A Mother's Embrace, Waylaid by Bandits

Grandmaster led Tang San back to the thirty-year-old Solitary Bamboo they had encountered when they first entered the forest.

"Xiao San, this one."

Tang San followed his gaze, and his face instantly turned livid.

A thirty-year-old Solitary Bamboo.

A useless Soul Beast with no offensive power whatsoever, one that even an ordinary woodcutter could chop down with a firewood knife.

"Teacher..." Tang San trembled all over. "You want me to absorb this?"

"You have no choice," Yu Xiaogang said in an unquestionable tone. "Soul Hunting Forest can only be entered once a year. If you miss this chance, you'll have to wait until next year. Can you wait?"

Tang San clenched his fingers tightly around his wooden crutch.

Wait a year?

Could he wait?

Would Ye Hua wait for him?

Would Xiao Wu wait for him?

"I'll absorb it."

The two words were forced through his clenched teeth.

Tang San chopped down the Solitary Bamboo with a firewood knife, then sat cross-legged before it, closed his eyes, and began absorbing the nearly invisible pale white Soul Ring.

For Tang San, who cultivated the Mysterious Heaven Skill, absorbing a thirty-year Soul Ring was as effortless as a fish in water. The resentment of the Solitary Bamboo was even less worth mentioning.

Yet the sensation of Soul Power entering his body should have been warm. All he felt was cold.

Cold in his heart!!!

Once the absorption was complete, Tang San opened his eyes and raised his right hand.

Countless Blue Silver Grass blades burst from the ground and wrapped around a nearby tree.

Then...

There was no then.

Blue Silver Entanglement, paired with the Solitary Bamboo Soul Ring, merely made the Blue Silver vines a little more flexible.

Even the Soul Power nourishment that came with absorbing a Soul Ring was insufficient. Tang San had only recovered a little Soul Power, while not a single one of his injuries had healed!

His leg was still broken, his arm was still fractured, and he could not use Mysterious Jade Hand, Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track, or Purple Demon Eyes!

"Congratulations, Xiao San." Yu Xiaogang forced out a smile against his true feelings. "Your first soul skill is a control-type skill. That's still fairly rare."

Tang San gave Yu Xiaogang a cold glance without saying anything.

He stared at the laughable bamboo stalk in his palm. All he could see in his mind was the dazzling golden dragon pattern on Ye Hua's Coiling Dragon Staff, along with that deep yellow Soul Ring.

The gap!

A gap as vast as heaven and earth!

Master and disciple silently began their journey home.

They had arrived full of ambition, yet left bedraggled and defeated.

"Xiao San," Yu Xiaogang could not help trying to comfort him, deeply afraid that Tang San would be crushed by the blow and have his Dao heart shattered, leaving him without even an experimental specimen. "You need to look on the bright side!"

"The first Soul Ring is certainly important, but it isn't your entire life!"

"Think about it. Even if your first Soul Ring is only ten years, does that mean your whole life is over? Innate Full Soul Power has limitless potential!"

"As long as your second Soul Ring is a hundred years, your third and fourth Soul Rings are thousand-year rings, and your fifth Soul Ring is a ten-thousand-year ring, won't you still be able to keep up with everyone else?"

"Besides, I know many Soul Masters who don't have optimal Soul Ring configurations, yet they still managed to make something of themselves!"

Under Yu Xiaogang's repeated reassurance, Tang San finally regained a little of his spirits.

"You're right." Tang San took a deep breath. "I can't lose all confidence over such a minor setback. I have Innate Full Soul Power. I still have a chance!"

Seeing Tang San's expression improve, Grandmaster finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He had nearly thought Tang San would fall into complete despair and give up on himself!

But just then...

Clap!

Clap, clap, clap!

Applause sounded outside the carriage curtains.

A sense of foreboding suddenly rose in Yu Xiaogang's heart, and his right eyelid twitched wildly!

They had been too engrossed in their conversation to notice that the carriage had stopped at some point!

"What an inspiring story. I just wonder how much the two of you are willing to pay to buy your own lives, so that story can continue?"

Tang San and Grandmaster immediately became alert and burst through the carriage curtains!

The instant the curtains were pulled aside, both their pupils contracted.

More than a dozen masked bandits, each carrying a gleaming blade, had surrounded the carriage so tightly that not even water could pass through.

Their leader was a tall man with an intimidating presence. His face was covered with black cloth, revealing only his eyes.

