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After arranging everyone's training schedule and reviewing the cultivation method of his Jade Bone Gold Skin Divine Repository, Tang San prepared to return to Nuoding City and Holy Soul Village with Gu Yuena, Shen Hou, You Ji, Hai Zhu, and others before heading to Spirit Hall City.
However, Fan Niu and Fan Ma approached him, hoping Tang San could witness their marriage proposals.
"Marriage proposals?"
These two burly guys had found their true love?
Who could it be? Likely the maids at Silver Blue Manor, as they didn't seem to know any notable figures in Tian Dou City.
Curious, Tang San followed them to the manor's back garden, where many servants were trimming branches and watering plants.
Fan Niu and Fan Ma knelt before Mu Yanluo and Mu Qiluo, pulling out rings from their pockets and asking in unison, "Yanluo (Qiluo), will you marry me?"
Straightforward!
Everyone present was captivated.
The sisters, Mu Yanluo and Mu Qiluo, exchanged glances, clearly surprised and overwhelmed by the sudden proposals.
Moreover, this scene unfolded in front of the Count, making it even more embarrassing!
Ultimately, both sisters accepted the rings.
The twin couples embraced, filling the garden with warmth, while the surrounding maids applauded. Tang San also clapped and asked, "When will the actual wedding be? I might not be able to attend, but you can use the manor's facilities except for the main house and guest rooms."
Mu Yanluo shook her head and said, "My sister and I don't deserve such effort from you, my lord. A simple wedding will do."
For them, having a home was enough; there was no need for grand ceremonies.
Understanding their sentiments, Tang San didn't push further. "Then, I wish you happiness in advance."
Given that he would spend most of his time in Spirit Hall City, he likely wouldn't be able to attend the wedding...
"Take care, my lord! My mother and I will always think of you!" At the Silver Blue Manor gate, Ling Meng and Ling Xi bid farewell to Tang San and his group.
"Don't sound so sorrowful…" The melancholy tone made Tang San feel as if he were already dead...
On the way to Nuoding City, Gu Yuena asked, "Will Dai Mubai not pursue Mu Qiluo and Mu Yanluo? They used to be a couple, right?"
"You said it yourself, they used to be a couple. Now, it's different. As long as Dai Mubai isn't foolish, he won't pursue them." Tang San replied casually, "However, Dai Mubai might have chosen the twins due to their martial souls. Their martial souls are roses."
Gu Yuena, puzzled about the connection between a tiger and roses, asked, "What's the link?"
"'In the heart of the tiger, the scent of roses.'" Tang San said calmly, "It means that even those with great ambitions can be captivated by gentleness and beauty."
"Dai Mubai's martial soul is the White Tiger, representing masculinity; theirs are roses, representing femininity."
"Balancing both is beneficial for cultivation."
"However—"
Based on Dai Mubai's character, Tang San suspected he hadn't thought this deeply. It was just a coincidence that he met twin girls with rose martial souls.
A real-life rendition of 'a tiger admiring roses.'
"Is there such a theory?" Gu Yuena, hearing this for the first time, was skeptical. After all, a tiger and a rose—an animal and a plant—seemed unrelated!
"It's more about the mind and body than spirit power," Tang San added.
"Oh~" Gu Yuena understood, giving Tang San a disdainful look. "It's just a reflection of desire."
"That's not entirely true; think of it as combining work and rest." Tang San shrugged and turned to Shen Hou, You Ji, and Hai Zhu, explaining their training directions.
"Hai Zhu, your martial soul is bones, or rather, a skeleton. Your body is naturally larger and sturdier than average, so your future training should focus on physical techniques."
If this skeletal martial soul could manifest outside the body, Tang San thought of the "Susanoo" from Naruto, but unfortunately, it was fused with the user's skeleton.
Perhaps in the future, a specific soul skill could allow this skeletal structure to materialize as energy, but for now, it wasn't practical.
Moreover, the skeletal martial soul is a natural lever, enabling you to exert maximum force with minimal effort. Specializing in this area is more beneficial than acquiring an external soul skill, which would be counterproductive.
"Understood." Hai Zhu, a shy young man about two meters tall, appeared thin but had a broad skeleton. In low light, he looked like a giant skeleton covered in human skin.
Clearly, because of his martial soul, his body's nutrients concentrated in his skeleton, leading to muscle atrophy.
His organs must also be under constant stress!
According to Ling Xi, before joining Silver Blue Manor, he was just a skeleton wrapped in skin.
Elecxe suggested, "This guy would be perfect for making an undead skeleton, a natural talent."
"Please, don't talk about such morbid things. Only truly evil people should be used as materials." Tang San retorted, "As a Holy Necromancer, playing with skeletons is trivial. Manipulating souls is true power. When we return to Spirit Hall City, you can observe, analyze, and study the souls of fallen ones accumulated in the Starry Sky World."
"True." Electrolux conceded, though he remained fond of Hai Zhu's potential for making a divine-level skeleton puppet... Too bad he had reformed from his Death Calamity days.
