"Viscount, please hear me out."
"His Majesty has even issued a direct order. If you still refuse to leave the library and go to the Mimicry Training Ground today, he'll immediately revoke your library privileges and assign three royal retainers to watch you train around the clock!"
Hearing that, Xue Yao, who had been planning to play nice and humor them, felt his eyelid twitch.
Revoke his library privileges? Have people watch him all day and all night?
What a joke!
He was at a critical stage in merging Aerodynamics with Steel Tempest. The model for Sweeping Blade in his mind was only halfway complete. If they really dragged him off to that Mimicry Training Ground, where all he could do was shiver in the cold and get buffeted by the wind, then put him under twenty-four-hour surveillance, when on earth would he get to unlock his happy-go-lucky swordsman skill set?
"Phew—"
Xue Yao let out a deep sigh.
He understood now. In the eyes of these stubborn Douluo natives, if you didn't train according to their assembly line of "meditating, absorbing, and fighting monsters," then you were neglecting your duties.
Keeping a low profile and biding his time was all well and good, but if he overdid it and lost even his basic freedom and the conditions he needed to grow, then it would hardly be worth it.
Since reason wouldn't get through to them, he'd have to speak the most universal language on Douluo Continent: show them his strength.
Xue Yao casually tossed the Human Meridians and Soul Power Circulation Map onto the table and stood up.
"Uncle Commander."
Looking at the anxious commander of the knights, Xue Yao let his innocent, well-behaved expression vanish. In its place was the absolute confidence and composure of a peerless genius.
"I think everyone outside, you, and even His Majesty have misunderstood one thing."
"Misunderstood? What?" The commander of the knights blinked.
"You've all assumed..."
Xue Yao lifted his chin slightly and stomped forward with his right foot.
"BOOM!"
The instant his foot hit the ground, an incredibly violent, razor-sharp torrent of azure air burst from his body, exploding outward like a hurricane!
"VMMM—"
With a crisp hum, a bright yellow ring of light rose from beneath Xue Yao's feet!
But the hundred-year Soul Ring wasn't what stunned the commander of the knights. It was the Soul Power fluctuation that erupted along with it!
This was absolutely not the flimsy level-ten Innate Full Soul Power he'd had upon awakening. This was a powerful pressure, tempered through countless trials until it was almost tangible!
"L-Level eleven? No, twelve?!"
The commander of the knights sucked in a sharp breath. As a Soul Douluo, his perception of Soul Power Levels was exceptionally keen. Yet at that moment, his assessment kept changing!
Level thirteen!
Level fourteen!
Level fifteen!!!
The commander's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets. His voice trembled so badly that it went off-key.
"F-Fifteen?! How is that possible?!"
How could he not be shocked?
It had only been three months at most since Xue Yao awakened his Martial Soul!
Three months! From level ten to level fifteen! He'd risen a full five levels!
What did that even mean?
The most gifted geniuses in the history of the Heaven Dou Empire could be treated like ancestors if they advanced two levels in a year during the junior Soul Master stage. Even Feng Xiaotian, held up as a cautionary example, had taken more than half a year to break through to level twelve!
And now, Xue Yao—the boy everyone had branded as "neglecting his duties" and "so obsessed with self-created Soul Skills that he'd neglected his training"—had soared five levels in just three months!
Most terrifying of all, he hadn't spent a single day in a Mimicry Training Ground during those three months. He'd been buried in books every day!
"Who told you that reading means I'm wasting my talent?"
Xue Yao dispersed his Soul Power. The gale around him vanished in an instant, and the books that had been swirling through the air fluttered back down to the ground.
Looking at the commander of the knights, who stood gaping with his jaw almost on the floor, Xue Yao's lips curled into a faintly mocking smile.
"My Martial Soul is a Griffin. Sitting still and meditating by rote is meaningless for me. What I need is to understand the nature of the wind and the principles that govern airflow."
Xue Yao bluffed without a shred of shame, dressing up his "cheating" as a higher form of enlightenment.
"Reading, making deductions, and creating my own Soul Skills—that's my unique way of training."
"Five levels in three months. Uncle Commander, would you call that neglecting my duties?"
Gulp.
The commander of the knights swallowed with difficulty.
Would he?
Hell, no!
If gaining five levels in three months counted as neglecting one's duties, then those so-called geniuses at Heaven Dou Royal Academy, who trained to the point of collapse in Mimicry Training Grounds and advanced only one level a year, weren't even as good as pigs!
"A genius... no, a monster... a peerless prodigy!"
The commander of the knights felt dizzy. His earlier worry and anguish were swept away, replaced by an indescribable joy!
To hell with Feng Xiaotian Syndrome! Feng Xiaotian wasn't worthy of carrying this young master's shoes!
