Finals Approached, Tang Hao Left

"Ginseng skin?"

When Tang San reached the auction house's back courtyard, the Soul Master guarding it was clutching the brocade box with trembling hands.

A whole Blood Ginseng lay inside. It still held its shape, but its color had darkened. It felt almost weightless when lifted, and its roots crumbled at a touch.

The auction house manager's face turned green. "Who touched it? Who touched the box just now?"

The guard said urgently, "No one touched it. I swear, no one did!"

Xiao Wu leaned in for a look, then stepped back in disgust. "You can auction this?"

The manager's hands shook with anger. "That's a hundred-year Blood Ginseng! It was brimming with spiritual energy when it arrived!"

Yu Xiaogang pinched off a bit of ginseng skin and held it to his nose.

The medicinal scent was so faint that only the smell of an empty husk remained.

Tang San looked around. "Has anyone been in or out of the back courtyard?"

"Only the guard, the deliveryman, and the clerk who entered it in the accounts," the manager said at once.

Xiao Wu narrowed her eyes. "You're not going to blame Tang San again, are you?"

Her words stopped the manager cold. He hurriedly shook his head. "I wouldn't dare."

Hidden in the sole of Tang San's shoe, Ji Yuan slowly digested the Blood Ginseng's essence.

A hundred years of medicinal power was nothing exceptional, but it was pure—just what he needed to repair the strain of spreading his web so widely.

The Blood Ginseng had been drained from underground. The box had never even been opened.

No one could trace it.

Yu Xiaogang stared at the bottom of the brocade box, his brow furrowing deeper and deeper.

"No damage. No residual Soul Power. Yet the root has been drained hollow."

"Teacher," Tang San said quietly, "it's the same as last time."

Yu Xiaogang did not reply.

Xiao Wu folded her arms and looked at the manager. "The things in your black market really are strange. Your medicine's gone, so don't go leaving another note to scare people."

At the word note, the manager's face darkened further. "Young lady, the black market does business on trust. I'll investigate this."

Tang San did not stay any longer.

On the way back, he asked Yu Xiaogang, "Teacher, what do you think did it?"

Yu Xiaogang was silent for a long time before he spoke. "It may be a lingering ability left by some parasitic Soul Beast. Or someone may have used a special Martial Soul to draw out the medicine's power from a distance."

Ji Yuan drew in his roots, and the dark-red markings sank into the wooden spike.

Keep guessing.

As long as you don't guess the sole of his shoe, you can guess all the way up to the heavens for all I care.

Xiao Wu kicked a pebble along the roadside. "Anyway, Tang San didn't do it."

Tang San glanced at her. "How can you be so sure?"

"Because if you could do that," Xiao Wu said with perfect confidence, "would Grandmaster still have to force bitter medicine down your throat every day?"

Tang San smiled wryly.

Yu Xiaogang did not smile.

More and more, he felt that some inexplicable interference surrounded Tang San.

Yet every time he investigated, the Twin Martial Souls and mutated Blue Silver Grass could explain it all.

Most frighteningly, the explanations held up.

The finals drew closer day by day, and the uproar over the academy tournament gradually died down.

Xiao Chenyu behaved himself more, at least on the surface. He stopped looking for trouble with Tang San.

Only Liu Qiang and the other older students still finished training each day so drained they felt hollow, though no one could find anything wrong with them.

Ji Yuan's Dark Web had stabilized.

Low-level Soul Masters, academy teachers, shopkeepers, guards from the city lord's residence—everyone in Notting City had left traces along the edges of his Spores.

He was in no hurry to devour them.

They were merely fertilizer for the outer ring. Tang San remained his true source of sustenance.

The day the holiday notice went up, Dorm Seven erupted.

Wang Sheng packed his bundle, stuffing in clothes as he shouted, "I can finally go home! If I stayed any longer, my mother would think the academy had sold me."

Sitting on her bed and swinging her legs, Xiao Wu said, "I'm not going back. I'm going with Tang San."

Tang San paused while sorting his Hidden Weapon parts. "Xiao Wu, I'm going back to Holy Soul Village."

Xiao Wu raised an eyebrow. "Am I not allowed there?"

"It's not that."

Tang San hesitated. "It's just my father and me at home, and the place is run-down."

Xiao Wu hopped off the bed. "I don't mind run-down."

Wang Sheng waggled his eyebrows from the side. "Boss, Sister Xiao Wu's said it herself. Why are you still pushing her away?"

Tang San shot him a glare. "Pack your things."

Xiao Wu came up to Tang San. "Then it's settled."

Looking at her bright, eager face, Tang San finally nodded. "All right."

Ji Yuan had not the slightest interest in their tender moment.

Back to Holy Soul Village.

The mountain behind it.

The place where he had buried his first length of root could still be used.

More importantly, Tang Hao was there.

As soon as the thought arose, Ji Yuan pressed all his outer-ring Spores deeper into hiding.

Tang Hao was an axe hanging over his head.

As long as that man remained, Ji Yuan could not devour freely.

Early on the first day of the holiday, Tang San and Xiao Wu left Notting Academy with bundles on their backs.

Yu Xiaogang saw them to the gate and handed Tang San a small packet.

"Take your medicine on the road. Don't stop."

Tang San accepted it. "Don't worry, Teacher."

Xiao Wu held out her hand too. "Any candy? The medicine's so bitter. He definitely won't want to drink it."

