Master's Worldview Collapses

Deathly silence.

The air was like solidified cement, heavy and oppressive at Nuoding Academy's gates.

The wind had stopped, and the cicadas had fallen silent.

Everyone's eyes were like iron filings drawn to a magnet, fixed firmly on the three points in the center—the twitching Tang San on the ground, the bewildered and innocent-looking Han Yuchen, and... Han Yuchen's hands, far too clean.

The gatekeeper's jaw still hung open, forgotten in midair.

His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed, a chill crawling up the back of his neck.

What the hell was this kid?

"Little San!"

A scream shattered the silence first.

Like an enraged pink leopard cub, Xiao Wu instantly rushed to Tang San's side and helped him up.

Seeing the unnatural flush on Tang San's face and his faint spasms, her large eyes immediately reddened. She spun around and glared furiously at Han Yuchen.

"What did you do to him?!"

Her voice was crisp and vicious.

Han Yuchen clicked his tongue inwardly.

Heh, this little rabbit has quite the temper.

Yet an even more frightened and aggrieved expression appeared on his face at just the right moment, his hands waving like rattles.

"I... I really didn't do anything!"

He pointed at the Blue Silver Grass markings that had not yet fully faded from his body, his acting flawless.

"His grass wrapped around me, and then he... he just fell down on his own... Could there be something wrong with his Martial Soul?"

The explanation sounded perfectly reasonable, yet bizarre beyond belief.

Right. Could a Martial Soul really knock out its own master?

What kind of nonsense was that?!

Just as Xiao Wu was about to lash out again, a stiff figure strode out from a corner of the academy.

Yu Xiaogang.

He had arrived.

Ignoring everyone else, he walked straight to Tang San and crouched down.

He placed two fingers on Tang San's wrist, then lifted his eyelids to inspect them.

A moment later, the look of shock called "overturning" on his stiff face deepened further.

It was merely backlash from his own paralytic poison. Nothing serious.

But the question was... why had it backfired?!

He slowly stood and pushed up his black-framed glasses. Behind the lenses, his eyes were like surgical blades, locking tightly onto Han Yuchen.

That gaze was no longer one of lofty scrutiny. It was filled with extreme confusion, disbelief, and even a trace of... fanatical curiosity, as though he were studying a miracle.

"Child."

Yu Xiaogang spoke, his voice carrying a faint tremor that even he had not noticed.

"What is your name? What is your Martial Soul?"

It was here.

The main act had begun.

Han Yuchen was steady as a rock inside, while his face still wore that timid expression.

"I... I'm Han Yuchen. My Martial Soul is... Yiyou, a little fish."

As he spoke, he spread open his palm.

Buzz.

A combat fish nearly a meter long appeared at his side—Yulian, clad in blue scales, its eyes sharp as an eagle's.

Of course, to outsiders who had never seen Yiyou's true form, it was merely a somewhat fiercer-looking, somewhat larger fish.

A fish?

A fish?!

Yu Xiaogang's mind buzzed as though it had been struck brutally by a heavy hammer!

A monstrous storm surged through his heart!

A fish? A water-attribute Martial Soul?

Tang San's Blue Silver Grass was from the plant category, and it even carried the neurotoxic venom of a Mandala Snake!

According to the theory of the ten core competitive strengths of Martial Souls that I spent half my life formulating, the most fundamental theory of elemental restraint clearly states—plants restrain water!

Not to mention poison! Poison's lethality against aquatic creatures increased geometrically!

Why?

Why was he completely unhurt?!

Why had Tang San instead been knocked down by backlash from his own poison?!

Could it be... could the theories I had studied for half my life be wrong?

No!

Impossible! Absolutely impossible! My theories had been verified through countless ancient texts and cases. They were the truth!

Something must have gone wrong somewhere!

There had to be something wrong with this fish of his...

Yu Xiaogang's breathing grew hurried at that moment.

For the first time, his perpetually rigid, corpse-like face twisted slightly from excessive shock.

The way he looked at Han Yuchen was like the gaze of the most devout scientist who had suddenly witnessed antigravity, frantically testing the very edge of his collapsing worldview.

The gatekeeper beside him could not understand the turmoil raging inside Master.

He only saw Master step forward, and his spine immediately straightened again.

In his eyes, whatever Han Yuchen had done just now was probably some strange, crooked trick that had succeeded by sheer luck.

Could a little brat awakened with a Wasted Spirit like "fish" really turn the world upside down?

Putting on a fierce front to hide his fear, he stepped forward, pointed at Han Yuchen's nose, and shouted:

"I don't care what kind of sorcery you used! Causing trouble at Nuoding Academy's gates means you get the hell out!"

