You Call This a Farm Tool?

Yu Xiaogang stood there with his mouth open, making a few meaningless "uh, uh" sounds in his throat.

Chen Xuan remained where he was, waiting patiently.

The training ground was so quiet that a pin drop could be heard.

"Cough, cough..."

A violent bout of coughing shattered the silence.

Tang San lay on the ground over ten meters away, forcefully wiping the blood from his chin with the back of his hand. He braced himself against the shattered stone slabs, veins bulging on the backs of his hands, and shakily pushed himself to his feet.

"Brother!" Xiao Wu anxiously stamped her feet at the edge of the field and was about to rush in. "Stop fighting! You're already hurt!"

"Don't come over!" Tang San shouted sharply.

He turned his head, his gaze crossing the broken ground and locking tightly onto Chen Xuan.

Tang San could not accept this outcome.

The pride of being an outer sect genius in his previous life, along with the confidence brought by his twin martial souls in this one, would not allow him to lose in such a humiliating manner. Being forcibly knocked back after using his second martial soul had indeed injured him internally. But he believed Chen Xuan's last strike had definitely been a trump card that exhausted all his strength.

Since he could not win through martial souls, he would use the supreme arts from his previous life.

Tang San took a deep breath. The Mysterious Heaven Technique within him began circulating madly, surging through all eight extraordinary meridians toward his hands.

Tang San's Jade Hands had only reached the third level and were far from mastery. But he could not afford to care about that now.

In the blink of an eye, his palms, originally covered in dust, turned into a lustrous jade color. Sunlight fell upon them, casting a warm sheen over their surface. Even the veins beneath his skin could no longer be seen.

Jade Hands.

Immune to all poisons and hard as rock. Combined with the techniques of Crane Control, Dragon Capture, they could catch even slashing blades barehanded. This was the strongest close-combat method Tang San could currently use.

When Yu Xiaogang saw this, his dimmed eyes suddenly lit up.

Though he did not recognize the technique, he could sense the immense power gathered in Tang San's hands. That was absolutely not a skill an ordinary first-year student could possess.

"Good! Very good!" Yu Xiaogang picked up the sound-amplifying soul tool from the ground, dusted it off, and forcibly raised his voice as he called out to everyone, "Watch carefully! This is a special skill produced by developing a martial soul to its absolute limit!"

The older students exchanged glances, while several teachers frowned.

Yu Xiaogang did not care what anyone thought. He desperately needed something to save face. "Tang San was only testing Chen Xuan's limits earlier! Now he has concentrated his soul power into both hands. This is an extremely advanced close-combat technique! Attacks relying on brute force like Chen Xuan's are full of openings in the face of such exquisite skill!"

Wang Sheng curled his lip among the crowd and muttered quietly, "Is this uncle blind? Can't he see who got slapped flying earlier?"

Hearing Yu Xiaogang's commentary, Chen Xuan nearly laughed out loud.

This old fool really was stubborn to the bitter end.

Tang San ignored the distractions around him. His feet moved in Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track, his figure flickering unpredictably as he rapidly closed in on Chen Xuan.

He planned to use his jade hands to receive Chen Xuan's attack head-on, neutralize the force, and then follow up with Bone-Piercing Nails.

A perfect close-range counterattack combo.

Watching Tang San charge toward him while darting left and right, Chen Xuan sighed.

"You really insist on meeting force with force, huh?"

Chen Xuan let his hands hang naturally at his sides, palms facing upward.

Dark golden light flared once more, denser and more dazzling than before.

Two heavy, rugged metal claws materialized in Chen Xuan's hands.

The complete form of Earth-Splitting Claws.

The dark golden metal surface bore no patterns, only a rough texture like stone. Their immense weight pressed upon Chen Xuan's arms, lending his entire body a steady, oppressive presence.

Tang San had already rushed to within three steps of Chen Xuan.

"Take this!"

Tang San shouted lowly. His jade-white right hand tore through the air with a sharp gust of wind, striking straight toward Chen Xuan's chest. This palm contained all the remaining inner power in his body.

Chen Xuan neither dodged nor retreated. He raised his right hand, clad in Earth-Splitting Claws, met Tang San's palm, and slapped forward.

There were no flashy techniques.

It was simply the most straightforward, most brutal frontal clash.

Boom—

An incredibly muffled blast erupted from the point where they collided.

There was no crisp clang of metal, nor the sharp crack of breaking bones.

Only a dull sound so heavy that everyone's hearts seemed to skip a beat.

Tang San's expression changed the instant they made contact.

His treasured Jade Hands had indeed blocked the physical cutting force on the surface of the Earth-Splitting Claws. Those dark golden claw blades had failed to cut through the jade-colored skin on his hand.

