Nuoding Restaurant.
It was the most lavishly decorated restaurant in Nuoding City.
Only the city lord and senior officials of the Martial Soul Branch Hall could usually afford to eat there.
At that moment, inside the spacious "Heaven-Class One" private room on the top floor, the atmosphere was lively, yet tinged with an awkward kind of restraint.
The enormous round rosewood table was laden with a dazzling array of dishes.
Rich soup simmered from a century-old Golden Money Turtle, charcoal-grilled Red-Tailed Chicken, and steamed Jade Bone Fish.
Every dish gave off a rich pulse of Soul Power and an enticing aroma.
Wang Sheng and more than a dozen Work-Study Students from Dorm Seven crowded around the lower half of the table.
They held exquisite silverware, their eyes fixed on the delicacies before them, their throats bobbing wildly, yet none dared reach for a bite.
The kind of spread they'd only ever seen in their dreams left them breathing with utmost care.
Su Chen sat at the head of the table.
He had taken off the heavy outer robe that marked him as the Holy Son and wore only a fitted black undershirt.
His sleeves were rolled up slightly, revealing his well-proportioned forearms.
"Why are you just staring?"
Su Chen picked up the white porcelain teacup before him, skimmed off the leaves floating on top, and took a small sip.
"The food won't taste as good once it's cold. Dig in."
His words were like a military order lifting a seal.
"Thanks, boss!"
Wang Sheng shouted first, and the Work-Study Students immediately pounced on the food like starving tigers.
Soon, the private room rang only with the clatter of bowls and chopsticks and the sounds of frantic chewing.
Xiao Wu, seated beside Su Chen, was the sole exception.
She hadn't been the least bit restrained like Wang Sheng and the others.
A ceramic bowl bigger than her face sat in front of her.
It was filled with braised pork ribs so tender the meat fell right off the bone.
Xiao Wu grabbed a rib with both hands and ate with grease running down her mouth.
Her big pink eyes narrowed into crescents, and the rabbit ears atop her head bobbed with every chew.
"These ribs... are so good!"
Xiao Wu mumbled through her food, spat a bone onto the table, then eagerly reached for another.
"Slow down."
Su Chen set down his teacup.
He took out a snowy-white silk handkerchief and casually offered it to Xiao Wu.
"You've got food all over your face. Wipe it off."
Xiao Wu paused.
She looked at the handkerchief held out to her, then at Su Chen's calm, gentle profile.
Rather than taking it, she leaned forward as naturally as could be.
"My hands are dirty. Wipe it for me."
Xiao Wu lifted her chin, eyes bright, with a perfectly entitled air.
For a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soft Bone Rabbit raised in the Star Dou Great Forest, human rules about keeping men and women apart were utterly beyond her.
She only knew that whoever gave her delicious food and protected her was someone close to her.
Su Chen looked at the pretty face leaning toward him, smudged with grease.
He didn't refuse.
Pinching the handkerchief between his fingers, he gently wiped around Xiao Wu's lips and across her cheeks twice.
His touch was neither too light nor too firm.
Just enough to remove the grease.
Xiao Wu caught the faint scent of Soul-Calming Incense on Su Chen.
For no reason, her cheeks grew warm.
Her heart skipped a beat.
"Su Chen, are you really the Holy Son of Spirit Hall?"
Xiao Wu sat back in her chair and bit into a carrot, her big eyes darting about.
"I heard Spirit Hall people are all really fierce."
Su Chen set the soiled handkerchief aside.
"Whether someone's fierce depends on who they're dealing with."
Su Chen tapped the tabletop lightly with his fingers.
"When dealing with hypocritical frauds like Yu Xiaogang, a knife is what you need."
"When dealing with your own people, you should put the knife away."
"Your own people..." Xiao Wu repeated the words as she chewed.
Her rabbit ears perked up cheerfully.
She patted her greasy little hands, leaned closer to Su Chen, and lowered her voice.
"Is that old man Yu Xiaogang really as bad as you say?"
"He's worse than I said."
Su Chen turned and looked Xiao Wu straight in the eyes.
"Not only does he steal other people's ideas to make himself look good. Worst of all, he treats his disciples like test subjects."
Su Chen's tone grew grave. He was deliberately warning Xiao Wu.
"Xiao Wu, remember this."
