A Fulfilling Year

After selling soap for a little over half a month, Wang Xingyu discovered a problem.

He and Tang San couldn't make enough between them. Cooking a batch of soap took the better part of half a day, and drying it took a whole night. They also wanted to read at the Spirit Hall-there simply wasn't enough time.

Tang San didn't say anything. He gathered wild vegetables every day as usual and helped him tend the fire when needed, but Wang Xingyu could see that a good deal of Tang San's cultivation time had been squeezed out.

This wouldn't do.

One evening, Wang Xingyu tucked two freshly made bars of soap into his clothes and went to Old Jack's house. The old man was squatting by the door, smoking his pipe. When he saw him coming, he took the pipe from his mouth. "Xingyu? What brings you here so late?"

Wang Xingyu put the bars of soap in front of him and sat down. "Grandpa Jack, there's something I'd like to discuss with you."

Old Jack glanced at the two bars, then at Wang Xingyu's expression, and knocked his pipe against the sole of his shoe. "Go on."

Wang Xingyu explained the recipe and the process in full: how to soak the wood ash, how to melt down the leftover fat, how much lime to add, and how to control the heat. He held nothing back.

When he finished, he paused, then laid out the most important part. "Grandpa Jack, this stuff sells in Nuoding City for two Copper Soul Coins a bar. We can sell ten or so bars each market day. But Tang San and I can't make much by ourselves. If the aunties in the village are willing to make it, I'll sell it in the city, and we can all split the money."

Old Jack listened without a word. He filled his pipe again, lit it, and took a puff. The red glow at its tip flared and faded in the dusk, illuminating his deeply wrinkled face.

After a long while, he spoke. "Xingyu, the way you talk and do things, you're just like a grown-up." He stood and brushed the dirt off his knees. "You're giving me the recipe just like that? Aren't you afraid I'll take it for myself?"

Wang Xingyu smiled. "If you were greedy, you'd have taken advantage of me long ago. When I was going hungry, you never brought me a bowl of porridge with anything missing."

Old Jack froze for a moment, then reached out and rubbed Wang Xingyu's head hard enough to muss his hair. "All right, I'll find some people. Widow Sun at the west end of the village, Butcher Zhang's wife, and Old Li's second daughter are all hard workers. I'll have them come over tomorrow, and you can be their teacher."

The next day, three women were squatting outside Wang Xingyu's dilapidated house.

Widow Sun was a thin, wiry woman in her forties. She spoke little and worked quickly. Butcher Zhang's wife was plump and couldn't stop talking once she started, but she was thorough in her work. Old Li's second daughter was seventeen or eighteen, wore her hair in a long braid, and paid the closest attention.

Wang Xingyu spent the entire day teaching them: how to filter the wood-ash water, how to grind the lime, when to put the leftover fat in the pot, and how long to cook it.

Fortunately, soap wasn't hard to make. After trying two batches, all three had got the hang of it.

Widow Sun's first batch even came out finer than Wang Xingyu's own. Butcher Zhang's wife called out beside her that she was a blind cat who'd stumbled upon a dead mouse. Widow Sun ignored her, but there was a smile at the corner of her mouth.

From then on, Old Jack and the three women took charge of the soap. Before each market day, they prepared the stock, and Old Jack took Wang Xingyu and Tang San to sell it in the city on his ox cart. When they returned, they split the money according to an agreed share-the makers got the larger portion, and the sellers got the smaller one. Even with the smaller share, the increase in volume meant their earnings didn't drop much.

During that time, Wang Xingyu also made finer soap and sold it to the city lord and the nobles, saving up some money. After all, there was only one work-study student slot.

He couldn't spend that money, but Wang Xingyu's earthenware jar was never empty again, and there was more substantial food in Tang San's pot too. They couldn't be called well-off, but they no longer had to go hungry.

With enough to eat, they had more time to spare.

Wang Xingyu began pouring all his spare time into the Spirit Hall Branch in Nuoding City. After selling the soap each market day, he would turn into that gray-white stone building.

Ma Xiunuo knew him by now and would smile whenever he saw his small, thin figure come in. "Here again? Which book are you reading today?" Wang Xingyu would pull a book from the shelf and squat in a corner to read.

The Spirit Hall Branch's library wasn't large. A few rows of wooden shelves held dozens of books on the basics of Martial Souls.

Most were introductory: classifications of Martial Soul attributes, the corresponding ages of Soul Rings, and paths for cultivating Soul Power. Wang Xingyu read them one by one, then read them all again. He could recite some of the important passages almost by heart.

Sometimes Su Yuntao came out from the back courtyard to pour water. When he saw him squatting in the corner, he would occasionally stop for a chat.

At first, it was just polite conversation. Later, he discovered that this child from Holy Soul Village spoke in a clear, orderly way, and the questions he asked weren't like an ordinary child's.

"Is there a connection between a Martial Soul's form and its Soul Power attributes?" "Can the same Martial Soul mutate in the hands of different Soul Masters?" Su Yuntao was only a deacon, but he was a proper Soul Master, after all. Some questions he could answer; others he couldn't.

