The Boss

The training field was so quiet that only the rustling of wind through the leaves could be heard.

Two severed Blue Silver Grass vines fell into the dirt, pale green sap still seeping from the cuts.

The burly teacher's mouth hung open for a long while before closing.

Tang San's hand stopped at the small of his back.

His fingertips had already touched the edge of Twenty-Four Bridges Under Moonlight.

It was filled with sleeve arrows and iron caltrops he had forged overnight.

But he restrained himself.

This was a sparring match for practical combat class. It would not be appropriate to use hidden weapons that drew blood.

His fingers shifted half an inch to the side and touched an ordinary pebble he usually used for practice.

"Not bad strength." Tang San withdrew his hand, his voice low.

He attributed Chen Xuan's act of tearing apart the vines to the natural strength of a blacksmith's son.

After all, Chen Tiezhu had been forging iron in Saint Soul Village for half his life, and Chen Xuan had swung hammers since childhood. It made sense for him to be stronger than most.

But that changed nothing.

The strength of a control-type Soul Master had never depended on a contest of brute force.

Tang San tapped the ground with his toes, and his center of gravity suddenly dropped.

The next second, he shot forward.

He was more than twice as fast as before.

Wang Sheng rubbed his eyes from the edge of the field. He only saw Tang San's body sway in place before two blurry figures appeared simultaneously to the left and right.

Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track.

Tang San did not use Blue Silver Grass to bind Chen Xuan's legs again. Instead, using his footwork as cover, he closed directly on Chen Xuan's blind spot to the left.

His right hand formed a claw and grabbed for Chen Xuan's shoulder.

Crane Control, Dragon Capture.

As long as he locked the joint, even the greatest brute strength would have to submit.

Chen Xuan did not move from where he stood.

To outsiders, he looked as if Tang San's strange footwork had dazzled him, leaving him unable to react at all.

In truth, Chen Xuan saw everything clearly.

After practicing with the Flame Bow on the back mountain these past nights, he had long become accustomed to tracking the paths of birds and falling leaves in near-total darkness.

Tang San's footwork was indeed exquisite, but before absolute dynamic vision, all those feints were completely unnecessary.

Chen Xuan dipped his shoulder. Rather than retreat, he advanced and slammed directly into Tang San's clawing hand.

"Bang."

Tang San's fingers gripped Chen Xuan's shoulder blade.

Before he could exert force and lock it down, an extremely slick, flexible sensation traveled up through his fingertips.

He could not get a grip at all.

Beneath Chen Xuan's clothes, it felt as though there were a layer of slippery solid ice.

The force-dispersing mechanism of Water Armor Shield activated silently at that moment.

Tang San's prized grappling technique slipped right off.

Chen Xuan took half a step forward with the momentum, raised his right elbow, and drove it toward Tang San's chest.

The movement was simple—the most common Iron Mountain Lean used in street fights.

But backed by innate rank-nine soul power, if that elbow landed solidly, even Tang San would lose his breath.

Tang San's expression changed.

He forcibly twisted his waist, the internal force of the Mysterious Heaven Technique surging wildly, and jerked his body half a foot backward, barely evading Chen Xuan's elbow.

The two instantly opened a distance of five meters.

Tang San landed, his heels gouging a deep skid mark through the dirt.

He lowered his head and looked at his right hand.

His fingertips were slightly numb.

When he had grabbed Chen Xuan just now, all the force had rebounded back at him.

This was no natural superhuman strength.

"Chen Xuan, you've hidden yourself well." Tang San raised his head.

"Not bad." Chen Xuan tossed the remaining four gray stones in his hand. "Want to continue? Your control-type fighting style doesn't seem very effective against a straightforward assault type."

At the edge of the training field, the students began whispering among themselves.

Xiao Wu propped up her chin and stared at Chen Xuan several times.

The burly teacher frowned, completely unable to understand how those two close-range exchanges had just happened.

Yu Xiaogang stood at the very edge of the crowd, his hands clasped tightly behind his back, his knuckles squeezed white.

Tang San took a deep breath.

