Precise to the Ones Place? Did Your Family Get Their Data by Fortune-Telling?

Her words provided another piece of evidence.

Liu Erlong's chest heaved violently. She felt as though she could barely breathe.

She wanted to argue, but found her mind completely blank.

The vivid examples given by the young girls made her defense—that he had sacrificed cultivation for research—look like a pale, powerless joke.

The faint spark of light Bibi Dong had just gathered completely dimmed.

Leaning against the cold throne, she felt for the first time that the authority and power she had always taken pride in were so utterly fragile before absolute, ruthless logic.

That man did not even need to use his unfathomable power.

With only a few questions, he had made the beliefs she had built over decades begin to rot and collapse from their very foundations.

Li Yifei did not give them a chance to catch their breath.

His thoughts moved like the most precise instrument, following a predetermined path as he dismantled everything step by step.

[Li Yifei: And what about his other theories?]

[Li Yifei: Where did the materials supporting those theories come from?]

[Li Yifei: How many of them did he personally verify through experiments?]

Three consecutive questions were like three cold blades, advancing layer by layer as they sliced through the flesh beneath Master's halo and struck directly at its central skeleton.

Personally verified through experiments?

That question plunged Bibi Dong and Liu Erlong into an even deeper silence.

Yu Xiaogang had only two Soul Rings.

His Martial Soul was Luo Sanpao.

What experiments could he possibly conduct?

What could he use to conduct them?

He might even need someone else's help just to hunt a century-old Soul Beast.

Test the absorption limit of a thousand-year Soul Ring? He could not even absorb one himself.

Verify the effects of different Martial Soul combinations? He could not even find a decent teammate.

Once that thought surfaced, it grew like wild grass, impossible to suppress any longer.

They had never thought deeply about this question before.

Or rather, they had instinctively avoided it.

They would rather believe that he had seen through all of it with extraordinary wisdom and deduction alone.

But now, Li Yifei laid this bloody reality bare before them.

[Li Yifei: When he took other people's research materials, did he cite the sources?]

[Li Yifei: Or did he simply take ready-made conclusions from ancient texts, put his own name on them, and turn them into his own theories?]

Boom!

Those words exploded in Bibi Dong and Liu Erlong's minds like a thunderclap from the heavens.

Plagiarism?

Copying?

They had never imagined those two filthy words could be associated with the man who was like a Deity in their hearts.

[Is Jade Not Jade: No! Impossible! Xiao Gang is not that kind of person!]

Liu Erlong's thoughts let out a sharp, shrieking roar, filled with the madness of having a sore spot struck.

[Bibi Dong: Li Yifei! That is slander!]

Bibi Dong's thoughts suddenly turned fierce as well, and the pressure belonging to the Pope uncontrollably spread through the Group Chat.

Yet that outwardly fierce but inwardly weak pressure had no effect on Li Yifei.

[Li Yifei: Oh? Is that so?]

His calm question made it seem as if he were looking at two unreasonable children throwing a tantrum.

[Li Yifei: Then tell me, where exactly did those theories of his come from?]

With one sentence, all of their anger and rebuttals were choked back in their throats again.

They could not say.

Because they truly did not know.

Within Spirit Hall, Bibi Dong's breathing became incredibly heavy.

She realized she had fallen into a terrifying logical dead end.

She could not prove that Yu Xiaogang's theories had been researched by him personally.

Yet her emotions would not allow her to accept Li Yifei's accusation of plagiarism.

That tear in her understanding caused her unprecedented pain.

Li Yifei seemed to see through their predicament, but he felt no sympathy whatsoever and merely continued his "lesson."

[Li Yifei: Take his most famous Soul Ring Absorption Age-Limit Theory, for example.]

[Li Yifei: The first Soul Ring cannot exceed four hundred and twenty-three years, the second cannot exceed seven hundred and sixty-four years... Those numbers are precise down to the ones place. They sound impressive, right?]

[Li Yifei: Such conclusions require an unimaginably vast body of data to support them.]

[Li Yifei: He could not have just made them up off the top of his head while meditating at home, could he?]

With butcher-like precision, his words dissected that theory, which countless people regarded as gospel, until every part was laid bare.

In the Chat Group, the young girls all unconsciously held their breaths.

They did not understand what a data sample was, but they understood that reaching such precise conclusions had to be extremely, extremely difficult.

[World's Number One Princess: Wow... Being precise down to the ones place sounds so amazing. But... how could he know whether a Soul Ring was exactly four hundred and twenty-two years old or four hundred and twenty-three years old? By looking at it with his eyes?]

Ning Rongrong once again displayed her talent for asking innocent questions that dealt fatal blows.

That question left everyone stunned.

That was right.

The age of a Soul Ring was inherently a vague concept.

Soul Masters could only roughly judge its age range by the color of the Soul Ring.

Yellow meant a hundred years, purple meant a thousand years, and black meant ten thousand years.

Who could tell the difference between a five-hundred-year Soul Ring and a six-hundred-year Soul Ring?

And who could determine that the limit of a Soul Ring was exactly four hundred and twenty-three years rather than four hundred and twenty-four?

What would happen if it were one year more? Would someone immediately explode and die?

There was simply no way to verify it!

[Little Fox Demon: That does seem... right. When we hunt Soul Beasts, even the teachers can only estimate their age roughly. I have never heard of anyone being able to determine it precisely down to the ones place.]

Hu Liena said thoughtfully.

[A Little Goose: My grandfather says a Soul Beast's age is related to its size, Soul Power strength, and living environment. There is no fixed standard at all. That Yu Xiaogang's theory sounds like... a fortune-teller's chant.]

Dugu Yan's analogy was crude, yet exceptionally fitting.

The young girls' discussion was like a series of small hammers, relentlessly striking Bibi Dong and Liu Erlong's already fragile nerves.

Li Yifei's thoughts rang out again, carrying an unquestionable judgment.

[Li Yifei: So here is the question.]

[Li Yifei: Where did the data for this part of the theory come from?]

[Li Yifei: Yu Xiaogang, a level-twenty-nine Soul Grandmaster—how many times did he personally verify the data?]

[Li Yifei: Did he have one hundred Soul Masters absorb four-hundred-and-twenty-three-year Soul Rings, then have another hundred absorb four-hundred-and-twenty-four-year Soul Rings, and compare the success and death rates?]