When the words "fucking idiot" burst without the slightest restraint from the mouth of Su Chen, who had always carried himself with refined elegance and an otherworldly air,
everyone inside the Listening Rain Pavilion was stunned.
No one had expected that the Storyteller, who had been lofty and aloof just a moment ago, like a Banished Immortal from a painting, would completely abandon his manners the next instant and curse someone right to his face!
That vulgar, streetwise insult, paired with Su Chen's handsome, cold expression, created an intense contrast that was impossible to describe.
"Pfft—cough, cough, cough!"
Inside the Yellow-Grade Private Room on the second floor, Xue Qinghe had been delicately sipping tea from his cup when he suddenly spat it out, then broke into violent, completely unseemly coughing.
But right after that, this usually deep and calculating crown prince couldn't help slapping his thigh and laughing out loud.
"Hahaha! Interesting. This really is interesting!"
Xue Qinghe's clear eyes glittered with delight.
"I thought he was some reclusive master who'd transcended worldly concerns. Who would've guessed he was a madman, arrogant to the bone!"
"Interesting. Truly interesting."
However, compared to Xue Qinghe's attitude of enjoying the spectacle, Yu Xiaogang, in the main hall on the first floor, felt as if he'd been struck by lightning.
"You, you..."
Honey Badger's face had turned purple, like a pig's liver.
He pointed a trembling finger at Su Chen on the stage, his lips quivering. For a long while, he couldn't manage to force out a single complete sentence.
Who was Yu Xiaogang?
He was someone who had once been admired by the current Pope, Bibi Dong, and revered by the Golden Iron Triangle. No matter how much the mainstream rejected his theories, wherever he went, people still had to pinch their noses and call him "Grandmaster"!
But today, in front of this entire crowd, he'd been called a fucking idiot by a storyteller?!
A rush of hot blood surged to his head. Yu Xiaogang's vision went black, and his body lurched violently, nearly sending him tumbling to the ground.
"Teacher!"
Quick-eyed, Tang San hurriedly caught Yu Xiaogang as he staggered.
Seeing his teacher suffer such a terrible humiliation, Tang San was completely enraged!
His eyes were bloodshot. The Mysterious Heaven Skill surged wildly through his body as he fixed his gaze on Su Chen atop the stage.
"How dare you!"
"Su Chen, what are you, to insult my teacher like this?!"
Tang San gritted his teeth, furious enough to laugh. His voice rang through the vast inn:
"You keep calling my teacher a frog in a well, claiming that in that so-called Perfect World, someone in the Blood Moving Realm can wield a hundred thousand jin of strength with one arm!"
"But when all's said and done, it's just you spouting nonsense!"
"You say people can move mountains and fill seas with their bodies alone, without cultivating Soul Power. Where's your proof?"
The more Tang San spoke, the more imposing he became. At last, he strode forward, pressing Su Chen relentlessly as if he'd seized on his greatest weakness:
"If you can't produce proof, then today you're not only a fraud who deceives people for fame and profit, but also a criminal who maliciously insults a pioneer of the Soul Master World!"
"I, Tang San, will risk my life to tear down the signboard of your Listening Rain Pavilion today!"
Sure enough, after Tang San's aggressive barrage of questions, the Spirit Masters who'd been stunned by Su Chen's profanity came back to their senses. The crowd was immediately stirred into righteous fury.
"Exactly! He nearly cursed us into a daze!"
"What good are smooth words? If you've got the guts, prove it!"
"What Suanni? What True Thunder Blood? It's all made-up nonsense!"
"Right! He makes Perfect World sound so amazing, and that Blood Moving Realm so miraculous."
"In the end, it's just an imaginary place he made up to attract attention!"
"No one can have thousands, let alone a hundred thousand jin of strength, just from their body without cultivating Soul Power!"
"Exactly! If you can't prove that someone can have that kind of strength without cultivating Soul Power, then get down here and apologize!"
For a time, the entire inn was filled with shouts and accusations.
After all, no matter how good a story sounded or how terrifying its worldbuilding was, it was still just a story!
Did Perfect World really exist?
How could power capable of moving mountains and filling seas with the body alone possibly exist in reality?
Everyone thought Su Chen was telling a myth that simply didn't exist.
They were all certain that Su Chen couldn't possibly produce any proof.
Because across the entire Douluo Continent, without Soul Power, a person was nothing but a complete waste!
That was reality!
At the same time, watching the scene teeter on the verge of chaos, Xue Qinghe's hand paused slightly around his teacup, and a hint of curiosity flashed through his eyes.
