For Master Tang San, taking Lu Tianyu along to find spirit rings was merely repaying a favor to the dean of the Notting Junior Spirit Master Academy.
Lu Tianyu was racking his brains trying to figure out how to hitch a ride with Tang San to the Soul Hunting Forest to find spirit beasts with Master Tang San. It was like someone had just handed him a pillow when he was about to fall asleep.
Feigning composure, he replied, "If Master Tang San doesn't mind that I'll be a burden, I'm willing to go with Master Tang San to find spirit rings."
Master Tang San chuckled after hearing Lu Tianyu's words, "I really don't know what you've been through in the past, kid. You're so glib, not like a child at all. You clearly want to go, but you have to put it so euphemistically."
"Alright, alright, release your spirit and let me see it."
For Master Tang San, his interest in Lu Tianyu's spirit was far greater than his interest in Lu Tianyu himself. After a few casual words, he immediately focused his attention on the spirit that interested him most.
Lu Tianyu nodded slightly, raised his right hand, and summoned his spirit once again with a thought.
The master walked up to Lu Tianyu, took Lu Tianyu's right hand, and examined the illusory spirit image on Lu Tianyu's right hand with utmost care.
"Eh."
At this moment, Tang San, who had just finished eating, let out a soft exclamation. The master and Lu Tianyu looked at Tang San at the same time.
The master said calmly, "What's wrong, Xiao San? Have you discovered anything?"
After hearing the master's words, Tang San looked at Lu Tianyu's face, then at the illusory figure on Lu Tianyu's right hand, and said, "Teacher, I just feel that the face of this spirit is very similar to Senior Brother Lu's face."
Upon hearing Tang San's words, the master suddenly realized that Lu Tianyu's spirit and Lu Tianyu's face were indeed very similar. After thinking for a moment, the master hurriedly ran back to his desk.
He took out a magnifying glass made of crystal from the drawer. With the help of the magnifying glass, the master and Tang San saw a very strange scene.
The spirit floating on Lu Tianyu's right palm, behind the magnifying glass, presented a face shape exactly the same as Lu Tianyu's.
"Everyone says a martial soul can be anything, but this is the first time I've seen one that's actually your own. This must be one of the 'original martial souls'."
Lu Tianyu had been awakening his martial soul for a full year, and today he finally learned its name.
"An original martial soul? Master, how should I cultivate this original martial soul?"
Lu Tianyu looked at the master with some eagerness. Now that he knew the name of his martial soul, he should have a clear direction for cultivation.
But after hearing Lu Tianyu's question, the master gently shook his head and said, "This original martial soul is the only one I've ever seen in my life. I don't know its specific characteristics."
"But I can assure you, the quality of your original martial soul is absolutely top-tier. Try activating your martial soul to attack me."
After hearing the master's words, Lu Tianyu nodded slightly, then used his mind to control the martial soul in his hand to attack the master.
At this moment, Lu Tianyu felt the soul power within his body surge into his martial soul, and then the martial soul disappeared from Lu Tianyu's palm.
Then, Lu Tianyu swiftly punched Grandmaster in the chest, sending the unsuspecting master staggering back several steps before grabbing onto a bookshelf to regain his balance.
"Teacher!"
"Grandmaster..."
Tang San and Lu Tianyu exclaimed simultaneously. Lu Tianyu stared at his right hand in disbelief.
He could clearly sense that he had only used his will to control his martial spirit to attack Grandmaster.
But he hadn't expected his martial spirit to first merge with his body before controlling his right fist to attack Grandmaster.
"Damn it, what are you doing..."
Realizing what was happening, Tang San angrily threw a punch at Lu Tianyu, but Lu Tianyu felt Tang San's punch was incredibly slow.
He hurriedly raised his hand to block Tang San's attack, but in Tang San and Grandmaster's eyes, Lu Tianyu's reaction speed was so fast that he easily blocked Tang San's attack, even though he had struck first.
Tang San hadn't expected Lu Tianyu's reaction to be so quick either, and instinctively raised his leg to whip towards Lu Tianyu's left abdomen.
However, Lu Tianyu, once again, moved faster than Tang San, raising his leg to block Tang San's knee and interrupting Tang San's sweeping kick attack.
Grandmaster knew that Lu Tianyu had never taken any practical combat training courses, while Tang San, being the leader of the work-study students, naturally possessed the strength to defeat sixth-year students.
Moreover, in Grandmaster's eyes, Tang San's attacks on Lu Tianyu were extremely swift and precise.
