Cage

"Mm..."

Angela rubbed her aching forehead and looked around.

"Lan'er, you're awake. Are you okay?"

Tang San smiled at Angela, looking every bit like the friendly boy next door.

Tang San could guess why Tang Hao had kept Angela around. She was a genius with an exceptional Martial Soul, and a little girl who understood nothing—far too easy to fool! No, this was called preventing a genius from entering the filthy Spirit Hall!

As for keeping Angela deviating from God King Tang's path in his previous life? Since a variable had appeared right in front of him, this life might already be different from the last. Though Tang San believed that no variable could stump him with his wisdom and talent, what was wrong with having one more genius?

Besides, if he really killed Angela, Tang San was still a child in Tang Hao's eyes. How would he explain it to Tang Hao afterward? He had no intention of revealing that he had been reborn, even if Tang Hao was his father.

Of course, Tang San, having guessed Tang Hao's intentions, merely had no objection to taking the girl in. As for the common notion on the continent that geniuses should pair with geniuses, forget it. There was only Xiao Wu in his heart!

"Big brother, what happened just now? Where did that uncle go?"

Angela asked through tears.

She had survived, but merely survived. It seemed that for quite some time, she could only follow this 'pure and spotless' God King Tang.

Even as she put on a performance, Angela could only suppress the deep disgust in her heart.

"I don't know either. I just blacked out, and when I woke up, we were like this."

Tang San put on a confused expression. He knew Tang Hao had done it, but since Tang Hao did not wish to reveal his identity, this filial son who valued his father could only pretend not to know.

"What do we do next?"

Angela continued to ask Tang San while crying.

"Let's go back to the village first."

"Okay. Big brother, what's your name?"

Forcing down her disgust, Angela had no choice but to act as though she would obey Tang San completely.

"My name is Tang San."

"Big Brother Tang San, what should we tell Grandpa when we get back?"

"We'll say that the Spirit Master uncle left with a man in black, and we could only return to the village."

"Big Brother Tang San, why don't we mention that we fainted?"

"Let's not mention that. We don't want Village Chief Jack to worry."

The two figures walked along the road back to Holy Soul Village, exchanging a sentence at a time. What a harmonious and beautiful scene—though only the two children themselves knew what each was thinking.

After they returned to the village, Old Jack heard Tang San and Angela's account and simply assumed Su Yuntao had left with someone because he had business to attend to. He only showed a trace of disappointment that the two children had not joined Spirit Hall. After all, Old Jack was merely an old country man. He truly did not understand what Innate Full Soul Power and joining Spirit Hall represented.

But Old Jack understood very clearly what it meant to be a Spirit Master. Since the two children had not joined Spirit Hall, he prepared to take them to the Soul Master Academy in Nuoding City. The village's Work-Study Student slots would go unused otherwise.

This was where the continent's Work-Study Student system needed some explanation. It was not like in the original work, where each village had only one slot per year. As long as a village produced children with Innate Soul Power, they could attend a nearby junior Soul Master Academy, no matter how many there were, so long as they had it.

Innate Soul Power itself was a low-probability, luck-based random occurrence. In small villages near cities like Holy Soul Village, it was normal for no Spirit Master to emerge for over a decade. In particularly unlucky places, one might not appear even in several hundred years. But there were always exceptions. What if one day, a village produced several children with Innate Soul Power? They could not possibly send the rest home to farm while allowing only one child to become a Spirit Master, could they?

Therefore, as long as one possessed Innate Soul Power and had difficulty paying the steep tuition of a Soul Master Academy, one could attend as a Work-Study Student. There were no other restrictions. How many Work-Study Students could there be in a year? For a Soul Master Academy, that little tuition and those resources could be completely ignored.

As for whether someone who could afford the tuition would insist on taking advantage of this? Come on, they could not afford to lose that much face. This was not a capitalist society where everything revolved around money. A feudal society like Douluo placed great importance on identity and status.

This Work-Study Student system had first been implemented by Spirit Hall, and the major powers followed suit. It had already existed on the continent for several thousand years.

That was getting off topic. As for how Tang Hao later taught Tang San Luanpifeng, and how Angela, in order to survive, could only keep running to Tang Hao's house to curry favor, that would be skipped.

At the junior Soul Master Academy in Nuoding City, outside the Seventh Dorm where the Work-Study Students lived, Angela stood at the dormitory entrance, watching an interesting battle unfold inside.

The two combatants were none other than God King Tang and the love of his life, Xiao Wu. Though rather than a battle, it was more like flirtatious horseplay.

Xiao Wu wrapped her legs around Tang San's head and flung him to the ground with a toss. Yet Tang San showed neither anger nor grievance at being beaten. He even seemed to be enjoying it.

After getting back up, Tang San looked at Xiao Wu. The blazing emotion in his eyes, nearly overflowing, flashed past in an instant.

"I lost. From now on, you're the boss of the Seventh Dorm."

As the battle inside the dorm ended, Angela outside the door recalled the way Tang San had looked at Xiao Wu and fell into thought.

That possessive gaze had only flashed by, and perhaps no one else had noticed it. But how could she, a worldly veteran of social intrigue in her past life, possibly miss it?

Why had Tang San's possessive look just now felt so wrong? Did the original work not say that Tang San merely regarded Xiao Wu as a younger sister at this point? What kind of older brother looked at his younger sister with eyes full of possessiveness?

Shaking her head, Angela once again warned herself: this was a real world. Everything developed according to normal logic, and the original work only had reference value now.

But even judging by the normal logic of events, Tang San's look should not have been like that. Who looked at someone of the opposite sex that way upon meeting them for the first time? Besides, Tang San was not some lust-crazed pervert.

Forget it. If she could not figure it out, she would not think about it for now. She might as well consider what she should do in the future.

Angela had already watched the famous apprenticeship scene from afar. Luckily, she had used the excuse of needing the restroom to slip away early. Otherwise, she probably would not have escaped the fate of becoming a disciple alongside him.

Though life was like that thing—if you could not resist it, enjoy it—Angela currently had no way to escape Tang San's side. Who knew whether Tang Hao was secretly following Tang San right now? Angela did not dare gamble on it.

But becoming the disciple of that so-called Master, Yu Xiaogang, was simply too revolting for a transmigrator.

She probably would not be able to escape the Shrek camp for a long time. But as a normal person, did she really have to follow Shrek in crazily dragging history backward?

Besides, Shrek was less a group of Seven Devils than a collection of accessories for Tang San and his master. Everything existed to highlight Tang San's excellence and strength, though that so-called excellence and strength was rather laughable.

Should she try to seize Shrek's leadership from Tang San?

That was impossible. Leaving aside that all of Shrek consisted of Tang San's accessories, as a modern transmigrator, her values certainly could not align with Shrek's. Nor could she compromise with them. Many of Shrek's actions in the original work crossed her bottom line.

It seemed she should find an opportunity to make a run for it.