Tang San's Older Brother, Trash Copper Mirror Martial Soul?!

Holy Soul Village.

A hint of fish-belly white had just appeared at the edge of the sky, and the morning mist hung like gauze, enveloping the tranquil village.

On the cliff at the eastern end of the village, a single figure was already sitting cross-legged atop a huge, flat boulder.

Tang Shuo.

He sat alone, facing the faint morning light, his posture as upright as a pine.

Even in a set of coarse linen clothes washed white with age, it could not hide his ethereal temperament in the slightest.

He slowly opened his eyes. His gaze was clear, without a shred of the impatience of youth.

A flash of light flickered across the palm of his right hand.

An unadorned copper mirror quietly materialized, hovering motionless.

If anyone else were here, they would certainly have thought this was merely an ordinary copper mirror.

Only Tang Shuo knew that this copper mirror was no longer what it used to be.

Through years of uninterrupted refinement, day after day and night after night, drawing upon the True Qi of the Sun.

Beneath the seemingly ordinary rust patterns on the mirror's body, fine, hair-like golden divine runes were already faintly discernible.

With a slight thought from Tang Shuo, a warm current emanated from the copper mirror, easily dispelling the chill of the mountain peak at dawn.

He adjusted the angle of the mirror slightly. The mirror surface brightened a fraction, gathering the sparse morning light into a clear spot of illumination that shone on the rock in front of him, imparting a trace of warmth even to the pebbles.

A faint smile hooked the corner of Tang Shuo's lips.

Trash martial soul?

Heh.

Who could have imagined that this martial soul, which everyone—including his own biological father—had judged to be trash, actually concealed such profound mysteries.

His thoughts involuntarily drifted back to when he was six years old.

When the deacon in charge of the awakening announced the result in a loud voice, tinged with a measure of impatience and pity, the entire Spirit Hall was filled with a heavy silence.

"Tang Shuo, martial soul: Tool Martial Soul, a damaged copper mirror."

"Spirit power... none!"

"Next!"

The surrounding children's unmasked sounds of mockery.

When he returned home.

His father, Tang Hao.

That drunk, wine-breathed man day in and day out, the moment he heard the result, the last trace of faint light in those always turbid eyes was completely extinguished.

It was a kind of... undisguised indifference and disappointment.

It was as if his, Tang Shuo's, existence was a total mistake.

When his younger brother Tang San extended his left hand and that small black hammer appeared.

Tang Hao saw hope.

Only, in that hope, there was no place for him, Tang Shuo.

The next morning.

When Tang Shuo awoke, what greeted him was not a hot breakfast, but an emptiness cold to the bone.

Four bare walls.

That man, taking his genius younger brother, had left.

Old Jack the village chief pushed open the door and saw little Tang Shuo curled up on the cold floor, shivering with hunger.

The old man's wrinkle-filled face was full of heartache as he let out a long sigh, stepped forward, and gently picked him up.

"Sigh, it's been hard on you, child..."

On the table, only a few cold copper soul coins had been left behind.

Not a single note, not a single word.

That tall figure, carrying another small figure just like that, disappeared at the entrance of Holy Soul Village and never looked back.

Everyone thought he would sink into despair from then on.

But Tang Shuo did not.

On the very second day after being abandoned, amidst his despair, he raised the copper mirror martial soul—which he had regarded as the source of all his misfortune—toward the rising sun.

And at that very moment, he discovered this earth-shaking secret.

His copper mirror was actually capable of absorbing the light of the sun!

A warm and sacred power surged into his body along the copper mirror.

He gave this power a name.

Solar Divine Radiance.

A martial soul was definitely not as simple as it appeared on the surface!

From that day on, the word give-up never appeared in his dictionary again.

Day after day, year after year.

Every morning on the cliff of Holy Soul Village, a slender figure would appear.

Through the cold of winter and the heat of summer, rain or shine.

That tender boy who had once been abandoned had now grown into the clear-eyed and handsome young man before his eyes.

Tang Shuo pulled back his thoughts, grasped the copper mirror in his hand, and felt that warmth belonging solely to him.

He raised his head, looking toward the rising sun that had completely leaped above the horizon, radiating boundless light, and a brilliant smile bloomed on his face.

"My path has only just begun."

The words had just fallen.

Above the firmament, that newly risen morning sun suddenly burst forth with endless light and heat!

Xihe drove the sun, golden scales opened the heavens.

The morning sun had just arrived, purple Qi hung to the east.

In an instant, ten thousand rays of golden radiance poured down like an overturned heavenly river, all surging toward that figure at the peak of the cliff!

The fine golden divine runes on the copper mirror in Tang Shuo's hand suddenly lit up, swallowing the surging solar divine radiance whole!

Tang Shuo's body was completely enveloped by the dazzling golden light.

His black hair fluttered and his robes danced in the wind as an indescribable aura emanated from him.

Stroking the long sword with its jade pendants, the jade ornaments chimed like melodious pearls.

All the Solar Divine Radiance swallowed by the copper mirror poured back into Tang Shuo's body at this moment, converging within his spiritual sea of consciousness.

And then.

Dong!

A bell chime, as if coming from the primordial chaos of antiquity, struck with a resounding crash deep within his soul without warning!

The voice of the Great Dao!

Though it vanished in a flash, it erupted with a supreme majesty that caused the soul to tremble and submit!

In an instant, the crisp chirps of insects and birds around the cliff fell silent.

Even the morning breeze blowing through the mountains froze for a single moment.

The entire heaven and earth plunged into dead silence!

This was the coercion originating from the Eastern Sovereign!

Within Tang Shuo's sea of consciousness, the unadorned copper mirror shattered with a loud crash as the bell tolled.

Replacing it was the phantom of an ancient bell, resembling a massive three-legged cauldron.

Circling the bell's body were the sun, moon, stars, earth, water, fire, and wind, while primordial myriad spirits and mountains and rivers were engraved upon it.

The bell suppresses the primordial cosmos, master of all demons.

The body transforms into the great sun, illuminating the primordial chaos.

The Eastern Emperor Bell!

This was his, Tang Shuo's, true martial soul!

At the same time.

At the entrance of Holy Soul Village.

Two figures, one tall and one short, were walking slowly.

The youth walking in front wore a brand-new uniform of the Notting Junior Soul Master Academy, of exquisite fabric and tailored fit.

At the youth's waist hung a silver metal pouch inlaid with a few tiny gems, flashing with a faint gleam from time to time.

Twenty-Four Bridges Under the Moonlit Night, a soul tool.

Following beside him was a carved-jade-and-carved-stone little girl, wearing her hair in a long scorpion braid and dressed in a lively and adorable pink short skirt.

It was precisely Tang San and Xiao Wu.

"Third Brother, is this where you used to live?"

Xiao Wu hopped along beside Tang San, her small nose wrinkling slightly.

"Mn."

Tang San nodded, his gaze somewhat complex.

Xiao Wu looked around, finding the rammed-earth houses and pockmarked dirt roads all novel to her.

"This place is so dilapidated, why did we come here?"