Tang San, Driven to Despair

Brother Dao smiled coldly and pulled out the Indentured Servitude Contract Ning Chuan had signed back then. "You must be that so-called Grandmaster, right? This fine disciple of yours borrowed a usurious loan of one hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins from me just so he could give you a gift and get you to take him as your student."

The moment those words came out, the whole place erupted. No one had expected that this fraud of a Grandmaster had not only tricked Tang San into acknowledging him as his teacher, but had even conned the boy into borrowing a usurious loan to satisfy his own selfish desires. He was simply leading students astray.

"There must be some misunderstanding here!" Yu Xiaogang glanced at the contract and nearly fainted. It had Tang San's signature and fingerprint on it. With that much money, if Xiao San really had borrowed it, even selling him off would not be enough to pay it back, let alone with interest from a usurious loan. Unless he returned to the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect to get money—but that would be worse than killing him.

Under the influence of the God-Level Side Effect System, Brother Dao and his cronies were convinced that the person they needed to collect from was Tang San. Even the signed contract had become one signed by Tang San, and he did not care what Yu Xiaogang said. His gaze turned to the Dean of Notting Academy. "Heh, Dean Jeno, you know how I do things. If no one pays back the money for him, I'll sell him off to cover the debt."

"Grandmaster, did your disciple borrow money from him or not?"

Dean Jeno of Notting Academy looked at Yu Xiaogang with a helpless expression. The other party had a contract in hand, and on top of that, his Underground Casino had countless ties to the nobles of the Heaven Dou Empire. Even he had no way to deal with this.

"No. Absolutely not. With Xiao San's character, if he had borrowed money from him, he definitely would have told me. Besides, ever since Xiao San enrolled, he's spent most of his time with me. A few days ago, I even took him out to hunt for a spirit ring, so how could he have borrowed money? He has no use for that much money anyway."

Yu Xiaogang hurriedly denied it.

Dean Jeno took a deep breath. "Fine. I believe you. Director Su, go personally and bring Tang San here. We'll compare the handwriting and fingerprints. If this money really was borrowed by Tang San, then Notting Academy will no longer interfere in this matter." The last sentence was directed at Brother Dao.

"Fine. I'm not afraid of you refusing to pay." Brother Dao said.

A moment later, Tang San was brought over by Director Su. "Teacher! Dean!"

"Xiao San, are you confident?" Yu Xiaogang looked at Tang San worriedly.

"Don't worry, Teacher. Heaven sees all that people do." At this moment, in Tang San's heart, Brother Dao and the others had already been branded as people on the Path to Death. Not only had these people sent men to block him without asking for the reason, they had even caused trouble at the academy. They were already on the Path to Death.

"Enough nonsense. Kid, sign your name and press your fingerprint on this sheet of paper. Let me tell you, even if you can fake a signature, you can't fake a fingerprint—unless you're willing to chop off both your hands."

Brother Dao sneered and had someone bring over white paper and red ink paste. They were veterans of the trade. To prevent debtors from denying their debts, they always had them press prints with both hands.

Very soon, Tang San wrote his name on the paper and pressed his fingerprint down. He did not tamper with it at all, because he knew he had never borrowed money from them.

Brother Dao took the paper and merely swept it with an indifferent glance before comparing the contract Ning Chuan had signed that day with the paper Tang San had just signed. The result left no room for doubt: the signatures and fingerprints on them were exactly the same.

It was actually real. Tang San had truly borrowed a usurious loan!

Forget everyone else—even Tang San himself was shocked.

What followed was fury. His eyes turned bloodshot, and he panted like an enraged bull as he said, "Fake. All of this is fake. You framed me. I want you dead."

As he spoke, he raised his hand and fired the Silent Sleeve Arrow hidden in his sleeve toward Brother Dao.

Caught off guard, Brother Dao nearly had his throat sealed by the arrow. However, he was still a Soul Ancestor after all. At the critical moment, he turned his head and barely dodged the sleeve arrow by a hair. The underling behind him was not so lucky, though; his head was pierced straight through.

"Good kid. If I catch you today, I'll skin you alive."

Brother Dao, who had reacted by then, was both shocked and furious. With a wave of his hand, he brought his blade chopping down toward Tang San. After missing with one strike, Tang San knew he was no match for Brother Dao and wanted to use Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track to flee. However, at this moment, he was surrounded by Brother Dao, a Soul Ancestor, and over a hundred underlings from the Underground Casino, among whom were several spirit masters. Even if he grew wings, escaping would be difficult.

He only managed to narrowly dodge the first two slashes. No matter what, he could not avoid the third slash, because he had already been firmly pinned down by two Soul Grandmasters beside Brother Dao.

At this moment, Tang San seemed to have returned to Ghost Sorrow Cliff. The present scene was so very similar to when he had been forced to jump off Ghost Sorrow Cliff in his previous life.

Seeing that the blade was about to fall on Tang San, right at this moment of extreme crisis, Yu Xiaogang's voice rang out in everyone's minds. "Enough!"

"What, old man? You want to stand up for your disciple?" Brother Dao stopped his chopping motion and placed the gleaming blade against Tang San's neck.

Yu Xiaogang said, "That's right. I'll repay this money for him."

He had already thought it through. Returning home was definitely impossible, but he could go to Spirit City to find BiBi Dong. Although he had once sworn in his heart never to see that woman again, for the sake of his disciple Tang San, he could only wrong himself a little and go find her.

While he was at it, he could also ask her how to get through the difficult hurdle of Twin Spirits.

"What makes you think you can?" Brother Dao questioned.

"With this." Yu Xiaogang hesitated for a moment, then took out a long-sealed blue token from his Storage Soul Tool. A blue lightning dragon was carved on it. This was the identity token of a disciple of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Family. Although he had been expelled from the family back then, the token had not been taken back.

Brother Dao's eyes narrowed slightly, and a wary look appeared on his face. "So you're from that family. Fine... I'll give you face... We're leaving..."

As he spoke, under everyone's astonished gazes, Brother Dao released Tang San and led his men away in a grand procession.

"Teacher!" At this moment, Tang San's eyes had already reddened. This was not only because he was moved, but also because he had suffered a grievance.

Tang San had always been an extremely fragile person inside, the kind with a glass heart in the traditional sense.

Now that he had suffered such a great grievance, it was already good enough that he had not burst into tears on the spot.

"Don't say anything, Xiao San. Teacher believes you."

Yu Xiaogang stroked Tang San's head.

"What a touching scene of a loving father and filial son. No, that's not right. It should be a kind teacher and filial disciple."

Ning Chuan sighed inwardly. Still, this could be considered having done a good deed. He had both screwed over Tang San and removed a great scourge for the people.

Brother Dao's group had lingered in Notting City's Underground World for many years.

Who knew how many people they had harmed? Now that they had "wronged" Tang San like this, Tang Hao behind him definitely would not let them off.

P.S. Second update.