The Black-Faced Grandmaster and the Blue Grass Boy
After racing through the night, the carriage traveled south along the main imperial road through the Balak Kingdom and stopped at Wangnan Tea Station, still a hundred li from Suotuo City.
The station stood at the junction where the imperial road from Nuoding City in Fasinuo Province met the main road heading south from Heaven Dou.
Passing merchant caravans, Soul Hunting mercenaries, and young Soul Masters traveling to take examinations often stopped here to rest and change horses. Voices filled the tea stalls and the space around them that morning, while steam carrying the scent of wheat and meat buns rose from the bamboo steamers.
She Long and Ci Xue had changed into coarse-cloth outfits like those worn by ordinary caravan guards. They stood on either side of the carriage shafts, ten paces away, keeping the noisy travelers around them at a distance.
The curtain of the front compartment lifted, and Ning Rongrong gathered her skirts and jumped down from the carriage, stretching luxuriously.
"Wow, after riding all night, I can finally get down and breathe some fresh air! Crown Prince Brother, I'm going to the teahouse up ahead to buy some crab roe soup dumplings fresh from the steamer and some milk pastries. Do you want any?"
Qian Renxue stepped down after her and smoothed out her slightly rumpled moon-white brocade robe.
She had spent the night squeezed into the outer compartment with Ning Rongrong, and the pampered young mistress of Spirit Hall had scarcely slept a wink. Meanwhile, Lin Feng and Paimon had slept soundly in the inner compartment.
Hearing Ning Rongrong's question, Qian Renxue shook her head and said with the gentle, refined bearing of a crown prince:
"I am not hungry. Just choose some delicate refreshments and bring them to Mr. Lin. All sorts mingle at this tea station, so do not go far."
"Got it!"
Ning Rongrong answered cheerfully, pulled out a few Gold Soul Coins, and ran toward the private seating on the tea station's second floor.
At that moment, one half of the inner compartment's carved red sandalwood window slowly swung open.
Paimon eagerly poked her little head out and took a deep sniff of the meaty scents in the air.
"Mmm! That's the smell of freshly steamed buns and braised beef! The cooks in the Balak Kingdom smell like they're pretty good too!"
As Paimon looked around for Ning Rongrong, an extremely plain carriage covered in blue cloth slowly approached along the branch road to the west, which led from Nuoding City in Fasinuo Province.
The blue-cloth carriage came to a stop beside a hitching post on the western side of the tea station.
The curtain lifted, and the first person to step down was a middle-aged man in gray-black cloth robes, with neatly cropped black hair.
He appeared to be in his forties, of average height and somewhat lean, with his hands habitually clasped behind his back.
There was not a trace of a smile on his face. His facial muscles were as stiff as a piece of cold iron that had not seen the sun for years, and a lingering gloom and stubbornness hung between his brows.
A boy and a girl, both around twelve years old, jumped down from the carriage right after him.
The boy wore a blue combat outfit washed nearly white. He had ordinary features, a healthy bronze complexion, and a steady, reserved gaze. Around his waist was an exquisite black belt set with twenty-four milky-white jade stones.
The girl was exceptionally pretty and adorable, with large, lively eyes and a long scorpion braid hanging down past her hips. She bounced about, looking around the bustling tea station.
"Brother, we've been in the carriage for three days, and my bones are about to fall apart! Look, they're selling candied hawthorn and grilled meat pies over there. Let's hurry and buy something to eat!"
Xiao Wu tugged at Tang San's sleeve, her scorpion braid swinging behind her, her eyes full of wonder at the lively market.
Tang San gave Xiao Wu a doting look and was about to nod when Yu Xiaogang, who was walking ahead, stopped beside a wooden table at the edge of the tea stall.
"Xiao San, don't be in such a hurry to eat. Once we pass Wangnan Tea Station, we'll be in Suotuo City's territory. I still need to return to Nuoding Academy to deal with a backlog of school affairs and my Martial Soul Theory manuscripts, so I cannot accompany you into the city right away. There are some key theoretical points concerning Shrek Academy's examination and your subsequent cultivation that I must impress upon you one last time while I have the chance."
Yu Xiaogang turned around, his hands behind his back, his dark, stiff face full of a teacher's solemnity.
"Yes, Teacher."
Tang San immediately put away his gentle smile and stood properly before Yu Xiaogang, lowering his hands respectfully to listen.
Seeing that Yu Xiaogang was about to launch into another lengthy discourse, Xiao Wu's face fell. She stood to the side, reluctantly pursing her lips as she kicked a pebble on the ground in utter boredom.
Yu Xiaogang paid no attention to Xiao Wu's impatience. He cleared his hoarse throat, fixed his gaze on his most prized personal disciple, and spoke.
"Xiao San, you are now a tool Soul Grandmaster at the peak of rank twenty-nine, only one step away from becoming a rank-thirty Soul Elder. With your rank-twenty-nine Soul Power at twelve years of age, plus those two Yellow Soul Rings from a hundred-year Mandala Snake and a four-hundred-year Ghost Vine, which perfectly match my limit theory, you are unquestionably a peak existence beyond the reach of anyone in the younger generation across the entire Douluo Continent!"
Speaking of the theory he was so proud of, a rare trace of fervor and pride appeared on Yu Xiaogang's perpetually stiff, dark face, and his voice rose a few notches without his noticing.
