Yu Xiaogang's Shameless Claim: This Is My Theory!

[Black World]

Inside the office.

Yu Xiaogang had not left his room for two whole days.

The floor was littered with shattered teacup fragments and notebooks torn to pieces.

His hair was a mess, his eye sockets sunken. Those eyes that had always carried a trace of melancholy and aloofness were now bloodshot with madness.

"Why..."

"Why could he succeed?"

"Why does everyone think I'm wrong?"

Yu Xiaogang paced back and forth through the room, muttering neurotically to himself.

These past few days, he had felt as though he had been stripped naked and thrown beneath the spotlights of the entire continent.

The mockery, the ridicule, and the way the students looked at him as if he were a swindler dealt a devastating blow to his fragile yet monstrously inflated pride.

"No... I can't admit defeat like this."

"If I admit that Bai Tang San was right, then what was all my life's research?"

"Waste paper?"

"No! Absolutely not!"

Yu Xiaogang abruptly stopped, staring fixedly at the glorious Bai Tang San on the Sky Curtain.

Suddenly.

A flash of inspiration crossed his mind.

A wildly twisted flash of inspiration that nevertheless allowed his logic to become self-consistent.

"Wait..."

"The Plant Mimicry he used..."

"The Overlevel Absorption he used..."

"And his rebuttal regarding Martial Soul Core Competitiveness..."

Yu Xiaogang's eyes grew brighter and brighter until he finally burst into strange, manic laughter.

"Ha ha ha ha!"

"I understand!"

"I finally understand!"

"He wasn't refuting me! He was putting my theories into practice!"

"I had already thought of these theories long ago. I simply couldn't verify them because of my own limited talent!"

"Yes! That's it!"

"He succeeded by standing on my shoulders!"

As if he had grasped his final Lifesaving Straw.

Yu Xiaogang threw open the door and strode toward the Sports Field.

Hundreds of teachers and students preparing for their morning classes had gathered there.

On the Sports Field.

Flender was about to announce the day's training when he saw Yu Xiaogang charge onto the podium like a madman.

"Xiaogang? What are you doing?"

A sense of foreboding rose within Flender.

But Yu Xiaogang ignored him completely.

He snatched the Amplifying Soul Tool and roared at the students below, who had been pointing and whispering about him.

"Everyone, shut up!"

The entire field instantly fell silent.

Everyone stared in shock at the Master, who usually always pretended to be unfathomable.

Yu Xiaogang took a deep breath, straightened his already wrinkled robe, and tried to recover that lofty air of being the only sober man in a drunken world.

"These past two days, I know what everyone has been talking about."

"You've been laughing at me?"

"Laughing that my theories were overturned by that Bai Tang San?"

Several derisive snickers came from below.

Wasn't that the truth?

Facts spoke louder than words.

Yu Xiaogang gave a cold laugh, raised one finger, and wagged it through the air.

"Shallow!"

"All you see is the surface!"

"You only saw that he didn't take me as his teacher. You only saw him seemingly refuting me."

"But have you ever examined the core logic behind his success?"

Yu Xiaogang's voice abruptly rose, carrying a nauseating confidence.

"Plant Mimicry, devouring fire attributes—doesn't that confirm my hypothesis that 'Martial Souls have no absolute attributes'?"

"Absorbing a two-thousand-year Soul Ring beyond one's level—doesn't that confirm my ultimate conclusion that 'physical constitution determines the age limit of Soul Rings'?"

"And his theories regarding Meridians!"

"That was clearly an extension and elevation of the Soul Power Execution Chapter in my Ten Core Competencies of Martial Soul!"

The entire field fell deathly silent.

Everyone was dumbfounded.

What... what kind of logic was that?

Bai Tang San had clearly researched those things himself. He had even cursed you viciously in his notes.

How had it become an extension of your work once it came out of your mouth?

But Yu Xiaogang had already completely immersed himself in his own closed loop of logic, unable to pull himself free.

He spread his arms as though embracing truth itself.

"Bai Tang San of the White World may be stubborn, and he may be young and unwilling to admit it."

"But every one of his actions, every one of his achievements."

"Proves the greatness of my, Yu Xiaogang's, theories!"

"He merely did what I had always wanted to do but never dared to because of the limitations of my Martial Soul!"

"From a spiritual perspective."

"He is my inheritor!"

"Half of his current glory belongs to me, Yu Xiaogang!"

Boom—!

The moment those words left his mouth, the entire Sports Field erupted.

Even Flender could no longer bear listening. Covering his face, he turned away, wishing he could crawl into a crack in the ground.

It was too embarrassing. Truly too embarrassing.

"I've seen shameless people before, but never one this shameless!"

Below the stage, an upperclassman could not help shouting.

"Bai Tang San already said it—your theories are cages drawn for the weak!"

"He risked his life for those achievements. How did they become yours?"

"Exactly! This is outright robbery!"

"Shamelessly claiming credit! Utterly shamelessly claiming credit!"

The ridicule and curses instantly swallowed Yu Xiaogang like a tidal wave.

Yet Yu Xiaogang stood on the stage without changing expression.

He even pushed things further.

"Hmph, how could sparrows understand the ambitions of swans!"

"What could common fools like you possibly understand about theory?"

"Truth is often held in the hands of only a few!"

Just then.

It was as though the Sky Curtain had heard the commotion below.

A flash of golden light appeared.

It not only displayed Yu Xiaogang's shameless remarks.

Immediately afterward.

An official notice from Spirit Hall appeared prominently at the center of the Sky Curtain.

Every word was like a blade, piercing straight into the heart.

[Spirit Hall Pope's Decree:]

[In light of Yu Xiaogang's recent remarks, this announcement is hereby issued to the entire continent.]

[Never have we seen a person so brazenly shameless.]

[Plagiarizing theories, forcibly claiming kinship.]

[Such conduct not only insults scholarship, but also insults the title of "Master."]

[Effective immediately, the Spirit Hall Library will permanently remove all works related to Yu Xiaogang from its shelves.]

[So as not to mislead the younger generation and make a laughingstock of ourselves.]

"Pfft—!"

Seeing those large words on the Sky Curtain, Yu Xiaogang directly spat out a mouthful of blood.

Spirit Hall...

The place where he had wanted to prove himself countless times, the place whose recognition he had longed to obtain.

Actually...

Had publicly issued a notice mocking him?

It had even used words as humiliating as "Never have we seen a person so brazenly shameless"?

"No... no..."

"Bibi Dong... how could you treat me like this..."

"How could you..."

Yu Xiaogang swayed unsteadily, his face pale as paper.

His final shred of dignity had been torn away and trampled beneath the feet of the woman he cared about most.

"Teacher!"

Just then.

A figure rushed onto the podium.

It was Hei Tang San.

He supported the staggering Yu Xiaogang, his eyes filled with anger and heartache.

In his eyes, his teacher had been exploring for the future of the Soul Master World. He was a pioneer, a Wise Person.

What right did these people have to humiliate him like this?