So I can change my tune without losing any beans, huh? I've got to hand it to you, old man.
Tang Wu marveled at just how thick-skinned Tang Hao was.
"Remember, San." Tang Hao composed himself and looked seriously at Tang San:
"Use the hammer in your left hand to protect the grass in your right hand, and your little brother, too."
"Don't worry, Dad. I'll remember. If anyone wants to hurt Wu, they'll have to kill me first."
Hearing Tang Hao's words, Tang San nodded, his tone turning solemn.
No matter who it was, they couldn't hurt the family he'd gained after so much hardship.
"I mean, does the hypothetical have to involve someone hurting me?"
Beside them, Tang Wu complained.
He knew Tang San cared deeply about his family.
But...
The way you two were hugging each other was seriously cheesy.
That afternoon.
Tang San went with Tang Hao to learn blacksmithing, but Tang Wu wasn't interested, so he didn't join them.
He was the sort of person who couldn't bear the slightest hardship unless it involved something he was interested in.
Besides, by the end of the story, Tang San would become a God King. He certainly wouldn't shortchange his little brother.
After all, you could call our God King Tang a hypocrite, or even say he did plenty of things that weren't remotely human.
But you had to admit, Tang San treated his family very well.
"Blue Silver Seed... So, is this a Mutated Martial Soul, or a degraded form of Blue Silver Grass?"
"It has the traits of Blue Silver Grass, but it needs Soul Power to reveal its original form. It's really hard to make sense of."
Tang Wu circulated his Soul Power and poured it into the Blue Silver Seed.
The Mysterious Heaven Skill began running on its own. As the balanced, gentle Soul Power flowed into it, the seed quickly sprouted.
In the blink of an eye, it grew from the size of a soybean into a vine nearly half a meter long.
The Blue Silver Grass swayed in the breeze, its broad leaves fluttering softly. A golden stripe ran down the middle of the stem.
You couldn't spot it without looking closely.
If Tang Wu hadn't known the story inside out, he never would have realized that the Blue Silver Grass in his hand wasn't ordinary Blue Silver Grass at all, but an unawakened Blue Silver Emperor.
To understand his Martial Soul, he first had to learn its traits and strengths.
Only then could he make the most of its advantages and compensate for its weaknesses when absorbing a Soul Ring.
As Tang Wu varied the amount of Soul Power he poured in, the vine in his hand grew and shrank along with it. More and more leaves appeared, and they grew tougher, too.
From this, he could conclude that the amount of Soul Power was directly proportional to the strength of the Martial Soul.
"The more Soul Power I have, the longer the Blue Silver Grass grows, and the more freely I can control it."
"With these rules, doesn't that mean..."
The more he looked at it, the more familiar it seemed. An idea began to take shape in Tang Wu's mind, though it was still a little half-baked.
The Blue Silver Grass rapidly lengthened, its tip tightening around a large tree in the courtyard. That was the instinct of a plant-type Soul Beast: to coil tightly around something.
As the vine contracted, a sudden pull yanked him forward.
Tang Wu's figure flashed, and he shot toward the tree in the courtyard.
"Woohoo, this is thrilling~~~"
"I knew it! If you develop a rope-like ability properly, you can pull off this kind of wall-crawling, roof-hopping stunt."
After that, Tang Wu cosplayed as Spider-Man, swinging back and forth between the tree and the smithy.
Tang Hao was teaching Tang San the art of smithing. Hearing the shouts outside, he couldn't help looking up.
When he saw what Tang Wu was doing, he shook his head and scolded him with a laugh:
"That brat's just like a monkey..."
"But he's developing his Martial Soul exactly like his old man. He really is a son of the Tang family."
Tang Hao could understand Tang Wu's behavior perfectly.
When he'd first awakened his Martial Soul at six, he'd been just as excited.
Most people needed a few days to get the hang of using their Martial Soul.
