第14章 诺丁城的面具人

The next day, the three of them left Holy Soul Village.

Tang San stood by the doorway for a long time before leaving. For once, Xiao Wu did not rush him, standing quietly behind him instead.

Luo Yan crouched by the side of the road, plucked a foxtail grass, tucked it behind his ear, and stared at the sky.

"Let's go," Tang San said.

"Let's go then," Luo Yan replied, standing up and dusting the dirt off his pant legs.

The road back to Notting City was quieter than the journey there.

Xiao Wu walked in the very front, occasionally looking back without saying anything.

Tang San walked very slowly. Luo Yan lagged at the back, biting on that blade of foxtail grass with a breezy, leisurely stride.

Holy Soul Village grew smaller and smaller behind them, eventually turning into a blurry gray dot at the foot of the mountain.

Neither of them brought up what happened that day again.

Time in Notting City actually passed faster than Luo Yan expected.

Both Tang San and Xiao Wu's spirit powers were rising steadily.

Under Yu Xiaogang's strict guidance, Tang San grew more and more composed, while Xiao Wu's soft skill grew more and more vicious.

As for Luo Yan, he still skipped classes, occasionally manufacturing harmless little "urban legends" around the campus.

Until one day, a major incident occurred in Notting City.

The story was simple.

In an alley in the south of the city, an out-of-town wandering spirit master had too much to drink, blocked a flower-selling little girl in broad daylight, and grabbed her to keep her from leaving.

There were plenty of people around, but no one dared to meddle.

That spirit master was a second-ring practitioner with a white and a yellow spirit ring. In a small place like Notting City, however, that was already enough to walk sideways without a care.

Then, a masked person jumped down from the wall.

No one saw where he came from.

That mask cast a very faint glow in the dusk light, featuring bizarre, strange patterns that looked as though they were smiling—or perhaps trying to hold back laughter.

No one could make out his original appearance from that mask, and even his physique looked thoroughly blurred. A second glance was enough to make a person dizzy.

Next, two spirit rings rose from the soles of his feet.

One circle of yellow.

One circle of purple.

Right then and there, people's legs turned to jelly.

"A thousand-year... the second ring is a thousand-year one!"

The wandering spirit master was half-sobered by the shock. Before he even had a chance to run, the person had already walked up to him.

"You just said you wanted her to sell you flowers, and when she wouldn't, you were going to take them yourself, right?"

That voice was very strange.

It sounded like seven or eight different people speaking at the same time—some male, some female, some old, some young—yet they overlapped into a single sentence, making anyone who heard it break out in goosebumps.

The wandering spirit master's legs went weak, and he nearly dropped straight to his knees. "I... I was just—"

"Then let's play a game."

That voice sounded once more, still heavily overlapping as if squeezing into the ears from all directions. "From now on, your mouth is only permitted to speak the truth. Tell a single lie, and you'll slap yourself across the face. Begin."

For the time of a cup of tea that followed, that wandering spirit master acted as though he were possessed, spilling all of his secrets.

His name, where he came from, what he had stolen, whom he had swindled, and even the time he spied on his neighbor taking a bath at age five—he confessed to it all.

Every time he spoke a lie, his hand would uncontrollably swing to slap his own face.

By the end, his face was swollen like a steamed bun, and he knelt on the ground calling out to his ancestors.

The crowd of onlookers stood three deep inside and three deep outside, laughing so hard they were doubled over.

As for that masked person, he had already seated himself atop the wall at some unknown point.

He looked down at the people below. His voice was not loud, yet it made the entire alley fall silent.

"Everyone wants to know how I got this second ring, right?"

No one dared to answer.

"Well then... listen up!"

He stood, his figure appearing thin and light in the moonlight.

"If someone manages to find me, who knows, maybe I'll tell them how to achieve a thousand-year second ring."

With that, he turned, leaped off the wall, and vanished cleanly away.

No one saw where he went, nor did anyone see what his true spirit was.

They only remembered that smiling face, that purple spirit ring, and that voice where countless people were laughing and speaking all at once.

Notting City exploded.

For the next half-month, the entire Notting City searched for that masked person.

All sorts of factions began rushing into Notting City—Spirit Hall, major sects, various kingdoms. Some came to watch the show, some had genuine designs on him, and others harbored alternative motives.

Tiny Notting City instantly grew bustling.

Inns were packed, gambling houses opened betting pools, and even the little flower-selling girl was stopped three times by people asking her what that masked person actually looked like.

Meanwhile, back at Notting Academy, Yu Xiaogang had not slept well for three days.

He sat in his teacher's dormitory piled high with reference materials, copies of eyewitness accounts spread across his desk, his eyes bloodshot from lack of sleep.

"A thousand-year second ring."

He muttered repeatedly, the pen in his hand drawing the same pattern over and over on the paper. "Absorbing a thousand-year ring for the second ring means certain death in theory... unless that spirit ring itself is extremely special, or that person's physique cannot be measured by conventional logic."

He raised his head and looked out the window.

"A mask... a smiling face... overlapping voices..."

He muttered to himself, then suddenly seemed to recall something as he flipped open Luo Yan's enrollment record from earlier.

Under the spirit column, merely four characters were written: Elation Mask.

Yu Xiaogang's finger pressed against the characters for "Elation," remaining still for a long time.

"If that masked person is Luo Yan..."

