Total Blockade, Tang San's Dead End and Darkening

Morning light struck the dilapidated window lattice of Dorm Seven.

Xiao Wu stood before the washbasin.

She nimbly braided her long, raven-black hair into a sleek scorpion tail.

Her right hand picked up the carrot-shaped wooden hairpin that Su Chen had given her last night.

She tucked it casually into her bun.

She turned her head.

Her large eyes blinked.

She looked at Su Chen, who was leaning against the bed frame with his eyes closed, resting.

"Hey. Does it look good?"

Su Chen opened his eyes.

His gaze lingered on the wooden hairpin for half a second.

"Barely passable."

"Tch. You have no taste."

Xiao Wu wrinkled her petite nose.

Though her words were dismissive.

Her fingers carefully pushed the hairpin further in.

Afraid it might fall out.

"Let's go. To the cafeteria."

Su Chen stood up.

With his hands tucked into his trouser pockets.

He walked toward the door.

Xiao Wu followed immediately.

Her steps were light and brisk.

At the same time the two walked side by side out of the dormitory area.

West Street of Nuoding City.

The heat waves from the furnace scorched the air until it slightly distorted.

This was the largest Iron Hammer smithy in Nuoding City.

The clanging of metalwork rang out incessantly.

Tang San stood outside the entrance of the smithy.

His hands were wrapped in thick white bandages.

Beneath the bandages, faint traces of yellowish-brown medicinal liquid seeped through.

His ten fingers had been forcibly shattered by Su Chen.

Although he had undergone bone-setting treatment at the infirmary.

As long as he exerted even the slightest force.

That piercing pain would shoot straight to his brain along his nerves.

Tang San gritted his teeth.

He stepped into the smithy.

The pungent smell of rust rushed to meet him.

"Boss. Are you hiring apprentices?"

Tang San walked up to the counter.

His voice was hoarse.

Behind the counter.

The burly boss, Shi San, looked up.

He sized Tang San up from head to toe.

His gaze landed on Tang San's hands, which were wrapped up like rice dumplings.

Shi San scoffed aloud.

"Kid. You've come to the wrong place. This is a smithy, not a shelter."

"You can't even hold chopsticks steady with those hands, and you want to swing a sledgehammer?"

Tang San did not back down.

"Although my hands are injured, I understand forging."

"I know how to completely remove the impurities from pig iron. I can even forge hundred-refined steel."

Shi San's originally dismissive gaze changed in an instant.

Hundred-refined steel.

That was a specialized skill that only high-level blacksmiths could master.

How could a six-year-old brat possibly understand it?

"Empty words are no proof. How can you prove it?"

Shi San narrowed his eyes.

Tang San raised his bandaged right hand.

He forcibly channeled his Mysterious Heaven Skill internal energy into his fingertips.

He endured the sharp pain.

He grabbed a piece of raw pig iron ore from the counter.

His finger bones emitted a faint, strained cracking sound.

Tang San's face turned deathly pale.

He forcibly pinched off a corner of the raw pig iron ore.

"Good."

Shi San's eyes lit up.

This brat had some real talent.

Just as Shi San was about to speak and hire Tang San, a shirtless shop assistant ran out from the backyard in a hurry.

He clutched a piece of parchment in his hand.

He was drenched in sweat.

"Boss, Boss, something big has happened."

The assistant ran to Shi San's side.

He slapped the parchment onto the counter.

"The Martial Soul Hall branch issued a notice just half an hour ago."

"They are banning a work-study student named Tang San throughout the entire city."

The assistant lowered his voice.

But at this distance, Tang San could hear him clearly.

"The notice says that whoever dares to hire him, or whoever dares to sell him anything, is going against the Martial Soul Hall. They will have their homes raided and their shops sealed."

The flesh on Shi San's face twitched violently.

He turned his head abruptly.

He stared fixedly at the boy before him.

"What is your name?"

A sense of foreboding surged in Tang San's heart.

"Tang San."

Before the words had even faded, Shi San slammed his hand onto the counter.

The ironware on top rattled loudly.

"Get out."

Shi San pointed rudely toward the door.

"Get out of here immediately."

