'As expected, a useless slacker. I thought he woke up early every day to train—turns out he's just reading trash novels.'
With that, Tang San no longer paid attention to Wu Tong. Since Wu Tong wasn't disturbing him, he simply sat cross-legged, began circulating his soul power, and waited for the sun to rise.
But what Tang San didn't notice was that Wu Tong's attention had never been on the book in his hands. The moment Tang San started cultivating, Wu Tong's soul power began to circulate as well. The mark between his brows glowed faintly.
Mind's Eye · Insight.
Mind's Eye · X-Ray.
With both abilities active, Wu Tong once again captured the energy circulation pattern of Tang San's eye technique.
Purple Demon Eye, get.
Since cultivating Purple Demon Eye required full concentration and couldn't tolerate even the slightest distraction—otherwise the sunlight would damage the eyes—Tang San had no way of noticing he was being watched.
A while later, Tang San finished cultivating and opened his eyes. He saw Wu Tong still sitting nearby, reading Legend of the Douluo Heroes, and looked at him with even greater disdain. Without saying a word, he turned and left the rooftop.
Wu Tong didn't care about Tang San's expression. After all, he'd already taken the technique Tang San treated like a treasure. Let him sneer—what could he possibly lose?
…
My name is Tang San.
A transmigrator from a martial world. I went from being an orphan raised by a sect to having a real father in this new life. Though his attitude toward me is cold, I don't mind. I can tell that he's a man who has been hurt deeply—his despair comes from pain.
After arriving in this strange new world, I discovered it had things like Martial Souls, soul beasts, and soul rings.
Fortunately, I could continue cultivating the Xuan Tian Record. With that foundation, I'm sure I'll reach the peak of the Douluo Continent.
And when I do, I'll make sure everyone who caused my father's downfall pays the price.
Sure enough, I'm a genius. My teacher says that with twin Martial Souls and innate full soul power, I'm destined to become a Title Douluo.
Everything was going smoothly… until recently.
Lately, something feels off. I always feel like someone is watching me. No matter where I go, it's like a hidden gaze is following me.
…
Wu Tong stood outside the forge, watching Tang San pace about nervously, eyes darting around in paranoia. In his head, Wu Tong couldn't help but narrate a dramatic inner monologue for him.
As Tang San's eyes swept the crowd, Wu Tong didn't linger.
He focused instead on the fifth technique of the Xuan Tian Record already etched into his mind.
With a satisfied smile, he thought: Foundational Technique—Mysterious Jade Hand, get.
Over the past few days, Wu Tong had been tailing Tang San nonstop. While Tang San sparred with Xiao Wu, Wu Tong hid among the onlookers and picked up both Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track and Controlling Crane, Capturing Dragon.
Inside the forge, he saw Tang San use Mysterious Jade Hand and Disorder Wind Hammer Technique, and copied those as well.
With that, every technique from the Xuan Tian Record—except for Hundred Mechanisms Hidden Weapon Manual—had been silently copied by Wu Tong. Even the hammer techniques Tang Hao had passed to Tang San were now his.
As for the so-called hidden weapon manual, Wu Tong wasn't interested at all.
Whether throwing weapons or mechanical ones, their power couldn't compare to firearms. Wu Tong had no intention of wasting time on something so outdated.
Besides, in a world of fantasy cultivation, true power lies in oneself.
So he chose not to copy Tang San's hidden weapon knowledge.
"Alright, I've gotten everything I need from Tang San. Now it's time to modify the techniques."
Having obtained all he wanted, Wu Tong lost interest in Tang San entirely and turned away from the forge.
…
"Let me go through these techniques properly."
Back at the dorm, Wu Tong lay in bed and browsed through the five techniques stored in his memory.
The circulation path of Xuan Tian Gong, the meridians it passed through, the required acupoints, the amount of energy at each node—everything appeared clearly in his mind.
"Guanyuan, Zhongji, Qugu, Yinjiao, Shenque, Tianmen…"
The human body had 365 acupoints along the twelve standard meridians. Including the eight extraordinary meridians, there were 720 in total—matching the number of days in two full cycles of yin and yang.
Xuan Tian Gong passed through 670 of them. The eight extraordinary meridians, Ren and Du included, were all involved.
"This is so damn complicated!"
Wu Tong groaned as he stared at the diagram of meridian paths.
But a moment later, he pulled himself together.
"No point complaining. I have to do this anyway. First, let me check the condition of my own body."
(Body: Tong-ge… nooo~) (▽｀)ノ
First Soul Skill—Mental Detection.
Wu Tong circulated his soul power and activated his first soul skill.
As the yellow soul ring lit up, a wave of immense mental power surged out of his body.
He carefully controlled it to scan his entire body.
In no time, the structure of all his internal meridians, the distribution of his acupoints, the state of his muscles, organs, and even internal injuries—all of it became perfectly visible to him.
"What the hell? Why do I have so many hidden injuries?"
He was stunned for a moment, but quickly realized the source.
These injuries had come from the strain caused when he absorbed the Mind-Eye Golden Fox's soul ring and soul bone.
Though his surface-level wounds had healed, the internal ones still lingered.
Understanding that, Wu Tong gave a helpless smile. Clearly, he needed to start properly conditioning his body.
He used his perfect memory to record everything—his meridian layout, the positioning of acupoints, and all physical data—deep into his mind.
Once the scan was complete, he withdrew his soul power. The soul ring dimmed and vanished.
He compared his body's structure to Tang San's and noticed many differences.
"As expected, everyone's body is unique. What works for someone else might not suit me."
"To copy is to perish. Those who only follow others' methods are bound to be limited by them. Reaching the peak requires forging your own path. Looks like my decision to modify the technique was absolutely right."
He sighed with conviction, then activated his Martial Soul again.
That familiar sensation returned—like installing a faster processor in his brain. His mind started rapidly processing knowledge about cultivation techniques from his past life.
Drawing from theories, insights, and imagination, he quickly filtered and organized all relevant data from novels, medicine, and Daoist texts, combining them to analyze how to reshape Xuan Tian Gong.
With the results processed by his brain, Wu Tong began modifying the technique.
"The soul power isn't flowing smoothly when passing through the Xuanyang acupoint… Let's reroute it through the Xuan Gate Point."
"The flow at Kunqu is also off… switching it to Shenquan."
"The sequence across the twelve meridians isn't optimal either… There! The correct order should be…"
(End of Chapter)
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