"Teacher, why do I feel like the farther in we go, the colder it gets?"
Unlike the thickly dressed Yu Xiaogang and Luo Sanpao, who was a Martial Soul, the lightly dressed Tang San was the first to notice the abnormal change in the surrounding temperature.
Yu Xiaogang had originally wanted to say that the Soul Hunting Forest was always cold at night, and they only needed to endure it.
But when he turned around and saw Tang San shivering all over, rubbing his arms frantically with both hands from the cold, he wisely swallowed those words.
"Then let's go to the clearing up ahead and warm ourselves by a fire!"
After giving his Storage Soul Tool to Tang San, Yu Xiaogang no longer had anything to carry clothes in, and he certainly couldn't take off his own clothes and give them to Tang San.
After turning it over in his mind, Yu Xiaogang still found building a fire and resting where they were the most cost-effective option.
Once the campfire was burning, Tang San, who felt as though his limbs were about to freeze stiff, finally felt some warmth and happily stretched out his hands toward the flames.
"Little San, if we still can't find a suitable Soul Ring for you, we'll turn back and hunt that Ten-Year Solitary Bamboo!"
They had searched for so long without finding a suitable Soul Beast for Tang San that Yu Xiaogang was already somewhat exhausted.
Luo Sanpao's attack power wasn't strong, so hunting immobile plant Soul Beasts was Yu Xiaogang's best option.
Tang San still knew too little about Soul Masters to understand the difference between absorbing a Ten-Year Soul Ring and a Hundred-Year Soul Ring.
"This disciple will follow-"
Before Tang San could finish speaking, a snake's head larger than a washbasin suddenly shot out of the shadows nearby, opening its foul-smelling mouth to bite Yu Xiaogang.
Had Tang San not reacted quickly enough to use Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track and tackle Yu Xiaogang to the ground, Yu Xiaogang would probably have already become a meal on the giant snake's plate!
"Snow Empress, are you sure you haven't gotten the time wrong? It took me three days just to absorb the power from the first seal?!"
Yang Xingchen rose from a patch of ice crystals, his eyes filled with shock. He had never expected to cultivate for so long!
Absorbing the Soul Spirit earlier had only taken him a few minutes, yet merely absorbing what Snow Empress released from the first seal had taken this long. Wouldn't absorbing the last few seals have to be measured in months?
"Your body is as weak as cardboard. It couldn't even withstand the first portion of this empress's power, so I had no choice but to control that power and strengthen your flesh first."
"Otherwise, you would already be setting off for the Far North by now. Also, there's someone not far away who displeases this empress. Go teach him a lesson."
Someone displeased Snow Empress?!
Yang Xingchen was momentarily bewildered. How could Snow Empress have any connection with someone from this era? She had stayed in the Far North the entire time before turning into an embryo.
With the mindset of watching the drama, and since Nuoding City didn't have any powerful figures to begin with, Yang Xingchen eventually found that person.
"Tang San and Yu Xiaogang?! I didn't expect it to already be time for Tang San to hunt the Mandala Snake for his Soul Ring."
Yang Xingchen sat on a tree trunk, eating as he looked down at Yu Xiaogang, who had already passed out from poison, and Tang San, who was fighting the Mandala Snake.
Even if Tang San controlled the Douluo Continent for over ten thousand years in the future, surely the grievances between him and Snow Empress weren't that great?
"Sure enough, now that I've seen this brat with my own eyes, the inexplicable loathing in this empress's heart has only grown stronger."
Snow Empress folded her arms, her brows slightly furrowed. For the moment, she couldn't explain why she loathed this person either.
Perhaps the river of time and space had affected her in ways far beyond allowing her to perceive the elements of time and space.
"Since Lady Snow Empress has said so, I'm more than happy to oblige!"
Yang Xingchen couldn't be bothered to press Snow Empress about why she loathed Tang San. Right now, he and Snow Empress were the ones whose interests were bound together.
He was duty-bound to do something that would please his golden thigh, and he happened to want to test his first Soul Skill as well.
"I actually absorbed an animal Soul Ring over four hundred years old! Teacher's theory wasn't wrong!"
Just as Tang San was about to share the good news with Yu Xiaogang, he looked up and saw Yang Xingchen, who had been missing for days, sitting beside the campfire and warming himself.
