Level 15 Soul Power! Shattering Rumors!

"Viscount, please, listen to reason."

"His Majesty has issued a final ultimatum. If you refuse to leave this library for the Mimicry Training Ground today, he will immediately revoke your borrowing privileges and assign three Royal Titled Douluo to watch you cultivate twenty-four hours a day!"

Hearing this, Xue Yao, who had been planning to play the obedient fool to brush them off, felt his eyelids twitch violently.

Revoke his borrowing privileges? Assign people to watch him around the clock?

Are you kidding me!

He was at a critical juncture in fusing Aerodynamics with Steel Tempest, and the model for Sweeping Blade in his mind was only half-deduced. If he were really dragged off to that Mimicry Training Ground—a place where you just freeze and get buffeted by wind—and monitored twenty-four hours a day, when on earth would he ever unlock his happy wind-user skill set?

"Hoo—"

Xue Yao let out a deep sigh.

He finally understood: in the eyes of these stubborn Douluo Continent natives, if you don't follow their assembly-line method of "meditate, absorb, kill monsters," you are simply wasting your time.

Playing the weakling to develop is fine, but if you overdo it and end up losing your basic personal freedom and development environment, the loss outweighs the gain.

Since logic wouldn't work, he had no choice but to use the most universal language on the Douluo Continent: flexing his muscles.

Xue Yao tossed the Human Meridians and Soul Power Circulation Map onto the table and stood up.

"Captain."

Xue Yao looked at the anxious Knight Commander, his previously innocent and obedient expression vanishing in an instant. In its place was the absolute confidence and composure of a peerless genius.

"I think you, the rumors outside, and even His Majesty have misunderstood one thing."

"Misunderstood? What misunderstanding?" The Knight Commander was taken aback.

"You mistakenly believe that..."

Xue Yao lifted his chin slightly and slammed his right foot forward.

"BOOM!"

The moment his foot landed, an incredibly violent, razor-sharp cyan airflow erupted from his body like a hurricane!

"Hum—"

With a crisp, resonant hum, a bright yellow ring rose from beneath Xue Yao's feet!

But what shocked the Knight Commander wasn't the hundred-year soul ring; it was the soul power fluctuation accompanying its eruption!

This fluctuation was by no means the flimsy level ten Innate Full Soul Power he had at awakening! It was a powerful, tangible pressure forged through rigorous tempering!

"Eleven... no, twelve?!"

The Knight Commander gasped. As a Soul Douluo-level powerhouse, his perception of Soul Power Level was incredibly sharp. Yet, at this moment, his perception was being constantly rewritten!

Thirteen!

Fourteen!

Fifteen!!!

The Knight Commander's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, his voice trembling so hard the pitch shifted.

"Fifteen?! How is this possible!!"

He couldn't help but be shocked.

It had only been three months since Xue Yao awakened his martial soul!

Three months! From level ten to level fifteen! A jump of five whole levels!

What kind of concept was this?

The top geniuses in the history of the Heaven Dou Empire were considered ancestral treasures if they could improve by two levels in a year during the primary soul master stage. Even Feng Xiaotian, who was often used as a negative example, had taken over half a year just to break through to level twelve!

And yet, this Xue Yao, whom everyone cursed as "unprofessional" and "obsessed with self-created soul skills to the detriment of his cultivation," had soared five levels in just three months!

The most terrifying part was that he hadn't spent a single day in the Mimicry Training Ground during these three months; he had been buried in books the entire time!

"Who told you that reading books is a waste of talent?"

Xue Yao dissipated his soul power. The wild winds surrounding him vanished into thin air, and the books that had been dancing in the gale fluttered back to the ground.

He looked at the dumbfounded Knight Commander, whose jaw was practically hitting the floor, and a faint, mocking smirk curled his lips.

"My martial soul is a Griffin. Sitting there rigidly meditating is meaningless to me. I need to understand the essence of the wind and the laws of airflow."

Xue Yao spouted nonsense with a straight face, packaging his "cheating" as a high-level epiphany.

"Reading, deducing, creating my own soul skills—this is my unique way of cultivation."

"Three months, five levels. Captain, do you still think I'm being unprofessional?"

Gulp.

The Knight Commander swallowed hard.

Unprofessional?

Like hell it was!

If gaining five levels in three months was unprofessional, then those so-called "geniuses" at the Heaven Dou Royal Academy, who worked themselves to death in the Mimicry Training Ground only to gain one level a year, were worse than pigs!

"A genius... no, a monster... this is a true peerless freak of nature!"

The Knight Commander felt his brain spin; his previous worries and heartache were instantly replaced by an indescribable, wild ecstasy!

To hell with Feng Xiaotian Syndrome! Feng Xiaotian wasn't even fit to tie this little ancestor's shoes!

"Viscount! It is this subordinate who was dull-witted! It is the world that is blind!"

