Yu Xiaogang's Public Lecture Ends in Utter Humiliation! There Are No Trash Martial Souls, Only Trash Teachers

Early in the morning, the urgent assembly bell rang out over Shrek Academy's uneven, potholed main training ground.

A Rosewood Chair stood beneath the shaded canopy on the western side of the training ground.

Lin Feng sat upright in it, looking at ease.

Beside him, Qian Renxue, once again wearing the crown prince's coronet and embroidered robes, sat straight and proper, though a faint weariness lingered around her eyes, as if she had spent the night unable to sleep.

At the sight of the group beneath the canopy, looking like nobles on an inspection tour, a muscle at the corner of Yu Xiaogang's eye twitched almost imperceptibly.

Tang San's humiliation on the training ground the day before, the wretched sight of him smashed into a mud pit, was still vivid in his mind, not to mention the white-haired spirit floating in midair who had loudly mocked him through the carriage window at Wangnan Tea Station on the main road.

Yu Xiaogang took a deep breath and steeled himself. At today's public theory lecture, before the continent's most outstanding geniuses and the imperial envoy, he had to lay bare the "Ten Core Competencies of Martial Soul" he had spent decades studying and reclaim the supreme dignity that belonged to a master of theory!

Flender cleared his throat, and his booming voice carried across the training ground:

"I've gathered everyone today to announce a major decision by the academy. Standing beside me is my dear friend of many years, with whom I have shared life and death, the Martial Soul world's acknowledged foremost theorist—Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang! Starting today, Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang will officially serve as Shrek Academy's Deputy Chief Instructor, overseeing all students' Martial Soul research and combat training! Today's first lesson is also a public theory lecture for the entire academy. Everyone must listen in silence!"

As soon as Flender finished, Dai Mubai, Ma Hongjun, and the others tactfully began to applaud. Tang San stood ramrod straight, his eyes full of reverence and pride. His gaze drifted toward the canopy, as though announcing his teacher's lofty status to Lin Feng and the others.

Yu Xiaogang slowly raised a hand, quieting the applause.

He paced to the center of the training ground, his hands still clasped behind his back, and spoke:

"For the past ten thousand years, the Soul Master World has been full of ignorant, mediocre people. Everyone believes the quality of a Martial Soul is decided at birth: a power attacker is a power attacker, and trash is trash. But after decades studying Martial Soul texts both ancient and modern, I have distilled the Ten Core Competencies, enough to overturn the understanding of the entire Soul Master World!"

At this, Yu Xiaogang deliberately straightened his back and looked directly toward the canopy, his voice suddenly rising:

"And the foundation of all my theories is a single sentence—there are no trash Martial Souls, only trash people!"

His ringing declaration echoed across the morning training ground, startling distant birds into flapping their wings. Tang San's heart surged as he listened. He clenched both fists and nodded repeatedly.

"What a grand-sounding piece of wisdom!"

Paimon, floating beside Lin Feng's shoulder, swallowed the mouthful of Honey-Glazed Jerky stuffed in her cheeks, spun in the air, and solemnly raised her chubby right hand:

"Hey, dark-faced uncle! Paimon has a very serious question for you!"

Yu Xiaogang frowned slightly as he looked at the small floating creature. Forcing down his displeasure, he assumed the air of a teacher indulging a junior and said calmly, "In academic debate, age makes no difference. Whatever question you have, ask it, and I shall clear up your doubts."

Paimon planted her hands on her hips and blinked her big eyes. Her clear, loud voice rang across the training ground:

"Since you just said so loudly that 'there are no trash Martial Souls, only trash people,' why is it that you're almost fifty, uncle, but your Soul Power is still stuck at level twenty-nine and can't budge? By your own logic, if your Piggy Martial Soul isn't trash, then after failing to break through level thirty for decades, aren't you loudly admitting in front of everyone that you're the number one piece of trash under heaven?"

Oscar, standing at the edge of the training ground, failed to hold it in and sprayed the back of Ma Hongjun's head with spit.

Ma Hongjun bit down hard on his lower lip, the fat all over his body shaking violently, his round face turning the color of purple pig liver from holding it in.

Dai Mubai also spun around and broke into a fit of coughing.

The air on the training ground seemed to be sucked away in that instant.

Yu Xiaogang's once-impassive, solemn face abruptly froze. The blood drained from it at a visible speed, leaving it ashen with anger!

He held himself in high regard, and what he hated and dreaded most in his life was anyone mentioning the fact that he could not break past level twenty-nine. Now, not only had it been exposed in public, but the "golden rule" he had proclaimed with his own mouth had been used to slap him right across the face!

"You... ignorant, milk-mouthed child, how dare you talk such nonsense!"

Yu Xiaogang's throat tightened. He pointed a trembling finger at Paimon, the composed bearing he usually took pains to maintain vanishing in an instant:

"My Martial Soul is Luo Sanpao, an External Beast Martial Soul formed by a malignant mutation of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon! It was damaged from birth, and my Innate Soul Power was only half a level. This is heaven envying talent, not something human effort can reverse! I devoted myself to theory precisely to use wisdom to cut a broad road for those who come after me!"

"Oh—so when you hit a bottleneck, it's 'a malignant mutation because heaven envies talent,' but when someone else has trouble cultivating, they're 'a trash person'?"

