Gatekeeper, You Have to Act This Part

By the time they returned to Holy Soul Village, it was nearly dark.

Tang Hao walked at the front, carrying a wine jar in his arms.

The wine inside had been poured out, replaced with fresh soil, and Ah Yin had been planted inside.

Xu Zhou stared at it for a long while, feeling that something was off.

"Uncle Hao."

"What is it?"

"Why did you insist on planting Auntie in a wine jar?"

"It's sturdy."

"Flowerpots are pretty sturdy too."

"There wasn't one at home."

Tang Hao answered as naturally as could be.

Xu Zhou had nothing more to say.

As long as no wine was poured into the soil, it did not matter where she was planted.

Ah Yin clearly did not agree.

A blade of grass stretched out from the mouth of the jar and smacked Tang Hao's hand.

Smack!

"What is it now?"

The blade of grass wrote two words on the outside of the jar.

[Ugly.]

Tang Hao fell silent for a moment.

"I'll change it tomorrow."

Only then did Ah Yin withdraw her leaf.

Tang San followed beside them, his emotions somewhat complicated.

After transmigrating for six years, he had finally met his mother in this life.

But when mothers and sons in other families recognized each other, they embraced and wept.

When it came to him, the first thing he saw was his biological father getting smacked.

Fortunately, Ah Yin had regained consciousness.

From now on, whenever Tang Hao drank too much, there would finally be someone at home who could keep him in line.

The moment the group entered the village, the villagers who had been waiting for ages immediately surrounded them.

"You're back!"

"Who exactly healed Tang Hao's injuries?"

"Xu Zhou, look at my leg first!"

"I was here first!"

"Your leg hurting doesn't stop you from having children. Move aside!"

Xu Zhou's face darkened.

This bunch had only wanted to level up that afternoon.

Now their service requests had expanded to treating illnesses and helping people have children. At this rate, someone would be bringing their old sow over to register tomorrow.

"Stop crowding."

Xu Zhou pointed at the wine jar in Tang Hao's arms.

"Uncle Hao's injuries were healed by Auntie Ah Yin. It had nothing to do with me."

Everyone was stunned at first.

Then someone nodded.

"So that's how it was."

"I knew it. How could Xu Zhou, with zero Soul Power, possibly heal a Title Douluo?"

The speaker was the one who had shouted the loudest earlier.

That afternoon, he had claimed that Xu Zhou's refusal to help showed a lack of solidarity among transmigrators.

Now that the evidence was before him, he changed his tune faster than anyone else.

"Didn't Ah Yin sacrifice herself?"

Niu Dali squeezed to the front and stared curiously at the wine jar.

"How did she wake up ahead of time?"

"Someone from the novel crowd, explain."

An old man stroked his beard. "After a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast sacrifices itself, it leaves behind a seed. As long as it absorbs enough life force, it can naturally recover."

"That's not right."

A young man beside him immediately refuted him.

"In the anime, Tang San clearly awakened her with the Blue Silver Emperor bloodline."

"Did Tang San do anything?"

"No."

"Then the anime got it wrong."

"Bullshit! The anime is the official version!"

"The novel came first!"

The two began arguing as they spoke.

Before long, the game crowd joined in as well.

"You idiots don't understand. Her affection must have maxed out, automatically triggering the partner healing effect."

Tang Hao looked over.

"You need to calculate my affection level with Ah Yin?"

The man immediately shut up.

A Title Douluo couple's relationship was indeed not something suitable for public research.

Ah Yin seemed to be getting annoyed by the noise.

Her blades of grass swayed lightly.

The Blue Silver Grass on both sides of the road straightened at once, then bent in the same direction.

A line of words soon appeared in the dirt.

[ I healed Tang Hao's injuries. ]

[ Zhao Tiezhu's breakthrough was just a coincidence. ]

[ Xu Zhou cannot level up, nor can he heal illnesses. ]

The village entrance fell completely silent.

Zhao Tiezhu lowered his head and looked at his hands.

"I really broke through on my own?"

Yu Xiaogang nodded.

"You had already reached the peak of Rank Nine. Breaking through the bottleneck in a burst of emotion is not unusual."

Zhao Tiezhu thought for a long time, and a smile gradually appeared on his face.

"So my talent is actually that good."

"You cultivated for five years."