"Su Chen made such absolute claims, placing himself in direct opposition to everything Spirit Masters on the Douluo Continent know."
"Now that they've all turned against him, how will he get out of this?"
However, faced with the nearly uncontrollable accusations from the crowd and Tang San's smug expression as he thought he'd found Su Chen's weakness,
Su Chen atop the stage remained completely unruffled.
He'd been waiting for this moment for a long time.
If he wanted to shatter these low-dimensional natives' worldview, words alone would never convince them. They'd always think he was bragging.
Only after witnessing facts beyond their understanding with their own eyes would they listen obediently.
"Proof?"
Su Chen slowly rose from the armchair atop the stage.
"The proof you want is actually very simple."
As he stood, the folding fan in his hand snapped shut.
Then, under the puzzled gazes of everyone present, Su Chen calmly walked down from the stage, which stood half a zhang high.
He wore a green robe and had an otherworldly air about him. Not the slightest trace of Soul Power emanated from his body.
Under Tang San's gaze with his Purple Demon Eye, Su Chen appeared to be an ordinary mortal who wasn't even a Spirit Master.
"What's he planning?"
Tang San furrowed his brows, a faint sense of unease rising in his heart.
Su Chen walked straight through the crowd and came to the center of the Listening Rain Pavilion's main hall.
There, in the middle of the hall, stood a huge four-legged square Bronze Cauldron used to ward off evil and burn incense!
The cauldron stood over two meters tall, and its entire body was cast from deep-sea iron and refined copper. Intricate beast patterns were carved into its surface, making it look exceptionally heavy.
"Shopkeeper."
Su Chen ignored the crowd's uncertain stares and turned instead to the innkeeper hiding behind the counter. He asked calmly,
"When did you bring this Bronze Cauldron in? How much does it weigh?"
At that, the shopkeeper first glanced at the intimidating Spirit Masters around him, then swallowed before respectfully answering:
"R-responding to Mr. Su..."
"This cauldron is solid refined copper, and weighs five thousand eight hundred jin!"
"Back then, we hired a full twenty burly laborers. Using thick hemp ropes and pulleys, they struggled with all their might to move it bit by bit into the center of the hall."
Five thousand eight hundred jin!
Even though they'd been prepared for it, many of the surrounding Spirit Masters couldn't help drawing in a sharp breath when they heard that number.
That kind of weight was beyond an ordinary person. Even a forty-rank Battle Soul Ancestor couldn't budge it with bare strength alone unless they used their Martial Soul Avatar or a powerful Soul Skill!
After hearing the shopkeeper's answer, Su Chen nodded. His gaze swept across the crowd once more, finally settling on Yu Xiaogang and Tang San.
"Just now, this supposedly peerless Grandmaster claimed that without cultivating Soul Power, human beings could never achieve a few thousand jin of strength."
"In that case..."
As he spoke, Su Chen casually tucked his folding fan into the belt at his waist.
Then he slowly turned around to face the massive Bronze Cauldron, heavy as a small mountain.
"Don't you want to see the power of the pure physical body in Perfect World?"
"I may usually tell stories, but I also know a few things about fighting."
As he spoke, Su Chen didn't even take a stance. He simply reached out with his right hand—a slender, fair hand that didn't look particularly muscular.
Then, before the many bewildered spectators, he lightly gripped one of the giant cauldron's bronze handles with one hand.
"Xiao San, he's bluffing. Ignore him."
Nearby, Yu Xiaogang gave a cold snort, desperately trying to save face. "An ordinary person without Soul Power wants to budge a solid copper cauldron weighing nearly six thousand jin with one hand?"
"Who does he think he is? Even a Titled Douluo..."
But Yu Xiaogang hadn't even finished saying the words "Titled Douluo" when a deafening crash cut him off.
It wasn't just him. The more than a thousand listeners in the Listening Rain Pavilion, even Sword Douluo Chen Xin, Ning Fengzhi, and Xue Qinghe in the private rooms on the second floor...
Everyone's pupils contracted at that moment, as if they'd seen something astonishing.
In the middle of the main hall,
Su Chen's expression was as calm as still water, and even his breathing remained perfectly steady.
He simply raised his right hand, gripping the bronze handle, in a casual upward motion.
Humm!!!
In an instant, the solid Bronze Cauldron weighing five thousand eight hundred jin, which had required twenty strong men and a pulley system just to move,
was lifted one-handed by Su Chen and raised effortlessly above his head!
Even more astonishingly, not the slightest glimmer of Soul Power shone from his body!
