Two and a Half Years

"No more fighting."

Xiao Chenyu said.

On Xiao Wu's side, she had put down the last person as well.

A dozen or so people lay sprawled all over the ground, while Liu Long was still slumped against a tree trunk, unable to recover.

Xiao Wu panted, the tear in her sleeve running from her shoulder to her elbow and exposing a strip of white undershirt. She tossed her scorpion braid back and walked up to Xiao Chenyu.

Bound in Blue Silver Grass, Xiao Chenyu looked up at her. He was silent for a long while. "From now on, you call the shots at the academy."

Xiao Wu said nothing. Tang San withdrew his Blue Silver Grass, and Xiao Chenyu got to his feet and flexed his reddened wrists.

He glanced at the dozen or so people lying on the ground, then looked at Tang San and Xiao Wu before turning and leaving.

His steps were much quicker than when he had arrived. The people on the ground got up one after another and followed him, supporting one another. No one spoke.

Wang Sheng watched their backs disappear into the woods, then suddenly smiled. He had been the boss of Dorm Seven for so long and taken so many beatings, but this was the first time he had seen Xiao Chenyu slink away like that.

Wang Xingyu leaned against a tree and withdrew his Blue Silver Grass from the soil. The moment he stopped transferring Soul Power, he felt as though his whole body had been hollowed out, and his legs were so weak they felt filled with lead.

He took a deep breath and steadied himself. Tang San came over, the iron-gray color fading from his arms, and turned his head to glance at him. He said nothing. But Wang Xingyu understood that look.

"Let's go." Wang Xingyu pushed himself away from the tree. "Let's go back and eat."

Xiao Wu walked in front, the tear in her sleeve fluttering in the wind. After a few steps, she suddenly looked back. "Next time there's a fight, don't stand so far away."

Wang Xingyu was taken aback. "I have level-four Soul Power."

Xiao Wu tossed her scorpion braid back. "So what if you have level-four Soul Power? Does that mean they won't hit you?"

Wang Xingyu didn't answer, but he remembered what Xiao Wu had said.

From then on, no one at the academy dared to trouble Dorm Seven again.

After the arranged fight, life was peaceful for a while. Wang Xingyu turned his attention back to cultivation and the soap business.

Nuoding City's market was only so big. Relying on the nobles and merchants in the city alone, there was no telling how long it would take to save enough money to buy a Storage Soul Tool. He went to Ma Xiunuo to discuss it.

Ma Xiunuo listened while smoking his pipe, then thought for a moment. "The towns around here have at least as many people between them as Nuoding City.

"If you want to get your goods out there, I can find a few reliable traveling merchants. But there's something we should settle first-I can find people to help you sell, but how much they can sell and at what price depends on the market over there.

"You just supply the goods, and they handle the selling. Once the goods are sold, you split the proceeds by an agreed ratio. This old man is only putting you in touch with them; I can't guarantee how much you'll make."

"All right," Wang Xingyu said. "We'll keep making the ordinary goods as usual and sell them to commoners. I'll teach you how to make the high-end goods-add flower petal juice and herbal juice so they look and smell nice, and wrap them tightly in oilpaper for the wealthy. You handle the sales."

"You won't handle it yourself?"

"I have to cultivate. I can't manage every detail. I'll write down the recipes and methods for you, and you can find people to make and sell them. I'll just come by once a month to check the accounts and leave with my share."

For now, he could only earn what he could.

Ma Xiunuo took the pipe from his mouth and looked at Wang Xingyu. "Won't it hurt if you earn less?"

"It won't help if it does," Wang Xingyu said. "I don't have time to keep an eye on it myself. Since I don't have the time and effort to manage it, I shouldn't fuss over it."

Ma Xiunuo looked at him without speaking for a long while. Then he put the pipe back in his mouth and nodded. "All right. This old man will help you with that."

And so the soap business was handed over to Ma Xiunuo.

Wang Xingyu went to Spirit Hall once a month to check the accounts, then left with his share. He didn't calculate exactly how much he made, but the bag holding his Silver Soul Coins kept getting heavier.

He didn't ask whether anyone had skimmed money or how well any batch had sold. Asking would have been pointless, so he might as well not ask. The number of Silver Soul Coins he received kept growing each time, and that was enough.

