As Lin Yan explained, even Flender, who stood beside him, wore a bewildered expression.
"Lin Yan, what are you even talking about?"
"You keep going around in circles, and you've got me all confused. Isn't it just that only Soul Elders can absorb Thousand-Year Soul Rings?"
Clearly, no one there had understood what he meant.
Lin Yan wanted to use an analogy to explain the situation, but when the words reached his lips, he opened his mouth, then swallowed them back down.
"Forget it. I must have too much time on my hands, explaining all this to you."
"If you don't understand, then you don't understand. I'm going back to rest."
With that, Lin Yan turned around again, intending to leave the room for good.
This time, no one stopped him. Everyone was thinking about what Lin Yan had just said—everyone except Tang San...
The very next second after Lin Yan stepped through the doorway, Tang San suddenly cried out.
"Wait!"
"Are you saying that the number of years a Soul Ring can have isn't fixed for each Soul Master?"
Lin Yan looked back, a little surprised.
"Oh? You actually understood?"
Lin Yan and Tang San met each other's eyes. Neither spoke right away, and silence fell over the room.
Before long, Yu Xiaogang came over to Tang San.
"What do you mean, Xiao San? What did you understand?"
Tang San thought for a moment, then slowly began to explain.
"Teacher, it's not that only Soul Elders can absorb Thousand-Year Soul Rings. It's that once a Soul Master's physical strength and meridian capacity reach a certain level, they can absorb one."
"If our bodies are containers, then Soul Ring energy is the water inside them."
"As a Soul Master's level rises, the container gradually grows larger. When we reach a bottleneck, we choose a Soul Ring with a suitable number of years based on how much space remains in the container."
"Cultivating Twin Martial Souls means continually enlarging the container, until it can hold two portions of water instead of one. And if we want the Soul Rings for the second Martial Soul to be even higher quality, then we have to enlarge it enough to hold three portions, or even more."
As he spoke, Tang San turned to look at Lin Yan.
"Lin Yan, given your current physical strength and meridian capacity, what quality of Soul Rings can you add to your second Martial Soul?"
"There's no harm in telling you."
Lin Yan stood in the doorway, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.
The next second, the Evil Fire Demon Dragon Martial Soul instantly possessed him. Violent flames sprang from thin air, forming the phantom of a colossal fire dragon before surging into Lin Yan's body in a flash.
Scorching ripples spread outward. Though they stood far away, everyone felt their hearts tremble at the sight of that aura.
"This..."
"What kind of Martial Soul is that? How can it unleash such a terrifying aura?"
"That heat is deadly—far beyond any fire-attribute Martial Soul I've ever seen."
Yu Xiaogang's face was pale with shock.
He had traveled across the continent and met many fire-attribute Soul Masters, but Lin Yan's flames were the hottest and most domineering he had ever seen. It was as if, among countless flames, a king had appeared.
Yellow, yellow, yellow! Three Hundred-Year Soul Rings, each etched with ornate patterns, appeared together and revolved rhythmically beneath Lin Yan's feet.
"Three Hundred-Year Soul Rings? It makes sense, and yet it's still a little surprising."
Tang San murmured to himself.
He had completely understood what Lin Yan had said earlier. He had guessed that the Soul Rings on Lin Yan's second Martial Soul wouldn't be very high quality, but he was still surprised that Lin Yan's meridians could hold three Hundred-Year Soul Rings.
And those three Soul Rings looked extraordinary, with patterns on them. What kind of Soul Beasts had they come from?
In the crowd, Flender took a few steps toward Lin Yan.
"Wasn't your Martial Soul a snake? Why has it turned into a dragon?"
"It evolved in form after absorbing a Soul Ring."
Lin Yan answered unhurriedly, as if he were talking about something perfectly ordinary.
But to Flender, those words made his brow furrow. "Evolved? Can an awakened Martial Soul still change its form?"
Lin Yan didn't answer. The truth was right there in front of them, and he couldn't be bothered to waste his breath on these people any longer.
Just then, Yu Xiaogang seemed to have witnessed the joke of the century. As if he'd caught Lin Yan in a blunder, he sneered mockingly.
"You actually added three Hundred-Year Soul Rings to your second Martial Soul? How stupid! The talent of Twin Martial Souls is wasted on you. Are you really in such a hurry to rush ahead?"
After all, Tang Hao had told Yu Xiaogang about the Clear Sky Hammer's cultivation method. Their goal was to add nine Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings to the Clear Sky Hammer.
So, in Yu Xiaogang's eyes, what Lin Yan had done was downright laughable.
Lin Yan silently rolled his eyes and turned to Tang San.
"Tang San, do you think so too?"
Tang San didn't say anything, but the hesitation in his eyes gave everyone their answer.
Lin Yan let out a scoff, then turned and left the office without another word.
"Stop! Explain yourself..."
Yu Xiaogang shouted after Lin Yan, but this time Lin Yan didn't look back. Before long, he had disappeared from sight.
Yu Xiaogang then turned to Tang San, who had been standing there in a daze.
"Xiao San, what did he mean?"
Tang San didn't answer. He simply raised his head and met Yu Xiaogang's gaze.
"Teacher, are you really sure you can help me add nine Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings to my second Martial Soul?"
Yu Xiaogang felt as if he'd been struck by lightning.
He had seen doubt in Tang San's eyes. His disciple of six years, whom he had poured his heart into training, was doubting him.
Most crucially, what Tang San doubted was entirely beyond Yu Xiaogang's abilities...
Yu Xiaogang himself had no idea how to add nine Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings to the Clear Sky Hammer. He only thought the idea was impressive and groundbreaking, but had never considered how to put it into practice.
Was Tang San really supposed to wait until he reached the later stages of cultivation, then simply add Soul Rings to the Clear Sky Hammer as a matter of course? Wouldn't he explode and die?
Yu Xiaogang was afraid... afraid Tang San would think he wasn't capable of teaching him. Now, when Yu Xiaogang looked at Tang San again, panic appeared in his eyes.
"I... of course I'm sure."
"These matters are still too far off for you. What you need to do now is focus on cultivating. When you've grown strong enough to add a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring to your Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul, I'll explain the rest."
With that, Yu Xiaogang turned and walked into the office.
"I'm not feeling well. You can go. I need to rest for a while."
Flender and Ma Hongjun sensed the subtle tension between the teacher and disciple. They pursed their lips, said nothing, and walked out of the office.
As for Tang San... he looked deeply at Yu Xiaogang, realizing for the first time that the man was only a Soul Grandmaster, after all.
The three of them left the office. The instant the door closed, the room lost its light, as if Yu Xiaogang's life had fallen back into darkness...
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