Tang San's Heartache

They had left!

Su Mo and Xiao Wu had actually left Nuoding City.

Tang San remained silent for a long time.

He remembered the afternoon when he had first met Xiao Wu.

Xiao Wu had worn a pink dress, her long scorpion-tail braid tied atop her head. Her eyes had been large and bright, and she had looked like a lively little rabbit.

The moment she arrived, she had fought to become the dorm leader.

Later, she had even come over to speak with him on her own, grinning as she said she wanted to push their beds together.

Tang San had only felt awkward at the time.

Men and women should keep their distance. He had grown up in the Tang Sect, where rules mattered above all else.

But Xiao Wu had ignored all that. She had pushed their beds together, then declared that half the bed belonged to her and that she wanted half his blanket too.

He had said it was inappropriate, but he had not disliked it in his heart.

He had even liked it a little.

After leaving Holy Soul Village, she had been the first person to approach him voluntarily.

His father had always kept a cold face around him.

The children in the village had not played with him much either. He had grown used to cultivating alone, spacing out alone, and training in the back mountain alone.

Xiao Wu had been the first person to make him feel that having someone by his side was not such a bad thing.

Later, Xiao Wu had become curious about why the things he cultivated were different.

He had taught Xiao Wu everything beyond the Tang Sect too, hoping to snatch her back from Su Mo.

Unfortunately, he had still failed in the end.

Tang San had never thought deeply about why Xiao Wu was so special to him.

Until now.

Until she had followed Su Mo away without looking back.

Tang San clenched his fists, his nails digging deeply into his palms.

He remembered that day on the training ground, when he had seen Su Mo and Xiao Wu talking in a corner from afar. Su Mo had looked calm, while Xiao Wu had listened intently, her large eyes fixed unblinkingly on him. There had been a light in her eyes that Tang San had never seen before.

She had never looked at him with that kind of light.

Later, Xiao Wu had begun distancing herself from him.

She no longer pushed their beds together.

Until that day, when he could no longer hold back and went to confront Su Mo, only for Xiao Wu to stand in front of Su Mo and say coldly to him:

"Tang San, stop being so full of yourself."

"My affairs are none of your business."

"You're far too meddlesome."

Those words were like blades, carving into his heart again and again.

Full of himself.

Everything had been nothing but his own wishful thinking.

Tang San closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

He was only six years old.

This was the first time he had liked a girl.

The first time.

And it had ended just like that.

Meanwhile, Su Mo and Xiao Wu were already on the road to Suotuo City.

That was right. The place Su Mo intended to go was Suotuo City.

It was the most suitable place for him to settle down next.

It was a fairly prosperous major city near Nuoding City, second only to the imperial capital.

Most importantly, it had the Great Soul Arena he needed.

Of course, he wanted to go to the bustling imperial capital too, but right now, he was broke.

Living in the imperial capital was no easy matter.

Suotuo City was different. There were cheap villages nearby where they could settle.

That night, the two of them settled down in the wilderness.

Now that Soul Beasts had gone extinct, the wilderness was quite safe.

Su Mo sat cross-legged beside the campfire, two swords lying across his knees.

His Broken Sword Martial Soul and a Refined Iron Longsword.

He was trying to completely turn his Martial Soul into energy, then pour it into the Refined Iron Longsword. That way, this ordinary iron sword would gain the characteristics of a Martial Soul, while his Martial Soul would gain a sharper body.

But he got stuck at the very first step.

Every attempt brought some insight, but it was far from enough.

"Su Mo, you've been fiddling around over there for ages." Xiao Wu's voice came from across the campfire. She propped her chin in both hands, the firelight dancing across her round face as her large eyes blinked curiously. "What are you doing?"

Su Mo raised his head and glanced at Xiao Wu, something stirring slightly in his heart.

Xiao Wu was a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. Having lived so long, she surely knew more than he did.

So Su Mo said directly, "I want to turn my Martial Soul from a physical form back into energy, but I've tried several methods and none of them worked."

