At the main gate of the Martial Soul Branch Hall in Notting City, the two gatekeepers stared at Tang Chuan's martial soul certificate, utterly floored.
It made sense, though. Su Yuntao himself had complained more than once about the child he'd awakened in a remote village — a boy with innate full soul power, saddled with nothing but a Blue Silver Grass martial soul. So the name wasn't unfamiliar to them.
"So, little one, what brings you to see Master Su Yuntao?" one of the gatekeepers asked, curiosity plain on his face.
"Master Su Yuntao told me I have innate full soul power, but because my martial soul is Blue Silver Grass, I don't qualify to join the Spirit Hall," Tang Chuan said, scratching his head with an air of practiced embarrassment. "But I wanted to come try my luck one more time."
The two guards exchanged a smile and waved him through without further fuss.
"Go on in, little one. Master Su Yuntao's office is on the first floor — his name's right there on the door. Just knock and go in."
"Thank you, uncles!" Tang Chuan bowed slightly and stepped past them into the hall.
Meanwhile, in the White World, at Martial Soul City's Douluo Palace —
Watching how warmly the two guards had treated Tang Chuan, nothing like the arrogant, dismissive gatekeepers over at Notting Academy, a flicker of satisfaction crossed Qian Daoliu's face. Pride, even.
This is our Spirit Hall. On this continent, only the people of the Spirit Hall — soul masters and staff alike — extended that kind of courtesy to ordinary folk.
Inside, Tang Chuan crossed the main hall and made his way down the corridor until he spotted an office door engraved with three characters: Su Yuntao.
"Found it." He knocked, smiling.
"Who is it?" Su Yuntao's voice carried out from inside.
"Master Su Yuntao, it's Tang Chuan — the one you helped awaken in Holy Spirit Village. My martial soul is Blue Silver Grass. I have something I'd like to discuss with you. May I come in?"
His tone was polite, almost formal.
"Tang Chuan?" The voice inside sounded startled, but there was no refusal. "Come in."
Tang Chuan pushed the door open to find Su Yuntao seated behind his desk, curiosity and confusion warring on his face.
"Little one, what brings you all the way here?"
Tang Chuan smiled. "Master Su Yuntao, I'm here to help you make money — and win the heart of your beautiful lady."
Su Yuntao burst out laughing. "You're a child. What would you know about making money? Let alone winning a beauty's heart!"
But Tang Chuan had come prepared. He stepped closer and laid out his plan.
He explained that his mastery of arithmetic was more than strong enough to open a math tutoring class right there in Notting City — that anyone who mastered arithmetic could go on to work as an accountant at a restaurant, a bank, an eatery, and that parents would jump at the chance to send their children to learn something so practical. It was bound to turn a profit.
And once they had their first real earnings in hand, they could open a restaurant too — Tang Chuan had no shortage of original recipes, and that would be profitable as well.
Naturally, Su Yuntao didn't buy a word of it.
So Tang Chuan had him set a few problems on the spot — and proceeded to solve them with a fluency and precision, using mathematical notation and equations Su Yuntao had never seen before, that left the man stunned. He simply couldn't wrap his head around a child this sharp.
"Your grasp of arithmetic, and your ability to teach it — that's all genuine, no doubt about it," Su Yuntao admitted, thinking it over. "But you're still just a boy. Parents aren't likely to trust a child to teach their children."
"That's the easy part." Tang Chuan smiled and laid out the rest of his plan.
He knew his age, and the very idea of a child running a math class, would draw plenty of skepticism — mockery, even, especially from other kids his own age. So instead, he'd go straight to Notting City's best accountants and challenge them to an arithmetic contest. If he won, word would spread on its own. And once he had a reputation, people would come to test him — and if he taught that first batch of students well, his name would carry itself, bringing in more students after that.
Of course, there were parts of the plan where he'd need Su Yuntao's help directly — which was, after all, the whole reason he'd come.
Still, Su Yuntao hesitated at the thought of going into business with a child.
