Tang Xiaosan

By the time they returned to Holy Soul Village, it was already evening.

Su Ling was so sleepy he could barely stand it. He had wanted to catch up on sleep on the way back, but the ox cart had been far too bumpy.

Once they got home, Old Jack was about to give Su Ling a proper scolding when he noticed the dark circles under his eyes.

After handing Old Jack both the supplements he had bought in town and the Blue Silver Life Pill, Su Ling returned to his room and fell fast asleep.

"Master looks so cute when he sleeps."

Seeing that Su Ling had fallen asleep, Ah Yin came out on her own.

Although she was utterly disappointed in Tang Hao, the child was innocent, after all.

She quietly investigated house after house, finally finding the one where Tang Hao lived.

Tang Hao was dead drunk again, asleep at the table, but Tang San was nowhere inside.

Ah Yin mobilized the surrounding blue silver grass.

She finally found Tang San in the woods behind the village. He was attempting to cultivate the Mysterious Heaven Skill. Although he could not break through that barrier yet, he kept trying.

"Why is Tang San's spiritual power so strong?"

Neither she nor Tang Hao specialized in spiritual power. By all rights, Tang San should never have possessed such powerful spiritual power.

The cultivation method Tang San was practicing also caught Ah Yin's attention. It was something she had never seen before.

"Who's there!"

While lost in thought, Ah Yin accidentally snapped a twig underfoot, alerting Tang San.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Three pebbles shot toward Ah Yin at tremendous speed.

Unable to dodge in time, Ah Yin was struck in the left eye by one of them.

Normally, a hundred-thousand-year soul beast would not have been hurt by an attack like this. However, Ah Yin's true body had remained inside Su Ling's martial soul all along, and her current body was formed from soul power and spiritual power.

Ah Yin hurried back to Su Ling's room and began sniffling pitifully.

Then she hugged Su Ling and went to sleep with him.

Just before dawn, Ah Yin returned to Su Ling's sea of consciousness.

She felt embarrassed by her bruised, swollen left eye. If Su Ling saw it, he would laugh at her again.

Not long after Ah Yin left, Old Jack hauled Su Ling out of bed.

"Get up! We're going to Nuoding City today. Keep dawdling and you'll miss registration at school."

Su Ling sat up, rubbing his eyes, and saw a borrowed ox cart parked in the courtyard, its bed lined with hay.

Wasn't this the very ox cart Su Ling had ridden before? Fortunately, Old Jack had spread some hay over it. Su Ling never wanted to experience that kind of jolting a second time in his life.

"Grandpa Jack, are you going to..."

Su Ling remembered that, in the original story, Old Jack seemed to have walked Tang San to Nuoding Academy.

"Take you to the academy, of course." Old Jack loaded dry rations and water for the journey onto the cart as he spoke. "We'll pick up Tang San along the way. You're from the same village, so going together means you can look out for each other."

Su Ling froze for a moment.

Oh, right. Tang San was still a work-study student, while Su Yuntao was paying my fees, so both Tang San and I could attend school.

Besides, in the original story, Old Jack had been the one to take Tang San to register at Nuoding Academy.

"All right, let's go."

Old Jack first drove the ox cart to Tang San's home.

The smithy's door stood ajar, and it was pitch-black inside. Old Jack raised his voice and shouted, "Tang San! Time to go to school in Nuoding City!"

The clanging inside the smithy had continued all night and had only just stopped.

After quite a while, the door opened, and Tang San came out carrying a small cloth bundle on his back. Tang Hao clearly had not gotten out of bed yet.

Tang San looked back at Tang Hao's back as he lay in bed. His lips moved, but in the end he said nothing and climbed into the cart with his head lowered.

Sitting on the pile of hay, Su Ling watched this scene and silently sighed.

Tang San was pretty pitiful too, getting stuck with a father like Tang Hao.

Only when Tang San became a slave in Douluo V did he discover that slaves did not have to work before the age of six, while he had been waiting on Tang Hao for as long as he could remember.

