[Yandere Mad Beauty of Martial Soul Hall: Xue'er, I understand that you don't know him, but please don't insult him.]
[Yandere Mad Beauty of Martial Soul Hall: He really has worked so, so hard. Have you ever seen the library at three in the morning? You haven't, but he has!]
[Yandere Mad Beauty of Martial Soul Hall: I know that after listening to Li Yuan, you want to call Xiao Gang useless. Yes, I admit no one is perfect. Perhaps he took the wrong direction, but at least he truly tried.]
[Single Living Housewife Who Runs an Academy: Listen, old woman, do you love picking up trash that much?]
Blue Tyrant Academy.
Ever since Liu Erlong had broken free of her attachment to Yu Xiaogang,
she had spent the last two days eating heartily, sleeping soundly, and feeling better than ever.
But when she looked back, she saw that her former rival in love
was still lost in fantasies about Yu Xiaogang.
It left her with mixed feelings.
[Big Cat in the Night: Feels like Bibi Dong is getting a little carried away by her own devotion.]
[Ice-Snow Smart: Exactly. You hit the nail on the head.]
[Child Without Parents: ...You're beyond saving.]
[Yandere Mad Beauty of Martial Soul Hall: What did I do now?]
[Little Fox Who Loves Teacher Most: Teacher, could you please stop talking...]
Saintess Palace.
Hu Liena truly felt sorry for Qian Renxue. She could feel the suffocation even through the Screen.
If her own mother were like that, she might want to drag her brother Xie Yue off to kill themselves.
Pope Palace.
"They've rebelled! Every last one of them!"
Bibi Dong hurled the Brick to the floor, then brought her foot down on it hard.
She could have borne it from anyone else.
But now Hu Liena and Qian Renxue had joined in too.
Worse still, one was the daughter she felt guilty toward, and the other was the disciple she had raised since childhood.
She couldn't bring herself to strike at either of them.
Never in her life had Bibi Dong felt so stifled!
[Richest Little Heiress of Heaven Dou: I'm curious. If Yu Xiaogang really worked that hard, why are the theories he came up with such a pile of crap?]
[Loves Eating Carrots: Tch. Maybe he copied them from somewhere.]
[Li Yuan: Carrot, you actually got it right. Yu Xiaogang really did copy his theories.]
[Loves Eating Carrots: Huh? No way! I was just saying that offhand.]
[Viper-Hearted Big Sister: Whoa! We get juicy gossip out of this too?]
[Ice-Snow Smart: Seriously? He does have the Grandmaster title awarded by Spirit Hall, after all. His theories might be shaky, but surely he wouldn't plagiarize?]
[Single Academy-Running Housewife: That can't be right, can it? Yu Xiaogang's theories were riddled with errors, but I really did see him studying them late at night.]
[Yandere Mad Beauty of Martial Soul Hall: Is trashing Xiao Gang all day really that fun? Say what you like about him, but I won't believe for a second that he plagiarized!]
[Child Without Parents: Li Yuan, do you have any more dirt on Yu Xiaogang? Post a few more juicy stories, would you?]
Qian Renxue had lost all hope in Bibi Dong and placed it in Li Yuan instead.
If Bibi Dong refused to see reason, then facts would make her wake up.
[Li Yuan: You bet. I've got plenty more dirt on Yu Xiaogang. Today, let's start with his plagiarized theories.]
Li Yuan watched the chat rally behind him and grinned.
Bibi Dong, since you insist on denying it to the bitter end, don't blame me for stripping your precious "moonlight" bare.
[Li Yuan: Everyone, hold on tight. Today's Grandmaster exposé officially begins.]
[Li Yuan: Everyone knows Yu Xiaogang's core theories—the Martial Soul Mimicry Theory, the Soul Ring Absorption Limit Theory, and so on. They sound impressive, don't they? The truth is, he cobbled most of them together from other people's work, dressed them up, and passed them off as his own.]
