Seriously Over the Limit

Why did Tang Hao know the news had come from Spirit Hall?

Because Spirit Hall was the only one that knew!

Tang Hao had personally taken Ah Yin around Spirit Hall's territory, so of course he knew that Spirit Hall was the only one who knew the truth about her.

Otherwise, why would he have dragged his pregnant Soul Beast wife, whose true identity could be discovered at any moment, all over the place?

After all, the world was huge, and there were only a handful of Titled Douluo. If he'd been a little careful, he wouldn't have run into anyone.

What had he been thinking at the time?

Just trying his luck. If it didn't work, so be it. If it did, that would be a surprise—a matter of fate.

He hadn't discussed it with his father or older brother. He'd just been momentarily bewitched and gone through with it.

But then everything spiraled out of control.

Ah Yin's identity was exposed, and Tang Hao and the Clear Sky Sect became targets of public outrage.

Spirit Hall had completely refused to play by the rules.

Tang Hao was always fretting over whether he truly loved Ah Yin, and from time to time, he felt guilty toward his wife and family...

In the end, Tang Hao chose to blame everything on his enemies, such as Spirit Hall, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect, and so on.

With someone to hate, revenge was only natural. But Tang Hao didn't have the strength for it, so in the end, he could only give up on himself and hole up in a little mountain village, becoming a drunken blacksmith.

It wasn't until Tang San awakened his Martial Soul that Tang Hao had hope of revenge again.

Yes, he pinned his wish to go against the entire continent and take revenge on all the major powers on a child who had only just awakened his Martial Soul.

Titled Douluo Tang Hao really had some ideas.

The theoretical master Yu Xiaogang had plenty of ideas of his own.

After seeing the effects of Tang San's Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul following its absorption of a Soul Ring, he became even more certain that his theory was correct.

He also began planning which Soul Beast Tang San should use for his second Soul Ring.

He didn't care how a child like Tang San had managed to kill a four-hundred-year-old Datura Snake after he passed out. After all, Tang Hao was watching. How could anything go wrong?

Still, Tang Hao really was ruthless. He'd completely disregarded the danger to his own child and only stepped in after Yu Xiaogang had passed out.

Meanwhile, Tang San also began looking for a blacksmith shop, planning to practice as Tang Hao had taught him.

But the process was rather bumpy. Once they saw his age, the people at the blacksmith shops all turned him down immediately.

A child who wasn't even as tall as the furnace wanted to apprentice at a blacksmith shop?

What a joke.

Only after Tang San revealed that he was a Soul Master and demonstrated his strength did the blacksmith shop take him on as an apprentice.

But in private, everyone thought the little Soul Master was out of his mind.

"Shouldn't a kid that age be studying at school? Why come here and mess around?"

"Childhood is the easiest time to raise your Soul Power. I didn't work hard at school back then, and that's why I couldn't graduate. I still regret it now. Sigh!"

"Should we try to talk him out of it? We can't let a good kid ruin his future!"

"That kid's got quite a temper. When the boss tried to talk him out of it, he just showed him his Soul Ring. It was terrifying. I nearly thought something was about to happen."

The blacksmiths couldn't help discussing the new kid during their break.

"Maybe the kid's broke, so he came here to earn money for living expenses."

Someone nearby laughed. "How could that be? Soul Masters with Soul Rings can collect a Gold Soul Coin in monthly benefits from Spirit Hall. How could he be broke?"

"True."

When break was over, everyone got back to hammering away at the iron.

After Yu Xiaogang learned what Tang San was doing, he chose to indulge him and even offered him quite a bit of help.

With Yu Xiaogang's help, Tang San had even more freedom at school.

Apart from a few classes he considered necessary, he was nowhere to be seen the rest of the time. Skipping class was a regular occurrence.

He had to take general classes to learn about Soul Beasts and Soul Masters, go to the blacksmith shop to work iron, and make time to cultivate the Mysterious Heaven Skill and Purple Demon Eye...

Honestly, only the Mysterious Heaven Skill was powerful enough to make this kind of time management work. Otherwise, his cultivation would have fallen far behind other geniuses of the same level.

At first, the teachers would ask where Tang San had gone.

But then Yu Xiaogang stepped in and said Tang San was his disciple and he would teach him. The teachers exchanged glances, then left the matter alone.

They really couldn't make sense of the kid. At first, when they saw he'd obtained a Soul Ring but hadn't graduated early, they assumed he was staying to make up for what he didn't know about Soul Beasts.

After all, intermediate Soul Master academies taught more advanced material. They didn't really teach things like Soul Beast weaknesses or how to identify their age anymore, focusing instead on cultivation and breaking through.

