The first one.
Tang San, Martial Soul: Blue Silver Grass, Innate Full Soul Power.
Six years old.
The second one.
Huang Fei, Martial Soul: Blue Silver Grass, Innate Full Soul Power.
Six years old.
Yu Xiaogang's gaze swept over those few lines again and again. His fingers trembled slightly, almost without him realizing it.
His heart was beating fast.
It wasn't disappointment or regret, but excitement.
An uncontrollable, almost feverish excitement.
Dean Wang had thought he would be like everyone else: see the words "Blue Silver Grass," shake his head, and sigh over such a fine talent going to waste.
But Yu Xiaogang wasn't like everyone else.
He had spent half his life studying Martial Soul Theory, and he knew better than anyone one basic fact.
A trash Martial Soul like Blue Silver Grass absolutely couldn't support its host's birth with Innate Full Soul Power.
That was a fundamental principle of Martial Soul studies.
The quality of a Martial Soul determined the upper limit of its Soul Power.
Blue Silver Grass was the most ordinary and weakest Martial Soul on the entire continent. The upper limit of Soul Power it could bear was extremely low. Forget Innate Full Soul Power; even a Blue Silver Grass Soul Master who could cultivate to the Soul Master level was as rare as a phoenix feather or a unicorn horn on the continent.
So there was only one explanation for the two certificates before him.
These two children's Martial Souls weren't Blue Silver Grass.
Or rather, they weren't just Blue Silver Grass.
Yu Xiaogang's mind raced, countless clues weaving together before his eyes.
Innate Full Soul Power.
Blue Silver Grass.
Trash Martial Soul.
Those three terms contradicted one another.
There was only one possibility.
Both children had Twin Martial Souls.
Another Martial Soul lay hidden within them, one of such high quality that it could support Innate Full Soul Power.
Blue Silver Grass was merely the first thing to appear when they awakened—a "cloak" for that powerful Martial Soul, or a disguise revealed after it had been suppressed.
Twin Martial Souls.
A single one already made someone a genius among ten thousand.
Two?
In the same year?
In the same village?
The corners of Yu Xiaogang's mouth lifted without him noticing.
Dean Wang saw him staring blankly at the documents and thought he was disappointed, so he offered some consolation. "Old Yu, don't take it too hard. Blue Silver Grass may be a trash Martial Soul, but they've got the foundation of Innate Full Soul Power. Raise them well, and they can at least become Soul Masters one day. For an elementary academy like ours, producing two Soul Masters would already bring us immense prestige."
Yu Xiaogang came back to himself and glanced at Dean Wang. His smile deepened.
Dean Wang hadn't figured it out, and Yu Xiaogang had no intention of explaining.
Twin Martial Souls.
The term was too weighty, too precious.
The Spirit Hall archives recorded only a handful of people with Twin Martial Souls throughout history. But few of them had survived.
To him, these two would be perfect test subjects.
Fine tools to help him turn his fortunes around!
Yu Xiaogang made up his mind, but kept his expression calm. He set the two documents back on the desk and said blandly, "Fate does play strange tricks. Innate Full Soul Power with a Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul—now that's something unheard of."
Dean Wang nodded, giving it no further thought.
Yu Xiaogang stood, picked up his notebook, and gave Dean Wang a slight nod.
"I'll head back first. I'll go see those two children tomorrow."
"Sure, suit yourself." Dean Wang waved a hand and went back to the files on his desk.
Yu Xiaogang left the office and stood in the corridor for a while.
The sun had completely set, leaving only a streak of dark red afterglow along the horizon.
The corridor was dim, his face hidden in shadow and his expression impossible to make out.
But two flames burned in his eyes.
Twin Martial Souls.
Two of them.
And both had Innate Full Soul Power with Blue Silver Grass.
What did that mean?
It meant the "Ten Martial Soul Competition Theories" he'd spent years studying had finally found the perfect test subjects.
According to his theory, Martial Souls competed with one another.
When a host possessed two Martial Souls, the stronger one suppressed the weaker one, causing the weaker Martial Soul to display the traits of a trash Martial Soul.
Competition between the two Martial Souls affected the host's rate of Soul Power growth, the upper limit of Soul Ring absorption, and the Martial Souls' final evolutionary paths.
He'd studied these theories for over a decade, pored over countless confidential Spirit Hall files, and filled more than ten notebooks. But he'd never had a living test subject to verify them.
Now, two had arrived at once.
Two.
Yu Xiaogang pulled a small notebook from his coat, opened to a blank page, and wrote down two names.
Tang San.
Huang Fei.
Six years old.
Six years old.
Martial Soul: Blue Silver Grass (surface), unknown (true nature).
Innate Full Soul Power, level ten.
He drew a line beneath each name, then closed the notebook and tucked it back into his coat.
A teacher on duty called from the end of the corridor, reminding the students that it was time to return to their dormitories.
Yu Xiaogang gathered his thoughts and turned toward his own quarters.
After a few steps, he stopped and looked back toward the dormitory area.
Those two children were staying in Dorm Seven, weren't they?
No rush.
He'd see them tomorrow.
He needed to think carefully tonight about how to approach the two children tomorrow—what to say and what to do.
Children with Twin Martial Souls were bound to be more perceptive than ordinary children.
He couldn't rush things, couldn't let anything slip, and couldn't let the two children make any connection between him and their "Twin Martial Souls."
At least, not yet.
First, he had to earn their trust and make them see him as a wise mentor and friend. Then, little by little, he could guide them into the framework of his theories.
He would make them test subjects to verify his theories without their even realizing it.
At that thought, a glint flickered in Yu Xiaogang's eyes, too subtle to notice.
For ten years, he had lived at the mercy of others, mocked and looked down upon.
Everyone called him the "Fart Master," said his theories were complete nonsense, and called him a disgrace to the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan.
But he didn't care.
Because he knew his theories were right. The world was simply too foolish to understand them.
Now, heaven had given him the two finest proofs imaginable.
If he could "raise" these two children well and let the world see their achievements under his guidance, then every mockery and doubt would be shattered.
And he, Yu Xiaogang, would go from a laughingstock to a legend in the world of Martial Soul Theory.
Then the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan would regret it, Spirit Hall would be astonished, and the entire continent would know his name.
Yu Xiaogang took a deep breath and quickened his pace.
His footsteps echoed through the corridor, one after another, steady and powerful.
Meanwhile, on the communal bed in Dorm Seven, Huang Fei was sleeping like the dead beneath his blanket.
He didn't know that a middle-aged man in black had already written his name in a notebook outside that office in the administration building, intending to make him a "test subject."
Even if he had known, he would only have rolled over and muttered,
"Test subject, then. I'm not cultivating anyway, so I'm not the one who'll die."
Then he would have gone right back to sleep.
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