Three Months of Training

A wildly bizarre song drifted into Tang San's ears. Its tune had wandered off into who knew which mountain ravine, and the lyrics were even more outrageous: "I love taking baths, my skin feels so nice, oh, oh, oh~" A string of utterly off-key humming followed.

Tang San opened his eyes and found himself in the dormitory, soaking in a large wooden tub. The water was dark brown, giving off the distinctive bitter fragrance of medicinal herbs.

Wang Xingyu was soaking in another tub beside him, his head resting on the rim and his eyes half closed. He was still humming now and then, "Gangzi Beast, evolve! Manga Grandmaster Beast." Clearly, he had been awake for a while.

"Xingyu?"

"Oh, Little San, you're awake?" Wang Xingyu turned his head, lifting his chin from the rim of the tub. "The Grandmaster prepared this medicinal bath for us. After soaking in it, the side effects are basically gone. After those eight hundred and forty kilometers yesterday, none of us would be getting out of bed today without it."

Tang San looked down at his arms submerged in the brown medicinal water. His shoulders, rubbed raw the day before, no longer hurt, and his aching, swollen muscles were slowly relaxing in the warm liquid. He nodded and leaned back against the rim of the tub.

The next day, training returned to the method Wang Xingyu had proposed earlier.

At first, things were quite chaotic.

They sparred in Zhao Wuji's gravity field, their bodies weighed down so heavily that every step felt like wading through mud.

The moment Ma Hongjun spat out his Phoenix Fire Line, gravity dragged it downward, nearly burning his own feet.

Oscar tried to hand Fatty a Recovery Sausage, but the moment he stretched out his hand, gravity pulled the sausage to the ground. It rolled over several times, picking up mud all over.

The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda's amplification beam went wildly astray in the gravity field. Ning Rongrong had meant to boost Dai Mubai's speed, but it veered onto Zhu Zhuqing instead.

Zhu Zhuqing had been dodging Tang San's Blue Silver vines when her body suddenly grew light and her speed surged. Unable to stop herself, she shot straight out of the training area and crashed into a crooked-necked tree at the edge of the field, sending several leaves rustling down.

Ning Rongrong hurriedly pressed her palms together in apology.

Dai Mubai and Tang San sparred in the gravity field. Gravity pulled Dai Mubai's White Tiger Fierce Light Wave off course, and it nearly blasted Ma Hongjun, who had his head lowered.

Ma Hongjun hopped up and down, shouting, "Boss Dai, aim before you fire!" Before Dai Mubai could retort, Tang San's Blue Silver vines had taken advantage of his distraction and wound around his ankles. With a gentle tug, Dai Mubai lost his balance and fell flat on his back, hitting the ground with a dull thud.

Tang San was about to withdraw the vines when Xiao Wu used Teleportation to come at him from the side for a sneak attack. But gravity pulled her landing point half a meter off course, and she teleported right in front of Tang San. The two stared wide-eyed at each other, and Xiao Wu's scorpion braid nearly whipped Tang San in the face.

Tang San took a step back. Xiao Wu scratched her head and said that one didn't count.

The blindfold training was even more painful to watch.

They put on blindfolds, and the Shrek teachers compressed Soul Power into fist-sized balls and threw them from tricky angles.

For the first few days, no one could dodge them at all. Ma Hongjun was hit until his head was covered in bumps, and he howled, asking the Grandmaster if he was using public business to settle a private grudge and what rotten idea Wang Xingyu had come up with.

Oscar had it even worse. His physical fitness was already the poorest, and once blindfolded, he completely lost his sense of direction. A ball hit him in the back of the head, and he staggered forward two steps before crashing into Dai Mubai's back.

Dai Mubai had been concentrating on sensing fluctuations in Soul Power, and the collision nearly knocked him over.

Ning Rongrong couldn't bear being hit anymore. She bit her lip and split off a strand of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda's light to boost herself. After increasing her speed, she ended up catching even more balls.

In the evenings, they split up for individual training. The Grandmaster had Oscar and Ning Rongrong practice Heart Separation Control, drawing circles with their left hands and squares with their right. He said it was a skill support Soul Masters had to learn.

Oscar asked if the training was only for the two of them. The Grandmaster explained that he had actually prepared it for everyone, but Wang Xingyu's gravity training already included it, so there was no need to repeat it.

