Tang San's Wallet Was Emptied

On the tree-lined bluestone road outside the estate, Tang San stood straight, his dark blue cloth robe washed spotlessly clean.

His expression was cold and grave, and dark shadows beneath his eyes showed that he had been awake all night.

Last night, in that drafty wooden hut at Shrek, Yu Xiaogang had drunk three whole bowls of calming soup before the blood surging back through his body finally settled. His face had been gaunt and haggard, and even in his sleep, he had kept muttering, "Impossible, number one on the entire continent."

A teacher for a day was a father for life.

In Tang San's eyes, stubborn though Yu Xiaogang might be, he could never allow outsiders to trample and humiliate him in public like that.

Besides, those two strange, deep-purple Thousand-Year Soul Rings at Lin Feng's feet had long since become a boulder weighing on his heart. Until he uncovered the other party's secrets, the state of mind he had cultivated over two lives would know no peace.

From up ahead on the bluestone road came the sound of unhurried footsteps.

Dressed in a simple, elegant green robe, Lin Feng strolled out of the estate with an easy stride.

Paimon floated leisurely in midair, holding half a sugary fried pastry with several bites already taken out of it. Behind Lin Feng, Ning Rongrong followed with a spring in her step, twirling a delicate parasol in her hand. Zhu Zhuqing came after her in a black cloak, coolly beautiful and composed; her bright, vigorous complexion made her look like a different person from yesterday.

"Special Envoy Lin, please wait."

Tang San stepped forward and spoke in a low voice, raising his hands in a proper Soul Master sparring salute. "The profound cultivation Your Excellency displayed on the training ground yesterday was breathtaking. My teacher has devoted his life to scholarship and maintained an impeccable reputation. If he occasionally spoke out of turn, it was born of an elder's earnest concern. I had no chance to ask for guidance yesterday, so I, Tang San, though untalented, would like to formally exchange a few moves with you as a level twenty-nine control-type Soul Grandmaster."

"Wow, it's you again, blue-grass guy!"

Paimon swallowed the pastry in her mouth and swung her little legs in the air, her cheeks puffed out. "Your black-faced teacher played dead and ran away yesterday, so today his student's come out to pick a fight and play the victim? Lin Feng doesn't have time to fight you. We're getting ready to go to Suotuo City for morning tea!"

Tang San ignored Paimon's mockery, his gaze fixed firmly on Lin Feng's face. His voice was firm and forceful. "It would be nothing more than a friendly exchange between peers. We would stop before either of us got hurt. Surely Special Envoy Lin, an imperial envoy, wouldn't be afraid to test himself against a Soul Master of the same rank?"

Lin Feng stopped, his expression unchanged. Unlike most geniuses provoked by such words, he showed neither arrogance nor displeasure. He merely said casually, "Since you want to try, then make your move."

"Forgive the offense!"

A fierce light flashed in Tang San's eyes, and the Mysterious Heaven Skill's inner force surged through his body like a mighty river!

Facing an unknown, formidable enemy with two Thousand-Year Soul Rings, he held nothing back from the very start.

His footwork shifted unpredictably, leaving overlapping afterimages in his wake. It was none other than the Tang Sect Secret Art, Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track! At the same time, a deep, pure purple glow appeared in the depths of Tang San's pupils as he brought the Purple Demon Eye to the peak of its second stage, Detailed.

First seize the center, then break his spirit body!

Tang San gave a cold shout in his heart. His first target was not Lin Feng himself, but the white-haired spirit body in the air that appeared to have no real offensive power.

From what he had observed yesterday, this unusual being named Paimon was the key medium through which Lin Feng slowed time. If he suppressed her with the speed of thunder before one could cover one's ears, it would be as good as cutting off one of Lin Feng's arms!

Tang San slid forward, cutting diagonally through the blind spots created by Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track. His right hand held Controlling Crane Capturing Dragon ready to strike, and purple light blazed in his eyes as his Purple Demon Eye stabbed straight at Paimon, who floated above and to Lin Feng's side!

In the microscopic vision of the Purple Demon Eye, pushed to its very limit, lay a vast starry river with no end in sight!

"Agh—!"

An agonized scream, suppressed to the utmost, burst from deep in Tang San's throat!

The Purple Demon Eye's mental assault failed to shake even a speck of the stardust within half an inch of Paimon. Instead, it drew an instinctive backlash from the plane of existence of Celestia in Teyvat.

Tang San felt as though two red-hot iron spikes had been driven straight into his eye sockets, and his mind rang with a buzzing roar!

"What are you doing? Why are you rushing at me with your eyes wide and crying? That's so gross!" Startled, Paimon floated half a foot backward and waved her little hand in disgust.

Blinded by the searing pain in both eyes, Tang San was thrown into confusion, and his once exquisite Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track footwork instantly fell apart. But he was ruthless and tenacious to the bone. Enduring the tearing agony in his eyes, he relied entirely on the keen hearing he had possessed as a Hidden Weapon master in his previous life to judge the wind's direction. His clawed hands turned the color of mysterious jade, and he viciously raked at the empty air ahead, trailing a fierce gust!

Yet Lin Feng had not even released his Martial Soul.

The instant Tang San stumbled toward him, Lin Feng merely stepped half a pace to the side and casually placed his right foot on the bluestone road ahead, his lower leg crossing the line of Tang San's forward momentum.

Normally, Tang San's Controlling Crane Capturing Dragon method of redirecting force would have kept him from being tripped. But now, bloody tears streamed from his eyes, his eardrums buzzed from the mental backlash, and all his inner force and killing moves had struck empty air. When his ankle unexpectedly hit an obstacle as solid as a rock, he instantly lost his balance!

Boom!

