Want to Take This Prince as Your Disciple? Come Back When You're Level Thirty!

Yu Xiaogang spread his arms, like a charlatan making his grand entrance:

"But if he becomes my disciple and an heir to my teachings... I guarantee you!"

"I'll devote every last drop of my life's research to him! I'll tailor the perfect Soul Ring configuration for him! I'll make him the brightest new star on this continent, and perhaps even... help him break through the shackles of the Title Douluo realm!"

Yu Xiaogang's impassioned words echoed through the hall.

If an ordinary commoner Soul Master had heard such a solemn promise from a great man of illustrious lineage, they would probably have already dropped to their knees, kowtowing and begging to become his disciple.

"Pfft."

Forgive Xue Yao. He hadn't undergone professional training, and he really couldn't hold it in.

A mocking smile curled Xue Yao's lips. His clear, ringing voice echoed throughout the hall.

When he saw everyone's eyes on him, Xue Yao simply dropped the act.

"You just want to use my Martial Soul to prove your ridiculous theory! You want me to be the perfect 'test subject' in your hands. You want to stand on the glory I earn in the future and wash away the shame of having been called 'useless' for the first half of your life!"

"Am I right, Yu, Xiao, Gang, Grandmaster?!"

Boom!

Xue Yao deliberately put extra emphasis on the last five words.

Yu Xiaogang felt as if he'd been struck by lightning. His face turned deathly pale, and fine beads of sweat sprang across his forehead.

He'd been seen through!

The selfishness and baseness buried in the deepest part of his heart, which even he refused to acknowledge, had been stripped bare in public by a six-year-old child!

"Y-You're talking nonsense! You're slandering me!"

Yu Xiaogang stumbled back half a step in panic, like a clown whose sore spot had been struck. His finger trembled violently as he pointed at Xue Yao. "I, Yu Xiaogang, have devoted my life to studying Martial Souls. I proposed the Ten Core Competencies, and the most famous of them is, 'There are no useless Martial Souls, only useless Soul Masters!' I'm simply teaching according to his aptitude!"

"Oh? There are no useless Martial Souls, only useless Soul Masters?"

Xue Yao seemed to have heard the funniest joke in the world. He chuckled, his gaze suddenly sharpening like that of a lofty judge.

"That does sound inspiring. So tell me, esteemed Grandmaster, whose fame is known throughout the world..."

"How old are you this year? And what level has your Soul Power reached?"

His words were like a poison-coated dagger, driving straight into Yu Xiaogang's heart without the slightest error!

Yu Xiaogang's breath caught. His lips quivered, and his pale face turned the color of pig liver, but for a long while he couldn't manage a single word.

"What's wrong, Grandmaster? You don't want to say? Then allow this prince to tell everyone!"

Xue Yao pressed him relentlessly, his voice cold as ice. "You're nearly fifty, yet your Soul Power has been stuck at level twenty-nine, at the Soul Grandmaster rank, for good. You'll never break through in your lifetime! Your Martial Soul, Luo Sanpao, can not only leave your body, it can only fart!"

"According to your own theory, since there are no useless Martial Souls..."

Xue Yao paused, his eyes filled with boundless contempt. "Then you, a man in his forties who still can't break through level thirty, must be the purest, most top-grade... useless Soul Master on the entire continent!"

Silence.

A deathly silence.

The guards standing on either side of the hall bit down hard on their lips, desperately stifling their laughter as their shoulders shook violently.

Xue Lang and Gao Nianzhen both drew in sharp breaths, inwardly cheering. The logic, the retort—it was a perfect loop, a blow straight to the heart!

You say there are no useless Martial Souls, only useless Soul Masters? Then how do you explain your own sorry state?

"Pfft—!"

Yu Xiaogang felt his blood surge in his chest. A sweet taste rose in his throat, and he nearly spat out a mouthful of blood.

His heart twisted with pain, as though someone had clenched it in their fist.

It hurt! It hurt so much!

Level twenty-nine! That was the deepest, most festering wound in Yu Xiaogang's life! Now a six-year-old child had ripped it open in front of all these people and rubbed a handful of salt into it!

"You... you..." Yu Xiaogang's eyes were bloodshot, like a beast gone mad. "It was an aberrant mutation of my Martial Soul! It was an accident! My theory is still right! I'm still the young master of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, and you dare show me such disrespect!"

He abruptly raised the black token in his hand, trying to use the prestige of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan to salvage the last shred of his dignity.

"I didn't know who you were before, and you almost bluffed me, Yu Xiaogang. Don't tell me you're still the young master of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan—you've already been expelled from the clan. How dare you throw your weight around at the Farak Kingdom Mansion?"

Gao Nianzhen wasn't having any of it. Her brows drew together as she slowly raised her right hand.

"ROAR!!!"

The Golden Lion Martial Soul at Soul Saint rank let out a roar toward the sky behind her.

Even though she had released only the tiniest trace of its power—

"Eeek—!"

A terrified squeal, much like a pig's, suddenly came from inside Yu Xiaogang.

It was his Martial Soul, Luo Sanpao!

Under the pressure of a Soul Saint, Yu Xiaogang's legs gave way, and he nearly fell to his knees right there in the hall.

"Grandmaster? Hah. Grandmaster."

Xue Yao looked down at Yu Xiaogang, who could barely stay on his feet. His eyes held no anger, only the pity and disdain one might show a sewer rat.

Xue Yao slowly turned around, not sparing Yu Xiaogang another glance, as though even looking at him would dirty his eyes. He left Yu Xiaogang with the sight of his proud, aloof back and one final death sentence:

"Grandmaster, you want to take this prince as your disciple?"

"Fine."

"In this life, this prince will only take a true powerhouse as his master!"

Xue Yao turned his head slightly and glanced from the corner of his eye at Yu Xiaogang's ashen face. He sneered. "When you break through to level thirty and become a Soul Elder, come back to the Farak Kingdom Mansion and tell me your ridiculous theory."

"For now, take your plagiarized garbage and get out of my sight!"

Straight to the point.

"Come back when you're level thirty!"

The words struck like thunderbolts from the heavens, shattering Yu Xiaogang's fragile, laughable self-esteem along with all his false pretenses! Not a scrap was left!

"Level thirty... level thirty..."

Yu Xiaogang murmured blankly as the Blue Lightning Token in his hand clattered onto the bluestone floor.

He seemed to have aged ten years in an instant. His already stiff face was now so contorted it was barely recognizable. His mental defenses had completely collapsed.

Faced with Xue Yao's flawless logic, he couldn't come up with a single word in response.

He was like a thief stripped naked and thrown into the street, trembling beneath the undisguised mockery and scorn in the eyes of the mansion's guards.

"I'm not useless... My theory isn't wrong... I'm not..."

Yu Xiaogang clutched his head and crumbled, letting out a wounded beast's howl. He even forgot to pick up the Elder Token lying on the ground.

He turned around and scrambled away, stumbling out of the Main Guest Hall like a stray dog, fleeing the Farak Kingdom Mansion in disgrace.