"Next is you, You Ji," Tang San's gaze fell upon her. She was a seventeen-year-old girl with dwarfism, a year older than Shen Hou.
But her skin was extremely rough and wrinkled, making her look like an old woman with delicate, fair skin.
Young age, "aged" wrinkles.
Tang San could imagine that after her martial soul awakened, she must have faced much criticism, leading to her being very introverted among the twelve.
Living to seventeen showed immense courage, but her heart must have suffered greatly.
"You don't like your skin, do you?"
"Yes, my lord," You Ji nodded, her eyes forming a pie chart of sorts, revealing a mixture of complex emotions from her past, hope for the future, gratitude, and a bit of reverence for Tang San.
"My skin has always been wrinkled. I still remember my mother abandoning me, saying my skin was too wrinkled, too ugly, not worthy of being her daughter… When I was eight, I didn't know what to do. As I grew older, I wandered with others, even killing for food, and was eventually caught and sold into slavery. At first, I thought being a slave was better because at least I wouldn't starve. But later, I realized no noble wanted to buy a wrinkled little hag like me until I met Sister Ling Meng."
"You don't seem introverted now." Tang San smiled, then got to the point, "For you, future cultivation involves enhancing the perception and control of your skin."
Compared to others, You Ji's skin was extremely sensitive and could even move slightly, indicating her nervous system was very sharp.
"Your skin can harden, becoming a defensive type, but I don't recommend that. Instead, focus on perception, control, and transformation."
"Perception, as the name implies, is sensing vibrations in the air. Skin is the most sensitive organ in the body, and not using it for sensing would be a waste of talent."
"Control means strengthening your mental power to manipulate your skin like your limbs, treating it as another hand."
"Transformation is the use of the skin martial soul: the skin itself is highly plastic, and as a martial soul, its shape-shifting ability is even more pronounced. In the future, you might use your martial soul to mimic anyone, even spirit beasts, for disguise."
"If you acquire a suitable soul skill, you might even gain some abilities of the person you're mimicking."
Like the Mirror Beast.
In the original story, Oscar absorbed the soul ring of this beast, gaining the ability to copy other people's martial souls, though he needed their blood as a medium.
If You Ji could absorb the soul ring of such a beast in the future, she might directly mimic them, as her martial soul is skin, giving her an advantage over sausages.
However, the first few soul rings need careful planning for the final mimicry and replication.
"My martial soul is that powerful?" You Ji was incredulous, but the Count, a master of martial soul theory, wouldn't deceive her.
If he lied, what would be the point?
She wasn't worth deceiving. If he wanted her body, she would gladly lie on his bed clean.
Unfortunately, he wouldn't be interested in her wrinkled body.
Finally, Tang San looked at Shen Hou, saying, "Your martial soul is the heart, including the blood vessels connected to it. Therefore, your blood vitality is the strongest among the twelve, but you must have never been well-fed before entering Silver Blue Manor, right?"
Shen Hou blushed deeply and replied, "Yes!"
She suspected the Count might think she ate too much, though she tried to control her portions. But due to her martial soul, her nutritional needs were much higher than average.
"Ling Xi said you control your portions when eating?"
As expected!
Shen Hou broke into a cold sweat, wondering if the Count didn't want her anymore. After all, gaining freedom also meant not worrying about her meals.
"No need to control your diet anymore. Eat as much as you need. While Silver Blue Manor isn't as wealthy as the two great empires, we can afford the food," Tang San reassured her, seeing her distress. "Just don't waste any."
"My lord~" Shen Hou, with tears in her eyes, was a genuine girl who couldn't hide her feelings.
"As for your cultivation direction, it's undoubtedly about strengthening the heart's power and enhancing your blood vitality," Tang San continued, bringing the conversation back to training. "Controlling your heart rate directly is impossible even for me. We can only stimulate it through blood, spirit power, or mental power."
"So, focus on strengthening the heart and boosting blood vitality."
"For now, the only soul beast you should choose is the Big Hearted Rat."
"This soul beast has no special attributes, but its heart is proportionally the largest among all soul beasts, nearly a quarter of its body."
"Soul masters who obtain its soul ring gain skills that enhance their overall strength by accelerating heartbeats and stimulating blood, similar to berserk skills but without the debilitating effects. Instead of a weakness period, it only causes extreme hunger, which can be remedied by eating."
"And berserk skills severely damage the body and have a long cooldown. Even after recovery, the skill might not be reusable."
Forcing the skill could lead to irreversible consequences, making the Big Hearted Rat's skills more suitable for Shen Hou.
"Got it." Shen Hou understood, but Tang San could see she didn't fully grasp the details. She only knew her future hunts should target Big Hearted Rats.
Meanwhile, Gu Yuena was secretly noting:
Tang San's spouses +2!
She had an idea about the body martial souls—
A Sentai team…
Could multiple body martial souls fuse into a single entity?
A Titan Giant?
An ancient demon god?
A cosmic deity?
Forget it, not for now.
(End of this chapter)