Paimon shrugged her little shoulders in midair, her words firing off like a string of firecrackers:

"By that logic, if a Blue Silver Grass Soul Master fails to become a Titled Douluo someday, you can just blame it on him being no good; but if a Twin Martial Souls monster with Innate Full Soul Power happens to make it, you can go around boasting about how great your theory is! Either way, you're right. A fortune-telling trick that wins every time and never loses—Paimon couldn't even swindle three Mora with that in Teyvat!"

"How dare you!"

Tang San could bear it no longer. He stepped out of the line on the training ground and stood protectively before Yu Xiaogang, his hands clenched, coldness laid bare in his eyes:

"Don't insult my teacher! His theories are flawless! The limit for a First Soul Ring is four hundred and twenty-three years, and for a Second Soul Ring, seven hundred and sixty-four. Those are iron laws verified by countless Soul Masters with their lives! Not only that, Martial Soul attributes strictly counter one another, support types can never fight on their own for their entire lives, and Beast Martial Souls cannot leave the body and interfere with reality on their own! How dare a senseless demon spirit like you spout nonsense about these rules!"

With Tang San having come to his rescue, Yu Xiaogang calmed his rapid breathing somewhat. He swept his sleeve heavily and snorted:

"Correct! What Xiao San spoke of are precisely the Soul Ring Limit Age Law and the Martial Soul Classification Iron Law that I established! If a Soul Master's First Soul Ring exceeds four hundred and twenty-three years, their flesh and meridians will surely burst, killing them. A tool Martial Soul cannot take the form of a living creature, and a Battle Beast Martial Soul loses all consciousness when it leaves the body! These are supreme truths not recorded in any of Spirit Hall's thousands upon thousands of secret texts. No matter how you twist your arguments, facts speak louder than words!"

Under the canopy, Lin Feng slowly set down the white jade teacup in his hand.

He did not stand. He simply looked calmly at the red-faced teacher and disciple in the center of the training ground, his voice so composed that it betrayed not a trace of heat:

"Supreme truths? Iron laws? You take the mediocre experience of those before you as golden rules, then insist on confining the talents of those who come after you within your rigid formulas. Is that what you call the way of a grandmaster?"

Before his words had faded, Lin Feng brought two fingers together and lightly tapped the empty air.

Without warning, two deep-purple rings of light, radiating an intensely profound, solid, and magnificent presence, rose silently from beneath Lin Feng's feet!

Purple light surged like a tide, and the immense pressure of Thousand-Year Soul Power swept across the entire training ground like solid, crashing waves!

His First Soul Ring was a deep-purple thousand-year ring!

His Second Soul Ring was likewise a dazzling, soul-stealing deep-purple thousand-year ring!

"Th-thousand-year?! Both of them are thousand-year rings?!"

"Impossible... that's absolutely impossible!"

Yu Xiaogang's eyes were bloodshot as he stared at the purple rings revolving beneath Lin Feng's feet, his lips trembling violently:

"A Soul Master's body at level ten simply cannot withstand the violent impact of a Thousand-Year Soul Ring! This defies the laws of heaven and earth! You must have used some evil art to disguise the color of your Soul Rings... yes, it must be a trick!"

"A trick?"

Lin Feng shook his head, and a thought stirred in his mind.

Paimon, hovering in the air, beckoned with her small hand, and the first deep-purple Soul Ring beneath Lin Feng's feet burst into brilliant light!

[Time Menu: Area Slowdown]!

With a soft hum, an invisible ripple of time spread from Paimon's fingertip and enveloped Yu Xiaogang!

Yu Xiaogang, who a moment ago had been waving his arms and roaring in agitation, suddenly slowed.

At the same time, a soft, pure-white Anemo glow burst forth around Paimon. Her little body darted nimbly through the air above the training ground, displaying both the intelligence of an independent spirit and elemental control like that of a Battle Soul Master. She even struck out with a backhand, condensing a sturdy Anemo Shield shimmering with golden light in midair, blending the boundaries between support, control, and defense into one!

Snap!

Lin Feng snapped his fingers, and the time-slowing domain dispersed.

Restored to normal speed, Yu Xiaogang pitched too far forward. He stumbled two steps and fell with a thump, landing on his backside in the yellow mud of the training ground, a sorry sight.

"My First Soul Ring is seven hundred and ninety years old, and my Second Soul Ring is one thousand six hundred and fifty."

Lin Feng withdrew the Soul Rings beneath his feet and looked down at the deathly pale Yu Xiaogang on the ground:

"As for your distinction between tool and beast souls, and your claim that battle and support souls cannot coexist—Paimon is a being unto herself, able to attack and defend at will. She has a mind of her own, yet remains under my absolute control. What can those rules you worship like gods prove, other than confining your own pitiful, level-twenty-nine view of the world?"

"I... the theories I studied for thirty years... the Ten Core Competencies, the only ones of their kind on the entire continent..."

Sitting in the mud, Yu Xiaogang clutched the weeds on the ground with both hands.

A mouthful of stagnant blood suddenly surged into Yu Xiaogang's throat. His eyes rolled back, his body tilted, and he fell stiffly backward!

"Grandmaster! Xiaogang!!"

Flender and Tang San, horrified, scrambled forward and caught the nearly suffocating Yu Xiaogang. In a flurry, they pressed the point beneath his nose and fed him Soul Power, and the whole training ground instantly dissolved into a chaotic mess.

Under the canopy, Paimon took a bite of Sweet Madame and made a face at the disorderly crowd:

"Nyeh, nyeh, nyeh, how useless! He can't win an argument, so he pretends to faint. Turns out Shrek Academy's Deputy Chief Instructor is the king of faking injuries!"