Kai, who also had Innate Full Soul Power and was eligible to graduate early, was poring over books, planning to learn these important fundamentals before graduating early.

He wanted to graduate early, but that didn't mean he wanted to graduate as an ignoramus.

He had a good mind and a strong memory. He had nearly memorized the Soul Beast compendium at Nuoding Academy, and had already started studying the basic knowledge of Soul Masters.

Kai had already arranged his early graduation date with the dean, who would recommend him to an intermediate Soul Master academy.

At Nuoding Academy, was Kai low-key? Usually, yes.

But not entirely.

He didn't like showing off, never went around bragging about his Soul Ring, and never went looking for trouble.

But at the very start of the school year, he'd made a brutal example of the noble students who had come looking for trouble, beating them so badly that no one ever bothered him again.

These kids looked immature, but in reality, they bullied the weak and feared the strong. Once they realized Kai was no pushover, they kept their distance.

Wang Sheng and the other Work-Study Students were relieved. It was enough that their new leader was dependable.

After seeing Kai fight, Xiao Wu was interested in him for a long time and kept finding excuses to approach him.

"Instead of trying to be friends with me, I think you should pay more attention to your own cultivation." Kai sat on his dormitory bed, coming out of his meditative state and looking at the pretty young girl.

"What do you mean? I'm going out of my way to be friends with you, and you don't even want to? And what's wrong with my cultivation?" Xiao Wu sat by the table, munching on her favorite carrots.

"With all due respect, I don't see the mindset or determination of a strong person in you. You don't seem to care much about cultivation—or at least, you don't seem to feel any urgency about it." Kai twisted the knife.

"Since the school year started, you've spent all your free time playing around, apart from cultivating in class. Even Wang Sheng and the others take their cultivation time at the academy seriously and treasure it."

Xiao Wu didn't care. "They went shopping with me yesterday."

"There are a lot of them. They take turns keeping you company. It doesn't take much time."

Xiao Wu sat glumly on her bed and looked around. Sure enough, Wang Sheng and the others were nowhere to be seen.

"Don't bother looking. They all went to the cultivation room."

Xiao Wu felt even worse.

As a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, she didn't pay much attention to the passage of time.

That was the dulled sense of time that came with being a long-lived species.

She didn't know how short human lives were.

Nor did she understand how precious the golden years of cultivation were for humans.

As a Soul Beast, she'd spent her days eating and drinking, cultivating now and then. With her mother and Da Ming and Er Ming looking after her, she'd never faced a life-or-death crisis. She'd simply drifted along until she became a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast.

She felt no urgency at Nuoding Academy either. Apart from losing to Kai, she'd beaten everyone else.

When a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast took human form, it gave up its powerful strength and body in exchange for top-tier human cultivation talent and the possibility of becoming a god.

In other words, Xiao Wu's human body had the potential to become a god.

Yet during the entrance test at Shrek Academy in the original story, this potential only put her two levels above Zhu Zhuqing, who had Innate Soul Power at level seven, despite being the same age. Xiao Wu was level 29, while Zhu Zhuqing was level 27.

When their Soul Power had first awakened, Xiao Wu had been three levels ahead of Zhu Zhuqing. After six years, the gap between the two geniuses with Innate Full Soul Power and Zhu Zhuqing hadn't widened much.

That was partly due to Xiao Wu's own laziness, and partly because Zhu Zhuqing had cultivated desperately hard.

This was the difference between adversity and comfort.

Without competition, there was no motivation.

Xiao Wu's rival of the same age, Tang San, was a "master of time management" who didn't devote all his energy to cultivation. Since she and Tang San were at about the same level, she naturally had no motivation.

Kai didn't have that problem.

His coworkers were all fiercely competitive.

Xiang Yu was already close to level 24.

After all, absorbing two Soul Rings in a row had given him enough feedback to gain a level, and with his divine talent, cultivating was like riding a rocket.

Kai was afraid his coworker would compete in the Advanced Soul Master Tournament with the cultivation of a Soul Emperor or even a Soul Saint.

That wasn't an exaggeration on Kai's part. It was a reasonable prediction.

With Innate Level 20 Soul Power and top-tier talent, he was currently gaining about one level every two months. His speed would slow as his level rose.

But the Advanced Soul Master Tournament was still nine years away, when he would be fifteen. If he gained four or five levels a year, he would probably reach Soul Saint level.

It wasn't difficult. As their cultivation rose, so would their reputation. These heroes could trade reputation to Qian Xunji for equipment and double experience cards.

Oh, and Qian Xunji had already successfully won Old Poison over.

With Immortal Herbs boosting them too, Kai figured he could treat Spirit Hall's team like a boss fight.

They were seriously overpowered. Who knew, they might even have a Martial Soul Fusion Skill!