The group fell silent for a moment after reading Liu Erlong's explanation.
A Martial Soul Mutation and half a level of Innate Soul Power?
Those conditions really were harsh.
Under those circumstances, reaching level twenty-nine seemed... almost like proof of "hard work."
[Li Yuan: So what if his Innate Soul Power was low? That's not why he became a failure. Let me tell you about Ji Juechen, a man who will live ten thousand years from now. He'll have only level-three Innate Soul Power. In the eyes of prodigies like you, he'd be a failure among failures!]
[Li Yuan: Nobody will expect anything from him, but he'll prove them all wrong. He'll start with a lump of iron and end with an extraordinary sword—and become a Titled Douluo!]
[Big Cat in the Night: A Titled Douluo? With level-three Innate Soul Power? He must have worked harder than most people could imagine.]
When Zhu Zhuqing saw the message, her eyes lit up for the first time since Dai Mubai had run away.
Someone with level-three Innate Soul Power could become a Titled Douluo through hard work?
Then if she, with level-seven Innate Soul Power, worked twice as hard, might she... have a chance to escape that suffocating fate?
[Li Yuan: Exactly. Ji Juechen's Martial Soul will be worse than a so-called "useless Martial Soul." It'll be nothing but a lump of iron without even the most basic offensive power. In his hand, it might only be good for hitting people like a brick.]
[Yet through grueling practice, day after day and year after year, Ji Juechen will forge that lump of iron into a "sword" of his own!]
[Li Yuan: I want to give Ji Juechen special praise. I'd call him the hardest-working powerhouse of all! (clapping emoji)]
[Li Yuan: He won't have dazzling talent or a powerful bloodline inheritance. All he'll have is a sincere heart that will never yield to fate and will remain devoted to the sword until death!]
Even Qian Renxue was moved by what she read.
Nearly everyone in the group silently offered respect and applause to Ji Juechen, a man they had never met.
For no other reason than that he deserved it!
[Li Yuan: Now, back to the point. While Ji Juechen will be sweating through his clothes, practicing the sword with all his might to rewrite his fate, what do you think our "Grandmaster" Yu Xiaogang was doing?]
[Loves Eating Carrots: Um, eating, drinking, and having fun?]
[Richest Little Heiress of Heaven Dou: No, no! He must have been looking for shortcuts or complaining that he didn't have a better Martial Soul!]
[Li Yuan: Congratulations, Little Rich Girl. You got it half right. He was complaining—blaming heaven and everyone else, complaining that heaven was unfair, that fate was toying with him, and that his Martial Soul had mutated.]
[Li Yuan: I know some of you might think that's a normal reaction. But here's the truth: heaven didn't shortchange Yu Xiaogang. If anything, it favored him!]
[Viper-Hearted Big Sister: A harmful Martial Soul Mutation and half a level of Innate Soul Power? You call that "favored"?]
Dugu Yan wore the exact expression of an old man staring at his phone on the subway.
She was not alone. Everyone else in the group was baffled too.
[Li Yuan: I know you don't believe me. But Yu Xiaogang's Martial Soul, Luo Sanpao, is one of only two External Beast Martial Souls in the entire history of Douluo Continent—even counting the tens of thousands of years to come!]
Without Li Yuan, Yu Xiaogang would have been the only one.
[Richest Little Heiress of Heaven Dou: Only two in tens of thousands of years?!]
[Big Cat in the Night: That's hard to imagine! But what does it have to do with being favored? Does his Martial Soul have some hidden secret?]
[Li Yuan: Exactly! You got it! His Martial Soul carries the bloodline of one of Douluo Continent's mightiest dragons: the Golden Sacred Dragon!]
[Yandere Mad Beauty of Martial Soul Hall: Impossible! Absolutely impossible!]
[Single Academy-Running Housewife: Exactly! You're making things up without a shred of evidence! I've seen Xiao Gang's Martial Soul hundreds of times. It's a Pig Monster. Apart from farting and acting cute, there's nothing special about it!]
Even Bibi Dong and Liu Erlong, bitter rivals that they were, probably never expected their first united front to form against the same infuriating man.
