You Already Had a Way to Die

Yu Xiaogang strode up to Tang San with his hands behind his back and scolded him:

"What were you doing just now?! Why did you stand there with your hands in your sleeves and watch?! What have I been teaching you all this time?!"

Tang San was still absorbed in watching the show, and the roar left him completely dumbfounded.

How had this suddenly become about him again?

"Teacher, I..."

"Shut up! Arguing is just a cover-up, and a cover-up means you weren't listening at all!"

Yu Xiaogang gave Tang San no chance to explain and rebuked him sternly, his voice ringing with righteous indignation:

"Just now, when we faced that four-hundred-year Mandala Snake, I deliberately feigned weakness. I made my hints perfectly clear with my eyes and movements, all to lure the beast into exposing an opening so you and Cai Kun could strike together!"

"But look at you! Not only did you fail to grasp my tactical intent, you only cared about hiding yourself!"

"Look at Cai Kun! How sharp was his reaction? How decisive was his attack? He saw through my painstaking intentions at once!"

"You both have Innate Full Soul Power, and you receive my instruction every day. How can you be so dull-witted and cowardly, not even half as quick-witted as Cai Kun?!"

Even Cai Kun could become the model child adults held up for comparison.

The more Yu Xiaogang scolded, the more smoothly the words came. He cleanly shifted the blame for his earlier humiliation and poured all his pent-up frustration onto Tang San.

Tang San stood there in a daze.

Twisting black into white! Shameless beyond belief!

You were clearly so scared by a four-hundred-year snake that you wet yourself and crawled backward screaming for help, yet now you've transformed yourself into a master tactician who deliberately feigned weakness?!

And you're even using that bastard Cai Kun to grind me underfoot?!

Tang San trembled all over with anger. He had just raised his head to argue his case when Cai Kun stepped forward at just the right moment and, looking deeply distressed, twisted the knife:

"That's right, Little San, you were in the wrong here!"

Cai Kun clasped his hands behind his back and spoke in the pompous tone of an elder delivering a lecture:

"Who is Grandmaster? He's a man whose theories reach the heavens, a second parent who didn't hesitate to risk his own life to pave the way for you!"

"He even fell crotch-first into the mud to demonstrate combat techniques for you. It's bad enough that you didn't hurry to kowtow and thank him, but how dare you glare at Grandmaster with that resentful look?"

"You have no respect for your elders! This is a monstrous offense against all decency! Even I feel disheartened on Grandmaster's behalf!"

One sang and the other chimed in, every word piercing the heart!

Tang San kept his head bowed, the loose strands of hair over his forehead hanging down to conceal his eyes, which had turned purplish-black.

This is going too far!

Since you're ruining my Dao heart, don't blame me for being ruthless.

The third principle of the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record's general outline-

[Once you have confirmed your opponent is an enemy, as long as they have a way to die, show them no mercy. Otherwise, you will only bring yourself trouble!]

At this very moment, Cai Kun had repeatedly ruined his opportunities and disrupted his Dao heart; Yu Xiaogang was as shortsighted as a mouse, deceived the world to steal a reputation, and had even dared to humiliate him in public!

Both of them already have a way to die!

What was more, they were now deep in the Soul Hunting Forest, with no one around to spy on them.

As long as I silence both of them here and claim we were attacked by a high-level Soul Beast, no one will be any the wiser. Who could trace it back to me, Tang San?!

Once his killing intent arose, he did not hesitate for another moment!

Cai Kun is too fast. I'm not sure I can kill him in one blow. I'll squeeze the soft persimmon first and slaughter Yu Xiaogang!

In a flash, Tang San snapped his right wrist and silently shifted one foot half a step.

The mechanism hidden in his coarse-cloth sleeve triggered instantly!

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

Three small Sleeve Arrows coated in a paralyzing toxin shot straight toward Yu Xiaogang's throat, heart, and the spot between his brows!

Peerlessly vicious, every strike lethal!

However, at the critical moment when the three poisoned needles were about to pierce Yu Xiaogang's skin-

"Aah-!! The pain is killing me!!"

Yu Xiaogang suddenly clutched his head with both hands and let out a scream!

He felt the six Ten-Year Solitary Bamboo Soul Bones that had just fused into his body all moving, as though subjected to some intense external stimulus!

"Crack! Crack-crack-!"