Thinking to this, he abruptly shook his head.

No, that wasn't right.

The spirit's appearance was completely different, and his build, voice, and manner of walking didn't match up either.

Yet why did he still feel like something was off?

Lately, Tang San always felt that Luo Yan was acting a bit strange. He still skipped classes, but the spots he went to grew increasingly remote.

When he asked others, they all said Luo Yan hadn't returned to the dormitory yesterday.

When Tang San finally found Luo Yan, the latter was squatting at the base of the academy's back wall, using a tree branch to poke at ants on the ground.

"The city has been inspecting strictly lately," Tang San walked over and said straight to the point.

"I heard," Luo Yan replied without lifting his head. "Why are you suddenly concerned about this?"

"Teacher is investigating," Tang San said. "He's even been absent-minded during classes lately."

Luo Yan let out a laugh. "With Grandmaster's personality, once he encounters a puzzle he can't figure out, of course he's going to obsess over it."

Tang San squatted down beside him, picked up a thin twig as well, and casually prodded the ants Luo Yan was harassing.

"I've reached level twenty. What kind of spirit beast do you think I should choose for my second spirit ring?"

Luo Yan's hand paused in its prodding of the ants.

He tilted his head and glanced at Tang San. "You should be asking Grandmaster that. Hasn't he always been very attentive about your spirit rings?"

"Teacher said I can broaden my directions a bit," Tang San said. "But I want to hear your thoughts first."

Luo Yan didn't answer right away.

He stabbed the tree branch into the ground, patted the ash off his hands, and countered with a question: "What is your first spirit skill?"

"Parasite," Tang San said.

"I haven't seen you use your spirit skill lately."

Tang San smiled. "You don't even go to class, it'd be a ghost story if you knew."

Luo Yan let out a scoff, tossed the branch aside, and glanced sideways at Tang San. "Let me guess—once your Blue Silver Grass is smashed to pieces, it scatters seeds out?"

Tang San raised an eyebrow. "Not entirely right, but as long as it makes contact, it can disperse seeds."

"San, then your second spirit skill is going to be a lot of fun."

His speech sped up, carrying a hint of mischievous excitement. "What if you chose a forced-growth, explosive-type spirit skill?"

Tang San didn't take the bait, watching him intently and waiting for him to continue.

"Your problem right now is that you don't have enough Blue Silver Grass."

Luo Yan gestured quickly as he spoke. "But what if you could instantly make the seeds sprout right away? Or even more viciously, make a patch of ground boom and burst open with a massive spread of Blue Silver Grass, with every single new blade of grass carrying seeds of its own—"

He paused, his eyes bright as if he were recounting some incredible conspiracy.

"By then, you won't even need to hunt down enemies. You'll just scatter your seeds out and wait for them to walk right in."

Tang San's brows twitched slightly. "You mean area-of-effect explosive growth?"

"Right," Luo Yan said. "Grass bursting out from the soil, emerging right beside their feet, squeezing out of rock crevices. They hack away one clump, and the seeds snap and scatter another patch. Hack again, scatter again. You can't clear it clean, and the more you clear, the more there are."

Tang San followed his words to imagine the scene, his expression showing a rare trace of movement. "If the opponent's level is much higher than mine, they can completely clear the field over a large area."

"So what if they clear the field?"

Luo Yan smiled. "Your seeds are so tiny; a gust of wind blows, a layer of dirt covers them, and they still have to walk. When they step down, the seeds stick to the soles of their shoes. When you release your second spirit skill again at that point, triggering another wave of explosive growth, you can beat them until they don't even have a place to put their feet."

Tang San fell silent for a moment. "But the intrinsic strength of Blue Silver Grass is too low. Even if you force-grow it, it can't stop experts."

"That's why I said 'once you reach a high level,'" Luo Yan said. "When your level goes up, the Blue Silver Grass will also grow stronger. At that point, it's not about the grass being tough, it's about sheer volume."

"They hack down a hundred stalks, you grow a thousand. They use fire to burn a patch, and the seeds in the ashes drop another layer. They burn it once, you grow it ten times."

As he spoke, he amused himself. "San, by then you won't even need to lift a finger yourself. You finish casting your skill, stand off to the side, and watch them get chased around by grass."

"When they're huffing and puffing from the fight, you walk up, hand them a cup of water, and say, 'Tired? Want another round?'"

The corners of Tang San's mouth couldn't help but curl upward. "That's too sickening."

"Just tell me whether you want it or not," Luo Yan smiled, looking increasingly punchable.

"So, my recommendation is to find a plant-type, life-attribute spirit beast. When fighting, if they can't instantly kill you, they'll be annoyed to death."

Tang San looked at Luo Yan solemnly. "Luo Yan, thank you for your advice. I'll adopt it."

Luo Yan smiled and shook his head. "Right, do me a favor."

"What?"

Luo Yan handed over a piece of paper. "Give this to the discipline office."

Tang San took it and unfolded it. It was a spirit power rank certificate issued by Spirit Hall.

It bore Luo Yan's name, his spirit power rank, his spirit name, and a very crucial line of text: Has fulfilled all requirements of Notting Spirit Master Academy, and may apply for early graduation.

Tang San's finger lingered on the words "early graduation" for a long time.

"You're leaving?" He raised his head.

"The continent is vast, I'm going out to wander around," Luo Yan said.