"In this world, the most dangerous people aren't those who wear their wickedness on their faces."
"They're the ones who spout benevolence and morality, claiming they're acting 'for your own good,' while actually squeezing every last bit of value out of you."
"Like Tang San, who attacks people with Hidden Weapons."
Su Chen sneered.
"When he can't win, he uses anesthetic-coated arrows to launch a sneak attack, then gets caught red-handed and hides behind lofty talk about 'respecting one's teacher'."
"People like that are even more hypocritical than Yu Xiaogang."
Xiao Wu nodded repeatedly as she listened.
A Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast had keen instincts for danger to begin with.
At the academy gates that day, she had heard Yu Xiaogang's absurd theory about using Plant-type Martial Souls to forcefully absorb animal-type Soul Rings.
She had also seen Tang San attack with a Hidden Weapon after Su Chen exposed him.
In her mind, the labels on the master and disciple were now set in stone: "extremely dangerous frauds."
"Don't worry. From now on, whenever I see them, I'll stay far away!"
Xiao Wu waved her little fist.
"If they dare mess with me, I'll kick them flying with the Eight-Stage Throw!"
Su Chen smiled.
He picked up his teacup.
Xiao Wu was already on guard.
Tang San's usual trick of playing the victim and giving her Hidden Weapons to win her over would never work now.
At the same time.
Nuoding Junior Soul Master Academy, infirmary.
The sharp smell of medicine filled the cramped sickroom.
Tang San lay on a hard wooden bed and suddenly opened his eyes.
A wave of excruciating pain shot from his fingertips straight to his brain.
"Gah..."
He sucked in a breath and instinctively tried to clench his fists.
But his hands were bound in thick white bandages like a pair of balls, and he couldn't move them at all.
His Mysterious Jade Hand had been broken, his finger bones shattered.
The humiliation drove him crazier than the pain.
Tang San clenched his teeth and forced himself to draw on the last trace of Mysterious Heaven Skill inner energy in his dantian.
As soon as it began circulating, a dull, stinging pain ran through his meridians.
Su Chen's kick that day had not only broken his ribs but also shaken apart the inner-energy foundation he'd spent years cultivating.
"Creak—"
The sickroom door opened.
An academy healer in a white coat walked in.
He carried a metal tray with several rolls of fresh bandages and a bottle of cheap black bruise ointment.
"You're awake?"
The healer's tone was cold, and his undisguised disgust showed through.
"If you're awake, put this ointment on. The dean said you brought this injury on yourself by stirring up trouble. The academy will only provide the most basic treatment."
Tang San frowned.
In Holy Soul Village, even Village Chief Old Jack had treated him with a measure of respect.
He had never been treated so coldly.
"Teacher, may I ask... where is Grandmaster?"
Tang San forced down his anger and asked the question that mattered most to him.
The man who had seen the secret of his Twin Martial Souls was his only hope now.
"Grandmaster?"
The healer sneered and slammed the metal tray onto the bedside table.
"There's no Grandmaster at Nuoding Academy anymore."
"That fraud was issued a Death Warrant by Spirit Hall. If he dares stay in Nuoding City for even one more second, the City Defense Army will break his legs and throw him out."
The healer looked down at Tang San.
"Kid, I'm warning you. You'd better cut ties with him at once."
"You offended the Holy Son of Spirit Hall. The dean's already shown you more than enough mercy by not expelling you."
"Mention that fraud again, and you can pack your things and get out of Dorm Seven."
With that, the healer didn't even change Tang San's bandages. He turned and left.
With a bang, the wooden door slammed shut.
Silence once again settled over the sickroom.
Tang San stared blankly at the yellowed ceiling.
His chest heaved violently.
He had been abandoned.
No—it was Spirit Hall that had cut off his path forward.
Yu Xiaogang's expulsion meant he had lost the best guide for obtaining his First Soul Ring.
Even more despairing, in Nuoding City, where Spirit Hall held absolute sway, an ordinary Work-Study Student like him couldn't get a permit to enter Soul Hunting Forest without Grandmaster's guarantee.
Without a permit, he couldn't obtain a Soul Ring.
His Mysterious Heaven Skill would be stuck at the first level forever.
He would become a complete cripple.
"Spirit Hall... Su Chen..."
Tang San forced the words through clenched teeth.
