Life System

"Deacon Su!" Old Jack hurried after Su Yuntao, who had already packed up the Awakening Stones. "How many children in our village have Soul Power this year?"

Without looking up, Su Yuntao stuffed the Awakening Stones into a cloth bag. "Two."

Old Jack's eyes lit up at once, as if he had grown ten years younger. "Two? Two! That's wonderful! Which two?"

Su Yuntao paused and glanced at Old Jack, then at Wang Xingyu and Tang San, who were walking out a short distance away. "Tang San and Wang Xingyu. Both have Blue Silver Grass." He paused. "Trash Martial Souls."

He picked up the cloth bag and left. Old Jack stood there, stunned for an instant. Just an instant. Then the wrinkles on his face scrunched together again, tighter than before, and he smiled until his eyes nearly disappeared.

"Two! Both of them have Soul Power! Both can become Soul Masters!" He turned and ran after the two children, his pace far too quick for a man in his sixties, his pipe waving in his hand. "Xingyu! Little San! Wait for Grandpa!"

Su Yuntao glanced back, shook his head, and left.

Wang Xingyu and Tang San walked side by side along the dirt road. Tang San had barely spoken since the ceremony ended. His hands hung at his sides, occasionally clenching and relaxing.

Wang Xingyu hadn't said anything either, but not because he was downcast. He was waiting for Tang San to speak first. They passed the village entrance, and when they reached the old locust tree, Tang San finally spoke.

"Wang Xingyu." Tang San's voice was calm, but Wang Xingyu could tell he was holding something back. "Why are you so happy when Blue Silver Grass is trash?"

Wang Xingyu slipped his hands into his pockets and kept walking. "Do you think I'm pretending to be happy?"

Tang San shook his head. "No, you're really happy. You're not just putting on a brave face."

"Because it isn't the worst. As long as it isn't, I have hope."

"The worst?"

"The worst would be having no Soul Power. And if it were another Martial Soul, I really wouldn't know what to do, but with Blue Silver Grass, I do have a way."

"What way?" Tang San asked, a little curious.

"Well..." Wang Xingyu hesitated. He couldn't very well say he'd come across a bunch of analyses of Tang San's Martial Soul while scrolling through videos in his previous life, could he? To study Tang San, those video creators had turned Blue Silver Grass inside out, from its botanical characteristics to the logic of Martial Soul Evolution, from its life attribute to its bloodline rank. They had managed to analyze a "Trash Martial Soul" and come up with at least three viable cultivation paths. He had watched them for fun back then, never expecting them to become the straw he clutched at to save his life now.

"Because I've studied it," Wang Xingyu said without changing expression. "All those books I read at Spirit Hall weren't for nothing. Everyone's following the same old path with the Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul, but I know there's one path that suits it best."

"What path?"

"The Life System." Wang Xingyu summoned his Blue Silver Grass, letting the frail blade sway gently in his palm. "Look at its traits. Break one stalk and ten grow back. Step on it and it stands straight again the next day. It can even live in cracks between rocks.

"Of all the Martial Souls on the Douluo Continent, it has the strongest vitality. People think it's trash because everyone uses it as a rope-Entanglement, restraint, control. But what if you looked at it differently? Use it as a health pack and follow the Life System-recovery, regeneration, life without end. Follow that path to the end, and it'll be more solid than anything else."

Tang San looked down at the Blue Silver Grass in his palm, its surface shimmering faintly gold, and seemed lost in thought. "The Life System..."

"Right. I'll follow the Life System: support, healing, and staying power." Wang Xingyu withdrew his Blue Silver Grass and looked at Tang San. "But you can't take that path."

Tang San looked up.

"Your Blue Silver Grass is different from mine." Wang Xingyu pointed at the grass in Tang San's palm. "Have you noticed? Your Blue Silver Grass has a faint golden glow over it. Mine doesn't.

"Ordinary Blue Silver Grass can't support Innate Full Soul Power. Yours is either a Mutated Martial Soul or a higher variety of Blue Silver Grass-something like the Blue Silver King or the Blue Silver Emperor. Whichever it is, its strength, toughness, and capacity far exceed those of ordinary Blue Silver Grass."