When he couldn't answer, he would frown and ask why the boy was asking such things. Wang Xingyu would smile and say he was just asking.

One evening, Wang Xingyu had finished reading and was about to leave when Ma Xiunuo called him back.

"Xingyu." The old man pulled a small cloth bag from behind the counter and handed it over. "Take this back to your Grandpa Jack next time. He asked me to buy this tobacco for him last time."

Wang Xingyu accepted it and thanked him. Ma Xiunuo looked at him and suddenly said, "You're a hardworking child, and you do things like a grown-up. If you awaken a good Martial Soul, you'll surely amount to something one day."

Wang Xingyu smiled but didn't answer. As he walked out of the Spirit Hall's main doors, he hefted the bag of tobacco in his hand. I'll definitely awaken a good Martial Soul!

Whenever Wang Xingyu returned from the Spirit Hall, he would go find Tang San.

The two would squat beneath the old scholar tree or sit on the hillside, and Wang Xingyu would tell Tang San what he had read that day.

Tang San listened intently. Sometimes he asked questions the books didn't answer, and Wang Xingyu would make a mental note to look through other books for the answers on his next visit to the Spirit Hall.

One evening, the two sat on the hillside as the setting sun dyed the entire mountain orange-red. Wang Xingyu chewed on a stalk of grass and suddenly said, "Tang San, the books say Innate Soul Power is something you're born with, but I don't think that's right."

Tang San turned to look at him.

Wang Xingyu spat out the stalk and said, "Look, among all the people with high Innate Soul Power recorded in those Spirit Hall books, not one was frail as a child. What does that tell us? It means there's a connection between your physical foundation and your Innate Soul Power. If you deliberately exercise before awakening, you might be able to raise your Innate Soul Power."

Of course, the main reason was that, while scrolling through videos in his previous life, he had come across a blogger who analyzed Tang San's Innate Full Soul Power and suggested it might have been because he cultivated the Mysterious Heaven Skill.

Tang San asked, "You want to try it?"

"There's nothing to lose by trying."

Tang San said nothing more. But starting the next day, Wang Xingyu noticed that Tang San spent an extra two hours cultivating.

He didn't point it out. Instead, he began getting up every morning and running with Tang San. They ran around the village, from the entrance to the hillside behind it and back again. At first, two laps left Wang Xingyu gasping for breath. Tang San would wait for him up ahead, then continue running once he had caught his breath.

The two children, neither yet six, ran along the dirt road at the first hint of dawn. At first, the village dogs chased after them, barking. Later, the dogs got used to it and lay on the ground watching them run past, too lazy even to wag their tails.

A year passed like that.

The day of Holy Soul Village's Martial Soul Awakening ceremony was bright and sunny. The June sun blazed overhead, making their scalps hot. A crowd had gathered in the open space at the center of the village; men and women, young and old, had all come. Old Jack stood at the front, clutching his unlit pipe.

Su Yuntao stood beside the Awakening Stone, his expression as indifferent as ever.

Wang Xingyu and Tang San stood shoulder to shoulder in the crowd.

"Hoe, hoe, sickle, soil. No Soul Power, no Soul Power, no Soul Power."

"Next, Tang San."

When Su Yuntao called the name, his tone was noticeably disappointed. Tang San stepped forward and pressed his hand against the Awakening Stone.

The stone lit up with a pale blue glow, and a blade of Blue Silver Grass emerged from his palm, swaying gently in the breeze.

Blue Silver Grass, a Trash Martial Soul.

Only this time, Su Yuntao had met the two of them before, so he didn't tell Tang San to skip the Soul Power test.

Tang San placed his hand on the crystal ball, and it gave off a dazzling white light.

"Innate Full Soul Power." Su Yuntao's voice changed.

Wang Xingyu stood in the crowd, watching Tang San's almost expressionless face. He knew Tang San would have Innate Full Soul Power, but seeing the Awakening Stone light up with his own eyes was still different.

"Wang Xingyu."

Su Yuntao called his name. Some of the gazes around them shifted from Tang San to him, curious and expectant.

Wang Xingyu took a deep breath and stepped out of the crowd.

He pressed his hand against the Awakening Stone.

The stone was cool. Then, hot.

A warm current surged in through his palm and raced up his arm, spreading throughout his body, as though something inside him had been lit. The Awakening Stone began to glow. Its light wasn't dazzling, but it remained steady.

Then a blade of Blue Silver Grass emerged from his palm.

It was frail and slender, paler than Tang San's, without the faint golden sheen on its leaves. It swayed slightly whenever the wind blew.

"Blue Silver Grass." Su Yuntao sounded even more disappointed. He had a fairly good impression of the boy. He glanced at the value displayed on the Awakening Stone and paused. "Innate Soul Power-level three."

A chorus of sighs rose from the crowd. They weren't mocking him; they felt it was a pity. Although he had level-three Soul Power, his Martial Soul was Blue Silver Grass, a universally acknowledged Trash Martial Soul.

Wang Xingyu looked down at the frail blade of Blue Silver Grass in his palm and suddenly smiled.

It wasn't a bitter smile. He was genuinely happy.