Xiao Wu tilted her head, her long scorpion-tail braid falling over her shoulder, its tip swaying beside the fire.

"Turn a Martial Soul back into energy?" Her tone was casual, as if she were talking about something utterly ordinary. "Isn't that very simple?"

Su Mo: "..."

He took a deep breath and told himself not to argue with a rabbit transformed from a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. She did not even have a Martial Soul; she herself was her Martial Soul. Of course she thought it was simple.

"You do it." He held the Broken Sword Martial Soul out toward Xiao Wu.

Xiao Wu did not take it. Instead, she shook her head. "It's not my Martial Soul, so I can't. Try it yourself again. Don't think about anything else. Just think about making it change back, isn't that enough?"

"I tried."

"Try again!"

Su Mo looked at Xiao Wu's sparkling eyes, sighed inwardly, and closed his eyes again.

This time, following Xiao Wu's method, he did not think about complex processes like dismantling, permeation, or compression. He simply sensed his Martial Soul and thought about turning it into energy.

The sword did not move at all.

Su Mo opened his eyes and looked at Xiao Wu.

Xiao Wu's expression finally changed, shifting from ease to confusion.

She scratched her head, stood up, circled Su Mo once, then finally crouched in front of him and stared carefully at the Broken Sword Martial Soul for quite a while.

"Strange, why isn't it working?" Xiao Wu wrinkled her nose. "A Martial Soul is part of you humans. It should be easy!"

She suddenly froze, her eyes lighting up.

"Su Mo! Have you never acknowledged your Martial Soul?"

"Have you never truly treated it as something that belongs to you?"

"Since awakening your Martial Soul, have you ever genuinely felt it with your heart?"

Xiao Wu tilted her head at him, her voice calm and certain. "You can't treat it as a weapon. You can't treat it as a tool. You have to treat it as part of yourself."

Boom—!

Xiao Wu's words were like a bolt of thunder exploding in Su Mo's mind.

Just as Xiao Wu said, he had never truly accepted his Martial Soul.

After awakening it, he had learned that his Martial Soul was a Broken Sword, with Innate Soul Power of level two.

This Martial Soul had been the mark of his poor start, an utterly mediocre trash Martial Soul, a weapon that could be replaced by a Refined Iron Longsword.

He had despised his own Martial Soul!

Su Mo was silent for a long time.

Su Mo reached out, his fingertips gently brushing over the rust on the blade. It felt rough, carrying a faint warmth, like some silent waiting.

"You," he said softly. "You are also part of my body."

The blade trembled slightly.

It was not the kind of vibration driven by Soul Power, but a subtle pulse like a heartbeat. It traveled from the hilt into his palm, then along his veins all the way to his heart.

Su Mo closed his eyes and carefully felt his Martial Soul, truly regarding it as part of his own body.

Buzz—

At that moment, Su Mo felt the entire world become different. Even without opening his eyes, he could see the Martial Soul in his hand.

He now felt as though he and his Martial Soul had become one, body and soul united.

Then Su Mo thought of turning his Martial Soul into energy.

The Martial Soul in his hand gradually became lighter.

When he opened his eyes, he saw a mass of flowing, translucent energy with a faint metallic sheen quietly floating above his palm.

"Look, look!" Xiao Wu suddenly jumped up, her braid whipping high behind her as her face blossomed into a smile. "I told you, it was simple!"

The corners of Su Mo's lips lifted slightly as he turned to look at her. "Yes, yes. Sister Xiao Wu is the most amazing."

Xiao Wu froze at his praise. Then the tips of her ears quietly reddened, and she turned her face away with a huff. "Of course. Your Sister Xiao Wu is very capable. If you don't understand something later, just ask!"

Su Mo did not respond.

He shifted his attention back to the Martial Soul energy above his palm, then stretched out his other hand and gripped the hilt of the Refined Iron Longsword.

The next step was to pour the Martial Soul energy into the Refined Iron Longsword.