Taliban Tang San

Xiao Wu's legs locked tightly around Tang San's waist and abdomen. Waist Bow activated, and a powerful twisting force spread from her waist through her entire body.

Tang San felt an irresistible force seize him. Xiao Wu carried him into the air, flipped him over once, and smashed him heavily toward the ground.

Boom!

His back struck the ground with a dull, thunderous crash, sending dust flying.

Tang San only had the Mysterious Jade Hand, not a Mysterious Jade Back.

The fall jolted his internal organs until they churned, and his vision went dark.

Xiao Wu gave him no chance to catch his breath.

The instant her legs loosened from his waist, her knee was already pressed against his chest, pinning him firmly to the ground.

At the same time, she seized Tang San's right arm and twisted it backward at an extremely tricky angle, locking it in place. With a flick of her head, her scorpion-tail braid wrapped around Tang San's neck again.

"Do you admit defeat?!"

Xiao Wu pressed down on Tang San, glaring at him from above.

Tang San gritted his teeth. His right arm was locked so tightly that he could not move it.

He tried to prop himself up with his left hand, but Xiao Wu immediately noticed his intention. Her left leg instantly coiled around his shoulder, firmly pinning down his left arm as well.

"You're still struggling!"

Xiao Wu snorted smugly. "That's what you get for using your martial soul to ambush me earlier! Now you know how awesome I am, right?"

Tang San was pinned to the ground, strength filling his body but with nowhere to use it.

If this had been a fight to the death, he would likely have already lost his life.

Xu Linjiu at the edge of the field straightened slightly in his chair.

Xiao Wu's grappling techniques were even more refined than he had expected.

As a hundred-thousand-year soul beast who had taken human form, she had clearly accumulated abundant real combat experience in the years before her transformation.

Now, it depended on how Tang San would break this deadlock.

Tang San lay prone on the ground, his mind racing.

In close-quarters grappling, he was no match for Xiao Wu.

Her grappling techniques were too powerful. Every hold flowed seamlessly into the next, and once caught, there was simply no room to break free.

Trying to defeat her through blocks and counters was impossible.

Since he could not block it, then he simply would not.

Purple light surged in Tang San's eyes as his first soul ring lit up once again.

This time, he did not fire out the Blue Scale Silver Pattern Grass. Instead, countless dark-blue blades of grass grew from beneath him, intending to trap Xiao Wu along with himself.

Xiao Wu was startled by the sudden change and instinctively tried to force her way free. But the Blue Scale Silver Pattern Grass was far tougher than she had imagined, and the wooden scales on its blades scraped her skin painfully.

In the blink of an eye, the two of them had been bound into an inseparable whole by the Blue Scale Silver Pattern Grass.

Xiao Wu's scorpion-tail braid was wrapped around Tang San's neck, while blades of grass entangled them both layer upon layer. Neither could move an inch.

"What are you doing?!"

Faced with this situation, Xiao Wu was momentarily at a loss, unsure how to respond.

"Your grappling techniques really are impressive. I'm inferior to you in skill."

As he spoke, even more Blue Scale Silver Pattern Grass surged forth. This time, however, the blades did not continue binding Xiao Wu. Instead, they wrapped layer after layer around Tang San's body.

"I'm not your match in close combat, so if I want to win this match, I can only use some special methods."

As Tang San's final words fell, the Blue Scale Silver Pattern Grass completely enveloped his entire body.

At the same time, three soul power seeds glimmering with faint green light slowly grew from the grass blades between them.

Boom—!

The Seed Bombs exploded at point-blank range. The shockwave carried shattered grass blades outward in every direction, kicking up a cloud of dust.

When the smoke and dust finally dispersed, the scene at the center of the field was revealed.

Tang San slowly climbed to his feet. Though he looked somewhat disheveled, he was not seriously hurt.

But Xiao Wu was not so fortunate.

The shockwave from the explosion directly sent her flying, and she crashed heavily onto the grass several meters away.

Several holes had been blasted into her clothes, her face was covered in soot, and her scorpion-tail braid had completely come undone, hanging messily behind her.

She lay there, gasping for breath several times before struggling to prop herself up.

Xiao Wu pointed at Tang San, her finger trembling. It was impossible to tell whether it was from anger or from the blast.

"You...! Why are you fine?!"

Tang San dismissed the remaining Blue Scale Silver Pattern Grass, walked over to Xiao Wu, and offered her a hand.

"It was something Teacher taught me. Uh... a self-created soul skill."

He pointed to his body. Under the moonlight, a faint metallic gleam could be seen beneath Tang San's skin.

"In a real battle, as long as you can win, any move is fair game."

Tang San looked at Xiao Wu and said seriously, "That's what my teacher taught me."

Xiao Wu shot Tang San a fierce glare, then slapped his hand away and climbed to her feet herself.

"Xu! Lin! Jiu!"

Xiao Wu turned around and angrily pointed at Xu Linjiu at the edge of the field. "What kind of nonsense did you teach him?! Who fights by blowing themselves up?!"

Xu Linjiu leaned back in his chair, his hands clasped behind his head.

"Enough. Little San already held back. Otherwise, you wouldn't have gotten away with just a few holes in your clothes."

He glanced at Tang San, satisfaction flashing through his eyes. "Besides, I didn't teach him that move. He came up with it himself."

With that, he stood up, took out a bottle of [Healing Medicine] from his backpack, and tossed it to Xiao Wu.

"For your first sparring match, the two of you fought at a level beyond my expectations. But there are still a few things you need to improve."

Xu Linjiu looked at Xiao Wu. "Xiao Wu, your speed and close-range grappling are both excellent, but you were too careless and let Little San turn things around. Watch out for that next time."

"And you, Little San! Although you performed very well this time, remember this: the most important thing for a soul master is their own martial soul."

Then he shifted his tone and looked at Tang San beside him. "In battle, you need to make greater use of your martial soul. Those other methods of yours are merely icing on the cake, not your core strength. Understand?"

Tang San nodded repeatedly, immediately understanding what his teacher was getting at.

At the start of the fight, he had kept relying on the Tang Sect's secret arts while leaving his martial soul to the side.

"Alright, that's enough training for today. Go back and rest well. We'll continue tomorrow!"

"Oh, and come early tomorrow. I'll take you two to get some new clothes. Just look at the state you're in."

Three months passed in the blink of an eye.

At the back-mountain training ground, Xu Linjiu was still sitting in his chair, watching Tang San and Xiao Wu spar.

After three months of training, both Tang San and Xiao Wu had improved in strength.

Tang San's soul power had successfully broken through to level fifteen. Xiao Wu's soul power had also reached level twelve and was nearing level thirteen.

Even Xu Linjiu's own soul power level had risen by one.

At this rate, by the time Tang San graduated from the junior soul master academy, his soul power might even reach the level of a rank-forty Soul Elder.

At the thought, Xu Linjiu could not help shaking his head.

He truly had no idea how Gangzi had managed it—letting two geniuses with innate full soul power increase their soul power by only a little over ten levels in six years was simply an outrageous waste!

"Mm—!"

A sudden voice rang out in Xu Linjiu's mind.

"What a comfortable sleep that was!"