"You don't know what the hell you're talking about!"
Yu Xiaogang roared until his voice went hoarse.
This number was one of his proudest research findings.
Accurate down to the year.
It was the very height of academic rigor and elegance.
Watching Yu Xiaogang descend into a frenzy, Shui Bing'er shook her head.
The disdain in her eyes vanished, replaced by pity for a fool.
"Four hundred and twenty-three years..."
"So this is your truth?"
Shui Bing'er sighed.
"I was wrong to argue with an ignorant fool who's never seen beyond his own little well."
"Fine."
"Let me show you just how ridiculous your so-called truth really is."
Before her words had even faded, Soul Power surged around Shui Bing'er.
She made no grand opening gesture.
Nine Soul Rings slowly rose from beneath her feet, pulsing with a light that was almost suffocating.
Yu Xiaogang looked down at them instinctively.
The next second, his mouth, which had been roaring moments earlier, gaped as if someone had stuffed a brick into it. Not another sound came out.
His eyes nearly bulged from their sockets, bloodshot and filled with incomprehensible horror.
The first Soul Ring beneath Shui Bing'er's feet—
It wasn't white.
Nor was it the yellow one his theory claimed was ideal.
It was a deep, regal purple that radiated a terrifying aura...
A Thousand-Year Soul Ring!
Her First Soul Ring was a thousand years old!
And judging by how deep its purple hue was, it was definitely more than a thousand years old!
The purple light slowly swirled through the air.
Yu Xiaogang stared fixedly at the purple ring beneath Shui Bing'er's feet.
"No... That's impossible..."
His mind went completely blank.
"It's fake... It must be an illusion..."
Yu Xiaogang staggered back a step, clutching his head as his fingernails dug deep into his scalp.
He couldn't believe it.
If the First Soul Ring could be a thousand years old, what did that make the decades he'd spent on his research?
He had endured scorn, been cast out by his family, and mocked by the world, yet still clung to his "truth." Could it all have been nothing but a pile of worthless paper?
Was the wisdom he took pride in nothing more than stubborn ignorance?
A tidal wave of self-doubt engulfed him, making him forget that Ma Hongjun was still groaning in pain nearby.
"Ah... It hurts... Teacher... Help me..."
Ma Hongjun clutched his crotch and writhed on the ground in agony. Sweat and dirt smeared together, making him look like a fat pig waiting to be slaughtered.
But Yu Xiaogang couldn't hear him.
All he could see was that purple Soul Ring.
Shui Bing'er looked at the mentally shattered middle-aged man before her, her disdain deepening.
She hadn't wanted to waste her breath.
But seeing him like this suddenly brought to mind a few rumors about this "Grandmaster."
"I remember now."
Shui Bing'er spoke abruptly, her cool voice like ice shards striking together. It instantly broke through Yu Xiaogang's stupor.
She raised a slender finger and pointed at him, a mocking smile tugging at her lips.
"You're that 'Grandmaster,' Yu Xiaogang—the one expelled from Spirit Hall and driven out of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, who had no choice but to run off to some backwater place like Nuoding City to swindle people, aren't you?"
Yu Xiaogang jerked his head up.
His eyes were unfocused, but at the word "swindler," he instinctively tried to protest.
"I... I'm not a swindler..."
"I'm a theoretical master... a pioneer of the Soul Master World..."
Shui Bing'er ignored his excuses and shook her head pityingly.
"Those so-called Ten Core Competitiveness Theories."
"'There are no useless Martial Souls, only useless Soul Masters'?"
"The limits for absorbing Soul Rings?"
Yu Xiaogang's body trembled with every term Shui Bing'er uttered.
"You didn't come up with any of that."
Shui Bing'er spoke calmly, but every word struck home:
"The Spirit Hall archives had records about Martial Soul Mutations and Soul Ring limits centuries ago."
"You took advantage of Bibi Dong's feelings for you and sneaked a look at ancient texts that only the Pope and the elders were allowed to read."
"Then you took the earlier scholars' theories and exceptional cases out of context and cobbled them together into your own."
"You couldn't even copy them properly."
Shui Bing'er stepped forward, closing in on Yu Xiaogang.
"The ancient texts clearly stated that those with strong physiques could absorb Soul Rings beyond their usual limit."
"But to hide your insecurity over your flawed Martial Soul, you made up a hard limit of four hundred and twenty-three years."
"You're not just useless."
"You're a thief who deceives the world and misleads his students, stealing credit for other people's work."
Pfft—
Yu Xiaogang felt a sharp pain in his chest and spat out a mouthful of blood.
"Lies... You're lying!"
Blood filled Yu Xiaogang's mouth, his expression twisted like a demon's.
"Where's your proof?!"
"What proof do you have that I plagiarized?!"
"Show me the proof!"
He screamed hysterically like a gambler who'd lost everything.
As long as there was no proof, he could keep denying it.
As long as he kept denying it, he could still be the respected Grandmaster.
Watching Yu Xiaogang continue to put up a futile resistance, Shui Bing'er's mockery turned to utter indifference.
She looked at him as if he were a pile of dog shit on the side of the road.
Even one more glance would disgust her.
"Proof?"
Shui Bing'er chuckled.
"Don't you know what kind of person you are?"
"Do I really have to prove it to you?"
"How... pitiful."
She stopped paying Yu Xiaogang any attention and turned toward the enormous ice sculpture standing at the school gate.
The humiliation of being utterly ignored was worse than being killed.
Yu Xiaogang stood rooted to the spot, his body stiff and his face frozen in a comical expression somewhere between laughter and tears.
"T-teacher..."
Just then, a greasy hand grabbed Yu Xiaogang by the ankle.
Ma Hongjun's face was deathly pale, his lips purple.
The agony of being rendered unable to have children had numbed him, but his instinct to survive kept him barely conscious.
He could see it now.
They were no match for Shui Bing'er.
If they didn't run, they really would die here.
"R-run..."
Using the last of his strength, Ma Hongjun yanked Yu Xiaogang's leg, then scrambled away in a roll.
The tug finally brought Yu Xiaogang back to his senses.
He glanced at the terrifying ice sculpture, then at Shui Bing'er, who had her back to him.
In the end, fear overcame his pride.
Grimacing, he didn't even dare help Ma Hongjun. Instead, he turned and fled in abject disgrace like a stray dog.
He didn't even bother with the luxurious carriage.
The two stumbled away one behind the other, disappearing at the end of the street and leaving a trail of glaringly bright blood behind.
Shui Bing'er's gaze fell on Xiao Wu, trapped inside the ice sculpture.
Her terrified expression and despairing eyes had been perfectly preserved.
"This thing is a bit of an eyesore by the school gate."
Shui Bing'er furrowed her brow slightly.
There was something strange about the aura coming from this rabbit.
"Never mind."
Shui Bing'er waved her hand, and several Skywater Academy students immediately ran over.
"Take this to the back mountain."
"Leave it to our master, Snow Empress, to deal with."