│3rd Person POV │
[Douluo Continent, Heaven Soul Empire, Heaven Dou City, Tang Sect…]
"Young Miss, are you alright?" one of the maids asked worriedly when she noticed Tang Ya suddenly freeze in place. The once-murky medicinal bath had turned nearly transparent, a clear sign that its potency had faded. It was time for Tang Ya to step out and rinse herself with clean water to wash away the lingering herbal scent on her skin.
"Huh? Oh… yeah, I'm alright," Tang Ya replied, her voice faintly distant as she stepped out of the bathtub. With the maids' assistance, she rinsed off and changed into fresh clothes.
The maids exchanged uneasy glances. Something was clearly off with their Young Miss. Her face was expressionless, her movements stiff and mechanical, as if she were simply going through the motions. None of them knew what had happened to cause such a change, and it wasn't their place to ask. All they could do was quietly decide to report her strange behavior to the Sect Master later.
A short while later, Tang Ya stood alone in her room. The moment the door closed behind her, the fragile composure she had held onto shattered. She threw herself onto her bed, burying her face into the pillow before releasing a muffled scream. Rage, sorrow, and helpless frustration swirled together inside her chest as she struggled to come to terms with what she had just learned.
'Why would the Tang Sect be subjected to such a cruel fate?' She asked herself, tears soaking the pillow as she struggled to regain her composure.
There was a chance that Ye Chen's knowledge of the future was wrong, and the Tang Sect wouldn't suffer such a fate. However, being the Young Miss of the Tang Sect, Tang Ya knew about some of the difficulties the sect was facing currently.
The Tang Sect Headquarters was located in a prime spot in Heaven Dou City, and there were quite a few factions that coveted this location.
It was completely possible for one of those factions to disregard possible consequences and wipe out the Tang Sect to seize their territory.
"No… There's no use in crying and wasting time like this." She slowly raised her head, wiping her tears. "I will not let anything happen to Daddy. I will not let anything happen to other Tang Sect members either. I will protect the Tang Sect, one way or another."
She then checked the Diary and saw that Ye Chen hadn't mentioned anything related to the Tang Sect's destruction.
'If I want to protect the Tang Sect, I need to know everything about how and when it is going to be destroyed. I need to find out more details and the only way to do so is Ye Chen.'
Quickly thinking of a plan, she consulted the Diary System and asked whether she could approach Ye Chen once he had arrived in Heaven Dou City. When she got the answer that it was okay to approach him, she quickly got up and fixed her appearance.
"I will do whatever it takes to protect everyone." With that declaration, Tang Ya left her room and went to find her father.
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[Douluo Continent, Heaven Soul Empire, Heaven Dou City…]
About an hour later, Ye Chen arrived in Heaven Dou City along with his father and Elder Yu.
As they entered the city, Ye Xuan started explaining the current situation of the city to his son, so that he wouldn't accidentally offend someone important over trivial things.
A few moments later, the group reached their destination, a nine-storey, pagoda-shaped hotel simply called Nine Treasure Hotel. As its name indicated, this hotel was owned by the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.
To dine in this hotel, one must have membership cards that are only distributed by the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect to their distinguished customers or partners of the Nine Treasure Chamber of Commerce.
The membership cards also had different levels. Tḥe higher floors of the Nine Treasure Hotel could only be accessed by those possessing higher-level membership cards.
Elder Yu, being a Guardian Elder of the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, of course had the highest level membership card, which granted them the right to dine in the top floor of any branch of Nine Treasure Hotel.
Just as they were about to head in, Elder Yu noticed someone familiar coming in their direction, and he stopped.
A middle-aged man with refined features was none other than Tang Min, the Sect Master of the Tang Sect. Tang Min also noticed Elder Yu and quickly brought his daughter to greet him.
About an hour ago, his daughter suddenly sought him out, saying she wanted to roam outside to relax. He thought that it would indeed be a good idea. But then, for the last hour, she kept dragging him around the streets near the East Gate of the city, leaving him guessing about her true intention for this outing.
Now, it was Tang Min who was dragging Tang Ya toward Elder Yu and his group.
"Greetings, Elder Yu." Tang Min stepped forward and cupped his fists in greetings. Tang Ya didn't hesitate to mimic her father's actions.
"Ah, Tang Min. It's been a long time since we last met. Also, you don't need to be so formal with me. We were once classmates, after all." Elder Yu said.