Tang Hao had drunk plenty yesterday, and today, with his son leaving for school, he could not even be bothered to say, "Be careful on the road."

Tsk. What a bastard.

The ox cart left Holy Soul Village and followed the dirt road toward Nuoding City. Old Jack rode on the ox, occasionally having to get down to steer it in the right direction, while the two children sat side by side in the cart.

Neither Su Ling nor Tang San had slept well the night before. With the soft hay beneath them and the occasional jolting of the ox cart,

neither could fight off the heavy drowsiness, and they fell asleep on the cart.

Only in the afternoon, when the weather grew cooler, did the two wake up.

Tang San raised his head. "Su Ling, is your martial soul really an ordinary stone?"

Su Ling paused.

"What else would it be? An egg?"

"Really?" Tang San still seemed somewhat unconvinced.

Looking at Tang San's expression, Su Ling did not quite know what to say.

Suddenly, Ah Yin's voice rang out in Su Ling's mind.

"Teach this Tang San a proper lesson for me. She threw stones at me yesterday."

That left Su Ling rather speechless.

Along the way, Old Jack occasionally glanced back at the two children chatting away in the cart, his face full of smiles. Ever since they were little, he had thought the two children made a good match.

Half a day later, they reached Nuoding City.

The city walls were not particularly tall and were somewhat dilapidated. It was only a small frontier city, after all.

The three joined the queue, underwent the guards' inspection, and only then entered the city.

Nuoding Junior Soul Master Academy stood in the western part of the city. After asking for directions several times, Old Jack finally brought the two children to their destination.

Four large characters above the gate read: Nuoding Academy.

"We're here." Old Jack tethered the ox cart by the roadside, picked up the two children's luggage, and headed toward the gate.

Ding! The host has arrived at Nuoding Academy. Today's mission will be issued personally by the system: expose the hypocritical Grandmaster and save the fallen girl, Tang Xiaosan.

Su Ling acknowledged it inwardly.

Then he immediately realized something was wrong. How had it become the fallen girl Tang Xiaosan? Wasn't it supposed to be the hypocrite Tang San? Could it be...?

That would be far too bizarre.

They had only just reached the gate when a young gatekeeper stopped them.

"What are you lot here for? Do you know what this place is?"

Old Jack hurriedly offered an apologetic smile. "Young man, we're from Holy Soul Village. One of these children is our village's work-study student, and the other has a recommendation letter from a Lord Soul Master of Spirit Hall."

The gatekeeper looked Old Jack up and down.

"A golden phoenix flying out of a nest of straw?" He sneered. "One little village produced two children with soul power? Where's the proof?"

Old Jack hastily took two envelopes from inside his clothes. One contained Tang San's martial soul awakening certificate and the village's work-study application form, while the other contained Su Ling's martial soul awakening certificate and Su Yuntao's recommendation letter. He presented them with both hands.

The gatekeeper opened Su Ling's first and glanced at it.

"A round stone martial soul? Innate soul power, rank four!"

He also glanced at Su Yuntao's handwritten recommendation letter. The seal on it could not be faked.

Rank-four innate soul power already qualified someone as a genius in Nuoding City. He did not obstruct Su Ling and gestured for him to enter.

Next, he inspected Tang San's martial soul awakening certificate.

He suddenly burst into loud laughter.

"I've worked as a gatekeeper here for four years, and I've never heard of blue silver grass awakening soul power. Let alone full soul power. This certificate is most likely forged."

"And what kind of lousy name is this? Tang Xiaosan? Hahaha! What were your parents thinking when they named you?"

Hearing this, Su Ling sensed something was wrong.

Could Tang San really be called Tang Xiaosan in this world? Thinking back, he had indeed read novels featuring a gender-swapped Tang San.

Had I hit the jackpot?

Su Ling now took another careful look at Tang San and found that, indeed, the more he looked, the more pleasing to the eye Tang San became.

The smile on Old Jack's face stiffened. "Young man, this is an official certificate from Spirit Hall."

"Don't try to scare me with Spirit Hall."