"Master Su Yuntao — when I came in earlier, I overheard that you have feelings for a female soul master named Sisi."
"But Notting City doesn't have many soul masters to begin with, and outstanding female ones are rarer still. I'd imagine plenty of other soul masters have their eye on Master Sisi too."
"Your martial soul is the Lone Wolf, Master Su Yuntao — a commoner's soul. Winning Master Sisi's favor won't come easy for you."
"Which is exactly why you should be seizing every chance you get to become better than you are now."
Tang Chuan said it all with total sincerity, dropping Su Yuntao's goddess right into the middle of his pitch.
That did it. Su Yuntao's hesitation vanished, and he agreed on the spot.
"Alright, little guy — from now on I'll call you Xiao Chuan, and you can call me Yuntao, or Brother Tao, whichever you like. So tell me — why are you in such a hurry to make money?" Su Yuntao asked, genuinely curious now.
"Partly to improve my living situation," Tang Chuan said, not bothering to hide anything. "But mostly because I want to go to the Star Dou Great Forest and hunt soul beasts there. That means hiring powerful soul masters to help me — and that costs money."
"Why the Star Dou Great Forest, though?" Su Yuntao asked, still puzzled. "Couldn't you just ask your teachers at Notting Academy to take you to the Soul Hunting Forest for your first soul ring?"
Meanwhile, in the Dark World, at Shrek Academy —
"Hmph! The Blue Silver Grass soul is inherently weak to begin with. Absorbing soul rings from beast-type soul beasts — venomous serpents most of all — is clearly the smarter move!"
"Tang Chuan is wasting his time chasing top-tier plant-type soul beasts in the Star Dou Great Forest. It's the wrong call, plain and simple."
"That forest is dangerous enough as it is, and top-tier plant soul beasts are next to impossible to find."
"And even if he manages to kill one, there's no way the soul skill he gets will match what my Xiao San got from the four-hundred-year Mandragora Serpent — Entanglement!"
Watching the footage reveal that Tang Chuan intended to hunt down a top-tier plant-type soul beast for his very first soul ring, Yu Xiaogang scoffed, feigning contempt.
But his fists were clenched tight enough that his palms had started to sweat.
Deep down, he was praying Tang Chuan would fail to bring down a top-tier plant soul beast out there in the Star Dou Great Forest.
And if he does manage to kill one — please, let the soul skill be useless.
Because if it wasn't — if Tang Chuan came away with something better than Entanglement —
Then what did that say about the cultivation path Yu Xiaogang himself had chosen for his own disciple, Tang San?
Back in the Spirit Branch Hall, Tang Chuan took a slow breath in response to Su Yuntao's question and began to explain.
"Brother Tao, I don't think soul masters should just hunt soul beasts purely to absorb soul rings."
"While I was at the academy, I went through nearly every book the library had, and I found something interesting — a martial soul changes after absorbing a soul ring. And the weaker the martial soul to begin with, the more dramatic that change tends to be."
"The way I see it, those changes are really just a reflection of how the absorbed soul ring influences the martial soul's very origin."
"And going by what's recorded across different texts, I noticed a pattern."
"The closer the bloodline between the hunted soul beast and the soul master's own martial soul — but the greater the gap in their bloodline level — the more dramatic and lasting the change to the martial soul becomes. Some of these changes are permanent too, visible even when the soul ring isn't being actively displayed."
"Take a Blue Silver Grass soul master, for example — absorb a soul ring from a vine-type plant soul beast, and their form will shift dramatically, growing more vine-like. But a Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon barely changes at all after absorbing a sub-dragon soul ring."
"So I came up with a hypothesis."
"What if a martial soul keeps absorbing soul rings from soul beasts that share the same attribute, are closely related in kinship, but come from vastly different bloodline tiers? Could that actually improve the martial soul's quality over time — or even trigger a full evolution?"
"I call it: the Theory of Martial Soul Origin Completion and Evolution."
(End of Chapter)
[Every 15 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter Drop]
[Thanks for Reading!]