Just Tell Me Whether the Wish Came True

Nuoding City Junior Soul Master Academy.

"This is downright strange. We didn't get a single Work-Study Student in the last two years, and this year three showed up at once."

Wang Sheng scratched his head. Tang San and Xiao Wu, who had been about to spar, also stopped and looked toward Xu Yuan at the door.

"Hello, everyone. I'm Xu Yuan. I look forward to getting along with you."

Xu Yuan walked in carrying a silky-soft quilt. He looked bright and energetic.

"Since you're a Work-Study Student too, the rules say you have to fight. Win, and you're the boss."

Wang Sheng explained Dorm Seven's rules to Xu Yuan.

"I'll pass. My Martial Soul is the Wish-Granting Tree, and I plan to become a Support System Soul Master. Fighting isn't my strong suit."

Xu Yuan hurriedly shook his head. Standing before him were a professional killer with thirty years of experience and a Hundred-Thousand-Year Transformed Soul Beast.

Asking him, a support-type Soul Master without even one ring, to challenge those two? He would be serving himself up on a platter.

Even as a transmigrator, he couldn't take that kind of punishment.

"A Support System Soul Master? What does that mean?"

One of the Work-Study Students in the dorm blurted out the question. Before he had even finished, Wang Sheng punched him on the head.

"Are you an idiot? Didn't the teacher cover this in class?"

"Every Soul Master has a path to develop along, like the Food System, the Power Attack System, or the Control System."

Wang Sheng looked at the Work-Study Student with the frustration of someone who hated to see iron fail to become steel. He had no idea what they would do after leaving the academy.

"But why is your Martial Soul called the Wish-Granting Tree?"

"Don't tell me people can make wishes and your Martial Soul makes them come true?"

Wang Sheng tossed out the joke without thinking.

"That's right!"

"That's what I—wait. What did you just say?"

Wang Sheng stopped dead mid-sentence.

Even Tang San and Xiao Wu, who had said nothing until now, stared at Xu Yuan with wide eyes.

"I said my Martial Soul can make wishes come true!"

Xu Yuan raised his right hand and circulated his Soul Power. Behind him, a pale-gold Glazed Ancient Tree of gleaming crystal sprang from the floor.

Its trunk was thick and white as jade, its branches slender and spreading. Its translucent crystal-gold leaves shimmered with faint light.

The enormous Wish-Granting Ancient Tree stood in Dorm Seven, its roots planted lightly in the floor and its crown reaching the roof beams. It looked as though it had been formed entirely from pure Soul Power.

"Seriously?"

Xiao Wu grew excited at once. She hurried up to Xu Yuan, wanting to see whether he was lying.

"As long as it's not something that violates the laws of nature, like bringing back the dead, almost any wish can be granted."

Xu Yuan lifted his chin and spoke with confidence.

"How is that possible?"

"A Martial Soul that defies the heavens this much actually exists?"

Shock flashed through Tang San's eyes.

Xiao Wu's eyes dimmed for a moment, but then something seemed to occur to her, and they brightened again.

Everyone else in the dorm sucked in a sharp breath.

"Of course, the process of granting a wish comes with just a tiny bit of side effects and a price!"

Xu Yuan held his thumb and forefinger close together, leaving a universe between them.

"Like what?"

Xiao Wu was the first who could no longer hold back. She was itching to try the Wish-Granting Tree Martial Soul's power.

"Well, how should I put this..."

"My Wish-Granting Tree Martial Soul can grant one wish every month."

"Since awakening my Martial Soul, I've used it to grant three wishes."

"The first person thought his life was going wonderfully and wished for a few more ups and downs."

Something seemed to come to mind, and Xu Yuan struggled to keep a straight face.

"And then?"

Tang San couldn't help pressing him. He wanted to know whether Xu Yuan had actually fulfilled the man's wish.

"It worked, all right. The result just wasn't quite what he imagined."

Xu Yuan hesitated for two seconds. "That very night, his wife ran off with Old Jerry from the next village."

"Before she left, she took his money and sold his land deed. His life's been nothing but ups and downs ever since."

The entire dorm fell deathly silent. Everyone was too stunned to speak.

You couldn't say the wish hadn't come true, but saying it had felt like a stretch.

Either way, it certainly wasn't what the man who made the wish had intended.

And Xu Yuan was far from finished.

"The second person was the village layabout. He didn't want to work and wished for a windfall."

"His wish came true too. He got three Gold Soul Coins!"

The work-study students looked envious. That was enough to support a family of three for a year and a half.

Xiao Wu had no sense of what human Gold Soul Coins were worth, but judging by everyone else's envy, three must have been a lot.

"What price did he pay?"

Tang San was the first to react. He wanted to know how the second man's wish had turned out.

"He went out for a stroll that day and ran into a drunk Soul Master. The man broke one of his legs."

"Later, a Martial Soul expert from Spirit Hall came to negotiate and gave him three Gold Soul Coins to settle the matter."

Xu Yuan finished recounting the second man's fate.

"Three Gold Soul Coins for a broken leg? You call that granting his wish?"

Wang Sheng cried out in shock. This was nothing like what he had imagined.

"Listen to yourself. Just tell me: did his wish come true or not? Did he get a windfall?"

Xu Yuan spoke as though his case were unassailable.

"Well... but... that's still..."

Wang Sheng's expression kept shifting. He wanted to argue, but had no idea where to begin. In the end, he gave up.

"What about the third person?"

Xiao Wu reached out to touch the Martial Soul behind Xu Yuan, but he knocked her hand away and went on.

"The third person had the best outcome of the three!"

Everyone's eyes lit up.

The first two had met miserable ends, but the Wish-Granting Tree really had granted their wishes. The results had just been a little off.

"The third person wished he'd never have to work hard again and could spend the rest of his life eating meat and fish without worrying about food or drink!"

"Uncle Buck thanked me for granting his wish. He even bought me brand-new clothes and bedding, and gave me some spending money."

Xu Yuan proudly showed everyone his new things.

"No wonder you didn't look like a work-study student. The fabric of those clothes looks expensive, and that bedding isn't cheap either!"

"I knew something felt off the moment you came in."

Wang Sheng's face filled with sudden understanding. Most people in the dorm wore plain clothes covered in patches.

Tang San looked down at his own clothes. The family's food money had all been spent on liquor. Where would new clothes come from?

His clothes were covered in patches, just like the other work-study students'. The gatekeeper had even stopped him because of it.

If he hadn't met his teacher, he would surely have unleashed thunderous methods and shown that gatekeeper the price of courting death.

"But how did that man's wish come true?"

Xiao Wu had lost all interest in fighting. All she wanted was to understand what kinds of wishes Xu Yuan's Wish-Granting Tree Martial Soul could grant.

If it really worked, perhaps she could use it to conceal the Soul Beast aura on her body and keep anyone from discovering her.