His eyes were bloodshot, and a strange purple sheen rose in the depths of his pupils.
The third rule of the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record: once you determine that someone is your enemy, if they deserve death, show no mercy. Otherwise, you'll only bring trouble upon yourself.
Su Chen had crippled all ten of his fingers in front of everyone, humiliated his Hidden Weapons, and cut off his path forward.
This was far more than deserving death.
This was a blood feud that could only end with one of them dead.
Tang San struggled to turn over, avoiding his broken ribs.
Bracing himself against the bed with his elbows, he slowly sat up.
He had to rely on himself.
His Hidden Weapons were destroyed, and his fingers were broken.
But he still had another trump card.
Tang San lowered his head.
He closed his eyes and felt the weighty power in the palm of his left hand.
The Clear Sky Hammer.
Though he didn't know how to cultivate a Martial Soul, his experience as a blacksmith in the Tang Sect in his previous life remained.
Once his fingers healed,
he could work at a smithy in Nuoding City.
Earn money, rebuild the Silent Sleeve Arrow, and even forge the more lethal Godly Zhuge Crossbow.
Once he had enough firepower, he'd sneak into Soul Hunting Forest—even if he had to slip across the border—to obtain a Soul Ring.
"Today's humiliation... I'll repay a hundredfold someday."
Tang San stared out at the deep, dark night and swore the most venomous oath in his heart.
Meanwhile, a few streets away from the infirmary,
the banquet at Nuoding Restaurant had already ended.
Wang Sheng led a group of Work-Study Students, their bellies stuffed to the brim, back to Dorm Seven after thanking everyone profusely.
The streets of the night market
were brightly lit and thronged with people.
Su Chen didn't take a carriage. With his hands in his pockets, he walked unhurriedly along the bluestone road.
Xiao Wu bounced along beside him.
She held up a freshly bought sugar painting shaped like a carrot.
Every so often, she stuck out the tip of her pink tongue and gave it a lick.
"There's so much good food in Nuoding City at night!"
Xiao Wu sighed contentedly, her big eyes fixed on the various stalls along the road.
"Star Dou Great... The village where I used to live was pitch-black at night, and there was nothing there."
She'd almost let the words Star Dou Great Forest slip out, and hurriedly stuck out her tongue before forcing herself to change what she was saying.
Su Chen pretended not to notice her slip.
He stopped in front of a stall selling hair ornaments.
His gaze swept over the rough handmade trinkets spread across the stall.
In the end, he picked up a wooden hairpin carved in the shape of a carrot.
The wood was nothing special, but the design was small and delicate.
"Boss, how much for this?"
Su Chen asked casually.
"Young master, you've got a good eye. This is fine incense wood. Just two Copper Soul Coins," the vendor said with a beaming smile.
Su Chen tossed down a Silver Soul Coin and didn't ask for change.
He turned and held the carrot hairpin out to Xiao Wu.
Xiao Wu stopped walking.
She looked at the wooden hairpin, then at Su Chen.
"For me?"
"You seem to like carrots. This'll last longer than a sugar painting."
Su Chen's tone was casual.
There was no deliberate attempt to curry favor. It was just a little trinket he'd picked up on a whim.
Xiao Wu took the hairpin.
The wood had been polished smooth, and carried a faint, pleasant scent.
She'd grown up in the forest and was used to the law of the jungle, but she'd never received a gift given out of pure kindness before.
She touched the rabbit ears on top of her head.
Suddenly, a warmth unlike anything she'd ever felt welled up inside her.
"Thank you."
Xiao Wu's voice grew much softer. In the streetlights, her cheeks looked especially rosy.
"But this big sister can't be bought with a hairpin."
She lifted her chin haughtily.
"If you ever dare bully me, I'll still beat you up."
Su Chen chuckled.
"Sure. I'll be waiting."
The two walked side by side through the night.
The distance between them had quietly narrowed.
Su Chen looked toward the end of the street ahead.
The next step was to completely destroy the ground Tang San needed to grow in Nuoding City.
Tomorrow was the first day of classes at Nuoding Academy.
Tang San wanted to work at a blacksmith shop? Sneak into the Soul Hunting Forest?
With him, the Martial Soul Hall Holy Son, here,
not a single shop in Nuoding City would dare hire Tang San.
There wasn't a single road that could let Tang San leave this city.
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