Tang San's eyes flashed, and he clenched both fists, as though he'd found the lighthouse guiding his life.
Listening to the praise around him, Yu Xiaogang could no longer keep the corners of his mouth from lifting. He raised a hand, signaling for everyone to quiet down.
"Second point."
Grandmaster held up a second finger, his gaze sharpening as if he'd grasped the truth of the world:
"The strength of one's Innate Soul Power is directly proportional to the quality of one's Martial Soul."
"In other words, the stronger the Martial Soul, the greater the Innate Soul Power upon awakening. Innate Full Soul Power often indicates a top-tier Martial Soul. Those with only half a level of Innate Soul Power—or none at all—usually have... extremely low-quality Martial Souls."
"Hiss—!!!"
Another wave of gasps swept through the crowd.
"That's so incisive!"
"Grandmaster saw right through the pattern at a glance! What a genius!"
"That's incredible... He managed to sum up a principle like that. How many books must he have read?"
As the cries of "genius" and "incredible" rose and fell around him, Yu Xiaogang felt every pore on his body relax. He was practically floating.
Su Yun sat off to the side with his head lowered, his pen flying across his notebook as he... drew little turtles.
All the while, he kept chiming in.
"Incisive! Absolutely incisive! As expected of Grandmaster!"
And yet.
In Su Yun's Tactical Earpiece, the Earth scientists who'd been debating animatedly fell silent all at once.
After several seconds of dead silence,
a logic professor's voice broke in, colored with confusion and bemusement:
"Wait... This doesn't add up."
"001, this man's logic... Why does it feel a bit like... he's fighting himself?"
He looked at the two theories just recorded on the screen and furrowed his brow.
"If Innate Soul Power is proportional to quality, then low Soul Power means a low-quality Martial Soul. And if Martial Souls come in different grades, doesn't that mean some are trash?"
"Wouldn't that mean his first theory—that there are no trash Martial Souls—is contradicting itself?"
A knowing, mischievous smile finally tugged at Su Yun's lips.
Caught on at last?
"Tap, tap, tap."
Listening to the experts' complaints through his earpiece, Su Yun suddenly rapped his pen against the desk, the sharp sound interrupting Grandmaster's self-satisfied reverie.
"Um... May I interrupt, Grandmaster?"
Su Yun adjusted his Sunglasses, brow furrowing as he spoke in a puzzled tone.
"Aren't these two theories of yours a bit... self-contradictory?"
The whole room fell silent.
Yu Xiaogang stood with his hands behind his back, brow furrowed as he looked at the child in Sunglasses.
"What do you mean? What contradiction?"
Su Yun put on an innocent, earnest expression.
"Grandmaster, let's work through this."
"Your second theory, put simply, says that the higher one's Innate Soul Power, the better one's Martial Soul. The lower one's Innate Soul Power, the worse one's Martial Soul."
Su Yun pointed to a Blue Silver Grass beside them. "All right, then. Blue Silver Grass has zero Innate Soul Power. By your second standard, it's the most useless Martial Soul of all. That's the logic you just admitted to, right?"
"Since you've admitted that trash Martial Souls exist..."
Su Yun suddenly raised his voice and spread his hands, his face full of disbelief:
"Then when you loudly declared in your first theory that there are no trash Martial Souls, were you treating us all like fools?"
"One moment you say it's trash, and the next you say it isn't."
"Are you making your left brain attack your right brain?"
The room fell deathly silent.
Every Work-Study Student stared wide-eyed, their minds racing.
Su Yun gave Yu Xiaogang no chance to catch his breath. He pressed on relentlessly:
"If Blue Silver Grass really isn't trash, then why does it have no Innate Soul Power? Why is it so slow to cultivate? Why can't it beat other Martial Souls?"
"And if it is trash, doesn't that mean you're forcing the blame for the Martial Soul's fundamental flaws onto Soul Masters, claiming they simply didn't work hard enough?"
Su Yun closed his notebook and leaned forward slightly, staring at Yu Xiaogang's rigid face.
"Grandmaster, if you translate your theories into plain language, they amount to an extreme form of talent-determinism."