Then, he introduced his companion and Tang Min to each other, "This is Ye Xuan, and his son, Ye Chen. And this is Tang Min. We were classmates back when I used to study at Shrek Academy's Outer Court."
Ye Chen, his father, and Tang Min exchanged greetings before Elder Yu asked, "I assume this is your daughter, yes?"
Tang Min nodded and responded, "Yes, this is my daughter Tang Ya. She is nine years old now."
"Good." Elder Yu smiled and nodded at Tang Ya before continuing, "Why don't the two of you join us inside? We can catch up and your daughter can also become acquainted with Ye Chen here."
"Ah, no! I can't possibly impose upon you anymore than I already have, Elder Yu."
Elder Yu waved away Tang Min's rejection, "Don't worry about it. Also, I already told you to stop being so formal with me. Just call me by my name as you used to."
Tang Min just smiled at this, however, he didn't try to decline Elder Yu's invitation again.
A few minutes later, the five of them were seated in one of the private rooms on the Ninth Floor of the Nine Treasure Hotel.
Elder Yu, Tang Min, and Ye Xuan were absorbed in their own discussion as they waited for the food to arrive, leaving the two kids to talk among themselves.
"So, how old are you?" Tang Ya spoke up to begin the conversation after seeing Ye Chen just silently sitting for a moment, even though she already knew about it from reading the Diary.
"I'm six. What about you?"
"Don't you know that you shouldn't ask a lady's age?" Tang Ya asked in a teasing manner.
"Uh, who are you talking about?" Ye Chen asked with a genuine expression of doubt on his face.
"Ah! Are you saying I'm not a lady?"
"Oh… You were talking about yourself. I'm sorry I didn't realise."
Tang Ya seemed stumped after hearing his response, then she caught the slight twitch at the corner of his lips and realised that Ye Chen was just teasing her back.
She laughed and pinched his cheek in retaliation, "You brat. You dare tease this big sister?"
"Hey!" Ye Chen slapped her hand away, saying with an indignant expression, "Don't resort to violence, if you can't take what you dish out."
"Hehehe~ Nope! That doesn't how it works with me."
Just like that, their conversation continued with them asking each other about mundane things. Before long, their food arrived and they started eating.
Then, Tang Ya began trying to subtly steer the conversation, starting with asking Ye Chen about his Martial Soul, "My Martial Soul is Blue Silver Grass and my Innate Soul Power Rank is 6. How about you?"
"I have Twin Martial Souls with Innate Full Soul Power. I inherited my Father's Sacred Sun Gauntlets and my Mother's Poison Spirit Scythe." Ye Chen answered unhurriedly, a proud expression on his face. He didn't bother to hide his Twin Martial Souls and Innate Full Soul Power because he awakened his Martial Souls in the Main Sect Hall back in the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.
In the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, Awakening Ceremonies are carried out once every three months, and these ceremonies are carried out grandly with the majority of the sect present.
When Ye Chen awakened his Martial Souls, he didn't have any control over his Soul Power to try to stop the simultaneous emergence of both of his Martial Souls, and everyone present witnessed him awakening Twin Martial Souls.
In such a case, there was no use in trying to block the news of such a genius emerging from the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, as one way or another, the news would leak out.
Moreover, in this day and age, the significance of someone having Twin Martial Souls and Innate Full Soul Power wasn't that important.
Every top faction knew that the Martial Soul and Innate Soul Power only represented the lower limit of a person. Their higher limit depended on things like their comprehension talent, lucky opportunities, background, Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Rings, and Soul Bones, etc.
Even if everyone knew that Ye Chen was a genius from Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect with Twin Martial Souls and Innate Full Soul Power, there was no immediate danger of any other faction trying to waste resources in getting rid of him. At least, not until he showed the potential to reach Rank 98 Super Douluo or even the legendary Rank 99 Limit Douluo stage.
Tang Ya immediately made use of her Acting Skill to play her part of being shocked by his talent. On the other hand, Tang Ming was genuinely surprised after hearing Ye Chen's words.
"Wow~! I didn't expect you to be a genius, Xiao Chen."
"I told you to stop calling me Xiao Chen." Ye Chen had an annoyed expression on his face as he said this. He didn't like being called "little" by someone his age, especially from someone like Tang Ya, who wasn't even 10 years old.
"Hehe~ Nope!" Tang Ya laughed and denied his demand, "You're 6 and I'm 9. I'm older than you, so I can call you 'Xiao'."
Just like that, time passed as the adults and kids finished their food while having an enjoyable conversation.