Immediately afterward, the sounds of bones grinding and bamboo joints growing taller rang out from within Yu Xiaogang's body!

Dazzling white light instantly swallowed Yu Xiaogang whole.

The next second, the white light faded.

Yu Xiaogang, who had been wearing a black scholar's robe, had vanished completely.

In his place stood a bizarre humanoid creature wrapped from head to toe in green bamboo tubes!

A glossy green bamboo-bucket helmet covered his head, with two bamboo leaves sticking out of its very top. His torso and limbs were encased in thick sections of bamboo armor, making him look exactly like a Lone Bamboo that had become a spirit!

It was the passive Soul Skill that came with the full six-piece Ten-Year Solitary Bamboo set-

Lone Bamboo External Armor.

"Clink! Clink! Clink!"

The three steel needles Tang San had fired struck the bamboo armor over Yu Xiaogang's throat and chest.

After all, Lone Bamboo Soul Beasts had no other abilities; their only traits were toughness and high defense!

How astonishing were the combined toughness and defense of six ten-year Soul Bones?

The three poisoned needles failed to leave even the slightest white mark. The tough, smooth bamboo skin snapped them into six pieces on the spot, and they clattered to the ground!

Tang San looked thoroughly embarrassed.

The air fell silent in an instant.

Tang San had overestimated his Hidden Weapons. He had originally planned to flee, but as soon as he saw Cai Kun, he knew he could outrun him.

Yu Xiaogang looked at the six broken pieces of Sleeve Arrow on the ground, then lowered his head and peered through the two holes in his bamboo-bucket helmet at the three faint white dots on the bamboo armor over his chest.

Following the path of the shots forward, he found himself looking directly at Tang San's right hand, which had yet to withdraw into his sleeve.

Beside him, Cai Kun narrowed his eyes and swept his gaze back and forth between the broken needles and Tang San's wrist.

The next second, the older and younger man turned their heads almost simultaneously and demanded in unison:

"What exactly are you trying to do?!"

Tang San's guilty conscience betrayed him, and a large patch of cold sweat instantly soaked his back.

If the two saw that he had intended to kill them, Gangzi would definitely purge him from his sect! That forced him to come up with a plausible excuse to get out of this.

In a flash, Tang San forcibly suppressed the shock in his heart and took a deep breath.

He turned his wrist, deftly gathered his sleeve, then stepped forward, cupped his hands, and bowed, his face full of wild delight:

"Congratulations, Teacher! Congratulations on obtaining a God-Bestowed Martial Soul!"

That shout left even Yu Xiaogang, who had been about to fly into a rage, at a loss.

Yu Xiaogang stared blankly for a moment, his voice buzzing inside the bamboo tube. "You... you just launched a sneak attack on your teacher?"

"Teacher, your disciple saw something that stirred his hunter's instinct and couldn't resist trying his hand!"

Tang San's gaze was clear and sincere as he lied without his face reddening or his heart racing:

"When I saw you fuse with the God-Bestowed Martial Soul just now, Teacher, and saw the restrained radiance of the bamboo armor covering you, I was so awestruck that I took the liberty of using the iron needles I carry to test the quality of your armor!"

At that, Tang San pointed at the poisoned needles broken in two on the ground, his voice full of admiration:

"Now that I've tested it, you've truly opened my eyes!"

"These fine steel needles of mine can easily pierce a three-inch-thick cast-iron plate, yet before your divine Lone Bamboo armor, they couldn't so much as scratch the surface!"

"Teacher, this God-Bestowed Lone Bamboo of yours is no ordinary thing. It is truly a peerless defensive Martial Soul, impervious to blades and spears!"

His flattery was seamless, and he had also washed himself clean of the charge of launching a sneak attack.

Tang San, who had always sneered at bootlicking, had now actually learned how to flatter.

Cai Kun couldn't help giving him a thumbs-up. A sneak attack could be explained away like that—he had learned something.

Yu Xiaogang, who had been full of shock and suspicion, felt most of his anger vanish after hearing those words.

He raised his hands, wrapped in bamboo strips, and knocked twice on the bamboo tube over his chest, producing the crisp sound of a wooden fish.

Well, it really was quite sturdy!

If ordinary Lone Bamboo was known for its toughness and fairly high defense,

then this God-Bestowed Ten-Year Solitary Bamboo was known for being super tough and having super high defense.

"Hmph, at least you have some discernment, boy."