The Knight Commander's face flushed with excitement as he dropped to one knee.

"This subordinate shall return to the palace to report immediately. His Majesty will surely not show mercy to those idiots who dared to wag their tongues behind his back!"

With that, the Knight Commander bolted out of the reading room, his speed so frantic he even utilized his soul skills.

Tiandou City, Imperial Palace, Imperial Study.

Emperor Xue Ye sat with a gloomy face, listening to his ministers report the rumors circulating in the city regarding Xue Yao, his hand slamming against the table repeatedly in fury.

"Report--!!!"

Suddenly, a voice filled with irrepressible ecstasy echoed from outside the hall.

Ignoring all protocol, the Knight Commander burst through the doors of the Imperial Study and collapsed onto his knees before Emperor Xue Ye.

"Presumptuous! What kind of behavior is this?!" Emperor Xue Ye, looking for a target for his rage, roared, "I sent you to whip Xue Yao into shape, why are you running back here like a madman? Has that brat finally agreed to go to the Mimicry Training Ground?!"

"Yo... Your Majesty!"

The Knight Commander raised his head, his usually stern, dark face now twisted into an almost manic grin.

"No need to go! No Mimicry Training Ground is worthy of the Viscount!"

"What nonsense are you spouting?!" Emperor Xue Ye furrowed his brows.

The Knight Commander took a deep breath, centered his energy, and roared with a voice that could be heard throughout the entire Imperial Study:

"Your Majesty! Just moments ago, Viscount Xue Yao released his soul power right before my eyes! Level fifteen! It is solid, genuine level fifteen soul power!!!"

"Furthermore, his soul power is incredibly dense, without a hint of instability!"

"It has only been three months since his awakening! The Viscount spent three months 'slacking off' in the library, and his soul power has broken through five levels in a row!!!"

Hum--!

The ministers who had been presenting their reports dropped their scrolls with a clatter, their mouths hanging open like ducks being throttled.

The anger on Emperor Xue Ye's face froze instantly.

He gripped the armrests of his dragon throne and surged to his feet.

"You... you said how much? Fif... fifteen? Three months? Are you certain you didn't misread it?!" Emperor Xue Ye's voice wavered.

"This subordinate would stake his head on it! I felt that cyan wind-attribute soul power clearly! He is absolutely a peerless monster sent by the heavens to bless our Tiandou!" The Knight Commander slammed his head against the floor.

Silence.

A deathly silence.

A full half-minute passed before a growing, uproarious laughter erupted from the dragon throne.

"Hahahahaha! Good! Excellent!!!"

Emperor Xue Ye's face glowed with excitement, and he seemed to have grown ten years younger in an instant.

"Five levels in three months! Reading is cultivation! With such unprecedented talent, how could Feng Xiaotian of Godwind Academy even be mentioned in the same breath as my Viscount Sky Wind?!"

"Those idiots outside actually dared to call him a 'prodigy turned mediocre'! It is the greatest joke in the world!"

Emperor Xue Ye waved his hand, roaring with heroic spirit:

"Pass my decree! Viscount Sky Wind Xue Yao is gifted with extraordinary talent and is the pillar of the Empire! From this day forth, reward him with one hundred thousand Gold Soul Coin! Bestow upon him ten bolts of the royal family's finest silk!"

"Furthermore, all facilities and ancient texts of the Heaven Dou Royal Academy are to be opened to Xue Yao unconditionally! No one is to interfere with his cultivation for any reason; violators will be charged with treason!"

"I want to see who dares to wag their tongues at me once this news gets out!"

The next day.

As Emperor Xue Ye's imperial decree was posted on the bulletin board of the Heaven Dou Royal Academy and at the major gates of Tiandou City, an unprecedented earthquake swept through the entire city!

<Five levels in three months! A level fifteen peerless monster is born!>

<The so-called Feng Xiaotian Syndrome? No! That is merely the misunderstanding of mediocrity toward true genius!>

The noble circles that had been mocking Xue Yao for "slacking off" just days ago felt as if they had been collectively slapped a hundred times; their faces were swollen with shame.

Those noble scions who had been gloating in private were so terrified upon hearing the news of "level fifteen in three months" that they collapsed to the ground, their mental fortitude shattered on the spot.

As for the senior teacher who had first proposed the "Feng Xiaotian Syndrome," he stared at the imperial decree, trembling as he questioned his entire life, before finally submitting his resignation to the academy.

At the center of this storm, Xue Yao sat quietly in the corner of the library.

Accompanied by crates of precious medicinal herbs brought in by the Royal Guards and the one hundred thousand Gold Soul Coin, he comfortably flipped open Ancient Fragments: Ninety-Nine Conjectures on Self-Created Soul Skill.

"Now, I can finally get back to crafting my Whirlwind Slash in peace."