About an hour later…
"Xiao Chen, you have to visit my home the next time you come to Heaven Dou City, alright?" Tang Ya demanded as she ruffled Ye Chen's hair playfully.
"Che~! You won't listen to me so even if I walk past your front door, I won't even bother to give your home a single glance."
The adults smiled, watching their playful banter. Ye Xuan was especially happy that his son had made a new friend. Ye Chen rarely ever interacted with other kids from the sect, leaving him and his wife worried about their son's social life.
Elder Yu and Tang Min also said their goodbyes to each other before Ye Chen and his group departed from Heaven Dou City.
Tang Ya and Tang Min watched their silhouettes disappearing over the distance before they also went back home.
On the way back, Tang Ya felt the Diary Copy in her mind buzzing. She immediately started reading the new update, wanting to know if her plan worked.
[It was quite a coincidence that I happened to meet Tang Ya on our short stay in Heaven Dou City.]
Tang Ya read on as Ye Chen described their meeting and subsequent interactions in his Diary, all the while hoping with all her heart that her plan would succeed.
As she read the part where Ye Chen wrote about their parting, and it seemed that he was going to move on without mentioning the things she wanted to know, her prayer was answered.
[Hmm… Tang Ya is 9 years old now. If I remember correctly, after the Tang Sect was massacred, she went to the Clear Sky Clan in hopes of enlisting their help in taking revenge, only to be rejected. She then joins the Shrek Academy using the Tang Sect's yearly special quota.
[She was in her fourth year in the Outer Court when Yuhao joined, and she was around 15 to 16 years old during that time, which means she was 11 or 12 years old when she joined the Shrek Academy. This points to the conclusion that the Iron Blood Sect would destroy the Tang Sect after about 2 or 3 years from now on.
[Should I do something to prevent this from happening…? Oh, well. There's no point in thinking about this right now. There's still at least 2 years before this event comes to pass. I will make my decision when the time comes.]
Tang Ya was glad that her plan worked out.
When she started thinking of ways to get more information about the Tang Clan's destruction from Ye Chen, she knew that her only hope was for Ye Chen to write it down in the Diary.
She noticed that the contents of Ye Chen's Diary Entry were almost always related to what he was doing or who he was meeting at that moment, while rarely going on a completely unrelated tangent.
So, she thought that if Ye Chen were to meet her, he would maybe write about her and the Tang Sect. She decided to take the gamble, bringing her father and roaming the streets near the East City Gate, which was the entrance Ye Chen and his group would use to enter Heaven Dou City, as he had written in the Diary.
When she read that Ye Chen and his group were going to the Nine Treasure Hotel to have lunch, she quickly dragged her father towards the hotel's location, timing their arrival to coincide with Ye Chen's group.
She didn't know that her father was acquainted with the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's Elder, who was accompanying Ye Chen and his father during this trip; however, she was happy that they knew each other. She had planned to do a few silly things to get Ye Chen's group's attention, which was stupid, and although she would've acted on those plans if required, she was glad that she didn't have to.
Anyway, her gamble ultimately paid off. Now, she knew a rough time frame of when the destruction of the Tang Sect would happen.
Within the time she had, she could come up with a plan to prevent her sect's destruction, or maybe she would get something from the Diary, which would help her overcome this ordeal.
'Whatever may happen, we will be ready to face it.' Tang Ya vowed to herself.
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A/N: I'm back and I hope you guys like this chapter and it would be much appreciated if your share your thoughts about the fic so far.
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As of now, this is how far along each story is.
First Tier:-Five Advanced Chapters for the following stories:
>>One Piece: As Portgas D. Ace.
>>One Piece: Copying The Phoenix Fruit At The Beginning.
>>DxD | A Devil with Three Essences.
>>Chaos' Chaotic Snippets.
>>Douluo Dalu (Soul Land): Diary System in Unrivaled Tang Sect.
Second Tier:- Seven Advanced Chapters for the following stories:
>>One Piece: As Portgas D. Ace.
>>DxD | A Devil with Three Essences.
>>Chaos' Chaotic Snippet.
>>Douluo Dalu (Soul Land): Diary System in Unrivaled Tang Sect.
So this is how it is. If you are joining my Patreon for my One Piece TL fic, don't purchase the Second Tier as I haven't yet posted any chapters for that fic in this Tier yet.
Also, while your support would be appreciated, don't feel pressured to join. I'll upload stuff outside it and not keeping it behind a paywall forever.
Anyway, Good day. See ya guys later.