Seeing that he had failed to gain the upper hand against Lu Tianyu in two consecutive attacks, Tang San immediately channeled his soul power and launched a series of rapid attacks using the Ghost Shadow Step technique.
But no matter what kind of punches and kicks Tang San unleashed, they were all blocked by Lu Tianyu's faster response.
While blocking Tang San's attacks, Lu Tianyu said, "Let me explain, I didn't do it on purpose."
Grandmaster rubbed his burning chest and said, "Alright, Little San, I told Xiaoyu to attack me."
Hearing Grandmaster's words, Tang San stopped his offensive, and Lu Tianyu breathed a sigh of relief.
He looked at his hands in surprise. He hadn't undergone any actual combat training, yet he had completely blocked Tang San's attack.
"Xiao Yu, you should have your martial soul possessed you now, right?"
Grandmaster suddenly asked, which made Lu Tianyu realize, "It seems so, Grandmaster. I feel my martial soul is attached to my body."
After hearing Lu Tianyu's words, Grandmaster hurriedly took out a piece of rubber from the bookshelf next to him and said, "Come on, Xiao Yu, punch this piece of rubber with all your might."
Lu Tianyu nodded after hearing Grandmaster's words, walked to the dark, basin-sized piece of rubber, raised his right arm and punched it hard.
"Boom..."
The huge force was transmitted through the rubber to the ground, causing a huge boom to echo in Grandmaster's room.
A fist-deep dent about three centimeters deep was left on the piece of rubber. Grandmaster nodded and said, "Now release your martial soul possession and punch the rubber again..."
Lu Tianyu felt his martial soul leave his body with a thought, and then punched the rubber in front of him again.
Image
The result was merely a dull thud from the pectin, without leaving any marks on its surface.
The master, seeing this, looked at Lu Tianyu and said, "A hundred jin of attack force striking the pectin would leave a one-centimeter-deep dent. When your martial soul was possessed, the attack force left a three-centimeter-deep dent."
"This indicates that your martial soul amplified your attack force by about three hundred jin. Judging from your fight with Xiao San just now, your martial soul also improved your reaction speed."
The master then conducted tests on other attributes, working until late at night before nodding slightly and saying, "After our extensive verification, I have reached these conclusions regarding your martial soul."
"After your martial soul possession, all your attributes, including reaction speed, attack power, and defense, have increased by about two times compared to their original levels. Your eyesight has also increased three times."
Lu Tianyu raised his hand and summoned his martial soul. The most striking feature of this illusory figure was indeed its pair of eyes shimmering with purple spiritual light.
The master continued, "Other spirits typically amplify only one aspect of their master's attributes. It's truly rare to find one that can amplify all aspects like yours."
"A spirit master's cultivation direction is determined by their spirit's characteristics. Your spirit's strongest amplification is your vision, but vision is an advantage for agility-based spirit masters."
"With your talent, choosing only an agility-based system is somewhat wasteful, as you could cultivate all systems of battle spirit masters."
Lu Tianyu pondered for a moment after hearing the master's words, then asked, "Master, since my spirit can amplify all my attributes, does that mean I don't need to worry too much about compensating for spirit weaknesses?"
The master nodded with satisfaction, "That's right. When other spirit masters search for spirit rings, besides meeting their required attributes,"
"they also consider compensating for spirit weaknesses, which greatly limits a spirit master's growth potential." "
However, every coin has two sides. Developing in all aspects leads to mediocrity. Therefore, my suggestion is to develop towards a power-attack or agility-based battle spirit master."
Lu Tianyu nodded slightly after hearing the master's words, even though his spirit possessed the talent points for cultivating a defensive battle spirit master.
But the best defense is offense. A defensive Soul Master is naturally invincible against an opponent whose defenses cannot be broken.
However, once they encounter an opponent who can break their defenses, utter defeat is the only outcome, with no chance of recovery.
Seeing that Lu Tianyu and Tang San both looked sleepy, Grandmaster said, "Alright, you two go back and rest."
"Tomorrow morning we'll go to the Soul Hunting Forest to find Soul Rings for you. I'll explain your Martial Souls in detail then."
Lu Tianyu's eyelids were already drooping; constantly having his Martial Soul possess him and undergoing various verification tests had exhausted his energy.
Lu Tianyu and Tang San left Grandmaster's room together and returned to their respective dormitories to rest. Lu Tianyu slept until noon the next day before Tang San woke him up.