He could not drag this out any longer.

The teacher was watching, and the entire class was watching.

If he could not even defeat someone with a useless martial soul and no soul ring, then he, a control-type genius with a century-old soul ring, would become a joke.

Tang San let his right hand hang at his side, and his sleeve trembled slightly.

The pebble hidden in his palm slipped between his index and middle fingers.

The internal force of the Mysterious Heaven Technique surged through his meridians and into those two fingers.

Without any warning.

Tang San flicked his wrist.

"Whoosh—"

An incredibly sharp whistle split the air.

The pebble shot toward Chen Xuan's right shoulder at a speed nearly impossible to catch with the naked eye.

A Tang Sect hidden weapon technique: Flicking Hand Arrow.

Though it was not a throwing dart, the pebble infused with internal force would be enough to dislocate and paralyze Chen Xuan's entire right arm if it struck an acupoint.

It was too fast.

So fast that the burly teacher beside them did not even have time to shout, "Watch out!"

Chen Xuan still did not use Water Armor Shield to take it head-on.

Water Armor Shield dispersing force could be passed off as superior physical conditioning, but if he took such a high-speed hidden weapon without being hurt, that would draw far too much attention.

He hooked his right thumb against his middle finger.

The dull gray stone in his palm was pinched between his fingers.

These past days on the back mountain, he had practiced the Flame Bow's force-generation techniques every night.

The tension of the bowstring, the contraction of muscles, the instant burst of soul power.

Every principle of exerting force had long been carved into his bones.

Chen Xuan turned his wrist almost imperceptibly, then snapped his fingers forward.

There were none of the Tang Sect's flashy techniques.

Just pure explosive force.

The gray stone flew from his hand.

In midair.

"Clang!"

An exceptionally crisp collision rang out at the center of the training field.

The two stones collided with perfect precision less than half a meter in front of Chen Xuan.

The tremendous impact shattered both stones at once.

White stone dust drifted down in a shower.

It looked especially dazzling beneath the sunlight.

The entire training field instantly fell into an eerie silence.

The wind blew past, scattering the white powder.

Wang Sheng's mouth hung open, his jaw nearly dropping to the ground.

Xiao Wu sprang to her feet, her eyes wide and round.

The burly teacher swallowed, looking from the powder on the ground to Chen Xuan.

Tang San stood frozen in place.

He stared fixedly at the stone dust still drifting down through the air.

Others might not understand what had happened.

But he knew all too well.

He knew exactly how fast the hidden weapon propelled by the Mysterious Heaven Technique was and how tricky its trajectory had been.

Intercepting such a hidden weapon in midair required more than speed.

It also required terrifyingly sharp dynamic vision and prediction accurate to the slightest fraction.

Chen Xuan had not only done it.

He had done it with an irregularly shaped broken stone.

How was that possible?

How could a blacksmith's son without even a soul ring break a Tang Sect hidden weapon technique?

"What technique was that just now?"

Tang San took a step forward, his voice tight.

Chen Xuan dusted off his hands.

Looking at Tang San's face full of shock, he felt no ripples in his heart.

"Learned it from blacksmithing." Chen Xuan's tone was casual. "A blind cat happened to catch a dead mouse. You threw it off target, and it just happened to hit the stone I threw."

Learned it from blacksmithing?

A blind cat caught a dead mouse?

Tang San gritted his teeth. He did not believe that nonsense at all.

There was no way such a coincidence existed in this world.

Just as he was about to press further, a cough came from outside the field.

Yu Xiaogang emerged from behind the crowd with his hands behind his back.

His expression was not pleasant, but he still maintained that unfathomable air.

"Alright, the combat demonstration ends here."

Yu Xiaogang stepped between the two of them and glanced at Chen Xuan, his eyes carrying a hint of warning.

Then he turned toward the class and began his concluding remarks.

"Everyone saw what happened just now."

"Student Chen Xuan is very strong and reacts quickly."

"That shows he has put effort into physical training."

Yu Xiaogang paused, then changed direction.

"However, a Soul Master's combat must ultimately return to martial souls and soul skills."

