After the initial shock of hearing Lin Qingmo say he was a Soul Ancestor, Yu Xiaogang gradually regained his composure.
He didn't believe it.
Lin Qingmo had to be lying.
But there was sothing he could not understand.
Why did everyone around him look so strange?
Dean Flender's gaze drifted away, the corner of his mouth twitching as if he wanted to speak but was forcing himself to hold it back.
Even his proudest disciple, Tang San, had his lips tightly pressed together. His expression shifted between pale and flushed.
"What exactly is wrong with all of you?"
Yu Xiaogang's voice deepened, carrying his usual tone of theoretical authority.
"Lin Qingmo has a useless martial soul, Blue Silver Grass, with only rank 4 innate soul power. How could he possibly beco a Soul Ancestor?"
Ning Rongrong and Zhu Zhuqing exchanged a glance.
That glance clearly said the sa thing.
This is going to be interesting.
In the end, it was still Flender who forced himself to speak.
"Xiaogang..."
He rubbed his hands together, smiling in a way that looked worse than crying.
"Well... Qingmo, he... he really is already a Soul Ancestor."
"..."
Yu Xiaogang froze for two seconds, then laughed.
"Flender, this joke of yours is in poor taste."
"His admission record clearly states it. Rank 4 innate soul power. Martial soul Blue Silver Grass. It's only been a few years. If he managed to break through to Soul Grandmaster level, I would already consider that a miracle. And you are saying Soul Ancestor?"
His laughter echoed sharply across the quiet training field.
No one laughed with him.
Not a single person.
Gradually, Yu Xiaogang's laughter died in his throat.
He looked around.
His gaze moved from Flender's awkward face to Ma Hongjun, whose face was red from holding back laughter, and then to the various expressions of everyone else.
Finally, he looked at Tang San.
"Xiao San..."
Yu Xiaogang's voice carried a faint tremor that was almost imperceptible.
"You tell . What exactly is going on?"
"..."
Tang San opened his mouth.
His throat moved several tis, but no sound ca out.
Inside those usually gloomy eyes, sothing extrely complicated churned.
Jealousy.
A jealousy even he did not want to admit.
"Teacher..."
Tang San's voice sounded dry, like sandpaper scraping against wood.
"Lin Qingmo... really is a Rank 45 Soul Ancestor."
Clatter!
The notebook in Yu Xiaogang's hand fell to the ground.
"Impossible!"
His voice suddenly rose, a reflexive defensive reaction from soone whose theory had been challenged.
"Absolutely impossible! Blue Silver Grass is a standard useless martial soul. Rank 4 innate soul power ans cultivation speed is countless tis slower than ordinary geniuses!"
"According to my Ten Core Competencies of Martial Souls, reaching rank twenty before the age of twenty would already be his absolute limit!"
"Theory, theory, all you know is theory!"
A crisp and angry voice exploded.
Xiao Wu jumped up from her seat, her ponytail whipping through the air.
She stood with both hands on her hips, eyes wide. She looked exactly like an enraged rabbit, although this rabbit could now kick over a bull with a single strike.
"Yu Xiaogang, if you have eyes, you should have dug them out and thrown them away as trash long ago!"
Xiao Wu fired her words like a machine gun.
"If Ah Qing is trash, then what does that make your precious disciple Tang San? A piece of collectible trash from the trash recycling station?"
"Xiao Wu!"
Tang San shouted in a low voice.
"Did I say sothing wrong?"
Xiao Wu turned toward him, her voice filled with disdain.
"Tang San, you know it yourself. Is Ah Qing's Blue Silver Grass the sa as yours?"
"That's enough, Xiao Wu."
Lin Qingmo's calm voice sounded.
Xiao Wu imdiately stopped speaking.
"Yu Xiaogang."
Lin Qingmo spoke again.
His voice was steady and even, and he carried a faint polite smile.
"I rember your Ten Core Competencies of Martial Souls contains a sentence like this."
Lin Qingmo paused and recited it word by word.
"'There are no useless martial souls, only useless soul masters.'"
Yu Xiaogang nodded stiffly.
"That's right. It is one of the core conclusions I reached after many years of research."
"The innate quality of a martial soul is important, but the soul master's effort and wisdom ultimately determine their height."
"Well said."
Lin Qingmo smiled.
But that smile suddenly beca extrely piercing.
The next mont, a massive surge of soul power erupted without warning.
Yu Xiaogang, standing at the center of that storm, froze completely.
His eyes locked onto Lin Qingmo's feet.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Soul rings slowly rose one after another.
A purple glow appeared first, carrying the oppressive pressure unique to thousand-year soul rings.
Not just one.
Three consecutive purple lights.
Three thousand-year soul rings were like a triple purple tide.
But it was not over yet.
When the fourth soul ring appeared, Yu Xiaogang's breathing completely stopped.
Black.
A deep black that seed capable of swallowing light itself.
A ten-thousand-year soul ring.
"Purple... purple... purple... black..."
Flender muttered.
It was his first ti witnessing it with his own eyes. His glasses had slid to the tip of his nose without him noticing.
Tang San, seeing this scene again, looked deathly pale.
As soone who also possessed the Blue Silver Grass martial soul, he understood better than anyone what this ant.
His first soul ring was from a four-hundred-year Datura Snake.
His second soul ring was from a six-hundred-year Ghost Vine.
This was already the ultimate configuration under the grandmaster's ticulous calculations.
Yet Lin Qingmo... his first soul ring was a thousand-year one!
This had already violated all known Soul Master common sense!
No, this was practically rubbing the common sense of the Soul Master World into the dirt and then stomping on it twice!
"Now."
Lin Qingmo's voice pulled everyone back to reality.
"Yu Xiaogang, do you still think I am a useless soul master?"
"You... I..."
Yu Xiaogang's lips trembled.
He wanted to speak, but no sound ca out.
He wanted to look away, but his eyes were locked onto those four impossible soul rings.
His mind ran wildly, trying to use every theory he had ever created to explain the scene before him.
But every explanatory model collapsed the mont it ford.
"Impossible... this is impossible..."
He muttered to himself, his eyes unfocused.
"The human body has limits. The first soul ring cannot exceed four hundred and thirty years. That is an iron rule. My theory cannot be wrong..."
"Your theory is not wrong."
Lin Qingmo nodded aningfully.
Yu Xiaogang suddenly raised his head.
"It is just like the sentence you said."
"'There are no useless martial souls, only useless soul masters.'"
"You see, the two of us have perfectly proven that sentence."
He took a step forward.
His soul rings floated with his movent. The ten-thousand-year black ring emitted a terrifying aura.
"Facts prove that I am not a useless soul master."
He took another step.
"But you have been stuck at Rank 29 for most of your life and still have not broken through Rank 30."
Lin Qingmo stopped in front of Yu Xiaogang and leaned slightly forward.
Their faces were extrely close.
Close enough for Yu Xiaogang to clearly see the undisguised mockery in the young man's eyes.
"So, according to your own theory..."
"You really are a useless soul master, aren't you?"
—
End of Chapter
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