Gain and Loss

"Shameless!"

"Too shameless!"

"How can a person be this shameless?"

The rabbit had completely forgotten her initial vigilance toward this strange dream, and had also forgotten many of the inconsistencies she had noticed earlier.

As time went on, she became deeply emotionally invested.

When the latest segment showed Yu Xiaogang secretly observing Huang Tian's training methods—the various exercise routines, physical conditioning, and auxiliary equipment—only to compile them into text and publish them in books under his own name, she became so enraged that she erupted, cursing him roundly.

She had already sensed this man's hypocrisy from the previous fragments, but she never imagined he could be shameless to such a degree.

Those things were clearly things Huang Tian had tested and developed bit by bit since he was a child, yet he could brazenly utter phrases like, "Who says that discovering Huang Tian isn't a discovery in itself?" and "Only a theoretical Grandmaster like him can bring such results to their full potential."

He didn't blush, his heart didn't race, and he spoke with such righteous indignation, without even a shred of shame, or he would act as if he were the one who had suffered a great grievance, sighing and lamenting with incomparable heartbreak.

Plagiarizing and stealing Huang Tian's research was one thing, but when Huang Tian went to confront him, he would only show a little anger, and Yu Xiaogang would immediately label him with various charges like having a volatile temper, foul language, lack of character, disrespecting teachers, failing to care for classmates, pettiness, and narrow-mindedness, spreading these rumors everywhere.

Then there was Yu Xiaogang's disciple, Tang San, who was simply a lackey; no matter what this guy said, whether it was right or wrong, he treated it as gospel.

Even the Dean, Flender, faced with such obvious facts of Yu Xiaogang's errors, consistently turned a blind eye, forcibly shielding and covering for him, trying to smooth things over.

But if Huang Tian made even the slightest mistake, they would immediately make a mountain out of a molehill, reprimanding and criticizing him.

If it hadn't been for Ning Rongrong stepping forward to support Huang Tian at the critical moment, a dignified Soul Saint would have actually tried to use force to punish a Soul Elder.

The more the rabbit watched, the angrier she became, her silver teeth clenched as she secretly wondered:

"In such a dump with such trashy people, why not run away immediately instead of staying? Looking to be mistreated?"

Just then, the Xiao Wu in the dream asked the exact same question.

The moon was bright and the stars were sparse. Outside the village where the academy was located, Huang Tian and Xiao Wu strolled through the endless fields.

The two walked hand-in-hand along a narrow ridge, their other hands extended to the sides, letting the awns of the wheat brush against their palms as if stroking the fur of some animal.

The surroundings were so silent that even the sound of their shoes brushing against the grass was incredibly clear.

"Xiao Wu, I want to tell you—tell my only family, tell my little sister—a secret, a great secret that no one knows until now."

"What is it?"

"I originally should have had no Innate Soul Power, just like my parents. Zero Innate Soul Power, the lowest-tier Blue Silver Grass martial soul. If things had gone as expected, I would have spent my whole life farming, and when I died, I would have been laid to rest on that little hill."

"That's impossible, right? You clearly have Innate Full Soul Power and Twin Martial Souls."

Whether it was the Xiao Wu in the dream or the rabbit watching the dream, both were completely stunned.

There were no words to accurately describe the intense shock they felt in that moment.

Innate Soul Power was a watershed moment that determined one's fate, a hundred thousand times more important than amniotic fluid. If there were any way to artificially acquire or increase it after birth, even though she couldn't make grand predictions about world patterns or global turmoil like a sage, she knew it must be an earth-shattering matter.

Huang Tian smiled slightly.

"The reason I awakened with Innate Full Soul Power, including Twin Martial Souls, is most likely because I accidentally ate a strange flower. Do you remember when we talked about my childhood before?"

"Of course I remember. Your parents passed away when you were four, and you cooked, washed, grew vegetables, gathered herbs, and even hunted all by yourself."

"Di Hun Village was relatively well-off among ordinary mountain villages because it was nestled against mountains and rivers with rich resources, and Soul Masters were occasionally born there to guard the peace.

The neighborly relations were very harmonious.

After my parents passed away, the village chief found me and said he intended to let me learn a trade so that if I couldn't awaken any soul power, I would at least have a way to make a living.

There were dozens of trades in the village: blacksmiths, carpenters, stonemasons, herbalists, sauce makers, potters, musicians, and so on.

Thinking that my parents both died of illness, I eventually chose to be an herbalist, following a herb gatherer to learn how to identify and process medicinal plants.

From that time on, I discovered that I was very smart—the kind that far exceeded ordinary people. Even when I tried to hide my talent, I would often shock my master until his eyes went round and he would call me a monster.

Once, I suddenly had a bold idea: if having no soul power was a disease, what medicine could cure it?

After the herbalist had nothing left to teach me, I secretly collected herbs that had the effect of strengthening the foundation and nourishing the essence with very few side effects, all while keeping an eye out for rare flowers and plants.

One day, I got lost while gathering herbs and encountered wild wolves. I thought I was about to be buried in their jaws.

But when I ran to a certain place, the wolves that were about to catch me stopped in their tracks, as if they didn't dare to proceed any further.

There, I found a flower. After I swallowed it, I could feel a distinct warm current in my body, and it was only later that I awakened my Twin Martial Souls and Innate Full Soul Power."

Huang Tian stopped walking, opened his palm toward the sky, and gripped it tightly.

Then, he slowly pulled his fist back to his chest, a look of intoxication appearing on his face.

"From that moment on, I knew I had obtained the key to mastering this world."

From that very moment, I suddenly felt that this world should not be like this.

The murderous and the arsonists wear golden belts, while those who build bridges and pave roads have no corpses left to bury; behind the vermilion gates, wine and meat go to rot, while out on the road lie the bones of the frozen.

The children of slaves are forever slaves, and the children of nobles are forever nobles.

There is also war, disease, slaughter, famine, poverty... all manner of evil things, all manner of injustices.

I decided to change it.

Xiao Wu, are you not puzzled as to why, even knowing that Yu Xiaogang and Tang San are hypocritical and shameless, I still remain entangled with them?

Are you puzzled why I know Shrek is not a good place and Flender is not a good man, yet I still stay here without leaving?

Because, here is what I want.

Ning Rongrong, Zhu Zhuqing, and even Ma Hongjun and Oscar—while they certainly have their flaws, they are not beyond correction.

Once I have them, and nurture them with care, they will become the foundation of a great hegemony, helping me seize this world and ultimately change it.

Shrek screens and recruits these geniuses only to fail to cherish or value them, wantonly ruining them; it does not matter, let me be the one to cherish and value them instead.

It is also because it is precisely the stupidity of Flender and Yu Xiaogang that highlights my wisdom; it is their evil that sets off my virtue; it is their injustice that accentuates my ultimate righteousness.

Flender thinks himself cunning, and Yu Xiaogang thinks himself clever, yet they do not realize that what they gain is but a moment, a petty profit, while what I gain is eternity—the hearts of men.

To use the hearts of men as a battlefield is the most breathtaking and soul-stirring grand strategy of all.