"The reason Chen Xuan was barely able to block Tang San's attacks just now was because Tang San held back and did not use the full power of his first soul skill."

"If this had been a true fight to the death, this style of relying on brute force and luck would not last three exchanges against the absolute control of a control-type Soul Master."

Yu Xiaogang lifted his chin, setting the tone for the spar.

"So, do not be deceived by appearances. Finding the right direction for your martial soul's development is the proper path."

The burly teacher nodded repeatedly beside him. "The Master is right. Everyone, applaud Tang San and Chen Xuan."

Scattered applause broke out.

Chen Xuan stood where he was, looking at Yu Xiaogang's solemn face, and nearly laughed out loud.

So he was already forcing an excuse to save face?

Using "holding back" and "luck" to explain the exchange just now.

As long as something did not fit his theories, it was all coincidence.

Chen Xuan did not argue.

He turned around, retrieved the remaining three gray stones into his body, and slowly walked back to the last row of the group.

Tang San remained standing there, looking at the stone dust on the ground and then at Chen Xuan's retreating back.

Yu Xiaogang walked over and patted Tang San on the shoulder.

"Do not overthink it. His stone martial soul has no potential for growth. He can gain a slight advantage now through his physical qualities, but after rank twenty, the gap between you will be as vast as heaven and earth."

Tang San nodded, but the thorn in his heart could not be pulled out.

Was that really luck?

The bell rang for the end of class.

The students swarmed toward the cafeteria.

Chen Xuan did not go to the cafeteria. With the broken iron spoon in his pocket, he slowly headed toward the dormitory area.

The farce on the training field had ended.

But he knew Tang San's suspicions had been thoroughly stirred.

That was exactly the effect he wanted.

When he reached the entrance to Dorm Seven, Chen Xuan's steps paused.

The translucent system panel in the lower right corner of his vision suddenly flickered with a faint red glow.

A new line of text appeared.

[Arch-enemy Tang San's perception has undergone a slight fluctuation.]

[Yu Xiaogang's alertness: 5%.]

Chen Xuan raised an eyebrow.

The progress bar was already starting to rise?

It seemed Tang San had not been completely brainwashed by Yu Xiaogang's words.

The text on the panel gradually faded away, followed by the familiar countdown.

[Time until next draw: 00 hours 00 minutes.]

[Daily draw has refreshed. Draw now?]

Chen Xuan pushed open the door to Dorm Seven. No one was inside; everyone was in the cafeteria.

He walked over to his bed and sat down, then reached back to slide the bolt into place.

In the previous two draws, he had gotten the Flame Bow once and the Water Armor Shield once.

They had directly given him one offensive and one defensive trump card.

Who knew what the system would cough up in today's third draw.

Chen Xuan rubbed his hands together and silently uttered a single word.

"Draw."

The roulette wheel instantly filled his vision and began spinning wildly.

A few seconds later, it slowed.

There was no red light, nor any blue light.

An incredibly dazzling burst of white light exploded from the center of the wheel.

Chen Xuan instinctively narrowed his eyes.

The white light dropped from midair and slammed onto the bedboard before him.

With a dull clang.

The sound was not loud, but it carried tremendous weight.

Chen Xuan opened his eyes and looked at the bedboard.

There lay a long object wrapped in coarse cloth.

It was nearly 1.2 meters long, and a faint, cold metallic scent wafted from its surface.

The system notification sounded in his mind right on cue.

[Congratulations, Host. Obtained: Wind Eagle Crossbow (Epic) ×1]

[Description: A rapid-fire light crossbow gathering the power of Extreme Wood. Exceptionally mobile; each pull of the trigger fires three Wind-element crossbow bolts in succession. Includes armor-piercing and penetration effects.]

Chen Xuan's breath caught.

The Wind Eagle Crossbow.

The exclusive weapon of the Wood Light-and-Shadow Stone.

The Flame Bow was powerful, but it needed to be drawn and charged, making it suitable for long-range sniping.

The Wind Eagle Crossbow, on the other hand, had been made for rapid firepower output at close to mid-range.

