get his first spirit ring and become a spirit master!"

"Huh? You think you can become a Soul Master, you piece of trash?" In the boy's mind, a boy with heterochromatic eyes stood in front of him and his mother. "You don't even have the White Tiger Martial Soul of my Dai family, yet you dare to say you can become a Soul Master?"

In the nightmare imagined by the boy, the boy with heterochromatic eyes contemptuously raised his foot and kicked his dying mother.

"No! No!" the boy cried out in terror. He tried his best to hug his mother, but her exquisite boots pierced through his body, as if he were just a phantom without a physical form. Yet, he could still feel the excruciating pain of his body being pierced.

Finally, the leather boots slammed heavily onto the woman, making a dull thud. The woman was stepped on in the abdomen, and both she and the boy coughed up a mouthful of dark red blood.

"Hahahaha! Besides saying no, what else can you do?" The boy with heterochromatic eyes laughed loudly, his voice full of sarcasm. "Face yourself! Hahahaha!"

"Dai Huabin!" The boy's anger flared. He raised his hand, trying to push the other man away from his mother. "Your words can't fool me. I won't give in!"

However, his attempt failed.

Just like when Dai Huabin was abusing his mother, he was completely ethereal. This time, his hands once again passed through Dai Huabin's body without any hindrance.

He was like a transparent person, there was no place for him in this world... No, perhaps he shouldn't even exist in this world. He heard screams and coughing blood behind him, his mother being tortured behind him until she couldn't scream anymore.

The boy's lunge missed, and he fell to his knees on the ground. Everything he had done was in vain. He hated himself; he hated that he couldn't do anything!

At that moment, Dai Huabin bent down as if looking at a worm struggling on the ground and handed the boy a sharp weapon. The boy forced himself to sit up and stared blankly at the object in front of him—a white dagger.

"How about it? How about it? Looks familiar, doesn't it?" Dai Huabin's voice was full of seduction and mockery. "Do you remember who used to have it? Do you know it, and why it's with me?"

"Ha...ha...White...Tiger Dagger!" The boy's eyes were filled with mist, he was panting heavily, and his voice trembled.

"Yes! Yes! Turn around and look, and tell me your answer!" Dai Huabin's voice echoed in his ears, "Your mother, Huo Yun'er..."

He leaned down again, lowered his head, and brought his lips close to the boy's ear, speaking softly as if to tell him the biggest secret in the world.

"She's already—dead...hehehehehe~hahahaha~"

Snap—Dai Huabin's words and sneer were as fierce as the claws of an evil tiger, or as silent as the undercurrent surging beneath the ice.

Beneath his stunned gaze, the boy's heart, hidden deep within his tender soul, was shattered like glass by a tiger descending from above and an undercurrent flowing from within.

Mother... is dead... This dilapidated house is the end of her life...

Mom, she's really dead... I couldn't protect her... She was kicked to death right in front of me. I couldn't protect her, and because of that, I'll be seen as a useless person by everyone who knows about it... I'll spend the rest of my life in blame and regret...

But why did Mom's last moment remain a smile before she held her breath? Didn't she... hate?

"Because I have a child who loves me and a husband I love." That's what the voice said.

But as the boy looked at his dead mother and listened to his still-pounding heartbeat, his mother's words turned into a cacophony of sobs.

"Coo-coo—coo-coo—"

Amidst the cacophony of sobs, a clear cry could be heard. Huo Yuhao remembered that the sound came from a story his mother had told him. His mother's martial soul was the Spirit Eye, which was how she had told him about this kind of animal with sharp eyes.

When he was little, his mother took him to the woods outside the duke's mansion, helped him identify various wild plants and animals, and tried to teach him to understand the language of owls.

"Coo-coo—coo-coo—"

Huo Yuhao heard the owl's hooting hidden beneath the sobs, and he understood. His mother was saying—

I also want to be loved, I also want my Yuhao to be loved...

His shattered heart turned into sharp glass, etching bloody words onto his soul—his frantic and piercing inner monologue. The stabbing pain in his heart spread with his tears, and the most vibrant red flower bloomed beneath his mother's body.

What is all this? Is this what I wanted to say? Why am I still alive when my mother is dead...? Is it my fault?

What should I do?

"Coo coo—"

...kill him.

In his consciousness, the boy seemed to suddenly awaken, but his gaze was as empty as his nightmare self in reality. He stood up mechanically like a puppet. He snatched the White Tiger Dagger from the other's hand, and then used all his strength to stab Dai Huabin behind him, who was abusing his mother!

One, two, three!

