I Was Born to Walk in the Light!

In the forest's southeastern reaches, the scenery changed abruptly.

As the three ventured deeper, the trees around them gradually gave way to open meadows and scattered groves.

The rotten stench of the swamp vanished, replaced by a rich...

Sunflower seed smell?

Sunlight poured down unhindered, warming them from head to toe.

"Beep—"

Su Yun tapped his earpiece and stopped in front of a gently sloping hill.

"We're here."

Su Yun adjusted his sunglasses, the corners of his mouth lifting.

"Lucky us. The whole family's home."

Tang San and Yu Xiaogang followed his gaze.

The next second, both their expressions froze.

A golden sea stretched before them.

Hundreds, even thousands, of enormous sunflowers stood in neat rows, their flower heads all facing the sun.

A breeze swept through, sending waves of gold rippling across the field. The sight was breathtaking.

And at its very center grew a flower that towered above all the rest, a true king among them.

It stood three meters tall. Its stalk wasn't the lush green of an ordinary plant, but a metallic reddish gold.

Its enormous flower head was as big as a millstone, surrounded by a faint ring of golden flames, like a miniature sun rising from the earth.

"Huh?"

Yu Xiaogang stared for a full three seconds before letting out a scoff.

"Su Yun... you brought us two kilometers just to look at... crops?"

Grandmaster strode forward and pointed at the sea of flowers, like a doctoral advisor who'd been driven to laughter by one of his students' papers.

"This is an evolved Iron Stem Sunflower. Its scientific name is the Golden Sun Crown Sunflower!"

"Besides its vigorous vitality and stalks as hard as iron, this Soul Beast's biggest selling point is that its seeds are pretty tasty!"

Grandmaster turned around and spread his hands, looking at Tang San in pained disbelief.

"Did Su Yun bring you here for a spring picnic? If you absorb this, your Blue Silver Grass will become as hard as wire, sure—but what else can it do? Feed your enemies sunflower seeds?"

"It's purely an ornamental plant! It's not poisonous! It can't control anyone! It's even lost its Entanglement ability because its stalks are too hard!"

"This completely contradicts our plan to combine control with offense! It's a dead-end path that'll turn a Trash Martial Soul into scrap metal!"

As Grandmaster unleashed his triple tirade, Su Yun didn't get angry.

He simply walked to the edge of the flower field and casually scooped up a handful of seeds.

"Grandmaster, you can't arrange a marriage for him like that, can you?"

"What arranged marriage?" Yu Xiaogang sputtered, bristling with anger.

"You insist that Little San's Blue Silver Grass marry a venomous snake because the snake's family is rich and it can fight. You don't care whether it suits Little San's Martial Soul. Even if they end up fighting all the time, you'd still say that's how to build a prosperous life."

Su Yun pointed at the imposing Golden Sun Crown Sunflower in the middle of the field.

"But as the matchmaker, I'm only looking for a suitable match."

"This Sunflower Queen and Little San's Blue Silver Grass are a match made in heaven."

"Preposterous! This is the biggest joke I've ever heard!"

Yu Xiaogang was so angry that he flung his sleeves about, spittle flying everywhere.

"Cultivating Martial Souls is about Defying Fate! Who cares whether you like it?"

"Little San!" Yu Xiaogang didn't want to waste another word on the lunatic Su Yun, so he ordered Tang San directly. "Stop staring! We're leaving! We'll head northwest to find a Datura Snake. Don't let a worthless flower with a pretty face fool you!"

Tang San didn't move.

He stood there, his gaze locked on the Golden Sun Crown Sunflower radiating a scorching heat.

Logic told him that Grandmaster was right.

As a disciple of the Tang Sect, poison was the way to go.

Sunflowers?

They sounded like they had nothing to do with killing techniques.

But...

The Mysterious Heaven Skill inside Tang San was churning like he'd been pumped full of stimulants.

"You can try touching it."

Su Yun's voice rang out at just the right moment, tinged with temptation.

"Say hello with your Martial Soul. It's not like touching it'll get you pregnant."

Tang San hesitated, then raised his right hand.

Blue light surged in his palm as a strand of Blue Silver Grass slowly emerged. It crept toward an ordinary sunflower at the edge of the field and gently touched it.

Hum!

The moment they made contact, Tang San's pupils shrank.

For an instant, he felt like a withered sponge, suddenly tossed into a warm ocean of sunlight.

The pure light element flowing through the sunflower passed unhindered along the Blue Silver Grass and into his body.