Even their carriage driver had been impersonated by one of the bandits!

Yet even so, Tang San spotted something amiss. These bandits lacked the scent of blood and were missing some of the ruthlessness of real criminals.

They did not seem like seasoned outlaws, but more like first-time offenders. Some even had the builds of teenagers!

"Y-you people, who are you?!" Yu Xiaogang shouted sternly, but the tremor in his voice betrayed him.

"I built this road, I planted this tree." The tall man chuckled and raised his dagger. "If you want to pass through here, leave behind your toll!"

Tang San's gaze instantly darkened.

Damn it, I can't beat Ye Hua, but can't I beat the likes of you?

With a flick of his right hand, Blue Silver Grass shot out from his palm. Slender vines twisted and stretched through the air, faintly glowing with the light granted by the Solitary Bamboo Soul Ring.

"You'd better think this through," Tang San said coldly. "Do you know what crime it is to rob a Soul Master?"

The tall man's eyes clearly wavered for a moment when he saw the Soul Ring.

But he immediately regained his arrogance. "A Soul Master? A cripple with a broken leg, a fractured arm, and a face whiter than a corpse thinks he deserves to call himself a Soul Master?"

Tang San's face flushed red.

"Courting death!"

"Blue Silver Entanglement!!!"

He abruptly raised his hand, and Blue Silver Grass instantly shot forth.

The slender vines split into seven or eight strands in midair, like pythons flicking their tongues as they lashed toward the masked men around them.

The attack was not slow. After all, his foundation of Innate Full Soul Power was there. Even though he had absorbed only a ten-year Soul Ring, Blue Silver Entanglement still retained its basic effects.

The vines precisely wrapped around every masked man's ankles, wrists, and waists before abruptly tightening.

"Stay put, all of you!"

Tang San gritted his teeth, veins bulging on his forehead as he poured Soul Power into the Blue Silver Grass without regard for the cost.

The vines tightened further and further, sinking the bandits' clothes into their flesh.

"Hahahaha!" Tang San finally found his sense of superiority. "Just you lot? A few worthless bandits think you can rob me?"

"Wang Sheng and those trash might be shameless, clinging to Ye Hua like stubborn plaster, but they're still Soul Scholars! I used to have to be wary of them!"

"You aren't even Soul Scholars, and you dare rob me?!"

"Die!!!"

Tang San's face twisted viciously as he crazily poured Soul Power into the Blue Silver Grass.

Ten percent,

Twenty percent,

Half,

Everything!

All his strength!

Without holding back!

"Xiao San!" Grandmaster panicked. "Your body..."

"My body is fine!" Tang San laughed loudly. "This feels great! So great!"

"So this is what having a Soul Ring feels like? This is a Soul Master's strength?"

"Even with broken arms and legs, with less than one-tenth of my peak Soul Power, I can still Overwhelm you!"

"After I kill you, I'll go back and grab that big idiot Wang Sheng and beat him senseless, so he understands who's in charge!"

"I'll make them offer half their monthly income to me, and they'll handle all the living expenses of my Work-Study Student life. That is the honor of being weak!"

"Hahahahaha!"

Tang San laughed louder and louder, as though he could already see his carefree days after returning to the academy.

As long as Ye Hua continued living off campus, the entire Seventh Dormitory would be Tang San's private garden!

But gradually, his laughter grew quieter until it vanished completely, and the smile on his face froze as well.

"You... why aren't you dead yet?"

"Shouldn't you have been strangled to death by me?"

That was not right. He had used so much force just now. These bandits should have been strangled to death!

Even if they had not died, they should have been desperately kowtowing and begging for mercy. Why was there no reaction at all?

Did I crush their windpipes and make them unable to breathe? Have they already died?

But the moment Tang San raised his eyes, he was completely dumbfounded. Not only had the bandits not been strangled to death, they still had enough strength to turn their heads and exchange looks!

The tall leader visibly relaxed as well. After laughing, he forcefully broke free of the Blue Silver Grass restraints, then used his dagger to free all the remaining bandits.

Finally, he walked up to Tang San and slapped him across the face!

Slap!

"What the hell are you laughing at?!"

"I'm not dead yet!"

"A Soul Master? Soul Masters aren't much after all!"

As the bandits closed in with malicious intent, Tang San, who had just exhausted all his Soul Power, fell to the ground with a thud. His back struck the carriage wheel, causing him searing pain.

"Y-you... what are you going to do?!"