A Nighttime Conversation

As soon as the holiday ended, Tang Yin took Third Sister and Xiao Wu back to Nuoding Academy.

Over the next two years, everything remained peaceful and uneventful, except that Xiao Wu stubbornly insisted on lodging with Tang Yin and Tang Sanmei whenever they went out.

Xiao Wu continued to live carefree as the big sister of Nuoding Academy, spending her days wandering around with a crowd of lackeys trailing behind her.

Third Sister still ran back and forth between the blacksmith shop and the academy, only returning to the little courtyard they rented in the evening.

As for Tang Yin, aside from going to Yu Xiaogang's place to exchange books, he rarely left the courtyard anymore. He had to reach level twenty within two years while also absorbing all the books in Yu Xiaogang's collection.

And so, two years passed in the blink of an eye.

At night, the bright moonlight spilled over the courtyard like a layer of white frost.

A boy who looked like a young man, dressed in loose, simple robes, sat cross-legged with one hand propping up his chin.

That person was Tang Yin.

It had to be said that children with the aptitude to become Soul Masters on Douluo Continent not only matured early, but also developed quickly as their levels rose.

In just two years, he had grown to a height of one and a half meters at only nine years old, and his face had already begun to lose the childishness it had held two years earlier.

He had inherited all the beauty of his mother, Ah Yin, the Blue Silver Emperor. With sharp brows and bright eyes, he had become the subject of no small amount of gossip among the academy's students, including Xiao Wu, who secretly wondered whether the two really were siblings.

"Projection."

With a quiet utterance, a short blade appeared in Tang Yin's hand. It was Mo Ye.

Compared to two years ago, Mo Ye now felt more substantial in Tang Yin's hand, and its patterns were clearer. Wisps of flowing light shimmered across the blade's surface, dreamlike and illusory.

"Not bad. After exploring it for two years, I've gained a better understanding of Divine Machine Refinement, this Body Martial Soul," Tang Yin murmured as he examined Mo Ye.

"Unfortunately, its limitations are far too great!" Thinking of Oscar's Copy Image Sausage from the original story, Tang Yin's expression flickered.

In theory, Divine Machine Refinement, this Body Martial Soul, was extremely powerful. But after years of experimentation, Tang Yin had discovered that, at its current stage, its limitations were simply too great.

After all, he could only project ordinary weapons, while Douluo Continent followed the path of Martial Souls. As things stood, his Divine Machine Refinement couldn't project Martial Souls.

Of course, it wasn't that projection was completely impossible. In theory, Martial Souls were also made up of Soul Power. As long as he could observe and analyze one, there was a high probability he could project it.

The problem was that his eyes couldn't observe the structure of a Martial Soul, so he naturally couldn't analyze the Soul Power pathways inside it.

Could he be aiming for a Second Awakening?

Unlike other Martial Souls, Body Martial Souls were unknown on Douluo Continent at this time because no one had figured out the right way to cultivate them.

It wasn't until the Body Sect suddenly emerged on Douluo Continent ten thousand years later that the world learned the might of Body Martial Souls.

Like other Martial Souls, a Body Martial Soul grew stronger through Soul Power cultivation, obtaining Soul Rings, and raising one's Soul Power Level.

But what made Body Martial Souls special was that they were directly connected to the Soul Master's body. Thus, cultivating a Body Martial Soul also required tempering the body and nourishing it with Soul Power.

Of course, the most crucial breakthrough for a Body Martial Soul was its Second Awakening. That was what set it apart from ordinary Martial Souls.

Fortunately, Tang Yin had forced himself to read Peerless Tang Sect in his previous life, so he had a rough understanding of the requirements and methods for a Body Martial Soul's Second Awakening.

First, a Body Martial Soul could only awaken once its Soul Power Level reached at least level forty, the Soul Ancestor rank, and its physical strength had to reach the limit its body could withstand.

As far as Tang Yin knew, there were three ways to awaken it.

The first was to stimulate it at the limit: potential could be triggered by brief agony or stress while on the verge of death.

The second was to guide it through an inheritance. Soul Masters who inherited the Body Sect's legacy could awaken their Martial Souls through secret methods.

The third was a special-illusion method, using a place of great power like the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well or Lake of Life to trigger the awakening with extreme energy.

The first method was too much of a gamble and impossible to control, while the second was out of the question.

That left the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well as the only option Tang Yin could choose, and one that had a high chance of working.

"Brother, Sister, I'm back!"

While Tang Yin was lost in thought, Xiao Wu pushed the door open, followed by Tang Sanmei, who looked thoroughly displeased.

