Huang?

Seeing the pitch-black Clear Sky Hammer in Tang San's palm, with a faint pressure lingering around its head, Tang Hao abruptly opened his clouded eyes. A sharp glint flashed through them, quickly turning into indescribable excitement and complexity.

Breaking from his usual behavior, he stepped forward and pulled Tang San tightly into his arms, with such force that he nearly crushed him into his very bones.

"Good son! My good son!"

Tang Hao's voice trembled faintly, almost imperceptibly, as he repeated the words again and again. His tone brimmed with the wild joy and relief of regaining something once lost.

The doubts, struggles, and pain he had suppressed for years temporarily vanished the instant he saw the Clear Sky Hammer.

No matter whose soul resided in this body, awakening the Clear Sky Hammer meant he was an heir of the Clear Sky Sect—Tang Hao's son! At that moment, Tang Hao temporarily set aside all his misgivings and truly regarded Tang San as his own child.

Tang San was stunned by Tang Hao's sudden embrace, then sank into the fatherly love he had longed for over so many years. His eye sockets could not help but moisten.

From childhood to adulthood, all he had received from Tang Hao was indifference and drunkenness. He had never felt such genuine warmth.

He hugged Tang Hao back tightly, feeling the warmth of his father's chest. For a moment, he forgot how to speak, wanting only for this instant to last forever.

Just as this tender moment of father and son unfolded, a familiar voice that Tang Hao found utterly irritating suddenly came from outside the door.

"Tang Hao! Tang Hao! Are you home?"

It was Village Chief Old Jack's voice.

Tang Hao's body stiffened. He then released Tang San, the warmth on his face instantly fading as he returned to his usual coldness.

"Put away your Martial Soul. Don't let anyone know."

"Yes, Father."

Tang San lowered his head and hurriedly recalled the Clear Sky Hammer into his body. The black light flashed and vanished.

He was filled with dissatisfaction toward the person who had interrupted his intimate time with his father. Even though it was Old Jack, who had always taken care of him, he was no exception.

This was the first time in years that he had felt fatherly love, only for it to be abruptly interrupted. The disappointment and resentment in his heart were easy to imagine.

"Tang Hao! Are you drunk again? Open the door, quickly!"

After shouting for so long without getting an answer, Old Jack raised his voice, his tone carrying a hint of urgency.

"I'm coming, I'm coming! What are you making such a fuss about?"

Tang Hao answered impatiently, then got up and pushed open the room door. The already dilapidated wooden door creaked as though it might collapse at any moment.

"Hmph, I'm telling you, Tang Hao, if you still acknowledge Xiao San as your son, then hurry up and prepare some things for him!"

Old Jack planted his cane on the ground, raised his head, and spoke aggressively.

"In three months, I'll come pick him up to attend Nuoding Academy. Don't delay the child's future!"

In the past, Tang Hao would most likely have refused outright. But things were different now.

Tang San had already revealed the heaven-defying talent of Twin Martial Souls. Tang Hao was bound to set him upon the path of a Soul Master and have him inherit the glory of the Clear Sky Sect.

So he merely waved his hand and said flatly, "Got it. You always have to stick your nose into everything."

Seeing Tang Hao agree so readily, Old Jack froze for a moment. Then a victorious smile appeared on his face. As if he had won a great battle, he lifted his chin and said, "Hmph, at least you still look somewhat like a father. All right, I'm leaving. I'll come pick up Xiao San in three months."

With that, he leaned on his cane and slowly turned to leave.

Still resentful that Old Jack had interrupted his time with his father, Tang San did not come out to see him off as usual. He merely hid inside the house, savoring that brief yet warm embrace.

Meanwhile, in Lin Xuan's courtyard, the sky had gradually darkened.

Lin Xuan looked at the ten large Steamed Buns left on the table and the empty vegetable basin, and his whole body went numb.

To test just how much his appetite had increased after awakening his Martial Soul, he had deliberately steamed thirty fist-sized solid Steamed Buns and stir-fried a whole basin of small green vegetables.

Only when his stomach once again gave him that ravenous feeling from noon did he begin to feast.

In the end, he ate a full twenty large Steamed Buns and an entire basin of stir-fried vegetables before he barely felt full.

"Isn't this a bit too much?"

Lin Xuan rubbed his utterly unremarkable flat stomach, his face full of disbelief.

That was only one meal. At this rate, he would need to eat nearly sixty Steamed Buns a day just to fill his stomach.

He began calculating silently.

Based on the current prices in Douluo Continent, one Steamed Bun sold for roughly one Copper Soul Coin. If he bought Steamed Buns every day, he would spend sixty Copper Soul Coins a day, or eighteen hundred Copper Soul Coins a month.

Even if he made them himself and cut the costs in half, it would still take nine hundred Copper Soul Coins a month. Add vegetables, meat, and other expenses, and even one Silver Soul Coin would not be enough to feed him.

