Innate Full Soul Power, Level Twenty

"Child." Su Yuntao's voice pulled him back from his thoughts. It was far more respectful than before. "Come, test your soul power."

He handed over a crystal ball specially used to test soul power. Tang San did as instructed and placed his hand on it.

The crystal ball suddenly lit up.

One mark, two marks, three marks... The soul power scale climbed at an astonishing speed. In the blink of an eye, it broke past the level-six threshold, and its momentum showed no sign of slowing.

Su Yuntao's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

Level seven. Level eight. Level nine—

At last, the soul power scale stopped firmly at level ten.

"Innately full soul power!" Su Yuntao's voice had completely changed pitch. He had to brace himself against the edge of the table with one hand to keep from collapsing. "Twin top-tier martial souls, innately full soul power! This... this is... this is..."

He stammered "this is" for ages without managing to form a complete sentence.

The crystal ball's light surged once more.

The soul power scale, which had already begun to stabilize, seemed to be given a violent shove by an invisible hand and abruptly shot upward—level eleven, level twelve, level fifteen, level eighteen—

Su Yuntao's mouth stretched open as wide as it could, yet he could not make a sound.

Every breath in the hall seemed to vanish at that moment. Everyone stood as if immobilized by a spell, staring blankly at the number that continued to rise.

Level twenty.

Innately full soul power—level twenty.

"Th-this-this..."

Su Yuntao could no longer even utter a complete word. He had performed awakening ceremonies for most of his life, yet he had never seen a genius born with innately full soul power at level ten.

Innately full soul power at level twenty was likely a number that had never appeared in Soul Land's entire history!

The children in the hall gaped, looking at Tang San in the center of the formation with almost worshipful eyes. The adults were flushed with excitement, their overlapping whispers nearly lifting the roof off the building.

Standing in the center of the formation, Tang San felt an unprecedented fullness of power within his body, and the smile on his lips finally bloomed completely.

In the void, Xiao Wu stared wide-eyed at everything happening below.

She turned to Tang Ling, her large eyes full of shock.

"Big Brother! He awakened two top-tier martial souls in one go, and he has innately full soul power at level twenty! Doesn't that make him a genius?"

Tang Ling withdrew his finger, a faint smile on his lips.

He looked down at the proud child in the center of the formation. There was no concern in his gaze, only an unfathomable hint of amusement.

"A genius?" His voice was soft, as though speaking to himself. "If you throw a rope to a drowning man, then pull it away with your own hands, what do you think that kind of despair tastes like?"

Tang San would never have dreamed that the Mysterious Heaven Skill he was so proud of had been doomed to come to nothing from the very first day he cultivated it.

Cultivating the Mysterious Heaven Skill required a particular kind of special qi within the Tang family bloodline as its foundation. Those with the bloodline naturally generated that qi, and the technique complemented the bloodline—the higher one's cultivation, the firmer one's foundation. But for those without the bloodline who forcibly cultivated it, the Mysterious Heaven Skill was like water without a source: seemingly abundant, yet actually suspended in emptiness.

As long as he encountered a cultivator with the Tang family bloodline whose cultivation had reached the Golden Core stage or above, that person needed only a thought to seize all the results of his years of painstaking cultivation.

Those without the Tang family bloodline must not cultivate the Mysterious Heaven Skill. This rule had never been about selfishly hoarding a treasured craft; it was meant to protect those who lacked the Tang family bloodline.

Xiao Wu tilted her head and thought for a moment. Though she did not fully understand what Big Brother meant, the cold amusement in Tang Ling's eyes made her shrink her neck involuntarily as she muttered softly.

"Big Brother, you look really scary when you smile."

Tang Ling did not respond. He merely reached out and rubbed her head, then turned his gaze back to Tang San in the center of the hall.

The smile remained on his lips, but it was like he was looking at a thriving crop. Let it grow a little taller, a little stronger—when harvest season arrived, that would be the most interesting time.

In the hall below, Tang San stood amid the lingering glow of the six-pointed star formation, holding two of Soul Land's most top-tier martial souls in his hands, his face brimming with pride.

The praise around him and the envious gazes wrapping around him made him feel, in a daze, that all the patience and waiting he had endured over the past six years had been rewarded at this very moment.

However, Tang Ling made his move again.

There was no light, no sound, no fluctuation of soul power. He merely shifted his thoughts slightly.

In the hall, Tang San's smile suddenly froze. It was an extremely strange sensation. Not pain, not numbness, but an indescribable emptiness.

The abundant, full soul power in his dantian—the power that had made Su Yuntao cry out, "Innately full soul power"—was dissipating at a speed visible to the naked eye. It was like an unfathomably deep funnel whose stopper had been removed, all its water madly draining away.

The soul power scale began to change as well.

Twenty. Nineteen. Eighteen.

Fifteen. Twelve. Ten.

Tang San's face turned deathly pale in an instant. He abruptly lowered his head to look at his hands. The two top-tier martial souls still glowed in his palms, but the innate soul power sustaining them was vanishing at an irreversible rate.

He could feel that power slipping through his fingers like fine sand. He desperately tried to clench his fists, but could grasp nothing at all.

Eight. Five. Three.

Zero.

The light of the crystal ball went out completely.

The entire hall fell into deathly silence. Everyone had seen that horrifying number on the crystal ball, but not a single person could understand what had happened.

Just moments ago, he had been a genius with innately full soul power at level twenty. How had he dropped to zero in the blink of an eye?

Tang San's body swayed, and he nearly dropped to his knees.

He desperately steadied himself, both hands clenched so tightly that his nails dug into his palms. Blood dripped through his fingers, yet he felt no pain at all.

He raised his head, his bloodshot eyes turning crimson as he stared fixedly at the crystal ball that had gone completely dim.

That was his innate full soul power.

He had waited six whole years, endured six whole years, before awakening his innate full soul power. And now it was just gone.

He did not even know how it had disappeared. He did not know who had done it, what method they had used, or whether it could be recovered. He merely stood there like a stone statue whose core had been hollowed out—still maintaining the shape of a person on the outside, with nothing left within.

"System! System! Get the hell out here! What the hell is going on?!"

Tang San roared in his mind, his voice hoarse with despair. Yet the only response was a cold, deathly silence.

The system that had always accompanied him now lay embedded in his sea of consciousness like a lifeless stone.

No light, no sound, no response whatsoever.