The two of them drifted lazily through the sky, enjoying the breeze at high altitude.
"Boss, look at that guy. He looks just like a dog."
Xiao Wu poked her head out, looked down, and pointed at the muddy road below.
At her words, Su Chen lowered his gaze.
On the dirt road, a boy with a middle part and blue clothes was striding toward Holy Soul Village with a swagger that said he didn't care who he offended.
It was Tang San, returning after collecting his wages from a blacksmith's shop in Nuoding City.
Tang San was in an extremely foul mood.
Over the past year, he had endured humiliation at Notting Academy. His teacher, Yu Xiaogang, had been castrated, and Tang San himself had become the laughingstock of the entire school.
Now he was returning to Holy Soul Village to seek some warmth from his family by turning to his father.
Well, wasn't this a coincidence?
An old acquaintance had come right to his door.
Following the basic etiquette of greeting an "old acquaintance," Su Chen cleared his throat and called down loudly.
"Little San!"
Tang San stopped in his tracks and looked up.
In midair, Su Chen held Xiao Wu in his arms, a pair of metal wings spread behind him.
The instant Tang San recognized him, his eyes turned bloodshot, bulging almost out of their sockets.
Su Chen!
The culprit who had made him skid across the ground and knock his head in public, split his trousers, and caused his teacher to lose his manhood!
His hands instinctively went to the Twenty-Four Bridges Moonlit Night at his waist, and he gripped several throwing knives.
Controlling the Flying Device, Su Chen slowly descended a little, stopping not far above Tang San's head.
"A little San came from down south, hurrying along. Where are you off to?"
Tang San suppressed his fury with all his might and snarled through clenched teeth, "Su Chen, you dare show your face in front of me! I'll make you pay a hundredfold for what you did to my teacher!"
"Don't go pinning that shit on me."
Su Chen's face was full of disdain. "You cut your teacher's thing off with your own hands. What's that got to do with me?"
"What, got a taste for it and want to cut mine off too? Too bad you can't reach me."
This little scumbag blamed him whenever anything went wrong.
Though, to be fair, he wasn't wrong to blame him.
Su Chen even beckoned with his index finger. "If you've got the guts, come up here!"
Tang San trembled with rage.
But Su Chen was hovering in the air, well beyond the reach of any ordinary means. The helpless frustration made Tang San's chest feel stifled and bile rise in his throat.
Just as the two sides faced off, Tang San suddenly froze.
He could actually sense an incredibly familiar aura coming from Su Chen.
It felt warm and accepting, and even stirred an urge to cry in him.
Like his mother, whom he had never met and who had died long ago.
Mother?
Tang San was startled by his own ridiculous thought. He hurriedly shook his head, driving the absurd notion away.
That man up there was his sworn enemy above all others.
How could he possibly have his mother's scent?
That evil boy must have used some kind of hallucinogen!
Xiao Wu had never liked Tang San, and after hearing about Tang Hao's scummy behavior, she found Tang San even more irritating.
"You're such a nasty little brat. You're always pulling dirty tricks."
Lying in Su Chen's arms, Xiao Wu piled on, "You look like a piece of trash. Just like your dad!"
Those words hit Tang San right on his sore spot.
Insult him, and he could take it.
But insult his teacher and his father? That was a crime punishable by a thousand deaths!
You have already embarked upon the Way of Seeking Death.
His wrist flicked, and a Sleeve Arrow shot straight toward Su Chen's face.
Su Chen had long known all his little tricks. He controlled the Soul Tool and tilted it slightly.
With a whoosh, the Flying Device traced a beautiful S-shaped curve through the air and easily dodged the shot.
"Little San, times have changed," Su Chen taunted cheerfully.
When Tang San saw that his attack had missed, he thrust both hands out. His fingers blurred, and more Hidden Weapons poured down like a torrential rain, blanketing the sky.
Su Chen climbed higher, moving out of range.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Throwing knives and Sleeve Arrows tore through the air, shooting upward.
Unfortunately, Su Chen was flying too high. The Hidden Weapons lost their momentum halfway up and fell straight back down.
Gravity took hold, reversing their course and sending them raining densely toward the ground.