At that moment, time itself seemed to freeze. The entire Listening Rain Pavilion fell completely silent.
The refined-copper cauldron weighed five thousand eight hundred jin, enough to crush a thousand-year-old Soul Beast to death. Yet it hung effortlessly in midair, supported by a single slender, fair hand.
Su Chen, by contrast, hadn't even panted once from start to finish. He looked so relaxed that it was as if he were holding an ordinary paper lantern, not something weighing several thousand jin.
"Gulp..."
Someone swallowed in the silent hall. The next second, the listeners erupted.
"This—this can't be possible!!"
Nearby, Yu Xiaogang's legs gave out on the spot. He collapsed onto his rear, his face filled with disbelief.
"No Soul Power. There really isn't even a trace of Soul Power..."
"He lifted nearly six thousand jin with one hand, using only his body?"
"This... this defies all reason. How can this be...?"
Yu Xiaogang was shattered.
His lofty theories had been utterly crushed by Su Chen's casual lift.
"Fake! It's absolutely fake!"
Beside him, Tang San was also completely red-eyed.
He stared fixedly at the Bronze Cauldron Su Chen held above his head and snarled:
"This is definitely a trick!"
"The cauldron only looks like it's made of bronze. The inside must be hollow! It could even be a prop made from some kind of extremely light wood!"
"Su Chen, stop putting on this ghost act! You think you can fool me with a low-class street trick like that?"
But before the people below could react,
several truly powerful figures in the private rooms on the second floor had already risen in unison!
Yellow-Grade Private Room.
"What terrifying physical strength!"
Xue Qinghe strode to the railing and gripped it tightly with both hands.
"He has no Martial Soul and no Soul Power, yet his physique is astonishingly powerful!"
"Whether or not that Perfect World he spoke of is real, with strength this unfathomable and the courage to stand above all others, this man... is a once-in-a-generation genius!"
Xue Qinghe then drew a deep breath and made up his mind.
"No matter the cost, I must recruit him!"
Meanwhile, inside the Heaven-Grade Private Room,
"Crack!"
The precious folding fan in Ning Fengzhi's hand had snapped as he crushed its ribs.
The Sect Master of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, who had always remained calm even when Mount Tai collapsed before him, was breathing rapidly, his face filled with shock.
"Uncle Jian, did you sense even a trace of Soul Power flowing through him just now?"
At that, Sword Douluo Chen Xin stared solemnly at the green-robed man below, then shook his head.
"None."
"Fengzhi, this man is unfathomable. We absolutely must not make an enemy of him."
Down in the main hall, facing Tang San's almost frantic accusations, Su Chen didn't bother to explain. He merely glanced at him with indifferent eyes.
Then his wrist turned slightly.
His right hand, which had been supporting the cauldron, immediately let go.
"BOOM!"
A thunderous crash rang out as the solid Bronze Cauldron, weighing five thousand eight hundred jin, plummeted from more than two meters up and slammed into the center of the Listening Rain Pavilion's main hall!
The enormous impact instantly shattered the hard bluestone slabs covering the floor!
A mass of spiderweb-like cracks spread frantically in every direction, as if an earth dragon were churning beneath the ground. Even the entire inn shook violently twice, sending dust raining down from the rafters!
"This..."
Feeling the terrifying impact, Tang San's expression changed. His body instinctively retreated two steps, afraid that Su Chen might lift the cauldron and hurl it at him.
After all, the vibrations he'd felt through the soles of his feet were impossible to fake.
Could a hollow prop make a crash that powerful? How could that be...?
"You think it's hollow?"
Su Chen stood at the edge of the shattered flagstones, his hands clasped behind his back.
"I'm right here."
"If anyone doesn't believe me, they're welcome to come up and try for themselves."
A brief silence followed his words. Then a rough voice suddenly rang out from the crowd.
"Let me try!"
Before long, a bald, burly man over two meters tall, his body packed with bulging muscles, shouldered his way through the crowd.
"That's Mad Rhino, captain of the Iron Rhino Team!"
"He's a Level 39 Strength-type Battle Soul Elder, and his Martial Soul is the One-Horned Iron Rhino. He was born with incredible strength. They say that when he unleashes his full power, he can lift a boulder weighing over a thousand jin!"
Amid the crowd's cries of surprise, Mad Rhino strode straight up to the bronze square cauldron.
First, he rapped his knuckles against its side. When he heard the deep, solid metallic ring, his expression turned noticeably more serious.
"Martial Soul Possession!"
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