Yu Xiaogang looked at her, then actually took a small packet of candied fruit from his sleeve.

Xiao Wu was satisfied. "That's more like it."

Yu Xiaogang reminded Tang San, "Don't strain your left hand when you get back, and don't spend too long training alone. Return immediately if anything feels wrong."

Tang San nodded earnestly. "I'll remember."

Inside the shoe sole, Ji Yuan had already memorized the medicine packet's scent.

On the road, all that medicine would go into his roots.

The two of them made their way back to Holy Soul Village.

When Old Jack spotted Tang San at the village entrance, he hurried over without even taking care to steady his cane. "Xiao San, you're back!"

Warmth rose in Tang San's chest. "Grandpa Jack."

Old Jack noticed Xiao Wu and froze. "And who is this?"

Xiao Wu waved with a grin. "Hello, Grandpa. I'm Xiao Wu, Tang San's classmate."

Old Jack beamed. "Good, good! A classmate! Knowing Xiao San has someone looking out for him at the academy puts my mind at ease."

Tang San looked a little embarrassed. "Grandpa Jack, I'll go home and see my father first."

Old Jack's smile slowly faded. "Go on."

Tang San did not miss the change.

His heart sank, and he quickened his pace toward the smithy.

The smithy door was unlocked, but the place was empty.

The forge had gone cold.

The hammer by the wall was gone.

Only a letter lay on the table, held down by a weight.

Tang San walked over. When his fingers touched the envelope, he stopped, as though afraid to open it.

Xiao Wu grew quiet too. "Tang San?"

Tang San opened the letter.

Tang Hao had written little.

Xiao San, I've left. There are things I must do. Don't look for me.

Take care of yourself, and remember what I told you.

Tang San finished reading and stood motionless before the table.

Xiao Wu asked carefully, "Your dad left?"

Tang San's throat tightened. "Yes."

Old Jack had appeared in the doorway at some point. He sighed. "I came by this morning. Your father was already gone. I didn't tell you because I was afraid you'd worry on the road."

Tang San folded the letter and tucked it inside his clothes. "He'll come back."

Xiao Wu stepped beside him. "Tang San, I'm here with you."

Tang San looked down at her, pain held deep in his eyes. "Thank you."

Inside the shoe sole, Ji Yuan unfurled his dark-red roots.

Gone.

That axe had finally moved away.

He neither cheered nor relaxed enough to lose control. He simply pushed his Spores deeper toward Tang San's Heart Meridian.

Tang San's emotions had broken open. His defenses were at their weakest.

The Heart Meridian, the dantian, the edges of the bone marrow. Reinforce them all.

Tang San felt a tightness in his chest and caught the corner of the table.

Xiao Wu hurried to support him. "What's wrong?"

Tang San shook his head. "Nothing. I'm probably tired from the journey."

Ji Yuan took half his internal energy while he was at it, a gift to celebrate Tang Hao's departure.

Tang San only felt hollowed out, but he put it down to grief and exhaustion.

Old Jack looked at him with eyes full of heartache. "Xiao San, with your father gone, you need to make something of yourself more than ever. It wasn't easy for Holy Soul Village to produce a Soul Master like you."

Tang San looked up. "Grandpa Jack, I'll work hard."

Old Jack tapped his cane against the ground. "I'm not saying that to pressure you for the village's sake. I want to see you climb high and go far, not stay trapped in this broken-down smithy."

Tang San gripped the letter. "I understand."

Ji Yuan watched coldly.

Hope. Family ties. Duty.

Humans always found invisible ropes to bind themselves with.

But if those ropes could drive Tang San forward, they were useful.

Xiao Wu tidied the room a little, muttering complaints about Tang Hao as she worked. "What kind of father leaves without even saying it to his son's face?"

"My father must have his reasons," Tang San said quietly.

Xiao Wu huffed. "Of course you'd defend him."

Old Jack left with a sigh, leaving only Tang San and Xiao Wu in the smithy.

After dark, Tang San sat on the threshold, reading the letter again and again.

Xiao Wu sat beside him and did not disturb him.

Under cover of night, Ji Yuan sent a thin root from the shoe sole into the ground.

The scent of Holy Soul Village's soil washed over him.

Familiar, barren, but clean.

From the direction of the mountain behind the village, the patch of Blue Silver Grass where he had once grown sent faint, intermittent impressions through the plants.

Ji Yuan did not answer right away.

He first buried a dormant Spore beneath the smithy. Then he compressed the impurities that had spilled over after he drained Tang San that day into a mass of poison, ready to take to the mountain.

It could become a way out.

It could also become a new web.

Late that night, Tang San finally put the letter away and sat down cross-legged.

Xiao Wu grew alert at once. "You're still going to train?"

Tang San closed his eyes. "I want to clear my head."

Xiao Wu watched him for a while, then let him be. She only stayed beside him to keep watch.

As soon as the Mysterious Heaven Skill began to circulate, Ji Yuan tasted the flow of pure internal energy.

He did not drain too much this time. He took only a portion, letting Tang San maintain the illusion that his training was progressing.

Tang San's brow slowly eased.

Ji Yuan, meanwhile, turned his attention to the mountain.

The Blue Silver Grass there swayed gently in the night. The tips of several leaves had already turned dark red.

But just as Ji Yuan was about to break the connection, Old Jack's urgent knocking sounded outside the smithy door.

"Xiao San, something's happened on the mountain! Someone says that patch of Blue Silver Grass is bleeding at night."