Storage Soul Tool

In the dormitory, Wang Xingyu handed over a gray-blue cloth bag.

Tang San took it and turned it over, examining it. When he probed it with his Soul Power, the silver bead at the opening lit up briefly. It was a Storage Soul Tool, with an interior three feet on each side.

"It's for you." Wang Xingyu leaned against the head of the bed, his hands pillowed behind his head. "You can't keep carrying that pile of odds and ends inside your clothes. They dig into you, and you have to spend ages fishing them out when you need them."

He was naturally referring to the Hidden Weapons. But Tang San had yet to bring them up himself, and Wang Xingyu couldn't be bothered to say it outright. Tang San would tell him sooner or later anyway.

Tang San looked down at the cloth bag in his hands without speaking.

"Try it first. See if it's any good."

Tang San took the things out of his clothes one by one: a few iron nails, a small bundle of fine needles, several pieces of polished iron, and a few little objects with no names he could give them. The odds and ends covered the bed.

He put them into the storage bag one at a time. Each time the silver bead at its opening lit up, an object vanished. Finally, he tied the bag shut and hung it from his waist.

Xiao Wu was sitting cross-legged on the bed opposite, munching on a carrot, her eyes fixed on the gray-blue cloth bag. As she watched Tang San put things in and take them out again while the bag remained flat, she chewed her carrot more and more slowly.

"That bag." Xiao Wu pointed at Tang San's waist. "How much can it hold?"

"Three feet on each side," Tang San said.

Xiao Wu looked at the clothes, half-eaten carrots, and little bundles piled at the head of her bed, then at the flat cloth bag at Tang San's waist. "I want one too."

Tang San also looked up at Wang Xingyu. "Where did it come from?"

"I bought it."

"How much?"

"Fifty."

Tang San's fingers paused. "No wonder you borrowed five Gold Soul Coins from me before and said you had a surprise for me." He wound the storage bag's leather cord once around his finger. "You don't have to pay back those five Gold Soul Coins."

Wang Xingyu rolled his eyes at him. "Like hell I'll pay you back."

The corners of Tang San's mouth curved up. Wang Xingyu knew he was joking. Still, come to think of it, if he hadn't yet become a Soul Master and couldn't collect Spirit Hall's allowance, he wouldn't even have been able to save up these fifty Gold Soul Coins, much less have needed to borrow those five Gold Soul Coins from Tang San.

Xiao Wu's carrot stopped at her lips. "How much?"

"Fifty."

Xiao Wu fell silent. She lowered her head and began counting on her fingers. Spirit Hall's allowance was one Gold Soul Coin a month, twelve a year, so two and a half years would be... She counted for a while, bending her fingers more and more slowly, until she finally stopped. Fifty Gold Soul Coins would take more than four years to save from her allowance.

She drew back her fingers, looked at her empty pockets, then at the gray-blue cloth bag on Tang San's waist, and silently took a bite of her carrot.

"Forget it. I don't want one."

She said to forget it, but her eyes were still fixed on the storage bag at Tang San's waist, and she was eating her carrot even more slowly than before.

Wang Xingyu turned his head to glance at her. Xiao Wu said she didn't want one, but her eyes made it clear she was still doing the math. More than four years really was too long for Xiao Wu.

She spent everything she earned each month, with basically all her allowance going into her stomach. Getting her to save money was even harder than getting her to cultivate.

"Don't worry," Wang Xingyu said.

Xiao Wu looked up.

"You'll definitely get one. You and Little San, one each." Wang Xingyu put his hands back behind his head and looked at the ceiling. "Before graduation."

Xiao Wu's eyes lit up again. "Really?"

"Really."

"Don't you lie to me."

"Why would I?" Wang Xingyu rolled over to face the wall. "It's only fifty Gold Soul Coins. I'll just save up again. The soap business is still going, and I get a share every month. There are still several years until graduation. That's enough to save up for two."

Xiao Wu took a big bite of her carrot, chewing with a crunch as her eyes curved into crescent moons. Tang San sat on the edge of the bed, pressing his fingers against the storage bag's leather cord without saying a word.

Wang Xingyu lay facing the wall and went over the fifty Gold Soul Coins in his mind again. Two and a half years of soap profits and allowance, all gone in one go. His pockets had gone straight from Gold Soul Coins to Copper Soul Coins, and couldn't have been any emptier. He'd be lying if he said it didn't hurt.

But fifty Gold Soul Coins in exchange for Tang San tying that cord and Xiao Wu's eyes curving into crescent moons. It wasn't a loss.

He suddenly remembered the belt Grandmaster had given Tang San when he took him as his disciple in the original story. Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges, set with twenty-four gems, each containing a separate cubic meter of space. It was who knew how many times better than his gray cloth pouch.

Grandmaster's theories might have had the left side of his brain refuting the right, and he'd crippled himself playing around with two farting Soul Rings, but the item really was good. His own fifty-Gold Soul Coin rag of a bag really couldn't compare to Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges.

But that was for later. For now, this one only needed to be good enough.

He lay there for a while, then rolled over and sat up, patting his trouser legs. "All right, I've given you the bag. Time to get down to business. My First Soul Ring-I finally ground my way to level ten after two and a half years. If I don't go Soul Hunting now, all that saving will have been for nothing."

"Soul Hunting Forest?" Xiao Wu jumped down from the bed and stuffed the remaining half of her carrot into her mouth. "I'm going too!"

The three of them left Dorm Seven and headed straight for the West Market.

The Iron Rock Mercenary Group's flag was still planted at the entrance, dusty gray, with the armored rhinoceros embroidered on it a little faded. Tie Yan was squatting by the entrance, sharpening a blade. He looked up at the sound of footsteps, saw Wang Xingyu, and then looked at Tang San and Xiao Wu behind him.

"Back again?" Tie Yan wiped the blade on his trouser leg. "Who's getting a Soul Ring this time?"

"Me," Wang Xingyu said.

Tie Yan looked him up and down. "What Martial Soul?"

"Blue Silver Grass."

Tie Yan said nothing. He accepted the five Silver Soul Coins as a deposit, stood up, and slid the blade back into his belt. "Wait here. I'll get a few people."

About half an hour later, Liu Dao and Cheng Dun arrived. Liu Dao was the same as ever, tall and thin, with two short blades at his waist. He leaned against the wall and immediately began yawning. Cheng Dun carried a round shield on his back and squatted on the ground to tie his shoelaces. Tie Yan came out of the building with a short hammer over his shoulder. "Everyone's here. What Soul Beast?"

"Rotten Soil Earthworm," Wang Xingyu said.

Tie Yan's short hammer paused. "What's that?"

"A Soul Beast that lives underground, like an earthworm. It eats rotting plants and animal corpses. Around four hundred years old." Wang Xingyu went over the information he had found. "We should be able to find one in the eastern marshes of Soul Hunting Forest, in fertile soil near a water source."

Tie Yan glanced at him. "You looked it up?"

"I did."

Tie Yan nodded and said nothing more. "All right. Rotten Soil Earthworm, four hundred years, eastern marshes. Let's go."

The group left Nuoding City and headed toward Soul Hunting Forest. Xiao Wu walked at the front, her scorpion braid swaying back and forth. She had already finished the half carrot from earlier. Tang San walked beside Wang Xingyu, his fingers occasionally brushing the storage bag at his waist, as though getting used to its weight.

They hadn't walked far before the outline of Soul Hunting Forest appeared in the distance.