A Year

Tang San and Xiao Wu walked side by side on the road back to the academy.

Xiao Wu suddenly let out a full belch, then burst out laughing.

"Third Brother," she said, her voice filled with lazy satisfaction, "you're a really good person."

Tang San glanced at her. "Just because I treated you to a meal?"

"Not just that." Xiao Wu shook her head. "You stood up for me in the cafeteria last time, and today you helped me fight, and... anyway, you're a really good person."

Tang San smiled and made an offhand joke. "You're my boss. If I don't help you, who would I help?"

"And," Xiao Wu's voice suddenly dropped, a faint blush spreading across her face, "I feel really comfortable around you. Especially since you came back after getting your Soul Ring, I keep feeling like there's a fragrance coming from you... I can't quite say what it smells like, but it smells really nice. Just smelling it makes me feel at ease."

As Xiao Wu spoke, she didn't look at Tang San. Her gaze rested on the road ahead, and the roots of her ears were slightly red. Her two rabbit ears twitched involuntarily, as if concealing some unease.

Hearing this, Tang San felt a slight stir in his heart. He already had a rough idea of what Xiao Wu was talking about.

The Evergreen Vine Soul Ring had given him abundant vitality. Ordinary people might not feel anything from it, but Xiao Wu, as a Soul Beast, could actually sense it.

Soul Beasts were naturally sensitive to vitality. The more vigorous a creature's vitality, the more attractive it was to them.

Just like the Lake of Life in the Star Dou Great Forest, which was occupied by powerful Soul Beasts. Xiao Wu's attraction to the vitality in him was instinctive.

Tang San didn't point this out. He merely smiled and said, "It's probably the scent of flowers I picked up in the Soul Hunting Forest."

Xiao Wu said, "Oh." It was unclear whether she believed him, but the blush gradually faded from her face, and she returned to her usual carefree self.

She quickened her pace, walked ahead of Tang San, then turned to face him and walked backward, her beautiful eyes reflecting the sunset glow filling the sky.

"Third Brother, I'll have your back from now on."

Looking into her earnest eyes, Tang San smiled helplessly and nodded.

"Okay."

One year later.

Tang San walked out of Yu Xiaogang's residence, holding a copy of the Plant-type Soul Beast Illustrated Guide, which he had been studying lately.

A year was neither long nor short.

Tang San had grown quite a bit taller, now standing over 1.4 meters. Long-term exercise and meditation had made him much sturdier than others his age. His shoulders were broad, his waist and back straight, and he walked with a steadiness that didn't match his age. Tang San's features had also matured somewhat, losing some of their childishness and gaining a touch of the depth that came with passing years.

Over the past year, Tang San had not gone to the smithy to work the forge. Instead, he had thrown himself wholeheartedly into training, living a very regular life.

Tang San had thought it through. He had no urgent need for money now. With his Soul Master allowance, his wages as a work-study student, and the little savings he had left, he had no trouble feeding himself for the time being.

What Tang San needed was to raise his Soul Power quickly and lay a solid foundation for winning the Soul Master Tournament in the future. Tang San had no cultivation methods, and the only way he could think of to improve his chances of winning was to raise his Soul Power with all his might.

Besides, once the golden period for cultivating Soul Power was missed, it could never be made up for. He truly had Innate Full Soul Power, and Tang San didn't want to waste this rare talent for cultivation.

Every morning, Tang San ran laps around the field, never missing a day, come wind or rain.

After running and eating breakfast, he went to Yu Xiaogang's place for two hours of academic lessons.

They were called "academic lessons," but they were actually Martial Soul Theory lessons.

Yu Xiaogang had changed considerably since returning from the Soul Hunting Forest.

That incident had dealt Yu Xiaogang a far greater blow than outsiders could see. It was not only a physical injury, but also a mental torment.

Yu Xiaogang's face always bore a look of gloom, and his voice had grown somewhat quieter than before. Sometimes he even held his fingers in a delicate orchid gesture, and there were signs that his beard was falling out.

While teaching Tang San about Martial Souls, he would occasionally lose focus and stare blankly in some direction.

Tang San cooperated well, listening when he should listen, asking questions when he should ask, and not saying a word he shouldn't. Tang San couldn't possibly adopt all of Yu Xiaogang's theories wholesale as he had in the original story, so he chose what to take in.

After class, Tang San would go to the back mountain to practice his hammer technique for two hours. Although he couldn't use the Clear Sky Hammer now, he couldn't let his hammer technique fall behind.

Tang San could already execute all eighty-one swings of the Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer, but as his body grew, he gained new insights into strength.

And ever since obtaining his First Soul Ring, Tang San's ability to recover his strength had shown itself to the fullest during this year of cultivation.

Whenever he finished all eighty-one swings and was utterly exhausted, Tang San only needed to sit cross-legged and regulate his breathing for a quarter of an hour somewhere the Blue Silver Grass grew thickly. He would immediately be full of life and vigor again.

In the afternoons, Tang San cultivated his Blue Silver Grass.

Tang San sat cross-legged amid the Blue Silver Grass and closed his eyes.

Emerald-green vines extended from his palm, roaming through the grass like agile serpents and intertwining with the wild Blue Silver Grass around him.

Tang San's spiritual power extended outward with the vines, sensing the rhythm of life in every blade of Blue Silver Grass. Though they were weak, every one of them was striving to grow, absorbing sunlight, drawing in water, and living tenaciously.

The characteristic of the Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul was "vitality," and the best way to increase vitality was to immerse oneself in an environment teeming with it, to sense it, resonate with it, and absorb it.

Tang San didn't know whether this method was right, but he could feel that, over the past year, the connection between his Blue Silver Grass and the earth and vegetation had grown closer.

It was a wonderful feeling, as though his senses had been magnified without limit, making the entire world clearer and richer.

Besides cultivating his Martial Soul, Tang San was also studying something else: Heart Separation Control. He had gotten the inspiration from the original story.

Tang San's training method was simple: he drew circles with his left hand and squares with his right, training himself to divide his consciousness.

It sounded easy, but it was hard to do, and terribly monotonous. But Tang San had no other choice, so he could only keep torturing himself slowly like this.

As in the morning, once he grew tired from training, he would meditate and cultivate on the spot.

By now, Tang San could basically control two Blue Silver vines at once and make precise attacks in different directions.

Tang San remembered that Heart Separation Control had five levels in total, and he believed he should already have entered the second level.

If he could master it, he would be able to control or attack seven directions at once.

The road was still long, but Tang San felt he was heading in the right direction.

Tang San spent his evenings continuing the meditation and cultivation he had done in the afternoon.

Over the course of the year, Tang San's Soul Power had risen from the peak of level thirteen to level eighteen, an increase of more than four levels.

More than four levels in a year was a terrifying improvement for others, but for someone with Innate Full Soul Power like himself, Tang San thought it was only so-so.

That was because Xiao Wu, who didn't cultivate particularly hard, had also seen her Soul Power Level shoot up, rising all the way from level twelve to level sixteen.

This left Tang San feeling terribly aggrieved, and he silently grumbled that Xiao Wu was simply not human.