Tang San furrowed his brows.

He was unwilling to give up.

"Boss, I don't need wages. Just food will do. I guarantee I can help you make a lot of money."

"Go to hell with that nonsense."

Shi San cursed him out directly.

"Is this a matter of money? You little bastard, you've offended the Holy Son of the Martial Soul Hall. If you have a death wish, that's fine, but I still want to live a few more years."

"Someone, throw him out for me."

Several burly blacksmiths immediately dropped the hammers in their hands.

They surrounded him with ferocious expressions.

Tang San's chest heaved violently.

He gritted his teeth hard.

Without another word of nonsense.

He turned and walked out of the blacksmith shop.

The sunlight outside was blinding.

Yet Tang San felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.

He refused to give up.

Over the next hour.

He ran through half the shops in Nuoding City.

Pharmacies.

Taverns.

General stores.

Even the most remote piles of firewood.

As long as he stated his name.

What he received in return, without exception, was expulsion and verbal abuse.

The blockade order from Martial Soul Hall.

Was like an invisible net.

Completely locking down all his room for survival in Nuoding City.

Without money.

He could not buy materials.

He could not reforge his hidden weapons.

Nor could he obtain food.

Hunger and pain tormented his nerves simultaneously.

Tang San dragged his heavy footsteps.

Back to Nuoding Junior Soul Master Academy.

Second-floor cafeteria.

The aroma of food drifted through the air.

Tang San walked to the cafeteria entrance.

His stomach let out a violent protest.

He felt his pockets.

He was penniless.

His gaze cut through the crowd.

Landing on a table by the window.

Su Chen sat there.

Holding a cup of warm milk in his hand.

Xiao Wu sat opposite him.

Struggling with a massive roasted chicken leg.

Wang Sheng and a group of work-study students sat around another table.

Eating until their mouths were slick with grease.

All of this.

Originally should have included his share.

Tang San's eyes were bloodshot.

The jealousy and resentment in his heart grew wildly like weeds.

He strode over to that table.

His shadow fell directly over the plate in front of Xiao Wu.

Xiao Wu stopped chewing.

She looked up.

Frowning as she looked at Tang San.

"You're blocking the light."

Xiao Wu's tone was filled with dissatisfaction.

Tang San ignored Xiao Wu's coldness.

He spoke while suppressing his rage.

"Xiao Wu, why do you insist on hanging around with someone like him?"

"He is brutal, vicious, and uses his status to bully others."

"What he did at the academy gate yesterday is the behavior of an out-and-out villain."

Xiao Wu put down the chicken leg in her hand.

She grabbed a napkin from the table and wiped her mouth.

"Are you sick in the head?"

Xiao Wu retorted without mercy.

"Su Chen treats me to delicious food and buys us new bedding. He is the boss I have chosen."

"What about you? You lost a fight, so you resorted to the low-handed tactic of shooting cold arrows from behind."

"You are the real villain."

Tang San's face turned livid, stung by Xiao Wu's words.

"That is a Hidden Weapon. It is a means for the weak to protect themselves when facing powerful authority. You don't understand."

Tang San was still using his Tang Sect logic to sophistically defend himself.

"I don't understand?"

Xiao Wu sneered.

"I only know that if you fight openly and honestly, a loss is a loss."

"To sneak attack because you can't afford to lose is a complete disgrace to the face of a Spirit Master."

"Get lost quickly; don't ruin my appetite."

Xiao Wu waved her hand in disgust.

Tang San's chest heaved violently.

He finally turned his gaze toward Su Chen, who had remained silent the entire time.

"Su Chen, you have gone too far."

Tang San's voice sounded as if it were being squeezed through his teeth.

"You issued a ban across the entire city, cutting off my path to survival."

"Is this the magnanimity of the Martial Soul Hall Holy Son?"

Su Chen set down the glass of milk in his hand.

The porcelain cup collided with the tabletop.

It made a crisp, light sound.

He leaned back against the chair.

His gaze watched Tang San's twisted face with calm indifference.

"Magnanimity?"

Su Chen chuckled softly.

"When it comes to enemies, I have never had any magnanimity."

