He didn't need Tang Hao to do anything. Tang Hao doing nothing at all was the best help.
After Xu Yuan graduated, he would have Xu Yuan befriend Dai Mubai and the others.
Dai Mubai and the others were his own people. They would help him manage the Divine Realm in the future.
This time, he absolutely wouldn't let Ma Hongjun slack off and become a first-rank Fire God.
Whenever God King Tang San thought of what had happened back then, he wanted to beat that lecherous fool Ma Hongjun to death.
After accepting a God Trial, there were only two possibilities: either you became a god, or you died.
Back then, when Ma Hongjun failed, Tang San had stepped in to save him and asked the old Asura to help find a Phoenix God's divine position for him.
Otherwise, Ma Hongjun would have died long ago. How could he possibly have become the Phoenix God?
After Xu Yuan befriended Dai Mubai and the others, Tang San would need to find a way for Xu Yuan and Dugu Yan to meet, so Xu Yuan could cure Dugu Yan's poison.
Dugu Yan would surely tell Dugu Bo. Then, once Xu Yuan went to Heaven Dou Royal Academy, he could meet Dugu Bo.
After meeting Dugu Bo, Xu Yuan would cure his poison, then take an Immortal Herb to improve his own strength.
Next, he would go to the Four Single-Attribute Clans, bring them under his control, and rebuild the Tang Sect.
In the blink of an eye, a year passed.
Xu Yuan had found this past year somewhat unsettling. The main reason was that Tang San hadn't challenged him once, which left him puzzled.
He couldn't understand what was going on with Tang San.
Xu Yuan had now reached level 29.
He knew perfectly well that if he hadn't awakened the Blue Silver Emperor Martial Soul earlier, he could never have reached level 29 so quickly.
As usual, Xu Yuan finished cleaning the area assigned to him.
"Xu Yuan, I challenge you!"
Tang San came before Xu Yuan and issued a challenge for the first time in a long while.
The moment Xiao Wu heard this, she leaped out like a little rabbit with its fur standing on end. Spreading her arms to shield Xu Yuan, she glared at Tang San and said indignantly, "Tang San, are you ever going to quit? You kept challenging him before. Can't you take a break?"
Seeing Xiao Wu protect Xu Yuan like a mother hen, Tang San sighed helplessly, though his eyes never left Xu Yuan. "Xiao Wu, Xu Yuan and I are sparring, not fighting."
Tang San paused, then unclasped an exquisite Storage Soul Tool from his waist: the Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges, engraved with a bridge-and-moon design.
"How about this? I'll use it as the wager. If I lose, the Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges is yours."
After recovering from his injuries, his strength had improved rapidly. He had soon reached level 20 and found a Soul Beast suited to him.
Yu Xiaogang had told him to challenge Xu Yuan again, convinced that Xu Yuan couldn't cultivate as quickly as he could.
In the distance, Yu Xiaogang watched it all. He didn't think Xu Yuan would lose.
After being injured, he'd asked the principal to write a letter to his father, asking him to send a healing-type Soul Master to treat him.
Some time later, the healing-type Soul Master arrived and treated his injuries.
But one injury hadn't been fully healed: the one down below.
Now he could only use it to urinate. It was useless for anything else.
He was furious and wanted revenge on the person who had beaten him, but he didn't know who it was.
So he blamed Xu Yuan, thinking that if Xu Yuan had accepted him as his master back then, none of this would have happened.
"Come on, Tang San! Teach Xu Yuan a good lesson!" Yu Xiaogang said quietly as he watched Xu Yuan.
Xu Yuan's gaze swept over the Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges in Tang San's hand, then flicked toward Yu Xiaogang, whose expression was dark and sinister. The corner of Xu Yuan's mouth curved into a faint smile.
He could sense the repressed resentment radiating from Yu Xiaogang, like a poison-tipped needle quietly aimed at him.
"No need for a wager," Xu Yuan said, raising a hand. "It's just a spar. Let's keep it friendly."
Tang San shook his head and pushed the Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges forward. "A wager gives us more incentive. Xu Yuan, your Soul Power must have improved a lot over the past year. I want to see whether the gap between us has widened again."
His voice held the youthful competitiveness of a boy, though beneath it lay a longing for strength.
During the year since his recovery, he had trained with near-desperate intensity. Yu Xiaogang's words—"There's no way Xu Yuan can be faster than you"—had been like a whip, driving him forward every day.
Xiao Wu snorted from the side. "Tang San, you're just asking to get beaten! Xu Yuan's much stronger than you now!"
Xu Yuan said to Tang San, "Let's spar at the training grounds. We'll disturb everyone if we do it here."
Tang San nodded in agreement, then turned and headed toward the training grounds.
Xu Yuan followed close behind, curious about what Tang San had been through over the past year to make him so confident.
Xiao Wu stamped her foot and followed them, still fuming. "If you hurt Xu Yuan, I won't let you get away with it."
The training ground was packed earth, bordered by a waist-high wooden fence. Plenty of students had already been drawn by the commotion and were peering inside in small groups, leaning over the fence.
Tang San stopped in the center of the grounds and took a deep breath. Soul Power surged, and pale-blue Blue Silver Grass sprouted from his palm.
After a year apart, his Blue Silver Grass seemed tougher, and the fluctuations of his Soul Power were much steadier than before.
"I'm level 21 now," Tang San said gravely, announcing his level, with a trace of pride in his eyes.
To break through to level 21 in such a short time after recovering from his injuries made him outstanding even across the entire Douluo Continent.
God King Tang San glanced at the luck surrounding Tang San and saw that it had diminished somewhat. He couldn't help feeling a pang of regret.
He knew why Tang San had advanced so quickly in just half a year: he had sacrificed some of his luck to do it. Tang San himself had no idea.
Xu Yuan raised an eyebrow. He didn't announce his level, but simply released his Blue Silver Emperor.
The Blue Silver Emperor brimmed with life force. Its sky-blue radiance was almost dazzling, and its stalks were nearly twice as thick as Tang San's Blue Silver Grass. Its Soul Power felt like a deep abyss, faintly overwhelming Tang San's.
A wave of gasps rose from the crowd.
"My god, what happened to Xu Yuan's Martial Soul?"
"That color... that aura... It's so much stronger than Tang San's Blue Silver Grass!"
"His Soul Power looks like it's above level 21!"
Tang San's pupils contracted slightly. He had been prepared for this, but he hadn't expected Xu Yuan to improve so dramatically.
The mere aura of Xu Yuan's Martial Soul was already putting him under pressure.
At the same time, he could feel his Blue Silver Grass being suppressed by Xu Yuan's Blue Silver Emperor.
In the distance, Yu Xiaogang's expression darkened at once. His grip tightened on his cane until his knuckles turned white.
He had thought Xu Yuan would at most be on par with Tang San, or even fall behind without his guidance. But the gap before him was like a slap across the face.
Resentment surged through him until he could hardly breathe.
Why? Why could this boy, who refused to become his student, have such talent?
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