"Some Soul Skills don't have any known information. They have to be tested to find out what they do!"
"Don't you want to know what your Soul Skill does?"
Seeing the look of disgust on Oscar's face, Yu Xiaogang immediately tried to persuade him.
"Yeah, Oscar!"
"It may smell awful, but maybe it tastes great?"
"Like stinky tofu!"
Ma Hongjun chimed in, even using stinky tofu as an example.
If the gloating grin on his face hadn't been so obvious, Oscar might actually have believed him.
Oscar stared at the purple-black Sausage in his hand, which reeked horribly. His face shifted from deep purple to deathly pale, and his Adam's apple bobbed again and again.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, murmuring, "For the sake of my Soul Skill... I'm doing it!"
Trembling, he raised the Sausage to his mouth. Its rank stench made tears stream down his face, and several times he gagged and pulled his hand away.
At last, he gritted his teeth and shoved it into his mouth. But the moment his teeth pierced the casing, foul liquid burst out.
"Ugh—!!!" Oscar almost threw up.
But to find out what his Soul Skill did, he gritted his teeth and promptly shoved the entire stinking Sausage into his mouth.
Oscar swallowed it with his eyes wide open.
"Ugh—!!!"
As soon as he swallowed, Oscar bent over and started retching.
Unfortunately, the stinking Sausage had already dissolved into energy inside him. There was nothing to bring up, only the stench remained.
Ma Hongjun's gloating expression froze. He backed away in horror. "Holy crap, he really threw up?! How disgusting must that thing taste?!"
Dai Mubai and the others looked just as horrified. No matter how good the Soul Skill's effect might be, they didn't want to eat a Sausage like that.
They could end up on the battlefield without ever enjoying its enhancement, only to disgust themselves so badly they couldn't fight.
"Prrt—!"
Then a long fart sounded from Oscar's rear, and purple-black gas blasted out, instantly filling the entire training ground.
The stench spread so quickly that even Flender didn't have time to react. By the time he summoned his Martial Soul and tried to get away, the gas had already engulfed him.
If even Flender couldn't escape, the others had no chance.
"Ugh—!"
"It stinks—!"
"Blegh—!"
"Ugh—!"
And so, a chorus of retching rose and fell through the stench.
Before long, the Shrek students came stumbling out of the gas, filthy and disheveled. Each wore an indescribably sickened expression, and once outside, they continued dry heaving, tears streaming down their faces.
The stench was simply unbearable.
At last they understood why nobody had ever hunted Stink Rats. Even the ones with high cultivation seemed never to have been hunted.
After a good while, the stench finally dissipated on its own.
The group looked at Oscar, who lay in the middle of the training ground foaming at the mouth, and shuddered at the memory.
After a while, they finally revived Oscar by dousing him with water.
"Oscar, tell us what your Soul Skill does!"
Yu Xiaogang was still keen on research. The moment Oscar came to, he immediately asked about the effect of his Soul Skill.
He had already guessed more or less, but still wanted to hear what Oscar had to say.
"I..." Oscar still hadn't quite recovered. He opened his mouth, then after a long pause said awkwardly, "You've already seen what it does. The way to use the Soul Skill is just like your Luo Sanpao, Grandmaster! This Soul Skill is for escaping!"
"Doesn't it increase any of your attributes?"
"When Stink Rats flee, they release the stench they've built up inside them, and then their speed doubles."
Yu Xiaogang frowned at that. If the Soul Skill didn't increase any attributes, then it really was useless.
Better not to use it at all.
That smell would overwhelm not just the enemy, but their own side, too.
They might fall before they'd even managed to take down a thousand enemies.
"No!"
Oscar shook his head with a grim expression. He already knew his Soul Skill was probably a dud.
He'd expected as much. Absorbing such a low-quality Soul Ring wasn't likely to give him a Soul Skill—and even if it did, it would probably be useless.
Still, now that it had really happened, Oscar couldn't help feeling disappointed.
"It's all right. This is perfectly normal. In the current circumstances, being able to obtain a Soul Ring and break through a level is already quite an achievement!"
"More than ninety-nine percent of Soul Masters won't even be able to break through in the future."
Yu Xiaogang comforted Oscar.
For some reason, when he said that last sentence, he felt a strange surge of smug satisfaction.
At first, when he learned that the Soul Beasts had disappeared, he'd been beside himself.
But now, thinking it over, the Soul Beasts' disappearance would affect him greatly—but it would affect everyone else even more!
And countless people would soon go through what he had gone through.
They would be trapped at one level, unable to break through for decades.
Take the many Soul Grandmasters of today, for example. Most of them—in fact, almost all of them—were facing this predicament.
The Soul Grandmaster level was still too low. They couldn't compete with higher-ranked Soul Masters for Soul Rings.
They would all learn what it meant to...
turn fifty before reaching level twenty-nine.
"Yes, Grandmaster. You're right!"
After hearing Yu Xiaogang say that, Oscar soon came to terms with it.
"All right, I'm sure you're all eager to hear about Tang San. I'll tell you what happened."
Seeing that everyone was there, Yu Xiaogang simply changed the subject and began talking about Tang San.
Yu Xiaogang then gave a brief account of Tang San's story.
In short, Tang San was still the same Tang San they knew. He hadn't taken over someone else's body; he simply had the memories of another lifetime...
Then he gave them a rough account of the world Tang San had come from.
"The world Tang San lived in during his previous life was far more powerful than ours."
"The cultivation techniques they practiced were of a much higher level than ours."
"Those Self-Created Soul Skills you saw Tang San use earlier came from that world, too. They don't need Martial Souls or Soul Rings—they can cultivate them directly!"
Yu Xiaogang went on to explain in detail that the traditional Soul Masters of their world were bound to decline once the Soul Beasts went extinct.
He also explained that the cultivation techniques Tang San knew could open up an entirely new path of cultivation for Soul Masters in this world.
They wouldn't need Martial Souls or Soul Rings.
They could raise their levels and gain Soul Skills through cultivation alone.
"So don't think Tang San can't keep cultivating just because his Martial Soul has been crippled. He can still get stronger," Yu Xiaogang concluded.
After listening to Yu Xiaogang, Flender and the others all stared wide-eyed.
They had assumed Tang San was completely finished once his Martial Soul had been crippled.
They hadn't expected him to be able to cultivate after all.
He could still grow stronger.
Only then did they understand why Tang San had been so powerful back then—even Zhao Wuji had suffered a heavy loss at his hands.
So Tang San had such a background after all.
"Flender, Tang San's cultivation techniques are an opportunity for me, too."
"I've already joined Tang San's Tang Sect, and I plan to cultivate the Tang Sect techniques alongside him."
"Now I need you to cripple my Martial Soul!"
Yu Xiaogang looked at Flender as he finished speaking.