"Deep down, you believe that people with top-tier Martial Souls and noble backgrounds are naturally good Soul Masters, even if they just coast through life."
"Meanwhile, commoners who awaken a hoe or Blue Silver Grass can struggle and fight with all their might just to survive, but if their talent keeps them from advancing, you call them trash who failed because they didn't work hard enough!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the mood among the Work-Study Students, who'd initially just been watching the show, suddenly changed.
Long-suppressed resentment and anger spread through the crowd like wildfire.
"I'd like to ask you something, Grandmaster!"
A scrawny Work-Study Student gritted his teeth, tears welling in his eyes as he pointed to his own chest:
"Our talent may be poor, and we may not have been born into a good family, but we've never hurt anyone! We give everything we have, every single day!"
"Why do you get to say we deserve to fail? In your eyes, is all our desperate effort just proof that we're useless?!"
"We want to get stronger, too! But who's ever given us the chance?!"
The Work-Study Students' angry shouts rose one after another as they glared at Yu Xiaogang.
There was no respect for a teacher in their eyes, only the backlash of those humiliated by the arrogant theories of someone in power.
Faced with the furious crowd, Yu Xiaogang's face turned deathly pale, and he instinctively shuffled backward.
The theories he'd been so proud of seemed utterly hollow and cruel beside the rough hands and anguished cries of these children from the bottom rung of society.
Watching this, Su Yun's gaze grew colder.
He turned back to Yu Xiaogang and delivered his final verdict on this farce:
"Do you see it now, Grandmaster?"
"How is this encouraging the weak? You're just making excuses for the arrogance of the strong while crushing the dignity of the weak all over again!"
"You claim that genes determine strength, then shout that hard work can change everything, and finally pin the blame for failure on the victims."
Su Yun adjusted his Sunglasses, a cold sneer curling his lips:
"Grandmaster, you're not a master of theory. You're selling poisonous feel-good nonsense."
"You..."
Yu Xiaogang's face went deathly pale. He stood frozen, lips trembling, unable to utter a single rebuttal.
"This... This is the dialectical relationship between theories! You don't understand! What does a child like you know?"
Grandmaster was starting to panic.
Desperate to save face, he hurriedly threw out the discovery he was proudest of.
"You're still too young, fixating on the wording! True theory is about innovation! Take my Martial Soul Mimicry Theory!"
Grandmaster stood up, his voice rising an octave.
"I discovered that Plant-type Martial Souls aren't limited to absorbing plant Soul Rings! Under certain conditions, Plant-type Soul Masters can absorb Soul Rings from beasts! This is a groundbreaking discovery that breaks through the boundaries between species!"
The whole room was stunned once more.
Tang San was shaken, too. He'd never heard of anything like this!
Su Yun, however, remained calmly reclined in his chair, twirling his pen like an interviewer watching a job candidate bluff. He asked casually,
"Oh? A groundbreaking discovery? That certainly sounds impressive."
Su Yun looked at Yu Xiaogang, a hint of a smile on his lips.
He wasn't concerned with whether the theory was right or wrong. But he'd keenly sensed there was some secret behind it, and decided to test Yu Xiaogang.
The easiest way to test someone was to deny what they said!
"Then tell me, Grandmaster, where did you get the data for this conclusion?"
Yu Xiaogang blinked. "What?"
"Grandmaster, science demands rigor. Where I come from, any conclusion must be based on large-scale, randomized, double-blind tests."
"You say plants can absorb beast Soul Rings. Where are your experimental data and samples?"
Su Yun raised one finger.
"Did you conduct the experiments yourself? Do you have a Plant-type Martial Soul?"
Su Yun raised a second finger.
"Then how many volunteers did you use for live experiments? What was your sample size? Ten? A hundred?"
"And did you set up a control group? Under the same conditions, how many succeeded, and how many died from rejection when their bodies exploded?"
"Furthermore..."
Su Yun looked Yu Xiaogang up and down, his tone turning contemptuous as he pointed out the most fatal flaw.
"With all due respect, given your strength, you probably can't hunt high-level Soul Beasts for experiments, can you?"
"You've neither experienced it yourself nor had the funds to run experiments..."
Before you continue