[Li Yuan: Then tell me this: if Luo Sanpao doesn't carry the Golden Sacred Dragon's bloodline, where did the Golden Iron Triangle's Golden Sacred Dragon Martial Soul Fusion Skill come from? Can a fire dragon, an owl, and a pig fuse into a Golden Sacred Dragon?]
[Li Yuan: Answer me! Look me in the eyes!]
The group members stared in confusion. Most belonged to the younger generation and had never even heard of the Golden Iron Triangle.
[Ice-Snow Smart: According to the standards for Martial Soul Fusion Skills recorded in ancient texts, it would be impossible for three vastly different Martial Souls to fuse into a legendary Pure-Blood True Dragon!]
Fortunately, the scholar's explanation made everything click for the others.
[Yandere Mad Beauty of Martial Soul Hall: Even... even if Xiao Gang's Martial Soul has a trace of that bloodline, what does it prove? Half a level of Innate Soul Power has already put a hard ceiling on his potential. That's an ironclad fact.]
[Li Yuan: A hard ceiling? Do you know what Luo Sanpao can do as an External Beast Martial Soul? It has a trait almost no other Martial Soul possesses: it can eat like a real Soul Beast!]
[You all know Soul Beasts, right? Nearly all of them can gradually convert what they eat into Soul Power, helping themselves grow.]
[Big Cat in the Night: Convert it?! For real? Then couldn't Soul Beasts just keep eating to get stronger? (shocked)]
[Richest Little Heiress of Heaven Dou: That's amazing! I'm so jealous of Soul Beasts! I wish I could get stronger just by eating. Cultivation is so boring.]
[Ice-Snow Smart: +1.]
[Viper-Hearted Big Sister: +2.]
[Loves Eating Carrots: What are you thinking? Soul Beasts are painfully inefficient at converting food into Soul Power. They grow slowly, and their cultivation speed is far below a human's! (speechless, facepalming)]
Xiao Wu's expression grew complicated.
People's joys and sorrows truly did not speak the same language.
Jealous of Soul Beasts?
Was that something humans should say?
Shouldn't Soul Beasts be jealous of how quickly humans cultivated—and how they could hunt Soul Beasts for Soul Rings?
What was the world coming to?
[Li Yuan: Imagine if Yu Xiaogang had carefully fed Luo Sanpao Sub-Dragon Meat containing dragon blood, or even higher-grade Heavenly Treasures.]
[And if he'd cultivated diligently himself, wouldn't the pure energy Luo Sanpao absorbed and converted have flowed back to him? Couldn't that have created a cultivation cycle that strengthened them both?]
[Ice-Snow Smart: Wouldn't that make one plus one far greater than two? It might even break through the limits of his Innate Soul Power!]
[Li Yuan: Exactly. In theory, it's entirely possible.]
[Li Yuan: But what happened in reality? Our "great" Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang fed Luo Sanpao, a creature with the Golden Sacred Dragon's bloodline, radishes for years! Ordinary white radishes with next to no Soul Power nutrients that, to top it off, made him fart like hell!]
[The result? He took a young sacred dragon with the Golden Sacred Dragon's bloodline and turned it into a pig that could do nothing but fart!]
[Richest Little Heiress of Heaven Dou: Incredible! Feeding a baby dragon white radishes!]
[Viper-Hearted Big Sister: I'm speechless... I don't know whether to call him stupid or cheap.]
[Loves Eating Carrots: Feeding white radishes to a Martial Soul with a dragon bloodline. Only he could come up with that.]
[Ice-Snow Smart: Maybe that's what happens when someone thinks he's cleverer than everyone else!]
[Child Without Parents: Don't insult clever people by comparing him to them. He doesn't deserve it!]
[Li Yuan: He had every chance at a bright future full of promise, and he went and ruined it himself!]
At that moment...
At the Crown Prince's Mansion...
Qian Renxue's beautiful eyes brimmed with scorn for Bibi Dong. "Your taste in men is as bad as the way you conduct yourself. But don't worry. I, Qian Renxue, will never end up like you!"
Bibi Dong clearly had tremendous talent. How could she have fallen for such a failure?
And Yu Xiaogang was beyond belief.
Even someone feeding a dog knew to give it some meat.
Did Yu Xiaogang not understand something so simple?
No wonder he had raised such a fine Martial Soul into a failure.
Before you continue