Level 100 Gangzi

Yu Xiaogang jumped in fright, his face going blank. "You... what did you understand?"

Gangzi himself didn't even know what principle he had taught, so how had this kid understood anything?

"I understood the painstaking care behind your intentions!"

Cai Kun took a great step forward, his eyes fervent, and analyzed the situation as though answering a reading comprehension question:

"You're a dignified Level 29 Soul Grandmaster, a titan of theory only a hundred million steps away from becoming a Soul Elder. How could you possibly be unable to beat a mere four-hundred-year-old venomous snake?!"

"The reason you deliberately fell and exposed an opening without fighting back wasn't because you couldn't beat it at all!"

"You were using your own body as bait, deliberately creating a life-or-death situation to test Tang San's and my resourcefulness and courage in an unexpected crisis, weren't you?!"

Tang San's mouth twitched sharply. Looking at Yu Xiaogang, who seemed to have only just learned this himself, he thought the flattery was far too blatant.

But Yu Xiaogang, who was on the verge of social death, experienced a sudden enlightenment upon hearing Cai Kun's words and immediately found a way to explain himself.

His back straightened considerably, and his guilt and panic faded at a visible pace. In their place came the profound look of a man who had finally found someone who understood him.

"Ha... hahaha!"

Yu Xiaogang clasped his hands behind his back, tilted his head up, and gave a couple of hollow laughs, climbing the pole Cai Kun had offered him all the way to the top:

"A teachable child! Cai Kun, you truly are clever. You saw through my intention to test you at a glance!"

"That's right! A greenhouse cannot nurture a true powerhouse. Only under the pressure of life and death can a Soul Master's true potential be awakened!"

"If I hadn't secretly held that beast's attention just now, how could you have found an opening to kill it in one blow? I am deeply gratified by your performance today!"

"Little San, you should learn more from Kunkun. Don't always wear a cold face. Observe your teacher's movements carefully, understand?"

Yu Xiaogang held his chin high and delivered his speech with righteous conviction, as though the person who had been in such a sorry state just now hadn't been him at all.

"I understand, Teacher."

Standing behind him, Tang San felt his stomach churn like a river overturning the sea as he listened, and he suppressed the urge to roll his eyes.

Cai Kun, however, leaned in with a smile, lowered his voice, and said mysteriously:

"Grandmaster, to tell you the truth, since you hold us in such high regard, I won't hide this wonderful news from you."

Yu Xiaogang raised an eyebrow and asked with restraint, "What is it?"

"It's about the mysterious senior who took me to hunt the Heavily Modified No. 9 Beast last time!"

Cai Kun glanced around, leaned close to Yu Xiaogang's ear, and lowered his voice to a whisper:

"Actually, that Titled Douluo senior quietly came to see me again in the latter half of last night."

"I recited your 'Ten Core Competencies of Martial Soul' to the senior, and after hearing it, he burst into tears on the spot, exclaiming that the Douluo Continent actually had a theoretical master like you!"

"The senior said that heaven was jealous of talent, and that a genius of your world-shaping caliber must not have his entire life held back by a failed mutation like Luo Sanpao!"

At the words "held back your entire life," Yu Xiaogang shuddered from head to toe!

For twenty years, the Level 29 bottleneck had been like a poisoned thorn lodged in his heart day and night, while he endured his family's ridicule and the scorn of the world.

He had spent so many years studying theory to prove that he wasn't trash and hadn't brought shame to his family.

Yet no one understood him.

Now that he had heard that a reclusive Limit Douluo not only recognized his learning but even spoke out against the injustice he had suffered, Yu Xiaogang's breathing instantly grew heavy, and his eyes reddened.

"In this world... there's actually an expert who understands me so well?!"

Yu Xiaogang's voice trembled as he seized Cai Kun's arm.

"Of course!"

Cai Kun took the opportunity to reach into his backpack and, with a thought, took the Ten-Year Solitary Bamboo out of the system space.

The ball of light gave off a hazy glow in the night. It was impossible to see what lay inside, but a strange fluctuation of energy faintly emanated from it.

