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*****
Tang San looked at Xiao Tian and Xiao Wu and forced a smile back onto his face. "Xiao Tian, Xiao Wu, I'm sorry you had to see that. If you don't mind, you can stay at my place tonight. I'll show you around the village today."
Xiao Tian and Xiao Wu glanced at each other, the same thought occurring to both of them.
'This Tang San's ability to change his expression is really something else, isn't it?' Just a moment ago, when he was facing Old Jack, his face was a complete blank. The instant he turned to face them, he had plastered on a smile.
After bidding farewell to Old Jack, Tang San led the two of them on a tour of Saint Soul Village, and before long, he had brought them to the back mountain.
Tang San smiled and said, "After I awakened my Spirit, I've been cultivating on this back mountain. It's spacious, and there's Blue Silver Grass everywhere, which is quite suitable for my training."
Xiao Tian thought to himself, 'What nonsense. You've been training on this back mountain ever since you can remember, haven't you?' If Ah Yin could speak, she would surely be filled with questions. Why was her son so precocious? And what was he practicing before he had even awakened his Spirit? She couldn't understand it at all; she only knew that it looked a bit like a spirit ability.
At that moment, Tang San suddenly turned his head to Xiao Wu and said, "Xiao Wu, I don't have any family left now. Can you be my sister?"
'Holy crap! A zero-frame startup!'
Xiao Tian: ???
Tang Hao, hiding in the shadows: 'I just left, I'm not dead, you brat!' He had to forcibly restrain the urge to reveal himself and give his son a good thrashing.
Xiao Wu was also completely thunderstruck.
'Seriously, dude? Which one of your eyes gave you the idea that I'm just dying to be your sister?'
"No."
After snapping back to her senses, Xiao Wu uttered the single, cold word.
Xiao Tian marveled inwardly. This Tang San was an assassin in his past life, wasn't he? He probably died a virgin. It was likely he had never even touched a woman's hand before. How could he be so dense? No, that wasn't right. This couldn't even be called dense; it was a complete lack of emotional intelligence. But in the original story, Tang San's EQ wasn't actually that low.
Could it be? After just a year of simple interaction, had Tang San already fallen for Xiao Wu? Does falling in love make one's brain disappear?
Xiao Tian felt like he was a complete third wheel right now. 'Should I just leave?' Seeing Tang San get so ruthlessly rejected by Xiao Wu, he maintained a poker face on the outside, but inwardly, he was trying his absolute best to hold back his laughter. It was so hard.
Hahahaha!
"Why? Xiao Wu, can you tell me the reason? Didn't you say you're all alone now too? That's perfect. Now that my father is gone as well, we could actually try being brother and sister. Don't worry, as long as you become my sister, I will always stand in front of you whenever you're in danger."
Tang San hadn't expected to be rejected. After a year, he thought the three of them had a pretty good relationship, didn't they? Well, that was what Tang San had assumed, at least.
Xiao Tian mentally continued the sentence for him: 'And then you can repay me with your spirit ring and spirit bone. Oh, right, I'll take Da Ming's and Er Ming's spirit rings and bones too.' It was a little fan theory he was indulging in, directly helping Tang San finish his thought. He remembered some fan parodies on a short video site from his past life that had edited the story this way. The result was so convincing that it made everyone suspect the creator had actually seen the real original manuscript. It just fit so perfectly, without any sense of incongruity!
As everyone knows, when someone gets along with you, a large part of it is often because you are a friend of their friend, not because you are their friend. The reason Xiao Wu had been so peaceful with Tang San was that she figured, even though Xiao Tian beat him up every day, they had still managed to beat some kind of friendship into existence, right? She and Xiao Tian were friends, and Xiao Tian and Tang San were friends, so she could treat Tang San as a friend too. That was about the extent of it.
But that didn't mean she actually considered Tang San a real friend!
At the same time, Xiao Wu stole a quick glance at Xiao Tian. He had once told her that he was an orphan, adopted by an old Village Chief. If their roles were reversed, and Xiao Tian asked her to be his sister, would she agree? She wasn't entirely sure herself. She only knew that she really enjoyed the feeling of cultivating alongside Xiao Tian. Even now, the thought of the punishment she received every time she lost a match to him—her rear end still ached faintly at the memory—brought with it a strange, fluttering sensation.
Seeing that Tang San was still pressing for a reason, Xiao Tian immediately stepped in to smooth things over.
"Tang San, aren't we getting along just fine as we are now? We're all friends. Why do you have to insist on Xiao Wu being your sister? Are there some extra benefits to being your sister?"
Tang San's expression instantly froze. He finally sighed and said, "No... it's just that my father is suddenly gone, and I was in a bad mood, so I said those things. I'm sorry."
Seeing that his impromptu plan had failed, Tang San felt a wave of disappointment. He had originally thought the plan had a seventy or eighty percent chance of success; he never imagined Xiao Wu would reject him so directly.
Xiao Tian: 'Only seventy or eighty percent? Even if it was ninety-eight percent, it would still be no different from courting death!'
However, Tang San had noticed that fleeting glance Xiao Wu had given Xiao Tian. He began to wonder if it was because his own strength was inferior to Xiao Tian's. Women were, by nature, drawn to strength; it was a part of their instinct. Unless the other person had some truly exceptional quality that was more attractive, a woman would rarely gamble her life on growing together with someone. Although he had never been in a relationship in his past life, as an assassin, he had seen and heard enough to know a thing or two about such matters.
Tang San was now in a state of deep conflict.
Over the past year, under Xiao Tian's "oppression," he had worked incredibly hard. Every day was a monotonous cycle of blacksmithing, cultivating, and sparring. He now had several small hidden weapons in his storage soul tool, such as silver needles and silent sleeve arrows. Should he reveal them now, to let Xiao Wu know that he was actually much stronger than Xiao Tian?
Phew...
"Xiao Tian, it's been about a week since we last sparred. Since this place is so open, how about we have another match today?" Tang San said to Xiao Tian with a smile.
He had made up his mind. If he had to expose them, so be it. He had already crafted all the hidden weapons he was currently capable of making. The next one on his list was the Zhuge Godly Crossbow, but he hadn't been able to find suitable ore for it yet, so he had to put it on hold.
He had thought long and hard about revealing his hidden weapons. In this world, the concept of "hidden weapons" didn't exist. If Xiao Tian was truly like him, with memories of a past life from a wuxia world, then he would definitely recognize them. He might even blurt it out subconsciously. Even if he managed to hold his tongue, as long as there was the slightest flicker of abnormality in his reaction, his Purple Demon Eyes would definitely spot it.
This was Tang San's test!
(End of Chapter)