One thousand Copper Soul Coins equaled one Silver Soul Coin, while ten Silver Soul Coins equaled one Gold Soul Coin.

Over the past few years, he had scrimped and saved, and with the income from selling grain and eggs, he had only managed to save thirteen Silver Soul Coins and several hundred Copper Soul Coins.

At this rate, he would be broke before he had even spent half a year studying.

"Should I just join some faction?"

Lin Xuan muttered under his breath, but he knew perfectly well that he would never do that.

Things had not reached the point of utter desperation yet. Besides, as long as he could successfully become a Soul Master, every problem could be solved.

He remembered that after becoming a Soul Master, he could receive a subsidy of one Gold Soul Coin every month.

He had never had much of a concept of what a Gold Soul Coin meant before, but now he understood that to ordinary commoners, one Gold Soul Coin was practically a fortune.

On Douluo Continent, Gold Soul Coins were currency used only by Soul Masters. Ordinary commoners used Copper Soul Coins in their daily lives. The difference between the two was like heaven and earth, as though they belonged to two entirely different worlds.

"But with my appetite, won't it keep getting bigger as my Soul Power rises?"

Lin Xuan touched his still-flat stomach, feeling troubled.

He had clearly stuffed so much food into it, yet it had not bulged in the slightest. It was simply incredible.

"Forget it. I'll deal with the future when it comes. Cultivation comes first."

Lin Xuan shook his head and stopped dwelling on his appetite.

With a short run and a leap, he bounced onto his bed, sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and tried to meditate according to the method Su Yuntao had explained earlier.

However, he had barely sat there for a while before his head began to droop uncontrollably. In the end, with a thud, it fell completely forward, and he went straight to sleep.

What he did not know was that after he fell asleep, the changes in his body had only just begun.

Fine Golden Patterns suddenly emerged from Lin Xuan's eyebrow center. As though alive, they slowly spread through his limbs and bones, eventually covering his entire body.

Lin Xuan's body unconsciously shifted from sitting cross-legged to lying flat. His body temperature gradually rose, a faint flush appearing on his skin. His blood flowed several times faster than usual, as though he were undergoing some kind of transformation.

Normally, such intense changes in the body would inevitably be accompanied by excruciating pain. Yet Lin Xuan continued to sleep soundly, with even a faint smile at the corner of his lips, showing no sign of waking.

Within Lin Xuan's dream, he arrived in an extremely strange place.

It was a purely white world, with no sky, no ground, and no point of reference—only endless whiteness.

At the center of that white expanse, a youth about his age floated quietly. His eyes were slightly open, and even from the visible portion alone, it was clear that they were beautiful.

His features were refined and handsome, like a carefully sculpted statue. Yet his gaze was hollow, without the slightest trace of light.

"Am I dreaming? Or..." Lin Xuan looked at the sight before him without any panic. Even transmigration had happened to him, so encountering something strange now did not seem worth making a fuss over.

Based on his many years of reading novels, this was most likely his Golden Finger, and the floating youth was probably the Golden Finger's true form.

"But why does this guy look a little familiar?" Lin Xuan frowned and carefully examined the youth, his heart full of confusion. He was certain he had never met this youth before, yet that inexplicable sense of familiarity would not go away.

"Huang?" Lin Xuan called out tentatively. It was the most impossible answer he could think of, but what if he was right?

Wouldn't that mean he had struck it rich?

Yet the youth remained completely motionless, not even lifting an eyelid.

"All right, I was overthinking it." Lin Xuan lowered his head helplessly, at a loss for words.

"Then who could it be?"

He raised his head again and carefully observed the youth's face. Several keywords suddenly flashed through his mind.

"Blue Silver Grass, Innate Soul Power Level 3, a suddenly enlarged appetite after awakening..."

A name abruptly surfaced in his mind.

"Tang. Wu. Lin!" Lin Xuan spoke the name one syllable at a time, his eyes filled with shock and uncertainty.

Buzz!

It was as if he had called out the youth's true name, producing some marvelous resonance. The youth's body suddenly erupted with dazzling golden light, instantly illuminating the entire white world.

Then, like an arrow released from a bowstring, the youth shot straight toward Lin Xuan.

Lin Xuan felt a powerful force strike him, followed by violent pain in his mind, as though countless pieces of information were flooding into it.

Before he could even cry out, he instantly lost consciousness and sank into a deep coma.

Thus, Lin Xuan had not failed to awaken from the changes in his body because he slept too soundly. Rather, the sudden, agonizing pain had knocked him unconscious, leaving him completely unable to feel those changes.

At that moment, the Golden Patterns on Lin Xuan's body had become even more vivid, their light flickering unstably.

Although the Soul Power within him remained at Level 3, it had become purer and more condensed, and its circulation had also sped up considerably.

As for his Taotie-like appetite, it was because Tang Wulin's soul fragment had fused with him. His body had begun transforming in the direction of Dragon King Transformation, requiring vast amounts of energy to sustain the alteration.