[Li Yuan: Tell me, how could a level-twenty-nine Soul Grandmaster have studied so many powerful Soul Beasts and Martial Souls?]
[Richest Little Heiress of Heaven Dou: Maybe he heard about them from other people?]
[Big Cat in the Night: Could he have sought out experts to ask?]
[Li Yuan: Sorry, neither. Most of his theories were copied. When he was young, he lived off Bibi Dong and spent some time in Spirit Hall. Bibi Dong begged Qian Xunji to let Yu Xiaogang into the archives.]
[Viper-Hearted Big Sister: No way. That's so melodramatic! I thought his morals had already hit rock bottom, but he actually got his start by living off a woman.]
[A Life of Bitterness and Solitude: I despise people like that.]
[Li Yuan: The funniest part is his Ten Core Competencies of Martial Soul. You can find the originals of at least seven or eight of them in Spirit Hall's Library. He just gave them a new face, wrapped them up again, and dared to claim they were the fruit of his blood, sweat, and tears!]
[Li Yuan: Worst of all, he left out the important parts. He copied only the surface details, then mixed in his own interpretations.]
[Li Yuan: What's that like? Imagine stealing every vegetable from someone else's garden, throwing them all together into one big mishmash, then calling it your own original "Manchu-Han Imperial Feast" and demanding a "God of Cooking" certificate! Has he no shame?]
[Richest Little Heiress of Heaven Dou: Damn, so he's an academic patchwork tailor!]
[A Life of Bitterness and Solitude: Has he no shame? Not a shred of it.]
[Big Cat in the Night: No wonder Yu Xiaogang's theories always looked familiar, even though I couldn't place them. They belonged to other people—and he couldn't even copy them correctly.]
[Single Academy-Running Housewife: ...]
Liu Erlong remembered how thoroughly those "theories" had fooled her back then. Her fists quietly clenched.
[Child Without Parents: Hahahaha! I knew it! Some Grandmaster—he's just a plagiarist! (gloating)]
[Loves Eating Carrots: Well, well, Bibi Dong. This is the "hard work" you were talking about?]
[Viper-Hearted Big Sister: Incredible. I've never seen anyone copy the answers and still get them wrong. I seriously suspect Yu Xiaogang's intelligence is on par with an adult husky's.]
[Richest Little Heiress of Heaven Dou: Don't be ridiculous. Huskies are smart.]
[Li Yuan: Spirit Hall knew it was crap and still awarded him the Grandmaster title. Do you think that was deliberate, or an accident?]
[Yandere Mad Beauty of Martial Soul Hall: Nonsense! Impossible! Absolutely impossible! Why would Xiao Gang plagiarize? You can't just make things up because he has a little dirt on him!]
[Li Yuan: Why don't you check for yourself whether he copied them?]
Pope Palace.
Bibi Dong read Li Yuan's confident words, then saw the chat filled with mockery. Her face went from pale to flushed, and doubt began to creep into her heart.
Could Xiao Gang's theories really have been copied?
No! Impossible! Absolutely impossible!
She had to verify it herself.
Bibi Dong ordered the attendants outside the hall, "Someone! Investigate Yu Xiaogang's theories thoroughly. Compare them with the texts in Spirit Hall's Library and see whether any parts were plagiarized."
Within fifteen minutes, a Red Cardinal came in carrying two thick stacks of texts.
One stack held precious originals from Spirit Hall's Library. The other was the manuscript of Yu Xiaogang's "painstakingly researched" Ten Core Competencies of Martial Soul.
Fine beads of sweat dotted the Red Cardinal's forehead. His voice trembled slightly:
"Your Holiness, after carefully comparing Yu Xiaogang's theories, I did find signs of plagiarism."
"And in most cases, he copied only the surface details, then added his own mistaken views without authorization. He turned theories that were originally ingenious into something neither one thing nor the other. It looks like..."
The Red Cardinal faltered, not daring to go on.
Before you continue