He reached out and peeled away the coarse cloth.

A lightweight hand crossbow of cyan-blue lay quietly within.

The lines of its body were incredibly sleek, with spread eagle-wing patterns engraved on both sides. The grip was made of something neither metal nor wood, warm to the touch yet extraordinarily hard.

The moment Chen Xuan placed his hand on it—

His palm suddenly grew hot.

Five dull gray stones automatically appeared.

The third stone lit up.

A layer of green radiance flowed across its surface, echoing the eagle-wing patterns on the Wind Eagle Crossbow from afar.

[Light-Shadow Stones lit: 3/5.]

Chen Xuan gripped the Wind Eagle Crossbow's handle with one hand and gave it a light lift.

It was light.

Far lighter than the Flame Bow; he could control it perfectly with one hand.

He raised the crossbow, his finger resting on the trigger.

There was no need to cock it at all. As long as soul power was poured into it, Wind elements from the surrounding air would automatically gather in its bolt channel and form tangible arrows.

As Chen Xuan looked at this precise weapon of destruction, a thought suddenly came to mind.

Tang San had thrown a pebble today.

Yu Xiaogang had called it holding back.

If they crossed paths again and he pulled this thing out, firing three armor-piercing Wind-element arrows straight at Tang San's face in rapid succession—

What else could Yu Xiaogang's mouth come up with to smooth things over?

Chen Xuan stored the Wind Eagle Crossbow in the system inventory and rose to his feet.

A burst of chaotic footsteps came from outside, mixed with Wang Sheng's booming voice.

"Chen Xuan! Open up, quick! Something happened!"

Wang Sheng pounded on the door hard enough to shake the room, his voice full of panic.

Chen Xuan walked over and pulled back the bolt.

Wang Sheng stood at the door, panting heavily and drenched in sweat.

"What is it? Did the cafeteria run out of food?" Chen Xuan asked casually.

"Food my ass!" Wang Sheng grabbed Chen Xuan by the arm. "Tang San and Xiao Wu got into a fight with some sixth-year formal students!"

Chen Xuan raised an eyebrow.

"A fight's a fight. One has a hundred-year soul ring, and the other can throw people around like sandbags. They won't lose out."

"No!" Wang Sheng stamped his foot anxiously. "The one leading them is the city lord's son, Xiao Chenyu! He's the sixth-years' boss, an eleventh-level Soul Master! He brought more than a dozen people and blocked Tang San and the others at the back mountain!"

Chen Xuan leaned against the doorframe without moving.

Xiao Chenyu.

He knew this plot well.

In the original story, this was just a stepping stone for Tang San and Xiao Wu to establish their dominance over the academy.

There was no need for him to join in the fun.

"Not going." Chen Xuan yawned. "If I go, I'll just get beaten up too."

"You have to go!" Wang Sheng's eyes reddened with urgency. "Xiao Chenyu said he's going to stomp all the work-study students of Dorm Seven beneath his feet. He specifically named you!"

Chen Xuan paused.

"Me? What does he want with me?"

Wang Sheng swallowed, his expression turning strange.

"Xiao Chenyu said... he heard someone say there's an expert in Dorm Seven who uses broken rocks as hidden weapons, and can even smash Tang San's hidden weapons apart. He wants to see whether his wolf martial soul is tougher, or your rocks are."

Chen Xuan fell silent for two seconds.

Then he smiled.

Yu Xiaogang had just finished belittling his strength on the training field, and the news had already reached the sixth-years, where it had turned into an exaggerated version.

The speed at which information traveled through this academy was more outrageous than the gossiping aunties at the village entrance.

Chen Xuan patted the iron spoon in his pocket and stepped out the door.

"Let's go."

"Where to?" Wang Sheng froze.

Chen Xuan looked toward the back mountain, his tone calm.

"To see how hard the city lord's son's head is, and whether it can withstand my rocks."

And while I'm at it, I'll test out the new Wind Eagle Crossbow.

Let's see whether control-system theory is stronger, or overwhelming firepower.