Third Sister still held a grudge against Xiao Wu for interrupting her and her brother's time alone.

Though years of comfortable living and the nourishment of Soul Power had gradually turned Tang Sanmei's wheat-colored skin to a normal complexion, she was, at best, neat and pretty—not particularly striking.

Especially when she looked at the increasingly beautiful Xiao Wu and her increasingly handsome brother, an unnamed sense of danger and panic lingered in her heart, refusing to go away.

"Xiao Wu, go play somewhere else."

That matter of everyone using their own way of addressing each other seemed impossible to get past. Tang Yin shook his head, then looked at Third Sister, who was standing listlessly nearby.

"What's wrong? Did Xiao Wu upset you?"

"I didn't! Everyone at Nuoding Academy knows that Third Sister and I are the best of friends." Xiao Wu bristled at once, raising a small fist and waving it at Tang Yin in a show of defiance.

"Third Sister, say something, won't you?" Her Sister Xiao Wu was the most righteous person around. How could she ever bully Third Sister?

Tang Sanmei glanced aside in secret, but still defended Xiao Wu. "Sister Xiao Wu didn't bully me. It's just that my brother and I have both been busy cultivating lately, and it's been so long since I had a proper talk with him. I just feel..."

As she spoke, Tang Sanmei lowered her head slightly, her voice as faint as a mosquito's. "I feel kind of empty inside."

"Oya? Third Sister, have you no shame? You're all grown up, and you're still clinging to your brother." Xiao Wu suddenly darted in front of Third Sister, bent forward a little, and looked up at her lowered face, which had turned slightly red, grinning mischievously.

"Xiao. Wu." Tang Sanmei's already rosy cheeks turned as red as ripe apples. She gritted her teeth.

If they hadn't been so close after all these years of eating and living together, she would've branded Xiao Wu with a death warrant and unleashed a barrage of hidden weapons.

"Oh? Someone's getting embarrassed and angry!" Xiao Wu suddenly backed away, then hopped off to her room, leaving the two siblings alone in silence.

After a long while, Tang Yin suddenly chuckled. "Is it really such a big deal if we talk a little less?"

"Brother, now you're teasing me like Sister Xiao Wu!" Tang Sanmei came over and hugged Tang Yin's arm, gently rocking it.

"All right. Then let's have a good talk tonight."

Under the moonlight, the two siblings sat in the courtyard and talked, their laughter ringing out from time to time. Xiao Wu, who had gone back to her room early, hid behind the door and listened to them. But as she did, she thought of her mother, who had already died, and Daming and Erming, her expression growing gloomy.

By the dead of night, all was silent.

"Brother, why did you name the two weapons you projected Gan Jiang and Mo Ye? Is there some special meaning behind it?" Third Sister suddenly turned her head and asked, resting her head against Tang Yin's shoulder.

"Oh, that..." Tang Yin paused. Of course, he couldn't say that he'd simply thought the names sounded cool, so he adapted the story of Gan Jiang and Mo Ye from his previous life and told it to Third Sister.

In short, the head of a sword-forging family had obtained a piece of meteoric iron and planned to forge a divine weapon and take it to the imperial palace for a sword-testing contest hosted by the emperor.

After enduring countless hardships, the head of the family finally forged a sword and engraved it with the name of his son, Gan Jiang. Then he used the remaining material to forge a short blade and engraved it with his daughter's name, Mo Ye. Finally, he offered up the siblings' hair and blood to temper the weapons, unexpectedly granting the two weapons the magical ability to sense each other.

Afterward, the head of the family took his son and Gan Jiang to the imperial palace for the contest. But then a foreign tribe invaded from the south and seized the palace. In the chaos of war, the head of the family died, and the son vanished without a trace.

Decades later, the two siblings, their appearances changed beyond recognition, finally recognized each other through the connection between Gan Jiang and Mo Ye, and the story ended with a happy reunion.

"That story is so touching. Did you read it in a book, too, Brother?" Tang Sanmei's eyes were red, moved by the siblings' tumultuous fate.

"Of course I made it up!"

"Hmph! You awful brother, I was so moved!"

After the siblings finished playfully tussling, Tang Yin closed his right hand, and the short blade called Mo Ye appeared in it.

"This is for you!" Tang Yin said, holding the short blade out to Third Sister. "I've specially tempered it, so it won't disappear even if it leaves my side. Of course, it can't be struck by Soul Power, or the Soul Power pathways inside it that keep its structure stable will be damaged."

"Does that mean this Mo Ye has the same effect as in the story?"

"How could it be that magical? At least, I can't do that yet. But as long as I'm alive, this Mo Ye won't disappear. That's not bad, right?"