His Blue Silver Grass, cold and dim just moments ago, suddenly straightened its stalk!

The veins on its leaves took on a faint, noble golden sheen!

This feeling...

It was like a starving person finally getting a bite of hot food...

Was my Martial Soul cheering?

Was it yearning for that power?

"Feel it?"

Su Yun adjusted his sunglasses, the playful curve of his lips growing wider.

He walked over to Tang San, his voice suddenly turning solemn.

"Little San, that warmth you felt just now... did you hear it?"

Tang San froze, then asked instinctively,

"Hear what?"

Su Yun slowly raised his head and gazed at the blazing sun at a forty-five-degree angle.

"The call of the light."

"The call... of the light?"

Tang San was completely baffled. This was beyond anything he knew.

"That's right."

Su Yun lowered his gaze and pointed at the Golden Sun Crown Sunflower, which looked as if it were aflame.

"Grandmaster wants you to choose a Datura Snake. What's a snake? It's a creature that hides in dark corners. Its power comes from poison, corrosion, and darkness."

"If you choose it, you might get a sharp, poison-coated dagger—but you'll spend your whole life scraping by in the shadows."

Su Yun spun around and grabbed Tang San by the shoulders.

"But, Little San! Look at this flower! It doesn't need poison or thorns. It only needs to stand there and face the light to possess a power that never runs dry!"

Su Yun took a deep breath and struck a pose, gripping an imaginary Divine Light Rod. His voice dropped low.

"Tell me, Little San! Do you want to keep relying on external tools and become a Hidden Weapon Soul Master with limited energy..."

"Or do you want to become... a Giant of Light who can protect everything, as long as there's light?!"

Boom!

Though the words were full of strange terms Tang San didn't understand, their grand meaning struck him like a thunderbolt from the heavens, splitting open his mind.

A Giant of Light...

Protect everything...

I don't know what kind of giant Big Brother Su means, but I get it!

Tang San's breathing quickened.

That's right. Poison runs out, and Hidden Weapons eventually run dry.

Human strength has its limits.

But light...

As long as the light remained, could my Martial Soul keep gaining power without end?

Was that what it meant to never run dry?

That was...

Such a magnificent, such a radiant realm!

Compared to playing with poison in a gutter, this was the true path of the strong!

Tang San drew a deep breath. His Mysterious Heaven Skill began circulating faster on its own, driven by his excitement.

He slowly drew back the hand that had touched the sunflower and turned around.

His gaze lingered for a moment on Yu Xiaogang, who was hopping mad, then firmly moved away.

Finally, his eyes settled on Su Yun—or rather, on the dazzling sunlight behind him.

"You..."

Seeing the fire in Tang San's eyes, Yu Xiaogang's heart sank. A wave of panic rose within him.

Tang San slowly raised his head and looked straight at the towering Sunflower King, his eyes shining with something called faith.

"Though poison is tempting, a perfect killing technique, and the safest path..."

"But Big Brother Su is right... rather than scrape by in the darkness, I'd rather embrace the light."

Tang San clenched his fist. His voice was young, but firm and resolute.

"I want to become light too, to fly higher as light!... I want to believe in the light!"

"He's gone mad! You've all gone mad!"

Yu Xiaogang trembled with fury, almost passing out from sheer rage.

He pointed at Tang San, his finger shaking.

"What light?! He's brainwashed you! That's just a crop that produces sunflower seeds! You're gambling with your future! You'll regret this—you'll definitely regret this!"

"Now that's the spirit! You really are the one I had my eye on."

Su Yun turned away, pulled a handful of sunflower seeds from his pocket, cracked one open with a sharp snap, and mumbled,

"I can't turn back now. So go ahead and transform! Da Gu... no, Little San."

"Become the light!"

"Become the light..."

In his past life, as an outer disciple of the Tang Sect, he'd spent twenty years scurrying through the darkness like a rat, always on edge, never able to see the light.

But in this life, with Su Yun's guidance, he'd finally seized this dazzling ray of sunshine.

An unprecedented sense of ambition and pride burst open in his chest.

To hell with holding back! To hell with keeping a low profile! To hell with sneaking through the night!

I'm going to become the light!

Boom!

Tang San stepped forward, and the earth beneath his feet instantly cracked, dust billowing into the air.

For the first time, the youth who had once hidden in the shadows to fire Sleeve Arrows, his mind full of schemes, stood tall!

He raised his head to face the blazing sun and let out the most uninhibited, most unrestrained shout since arriving in this world:

"I was damn well—"

"Born to walk in the light!!!"