Take the Clear Sky Hammer, for example. If you weren't strong enough, forget using it—you'd struggle just to lift it.
But someone like Tang Wu, who'd never practiced with his Martial Soul before and could use it so skillfully the very first time, was a once-in-a-million genius.
Tang San also saw Tang Wu outside the courtyard. His bright eyes were filled with shock.
He had a Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul, too, so he knew just how much coordination it took to pull off something like that.
The takeoff.
The leap.
The landing.
If anything went wrong at any point, there was no way he could have done it so perfectly.
"A single strand of Blue Silver Grass works pretty well. I wonder what happens if I plant it in the ground?"
Tang Wu landed on the grass again.
This time,
he didn't grow Blue Silver Grass from his right hand. Instead, he sent it into the soil, and clumps of Blue Silver Grass vines burst through the ground.
With the earth to support them and plenty of nutrients in the soil, the Soul Power needed for growth was cut in half.
The strain on Tang Wu's Soul Power eased rapidly.
And nourished by the soil, these Blue Silver Grass vines grew to more than twice their previous size.
Blue Silver Grass also had a tenacious vitality.
As long as there were any Blue Silver Grass seeds beneath the ground, Tang Wu could instantly force them to mature.
And as it happened,
the one thing this little courtyard had in abundance was Blue Silver Grass.
So Tang Wu didn't hold back, continuing until his Soul Power was completely exhausted.
His legs gave way. The weakness from overtaxing his Soul Power nearly made him fall.
In exchange, the whole courtyard was now brimming with life, filled with a thriving colony of Blue Silver Grass.
"Wait, something's not right. This is..." Tang Wu sat in front of the courtyard.
His gaze swept over all the Blue Silver Grass, but then he spotted a cluster of plants that clashed with all that blue.
It was a pomegranate blossom.
After absorbing the vitality spilling out around it, it was now in full, brilliant bloom.
"I'm pretty sure this shouldn't be flowering at this time."
"Could it be that when I was experimenting just now, I made it mature along with the rest?"
"But that doesn't make sense. My Martial Soul is the Blue Silver Seed. By rights, I should only be able to speed up the growth of Blue Silver Grass."
Just as Tang Wu was utterly baffled,
a flash of lightning seemed to split through his mind, and suddenly everything clicked.
He entered a state of sudden enlightenment.
"Yes, there's no doubt my Blue Silver Seed Martial Soul came from Blue Silver Grass."
"But the key isn't 'Blue Silver' at all. It's the word 'Seed' that comes after it. That explains everything."
What was a seed?
Simply put, it was a means plants had evolved over millions upon millions of years to reproduce and thrive.
Most plants needed "seeds" to pass on their genes.
Even bamboo, which grew from rhizomes and essentially replicated itself, would flower and scatter seeds when it withered.
The Blue Silver Seed wasn't a seed of Blue Silver Grass.
It was a seed with the same powerful vitality as Blue Silver Grass.
The two were worlds apart!
As for why Tang Wu's Martial Soul took exactly the same form as Blue Silver Grass,
that was because he and Tang San had the same mother, and his Martial Soul had mutated from Blue Silver Grass in the first place.
That was why Tang Wu could use Blue Silver Grass's abilities.
And after mutating, it not only possessed Blue Silver Grass's endless vitality, but could very likely accommodate the abilities of all kinds of plants, too.
After all,
what did your Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul have to do with my Seed Martial Soul?
Good grief. His Martial Soul had split off and started its own branch.
"Hey, I just thought of a great idea." An idea suddenly popped into Tang Wu's head:
"If you plant a seed in a human body and use chlorophyll in place of metabolism, would that turn the person into a plant?"
"Would they gain extraordinary vitality and become impossible to kill with physical attacks?"
All you could say was, it was a pretty good idea. Give it a try, and you'd die.
Tang Wu's next actions vividly illustrated the saying: as long as you don't court death, you won't die.