The Missing Tang Hao

Lin Ming didn't respond.

Tang San took a deep breath and stopped three steps from his bed.

"What's the age of your first Soul Ring?"

Lin Ming opened his eyes, his gaze calm as he looked at Tang San.

"Why do you ask?"

Tang San pursed his lips.

"I just want to confirm something."

"Confirm what?"

Tang San didn't answer, just looked at him quietly.

Lin Ming looked at him for two seconds, then closed his eyes again.

"I'm not saying."

Those two light words were like the last straw that broke the camel's back.

Tang San stood rooted to the spot, his hands hanging at his sides slowly clenching.

He looked at the youth beside him, who had awakened his Martial Soul on the same day as him.

Holy Soul Village.

The same day.

The same Soul Master awakened their Martial Souls.

That day, Lin Ming's Martial Soul had caused a celestial phenomenon, with golden light tearing through the clouds.

But he, Tang San, only had a common Blue Silver Grass.

Back then, he had told himself.

What good were celestial phenomena?

Innate Soul Power level one, a trash Martial Soul.

He had Innate Full Soul Power.

He had won.

But now?

Lin Ming had achieved what he couldn't.

Going alone into the Soul Beast Forest to hunt a Soul Beast.

Without a teacher to guide him, without anyone to help him determine the Soul Beast's age.

But his own four hundred and thirty-seven years was planned by a top theoretical master, who also helped him determine the Soul Beast's age.

It was gained through a near-death experience.

Why!

Why did his teacher always focus his attention on others?

Tang San's eyes slowly reddened. He didn't want to go back to a time without family affection.

"I asked you the age of your Soul Ring."

His voice gradually turned cold.

"You don't dare to say?"

Lin Ming didn't open his eyes.

Little Lei Yi, however, sat up straight, its small body tensing slightly, its large blue eyes calmly fixated on Tang San's every move.

Tang San took a step forward.

"Four hundred years? Five hundred years?"

He lowered his voice, each word squeezed out as if from between his teeth.

"Did you kill it yourself? Or... you don't dare let anyone know that someone else helped you kill it?"

Lin Ming opened his eyes and looked at Tang San.

His gaze was so calm.

There was no anger, no defense, not even disdain.

In a daze, Tang San felt as if he had returned to before his Martial Soul awakening.

Tang Hao back then seemed to have treated him with the same indifference.

"It has nothing to do with you."

Four words.

Tang San's breathing hitched.

Those four words felt like a bucket of ice water poured over his head.

Ignored.

Completely, utterly ignored.

Tang San's hands, hanging at his sides, clenched suddenly.

He didn't need to think; his body reacted faster than his mind.

Flipping his left hand, a tiny steel needle was pinched between his fingers.

This was a hidden weapon technique etched into his muscle memory.

He wasn't trying to kill Lin Ming.

He wanted to put a crack in that perpetually calm face.

He wanted to prove to Yu Xiaogang.

That taking him as a disciple would be hundreds of times better than Lin Ming.

His target was an acupuncture point on Lin Ming's shoulder, enough to paralyze the entire arm for half an hour.

"Yi."

A crisp chirp.

Little Lei Yi vanished from Lin Ming's shoulder.

The next moment.

Golden arcs of electricity erupted at Tang San's wrist.

Not an attack, but a more precise entanglement.

[Thunder Sacrifice: Bind]

This was a new Soul Skill developed by Little Lei Yi based on Thunder Sacrifice.

The current compressed into thin threads, like arms, at its command.

The threads climbed Tang San's wrist like living things, one loop, two loops, three loops.

The steel needle flew from his grasp.

Clink.

It landed on the ground with a clear sound.

"Urgh."

Tang San grunted, his entire right arm losing sensation.

And the current continued to snake up his arm and into his body.

He instinctively took a step back, his left hand reaching for his waist.

More hidden weapons were concealed within the Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges.

But Little Lei Yi didn't give him the chance.

Golden arcs of electricity flashed again, this time entangling his left wrist.

Then his ankle.

Tang San stumbled, his center of gravity shifting.

He tried to release his Martial Soul.

Blue Silver Grass erupted from his palm, but the arcs of electricity flowed back up along the stems.

Tang San's Martial Soul was forced to retract.

From taking out the needle to both wrists being bound, it had taken barely two seconds.

Little Lei Yi's body had already grown from ten centimeters to its combat form of one meter twenty-nine.

It hovered behind Tang San, its hands gripping the two thin threads of electricity and giving a gentle tug.

Tang San fell to one knee.

He looked up, his eyes red-rimmed.

Lin Ming had already gotten out of bed and stood before Tang San, looking down at him.

"Sneak attack."

Lin Ming spoke.

Tang San said nothing. He knelt there, his hands bound behind his back by the electric threads, and looked up to meet Lin Ming's gaze.

He looked into those calm eyes.

He opened his mouth, wanting to say many things.

But in the end, he said nothing.

"Steel needle."

Lin Ming glanced at the tiny hidden weapon on the ground but didn't touch it.

Who knew if it was poisoned.

"Quenched with poison?"

Tang San's pupils contracted slightly.

"No, just anesthetic."

His voice was hoarse.

Lin Ming looked at the needle, silent for two seconds.

"Next time, this needle will pierce your own body."

Tang San's body stiffened abruptly.

Lin Ming had already turned and walked to the bedside, and Little Lei Yi released its electric arc threads.

The golden threads, carrying a burning and paralyzing sensation, slid off Tang San's wrist and dissipated into the air.

The combat form rapidly retracted, once again becoming a ten-centimeter mascot.

It landed back on Lin Ming's shoulder, rubbing against his neck.

Its blue eyes glanced at Tang San before turning away.

Tang San remained kneeling on the ground, a residual numbness in his wrists, along with a burning sensation.

He didn't stand up immediately.

Not because he couldn't.

But because he dared not.

He feared that if he stood up, he would see the indifference in Lin Ming's eyes.

After a long while.

Tang San slowly stood up.

He pushed open the door to the seventh room.

Outside the door was a dim corridor.

He walked in.

After Tang San left, Lin Ming, who had been sitting cross-legged on the bed, opened his eyes.

"Why... is there no aura anymore."

Ever since Tang San made his move just now, he had been tense, not daring to relax in the slightest.

"Yi."

Little Lei Yi made a sound.

As if asking: Will he come?

Lin Ming did not answer.

From the moment Tang San acted, to Little Lei Yi restraining him, to him kneeling on the ground.

Up until now.

That trace of chaotic Soul Power hidden in the air had still not appeared.

It had vanished.

On his way back to Nuoding Academy, he had found several beggars in each town.

Using two copper Soul Coins as payment, he had them deliver some letters to the Martial Soul Hall.

The content was simple.

"A student in Nuoding City has been crippled. I heard a Titled Douluo with a hammer Martial Soul did it, and he's still in the city."

No signature.

No date.

He didn't know if it would be useful, but he had to try.

Now it seemed.

It had worked.

For a Titled Douluo to kill a seven-year-old work-study student was easier than crushing an ant.

He was unwilling to gamble his own life on the other party's mercy.

Lin Ming withdrew his thoughts and looked down at his palm.

Level fifteen.

Far from enough.

He set his gaze on the ring on his finger.

Remembering a certain promise.

"After reaching level twenty, you must come to Skywater Academy."

Soon.