Tang San's face changed dramatically.
He hurriedly used Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track, scrambling left and right across the muddy ground.
He narrowly dodged the rain of Hidden Weapons he himself had fired.
Looking at the Hidden Weapons scattered all over the ground, Tang San was practically mad with rage.
Why?
Where did Su Chen get all these crooked tricks?
First the Image Recording Crystal, and now wings that could carry him through the sky!
Why was Heaven so unfair?
Why had Heaven brought Tang San into the world if it was going to bring Su Chen too?
Xiao Wu kept at it, shouting loudly, "Tang San, that middle part looks awful on you. It's a perfect match for your eunuch teacher!"
"You've gone too far! You've gone too far, Su Chen! I'll kill you!"
Su Chen was utterly speechless.
He hadn't even said anything. Xiao Wu was the one yelling the whole time.
How was he the one who had gone too far?
Was this little scumbag only capable of seeing him?
With his head clouded by rage, Tang San pushed off with his feet, preparing to leap into the air by springing from the trunk of an old locust tree nearby.
His right foot had just touched the bark, before he could even push off.
Slick!
His foot slipped, landing squarely on a fresh pile of cow dung by the tree's roots.
Losing his balance, Tang San flew forward in a textbook dog-pouncing pose and landed face-first in a puddle by the side of the road.
Muddy water mixed with cow dung, rank and foul.
Tang San gulped down a mouthful of yellow mud water and lay in the puddle, coughing violently, tears and snot smeared across his face.
The Tang Sect Secret Arts he had always prided himself on had lost to a pile of cow dung.
Seeing this from above, Su Chen laughed so hard he could barely straighten up.
This time, he hadn't used the Bad Luck Sticker.
It was entirely the little scumbag's own fault.
"Little San, why'd you jump right into the pit yourself? Is this some new trick your eunuch teacher taught you?"
"Gotta say, it's pretty original."
Xiao Wu watched Tang San's miserable state below and giggled.
"Boss, he's so stupid."
[System notification: Tang San's mental state has taken a hit. Gained Abstract Value +3000!]
Su Chen clicked his tongue twice.
That little scumbag had less resilience than the overworked wage slaves grinding away at their nine-to-nine, six-day weeks.
He steered the Flying Soul Guidance Device in a circle directly above Tang San.
"Xiao Wu, do you have anything to spare? Let's leave our classmate a little memento."
Xiao Wu was an old hand at this. She understood immediately.
She hurriedly felt around in her pocket and pulled out a half-eaten carrot. "Does this count?"
Su Chen took the carrot with his left hand, aimed at the back of Tang San's head, and tossed it with pinpoint accuracy.
Splut!
The half-carrot, still covered in rabbit saliva, hit Tang San squarely in the back of the head.
"Perfect headshot." Su Chen snapped his fingers.
The two of them traced a graceful arc through the air, laughing as they flew off into the distance.
By the time Tang San had spat the mud from his mouth and climbed to his feet, Su Chen had long since disappeared from the sky.
"Su Chen!!!"
He shouted miserably.
Then he slammed a fist into the old tree by the road.
Just wait!
Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west!
"I, Tang San, swear to Heaven: if I don't tear you limb from limb and grind your bones to dust one day, may I never be a man!"
Ah Yin, who had seen all this inside the Soul Tool,
looked at the boy in tattered clothes, his face full of malice.
She watched him draw a deadly Hidden Weapon without the slightest hesitation, and saw the undisguised venom and killing intent in his eyes.
Every blade of Ah Yin's grass went rigid.
That was her child.
In her imagination, her child should have been resilient like Blue Silver Grass, kind, and full of life.
But now.
This child radiated a vile, twisted malice from head to toe, like a venomous snake poised to bite someone to death!
Grief surged through Ah Yin.
She couldn't believe it.
Brother Hao, what had he turned their child into?
Tang Hao, was this how you treated the fruit of our love?
For a moment, endless sorrow welled up in Ah Yin's heart. She began to seriously consider the things Su Chen had said in the cave.
Perhaps that child had been right.
Tang Hao really wasn't a good person.