Tang San's breath was as faint as a thread. With the last gasp he could muster, he forced a few words out of his throat.
At the same time, the stubborn insistence on earning recognition still flickered in his eyes.
It was as though he considered his defeat glorious, treating his own wretched condition as a badge of honor.
Seeing this, Lu Xuan smiled in satisfaction.
"A four-hundred-year Mandala Snake Soul Ring? It seems you've already found your future path."
A system notification sounded in his mind.
[Tang San has successfully absorbed a four-hundred-year Mandala Snake Soul Ring. Side quest complete. Distributing reward:] [The age of all Soul Rings increases by 5,000 years.]
Not bad...
Although it won't improve my overall strength all that much, completing a few more similar quests will let me raise all the Blue Silver Emperor's Soul Rings to the ten-thousand-year level, or even the hundred-thousand-year level.
Quantitative changes lead to qualitative changes. There's still a long road ahead.
He brought his thoughts back to reality.
Tang San's miserable condition did not move Lu Xuan in the slightest. He knew that, at this moment, only an admiring gaze would serve as the medicine to ease Tang San's pain.
He summoned his Blue Silver Emperor Martial Soul, and slender blades of blue-gold grass materialized in his palm.
Nine Soul Rings-three purple, five black, and one red-pulsed around his feet in interwoven rhythms, radiating a gentle aura of life.
"Excellent! As your teacher, I'm very pleased with the answer you've handed in."
[Second Soul Skill: Life Tide!]
The second Soul Ring at his feet, which had just evolved into a purple ring, abruptly lit up. Blue-gold motes emerged from the grass blades, swarming into Tang San's body like flocks of fireflies.
Tang San's battered body began restoring itself at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Guided by Soul Power, the broken bones in his arm realigned and grew... Tender pink flesh rapidly solidified around his wounds, filling them in.
Bathed in the blue-gold radiance, Tang San felt an unbearable itch in his wounds, along with a faint aching pressure.
Especially in his lower leg...
Before long.
"This is... regrowing a severed limb?"
Before he knew it, Tang San had regained the ability to move. He tentatively sat up and immediately saw that new bone and flesh had grown where his severed limb had once left him utterly hopeless.
This is incredible. Just now, I thought I would end up crippled for life, or even die outright. I never imagined... that a single Soul Skill from Teacher would restore me to peak condition.
"Is this also an ability of Blue Silver Grass?"
Only about ten seconds had passed between Lu Xuan casting his Soul Skill and Tang San fully adjusting to his restored body.
Ten seconds had restored a boy with a mutilated body and only one breath left to peak condition.
That was merely the time Tang San needed to accept reality, nowhere near the limit of Lu Xuan's Soul Skill.
Disbelief filled Tang San's eyes. His fingers kept touching his newly grown flesh until he finally confirmed that everything felt normal and his right leg had grown back. The next instant...
Thump! Thump! Thump!
"Thank you, Teacher!"
"Your disciple will remember your life-saving kindness until his dying day."
Tang San knelt on the grass, where the bloodstains had already dried, and repeatedly kowtowed to Lu Xuan.
Seeing this, Lu Xuan smiled and used his Soul Power to lift Tang San to his feet.
"It's all right!"
"As I told you, go ahead and fight with everything you have. In the end, I'll be there to catch you."
Lu Xuan was actually speaking quite normally, without any particular inflection in his voice.
But to Tang San, those words sounded like heavenly music, filling him with a sense of security.
It was the reassurance that, no matter how battered or miserable he became, someone would always stand behind him and shoulder all the consequences...
Across both his past life and his present one, this was the first time Tang San had experienced such a feeling.
Overwhelmed with excitement and emotion, his eyes brimming with tears, he remained on his knees for a long time.
I never imagined Teacher's earlier words were more than just talk!
I waited on my drunkard father for six years without ever feeling a father's love. Yet today... I've felt boundless care from a teacher I've known for less than a day.
Remembering how he had wanted to kill his teacher with the Silent Sleeve Arrow just yesterday to protect the secret of his Twin Martial Souls, Tang San wished he could travel back in time and strangle his past self with his own hands.
Tang San, oh, Tang San, you really are a beast!
"Boohoo..."
Standing there, Tang San sobbed uncontrollably for a very, very long time.
Anyone passing by who did not know what had happened would probably have thought the Soul Hunting Forest was haunted.
After roughly three to five minutes, Tang San finally composed himself.
"I'm sorry, Teacher. I've made a spectacle of myself."
Lu Xuan said, "It's all right. I can tell you must have remembered something painful. Since you've composed yourself, let's head back to Nuoding Academy."
As he spoke, Lu Xuan used his Soul Power to lift Tang San into the air, just as he had on the way there.
On their way back, Tang San began explaining without waiting for Lu Xuan to ask.
"Teacher, my first Soul Skill is called Blue Silver Entanglement. It came from a Soul Beast around four hundred years old, a Mandala Snake."
"It lets my Blue Silver Grass grow thorns and entangle enemies. Combined with a weak toxin, it can restrain them."
Tang San had already planned his future cultivation path, so he was particularly satisfied with this skill, which possessed a weak poison attribute and could entangle enemies.
Lu Xuan offered a fitting word of praise. "That's a very good skill. It seems you intend to develop in the direction of control."
"Yes, Teacher, but..."
Changing the subject, Tang San grew somewhat hesitant, but in the end, he still ventured a question. "Teacher, I... I wanted to ask... what kind of Soul Beast did that ring you just used come from?"
A concealed greed lurked in Tang San's eyes. He was envious, even a little jealous.
In his eyes, Lu Xuan's ability to "bring the dead to life and clothe bare bones in flesh" was nothing short of a divine skill.
In truth, it was only because they were on the Douluo Continent that a Soul Master's skills could not be forcibly seized and claimed like treasures.
Had this been the Tang Sect of his past life, Tang San would undoubtedly have entertained the thought of killing him and taking his treasure.
There was no doubt about that. Lu Xuan could more or less guess it from the fleeting greed on his face.
As always, a man who would forcibly tear his own daughter's soul into three pieces for personal gain could be expected to commit any deed, no matter how far beneath the lowest moral line.
Lu Xuan was not surprised. He had never expected Tang San to feel grateful to him, and he had long since prepared for Tang San's betrayal.
Ultimately, their relationship was merely a transaction in which each harbored his own hidden intentions.
"Do you mean the second Soul Skill I just used? It came from a Soul Beast called the Emerald Swan."
Lu Xuan explained, and Tang San murmured softly upon hearing it.
"Emerald Swan?"
He did not know what kind of Soul Beast an Emerald Swan was, but...
"If I absorb an Emerald Swan Soul Ring later, could I obtain the same skill as you?"
Lu Xuan replied:
"Not necessarily!"
"The creation of Soul Skills is inherently random. Even the same Martial Soul absorbing the same kind of Soul Beast won't necessarily produce an identical Soul Skill."
"And your first Soul Ring has already established a foundation of the poison attribute for your Blue Silver Grass. It will be difficult for you to follow the path of the life attribute in the future."
Before you continue