Some time later, something happened.

That day, Wang Xingyu went to Spirit Hall to check the accounts. Ma Xiunuo pulled him into a corner and lowered his voice. "Someone's been asking about the source of the soap lately. Who makes it, where the recipe came from, who the owner is. The person asking was very experienced, not like an ordinary merchant."

Wang Xingyu's heart tightened. "Did he find out anything?"

"No. That person only asked around once and left. He never came back. But-" Ma Xiunuo paused. "Later, someone found a corpse on a dirt road outside the city. His whole body was embedded in a crater, and every bone was shattered, as though he'd been struck by an extremely heavy blunt weapon. Soul Power fluctuations still lingered at the bottom of the crater, very faint but concentrated and undispersed. Spirit Hall sent people to take a look. They said nothing when they returned, disposed of the corpse, and let the matter drop."

Wang Xingyu was silent for a while. "Was that the person who was asking about the soap?"

"Most likely." Ma Xiunuo put his pipe back in his mouth. "He didn't make it out of Nuoding City."

Wang Xingyu asked no more. By the time he walked out of Spirit Hall, he had a rough idea of what had happened.

One hammer strike. A Titled Douluo's hammer strike. That scout had made his way to Nuoding City, asked around, and then been smashed to death with one hammer strike on a dirt road outside the city. There was no need to guess who had done it. He didn't tell anyone about his guess, merely making a mental note of the favor he owed Tang Hao.

I'll bring his lover back to life in the future.

He hadn't missed a single day of cultivation.

Every day before dawn, Wang Xingyu went to the back mountain, planted his Blue Silver Grass in the soil, and connected it with the wild Blue Silver Grass around it. While connected, he circulated the Mysterious Heaven Skill. The Soul Power produced by the surrounding Blue Silver Grass as it cultivated would be shared with him in small part, flowing into his own Soul Power like countless tiny streams.

Siphoning Soul Power. It was slow, so slow he could barely feel it, but it was accumulating.

He also grew increasingly proficient at transferring Soul Power. When Tang San practiced Iron Thorn Strangulation, he would connect his Blue Silver Grass to Tang San's from the side and transfer Soul Power through it. Tang San's Blue Silver Grass would grow a shade darker and a little tougher, and its strangling force would become fiercer.

At first, he couldn't get the timing right. After practicing for more than half a year, he gradually honed his timing and precision. The instant Tang San's Blue Silver Grass wrapped around a target, his Soul Power would arrive.

He had never made a breakthrough with reverse absorption. He could connect and siphon Soul Power, but whenever he tried to draw the Soul Power already inside the surrounding Blue Silver Grass directly into himself, he failed. It was as if a membrane stood in his way; he could sense something on the other side, but couldn't grasp it.

Two and a half years passed like that.

That morning, Wang Xingyu went to the back mountain to cultivate as usual. He planted his Blue Silver Grass in the soil, connected it to the wild Blue Silver Grass around him, and circulated the Mysterious Heaven Skill.

Soul Power flowed slowly through his meridians, and the tiny streams flowing in from around him merged with it, strand by strand. Then he felt it: the threshold that had always blocked him was being pushed open by his Soul Power, little by little. It wasn't broken through; the Soul Power flowed over it, like water spilling over a dam, naturally.

Level ten.

Wang Xingyu opened his eyes and pulled the Blue Silver Grass from the soil. The plant in his palm was still thin and fragile, its color pale, much the same as it had been two and a half years ago. But its roots were denser and deeper than before.

He stood up and brushed the dirt off his knees. Two and a half years, from level four to level ten. He had learned to transfer Soul Power and siphon it, and had honed his timing and precision.

He still hadn't found a way to master reverse absorption. His First Soul Ring had to solve that problem.

That would also give him another means of protecting himself.

Wang Xingyu withdrew his Blue Silver Grass and headed down the mountain. Halfway down, he felt the heavy bag of Silver Soul Coins in his pocket. Along with what he had saved, he didn't know how much he had.

It was time to find Ma Xiunuo. Two and a half years, level-ten Soul Power, his First Soul Ring. One thing at a time.