Chapter 542 Confrontation
"Is there anything I can't hear?" Di Tian looked at all the creatures present, including the undead, and his gaze finally fell on Huo Yun'er who was beside Huo Yuhao.
"Who is this?"
"My mother." Huo Yuhao didn't dare to look up, and couldn't raise his head.
“It’s nothing, actually. This kid just crippled his half brother and dug out Dai Hao’s eyes. His mother might not be able to accept it.” Mu Xing used a few words to clear up the suspicion that Huo Yuhao was biased towards Huo Yun’er. “I don’t think it’s that excessive. His senior sister even brought her men to castrate Dai Hao hundreds of times!” She tried her best. She could only help Huo Yuhao up to this point.
Huo Yuhao expressed his gratitude for this.
"I think it's too much. Didn't you notice that Star Douluo would rather take his subordinates to clean up the battlefield than stay with you?" Alex ruthlessly sabotaged, of course, in order to help Huo Yuhao divert the attention of a certain dragon.
"Just for this?" But it was obvious that the Beast God was not so easy to fool, because Huo Yun'er's resentful look was too obvious.
"What's wrong with her eyes?"
"She thinks I have corrupted her son." Mu Xing simply gave up and said, "Forget it, I, a mortal, will go fight the Dragon King!"
"..."
Now even Fu Rui felt the low pressure of impending storm.
“No?!” Seeing Huo Yuhao shrink like a quail, Di Tian waved his hands, “Oh! Forget it, you can do whatever you want! Don’t forget who gave you everything you have now!” Since Mu Xing had already made a judgment on the matter, there was no need for him to vent his anger on Huo Yuhao. It was not because the child was innocent, but because the sunk cost would be too high if he killed him directly. Besides, there was also Rong Nianbing who was preparing to inherit the throne and run away. How could he watch him do something to his own heir?
But if the result does not satisfy him, he will help solve it.
"Little guy, your elders are all very reasonable!" Rong Nianbing snapped his fingers and lifted the restrictions on Huo Yun'er. "In that case, Yuhao, you should talk to your mother and reason with her!"
Huo Yun'er looked as if all her vitality had been drained away. Her eyes, which were always filled with tenderness and timidity, now seemed to be burning with two clusters of cold flames as she stared at Huo Yuhao.
“Yu… Yuhao…” Her voice was shaking, and every word seemed to be forced out of her throat with an unbelievable sense of brokenness. “You… what did you do just now? What did you do to… to your father… and your brother?!”
Huo Yuhao slowly raised his head, his face expressionless, except for the deep depths of his eyes, where something seemed to be surging violently, but was forcibly suppressed by him. He did not speak, but just looked at his mother quietly.
Huo Yun'er was so irritated by his almost indifferent attitude that she trembled all over. An unprecedented and huge anger overwhelmed her usual weakness. She staggered forward a few steps and almost pounced in front of Huo Yuhao.
“You dug out your father’s eyes! And you allowed that female marshal from the Sun Moon Empire to humiliate him! You destroyed the soul power of the Second Young Master, your father’s most proud son!” Huo Yun’er’s voice suddenly rose and became shrill, tears bursting out uncontrollably, mixed with anger and despair, “That’s your father! That’s your blood brother! How could you…how could you do such…such a cruel thing! And in front of those White Tiger guards, that’s a more cruel humiliation than killing them!”
Her body was shaking violently due to excitement and weakness, as if she was about to fall down in the next second, but her eyes burning with flames were fixed on Huo Yuhao's face.
“I know… I know they have let us down… I know you have hatred in your heart…” Huo Yun’er’s voice was filled with tears and heart-wrenching sadness, “But… But I clearly said that I don’t hate him! But why did you do it this way? Why did you make them… live a life worse than death? Your brother was just young and frivolous, and he did do something wrong, but you ruined his life! Soul power… That’s everything to a soul master! What do you want him to do in the future? Live like a useless person?!”
She became more and more excited as she spoke. All the grievances, fears and forbearance that had been pent up for half a lifetime finally erupted after witnessing her son's extremely cruel behavior.
“Yuhao! My son!” Huo Yun’er’s voice was filled with piercing disappointment. She stretched out her hand and pointed at Huo Yuhao with trembling hands, her fingertips almost poking his chest. “Tell me! Tell me! Is this the result of the power you pursue? Is this what you want? To watch your loved ones suffer in your hands and lose their dignity?!”