Under Ning Rongrong's incredulous gaze, the young genius renowned throughout Nuoding Academy was sent flying forward in an almost comical pose. His face slammed squarely into the damp dirt road, plowing a furrow half a foot deep!

Muddy water splashed and bits of grass flew. Tang San's entire face was buried in the muck, his mouth full of black mud and grass roots. The blue ribbon binding his hair snapped on the spot, leaving it loose and disheveled. He looked as bedraggled as a drowned chicken that had fallen into a ditch.

"Pfft..."

Unable to hold it in, Ning Rongrong covered half her face with her parasol and burst out laughing.

Standing behind them, Zhu Zhuqing's gaze did not so much as ripple. She simply felt that this blue-grass Soul Master, whom Dai Mubai had once boasted was a "monster seen once in an age," could not withstand a single blow.

"Cough... cough, cough!"

Coughing violently, Tang San crawled out of the mud, spat out the grit in his mouth, and wiped the bloody tears from the corners of his eyes with a trembling sleeve. His Purple Demon Eye had suffered a mental backlash, and his vision was now a blur of overlapping images. He knelt on one knee, every muscle taut, his heart as though plunged into an ice cavern.

He couldn't see through him. He couldn't see through him at all!

His opponent had not even used his Martial Soul or Soul Power. The backlash from a single wisp of divine sense released by his Martial Soul had nearly crippled Tang San's Purple Demon Eye! The proud confidence he had built over two lifetimes had been crushed to pieces by that one foot.

Just as Tang San, filled with shock and doubt, was desperately suppressing the blood surging through his body, a bright, cheerful call came from the other end of the tree-lined road, growing closer:

"Paimon! Look what goodies I brought you!"

Xiao Wu came running toward them, wearing her little pink work-study student vest, her long scorpion braid swinging behind her. In both hands she carried an exquisitely carved food box decorated with gold. Its lid was open, revealing three delicate pastries neatly arranged inside, giving off a rich milky aroma and the fresh sweetness of herbs.

"Wow! They're the premium hundred-year ginseng dew carrot cakes that the Hundred Flavors House in Suotuo City sells in limited quantities!"

Paimon's eyes lit up at once. With a cheer, she swooped down from the air, snatched up a piece, and took a huge bite. Enraptured, she patted her belly. "Mmm, mmm... Xiao Wu, you're such a good friend! Ten thousand times more generous than that blue-grass guy who's always scheming against people!"

"Hehe, I knew you'd love them!" Xiao Wu grinned and pushed the food box into Paimon's arms. She grabbed a carrot crisp for herself and bit down with a crunch. "The shopkeeper wouldn't sell them at first. He said they were reserved for a great noble, so I threw forty Gold Soul Coins at him. Then he smiled like a flower and baked them fresh for me overnight!"

Tang San, kneeling by the mud pit, swayed violently. Even the mud on his face could not hide how pale he had turned.

Forty... forty Gold Soul Coins?!

He abruptly looked down and reached with trembling hands for his precious storage belt, the Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges.

His divine sense entered the jade compartment where he kept his money. The cloth pouch that had once been stuffed heavy with hundreds of Gold Soul Coins was now as thin as a cicada's wing, with only a few pitiful Copper Soul Coins lying at the bottom!

Those had been all the savings he had scraped together over six whole years, hammering and forging pig iron day and night at the blacksmith shop in Nuoding City and living as frugally as he could!

He had planned to use them for the Shrek Seven Monsters' daily expenses in Suotuo City, as well as seed money to buy rare ores and forge Godly Zhuge Crossbows and Hidden Weapons later on!

But ever since they had entered Suotuo City yesterday, Xiao Wu had somehow hit it off with that white-haired spirit body. Lin Feng himself had barely exchanged two words with Xiao Wu, always maintaining a polite distance with an indifferent expression, yet the gluttonous Paimon had needed only a few words to awaken Xiao Wu's own love of food.

From last night's honey-glazed braised goose and premium sauced meat to this morning's hundred-year ginseng dew carrot cakes, which cost forty Gold Soul Coins, Xiao Wu had gone on a frenzied shopping spree with his purse, completely emptying the nest egg he had built over six years!

"X-Xiao Wu..." Tang San's voice was hoarse, tinged with a tremor and heartache.

Only then did Xiao Wu notice Tang San kneeling in the mud pit. She blinked her big eyes and asked in surprise, "Brother? What are you doing in the mud? Why is your face covered in blood and dirt? Oh, your clothes are filthy too! Didn't you say you were going to stay in the dormitory and take good care of Grandmaster today?"

A fierce tightness gripped Tang San's chest, and a coppery sweetness nearly rose to his throat again. He wanted to reproach Xiao Wu for her lack of restraint, but looking at the girl's innocent, guileless smile, the strict rules of his sect and his instinct to shield his own made him forcibly swallow every grievance.

"I... I'm fine. I was sparring with Special Envoy Lin just now and lost my footing." Tang San forced himself to his feet and swayed, his fingernails digging deep into his palms.

"Sparring? Brother, why would you go looking for a spar with Lin Feng for no reason? Even his attendants are Titled Douluo."

Xiao Wu waved a hand unconcernedly, then turned back to Paimon. The two little heads huddled together as she whispered, "Paimon, Paimon, after we finish this, I heard there's a place in the west of the city that makes peach pudding set with icy spring water from the snowy mountains. Shall we go try it at noon?"

"Yes, yes! Xiao Wu, you're the best!" Paimon cheered indistinctly, her mouth stuffed full.

Lin Feng's expression remained calm from beginning to end. He neither spoke to humiliate Tang San nor gave Xiao Wu another glance. He simply set off at an easy pace. "Let's go. We still have important business at the Soto Great Soul Arena."