"Creak—"
Someone roughly shoved open the rickety wooden door of Dorm Seven from the outside.
Light from the hallway sliced through the crack in the door, cutting into the dim dormitory.
Dust danced in the beam of light, clearly visible.
The young doorman bent at the waist.
With a fawning smile, he made a gesture inviting Yu Xiaogang inside.
"Grandmaster, mind the threshold. This place is terribly unlucky. If it weren't for that boy named Tang San, you wouldn't have had to set foot here yourself."
Yu Xiaogang limped over the threshold.
He had changed into a clean gray robe.
But the purplish bruise on his cheek, left when he had been thrown into a stinking ditch, was still obvious.
His hair still carried a faint, sour stench.
He clenched his fists tightly.
He struggled to keep his back straight.
He tried to preserve the pride and aloofness befitting a "scholar."
The Martial Soul Hall Holy Son had crushed his dignity in front of everyone at the academy gates.
His reputation was in tatters.
But he hadn't left Nuoding City.
He couldn't accept it.
He had waited half his life to find a genius like Tang San, who possessed Twin Martial Souls.
As long as he could secretly take Tang San as his disciple.
As long as he could prove all his theories through Tang San.
Then, when Tang San stood at the peak of the continent one day.
He, Yu Xiaogang, would still be a revered mentor to emperors.
After the doorman had knocked that certificate proving Tang San's Innate Full Soul Power to the ground.
Yu Xiaogang had become certain that Tang San was stubborn and valued personal bonds above all else.
As long as he played on Tang San's feelings.
Tang San wouldn't care about Spirit Hall's ban.
"Where's Tang San's bed?"
Yu Xiaogang entered the dormitory.
His gaze swept over the two rows of battered wooden beds.
He deliberately lowered his voice.
He spoke with an air of condescending command.
No one in Dorm Seven answered.
More than a dozen Work-Study Students stood where they were.
They watched Yu Xiaogang with strange expressions.
Wang Sheng even instinctively took half a step back.
He cleared the way behind him.
Yu Xiaogang furrowed his brows.
He followed Wang Sheng and the others' gazes.
His eyes passed over the crowd.
They came to rest on the battered wooden chair in the middle of the dormitory.
When he saw who was sitting in it.
Yu Xiaogang's pupils shrank abruptly.
His heart missed a beat.
His breath stopped completely.
Su Chen.
The six-year-old Holy Son who had ruined his reputation and haunted him like a nightmare.
He was sitting in the Work-Study Students' dormitory, perfectly at ease.
He was even idly toying with a gleaming Gold Soul Coin.
His black robe embroidered with gold silk still radiated an eye-catching air of nobility in the dim room.
Yu Xiaogang's legs suddenly went weak.
He nearly dropped to his knees.
He backed away in terror.
His back slammed into the doorframe.
It made a dull thud.
"G-Grandmaster, what's wrong?"
The doorman was startled by Yu Xiaogang's reaction.
He followed Yu Xiaogang's gaze to Su Chen.
The doorman had been frightened unconscious by the Temple Knights' oppressive presence at the academy gates.
He hadn't gotten a good look at Su Chen.
Now he saw a richly dressed child sitting in Dorm Seven.
His face immediately turned menacing.
"Where'd this little noble brat come from? Showing off in the Work-Study Students' dormitory? Get out, now! Don't you dare offend the Grandmaster."
The doorman cursed as he spoke.
He rolled up his sleeves and rushed forward to grab Su Chen by the collar.
Su Chen didn't even raise an eyelid.
He gave the Gold Soul Coin a gentle flick with his right thumb.
It became a golden streak of light.
It whistled through the air.
It struck the doorman's kneecap with pinpoint accuracy.
Crack.
"Ahhh—"
The doorman let out a pig-like squeal.
His kneecap shattered instantly.
He dropped straight to his knees on the wooden floor in front of Su Chen.
His momentum sent him sliding half a meter across the floor.
His forehead slammed into the tiles by Su Chen's feet.
Blood streamed down.
Su Chen leaned back in his chair.
His gaze passed over the howling doorman.
It fixed on Yu Xiaogang, trembling all over in the doorway.
"This morning, I stripped you of your lifetime honorary elder title."
"I cut off your allowance for mooching off the Hall."
Su Chen spoke softly.
But his words were like an icy knife.
They scraped across Yu Xiaogang's bones.
"I thought you'd scurry out of Nuoding City like a beaten dog."
"I didn't expect you to have such a hard head."
Su Chen rose to his feet.
He strolled over to Yu Xiaogang.
"Here to pick up the luggage of that Tang San who plays with Hidden Weapons?"
Yu Xiaogang's Adam's apple bobbed violently.
Cold sweat rolled in heavy drops down his forehead.
In front of Su Chen.
He couldn't even muster the courage to lie.
