“I was supposed to inherit it, but Tiangang drove me away.”
Li Muxiu stood to one side, suddenly speaking out.
Li Tianzong was startled and couldn’t help but look at him with confusion.
Li Xiaoran’s face changed slightly; on his way back, he had deliberately avoided mentioning the issues between Li Hao and Li Tiangang. He didn’t want his elder brother’s spirit to be troubled or concerned with this matter before it dissipated.
“Second brother, what are you talking about?” Li Tianzong asked.
“Elder brother, you should ask him yourself.”
Li Muxiu took a deep breath. He had wanted to mock Li Tiangang a bit, but considering his elder brother had just returned and the father and son were rarely reunited, malicious mockery seemed pointless, so he restrained himself.
“Tiangang?”
Li Tianzong looked at his son.
Faced with his father’s gaze, Li Tiangang did not consider hiding the truth and said:
“Father, when Hao Er was born, Northern Yan fell into chaos. I was dispatched to campaign in Northern Yan and thought to leave him in the mansion to cultivate under the care of my sister-in-law. Yet, in those years Qingqing and I were not by his side, the child picked up all sorts of bad habits.”
He continued, “He neglected his proper duties, not cultivating properly. After I returned and applied some discipline, he drew his sword on me. Because of that, we had a big fight, and he left home in a huff to challenge me here at Heavenly Gate Pass…”
“Nonsense!”
Li Muxiu, who had been curbing his anger, exploded at that moment and loudly objected:
“What flaws does Hao Er have? Elder brother also said he excels in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting! Although he enjoys those arts, they have never held back his cultivation!”
“Isn’t his cultivation level high enough, far surpassing his peers!”
“Now, at just fifteen years old, already in the Three Immortal Realms, capable of slaying the Demon King, who else under heaven could achieve that?!”
“The two of you were absent for more than a decade. When Hao Er was poisoned by the Liu family, destroying his Divine Blood, he hadn’t even had the chance to take revenge. Yet, because Little Eighth’s daughter complained, you slapped Hao Er without listening to his explanation. And you call that ‘just applying some discipline’?”
“Without your discipline over the years, is Hao Er worse than others?!”
Upon hearing the outburst from Li Muxiu, Li Tiangang’s expression subtly changed, recognizing the familiar arguments. He said:
“But if he devoted the energy he spends on music, chess, calligraphy, and painting entirely to cultivation, he could only improve even more!”
“Then you might as well stop eating and sleeping, and just train to death all day long!”
Li Muxiu angrily said, “That’s your son, not a wooden puppet, nor a stone, he is flesh and blood!”
Li Tiangang opened his mouth slightly but found himself at a loss for words.
Hearing the argument between the two, Li Tianzong quickly began to understand the situation and his face turned ugly as he said, “So what happened later? How did Hao Er end up leaving home?”
“Of course, it was because of his so-called ‘discipline’ that he couldn’t bear to stay.”
Li Muxiu glared at Li Tiangang with resentment in his eyes, but they also revealed sadness as he remembered the snowy day:
“The child said he would no longer bear the name Li. He would rather die out there than die within the Divine General Mansion!”
“He didn’t want to be beaten to death by his own father!”
Li Tiangang retorted angrily, “How could I want to beat him to death? I was just teaching him a lesson…”
A sudden sharp smack interrupted him.
Li Tiangang’s head jerked to the side, his eyes filled with shock; it took him a moment to recover and turn back, only to see his father, Li Tianzong, with an expression full of anger.
“How could you push the child to utter such words!”
“You must have made him so heartbroken for him to say such painful words!!”
Li Tianzong shook with fury as he looked at him.