Only then did he remember that he was supposed to go to the Soul Hunting Forest with Grandmaster to find Soul Rings. He hurriedly dressed and went with Tang San to the playground to find Grandmaster.
Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang didn't say much upon seeing Lu Tianyu and Tang San arrive, only casually stating, "Let's set off."
After arriving in Notting City, Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang hired a carriage, then gestured for Lu Tianyu and Tang San to get in, and they drove off towards the Soul Hunter Forest.
On the way, Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang systematically explained the cultivation of Soul Masters to Tang San and Lu Tianyu. Lu Tianyu felt that what Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang taught would take other teachers at least six years to cover.
With Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang leading them, Lu Tianyu and Tang San smoothly entered the heavily guarded Soul Hunter Forest. Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang stopped about 500 meters into the forest.
Turning to Tang San and Lu Tianyu with unusual seriousness, he said, "Xiao San, Xiao Yu, from now on, neither of you should leave my side." "
The majority of the spirit beasts in the Soul Hunting Forest are ten-year or hundred-year-old spirit beasts, but there are also thousand-year-old spirit beasts hidden within, which are extremely dangerous."
Lu Tianyu and Tang San exchanged a glance and softly responded. After saying "okay," the Grandmaster activated his spirit power and said, "Come out, Luo Sanpao."
Two yellow spirit rings suddenly appeared above the Grandmaster's head, then condensed in the air into an animal-like spirit that looked like a bulldog or a piglet, with three bumps on its head.
Strangely, this spirit seemed to be alive and could move on its own. Tang San realized that this strange spirit was neither a weapon spirit nor a beast spirit.
Lu Tianyu, however, already knew that the Grandmaster's spirit was a mutated spirit, and a bizarre one at that, using farting as its attack method.
Luo Sanpao, with his short legs, happily ran up to Grandmaster, trying to look cute. Lu
Tianyu, however, didn't show any unusual expression on his face as he looked at Luo Sanpao. Tang San, on the other hand, couldn't suppress his laughter, because Luo Sanpao's spirit was truly comical and hilarious.
Grandmaster's face remained expressionless as he calmly introduced Luo Sanpao to Lu Tianyu and Tang San, saying, "This is my spirit, Luo Sanpao. As you might have guessed, it's a mutated spirit."
"It's called 'Three Cannons' because it can only launch three attacks. It has a very strong sense of smell, making it very suitable for finding spirit beasts."
Lu Tianyu and Tang San nodded slightly in understanding, and Grandmaster turned to let Luo Sanpao lead the way.
At this moment, Lu Tianyu suddenly remembered that when he watched the anime, Grandmaster and Tang San entered the Soul Hunting Forest at noon, but now it was already dusk.
Thinking of this, Lu Tianyu turned to look at Tang San, wondering if Tang San had missed the Mandragora Snake.
Tang San noticed Lu Tianyu's gaze but only smiled, completely unaware of why Lu Tianyu was looking at him.
Grandmaster, Lu Tianyu, and Tang San followed Luo Sanpao through the Soul Hunting Forest for about 1500 meters before it became completely dark.
Passing a makeshift camp made of three huge rocks, Grandmaster said, "Alright, we'll spend the night here. We'll set off again early tomorrow morning to search for soul beasts."
Lu Tianyu looked at the makeshift camp and muttered to himself, "Wow, in the anime, Grandmaster and Tang San walked from noon until evening before finding a place to rest, and only then did Tang San encounter the Mandragora Serpent. "
It seems Tang San will miss out on the Mandragora Serpent's soul ring because of him, since the surrounding area is mostly populated by soul beasts less than ten years old or around ten years old, and they haven't even encountered the ten-year-old Lone Bamboo.
Lu Tianyu hurriedly gathered some dry branches and leaves under a nearby tree to start a fire, while Grandmaster instructed Tang San to sprinkle some powder around the camp to repel snakes, insects, and rodents.
The next morning, after waking Lu Tianyu and Tang San, the Grandmaster had them cultivate their soul power, while he gathered firewood and roasted sweet potatoes.
After finishing their soul power cultivation, the three ate the sweet potatoes as they walked deeper into the Soul Hunting Forest. Half an hour later, Luo Sanpao finally discovered a ten-year-old lone bamboo growing in the forest.
Seeing this lone bamboo, Lu Tianyu turned to look at Tang San again, thinking to himself that Tang San's first soul skill was going to be completely different from what he was familiar with.
Could this be the butterfly effect caused by a time traveler, since Tang San didn't obtain the Mandragora Serpent's spirit ring from the anime?
(End of Chapter)