Zhu Zhuqing crouched down. Without touching the scrap of skin, she nudged it out of the mud with the toe of her shoe.
The charred vine skin flipped over. A dark-red bud on its edge was caked with wet soil, glaringly conspicuous in the morning light.
Tang San saw it too.
Xiao Wu stepped in front of him first, frowning. "What is that? Who left it there?"
Ma Hongjun craned his neck for a look, then immediately backed away. "Don't touch it. It's all black. Could be poisonous."
Clutching his stomach, Oscar still found the energy to joke. "Fatty, you say everything's poisonous now. Did your own Evil Fire smoke you senseless?"
Ma Hongjun glared at him. "Shut up. I'm sick of hearing the word poison."
Zhu Zhuqing ignored them.
She stared at the scrap and drew back the foot she had been about to lift.
Dai Mubai came to her side. "Zhu Qing, what's wrong?"
Zhu Zhuqing looked up at him. "Don't you smell it?"
Dai Mubai lowered his head and sniffed, then frowned. "Something burnt, mud, and a bit of blood."
"That's not it."
Zhu Zhuqing looked toward Tang San's feet. "It was beside his shoe just now."
Tang San's heart sank a little, but no panic showed on his face.
"I walked all the way here. There's nothing strange about getting grass roots and mud on my shoes."
Xiao Wu jumped in. "Exactly. This lousy academy path is nothing but mud. You're not saying the grass roots ran over to my brother's feet by themselves, are you?"
Zhu Zhuqing did not argue. She just watched Tang San.
Her instincts told her something was wrong with that thing.
The Hell Spirit Cat was naturally sensitive to things lurking in the shadows. The scrap had lost its vitality, yet the bud at its edge carried an aura that chilled the back of her neck.
The aura was buried deep, as though someone had deliberately pressed it into dead skin.
Ji Yuan withdrew the last trace of green markings into the layer beneath the sole.
He had not finished devouring the skin shed during his self-healing test. The wind had blown it out, and of all places, it had landed right in front of Zhu Zhuqing.
Trouble.
He did not rush to deal with it.
Everyone was watching the scrap now. Any fluctuation of energy would confirm Zhu Zhuqing's suspicions.
Flender walked over and glanced at the scrap on the ground. "A piece of burnt vine is worth crowding around?"
Zhu Zhuqing spoke up. "Headmaster, there's residual energy in it."
Zhao Wuji came closer for a look and reached down to pick it up.
Tang San hurriedly said, "Zhao Wuji, be careful. It might be poisonous."
Zhao Wuji's hand stopped in midair. He turned to Tang San. "Cautious, aren't you?"
Tang San cupped his hands. "I learned the hard way in the Soul Hunting Forest."
Zhao Wuji snorted and used a branch to prod the scrap instead.
The scrap turned over. The dark-red bud snapped under the branch, oozing a little blackish juice.
Ma Hongjun immediately covered his nose. "That stinks."
Oscar's expression changed too. "That thing didn't come out of one of my sausages, did it?"
Ning Rongrong gave him a disgusted look. "Can you stop claiming every filthy thing you see?"
"I haven't been feeling right these past few days," Oscar muttered.
Zhu Zhuqing suddenly asked Tang San, "Has your left hand been feeling heavy lately?"
Tang San's chest tightened.
Xiao Wu turned to him too. "Brother?"
Tang San tucked his left hand into his sleeve. "A few times since I absorbed the Soul Ring. Grandmaster said it was rejection from my Twin Martial Souls."
Zhu Zhuqing stared at his cuff. "And weakness, coughing blood, dreams."
Xiao Wu's face darkened. "Zhu Zhuqing, what are you getting at?"
Zhu Zhuqing did not back down. "I'm just asking."
Dai Mubai frowned. "Zhu Qing, Grandmaster has already examined Tang San."
"Examining him doesn't mean he missed nothing."
The atmosphere turned cold at once.
Flender pushed up his glasses. "Zhu Zhuqing, you need evidence before you say something like that."
Zhu Zhuqing pointed at the scrap on the ground. "Does this count?"
Zhao Wuji tossed the branch aside impatiently. "What does a rotten bit of vine prove? There are vines all around the academy, and Fatty's burnt plenty of them."
Ma Hongjun protested. "Zhao Wuji, why am I getting dragged into this again?"
Zhao Wuji glared at him. "Haven't you burnt plenty?"
Ma Hongjun fell silent.
Ji Yuan listened to them argue and coldly tightened his roots.
Zhao Wuji's carelessness had helped him once, but Zhu Zhuqing would not let it go so easily.
She was not one for idle talk or arguments.
She would just keep investigating.
Flender waved a hand. "Go eat first. The lesson at the Soul Fighting Arena is still on."
Zhu Zhuqing said, "Headmaster, I want to spar with Tang San."
Tang San looked up. "Now?"
"Now," Zhu Zhuqing said.