"Viscount! I was foolish! Everyone else was blind!"
The commander of the knights was so excited his face flushed red. He dropped to one knee.
"I'll return to the palace and report this at once. His Majesty will never forgive the fools who dared to gossip behind your back!"
With that, the commander of the knights raced out of the reading room, moving so fast he even used a Soul Skill.
Heaven Dou Imperial Palace, Imperial Study.
Emperor Xue Ye listened with a dark expression as several ministers reported the rumors about Xue Yao spreading through the city. He was so furious that he kept slamming his hand on the table.
"Your Majesty—!!!"
Suddenly, a report came from outside the hall, the voice barely containing its elation.
The commander of the knights ignored protocol and burst straight into the Imperial Study. He dropped to his knees in front of Emperor Xue Ye with a thud.
"Outrageous! What kind of behavior is this?!" Emperor Xue Ye, who had been looking for somewhere to vent his anger, roared. "I sent you to give Xue Yao a talking-to. Why have you come back in such a frenzy? Is that boy willing to go to the Mimicry Training Ground or not?!"
"Y-Your Majesty!"
The commander of the knights raised his head. His usually stern, dark face now wore a nearly crazed grin.
"There's no need! No Mimicry Training Ground could possibly be worthy of Viscount Xue Yao!"
"What nonsense are you talking about?!" Emperor Xue Ye knitted his brows.
The commander of the knights took a deep breath and gathered his strength. Then he bellowed so loudly that everyone in the Imperial Study could hear him:
"Your Majesty! Just now, Viscount Xue Yao released his Soul Power right in front of me! Level fifteen! His Soul Power is truly level fifteen!!!"
"And it's incredibly solid, without the slightest trace of instability!"
"It's only been three months since he awakened! For three months, the young lord has been 'neglecting his duties' in the library, and in that time his Soul Power has broken through five levels!!!"
VMMM—!
The memorials slipped from the hands of several ministers who had been speaking, landing on the floor with a slap. They all gaped like ducks with their necks in a noose.
The anger on Emperor Xue Ye's face froze completely.
He gripped the armrests of the throne and sprang to his feet.
"Y-You said how much? L-Level fifteen? In three months? Are you sure you didn't see wrong?!" Emperor Xue Ye's voice wavered.
"I stake my head on it, Your Majesty! I felt that azure wind-element Soul Power with absolute clarity! He is a peerless prodigy blessed by heaven and destined to bring glory to the Heaven Dou Empire!" The commander of the knights struck his forehead hard against the ground.
Silence.
A silence like death.
After a full half-minute, a burst of laughter grew louder and louder from the throne.
"Ha ha ha ha! Excellent! Excellent!!!"
Emperor Xue Ye was so excited his face glowed red. He looked ten years younger in an instant.
"Five levels in three months! Reading is training! With talent that's unprecedented in all history, how could Feng Xiaotian of Godwind Academy possibly compare to my Viscount Sky Wind?!"
"And those fools out there dared to call him a case of a child prodigy who peaked too soon! What an absolute joke!"
Emperor Xue Ye swept his hand through the air and bellowed with soaring confidence:
"By my command! Viscount Sky Wind Xue Yao is exceptionally gifted, a true pillar of the empire! Effective immediately, award him one hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins and ten bolts of fine imperial silk!"
"Furthermore, every facility and ancient text at Heaven Dou Royal Academy shall be open to Xue Yao without restriction! No one may interfere with his training for any reason. Anyone who does will be charged with treason!"
"I want to see who dares gossip once this news gets out!"
The next day.
After Emperor Xue Ye's decree was posted on the notice boards at Heaven Dou Royal Academy and at all the major gates of Heaven Dou City,
an unprecedented earthquake swept through the entire city!
<Five levels in three months! A level-fifteen peerless prodigy is born!>
<Feng Xiaotian Syndrome? No! That's just mediocrity misunderstanding genius!>
The noble circles that had been loudly mocking Xue Yao for "neglecting his duties" just days earlier looked as if someone had slapped them all a hundred times. Their faces were swollen from the humiliation.
The noble youths who had been gloating behind his back were so terrified when they heard the news—level fifteen in three months—that they fell flat on their bottoms. Their Dao Hearts shattered on the spot.
As for the senior teacher who had first coined "Feng Xiaotian Syndrome," he stared at the decree and shakily questioned his entire life for a long time before finally submitting his resignation to the academy.
At the center of the storm, Xue Yao sat quietly in his corner of the library, as before.
With box after box of precious medicinal ingredients and one hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins delivered by the Royal Guards, he comfortably opened Ancient Fragment: Ninety-Nine Theories on Creating Your Own Soul Skills.
"Now I can finally work on my Whirlwind Slash in peace."
Before you continue