Wang Sheng: "Go Comfort Tang San"

Tang San pulled the quilt over his head and turned his back on Xiao Wu. He clearly did not want to talk to her.

Wang Sheng and the others exchanged glances. None of them dared get involved, and they were afraid even to speak, lest trouble fall on their heads.

The atmosphere in Dorm Seven was unbearably tense. Seeing that things looked bad, Wang Sheng and the others slipped out. Afraid of disturbing Tang San and Xiao Wu, they even tiptoed away, carefully shutting the door behind them.

"That scared me to death. What just happened?"

One of the work-study students asked Wang Sheng.

"How would I know? I'm not a worm in Tang San's belly. Usually, he and Xiao Wu are thick as thieves, but today he suddenly gave her the cold shoulder."

"He looked pretty scary, too. Gave me a fright," Wang Sheng added. He could not stand another moment in that wretched dorm.

But then he remembered he hardly had any money in his pocket.

All he could do was lie down and take it.

Just then, Wang Sheng caught sight of someone.

"Look! Isn't that Jin Yang?"

"It really is him!"

"Come on, let's go see."

"Let's go, let's go."

Jin Yang, out for a stroll after his meal, heard a jumble of footsteps behind him. He turned and saw Wang Sheng and the others.

"Do you need something?"

Jin Yang's tone was flat. They had never done anything to him and had even helped make his bed, but he had never liked people who trimmed their sails to the wind.

So he could not say he was fond of them.

Wang Sheng and the others did not mind Jin Yang's attitude. Perhaps they were too young to have many reservations. They told him what had happened between Tang San and Xiao Wu.

Wang Sheng had a gift for storytelling. He made a few brief moments sound vivid and dramatic, as though he had been born with a sacred talent for gossip.

"You're saying Tang San cried?"

"That's right. Sister Xiao Wu said so herself, and Tang San didn't deny it."

"..."

Jin Yang pressed his lips together, afraid he would burst out laughing.

Counting both his lives, how old was Tang San now? And he still cried like a child...

"So what did you stop me for?"

Having heard the amusing little tale, Jin Yang cut off Wang Sheng, who looked ready to keep going, and asked with interest.

Surely they didn't stop me just to share gossip.

Caught off guard by the question, Wang Sheng clearly had not finished laying the groundwork. He stammered for a long while before finally saying, "I was hoping you'd... go comfort Tang San..."

?!

"What?"

Jin Yang stared at Wang Sheng, eyes wide with disbelief.

He had thought Wang Sheng might, at most, be bringing the other work-study students to join his side, or that Tang San had sent them to challenge him. After all, Tang San had never accepted him.

Never in a million years had he imagined Wang Sheng would ask him to comfort Tang San.

Jin Yang pointed at himself, then toward Dorm Seven.

"You're sure you want me to comfort Tang San?"

Are you serious, man?!

"Since when were Tang San and I friends?"

If anything, we're enemies!

Come on, kid. I tore into Yu Xiaogang and Tang San just a few days ago, and even drove a wedge between them. Surely that earns me the rank of enemy.

My name is probably carved so deep into Tang San's little book of grudges that it's cut through the wood.

And now you want me to cheer him up?

"You can't be serious." This time, Jin Yang really did laugh.

"Why would I comfort him? Given our relationship, I'm afraid the only thing that would truly make him happy is my death."

Wang Sheng tried to say more, but Jin Yang raised a hand between them and cut him off.

"What were you thinking, Wang Sheng?

If you want to bow and scrape like a good little grandson, leave me out of it. We barely know each other."

Jin Yang rolled his eyes at Wang Sheng, turned, and hurried away from the group.

He was afraid that if he stayed near them, their brains might infect his with some unknown virus.

Rubbing the goosebumps on his arms, Jin Yang left the academy and headed toward Spirit Hall.

It was time to collect his stipend.

He was a distinguished One-Ring Soul Master now, after all.

That meant a Soul Master stipend of a whole Gold Soul Coin every month.

Before his Martial Soul Awakening, a single Gold Soul Coin would have covered his living expenses for an entire year.