Xiao Wu stepped forward. "I'll fight you in my brother's place."
Zhu Zhuqing did not even look at her. "I asked for Tang San."
Xiao Wu's temper flared. "Why are you after him? Can't you see how pale he is?"
Zhu Zhuqing finally looked at Xiao Wu. "That's why I need to see."
Tang San held Xiao Wu back and said quietly, "Xiao Wu, I'll do it."
"Brother!" Xiao Wu cried.
Tang San shook his head. "It's just a spar. I'll be fine."
Ji Yuan did not stop him.
Refusing would only make Zhu Zhuqing more suspicious.
Fight.
Let her investigate.
Let her find nothing.
Space quickly cleared in the middle of the training ground.
Flender did not call a halt. He just stood to the side and watched.
To him, suspicion between students was not the problem.
The problem was letting that suspicion fester in silence.
Zhao Wuji folded his arms. "Stop short of hurting each other. Anyone who strikes too hard gets extra training tonight."
Zhu Zhuqing activated Martial Soul Possession. Cat ears appeared, and her movements grew light and nimble.
Tang San raised a hand. Blue Silver Grass sprouted from his palm and spread around his feet.
Xiao Wu stood outside the ring, biting her lip, her eyes fixed on Tang San's face.
Ning Rongrong said quietly, "In his condition, he can't beat Zhu Zhuqing."
Oscar whispered, "Should I give him a sausage?"
Ma Hongjun shook his head at once. "Don't make things worse. If he eats one of your sausages now, he might get even weaker."
Oscar bristled. "Fatty, call me weak one more time and you'll answer for it."
In the ring, Zhu Zhuqing moved first.
She did not approach in a straight line. Instead, she circled Tang San's left side. Each time she struck, she pulled up short, but her claws kept pressing toward his feet.
Tang San caught on immediately.
She was not trying to win.
She was looking at the soles of his shoes.
Blue Silver Grass unfurled along the ground, sealing off Zhu Zhuqing's landing spots.
Zhu Zhuqing touched a toe to a blade of grass and used it to flip sideways. The shadow of her claws grazed Tang San's shoulder, while her other hand reached for the ground under cover of the strike.
A wisp of Hell Soul Power slipped into the soil.
Ji Yuan sensed it.
The Soul Power roamed through the mud around Tang San's shoe, as though searching for something alive.
Ji Yuan immediately shrank his main body into a hard, dry patch of dead skin. Every feeding pore closed, and his fiery-red and green markings sank deep into his fibers.
The Hell Soul Power swept past the sole.
Mud, gravel, grass clippings, the smell of rubber.
Nothing alive.
But Zhu Zhuqing's frown did not ease.
She closed in again and unleashed Hell Hundred Claws. The blur of claws forced Tang San back several steps.
Tang San's feet left deep prints in the ground.
Using the claw strikes as cover, Zhu Zhuqing sent her Soul Power into the prints.
Ji Yuan took the opportunity to push a few broken, ordinary grass roots into its path.
All Zhu Zhuqing found were crushed grass roots.
Tang San's face had gone pale, and sweat beaded on his forehead.
He was not faking it.
To make Tang San look as weak as he was supposed to, Ji Yuan was draining the Mysterious Heaven Skill Inner Force he had just managed to summon.
Xiao Wu could not bear to watch. "That's enough!"
Zhu Zhuqing did not stop.
Tang San did not concede either.
He flipped his right hand, and Blue Silver Grass coiled around Zhu Zhuqing's ankle from the side.
Zhu Zhuqing used the pull to lunge forward. Her daggerlike claws stopped just short of Tang San's throat.
Tang San's Blue Silver Grass had wrapped around her wrist too.
They both stopped.
Zhao Wuji clapped his hands. "That's enough. A draw."
Zhu Zhuqing withdrew her Martial Soul.
Tang San lowered his hand and coughed softly.
Xiao Wu rushed over to support him. "Why did you have to push yourself?"
Tang San shook his head. "I'm fine."
Zhu Zhuqing walked to the scrap, bent to pick up the branch, and lifted the scrap into a leaf, wrapping it up.
Dai Mubai watched her. "You're still going to investigate?"
"I'll ask Tang San to explain tonight," Zhu Zhuqing said.
Xiao Wu exploded. "If you have something to say, say it now!"
Zhu Zhuqing tucked the leaf-wrapped scrap into her sleeve. "There are too many people here."
Tang San looked at her. "All right. Tonight."
Xiao Wu tugged at him anxiously. "Brother, why did you agree to that?"
Tang San said quietly, "She's just worried."
Zhu Zhuqing paused for a moment but did not turn around.
Hidden beneath the sole, Ji Yuan slowly tightened his roots against the bones of Tang San's foot.
She wanted to lay it all out tonight.
She meant to use that scrap of skin to force Tang San to admit something was inside his body.
Then he would give her a more reasonable answer.
Not a parasite.
Poison.
Before you continue