"When you shot a poisoned Hidden Weapon at my throat, why didn't you talk about magnanimity then?"

Tang San clenched his hands into fists.

"Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river."

"Do you think you can trap me, Tang San, with a single ban?"

"I don't care to stay in this Nuoding City anyway."

"I can easily leave this place and go elsewhere to obtain a Spirit Ring."

"As long as I break through to level ten, I will return this humiliation to you tenfold."

Listening to this classic cliché, the mockery in Su Chen's eyes grew even more intense.

"Leave?"

Su Chen tapped his fingers on the tabletop.

"You, a piece of trash without a Spirit Ring."

"You have no money to buy dry rations."

"You have no weapons to defend yourself."

"If you walk less than ten miles out of Nuoding City, you will starve to death in the wilderness."

"Or, have your throat torn out by the lowest-level ten-year soul beast."

With every sentence Su Chen spoke.

Tang San's face turned a shade paler.

"Furthermore, what makes you think you can obtain your first soul ring?"

Su Chen leaned forward slightly.

Staring into Tang San's eyes.

"To enter the Soul Hunting Forest, one must possess a permit issued by Martial Soul Hall."

"That trash Yu Xiaogang has already been stripped of his elder title."

"In this entire continent, not a single Martial Soul branch hall will issue a permit for you."

Tang San's body jolted violently.

He had thought of this problem last night.

But now that Su Chen had pointed it out to his face.

That suffocating feeling of being backed into a corner instantly overwhelmed him.

"Rules are made by people."

Tang San stubbornly insisted.

"There must be other ways to get in."

"Of course there are."

Su Chen reached into his Void Ring and pulled out a dark gold token.

He tossed it casually onto the table.

It was none other than the Purple Gold Pope Token, which symbolized the supreme authority of Martial Soul Hall.

"Starting from early this morning."

Su Chen's tone was indifferent.

"All Soul Hunting Forests within the borders of Fasinuo Province."

"Have been taken over by Temple Knights led personally by a Martial Soul Hall Cardinal."

"Without this Pope Token."

"Not even a fly will be able to fly inside."

Su Chen leaned back into his chair.

"Don't you have that Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track Step?"

"You are more than welcome to go and try."

"See if your hidden weapons can pierce the defenses of a Soul Douluo."

Silence.

Tang San felt a buzzing in his ears.

All his paths of retreat.

All his hopes.

At this moment.

Were completely crushed into powder by Su Chen using absolute power.

No permit.

No soul ring.

No money.

What could he use to become stronger?

What could he use to take revenge?

Tang San stared fixedly at the Pope Token on the table.

His eyes were bloodshot from extreme unwillingness.

"Martial Soul Hall..."

He roared these three words frantically in his heart.

"I'm full."

Xiao Wu stood up.

Without even glancing at Tang San.

She hooked her arm directly through Su Chen's.

"Let's go. We still have class this afternoon."

Su Chen stood up.

He let Xiao Wu hold onto him.

The two brushed past Tang San.

Su Chen did not even spare Tang San half a glance.

That kind of utter indifference.

Drove Tang San madder than a direct insult ever could.

Tang San stood alone in the noisy cafeteria.

Surrounded by students eyeing him with strange looks.

He slowly lowered his head.

Looking at his hands wrapped in bandages.

Every conventional path was cut off.

Whether it was blacksmithing or hunting for a soul ring through proper channels.

None of it was viable.

Tang San's gaze gradually turned extremely gloomy.

The general principles of the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record flashed through his mind.

For the sake of survival.

For the sake of becoming stronger.

Even if it meant using unscrupulous means.

He remembered that on the way to Nuoding City.

Old Jack had mentioned something in passing.

Deep beneath the western suburbs of Nuoding City.

There was a black market outside the jurisdiction of the Martial Soul Hall.

It was a gathering place for outlaws from across the entire continent.

As long as one could pay the price.

Anything could be obtained there.

Including channels to sneak into the Soul Hunting Forest.

Tang San touched his chest.

Hidden there were a few formulas for entry-level Tang Sect poisons he had transcribed from his past life.

He had no other choice.

He could only step onto that dark path stained with blood.