Cai Kun held the ball of light in his palms and offered it to Yu Xiaogang with a devout expression:

"Grandmaster, look. That senior specifically left this extremely rare God-Bestowed Martial Soul and entrusted me to give it to you today!"

"The senior said this Martial Soul was tailor-made based on the culmination of the theories you've been proudest of all your life. It's a one-hundred-percent match for your presence! It can be your Second Martial Soul."

"A... a God-Bestowed Martial Soul?! For me!!"

Yu Xiaogang stared fixedly at the ball of light, his eyes full of longing and his heart racing!

Thanks to his relationship with Bibi Dong, he had once seen records in Spirit Hall's top-secret ancient texts stating that only those favored by the gods could possibly obtain something bestowed by them!

Once he fused with it, he, Yu Xiaogang, would also possess Twin Martial Souls!

The iron lock of Level 29 and the curse of being unable to break through for the rest of his life would all be history!

Even Tang San was somewhat shocked.

They had come from the same village, so why was Cai Kun always receiving the attention of powerful figures? Meanwhile, his teacher seemed...

Yu Xiaogang reached out with trembling hands to grab the ball of light.

But Cai Kun pulled back his wrist, drawing the ball half an inch away, and added seriously:

"Wait, Grandmaster! The senior instructed me to make a few unpleasant things clear to you first."

"First, once this God-Bestowed Martial Soul is pressed into your body, it will be welded completely to your soul. It can never be removed, returned, or exchanged!"

"Second, because this Martial Soul conforms entirely to the foundation of your theories, its form and Soul Ring grade are rather down-to-earth. Compared with those flashy, legendary god-level Martial Souls, it's a hundred million tiny bits inferior."

"You'd better think it over carefully. Do you really want to fuse with it? If it doesn't suit you, there's nowhere to buy medicine for regret!"

By now, Yu Xiaogang's head was already spinning from the words "God-Bestowed Martial Soul" and "Second Martial Soul." He was in a frenzy of excitement. How could he listen to a word of caution?

A little inferior?

What a joke!

A starving camel was still bigger than a horse. No matter how inferior a God-Bestowed Martial Soul was, it still had the word "god" in its name. Could it possibly be worse than his Luo Sanpao, which he had studied for thirty years and which could still only fart?!

"Say no more! My mind is made up!"

"Besides, I don't want to disappoint that senior!"

Terrified that Cai Kun would change his mind and take it back, Yu Xiaogang lunged forward and snatched the white ball of light into his arms!

He didn't even bother wiping the muddy water from his hands before pressing the ball of light hard into his chest!

"Buzz-!!"

The instant the ball of light entered his body, a vast amount of Soul Power, boundless as a sea of mist, gentle yet incomparably tenacious, exploded through Yu Xiaogang's dry, narrow meridians!

That was the Soul Power of a Ten-Year Solitary Bamboo with an innate Level 100, genuinely infused by the system!

"Crack! Crack!"

Yu Xiaogang felt the barrier inside him that had held him back for a full twenty years open completely.

It was as though his governing and conception vessels had been cleared, and his Soul Power kept rising.

Level 30! Level 50! Level 70! Level 90! Level 100!

"Ah-!!"

Yu Xiaogang threw his head back and let out a long cry of utter exhilaration.

His face flushed red, violent waves of Qi radiating from his body, his eyes full of the joy of being reborn:

"It's broken! It's finally broken! I, Yu Xiaogang, am no longer Level 29 trash! I'm a Titled Douluo too! Hahaha!"

Tang San watched from the side, dumbstruck. Sensing his teacher's presence climbing steadily higher, he felt a storm surge through his heart.

Could such a heaven-defying divine object truly exist in this world?!

Amid his wild laughter, Yu Xiaogang could hardly wait to behold the peerless true form of his God-Bestowed Second Martial Soul.

Was it the Golden Sacred Dragon? Or some kind of divine weapon capable of destroying heaven and earth?!

"Come out! My Second Martial Soul!!"