She grabbed Huo Yuhao’s sleeve with such force that her knuckles turned white, as if a drowning person was grabbing at the last piece of driftwood, or as if she was trying to wake him up with all her strength: “How did you become so scary? So... so strange! I... I would rather you hate me! Hate me, your incompetent mother! I would rather you come at me! I don’t want to see you become like this! Cold-blooded! Cruel! Revengeful for the slightest grievance... You’ve even lost the last bit of your bottom line as a human being!”
Huo Yun'er's voice was choked with sobs. She was almost breathless due to the huge sadness and anger. She looked at her son's still handsome but icy face, and felt her heart aching. The little boy who had been well-behaved and sensible in her arms and swore to protect her, the boy with clear and stubborn eyes... in her eyes, he was like a strange devil whose soul was devoured by revenge.
“You…are you seeking revenge against me? Revenge against me, your useless mother, for not being able to protect you and letting you bear hatred since childhood?” Huo Yun’er’s voice lowered with a desperate whine, “If that’s the case, you succeeded…you succeeded! Seeing you become like this, it hurts more than death for me! I…I don’t dare to acknowledge you…I don’t dare to acknowledge such a son!”
The last sentence was like a poisoned dagger, piercing Huo Yuhao's cold outer shell. His pupils shrank imperceptibly, and his tightly pursed lips trembled slightly. After Huo Yun'er finished speaking, as if she had used up all her strength, the hand that was holding Huo Yuhao's sleeve suddenly loosened, and her body staggered backwards, shaky, with only endless sadness and a sense of unfamiliarity that was close to collapse on her face, and only her uncontrollable, intermittent sobs echoed around her.
Huo Yuhao looked down at his slender hands with distinct joints. These hands had just dug out his biological father's eyes and destroyed Dai Huabin's proud soul power foundation. At this moment, there seemed to be still traces of blood and the cold touch of soul power dissipating. He slowly raised his hands and stared at them with an almost weird concentration, as if he was studying some rare treasure, or as if he was confirming whether they really belonged to him.
Then, he spoke. His voice was very soft, even lower than his normal speaking volume, but it clearly pierced through Huo Yun'er's suppressed sobs.
"Mother."
He no longer used the intimate name "Mom", and there was no trace of admiration in his tone anymore, only a formulaic, cold alienation.
“You accuse me of being cruel, and accuse me of humiliating them.” The corners of Huo Yuhao’s mouth twitched upwards extremely slowly, forming an arc that was uglier than crying and without any warmth. It couldn’t even be called a smile.
"You said that I made their life worse than death." He paused, raised his head, and his gaze fell on Huo Yun'er's tear-stained face again.
"But, mother," his voice was still calm, but with a chilling sense of fatigue and... absurdity, "Have you forgotten what you asked me for?" He leaned forward slightly, his eyes locked on Huo Yun'er, not giving her any room to dodge, "Not long ago in the God Realm, what did you ask me for?"
Huo Yun'er felt cold all over when he looked at her. She had indeed begged him to spare Dai Hao's life for the sake of their blood relationship.
“You begged me not to kill him.” Huo Yuhao repeated the heavy promise word by word, “You said, as long as I can spare his life… as long as he is alive…”
He tilted his head slightly, his eyes revealing an almost cruel confusion and frustration: "I promised you, mother."
"I did it." His voice suddenly rose a little, with a kind of extremely suppressed, twisted grievance and anger, "I didn't kill Dai Hao! His heart is still beating, he is still breathing! I saved his life! I kept my promise to you! Isn't that enough?!"
"What on earth are you not satisfied with?!"
He almost shouted the last question, his voice was hoarse, and it was filled with the despair and madness of being betrayed by the person closest to him.
"You want me to let them go? Let go of those who trampled us in the mud and humiliated us?"
Huo Yun'er looked at the twisted hatred in Huo Yuhao's eyes and listened to his roaring questions. She felt a chill running from the soles of her feet to the top of her head, freezing her tears. She opened her mouth, but found that her throat seemed to be blocked and she couldn't say a word. What else could she say? She asked him to spare Dai Hao's life, but didn't she want him to "spare" him in this way?
"Mother, do you think it's easy for me to get to where I am today?" His voice was very soft, but it hit Huo Yun'er's heart like a heavy hammer. "Do you think that the power I have and all the resources I have obtained fell from the sky? Is it something I can get with my pitiful talent and luck?"
"All of this is conditional." He lowered his voice even more, with a heart-pounding chill, "The condition is that my determination for revenge will never waver! If I waver... If I become 'merciful', 'have a bottom line', and... stop hating as you wish..."
He paused slightly.
"Then, everything I have, all the power, resources, and protection that the teacher has given me... will be taken back in an instant." He stared at Huo Yun'er's suddenly shrinking pupils, and asked clearly, word by word: "Mother, is this what you want to see?"