Master's Faith Shattered

The tiered lecture hall was as silent as a graveyard.

It was as if an invisible hand had gripped the hearts of nearly a thousand teachers and students, making even breathing an impossible luxury.

It was a terrifying pressure from the depths of the sea, ten thousand meters below.

The faint smell of blood in the air mingled with the decayed aura of "despair" seeping from Yu Xiaogang.

He slumped in his chair like a puppet whose strings had all been cut.

His eyes were two hollow black holes that swallowed every trace of light.

That face, usually marked by stiffness and stubbornness, now held nothing but the ashen ruin of death.

A third mouthful of blood spread across the front of his robes like a startling crimson lotus.

"Quick! Get a Healing System Soul Master!"

Nuoding Academy's Dean finally broke free from his petrified state and let out a heart-wrenching scream.

That scream was like a boulder crashing into still water, instantly throwing the hall into chaos.

His fat face twitched with extreme terror, and even the flesh beneath his chin trembled uncontrollably.

Several teachers jolted awake as if struck by lightning and rushed onto the stage on all fours.

"Master! Master, how are you feeling?"

"Hold on, Master! You have to hold on!"

The entire stage was instantly swept into a vortex of panic.

The students below finally broke free from their petrification as well. Their suppressed discussions erupted like a volcanic explosion.

"Heavens... he vomited blood again..."

"This time... it seems completely different. Look at his eyes—they're... empty."

"It's over. Master's life's work, the theories he regarded as sacred law, have been completely torn apart by that girl before the entire continent."

"That Lin Xi... what kind of monster is she? Her mouth is ten thousand times more terrifying than her Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring!"

Everyone's gazes turned, almost in unison, toward the other end of the stage, filled with awe and fear.

That was the source of the storm.

Lin Xi stood there quietly.

She had already withdrawn that blood-red Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring, and the terrifying pressure capable of crushing mountains had vanished with it.

Her little face remained as cool and serene as the moon, as though the towering waves she had stirred up before her were no more than ripples in a pond, utterly unrelated to her.

She looked at Yu Xiaogang, surrounded by the crowd, his breath as weak as a dying candle in the wind.

There was no victorious ecstasy in her eyes, nor any pity for the defeated.

There was only the indifference of a deity looking down upon dust.

A stubborn stone at the foot of a mountain rolling down after being weathered by time was simply the natural order of the world. It was not worth a deity's notice.

She turned, took a step, and prepared to leave this stage that had already lost all meaning.

"Stop!"

A blustering shout cut through the chaos.

It was the teacher who had previously accused Lin Xi of promoting "bloodline supremacy."

No one knew where he had found the courage, but he spread his arms and blocked Lin Xi's path.

Pointing at the disheveled Yu Xiaogang on the stage, he roared indignantly, "Look what you've done! Look what you've reduced Master to!"

"Even if your theory is correct, couldn't you have been more tactful? Did you have to use such a cruel method to completely destroy Master's life's work and drive him to his death?"

His accusation drew looks of agreement from a small number of teachers.

The way they looked at Lin Xi was filled with blame and disapproval.

Her talent was peerless, yet she acted with such tyranny and heartlessness.

"What nonsense are you talking about!"

Xiao Wu's face flushed red with anger. She rushed forward in one stride and stood before Lin Xi like a mother rabbit protecting her young.

"He was the one who insisted on debating! He vomited blood because he couldn't argue back—how is that Lin Xi's fault?!"

Tang San stepped forward as well, guarding Lin Xi's other side. His gaze had turned cold.

His voice was quiet, but every word was clear. "Facts speak louder than words."

"Teacher, in your understanding, is using lies to preserve a false authority more important than revealing the truth?"

The words landed like a slap across the teacher's face. His complexion instantly turned liver-purple, his lips trembled, yet he could not utter a single word.

Lin Xi slowly stepped out from behind Tang San.

She looked at the teacher blocking her way and calmly spoke two words.

"Tactful?"

She repeated it, then gently shook her head.

"The arrival of truth has never required tact."

Her voice was soft, yet it reached everyone present with perfect clarity, as if it carried some strange power that silenced the clamorous hall once more.

"When facing a so-called 'authority' that has sat atop an altar and misled the entire continent with fallacies for decades..."

"Any gentle questioning would only be seen by him as provocation, not overthrow."

"So what I did was not debate him."

Lin Xi paused. Her cool gaze slowly swept over every teacher present, then over Yu Xiaogang, who was being placed onto a makeshift stretcher with vacant eyes.

At last, her voice fell like a final judgment.

"I was... correcting an error."

"An enormous error that had persisted for decades and caused endless harm."

As soon as she finished speaking, she looked at no one else. She walked around the teacher, who stood frozen in shock, and headed straight out of the lecture hall.

Her steps were unhurried, yet incomparably firm.

Every step seemed to fall upon the tombstone of an old era, declaring its end.

Tang San and Xiao Wu immediately followed after her in perfect understanding.

The silhouettes of the three stretched long, longer still, beneath the gaze of thousands of complicated eyes.

This time, no one dared step forward to stop them.

The arrival of truth required no tact.

Those words were like a red-hot brand, deeply seared into the souls of every young student in the lecture hall.

They looked at that gradually receding, goddess-like figure, then at the shattered "Master" being carried away in disgrace.

Some conviction that had once been deeply rooted in their hearts was making a crisp sound as it cracked apart.

Perhaps...

An era belonging to "Master" had truly ended today, at this very moment.

And an era belonging to the "Goddess" was announcing its arrival in the strongest, most domineering, most unquestionable manner possible.

The Dean watched it all, his mouth filled with bitterness, as though he had swallowed a hundred bitter herbs.

Today, he had thought it would be a glorious day for Nuoding Academy, one worthy of being recorded in history.

Who could have imagined that it would instead become Master's day of public execution, the day the faith of the continent's Soul Master world collapsed?

He could practically foresee it. After today, an unprecedented ideological earthquake would begin in Nuoding City and sweep across the entire Heaven Dou Empire, even the whole continent.

And the epicenter that had triggered this earthquake...

Was merely a six-year-old girl named Lin Xi.

"Ah..."

The Dean let out a heavy sigh and hurried after them. Watching the medical staff carry Yu Xiaogang toward the infirmary, he asked in a trembling voice, "Master... he... how is he?"

A Healing System Soul Master wiped the cold sweat from his brow and answered with an extremely grave expression.

"His physical injuries are merely due to blood rushing to his heart. They are not serious."

"The truly fatal part..."

He lowered his voice, as though recounting a horrifying fact.

"Is his Sea of Consciousness. Dean, Master's Sea of Consciousness... has nearly completely collapsed."

"Every belief, understanding, and source of pride he possessed throughout his life was crushed to pieces in that debate. Such a blow is crueler than any torture in this world."

"Forgive my disrespect, but even if Master wakes up, I fear... he will be no different from a living corpse."

Upon hearing this, the Dean's body swayed violently, and he nearly collapsed to the ground.

It was over.

Completely over.

What had been forged was no longer merely a grudge, but a blood feud that would end only in death.

Yu Xiaogang himself was weak, but behind him stood several of the continent's most powerful colossal forces.

Especially... the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, one of the Upper Three Sects.

The Dean looked toward the direction in which Lin Xi had disappeared. For the first time, his eyes were filled with an emotion called fear.

This girl...

Was she Nuoding Academy's once-in-a-century auspicious Kirin?

Or... the beginning of a monstrous catastrophe that would soon sweep across the continent?