Master's Past

Xiao Yun shook his head again. "You've got that wrong. You have someone backing you—or rather, your Third Brother has a powerful figure behind him. That person guaranteed your identity."

"Impossible. Third Brother doesn't have any powerful figure behind him. Could it be Master Yu Xiaogang?"

Xiao Yun let out a cold laugh. "What Master Yu Xiaogang? What standing does he have? He's a useless Soul Master who couldn't break past level thirty his entire life."

Influenced by Tang San, Xiao Wu still respected Master. The moment she heard Xiao Yun belittling him, her delicate brows shot up. "You're not allowed to badmouth Master! Master isn't useless. He's a theoretical master of the Spirit Master World."

Xiao Yun looked at Xiao Wu with utter disdain and spoke coldly. "Little rabbit, what do you know? Do you know Yu Xiaogang's background? Do you know where his theories came from? If he were a real Master, how could he have ended up in a tiny place like Nuoding City, and stayed there for over a decade?"

Xiao Wu had no idea how to answer any of that. After all, she was only a little rabbit. How could she know so much information? She froze on the spot.

After quite a while, she finally spoke timidly. "Even if I don't know, Third Brother can't be wrong. Since he acknowledges Master, Yu Xiaogang must be a Master."

Looking at Xiao Wu stubbornly refusing to admit defeat, Xiao Yun smiled. "Then Yu Xiaogang must have tricked Tang San while he was still too young to understand anything."

"Even among his Ten Core Spirit Theories, most of them are nonsense, and the rest are complete crap."

"For example: Innate Soul Power is directly proportional to Spirit Quality. That's complete nonsense. It's common knowledge in the Spirit Master World, and there's a huge loophole in that statement. It isn't absolute. Take Oscar among your Shrek Seven Devils, for instance. Do you think his Sausage Spirit has particularly high quality? Not really, right? Then why does he have Innate Full Soul Power?"

With Xiao Yun throwing out that question, Xiao Wu had no room to refute him. It was reality laid bare before her.

Xiao Yun continued, "As for that line he always has on his lips—'There are no Wasted Martial Souls, only Soul Masters who don't know how to cultivate'—that's an even bigger joke. Before saying something like that, he should take a look at his own level. I'd guess that whenever others heard him say it, they were laughing at him inside. A Soul Master who couldn't break through level thirty through his own efforts his entire life—where did he get the nerve to say that?"

Xiao Wu came to her senses then. It was indeed true. If Yu Xiaogang had been able to use his own research to raise his Soul Power beyond level fifty, everyone would have admired him. Then he would have had at least some grounds for saying such things. After all, someone like that breaking through the limits of a Soul Master with only half a level of Innate Soul Power would truly have been impressive. Yet he was just like every other Soul Master with half a level of Innate Soul Power, spending decades only to remain a Soul Grandmaster.

Xiao Wu could only sigh at that. She had even less ability to refute it.

As for the remaining theories, Xiao Yun could not be bothered to refute them one by one. He simply summarized, "The so-called Ten Core Spirit Theories were not researched by him at all. He merely organized existing materials, changed their names, and published them as his own. He completely plagiarized the wisdom of others. Does someone like that deserve to be called Master? It's utterly laughable."

Xiao Wu noticed a flaw in Xiao Yun's words. As though she had grasped a lifeline, she immediately retorted, "Senior, since you say Master is useless, where could he have found those materials? Who would have given them to him? You must be mistaken."

Xiao Yun brought up something he had said earlier. "Didn't I say before that every Soul Master clan has its own distinctive surname? Then what can you associate with Yu Xiaogang's surname, Yu?"

"Yu surname... Yu." Xiao Wu finally started using her little head to think, but she could not recall it at once.

Xiao Yun could tell at a glance that she definitely had not been paying attention in class. He reached out, rapped her on the head, and scolded with a smile, "You little rabbit. You finally got the chance to study and learn about human information, yet you didn't properly learn the relevant Soul Beast knowledge. What were you doing in class?"

Xiao Wu was suddenly struck on the head. With an "Ow," she clutched her head and squatted down, while innocent tears welled up in her large eyes.

Xiao Yun ignored her completely. "You've been in human society for several years now. Don't tell me you haven't learned anything at all about the forces within human society?"

Xiao Wu answered pitifully, "I know. We learned about them at school."

Xiao Yun immediately asked, "What forces specifically? Recite them. Let me check how well you've studied."

Xiao Wu immediately began reciting. "The continent's major human Soul Master powers are: one hall, two empires, three sects, and four clans. The one hall is Spirit Hall, the highest sanctuary that all Soul Masters on the continent aspire to join. It has the greatest number of Titled Douluo."

As she said this, a trace of hatred surfaced in her eyes, only to vanish in an instant. She continued, "The two empires refer to Heaven Dou and Star Luo. They have very few Titled Douluo, but an enormous number of lower-level Soul Masters, even dedicated Soul Master armies. The three sects are naturally the Clear Sky Sect, Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, and Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan. All three possess a certain number of Titled Douluo and stand at the peak of all Soul Master sects."

After saying that, she glanced at Ning Rongrong, who was still meditating. She knew Ning Rongrong was the Young Lady of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.

"The final four clans are actually the lower four sects: the Black Tiger Sect, Wind Sword Sect, Elephant Armored Sect, and Fire Leopard Sect."

"You recited that well. But do you remember what surname the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan has?" Xiao Yun asked.

"All members of their clan are surnamed Yu." Xiao Wu immediately remembered and cried out in surprise.

"That's right. Everyone in the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan is surnamed Yu—the Yu in Yu Xiaogang. Their current clan head is Yu Yuanzhen, a level ninety-five Titled Douluo. He has another identity as well: Yu Xiaogang's father."

The moment Xiao Yun said this, disbelief filled Xiao Wu's face. "Impossible. If he's the son of a Titled Douluo, how could he have ended up like this?"

"Of course there was a reason. First, his Martial Soul mutated, and he had only 0.5 levels of Innate Soul Power. What do you think would happen to someone like that, even as the direct son of a clan head?"

"Was Yu Xiaogang simply abandoned?"

"No. As his father, Yu Yuanzhen certainly would not have given up on him immediately. He still invested a great deal of resources into him. In the end, countless resources were spent, yet he could not break through the bottleneck at level twenty-nine. Finally, when he was seventeen or eighteen, he was cast out of the clan."