But—

An incomparably violent force of vibration pierced directly through that outer defense, charging ruthlessly from his palm into the meridians of both arms.

The characteristic of Earth-Splitting Claws: vibration.

It ignored external defenses and struck directly at the inside.

Tang San felt both hands suddenly go numb, followed by piercing agony. The inner power he had cultivated so painstakingly did not even last a second against that vibrating force before it was instantly scattered.

Tang San let out a muffled groan, and both arms completely lost feeling.

The massive force sent his entire body flying into the air.

A yellowish wave of dust rose above the training ground, spreading outward from Chen Xuan.

The fragments of Blue Silver Grass Chen Xuan had crushed beneath his foot earlier were swept into the air by the shockwave, dancing across the sky before the aftershocks ground them into even finer powder.

Tang San rolled twice through the air before crashing heavily to the ground ten meters away.

He slid along the ground for some distance, only stopping after smashing into a weapon rack at the edge of the field.

The wooden swords and sabers on the rack came clattering down over him.

Tang San lay amid the pile of broken wood, his arms hanging limply at his sides as all ten fingers twitched continuously.

He wanted to get up, but after several attempts, he could not muster even a trace of strength in his arms.

The jade color on his hands had completely faded, replaced by a horrifying expanse of bruised black and blue.

The entire training ground fell silent.

Even the sound of breathing seemed suppressed.

The students stood with their mouths agape, looking from Tang San lying in the wreckage to Chen Xuan standing in the center of the field.

Chen Xuan had not moved even half an inch from where he stood.

He shook the Earth-Splitting Claws on his hand. The metal joints scraped together with a clack, clack, the sound exceptionally clear across the silent training ground.

The sound-amplifying soul tool in Yu Xiaogang's hand fell to the ground with a snap, breaking into two pieces.

The smile on his face froze as the flesh on it twitched uncontrollably.

He had lost.

Lost utterly and completely.

Martial soul development, self-created skills, exquisite techniques.

Before Chen Xuan's pair of dark golden claws, all of it had become a joke.

Wang Sheng swallowed hard and tugged at Xiao Wu's sleeve beside him. "Boss... what kind of monster is Brother Xuan?"

Xiao Wu ignored him and rushed straight into the field, kicking away the wooden rack pressing down on Tang San. "Tang San, are you crazy? If you can't beat him, why are you still fighting?!"

Gritting his teeth and enduring the agonizing pain in his arms, Tang San barely managed to sit up with Xiao Wu's support.

He pushed Xiao Wu's hand away and stared fixedly at Chen Xuan in the distance.

More precisely, he was staring at the pair of dark golden metal claws on Chen Xuan's hands.

Those claws radiated a heavy pressure. There was no fluctuation of soul power, yet they possessed destructive force more terrifying than any soul skill.

This was absolutely not some mutated stone.

"You..." Tang San panted heavily, his voice terribly hoarse. "What exactly is that thing?"

Chen Xuan strolled over and stopped two steps in front of Tang San.

He looked down at Tang San, overlapping his hands and scraping the blades of the Earth-Splitting Claws against each other.

"This?" Chen Xuan raised his right hand and gave it a shake.

Tang San stared fixedly at the pair of dark golden metal claws on Chen Xuan's right hand and squeezed out a few words through clenched teeth. "A tool martial soul?"

It was the only explanation Tang San could think of.

Chen Xuan had hidden his true martial soul. This was not stone at all, but an incredibly rare and powerful top-tier tool martial soul!

Yu Xiaogang at the edge of the field also perked up his ears.

If Chen Xuan admitted it was a tool martial soul, then he could recover at least a little of the face he had lost today. After all, losing to a top-tier tool martial soul sounded far better than losing to a few pieces of broken stone.

Chen Xuan looked at Tang San's unwilling expression, then glanced at Yu Xiaogang, who was listening intently at the edge of the field.

He suddenly laughed.

"A tool martial soul?" Chen Xuan shook his head, his tone casual. "You're overthinking it."

He bent down and casually dug at the ground twice with the Earth-Splitting Claws. The hard stone slabs were carved with several deep grooves as easily as tofu.

"This thing is just a farm tool I use to till the soil back in the village." Chen Xuan patted the dust off his claws. "What, Master's ultimate technique can't even beat a farm tool?"

What Was Changed in This Version

Issue | Revision

The level of Tang San's Jade Hands was not explained | Added that it had only reached the third level before Tang San began circulating his power

Tang San "screaming miserably" felt out of character | Changed to "let out a muffled groan"

Xiao Wu "crying anxiously" felt out of character | Changed to her rushing in, kicking away the wooden rack, and calling Tang San crazy

Dialogue transition for "A tool martial soul?" | Added "Tang San stared fixedly at the pair of dark golden metal claws on Chen Xuan's right hand"

Removed the final word "End"