"Fairy fox? What's that?"
Xiao Wu froze for a moment, her gaze toward Tang San suddenly turning strange. In the next instant, her emotions erupted. "Go to hell! How dare you call me a fairy fox—I'll duel you!" As she shouted, she bared her nails and leapt from her bed, lunging at Tang San.
The other Work-study Students were long since used to this sort of scene. The scuffles between Big Sister Xiao Wu and Tang San had become routine for them—so much so that if a day passed without the two of them going at it, they might have felt uncomfortable.
The next morning, when Tang San set off, a bouncy young girl in the Nuoding Academy uniform accompanied his side. Together they left Nuoding City and headed toward Sacred Soul Village.
The past year had been extraordinarily fulfilling for Tang San, and deeply satisfying. He had broken through the first bottleneck of the
Within the academy, the only one who could compare to him in Soul Power was Xiao Wu. Despite rarely being seen cultivating, whenever the two measured their power against each other, the gap was always narrow—sometimes Tang San held a slight edge, sometimes Xiao Wu pulled ahead. Though they were only children, neither was willing to concede to the other, so sparring was inevitable.
In the beginning, upperclassmen like
So even though Xiao Wu was nominally the boss of every student at Nuoding, in practice, Xiao Chenyu and the others would call Tang San "Little Brother San" as well.
In his spars with Xiao Wu, Tang San came out on the losing end more often than not. Xiao Wu's offensive techniques were endlessly varied, especially her Soft Technique, which gave people the feeling of grappling with sticky rice cake. If neither side drew on the power of their Soul Rings, Tang San was virtually guaranteed to lose. Even with the Soul Rings, relying on
As for the Hidden Weapons Tang San secretly practiced, he never used them in their sparring. One reason was that Hidden Weapons were far too lethal, too easy to cause real harm. The other was that he hoped to hone his close-combat abilities through his bouts with Xiao Wu. Perhaps because they served as each other's training partners and brought out the best in one another, they advanced hand in hand in battle. The academy's teachers had long since stopped trying to manage them—at Nuoding, though Tang San and Xiao Wu were technically only first-years, they had already become the academy's most famous prodigies.
"How much farther is it?" Xiao Wu glanced east and west as she asked offhandedly.
"We're almost there. See that mountain ahead? Our Sacred Soul Village sits right at its base." With home nearly in sight, Tang San couldn't help feeling a surge of excitement. If it weren't for Nuoding Academy's rule that students had to return to the dorms every night—with teachers doing room checks—Tang San might have gone home to see his father long ago. A whole year apart. Dad, are you doing well?
Perhaps because he had been an orphan in his previous life, in this one Tang San treasured this bond of family all the more.
He patted the Twenty-Four Bridges Moonlit Night at his waist, where he carried a forging hammer for his father, brand-new clothes, and even a few bottles of decent liquor.
The little mountain village where he had lived for six years was now in view, and for reasons he couldn't quite explain, an inexplicable emotion began to well up in Tang San's heart. If he had to sum it up in a single sentence, he would say: there is nothing quite like the feeling of home—even if that home holds only himself and his father.
Before long the two of them had entered Sacred Soul Village. Tang San's home stood at the village entrance. He raised his hand to point at the shabby signboard on the roof and said to Xiao Wu with a smile, "Look—that's my house."
With home right before his eyes, Tang San's mood shifted involuntarily toward excitement. His pace quickened, and he covered the distance to the front door in two or three strides.
The gate was open, just as he had left it—this had always been
"Dad, I'm back!" Tang San called out, his voice bright with excitement.
Xiao Wu had never seen Tang San in such a state. She stood behind him, watching with open curiosity. In her memory, Tang San was a rather mild-mannered friend—he rarely spoke much, but always seemed busy, always had something to do. Only during their sparring sessions could she see his serious side. And even when he lost to her, she had never once seen him angry or agitated.
Still calling out, Tang San strode quickly inside.
Nothing seemed to have changed. The blacksmith's shop was just as cluttered as before—worse, even, than when he had left. Junk lay scattered everywhere, a ragged mess that somehow brought him even more warmth.
"Oh, Little San, you're back." A gentle voice rang out. A figure emerged from the inner room.
Seeing him, Tang San blinked in surprise. "Grandpa Jie Ke, you're here too? Where's my father?"
The one who had stepped out was none other than Sacred Soul Village's elder, Lao Jie Ke. A trace of a wry smile on his face, he handed Tang San a sheet of paper. "Take a look. This is what your father left behind. I came by this morning to bring him with me to pick you up, but it turns out you'd already arrived."
A prickle of unease shot through Tang San's heart. He quickly took the paper from Lao Jie Ke's hand and looked down.
Only a few simple lines were written on the page. The handwriting was hasty, yet impossible to mistake for anything other than the bold, unrestrained hand of a large man.
(End of Chapter)