Packing Up

Tang Hao said, "I have conditions for letting you go to Nuoding. You can only go if you agree to them."

"I agree," Tang San said without hesitation.

Tang Hao frowned slightly. "You agreed so easily without even asking what my conditions are? As a man, once you promise something, you must keep it. Do not be someone who makes promises lightly."

Tang San replied naturally, "No matter what Father asks me to do, I'll agree. Father must be doing it for my own good."

Tang Hao was slightly stunned. Tang San had said it casually, but it was precisely that natural trust that stirred something in him.

"No matter how you cultivate Soul Power in the future, I want you to promise me this: do not add a single Soul Ring to that hammer Martial Soul. Do not even let anyone see it appear. And do not let anyone know that you possess Twin Martial Souls. Can you do that?"

Tang San froze for a moment. "Then what about the Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul?"

Tang Hao said, "You may use the Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul however you wish, cultivate it, and add any Soul Rings to it. Twin Martial Souls do not require both Martial Souls to gain Soul Rings before Soul Power can continue to advance. As long as one Martial Soul possesses Soul Rings, the bottleneck preventing Soul Power from rising will disappear."

Tang San said, "In other words, from now on, I should only use the Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul, right?"

Tang Hao nodded. "Unless your life is in danger, do not use that hammer."

"Alright, I promise you." Tang San nodded solemnly. To him, whether or not he cultivated a Martial Soul, or which Soul Rings he used, was not important. As long as he could find a way to break through the bottleneck of the Mysterious Heaven Skill, that was enough. His Tang Sect hidden weapons did not require the support of a Martial Soul.

In the eyes of others, Blue Silver Grass might have been nothing more than a useless Martial Soul, but Tang San had never been discouraged by it. Once Tang Sect hidden weapons were cultivated to a certain level, even flowers and leaves could wound people—it was no empty boast, but a real possibility. Blue Silver Grass was condensed from Soul Power, or rather, the inner strength of the Mysterious Heaven Skill. As long as he had enough inner strength, he would have an almost limitless supply of hidden weapons.

"Alright, eat." Tang Hao said. For some reason, Lan Xue did not appear.

The house was not quite destitute, but it was close enough. Tang San had nothing much to prepare. Once he packed away his patched clothes, of varying sizes, he was done.

However, he did not merely pack his things that day as Tang Hao had told him to. The sounds of forging still echoed from his room. Tang San understood that if he wanted to manufacture all kinds of hidden weapons in the future, he could only rely on himself. The forging techniques his father had taught him absolutely required diligent practice. Before his hidden weapon techniques reached their peak, the quality of the hidden weapons themselves would play a decisive role. This was especially true for super hidden weapons on the level of the Wrath of the Buddha Tang Lotus, which were so precise that even the slightest error could not be allowed.

The day passed unusually slowly. It was also the first time since coming to this world that Tang San felt restless. He looked forward to the outside world, but he was also somewhat afraid of it. Whether in the Tang Sect or in Holy Soul Village, he had never experienced training outside. In that respect, he truly was no different from a child. He kept wondering what kind of wonders the outside world would bring him.

After dinner, Tang Hao tossed out a sentence and went out to drink, seeming no different from usual. He told Tang San not to wake him when he left the next morning.

At dawn, Tang San sat on a large boulder atop the mountain, holding a leaf between his fingers. A violet gleam filled his eyes. Perhaps because his body had grown stronger recently, the Purple Demon Eyes had progressed rapidly. He could clearly see even the tiniest vein on the leaf in his hand. He knew that his Purple Demon Eyes had begun to enter the Insightful Realm.

Unlike the Mysterious Heaven Skill, which was divided into nine levels, the Purple Demon Eyes had only four stages: Panoramic Realm, Insightful Realm, Mustard Seed Realm, and Vast Realm. The requirement for inner disciples of the Tang Sect was to reach the Insightful Realm, which was already enough for using hidden weapons. Because Tang San had begun cultivating very early and had benefited from the innate qi that had not fully dispersed after his birth, he had gained a trace of insight into the Insightful Realm at only six years old. But he also knew that nearly every inner disciple of the Tang Sect could bring their Purple Demon Eyes to the Insightful Realm. Yet not even one of them, including the sect master, Elder Tang, had been able to enter the next realm of the Purple Demon Eyes.

After reaching the Insightful Realm, the Purple Demon Eyes would progress extremely slowly. Absorbing Eastern Purple Qi every day without interruption was not something that could be explained by perseverance alone. Thus, after entering the Insightful Realm, most Tang Sect disciples rarely continued cultivating it. Legend had it that one elder of the Tang Sect had reached the Mustard Seed Realm with his Purple Demon Eyes, but he had achieved nothing particularly remarkable—he could merely see more clearly than those in the Insightful Realm. That elder had cultivated the Purple Demon Eyes for more than thirty years.

The inner strength of the Mysterious Heaven Skill surged forth and suddenly flowed into the leaf. Under the effect of his inner strength, the soft leaf immediately became rigid and straight. Tang San flicked his right index and middle fingers, and the leaf spun away, slicing through the air as it flew.