Chapter 60: Tang San, I'm Back!

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Over the next few days, Tang San took Guangling with him to follow Su Yuntao to other villages to help awaken martial souls.

Along the way, as Tang San took the initiative to speak, Guangling also spoke up a little louder. She was no longer as muffled as she was when she was in the village, but she was still relatively introverted.

During this time, Tang San also studied Guangling's martial soul, the Iron Bow. It was about the same length as Guangling's height. It was a relatively large bow, and Guangling herself knew how to use it.

The reason was simple. Guangling's father was a hunter. Although he passed away when she was three years old, children from poor families matured early.

According to Guangling herself, after her father passed away, she would practice archery every day. Her father had left behind a hard bow and some arrows at home.

However, until she was six years old, before she awakened her martial soul, Guangling said that she was unable to fully draw the bow her father left behind. She could only draw it a little.

In Tang San's opinion, this was normal. After all, it would be strange for a six-year-old girl to be able to draw a real bow.

However, she was able to draw her martial soul bow.

Honestly speaking, the fact that Guangling's martial soul had mutated from a wooden bow to an iron bow meant that her innate soul power could not have reached level three all at once. Instead, like other children with slightly mutated martial souls, she only had half a level or one level.

After all, according to Su Yuntao, he had previously awakened martial souls that were iron swords and iron knives, but their soul power was either zero, half a level, or one level. Very few of them exceeded level two.

However, Guangling's martial soul, the Iron Bow, was level three.

Level three meant that she could at least become a Soul Elder. In the world of Soul Masters, whether one could reach the level of a Soul Venerable was a watershed that determined whether a Soul Master could continue to cultivate in the future and become a truly powerful person.

Why could the innate soul power of an Iron Bow martial soul be level three?

According to Tang San's previous guess, the innate soul power of a martial soul represented the affinity between a person and their martial soul. Therefore, Guangling, who had been in contact with bows and arrows since she was three years old, might not be able to explain the specific relationship between bows and arrows, but she definitely had a strong understanding of both bows and arrows, which in turn increased the connection between herself and her martial soul.

Tang San was quite certain that his guess was correct. In the future, when he came into contact with more ordinary Soul Masters, he would be able to obtain more real cases.

The amount of innate soul power a martial soul possessed not only represented the quality of the martial soul but also the compatibility between the martial soul and the awakened person.

High-quality martial souls, such as the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, and the Haotian Hammer, would definitely have innate soul power unless an uncontrollable mutation occurred. Moreover, it would be at least level three or above. The amount of soul power above level three was determined by many factors, such as the awakened person's physical fitness, mental state, and personality. However, the most important factor was whether the Soul Master was compatible with the martial soul.

On the other hand, low-quality martial souls, such as pots, pans, hoes, and so on, could actually awaken soul power as well. It was just that ordinary people always thought about becoming Soul Masters, so they definitely did not want to awaken these martial souls that seemed useless in battle.

Although martial souls existed within the human body, they also had a certain spirituality. Yu Xiaogang's Luo Sanpao was the best proof of this. You don't want me, so I don't want to pay attention to you either. We despise each other.

Perhaps this statement was a bit serious and exaggerated, but the principle was the same.

It was just that Luo Sanpao was a mutation of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon, so the quality of his martial soul was definitely not low. Otherwise, Yu Xiaogang would not even have half a level of innate soul power.

"Martial souls are truly remarkable. In the future, there might even be a cigar martial soul. This proves that martial souls can respond to human thoughts and change accordingly."

Tang San thought of the cigar martial soul in "Unrivaled Tang Sect" and became even more certain of his guess. "However, this theory needs to exclude external factors such as immortal herbs, mutations, divine power, and the environment. Moreover, it is not something that I can publish now."

Over the next half a month, Tang San, Guangling, and Su Yuntao visited eight more villages and discovered two more children with innate soul power.

One martial soul was a sickle, and its soul power was half a level. The other martial soul was a hoe, but the handle of the hoe had changed from wood to iron. The situation was similar to Guangling's, but his innate soul power was only half a level.

Although the difference between a hoe and a bow was quite big, if one ignored the distinction between farming tools and weapons, there was no difference in material.

Moreover, according to the people in this village, this child had been working in the fields with his father since he was three years old, carrying a small hoe to help weed and dig the soil in the fields.

This also made Tang San's guess a bit more accurate.

If another person with a bow martial soul appeared in the future, and it had mutated from a wooden bow to an iron bow, but its innate soul power was zero or only half a level, then Tang San could be 90% sure that the innate soul power of a martial soul was definitely positively correlated to the awakened person's understanding and affinity for the martial soul. However, it was currently difficult to measure this correlation accurately.

"Anyway, there are still five years. There are many ordinary people in the villages near Nuoding City whose martial souls are bows. Collecting this data can also be considered a piece of evidence." Tang San felt that his future was brighter than ever before...

...

After returning to Nuodng City, Tang San directly took Guangling to Nuoding to register. The dean immediately agreed. After all, Tang San was the face of Nuoding Academy, so he had this prestige.

Then, Tang San took Guangling to the seventh dormitory and arranged her accommodation.

During the work-study program, Guangling still needed to interact with her peers more.

However, Tang San still arranged a bed for Guangling in the room in the backyard of the Spirit Hall. She would be next to Xiaowu. Since they were both girls, they could sleep together.

After arranging their accommodation, Tang San began to test Guangling's martial soul.

Strength: 1. Even without shooting arrows, the Iron Bow itself could be used as a weapon in battle.

Defense: 1. The material of the Iron Bow was iron, which was relatively hard. That was all.

Speed: 2. This mainly referred to the attack speed. According to Guangling's test, she could quickly pull the bowstring, and her speed was relatively fast.

Endurance: 2. Although Guangling's soul power was only level three, the Iron Bow consumed relatively little soul power. She could hold the Iron Bow for thirty minutes without using soul power to condense arrows.

Energy: 2. She could use soul power to condense arrows and release them. This was the Iron Bow's innate energy release skill. However, with Guangling's current soul power, she could only release it once. (Note: Before becoming a Soul Elder, if one's soul power was insufficient, they could use real arrows instead of soul power condensation, or they could combine the two to reduce the consumption of soul power.)

Special: 0. The martial soul itself did not have any special characteristics. The soul power arrows that were shot out were merely condensed from soul power and did not have any attributes. (Note: After obtaining a soul ring, it might take on the attributes of the soul beast itself.)

Total score: 8.

The basic attributes of Guangling's Iron Bow martial soul were not very high, but its attack speed, endurance, and energy were all acceptable. Especially when combined with Tang San's first soul skill, Guangling's issue of insufficient soul power was also solved.

"These are the basic characteristics of your martial soul. Before you reach level ten, follow me to learn. You can tell me which type of soul beast you want for your first soul ring. This is also a test for you."

Tang San said, "If you don't satisfy me, I won't abandon you, but I hope that you can walk your own path in the future instead of relying on me."

"A teacher always hopes that their students can surpass them, understand?"

Guangling nodded vigorously. "I will definitely live up to Teacher's expectations and study hard."

Just then, the door to the backyard was kicked open, and a familiar voice rang out, as carefree as ever:

"Tang San, I'm back!"

(End of chapter)