The shout was loud and forceful.

It also became the final straw that broke the camel's back.

Han Yuchen appeared to have been "frightened" by the roar.

His body suddenly shuddered, his shoulders hunching as though he were a startled little animal.

And in that instant.

The aura of Soul Power within him was like a faucet that had not been fully tightened, accidentally leaking out a trace.

Buzzz—!

A deep hum, heavy with overwhelming pressure, suddenly rang out!

A dazzling, profound purple ring filled with an ancient and primordial aura abruptly rose from beneath his feet without warning!

That purple seemed to contain the entire night sky, speckled with faint stars barely visible to the eye!

The terrifying pressure unique to a Thousand-Year Soul Beast swept across the entire scene like a tangible tsunami!

Time seemed to have been paused at that instant.

Nuoding Academy's gates fell into dead silence.

Everyone froze.

Xiao Wu's mouth hung open wide enough to fit an egg.

The gatekeeper's hand, still pointing at Han Yuchen's nose, stiffened in midair.

And...

Yu Xiaogang's body, as though he had been struck by a petrification curse.

The instant he saw that purple Spirit Ring, Yu Xiaogang's mind completely crashed.

Blankness.

He felt as though his soul had been pulled from his body, floating in the air as it coldly watched his own ridiculous, dumbstruck shell.

He staggered back two steps.

His back slammed heavily into the gatepost behind him with a dull thud.

Yet he felt nothing.

His eyes behind the lenses were opened wide, bloodshot and round as they stared fixedly at the purple ring beneath Han Yuchen's feet.

His lips began trembling uncontrollably. His teeth chattered softly.

He muttered to himself, his voice as faint as a dream, yet filled with endless terror and collapse.

"Pur... purple?"

"The First Spirit Ring... is... is purple?"

Boom!!!

It was as though a divine thunderbolt from the heavens had exploded inside his mind!

It blasted to pieces that grand edifice called "theory," which he had built with half a lifetime of effort!

The maximum absorption limit for a First Spirit Ring was 423 years!

This was the absolute truth I reached after spending twenty years combing through every secret collection of Spirit Hall, visiting more than a hundred ancient sects, and combining thousands of Soul Master cases!

It was the foundation upon which the entire Soul Master system operated! An iron law! An axiom!

Why?!

Who could tell me why this was happening?!

Why would a six-year-old child have a Thousand-Year Spirit Ring as his First Spirit Ring?!

This was impossible!

It violated the conservation of energy! It overturned the limits of the human body! It trampled upon the foundation of the entire Soul Master system!

Could it be...

Could all my research over half my life... everything I had been so proud of...

...all be a fucking joke?!

Thump.

A soft sound rang out.

The gatekeeper, who had been arrogant beyond measure just moments ago, had his legs give out. Unable to support his own weight any longer, he collapsed onto the ground.

The arrogance and haughtiness had long vanished from his face, replaced by terror and horror that seeped into his bones.

He looked at Han Yuchen as though he were looking at an ancient ferocious beast wearing human skin.

A six-year-old child... with a Thousand-Year Spirit Ring as his First Spirit Ring?!

What kind of monster was that?!

And just now... he had pointed at this monster's nose and told him to get lost?!

Cold sweat instantly soaked his back.

He felt as though he had just danced at the gates of hell.

And at the center of this entire storm.

Han Yuchen seemed to have only just realized he had "made a mistake."

He hurriedly withdrew that astonishing purple Spirit Ring, and the terrifying pressure vanished with it.

Lowering his head, he timidly murmured:

"Ah, sorry..."

"I... I'm not very good at controlling it."

That casual "explanation" was like a red-hot branding iron, searing itself viciously into Yu Xiaogang's already shattered heart.

Not good at controlling it?

You called this not being very good at controlling it?!

Yu Xiaogang suddenly snapped back to his senses!

All the stiffness, rigidity, confusion, and collapse on his ashen face vanished in that moment!

In their place was an almost insane fervor and desire, one that seemed capable of burning everything!

Like a traveler who had wandered through the desert for fifty years and had suddenly seen an endless oasis!

The theory was wrong?

No!

The theory was not wrong! The world was wrong!

And the child before him was the "miracle" capable of overturning the entire world and ushering in a new era!

He rushed at Han Yuchen. Nothing remained of his earlier scholarly bearing or stiff rigidity.

He stretched out trembling hands and grabbed Han Yuchen's thin shoulders, gripping him with enough force to crush him into his own body.

He stared hard into Han Yuchen's eyes and asked, word by word, in a hoarse, excited tone that even carried a trace of pleading:

"Child!"

"Are you willing to take me as your master?!"