"At least I broke through on my own."

Zhao Tiezhu did not feel embarrassed in the slightest.

He had previously believed that he had broken through thanks to Xu Zhou.

Now that it had been proven to be his own ability, of course it was worth celebrating.

The Black Ancient Book quietly appeared.

[The Public Script has been overturned by those who believed it.]

[Script complete.]

[Obtained one use of Script Projection.]

[Script Projection: Select an already formed false belief and make it reality for a short period of time.]

Xu Zhou was delighted.

After all that trouble, he had finally received the reward.

Although he did not yet know exactly how to use it, the ability to turn false beliefs into reality could not possibly be weak.

Old Jack, however, could not smile.

"Since no one can level up, what about the money we paid this afternoon?"

Someone in the crowd asked.

"What money?"

Old Jack began playing dumb.

"The registration fee!"

"The registration has already been completed."

"But Xu Zhou can't help us level up!"

"What I collected was a registration fee, not a leveling-up fee."

Old Jack clutched the money pouch tightly.

"You signed the papers and left your fingerprints. Why should I give refunds?"

The crowd immediately surrounded him.

Seeing that things were going badly, Old Jack turned and ran.

"Let's talk this out!"

"Anyone who keeps chasing me will lose their Mutual Aid Association membership!"

"You old bastard, give the money back!"

The village entrance quickly descended into chaos.

The next morning.

Old Jack, with two black eyes, left Holy Soul Village with Tang San and Xu Zhou.

Yu Xiaogang came along as well.

The previous night, he had contacted Nuoding Academy for Xu Zhou and planned to arrange for him to attend classes as an auditor under the identity of a special Martial Soul research subject.

There was no official enrollment slot.

He could not receive a subsidy.

But he could attend classes and stay in the work-study student dormitory.

Xu Zhou was quite satisfied with that arrangement.

He was not going to Nuoding Academy for that tiny subsidy anyway.

The hundreds of transmigrators in the academy were the real cultivation resources.

Near noon, the four of them finally arrived at the entrance of Nuoding Academy.

The gatekeeper who should originally have stopped Old Jack was sitting nearby drinking tea.

When he saw Tang San, not only did he refrain from mocking him, he immediately stood up.

"You're the work-study student from Holy Soul Village, right?"

"Give me the certificate and go right in."

Old Jack was stunned.

"You're not going to question it first?"

The gatekeeper was also stunned.

"Question what?"

"How could Holy Soul Village possibly produce someone with Innate Full Soul Power?"

Old Jack reminded him.

"And Blue Silver Grass is a useless Martial Soul, the Spirit Hall certificate could be fake—aren't you going to ask about any of that?"

The gatekeeper's expression darkened.

"Why would I ask?"

"You asked in the original story."

"In the original story, I lost my job too!"

The gatekeeper pointed at Tang San.

"I got word yesterday. If anyone dares humiliate him at the academy gate, Yu Xiaogang will come out and slap them in the face. Do you think I'm stupid?"

Old Jack looked somewhat disappointed.

He had traveled all this way just to see that famous scene with his own eyes.

Yet the gatekeeper refused to cooperate at all.

"How about you just act it out a little?"

"I won't."

"I guarantee I won't file a complaint."

"I don't believe you."

"I'll give you two copper soul coins."

The gatekeeper fell silent for a moment.

"Five."

"Three at most."

"Deal."

The gatekeeper pocketed the money, sat back down, and cleared his throat.

Then he raised a hand and slapped the table.

"Stop!"

"How could a tiny village possibly produce someone with Innate Full Soul Power? This certificate is obviously fake!"

With that, he quickly got to his feet.

"All right, procedure complete."

"Hurry up and go in."

Tang San stood to the side without saying anything for a long while.

He had the distinct feeling that someone had muddled through his big moment.

But there seemed to be no need to make the gatekeeper seriously humiliate him either.

Just as everyone was about to enter, the gatekeeper suddenly grabbed Tang San.

"Oh, right."

"That rabbit from Seventh Dormitory arrived three days ago."

"There are already seventeen people in the academy claiming to be Tang San."

"Be careful after you go in."

Tang San's expression changed.

"What are they trying to do?"

The gatekeeper took a sip of tea.

"What else could they want?"

"They all want to claim the little sister first."