"Y-Your Highness the Holy Son."
Yu Xiaogang gritted his teeth.
He clung to the last shred of his dignity.
"You've already stripped me of everything I had in Spirit Hall. I'm just an ordinary civilian now."
"The headmaster of Nuoding Academy is an old friend of mine. He invited me to stay at the academy."
"However overbearing Spirit Hall may be, it can't restrict a civilian's freedom, can it?"
"A civilian's freedom?"
Su Chen gave a quiet laugh.
It was as if he'd heard the biggest joke in the world.
He suddenly reached out.
He clamped a hand around Yu Xiaogang's throat.
The terrifying strength he'd gained after the Marrow Cleansing Pill took effect burst forth.
With one hand, he lifted Yu Xiaogang's hundred-plus-pound body into the air.
Yu Xiaogang's feet kicked wildly.
He desperately tried to pry Su Chen's fingers off his throat.
But it was like an ant trying to shake a tree.
He couldn't budge them in the slightest.
The intense feeling of suffocation made his eyes roll back.
His face turned a dark red.
The Work-Study Students in Dorm Seven were all dumbstruck.
They stared at their newly chosen leader.
He could lift an adult with one hand.
He didn't even break a sweat.
How strong was he?
"Do you think that if you shamelessly take Tang San as your disciple, you'll still get a chance to turn things around?"
Su Chen stared into Yu Xiaogang's bloodshot eyes.
He lowered his voice.
Only the two of them could hear him.
"Do you think that just because you've figured out Twin Martial Souls, you can guide his cultivation?"
"You want him to absorb a four-hundred-year-old beast-type Soul Ring as his First Soul Ring."
"Can you guarantee that his Blue Silver Grass will withstand that soul beast's frenzied resentment?"
Su Chen's eyes brimmed with mockery.
"You can't. You're just gambling."
"If you win, you become a renowned theoretical master across the continent."
"If you lose, Tang San bursts apart and dies. You shed a few tears, then go find your next test subject."
Yu Xiaogang's body began to tremble violently.
The darkness and selfishness buried deep in his heart.
Su Chen had laid it bare without holding anything back.
There was no room left for him to disguise himself.
"Thud."
Su Chen released his grip.
Yu Xiaogang crumpled to the floor like a heap of mud.
He clutched his throat and coughed violently.
He greedily gulped in air.
Su Chen looked down at him.
His voice returned to its normal volume.
"You're trash, willing to stake even your disciple's life just to prove your laughable theories. You think you have any right to talk about freedom?"
Those words.
Carried clearly to everyone in Dorm Seven.
Xiao Wu had been watching the commotion with simple curiosity.
But when she heard Su Chen's words.
Her big pink eyes narrowed sharply.
The rabbit ears atop her head sprang bolt upright.
As a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast who had taken human form.
No one understood the rules for Soul Masters absorbing Soul Rings better than she did.
A Plant-type Martial Soul absorbing an animal-type Soul Ring—
That was no different from courting death.
The resentment and spiritual impact that erupted in the instant an animal Soul Beast died—
There was no way a fragile Blue Silver Grass could withstand them.
Even with the Mysterious Heaven Skill protecting the body,
the rejection on a spiritual level would leave the absorber with only a one-in-ten-thousand chance of survival.
"You old man. You're actually using someone else's life for an experiment?"
Xiao Wu planted her hands on her hips
and walked up to Yu Xiaogang.
Her delicate little face was full of undisguised scorn and disgust.
"Forcing a Plant-type Martial Soul to absorb an animal-type Soul Ring—if their attributes clash, the Sea of Consciousness will explode in an instant."
"You don't even understand such basic common sense, yet you dare call yourself a Grandmaster?"
Xiao Wu's voice was clear and pleasant,
but to Yu Xiaogang's ears,
it rang louder than Su Chen's slap.
Even a six-year-old girl could easily expose the holes in his theory.
The scrap of fig leaf he'd been so proud of
had been torn to shreds.
"N-no... that's not it. I've worked through my theory countless times. It's absolutely feasible."
Yu Xiaogang slumped to the ground,
still trying to defend himself feebly.
"Worked through it?"
Xiao Wu sneered.
She was the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soft Bone Rabbit.
In her hundred thousand years in the Star Dou Great Forest, she'd seen life and death countless times.
She hated hypocritical humans most of all.
"Worked through it with your mouth?"
"If you really think it's feasible, why don't you try absorbing the Soul Ring of a poisonous plant yourself?"
"You coward with no ability—you can only use children's lives to fill the hole."
Xiao Wu turned
and looked at Su Chen.
The wariness and guardedness in her eyes had lessened.
In their place was a hint of approval.
"Su Chen, you did well. A fraud like that deserves to be driven out. If he stays here, he'll only hurt people."