However, unsurprisingly, the White Tiger Dagger vanished the moment it was snatched away, and all the attacks passed through Dai Huabin's body again, stabbing his lifeless mother behind him! With a series of soft splattering sounds, it left even deeper wounds on his mother's body.

The glass that had transformed from his broken heart, the glass that had cut a bloody wound into his heart, pierced even deeper.

The powerless monologue he had carved into his heart now seemed unfamiliar; he could no longer recognize the words he had just written on his heart.

The crooked strokes began to rotate, combining into an even more distorted image: the faces of Dai Huabin and the Duchess. The mother and son were placing their index fingers down to their eyes, their tongues spitting out blood. There were two words at the bottom of the image.

He recognized those two words—waste.

His expression was dazed. Suddenly, he looked back and the past ten years flashed before his eyes: his father's departing figure, the indifference of everyone in the Duke's mansion, the injustices and grievances he and his mother had suffered, and how he had knelt before the Duchess to beg for medicine to treat his mother's wounds, only to be kicked away...

He suddenly realized that some people in this world are born wrong, and no one will save them. Just as he questioned God, those who question the injustice of fate and hope that someone will come to save them are precisely the ones who are ignored and whom the whole world will not save.

Finally, he remembered how his mother, wanting to give him a hot meal in the winter, would put a piping hot flatbread inside her own clothes, just so her adorable little Yuhao wouldn't have to eat cold potatoes... Little Yuhao stared blankly at his mother's chest, which was scalded and red...

"Coo-coo—coo-coo—"

"Xiao Yuhao, you have to eat it all, so you can grow up strong and healthy."

"Xiao Yuhao has awakened his original martial soul. This kind of one-in-a-million thing happening to my little man is truly a blessing from heaven."

"When Yuhao grows up, he can take Mommy on a long trip! Yuhao, how about you take Mommy to find Daddy?"

"Yuhao... Yuhao..."

"Xiao Yuhao..."

"Don't worry about Mommy, she's very strong. This little injury is nothing... Daddy's busy, he's a great general and hero of the empire! We can't let him be distracted, or Mommy will be sad..."

"Don't worry about Mom, a woman loves a man..."

"Yuhao..."

"Coo coo..."

His mother's soft words sounded to the boy like the clear, melodious cry he had heard before; they also sounded like thunder, booming and rumbling; and they were like sharp knives piercing his heart.

He sat blankly on the ground, his eyes vacant, muttering to himself, "Be strong... small injury, pancake... chest, red, painful..."

Even a small wound can cause sadness and pain...

"Ah! No!!! Why am I not dead?!" The eleven-year-old boy roared in despair. He finally broke down. Since his mother was dead and he couldn't kill Dai Huabin, he might as well end it all himself.

He raised the White Tiger Dagger and stabbed it towards his own chest.

He didn't want to live anymore.

However, he was not injured at all, all his attacks missed again, and he couldn't even commit suicide!

Dai Huabin stood beside him, scratching his cheek with a pointed mouth, gesturing wildly, his fingers sliding down his eyes, and his bloody tongue sticking out. Although he didn't speak, his voice still reached his ears: "Useless."

He stumbled and fell, gasping for breath, slamming his head against the wall beside him in a clumsy yet ferocious motion, but it was no use, because he could still hear Dai Huabin's voice: "Useless...useless..."

"Am I about to die?" Dai Huabin's voice grew softer and softer...

……

"ε=(ο｀*))) Sigh..." High in the sky, someone let out a sigh. Then, a wave of energy rippled through the air, breaking the nightmare that had gripped the boy.

The boy remained curled up in front of his mother's grave, his face covered in blood and tears. He gripped a white dagger tightly in his hands, which he had plunged into his chest. Large splatters of blood spread across his clothes. His head, weak and feeble, kept hitting the tombstone, bleeding profusely.

The nameless energy returned, and a phantom figure floated out of the grave, its eyes vacant, enveloped by the energy. Its empty gaze seemed to be searching for something, finally settling on the boy on the ground.

"Yuhao..."

"If he passes the test, you will be reunited," a voice came from the nameless energy. "It won't be long."

A light drizzle fell, washing over the boy and healing all his gruesome wounds. Some of the rainwater seeped into his body through his wounds and pores, silently nourishing his meridians and repairing his soul.

The large bloodstains in front of him were also strangely washed away. Nothing happened; it was just a light night rain.

"Hopefully, this rising star will succeed."

Thank you all for your support and votes!

This happened before Huo Yuhao ran away from home. The timeline can be seen as after he buried his mother, was treated coldly at the Duke's mansion, missed his mother, and went to her grave to pray. Ultimately, this incident spurred him to decide to run away from home.

Consider this a side story.

(End of this chapter)