Oscar nodded and trained with Ning Rongrong. He drew a circle with his left hand and a square with his right, then proudly held them up for her to see.

Ning Rongrong looked down at her own paper. Her left hand had drawn a crooked oval, while her right had barely managed a square. She crumpled the paper into a ball and tossed it aside, then laid out a fresh sheet.

The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect had inherited a Heart Separation Control method, but it was so tedious that she had never bothered to practice it diligently. She had never expected that, after going around in circles, she still couldn't escape it in the end.

Oscar sheepishly took back his paper, a hint of embarrassment in his peach-blossom eyes. He drew two more circles, then quietly folded two hearts from the paper and pushed them in front of Ning Rongrong. She glanced at them, her face reddened slightly, and then she crumpled the paper and tossed it back.

Wang Xingyu and the other two continued using Blue Silver Grass to connect while cultivating Soul Power, and added the Eight Spider Lances to their daily control exercises. A few days earlier, Wang Xingyu and Xiao Wu had each only been able to make one spider leg shift slightly by half an inch.

Now, although they could still control only one leg each, the range of movement was noticeably greater. They could make the tips trace small arcs behind Tang San's back. Tang San's own control over the other six grew steadier as well. There were no more incidents of the spider legs bursting out of his body and pinning themselves to the wall after he fell asleep in the middle of the night.

Three months later.

The group sparring in the gravity field looked like an entirely different team from three months ago.

Ma Hongjun's Phoenix Fire Line could pass precisely through the gravity field, grazing Dai Mubai's shoulder as he dodged sideways.

Oscar jogged from person to person, handing out sausages with perfect timing. No one needed to stop and wait for him.

With the aid of Heart Separation Control, Ning Rongrong's amplification beams boosted Xiao Wu's strength and Zhu Zhuqing's speed at the same time, the two rays landing on their respective targets without the slightest error.

Zhu Zhuqing moved like a cat in the gravity field and never crashed into a tree again. Xiao Wu's Teleportation landings were accurate to within half an inch, and she no longer jumped right in front of Tang San to stare wide-eyed at him.

During blindfold training, Ma Hongjun was hit less than half as often as before and could even follow the sounds to counterattack while dodging.

Oscar could sense the Soul Power balls' trajectories in advance, and while dodging sideways, he could also hand a sausage to Ning Rongrong beside him.

Ning Rongrong amplified with her eyes closed, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda's light finding each person's position accurately in the darkness.

Dai Mubai could finally stand in the center of the field without being hit by a single ball. He said this was called unnecessary confidence. Another ball flew past his ear, and the moment he tilted his head to dodge it, Tang San's Blue Silver vines reached out from behind and gently pulled him back a step. Tang San withdrew the vines without a word.

That evening, the three stayed behind on the mountain as usual to continue training.

After more than three months of practice, Wang Xingyu and Xiao Wu had become quite proficient at controlling the Eight Spider Lances.

At first, each of them could only make a spider leg shift slightly by half an inch. Now they could precisely control their respective legs to perform complex movements.

Tang San had also fully adjusted to the bizarre sensation of "letting other people control his Soul Bone." Now he could let the two of them each control one spider leg while he controlled the remaining six himself, without interfering with one another.

"Xingyu, take this!" Xiao Wu controlled her spider leg on the left, stabbing it toward Wang Xingyu, and didn't forget to name her move. "Behold my Xiao Wu Spider Spear!"

Wang Xingyu calmly guided another spider leg on the right to meet it. The two legs touched lightly behind Tang San's back with a very faint clink. "Tch, a mere Xiao Wu pig hair. I can wipe it out with a flip of my hand."

"Whose spear are you calling pig hair?!" Xiao Wu's spider leg jabbed faster. Wang Xingyu controlled his leg to block left and right, the two spider legs trading blows on Tang San's back like two children fighting with sticks.

The clinking and clanging rang especially clear on the rear mountainside that evening.

Tang San sat cross-legged between the two, expressionless, letting the two spider legs clang against each other near his shoulder blades.

He had grown used to this bizarre situation. For the first few days, having two spider legs beyond his control fighting behind his back had made him feel a little creeped out. Now he thought it was much the same as waving a fan. Wang Xingyu called it a little stress-relief toy: the Eight Spider Lances edition, exclusive to their trio.

He had given up trying to stop the two of them.