Soul Land V: Rebirth of Tang San

Tang San\'s Black Crow Stone naturally couldn\'t materialize out of thin air, and transporting it was troublesome, so he simply didn\'t hide his Spatial Bag from Zhang Haoxuan anymore.

"I brought it from Wind Wolf Town. Teacher, at that time when I was leaving, I encountered the Mayor of Wind Wolf Town, then I killed him and devoured his bloodline power. That\'s why when I arrived here, I was already at the Fifth Stage," Tang San said frankly.

Through the days of interaction, he had gradually come to recognize both the Redemption Academy and his teacher. There was no need to hide certain things anymore.

Zhang Haoxuan\'s gaze flickered slightly, "At that time you were still at the Fourth Stage, right? And it should have been at the Fifth Stage?"

Tang San nodded and said, "It was heavily injured from fighting with a strong member of the Flash Leopard Clan at that time. I just took advantage of the situation."

Zhang Haoxuan\'s mouth twitched, "So you\'re saying that the war between the Wind Wolf Tribe and the Flash Leopard Clan was actually instigated by you? The battle between them was quite fierce, with many strong members dying. The Ancestral Court was disturbed, and it took quite some effort to suppress the skirmish between the two sides."

Tang San blinked his eyes, "It wanted to kill me at the time; I couldn\'t just let it do so, could I? I don\'t know about the rest."

What a way to sidestep responsibility! Zhang Haoxuan\'s expression became rather interesting as he gave Tang San a thumbs-up. This kid was really ruthless! Zhang Haoxuan had already seen it when he was leading the team to kill Demon Beasts—decisive, fierce, yet also managing to remain calm.

He had observed all of Tang San\'s team\'s performances along the way. He could confidently assert that without Tang San, this team probably wouldn\'t have gotten even half of their harvest, not to mention the later hunt for the Winged Tiger.

And Tang San guiding everyone to cooperate with each other along the way, even teaching them some combat skills—Zhang Haoxuan had taken note of all this. He was very pleased with the selfless side shown by this child with natural leadership talent.

The reason he agreed to that training mission was to assess Tang San, after all, a person\'s true nature is best revealed when faced with danger, especially real danger.

"Thank you, teacher." As the last piece of Black Gold was finished, Tang San put it away with satisfaction.

Zhang Haoxuan asked, "What about your hammer? Are you not forging today?"

Tang San shook his head and said, "Not today, I don\'t have the energy. I\'ll do it myself some other day. After refining the Black Crow Stone into metal, it felt a lot more pliable, but even less resistant to burning. Next time, I should only need to use the blacksmith\'s shop, without troubling you."

"Hmm. Alright then. You should go back and rest early," Zhang Haoxuan nodded his head. As for this child, he didn\'t know what advice to give anymore, or rather, his teaching wasn\'t really needed as Tang San\'s growth rate was already astonishing.

Tang San said, "Oh right, teacher. Where can I buy a detailed map of Jiali City? I\'d like to purchase one. The small shops don\'t seem to carry them."

Zhang Haoxuan asked in confusion, "What do you need a detailed map for?"

Tang San replied with an innocent face, "To study! Getting familiar with the city should be quite good, right? I can also keep out of trouble by avoiding places I shouldn\'t go. The maps used by the teachers during lectures are fairly simple. Not very detailed."

Zhang Haoxuan said, "Then come with me. I have one which you can borrow. Detailed maps are very precious, all hand-drawn. They come with a high price. You can return it to me when you\'re done with it."

"Alright, thank you, teacher."

Not having to spend money was of course the best. The fact that the map still needed to be hand-drawn showed that the technology in Demon Monster Land was actually quite behind—a pure era of cold weapons. However, this era of cold weapons was built on the foundation of extremely powerful individual strength.

When Tang San received the map from Zhang Haoxuan, he understood why Zhang Haoxuan had said it was very precious. The complete map was very large, made from a single piece of leather. It was about six square meters in size and was a hefty item even when folded.

Taking the map back to his dwelling, he hung it up, and a finely detailed, colorful map was immediately before Tang San\'s eyes.

It was many times more detailed than the maps Guan Longjiang used during the lectures, displaying very detailed information about Jiali City. Even the surrounding mountain ranges were clearly marked.

Tang San quickly found the location of their academy town on the map, which clearly showed roughly how many houses there were in the town. Fortunately, Redemption Academy did not appear on the map, and it was unclear whether this was because the academy was built later or because it was too insignificant.

Tang San began to search for all the symbols representing academies, committing them to memory.

There were mainly three levels of academies. The most common, the basic academies, provided enlightenment education, which was what most Monsters could afford. A slightly higher level of education required a certain status and position to attend. The highest naturally was the Jiali Academy, which was just within reach.

Judging by Pretty Girl\'s age, she was probably not attending the lowest level of enlightenment education. The likelihood was greatest that she was attending an intermediate level of regular education. And in the vast Jiali City, there were only twelve such academies.

Once the range was narrowed down, it became much easier—just wait at the rabbit\'s hole. Stakeout!

For the following days, Tang San attended classes during the day, and after school in the afternoon, he would either forge at the blacksmith shop or go down the mountain to stake out the targeted schools. His days were quite regular.

However, after several days of staking out, there was no harvest. He hadn\'t seen Pretty Girl at all. He had also gone to Jiali Plaza again and still didn\'t catch a glimpse of Pretty Girl. Inquiring further wasn\'t a good idea, so he just stuck to his simplest method, continuing to stake out the academies.

Through observation, Tang San noticed that these academies would dismiss their students near dusk every day. After school, the Monsters would leave in droves. He had also asked a teacher who was an elder in the town, learning that regular academies did not have dormitory facilities, meaning that students would certainly go home after dismissal.

He set up a stakeout plan for himself: three days of close observation at each regular academy. If Pretty Girl showed up, he should definitely be able to spot her.

During the stakeout process, Tang San discovered that there were indeed human vassals attending some academies, presumably those who belonged to Races with strong bloodlines, but they were clearly not on the same level as those from the Monster Race, and had to leave through the side doors when exiting the academy grounds.

This made Tang San\'s stakeout a bit easier, but after six consecutive days and two academies, he came up empty.

Things went rather smoothly with the forging of Black Gold, and Tang San continued to look for metals that would complement Endless well, but so far, he hadn\'t found any. However, he had forged a pair of forging hammers for himself from Black Gold, made to fit his hands perfectly. This would make his future forging much easier.

Zhang Haoxuan was still very good to him, having specially set aside a separate area for him in the blacksmith shop, away from the other blacksmiths. Everyone else could only hear the sound of his hammering but could not see what he was forging.

It was at this time that Tang San\'s team returned.

How should one describe their appearance upon return? Perhaps the phrase \'covered in dust and grime\' was most apt.

The five-person party was almost all injured, and while they didn\'t seem severely hurt, their somewhat dejected expressions suggested that their gains were not quite satisfactory.