Tang San looked at the Blue Silver Grass in his palm. Its faint golden sheen flowed gently in the sunlight. "So?"

"So you can follow the Control System, the Power Attack System, or even the Poison System. Your Blue Silver Grass can handle it." Wang Xingyu held up two fingers.

"But I suggest a combined path of control and attack. Focus on control, with attack as a supplement. Blue Silver Grass can entangle by nature, and yours is strong enough. Once you've wrapped someone up, follow directly with an attack skill and take them out in one combo."

Tang San was silent for a while, then looked up at Wang Xingyu. "Why do you think I'm suited to control and attack? Just because my Blue Silver Grass is strong enough?"

Wang Xingyu thought for a moment. He hadn't intended to say it so soon.

He had planned to wait for Tang San to discover the Clear Sky Hammer himself, or at least for a better opportunity. But Tang San had pressed him this far, and his gaze was serious-the kind of seriousness that said, "What are you hiding from me?"

Wang Xingyu sighed. After grinding favorability for so long, was it time to find out whether he'd failed or succeeded? Surely he couldn't still have a way to take his own life!

Besides, saying it would make it easier to divide up their paths of growth.

"There's another reason." He lowered his voice. "I saw it during the awakening just now."

"Saw what?"

"You have a second Martial Soul in your right hand."

Tang San's expression changed. It wasn't surprise, but a deep tightening. For a six-year-old to show such an expression meant he himself might not know about it, but his body did.

"When the Awakening Stone lit up, a second light flashed across the back of your right hand." Wang Xingyu spoke so softly that only the two of them could hear. "Its color was different from Blue Silver Grass, darker and heavier, like iron, like a hammer. It was very brief, and everyone was watching your Blue Silver Grass, so nobody noticed. But I did."

Tang San lowered his head and looked at his right hand. The back of it was bare; there was nothing there. He clenched his fist, then relaxed it. "A second Martial Soul?"

"Twin Martial Souls," Wang Xingyu said. "I read about them in a book at Spirit Hall.

"They're extremely rare, hard to find even once in a century. For a Soul Master with Twin Martial Souls, the two Martial Souls often complement each other-one focuses on control, the other on attack. If your second Martial Soul is a Power Attack System Tool Martial Soul, then the control path is the best choice for your Blue Silver Grass. Lock the enemy down with control, then switch to your Second Martial Soul for a burst attack to finish them off."

Tang San was silent for a long time. The wind blew down the hillside, lifting his blue hair into separate strands.

"So," Tang San finally said, his voice steady, unlike a six-year-old's, "you want me to follow control and attack because I have a second Martial Soul. You're following the Life System because you don't."

"Right." Wang Xingyu readily admitted it. "We both have Blue Silver Grass, but you have something I don't, and what I have, you don't need. Your path is control and burst damage; mine is support and staying power. If you go down, I'll pull you up. If I go down, you pull me up. Two Blue Silver Grass users, one fighting in front and one healing in the back."

After saying that, he suddenly froze. Wait. Damn, how did I end up on the same track as Grandmaster?

But the reason was different. The real reason he didn't want Tang San to follow the Life System was that he had already claimed it. If Tang San followed it too, it would be a waste of resources.

Rather than both taking the same path, they would cover more ground if each took a different one.

Of course, he wouldn't say that out loud.

"Don't tell anyone about your second Martial Soul." Wang Xingyu lowered his voice as far as it would go. "Heaven knows, earth knows, you know, and I know. As for your dad, it depends. Maybe he's some kind of hidden expert."

"A hidden expert?" Tang San was utterly bewildered. His father, who had barely been able to put food on the table when Tang San was little, was a hidden expert?

"Yes. Martial Souls are mostly inherited from one's parents. Yours is so powerful that your parents definitely aren't weak." That was what Wang Xingyu said, but he knew perfectly well. Tang Hao, the Clear Sky Douluo, was a formidable figure who ranked among even the Titled Douluo. But he couldn't say that.