Wearing his Nuoding Junior Soul Master Academy uniform, he walked into Spirit Hall.

Jin Yang spotted Su Yuntao talking with a beautiful woman at once.

He was about to leave them undisturbed when Su Yuntao noticed him and came over with the female Soul Master.

"Jin Yang, we meet again."

"Master Su Yuntao, thank you again for your help."

The female Soul Master beside Su Yuntao gave a startled cry, looking flustered. "Isn't the Martial Soul Awakening period over? Why have you only come for yours now?"

Su Yuntao stopped Sisi as she moved to fetch an Awakening Stone.

"Sisi, this is the child I told you about, the one who hired me to take him Soul Hunting.

Unfortunately, his Martial Soul is a Sunflower, and his Innate Soul Power was only two and a half levels.

Otherwise, his future would have been boundless! He's already acquired a Soul Ring, so he must be here to collect his Soul Master stipend.

I'll take him to Master Ma Xiunuo in the reception hall."

"What!"

A man and a woman spoke at the same time.

The woman was Sisi. The man's voice was elderly and sounded somewhat familiar.

Jin Yang turned. It was the Spirit Hall Deacon who had visited Nuoding Junior Soul Master Academy a few days earlier: Huisinuo, the retired bishop and Seven-Ring Soul Sage.

"Greetings, Bishop Huisinuo."

Su Yuntao greeted him politely.

Sisi called out, "Second Grandpa."

"Yuntao, what's going on with this child? I've been listening for a while."

At Huisinuo's words, Sisi and Su Yuntao both blushed.

"Bishop Huisinuo..."

"We're the same rank now. Just call me Huisinuo."

Huisinuo might have said that, but how could Su Yuntao dare?

"Lord Huisinuo, this child is Jin Yang. I oversaw his Martial Soul Awakening. His Martial Soul is a Sunflower, and his Innate Soul Power was two and a half levels.

I took him Soul Hunting a couple of days ago, and he acquired his First Soul Ring. The Soul Ring is four hundred years old.

He's also the student Yu Xiaogang attacked, the one whose case we handled at Nuoding Junior Soul Master Academy."

Su Yuntao gave Huisinuo a full account of Jin Yang's circumstances.

"I remember him. This child has no shortage of nerve."

Huisinuo's tone was teasing.

Noticing Huisinuo looking his way, Jin Yang smiled shyly and greeted him like a well-behaved child.

Huisinuo nodded. "I'll take Jin Yang to the Martial Soul Laboratory. You two carry on."

Huisinuo winked at Su Yuntao, his look full of meaning.

Su Yuntao was a good young man. He would suit Sisi just fine.

When Huisinuo came across a promising junior, he was happy to play matchmaker.

Huisinuo knocked on the Martial Soul Laboratory door. Without waiting for a response, he pushed it open and went in.

"Bishop Huisinuo."

Ma Xiunuo hurried over to greet him.

"Step outside for a moment. I need to use the Martial Soul Laboratory."

"Of course."

Ma Xiunuo turned and left with the One-Ring Soul Master whose appraisal he had just completed.

The Martial Soul Laboratory was where Spirit Hall conducted Advancement Appraisals.

"Go over there and release your Martial Soul, child." Huisinuo pointed to the pattern on the floor in the center of the room.

Jin Yang took his place and waved a hand. Golden light shone from his body, and a sunflower taller than he was appeared before Huisinuo.

The Sunflower swayed and twisted without pause, as though moving to some unheard rhythm.

Its enormous flower head was packed with seeds, each clearly visible and plump. Golden petals flared around its edge, brazen and bewitching, full of wildness.

Eyes made of seeds, each the size of a baby's fist, stared straight at Huisinuo. The mouth on its flower head held a constant smile. Through the slightly parted slit, he could clearly see countless more seeds lined up in neat, dense rows.

Wild, flamboyant, evil, eerie—those were Huisinuo's first impressions of Jin Yang's Martial Soul.

And yet, for all its strangeness, it radiated Soul Power with the Light Attribute.