"Yang Xingchen?! Why are you here? Don't you need a Soul Hunting permit to enter the Soul Hunting Forest?"
Tang San took a dagger out of Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges and stared warily at Yang Xingchen.
"Tang San, since when did you have so much nonsense to say? Oh, right, I haven't congratulated you on getting the work-study student spot yet. You don't blame me, do you?"
As he watched Yang Xingchen rise from beside the campfire with a smile and walk toward him, Tang San's entire body instantly tensed.
Yang Xingchen was threatening me!
The eighth rule of the Tang Sect: when faced with an enemy's threat, strike first to gain the upper hand!
Yang Xingchen, you've already courted death!
Having completed this closed loop of logic, Tang San decisively unleashed Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track, raising his dagger to stab Yang Xingchen in the chest.
"First Soul Skill, Fishing Line · Thousand Threads Lure."
Yang Xingchen swung his fishing rod, casting out a silver-blue hook that instantly hooked Tang San's body.
"What is this?! Wasn't your Innate Soul Power only rank six? Why do you have a first Soul Skill?!"
Confident that he could deal with Yang Xingchen using the Tang Sect Secret Arts, Tang San hadn't immediately used the Soul Skill he was still unfamiliar with.
But that didn't stop shock from rising in Tang San's heart when he saw the Hundred-Year Soul Ring beneath Yang Xingchen's feet.
Seeing Tang San attack him, Yang Xingchen couldn't be bothered to argue with him any longer. With a wave of his hand, he pulled the hook out of Tang San's body, drawing out a mass of energy.
The instant Tang San saw the hook fly out, he felt his speed drop. Even when he drove Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track with all his might, he was only thirty percent faster than usual.
While Tang San was dazed, Yang Xingchen grasped the fishing line and fed the speed attribute he had hooked out of Tang San's body to his natal Soul Spirit, Cangyuan.
Yang Xingchen's Soul Skill was very simple. As long as the hook caught an enemy, it could fish out their attributes and interrupt the charging of their Soul Skills.
Yang Xingchen could use the attributes he fished out to briefly strengthen his own corresponding attributes, or give them to Cangyuan for temporary storage, delaying the time until those fished-out attributes expired.
Of course, this extraction was only temporary. Once the time was up, the attributes of the person hooked would recover.
"First Soul Skill, Blue Silver Entanglement!"
At this moment, Tang San also realized that he still had to fight by the Douluo Continent's rules.
Swish!
Facing Tang San's "dear mother" Entanglement, Yang Xingchen gripped his fishing rod, gathered strength, and swept it sideways. The Blue Silver Grass that had just rushed at him was cut through the middle by the rod.
"Is this what your teacher taught you? Instead of properly strengthening Blue Silver Grass's own powerful vitality, you're abandoning the root to chase the branches, pursuing toughness and poison?"
"Tang San, wake up. Even if you absorb nine Soul Rings that increase Blue Silver Grass's toughness, its toughness still won't compare to Martial Souls that are powerful to begin with."
The moment Yang Xingchen finished speaking, Tang San, whose defenses had completely crumbled, threw everything else aside and frantically drove his first Soul Skill to attack him.
"Yang Xingchen, shut your mouth! What right do you have to criticize my teacher? He's the Grandmaster who published the ten great theorems of Martial Souls!"
"If he's truly a Grandmaster, why is his Soul Power Level still only rank twenty-nine when he looks over fifty?"
"Why did fighting a Mandala Snake just over four hundred years old leave him unconscious from its venom, forcing a six-year-old child like you to face it?"
Facing the shouting Tang San, Yang Xingchen swung his fishing rod to cut apart Tang San's "dear mother" while laying the facts before him.
Hearing Yang Xingchen's string of questions, Tang San also subconsciously began wondering why things had turned out this way.
Had he not possessed the Tang Sect Secret Arts today, there was absolutely no way he could have escaped the jaws of a Soul Beast over four hundred years old.
Could Teacher really be wrong?!
When that thought surfaced in his mind, Tang San almost instinctively looked toward the unconscious Yu Xiaogang nearby.
Looking at Yu Xiaogang's lips, which had already turned purple, Tang San felt a flicker of doubt arise in his heart.
Now he began to question whether taking Yu Xiaogang as his teacher back then had been the right choice. Could Blue Silver Grass truly not have its toughness strengthened?