Su Chen watched Xiao Wu's indignant expression,
and the corner of his mouth lifted in a barely noticeable smile.
As expected of someone who'd undergone Soul Beast Transformation—
her instincts and perception of the essence of life were exceptionally sharp.
In the original story,
Tang San had won Xiao Wu over with stolen Hidden Weapons and calculated gestures of concern,
making her blindly trust him and his master.
Now,
with Su Chen exposing them in advance,
Yu Xiaogang and Tang San's images in Xiao Wu's heart
had become synonymous with "hypocrisy" and "disregard for human life."
That seed had been planted.
Tang San wouldn't get so much as a shred of affection from Xiao Wu in this lifetime.
"Sister Xiao Wu is right."
Su Chen picked up where she'd left off.
He gave Xiao Wu all the credit.
"Dorm Seven has no place for trash like this."
Su Chen turned around
and faced the corridor.
"Cardinal."
The Cardinal, who'd been waiting quietly outside, immediately pushed open the door and entered.
The pressure of an eighty-third-rank Soul Douluo instantly enveloped all of Dorm Seven.
The gatekeeper, who'd already been kneeling, was so frightened that he wet himself.
"Your Highness the Holy Son, your subordinate is here."
The Cardinal dropped to one knee,
his manner utterly respectful.
Yu Xiaogang watched the Soul Douluo Grand Cardinal, someone even the Nuoding City Lord had to kneel before,
bow and scrape before Su Chen like this.
The light in his eyes faded completely.
He knew
he wouldn't be able to stay at Nuoding Academy either.
"Go find the principal of Nuoding Academy."
Su Chen's voice was icy.
"Tell him that if I see that fraud named Yu Xiaogang anywhere in Nuoding City after the time it takes an incense stick to burn,"
"Nuoding Academy can shut down for good."
"All faculty and staff will be treated as accomplices of Martial Soul Hall traitors."
"Understood."
The Cardinal rose
and grabbed Yu Xiaogang by the back of his collar, like a chick.
He didn't give him a chance to say a word.
He dragged him straight out of Dorm Seven.
Two Temple Knights also hauled the gatekeeper away like a dead dog.
The corridor soon fell silent as the grave.
The Work-Study Students in Dorm Seven didn't dare breathe too loudly.
They looked at Su Chen
with more than admiration—
there was deep awe in their eyes.
With a single word,
he could decide whether a Soul Master Academy lived or died.
That was the power of the Martial Soul Hall Holy Son.
Su Chen turned away
and looked at Xiao Wu beside him.
The coldness and pressure about him vanished in an instant.
In their place was a gentleness fitting for his age.
"Sorry you had to see that. Just dealt with some rotten apples in Spirit Hall."
Su Chen shrugged,
looking quite casual.
Xiao Wu blinked her big eyes.
Her rabbit ears bobbed cheerfully twice.
She moved closer to Su Chen
and looked him up and down.
"You've got a temper, but you don't mess around when you act. I like that."
Soul Beasts were naturally straightforward.
Su Chen's decisive, no-nonsense way of doing things
fit the laws of survival in the Star Dou Great Forest perfectly.
In Xiao Wu's eyes,
he was far better than those humans who mouthed benevolence and righteousness but stabbed people in the back.
Su Chen smiled.
He looked at the Work-Study Students, who were still dazed.
"Wang Sheng, did you buy the bedding?"
Wang Sheng snapped out of it.
He hurriedly pointed at the pile of brand-new quilts and bedding outside the door.
"I-I bought it, boss. It's all the best stuff in town, and there are still forty-five Gold Soul Coins left."
He shakily held out the money bag to Su Chen.
Su Chen didn't take it.
"I said it was for Dorm Seven's food expenses. You keep it."
He turned to Xiao Wu.
His gaze fell on her flat stomach.
"You're hungry, aren't you?"
Xiao Wu instinctively rubbed her stomach.
It obligingly let out a growling protest.
Her little face reddened, a rare sight.
But she quickly lifted her chin again.
"I am a little hungry. Didn't you say you'd treat us? Dorm Seven's boss can't go back on his word."
"Of course I won't."
Su Chen walked to the door
and made a gentlemanly gesture inviting her to go first.
"Come on. We'll go to the best restaurant in Nuoding City and have carrot-braised ribs."
At the mention of carrots,
Xiao Wu's eyes lit up like stars.
"You do have good taste."
She clasped her hands behind her back
and stepped lightly across the threshold.
"Wang Sheng, you all come too."
Su Chen called out,
then led Dorm Seven's crowd of followers out of Nuoding Academy in a grand procession.
All that remained was Tang San in the infirmary,
his broken finger freshly bandaged.
He stared at the empty doorway,
and sank into a deathly silence.
He knew
he'd lost the only theoretical guide he might have relied on in this world.
And the seed of revenge in his heart
had quietly taken root.
Before you continue