Sparring with Tang San, Tearing into the Grandmaster

At the very center, Li Yan felt the suppressive force of Tang San's Soul Skill. The Blue Silver Grass at his feet had already crept up to his calves, trying to restrain him first.

"Xiao San, when you haven't seen someone for three days, you should look at them with fresh eyes. Your Blue Silver Grass can't hold me down anymore."

"Sanpao, help me!"

The black Sanpao stepped forward and tore apart the Blue Silver Grass wrapped around Li Yan's legs with one swipe of his claws, without hurting Li Yan in the slightest.

Freed from his restraints, Li Yan was like a flood dragon entering the sea, rampaging at will through Tang San's Myriad Senluo space. Every blade of Blue Silver Grass was shredded by his two sharp claws before it could get within a meter of him.

The assault of the two dragons and one man was airtight as they closed in on Tang San at breakneck speed.

Beads of sweat the size of beans appeared on Tang San's forehead. All this Blue Silver Grass had been formed from his Soul Power, and tearing it apart consumed his Soul Power.

Although the Blue Silver Grass could recover somewhat by relying on the power buried underground, it was ultimately a cup of water on a burning cart of firewood. In the blink of an eye, Li Yan was half a meter in front of Tang San.

"Xiao San, be good and admit defeat. Brother Yan won't spank you!"

Li Yan's pair of dragon claws grew even sharper as he reached straight for Tang San.

This is bad. Brother Yan's a sneaky old bastard. He was already so strong, but he was still holding back.

Tang San knew that if they kept fighting like this, he would lose sooner or later. Without using the Tang Sect Secret Arts, he couldn't beat Li Yan.

Tang San took a large step back and dismissed his Blue Silver Grass Myriad Senluo Soul Skill.

"Brother Yan, I yield. I admit defeat."

He bent over, panting heavily.

"That's more like it. If I'm your big brother for a day, I'm your big brother for life."

"When a big brother beats you, isn't it just like beating his little brother?"

Tang San smiled wryly.

"Yes, yes, yes, Brother Yan is the strongest."

"But I'm not made of mud, either. If I'd gathered all my Soul Power from the start and used my Blue Silver Grass to bind you, you might not have won."

To his surprise, the corners of Li Yan's mouth curled up.

"To tell you the truth, my first Soul Skill has another property: it negates all control effects. It's what people commonly call super armor."

"Your Blue Silver Entanglement can't get near me."

Tang San's eyes widened. Was he cheating?

He had thought his own first Soul Skill was a godly skill, but he hadn't expected someone even better.

"Compared to Brother Yan, you're still a long way off."

Xiao Wu sulked at the side.

Judging by the fight just now, she was no match for Li Yan.

That made Xiao Wu, the self-proclaimed big sister and little tyrant of Nuoding City, feel as though her position as boss was being challenged.

"Forget it, forget it. Let's go eat. We've been traveling for days and haven't had a proper meal."

Li Yan put away his Martial Souls and led the other two toward the cafeteria.

On the way, they saw the Grandmaster, Yu Xiaogang.

And he had apparently seen them too.

The Grandmaster's eyes lit up. He knew Li Yan had gone out to hunt Soul Beasts. Since he had returned so quickly, presumably Luo Sanpao had been too weak to withstand even a Hundred-Year Soul Ring, so he had casually absorbed a white Ten-Year Soul Ring.

At that thought, the Grandmaster coughed twice and strode toward Li Yan, his nose in the air.

"Li Yan, I hear the academy director took you to acquire a Soul Ring?"

"You're back so soon. Could it be that you realized the Luo Sanpao Martial Soul is a genuine Trash Martial Soul, so you casually absorbed a Ten-Year Soul Ring and came back?"

"Still, even if you beg me to take you as my disciple now, I won't agree. How could trash with a ten-year first ring be a disciple of mine, Yu Xiaogang?"

"Unless you pay more."

Yu Xiaogang was so immersed in his fantasy that he couldn't pull himself out of it.

When he opened his eyes again, Li Yan and the other two had long since left. Xiao Wu was even talking about him behind his back, making no attempt to hide the disgust in her voice.

"This Grandmaster is so annoying. He's like a dog-skin plaster; we run into him everywhere we go."

"Last month, he even farted outside our dormitory. The place stank for days. Wang Sheng and the others were choking back tears from the smell, but they still had to put up with his stinking fart while they slept."

"Next time we run into him, we have to stay far away. I think it's called the 'happy people give way' principle."

Li Yan snorted with laughter. For Gangzi to make even Xiao Wu, that demon pill, come up with the "happy people give way" principle, he really did have some tricks up his sleeve.

Just look at how he fart-bombed Dorm Seven. That wasn't something an ordinary person could pull off.

Yu Xiaogang's temper flared up in an instant. He chased after the three of them and blocked their path.

"You three are simply... simply disrespectful to your elders! You don't know how to respect the strong!"

Li Yan looked at Yu Xiaogang. He was in a good mood today, so he intended to teach Yu Xiaogang how to behave.

"Grandmaster, you spend all day using your theories to trick us into taking you as our master. So let me ask you: did you really research those so-called Ten Core Theories of Martial Souls yourself?"

"Leaving everything else aside, how did you find out the optimal age for each of a Soul Master's Soul Rings? You're a mere level twenty-nine Soul Grandmaster. You don't even have a Thousand-Year Soul Ring."

The smile vanished from Yu Xiaogang's face.

"Li Yan, what do you mean? Are you accusing this Grandmaster of plagiarizing his theories?"

"See? You're worked up again. I didn't even say whether you plagiarized them, and you've already given yourself away. How have you lived to this age with a brain like yours?"

Yu Xiaogang's face turned green, then red.

"Back to the subject. You're always saying, 'There are no trash Martial Souls, only trash Soul Masters.' Then why haven't you broken through to Soul Elder at your age? Doesn't that mean you insulted yourself twice with that line?"

"Hmm... you must be fifty this year, right? You broke through to fifty years old at level twenty-nine. Grandmaster, you really are a genius!"

The Grandmaster was so riled up that he stopped caring. He looked at Li Yan and sneered.

"Your Martial Soul is Luo Sanpao too. If you insult me like that, couldn't it be taken as insulting yourself?"

"Grandmaster, are you crazy, or am I? Look closely. My Martial Souls aren't some Luo Sanpao. They're dragons!"

Li Yan summoned his two Martial Souls. They did indeed look a lot like dragons.

"Impossible! The Luo Sanpao Martial Soul is the lowest grade of Martial Soul. How could it possibly have evolved afterward?"

"Li Yan, this must be some trick you're using to fool the eye."

The Grandmaster flew into a rage. This time, Li Yan had really struck a nerve.

His Martial Soul was the pain of his life, yet now a child with the same Martial Soul as his had refused to accept his fate and instead completed an evolution afterward.

"You... how did you do it? Tell me, and I'll help you perfect the theory. I'll also agree to take you as my disciple."

Li Yan immediately stepped past Yu Xiaogang.

"Has water gotten into that crew-cut head of yours? If I told you, wouldn't it just become another tool for you to deceive people? I won't help a tyrant do evil."

"Besides, for all your high-sounding words, you just want to trick it out of me so you can evolve your own Martial Soul."

"To tell you the truth, it's too late! Your Luo Sanpao can never evolve in this lifetime."

"Xiao San, Xiao Wu, let's go to the second floor of the cafeteria. Everything today is on Brother Yan!"

The three of them went past Yu Xiaogang together. He remained rooted to the spot, muttering to himself.

"Impossible! What do you mean, my Martial Soul can never evolve in this lifetime?"