"Before I arrive, remember that you must not rashly go to the Star Dou Great Forest to hunt for your Third Soul Ring. According to my meticulous calculations based on the records of thousands of Soul Masters across the continent, the limit for a Soul Master's First Soul Ring is four hundred and twenty-three years, the limit for the Second Soul Ring is seven hundred and sixty-four years, and the highest theoretical limit for the Third Soul Ring is one thousand seven hundred and sixty years! Even one year more, and your body would be blown apart by the Soul Beast's violent energy! Only by strictly following my theoretical data can your Blue Silver Grass truly reach the pinnacle of the control system. Do you understand?"
"I will remember your teachings, Teacher! A teacher for a day is a father for life. Without your theoretical guidance, Xiao San could never have achieved what he has today!"
Tang San's expression was solemn as he cupped his fists and bowed deeply to Yu Xiaogang, his eyes full of admiration and conviction in his esteemed teacher, whose "theories were unbeatable."
He had cultivated the Mysterious Heaven Skill since childhood, and after coming to this world, everything he knew about Martial Souls and Soul Rings had been instilled in him by Yu Xiaogang.
In Tang San's eyes, the fact that he had cultivated the universally acknowledged Trash Martial Soul, Blue Silver Grass, to rank twenty-nine was entirely thanks to his teacher's great theories, which were ahead of their time.
However, just as master and disciple echoed each other, moved by their own talk of the "continental pinnacle" and "iron laws of theory,"
A burst of clear, undisguised laughter suddenly erupted from the window of the luxurious carriage beneath the great locust tree more than ten zhang away!
"Pfft, hahahaha! Lin Feng! Little Angel Sister! Quick, look at that dark-faced uncle by the tea stall outside!"
Paimon leaned on the sill of the carved carriage window, one little hand clutching her stomach and the other pointing straight at Yu Xiaogang, who stood with his hands behind his back and his chest thrust out. She rocked back and forth in midair with laughter.
"His face is all stiff and as black as soot on the bottom of a pot, and it keeps twitching when he talks. The First Soul Ring can only be a little over four hundred years, and the Second Soul Ring can only be a little over seven hundred years, and one year more would make you explode on the spot? Hahahaha! He doesn't even have a third Soul Ring himself, and he's only got a tiny bit of Soul Power at rank twenty-nine, yet he has the nerve to boast to his disciple that he's calculated everything across the whole continent!"
The eastern side of the tea station had been relatively quiet to begin with, and Paimon's piercing shout instantly carried across half the tea stall!
Qian Renxue, who had been drinking from a tea bowl, jerked her wrist and nearly spilled the tea onto her sleeve.
She turned to look where Paimon was pointing. When she recognized the stiff-faced, gray-clad middle-aged man with a crew cut standing beside the blue-cloth carriage, a strange look flashed in her eyes.
She did have some impression of that face-back then, she had seen a portrait of the man named Yu Xiaogang in the confidential archives of the Pope's Palace in Spirit City.
He was a good-for-nothing expelled from the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, stuck at rank twenty-nine for life and unable to advance an inch. Yet her mother in name, Bibi Dong, had once nearly fallen out completely with the previous Pope, Qian Xunji, over the likes of him!
Then there was the so-called "limit theory" Yu Xiaogang had just brazenly recited: the First Soul Ring's limit was four hundred and twenty-three years? The Second Soul Ring's limit was seven hundred and sixty-four years?
Qian Renxue glanced back at Lin Feng, whose expression was calm inside the carriage.
Just last night, in the hills behind Baihe, two deep-purple Thousand-Year Soul Rings, aged seven hundred and ninety and one thousand six hundred and fifty years, had risen beneath the feet of this boy who was only six!
"Pfft-"
Xiao Wu, standing beside Tang San, was the first to lose control and laugh out loud.
She had long since grown tired of Yu Xiaogang's numerical theories, which went round and round like a cartwheel. Now, seeing his dark face turn the color of pig liver in an instant, she hurriedly covered her mouth, her big eyes darting toward the dragon-scale carriage.
As for Yu Xiaogang himself, his hands clenched fiercely behind his back, and the muscles all over his body began to tremble violently with extreme shame and anger!
What he took the greatest pride in throughout his life was the Ten Core Competencies of Martial Soul and his theory on the age limits of Soul Rings, both of which he had devoted himself to researching. And the most sensitive, untouchable sore spot in his heart was precisely the cruel fact that, because of his Martial Soul's malignant mutation, he had been stuck as a rank-twenty-nine Soul Grandmaster all his life!
Back in a remote little city like Nuoding City, everyone at Nuoding Academy respected him as the dean's honored guest. Even if anyone discussed his rank behind his back, they would never dare say half a word to his face.
But today, before the crowd at this tea station on the southern imperial road, while he was passing the fruits of his life's work on to his most prized disciple, someone had exposed his scar in public!
"How dare you!!"
Before Yu Xiaogang could erupt, Tang San's face darkened in an instant!
Tang San spun around, his eyes narrowing slightly as a trace of purple flashed through their depths. His piercing gaze stabbed straight toward the carriage beneath the old locust tree to the east.
His right hand quietly settled on the Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges at his waist, and his voice was icy to the bone.
"Who is hiding there and dares to insult my teacher?! Teacher has devoted decades to studying Martial Soul Theory, and his Ten Core Competencies are the ultimate truth of the Soul Master World. How dare ignorant madmen like you insult them! Hurry up and get down here to kowtow and apologize to my teacher!"
In Tang San's heart, Yu Xiaogang was not only the esteemed teacher who had guided him onto this path, but also an elder like a second parent.
In Tang San's eyes, anyone who dared insult Yu Xiaogang's theories had violated an unforgivable taboo and already had a way to die!