Tang San took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed the demon in his heart.
"My teacher said I'm still very weak. I have to endure."
"As long as I master the Mysterious Heaven Skill and make Tang Sect Hidden Weapons, even if he's a young noble, I'll still be able to..."
"Xiao San! Get out here and get to work!"
Wang Sheng's booming voice from the doorway interrupted Tang San's daydream.
"Today's the work-study students' turn to clean the garden! Hurry up, quit dawdling!"
Tang San clenched his fists, his nails digging into his palms.
Clean the garden?
I'm a genius of the Tang Sect, with Innate Full Soul Power, and I have to sweep the floor like a servant?
This is all Su Yun's fault!
How did I end up like this?
If he hadn't taken the position of leader that should have been mine.
Though he hadn't actually taken it yet, technically Su Yun was the one backing Dorm Seven now.
"Coming."
Tang San gritted his teeth and answered, picked up a broom, and walked out of the dormitory.
But when he arrived at the garden, he saw something that sent him spiraling even further.
In the garden's pavilion.
Su Yun was sprawled on a rocking chair, reading a book in his hand.
And Xiao Wu—the girl who haunted his every thought—was crouched beside Su Yun's legs, massaging them while looking miserable as she recited some sort of mantra.
"Heaven and earth, dark and yellow; the cosmos, vast and wild... Ugh, this line's so hard to memorize!"
"Stupid rabbit. If you can't recite it, no carrots for you tonight."
Su Yun held his book and lightly tapped Xiao Wu on the head.
"Boo-hoo, you're so mean, big brother..."
Sunlight spilled over the two of them. It was a scene as cozy as a painting.
But in Tang San's eyes, this was damnable evidence of "a wicked landlord bullying an innocent young woman"!
"Su! Yun!"
The broom in Tang San's hands snapped in two with a crack.
He couldn't hold back any longer.
What endurance? What "don't bully a young man just because he's poor"?
I'm fighting you right now!
"I challenge you!"
Tang San roared and charged toward the pavilion. He released his Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul. Though it had only one lone white Soul Ring (he hadn't hunted for one yet; this was either a virtual state displayed by the system or simply a fluctuation of Soul Power), the ferocity in his charge was real.
Su Yun lazily raised his eyelids and glanced at Tang San charging at him like a rabid dog.
"Tsk."
"Who let a stray dog loose to bark this early in the morning?"
He didn't move. He didn't even change his pose.
He merely nodded toward Xiao Wu, who was still reciting beside him.
"Xiao Wu, someone's interrupting your recitation."
"Go toss him out."
Xiao Wu's head was spinning from all that memorizing, and she had a bellyful of frustration with nowhere to vent it.
At those words, she sprang to her feet, her rabbit ears standing straight up as a flash of excited red glinted in her eyes.
"On it!"
"First Soul Skill: Waist Bow!"
She didn't have a Soul Ring yet, but the battle instincts of a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast were still there.
A pink blur flashed by.
The next second.
"Thud!"
Tang San's vision blurred. Then his whole body went soaring through the air as if he were riding on clouds and mist.
Smack.
He hit the garden mud face-first, limbs spread wide in the shape of the character for "big."
Instant defeat.
Xiao Wu clapped her hands and looked down at Tang San with disdain.
"You can't even withstand one move from me, and you still want to challenge Brother Su Yun?"
"Bleh, bleh, bleh!"
Tang San lay face-down in the muddy pit, dirt filling his mouth and tears filling his heart.
Why?
Why was even Xiao Wu hitting me?
This wasn't how the story was supposed to go!
Watching from the pavilion, Su Yun grinned like a fox that had stolen a chicken.
He pulled out his Diary and cheerfully wrote:
[What a beautiful day. It starts with watching Tang San eat dirt.]
[I have to say, Xiao Wu's soft technique is right up my alley.]
[Looks like I won't have to lift a finger from now on. Shut the door and send Xiao Wu out!]
Lying in the muddy pit, Tang San felt as if the whole world had gone dark.
The pain in his body was secondary. What hurt most was his heart.
It hurt so much.
It really hurt so much.
The Mysterious Heaven Skill he was so proud of, the Purple Demon Eye he had trained for years—he hadn't even had a chance to use either before that pink rabbit kicked him right back into the womb.
What he found hardest to accept was that the person who'd ordered him beaten was Su Yun, the man he hated to the bone;
and the person who'd done the beating was Xiao Wu, the girl he'd fallen in love with at first sight (one-sidedly).
It was like finally getting ready to confess to the girl of your dreams, only for her to turn around and slap you, saying:
"That slap's from my boyfriend."
Nothing could wound a person more.
"Xiao San! What happened to you?!"
Just as Tang San was questioning his entire life, a voice rang out, somewhat anxious but mostly furious.
Yu Xiaogang walked briskly into the garden with his hands behind his back.
He'd been waiting in his office for his disciple to report in, planning to put on a bit of an imposing air. But after waiting and waiting with no sign of him, he'd come out to look—and, well, his disciple had been planted in the ground.
"Teacher..."
Tang San struggled to lift his head, his face covered in mud and his eyes red.
"I... I've let you down."
Seeing his prized disciple in such a state, Yu Xiaogang felt his anger flare up in an instant.
He whipped around and glared at the boy in the pavilion, who was peeling a grape.
"You did this?"
Yu Xiaogang's voice was low, laden with the authority he imagined he possessed.
Su Yun didn't even raise his eyes. He fed Xiao Wu the peeled grape, watched the little rabbit chew with puffed cheeks, and only then replied at his leisure:
"Grandmaster, your eyesight isn't very good."
"Can't you see that this wild—oh, I mean, this student Tang San just fell over on his own?"
"That's not how you pull a shakedown."
Yu Xiaogang was so angry his beard trembled.
Fell over?
Who falls over and lands spread-eagled like that?
Who falls over and leaves a crater in the ground?
"Don't twist the truth!"
Yu Xiaogang took a deep breath and struck a lecturing pose.
"Young man, you're using your family's influence to bully your fellow students. Is that how you were raised?"
"Though Tang San comes from humble origins, he has twin—cough, he has Innate Full Soul Power. He's a rare genius! You're destroying the future of the Spirit Master World!"
Su Yun laughed.
He stood up, dusted off his hands, and walked toward Yu Xiaogang one step at a time.
Though he was only six and shorter than Yu Xiaogang, the way he looked down on him from the depths of his very soul made Yu Xiaogang retreat half a step without thinking.
"A genius?"
Su Yun pointed at Tang San, still sprawled on the ground, his tone dripping with mockery.
"He can't even withstand one move from a little girl, and you call that genius?"
"Or in Grandmaster's theories, is getting beaten up a kind of talent?"
Yu Xiaogang's face flushed red as he argued back:
"That's because Xiao San hasn't obtained a Soul Ring yet! And his Martial Soul is Blue Silver Grass. It's perfectly normal for him to be weak at first!"
"As long as he trains according to my Ten Core Competencies and gets suitable Soul Rings, even a Trash Martial Soul can be transformed into something miraculous!"
"Heh."
Su Yun let out that famous sound of mockery.
"Trash Martial Soul?"
"Grandmaster, are you sure you understand what those three words mean?"
Before you continue