Big Fool Chun, What Are You Doing?

Having thought of a countermeasure, Gangzi was instantly overjoyed—thrilled, ecstatic, bursting with joy.

In an instant, his body stopped trembling, his face stopped twitching, and his expression was no longer angry, ugly, or fearful.

His expression returned to its usual confidence. His eyes were calm, and his posture relaxed.

The thing he cared about most now—or even the only thing he cared about—was his disciple, Tang San.

As long as he kept Tang San on his side, rising to prominence in the second half of his life and showing off like the wind would be a piece of cake.

As for being insulted? What was the big deal? He was used to it by now.

To put it bluntly, plenty of people had cursed him. Huang Tian didn't even rank among them.

Yu Xiaogang quietly waited for Huang Tian to take the bag of money, or show his greed and try to get more. He wouldn't hesitate for a moment to give whatever he could afford.

Although he didn't have much in savings now, he came from a direct line of the Upper Three Sects and had always looked down on everyone else. He truly didn't care about money.

Yet one second, two seconds, three seconds passed—

More than ten seconds went by, and the other party still didn't react at all.

A faint sense of foreboding arose in his heart. Gangzi forced a smile, bent down to pick up the pouch himself, then took another bag from his Soul Tool and held both out with both hands.

"Two hundred Gold Soul Coins. That's the most I can offer."

What made his heart give a hard thump was that Huang Tian remained unmoved. Not only that, he smiled with contempt once again.

"Maybe your reputation really is worth two hundred coins. Mine isn't."

Huang Tian cupped his hands, then immediately separated them, giving an utterly perfunctory Soul Fighting salute.

Then he bent his knees slightly into a horse stance. Four or five azure vines marked with gold and silver patterns emerged from his open right palm, their tips drifting through the air like snake heads.

A white Soul Ring appeared the next moment, floating level with his knees as it slowly revolved, pulsing rhythmically with a small range of motion.

"Disputes between Soul Masters should be settled the way Soul Masters settle them.

"I've told you again and again that I was holding back, but you refused to believe me. You've been making a fuss here, so now you can feel what my full strength is really like.

"That way, you won't go around talking nonsense in a couple of days, taking things out of context and twisting right and wrong.

"I, Huang Tian, a One-Ring healing-type Soul Master, hereby challenge Grand Soul Master Yu."

Those words landed like a thunderclap. The people around them wore expressions of astonishing variety, turning into living reaction memes, as if they were saying:

"Big Fool Chun, what are you doing?"

"So fierce! Whose general is this?"

"Holy crap, this young man!"

"Kill, kill, kill! I want to see rivers of blood!"

"Awesome! To see a scene like this, I could die without regrets!"

"Wait, what? A healing type? He's a damn healing type? You call this thing a healing type?"

The Principal's expression changed dramatically. A verbal dispute was one thing, but Soul Fighting was different. People could die.

If either of these two got into trouble, not only would his days as Principal be over, he might even lose his life.

Teacher Zhao, who was temporarily acting as the referee, hurried forward to intervene.

"Huang Tian, Teacher Yu might not have your talent, but he has two Hundred-Year Soul Rings, and his second ring is seven hundred years old. He also has twenty-nine levels of Soul Power. I suggest you think this through carefully."

Xiao Wu ran over anxiously and grabbed Huang Tian's arm.

"Please don't do anything rash."

The gap between the first and second rings was definitely the greatest between any two neighboring realms.

The higher one went, the smaller the gap between neighboring rings became, except for the Martial Soul Avatar at level seventy.

It wasn't that the second ring was especially powerful. It was that the first ring was such a tiny denominator.

In terms of Soul Power, number of Soul Rings, power of their strongest skill, physical condition, and mental strength, the latter was at least twice as strong as the former in every way.

And that twofold difference was between a level-twenty One-Ring Soul Master and a level-twenty-one or twenty-two Two-Ring Soul Master.

If you compared a level-twenty-nine Soul Master with someone at level twelve or thirteen—and that person still had a white Soul Ring—the overall difference could be as much as tenfold. That wasn't impossible.

Take Soul Power, for example. Each additional Soul Ring greatly increased the quality of the Soul Power within a Soul Master's body, improving things like energy density, elemental strength, and special properties.

The teachers all shook their heads, smiling—but this time, they were laughing at Huang Tian.

The students didn't dare get involved, but deep down, they too thought this was absurd.

No one believed that a One-Ring Soul Master who had just obtained his Soul Ring could gain the upper hand against an experienced Two-Ring Soul Master.

Yu Xiaogang laughed in anger.

So much so that even though he had clearly seen that Huang Tian's Martial Soul was very different from ordinary Blue Silver Grass and was obviously unusual, he didn't give it any deeper thought.

Suppressing his fury, he said:

"So you're just a madman who doesn't know his place. I have no interest in playing children's games with you. I've already given you the aid. Take it or leave it."

He really did want to teach Huang Tian a lesson—to grab him by the head and slap him hard, venting all the pent-up anger in his heart.

But a Two-Ring Soul Master fighting a One-Ring Soul Master, a teacher fighting a student, an adult fighting a six-year-old child—and with an argument already underway—would look terrible if word got out.

And if anything unforeseen happened, it would be even harder to explain.

After speaking, Gangzi dropped the money and turned to leave.

But with things already at this point, how could Huang Tian let him get away?

A clash without a system reward was like watching a great movie but never getting to enjoy yourself afterward. It just wasn't satisfying.

"This isn't an ordinary Soul Fighting challenge that you can walk away from just because you feel like it.

"I'll count down from ten. When I reach zero, I'll attack, whether you're ready or not.

"Of course, if you still haven't activated your Martial Soul by then, I'll put mine away too.

"Ten."

"Are you really crazy? I've been more than patient with you today. Don't push your luck."

Gangzi was stunned. He'd only taken one step before being forced to turn around. His face was full of disbelief, his brows twitching wildly, and he felt he was about to lose control of his fists.

He really wanted to kick this little brat flying and beat his face into a blooming flower with his fists.

No matter how useless he was, he wasn't someone a mere One-Ring Soul Master could pick a fight with.

He'd given way again and again, only for Huang Tian to push his luck.

Surely no one could be this eager to die?

Huang Tian's reply was swift and decisive.

"Nine!"

Seeing things take a turn for the worse, the Principal stepped forward to mediate.

"You're both worked up right now. Don't make an irrational decision. How about we wait a couple of days, until you've both calmed down, and discuss this then?

"When the time comes, I can personally see that justice is done."

He was in a state of utter despair. He had never imagined things would turn into a physical confrontation. One moment he'd been happily watching the show; now he was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Yu Xiaogang really was useless, and extremely hypocritical, with no idea of his own limits. But he came from the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, which was a power the Principal couldn't afford to offend.

Huang Tian might be weak now, but with Innate Full Soul Power and diligent cultivation, he would be no weaker than the Principal in less than ten years.

At the very least, Huang Tian would become a Soul Douluo, and he had a shot at becoming a Titled Douluo. There was no need to make an enemy over something so trivial.

The key was that this kid didn't look like an ordinary troublemaker, either.

What if he held a grudge...

The Principal had barely finished speaking when another number rang out across the entire training ground.

"Seven."

Huang Tian had said he was counting down for ten seconds, not counting down ten numbers. The Principal had wasted one second.

Now everyone knew how determined Huang Tian was. He wasn't just too angry to back down, nor was he pretending to be tough to scare anyone.

He really was going to beat up Teacher Yu.