Changes

A splash of cold water hit his face, waking Tang San up considerably.

He had barely slept all night.

When he got up again, faint dark circles had appeared beneath his eyes.

They were not obvious, but they were there.

But compared to Tang Hao, who had also gone without sleep all night, this bit of mental fatigue was not even worth scratching an itch.

Whether physically or mentally, a Titled Douluo stood at the peak of the Soul Master World.

Their strength was unimaginably formidable.

Before long, Tang San had finished making the porridge.

But to his surprise, his father, Tang Hao, had somehow already woken up and was sitting at the table, beckoning to him.

Tang San set down the bowl in his hand and quickly walked over to Tang Hao.

A heavy hand settled on Tang San's shoulder.

Tang Hao studied Tang San intently.

Only after a long while did he finally break the silence.

"Xiao San, do you really want to study at a Soul Master Academy and become a Soul Master?"

Tang San hesitated for a moment, then nodded with a firm gaze.

A trace of nostalgia and conflict flashed through Tang Hao's eyes. He patted Tang San's shoulder heavily. "All right. I agree to let you go."

Joy welled up on Tang San's face, and he blurted out, "Really?"

"Of course it's true."

"However, you must first agree to some of my conditions."

As if something had stirred up old memories, Tang Hao's voice gradually sank.

Thin wisps of cooking smoke rose into the air.

The same was true for every household.

Clearly, this peaceful little village was slowly losing its tranquility.

Yet when night fell once more, the village would return to that tranquility again.

Lu Yuan ran up to the hillside early in the morning.

A gentle breeze swept across the grass, yet it could not conceal the sense of rippling fluctuations coming from space.

He stretched out his hand in frustration. The markings on the back of his hand gleamed beneath the sunlight.

Of course, that might have just been an illusion.

After all, sunlight itself gleamed.

As Lu Yuan gnawed on a sour wild fruit, he tried to grasp those fluctuations.

But unfortunately, he failed.

Still, this failure allowed him to discover a few patterns.

If he changed the method of use, gave up on capturing them, and instead flicked them, there seemed to be a different result.

His fingertips twitched slightly.

Following his instincts, he forcefully flicked one of the most distinct ripple patterns.

The total amount of Soul Power in his body abruptly dropped by roughly one-tenth.

Then, the spatial fluctuations beside his hand suddenly reacted differently.

More accurately, they became chaotic for a moment.

That ripple pattern snapped apart as its trajectory was forcibly altered by the power.

In Lu Yuan's perception, it was more like a slightly shorter transparent thread.

This thin, semi-arc-shaped ripple shot straight ahead.

The distant boulder had no ability to resist and was directly sliced in half.

The cut was smooth as a mirror.

But it was not over yet.

Although the arc of that ripple had indeed shrunk considerably, it still carried enough force to effortlessly pass through a nearby tree.

Its curved arc slowly flattened out.

In the end, the ripple gradually straightened on its own and vanished into the distant space.

It seemed to merge with space once more.

"Spatial Severance."

Looking at the boulder cut in half, then reaching out to touch the tree that had lost a small section of its trunk, Lu Yuan's tone was full of certainty.

Although the power and range of this Spatial Severance were both small, and its trajectory was still a straight line,

judging from its sharpness, it was undoubtedly Spatial Severance.

There was no problem with its essence.

The only problem was proficiency.

Spatial Severance used just after getting started and Spatial Severance used at full proficiency were definitely not equal in power.

The ripple encountered no resistance whatsoever as it traveled forward.

That included cutting through the boulder!

The only thing that changed was the arc of the ripple.

Although the arc eventually faded away, that was perfectly normal.

After all, he had only supplied so much Soul Power.

He could not expect this ripple to fly tens of thousands of meters while remaining completely undiminished.

The Soul Power within his body recovered at an extremely slow rate.

Of course, if he entered a meditative state, his Soul Power would recover a little faster.

But his most urgent task was to improve his proficiency.

Only by raising his proficiency higher and higher could he possibly come into contact with and develop more advanced spatial manipulation techniques.

For example, a Spatial Barrier.

Or Spatial Solidification.

Or the dual Kamui of a certain someone.

Or Minato's Flying Thunder God Second Step.

In short, for someone proficient in the space attribute, using or developing practical and flashy tricks was not difficult.

What was wrong with being a little cooler and flashier?

It was perfectly normal.

After all, the essence of space was unpredictability.

Lu Yuan carefully wrapped his fingers in Soul Power and continuously gestured through the air.

Inside the village.

"What?!"

Inside a house, Tang San could not help letting out a cry of alarm.

After agreeing to his father's many conditions, Tang San had thought that this was the final obstacle. Everything should have gone smoothly from here on out.

He had never expected the spot to be gone already!

It had been given to another person with Innate Full Soul Power—Lu Yuan.

Someone from the same village as him.

They were not particularly close friends, but they at least knew each other by sight.

"Xiao San, you really did come a little too late. If it had been last night... sigh."

A trace of regret flashed across Old Jack's face.

To be honest, if Tang San had agreed on the spot, or if he had found Old Jack before Old Jack agreed to Lu Yuan's request, the admissions spot would have long since been settled.

But now that things had reached this point, there was no room for regret.

Tang San was clever and likable.

But as the village chief, Old Jack could not go back on his word.

He had only made the agreement with Xiao Yuan last night, and not even a day had passed before he reneged.

Where would that leave his dignity?

He could forcefully go back on his word and give the admissions spot to Tang San.

But using his status to bully a six-year-old orphan...

Never mind whether he was in the right; even if he were, his conscience would not allow him to do such a thing.

Tang San shot to his feet.

"How could he do this? I'm going to find him and clear this up!"

"Wait."

Old Jack instinctively reached out to stop him, but Tang San had already run outside.

Old Jack felt nothing but a faint sense of exhaustion.

He sighed and jogged after Tang San while calling out to him.

As an elder, he always considered more things.

Tang San was clever, but he was also a proud child.

And Lu Yuan happened to be a proud child as well.

He would rather go hungry often than visit his neighbors to beg for a bite to eat.

Two proud children meeting each other, with one of them arriving in anger.

They might really end up fighting.

A fight itself was nothing. Which of the mischievous children in the village had never fought before?

But once they started, if no one was there to pull them apart, one of those two proud children would probably have to fall before it ended.

Please don't let anything happen!

But to Tang San's disappointment, he came up empty-handed.

Judging from the details, Lu Yuan had likely gone out early in the morning.

That left him utterly frustrated.

Old Jack, however, felt much more at ease.

But Tang San refused to give up and went from house to house asking about Lu Yuan's whereabouts.

"You're looking for Xiao Yuan? He went out early this morning. He should be at one of the nearby hills."

"I can't say exactly which hill, but he definitely went out."

Old Jack's face fell as he fiercely glared at the innocent-looking middle-aged woman.

When he turned back around,

sure enough, Tang San had run off again.

Thus, when Old Jack arrived at the foot of the hill with the indignant Tang San, what they saw was Lu Yuan gesturing through the air.

Tang San raised his head and looked at Lu Yuan on the hillside, who was doing who knew what. The anger in his heart surged upward.

It was this despicable person who had taken advantage of his predicament and stolen his admissions spot!

And he had thought the other boy was his friend!

Who would have thought that he would do something so opportunistic!

Tang San walked expressionlessly up to Lu Yuan. A cold gleam flickered in his eyes as he ground his teeth and forced out a sentence through clenched jaws:

"You're very pleased with yourself, aren't you?"

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