Refused Again.

But what no one expected was that the person kneeling on the ground wasn't the Lin Ming they'd imagined, but Xiao Chenyu, who'd been strutting around just moments ago.

"Impossible! Ah!!"

Xiao Chenyu lifted his head, a vicious glare in his eyes like a wounded wolf. The moment he rejected Lin Ming's suggestion, he felt his arm about to snap.

The wounded wolf instantly turned into a docile husky.

"I'll talk, I'll talk. Wang Sheng, go easy."

Wang Sheng was strong, and he showed Xiao Chenyu no mercy.

Watching Xiao Chenyu on the verge of tears, his heart soared with satisfaction.

He'd never imagined he'd have a day where he could bully Xiao Chenyu.

Right now, he even felt like taking a dump on Xiao Chenyu's head.

"I'll never cause trouble for the Work-Study Students again."

"I'll never cause trouble for the Work-Study Students again."

"I'll never cause trouble for the Work-Study Students again."

Three declarations in a row, and Xiao Chenyu seemed to have drained all his strength, panting as he stared at Lin Ming.

"Are you satisfied now?"

Though the words were ground out through clenched teeth, Lin Ming nodded with clear satisfaction.

To buy himself time to grow, and to make sure Wang Sheng and the others hadn't come for nothing—

This outcome was the best he could hope for.

"If you go back on your word, I hope you don't sleep too soundly at night."

Lin Ming bared his teeth in a grin, but the words that came out sent a chill down Xiao Chenyu's spine.

The meaning was obvious.

If he bothered the Work-Study Students again, he wouldn't get a good night's sleep from then on.

Xiao Chenyu could only nod in humiliation.

Lin Ming was satisfied. Give him a few months, and even if Xiao Chenyu broke his word, he could still beat him again.

This victory was mostly because Xiao Chenyu had been too careless.

Lin Ming's identity was no secret at all—practically the whole school knew about him.

A new student, and one with a Detached Martial Soul at that.

Plus, his Innate Soul Power was only one rank.

In everyone's eyes, Lin Ming was the easiest Work-Study Student to push around.

Too bad things didn't go as expected.

Lin Ming swept his gaze over the people around him. His strength was still too small; he needed time to grow, so he didn't dare go too far.

Even a cornered rabbit will bite an eagle, let alone a soul master.

"Let's head back."

Calling out to Wang Sheng and the others, Lin Ming turned and left the cafeteria.

He planned to put every moment outside of daily life into training.

Half a month slipped by quietly.

Inside the Seventh Dormitory, only Lin Ming sat cross-legged on the bed, cultivating.

Wang Sheng and the others had gone home for break two days ago and wouldn't be back until school started.

Most of the students at Nuoding Academy were the same.

Only a handful remained on campus.

"Almost at rank three. At this rate, I'll break through to rank ten in just half a year."

Lin Ming opened his eyes, withdrawing from cultivation. He patted Little Lei Yi, who was dozing off beside him, and pulled him back into his body. Stretching, he headed to the cafeteria for a meal.

Only two windows in the cafeteria were still open.

These were reserved for the students and teachers staying at Nuoding Academy.

He got his food and found a random spot to sit down.

As he ate, sunlight was blocked by a shadow.

"Lin Ming..."

Lin Ming didn't look up. He didn't even slow down his eating pace.

"What is it, Grandmaster?"

"I want... to see your Martial Soul."

Yu Xiaogang sat across from Lin Ming, his fists clenched tightly on his knees, his eyes filled with unwillingness.

He knew the boy before him had first-level soul power.

He had known it for a long time.

But when he learned that Lin Ming had defeated the eleventh-level Xiao Chenyu, his first reaction was disbelief.

How could a Detached Martial Soul defeat Xiao Chenyu's Beast Martial Soul?

No one understood the disadvantages of a Detached Martial Soul better than he did.

Whether it was Lin Ming's Little Lei Yi or his own Luo Sanpao, both were forms of Martial Souls with some offensive capability.

But the fragility of the soul master's body, comparable to that of an auxiliary-system soul master, could never match the power of a Beast Martial Soul Possession.

"Master, have you ever heard a saying?"

Lin Ming swallowed the steamed bun in his mouth, lifted his eyes to look at Yu Xiaogang, and sighed.

If he didn't deal with him, he would likely be harassed for the next six years.

He wasn't afraid of Yu Xiaogang, but Tang San's enrollment was right around the corner, and behind Tang San stood Tang Hao.

Neither father nor son were easy to deal with.

One of them could sentence you to death with just a gesture or a glance.

At any moment, he might hit you with his hidden weapons from the shadows.

If you wanted to seek revenge on him.

Then Tang Hao would smile.

Who knew if that dim-witted Titled Douluo would strike at a child like him?

So he really didn't want to get entangled with Yu Xiaogang.

"What saying?"

Yu Xiaogang's body trembled slightly, a hint of confusion in his eyes.

He truly wanted to study the difference between Little Lei Yi and Luo Sanpao.

If he could figure this out, he might break through to the thirtieth level.

After all, he had been stuck at the twenty-ninth level not for one or two years, but for decades.

"Rule number one of the cultivation manual."

Lin Ming unhurriedly pulled a cultivation manual from his chest, placed it on the table, and opened the first page.

It was the small booklet that Nuoding Academy issued to every student.

"A Martial Soul is a part of the soul master."

Yu Xiaogang frowned at that line of text. What did it have to do with his desire to study Lin Ming's Martial Soul?

"A Detached Martial Soul is still a Martial Soul, and I think a Detached Martial Soul is even better than an ordinary one."

"Compared to ordinary Beast Martial Souls and Tool Martial Souls, the innate advantages of a Detached Martial Soul are something they can never match."

Lin Ming continued.

"If a Detached Martial Soul takes damage, it backlashes against the host."

"Moreover, based on my years of research, if the Martial Soul you awakened wasn't a Detached Martial Soul, your Innate Soul Power wouldn't have been limited to this."

Yu Xiaogang instinctively retorted. His Luo Sanpao was exactly like that—a degenerate mutation of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon.

If he had awakened any other mutated form of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon, he wouldn't have been stuck with only half a level of soul power.

For so many years, he had placed all the blame on Luo Sanpao.

In that moment, he projected his own template onto Lin Ming.

"See? You only focus on blaming everything on your Martial Soul, instead of reflecting on yourself."

Lin Ming smiled.

It was normal for Yu Xiaogang to think this way. After all, he wasn't a commoner; he didn't understand how luxurious having soul power was for ordinary people.

Yu Xiaogang was the son of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan's patriarch. In other words, he was the young master of the clan.

The stark contrast between his life before and after the age of six had long shattered his spirit, forcing him to pin the blame on Luo Sanpao, who couldn't speak and always obeyed him.

But after decades, his thinking still hadn't changed. That just showed his stupidity.

At the root of it, he had never blamed himself.

"I'm different from you, so don't bother me anymore. I still need to cultivate."

After quietly finishing his last bite of food, Lin Ming stood up, left a soft remark, and turned to walk away.