What? Awakening a Martial Soul Costs Money? (New Book Launch, Please Bookmark!)

Hearing the voice, Tang San frowned slightly, stood up, brushed the dust from his pants, and walked into the shop.

Although, according to his memories, this father often beat and scolded him, for someone who had barely experienced fatherly love in either of his previous two lives, he was already content that the man cooked for him after he turned six and gave him someone he could call Dad.

After all, he had been an orphan in his first life, while Tang Hao in his second life had never shown him even a trace of fatherly love as a child. Once he took the initiative to cook, even that responsibility had fallen onto his shoulders.

As the capital, Heaven Dou City was a place where every inch of land was worth a fortune. Taking over a shop was already Tang Ba's limit, so they made do with eating and sleeping in the forging room at the back of the shop.

Heaven Dou City was located in the northern part of the continent, where temperatures were low for most of the year. Sleeping in the forging room also allowed them to keep warm with the heat radiating from the forge.

The moment Tang San entered the forging room, he saw a slovenly, scruffy middle-aged man carrying two plates of food out of the Back Kitchen. The instant the man saw Tang San, his expression visibly darkened.

"You know to come back when it's time to eat. I have to wait on you all day long, and even I have to carry the dishes over. You useless brat, do I have to feed you too!?"

The man was naturally Tang San's father after his rebirth, Tang Ba.

Seeing Tang San lower his head without speaking, Tang Ba snorted and jerked his chin toward the pile of wine bottles nearby.

"Go get me two bottles of wine."

"Yes, Dad."

After searching through the empty bottles for quite some time, an awkward look gradually appeared on Tang San's face. He looked at Tang Ba and spoke quietly.

"Dad, it seems the wine has all been drunk."

Tang Ba clicked his tongue irritably. After feeling around his body and finding only two Silver Soul Coins, his expression grew even uglier.

Business at the Blacksmith Shop was not very good. No one knew whether they would get any work in the next few days. If he spent their remaining money on wine, they would probably starve to death.

"Fine, get over here and eat. Why didn't your mother take you with her when she ran away? Now I can't even drink..."

Without the slightest restraint, Tang Ba vented his emotions on Tang San. He plopped down in his seat, picked up his bowl, and began eating.

There were only two vegetable dishes on the table. The one placed before Tang Ba had a few scattered bits of minced meat in it, meant for him to eat while drinking.

Tang San could naturally only eat the other, entirely vegetarian dish. Still, it was nothing to him. After all, he had endured days in his past life when all he could drink was plain rice porridge.

After all, this man was his father!

In Tang San's eyes, father and son were father and son. No matter how wrong a father might be, he was still one's father. In his first life, he had once heard a saying: Filial piety is the most important virtue.

Though he had been an orphan at the time, he had longed for a family and deeply agreed with those words.

Perhaps it was precisely this mindset that moved Heaven, allowing him to have a father by his side in every rebirth afterward!

As for the mother Tang Ba had mentioned just now, Tang San had some impressions of her as well. In his memories, she had been a very beautiful woman. Her appearance was not stunningly peerless, but among ordinary people, she would have been exceptionally eye-catching.

As for how the two had met, the original owner had once heard his mother talk about it when he was young. After Tang Ba came to Heaven Dou City, his pride and arrogance had left him struggling financially for the first few years. However, his luck had been fairly good. Since he had come from the Clear Sky Sect, he had occasionally received orders for hidden weapons from the Tang Sect, the continent's number one sect ten thousand years ago.

Although the Tang Sect had declined, it had still allowed Tang Ba to earn some money while barely clinging on, and their lives gradually improved. It was then that his mother noticed Tang Ba's abilities and married him. Two years later, Tang San was born.

But the good times did not last. The Tang Sect's decline continued, and before long, it no longer had any orders for Tang Ba. Having lost his largest source of income, Tang Ba developed a habit of heavy drinking under the pressures of life. He frequently argued with Tang San's mother, until things escalated into domestic violence.

At first, his mother still hoped that his father would overcome his difficulties and return to how he used to be. Yet all she received was disappointment after disappointment. Finally, when Tang San was four years old, unable to endure it any longer, she chose to abandon her husband and child and leave far away.

From then on, Tang Ba's drinking grew even worse. Not only did he add the Tang Sect to the targets of his drunken curses, but he also shifted all his fury over being abandoned by Tang San's mother onto Tang San.

Even before that, Tang Ba had named him Tang San as an outlet for the grievances he had suffered in the Clear Sky Sect. With the two burdens piled together, the beatings and scoldings naturally became even more severe.

Of course, none of this meant much to Tang San now. After all, Filial piety is the most important virtue. No matter how his father treated him, he was still his father.

Coincidentally, although his mother had been an ordinary person without Soul Power, her Martial Soul had been Blue Silver Grass, while his father's Martial Soul was the Clear Sky Hammer.

Thinking of this, Tang San could not help feeling a sense of destiny wash over him. Excited, he looked up at Tang Ba and asked, "Dad, I'm already six years old. When can I awaken my Martial Soul?"

Tang Ba frowned slightly and looked at him as though he were an idiot. "Why awaken a Martial Soul? With that money, I could drink for who knows how many meals. It's good enough that I feed you, and you still want to spend my money to awaken a Martial Soul?"

Tang San froze for a moment and instinctively asked, "Isn't awakening a Martial Soul free?"

"Free?" Tang Ba sneered. "There are free options. Become a servant for some noble family, or enlist in the army, and you can awaken your Martial Soul for free. When you're a little older, I can indeed send you off."

"But I heard that Spirit Hall used to awaken Martial Souls for commoners for free ten thousand years ago."

Tang Ba raised his brows. "Oh? So you don't just know how to eat all day. You even know about Spirit Hall. Who told you that?"

However, he did not dwell on it. Before Tang San could answer, he continued, though his tone carried a hint of mockery.

"Spirit Hall did awaken Martial Souls for free, but where is Spirit Hall now? It was destroyed ten thousand years ago."

Tang San's expression stiffened for an instant. As a Deity, he naturally would not have cared whether awakening a Martial Soul was free, since the Divine Realm had rules forbidding Deities from casually interfering with lower planes.

And as one of the Divine Realm's three great enforcers, Tang San naturally had to lead by example.

It was precisely because he had always fulfilled his duties conscientiously and never overstepped the rules that the two God Kings, Evil and Kindness, had placed such high hopes in him, even entrusting the Divine Realm to him before they left.

Yet today, the bitter fruit he had personally planted ten thousand years ago had been served before him.

Leaving him no choice but to taste it himself.