Gangzi's Theory

Nuoding City's gates.

After absorbing his third Soul Ring, Jiang Lin returned here.

For the past few days, he had been coming here during the day and lingering for a while, seemingly without purpose.

Naturally, Jiang Lin wanted to see whether Tang San had come to enroll.

A year ago, he had secretly confirmed Tang San's age: five.

Jiang Lin was four years older than Tang San, so this should be the year Tang San awakened his Martial Soul and came to study at Nuoding Academy.

Jiang Lin wasn't from Holy Soul Village, but he was an orphan from Emperor Soul Village, one of the villages around Nuoding City.

After Su Yuntao awakened the Innate Full Soul Power of his Blood Fiend Divine Thunder Halberd, Jiang Lin was immediately invited to join Spirit Hall.

It was also then that Jiang Lin awakened his system and used the limited-time, zero-yuan shopping card it gave him at the start to buy a random Titled Douluo Summoning Card, which summoned Elder Chen.

After Elder Chen, a Titled Douluo, dragged Brother Tao into a small grove and warned him, Tao had the sense to swear on his Martial Soul that he would forget who Jiang Lin was.

After all, there was no telling whether the report he wrote would ever reach Spirit City, but a Titled Douluo could genuinely take his life.

Besides, his monthly pay was only so much. Why risk his life? Su Yuntao wasn't that loyal to Spirit Hall; he wasn't about to throw his life away for it.

Jiang Lin had a simple reason for not wanting to join Spirit Hall.

He had exceptional talent, and if he joined, he would inevitably come into contact with Bibi Dong.

Until he could protect himself, Jiang Lin didn't want anything to do with that lunatic.

After awakening his Martial Soul, Jiang Lin hadn't rushed to obtain his First Soul Ring.

Instead, he first ate a few hundred- and thousand-year-old Whale Rubber, but the effects were nowhere near as good as in the fanfics he'd read before transmigrating. He ate several more with even higher cultivation ages, and only just managed to raise his First Soul Ring's age to around a thousand years.

But then, that made sense. Even in Douluo II, ten thousand years later, only the protagonist and Wang Dong had Soul Rings beyond a hundred years at the twentieth level; everyone else had only Yellow Soul Rings.

Jiang Lin was a cautious person. Since he had a cheat, there was no need to gamble with his life.

So his First Soul Ring was only a little over nine hundred years old and yellow. Of course, the main reason was that the Soul Beast that provided it had a high bloodline rank.

Later, after absorbing his First Soul Ring and becoming just barely able to withstand ten-thousand-year Whale Rubber, Jiang Lin began trying a few pieces.

He stopped only when the effects became negligible.

As a result, Jiang Lin's physical constitution was now definitely no weaker than that of a high-level Soul King.

If his mental power weren't his weak point, he would absolutely have tried for a ten-thousand-year Third Soul Ring.

Thinking of mental power, Jiang Lin couldn't help connecting it to Dugu Bo and the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, staples on any Douluo must-eat list.

But he didn't have a redemption code. Who knew how those transmigrators before him could still remember exactly what Tang San had said after reading the novel ten or even twenty years earlier? It was as if they'd known they would transmigrate.

Jiang Lin knew the general principle, but he couldn't recite every detail of Dugu Bo's illness without missing a word.

Still, he could give Dugu Bo a lead.

For instance, Soul Bones.

He remembered that the poison could be transferred only by using as medicine the blood of someone who had completed Ice and Fire Body Tempering after consuming the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and Infernal Delicate Apricot.

As for the original prescription?

Jiang Lin was helpless.

He planned to see whether the idea of transferring the poison with a Soul Bone could get him the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well from Dugu Bo.

If not, his fists were another decent bargaining chip.

After having his system for so long, Jiang Lin had noticed that Titled Douluo Summoning Cards refreshed fairly often.

He just couldn't afford one right now.

He wanted the Immortal Herbs, and he wasn't planning to let the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well slip by either.

After entering the city, Jiang Lin went straight to a teahouse, taking the familiar route.

Elder Chen had been waiting on the second floor for some time.

After sitting down across from him, Jiang Lin kept glancing toward the city gates.

"Xiao Lin, try this and tell me how it tastes."

Seeing Jiang Lin stare blankly toward the gates, lost in thought, Elder Chen offered him a cup of tea.

Elder Chen's Martial Soul was the fire-attribute Three-Eyed Fire Leopard, but he didn't have the flamboyant temperament typical of fire-attribute Soul Masters. Instead, he was steady and enjoyed brewing and drinking tea.

Jiang Lin glanced at the cup before him and accepted it without ceremony, taking a small sip.

"It's the same tea, but it tastes different when you brew it, Elder Chen. Fragrant but not overpowering, rich but not weak."

"Haha, you always know how to make an old man happy."

Elder Chen stroked his beard and chuckled, then took a gentle sip of tea himself.

"By the way, how did you know a Hundred-Thousand-Year Transformed Soul Beast would show up here?"

"Don't you believe me, Elder Chen?"

"Not at all. You managed to bring an old man back from the dead. A Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast is nothing. Even if you ascended to godhood right here and now, I wouldn't be surprised."

Jiang Lin shook his head helplessly at that.

"Don't tease me, Elder Chen. If I could ascend to godhood right now, why would I care about a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast?"

Elder Chen was a Titled Douluo summoned by Jiang Lin. He would obey his commands and never betray him, but Jiang Lin didn't intend to treat him like a lackey he could summon and dismiss at will. They could simply get along normally.

In Jiang Lin's eyes, Elder Chen was a person with his own thoughts and soul, not a puppet or a tool.

In the original story, Bibi Dong had never treated Chrysanthemum and Ghost Douluo as people. As soon as they were no longer useful, she tossed them aside.

After serving Bibi Dong like a dog for so many years, they got no benefits at all, and in the end met a truly miserable fate.

Even Jiang Lin, an outsider, felt sorry for them.

Jiang Lin didn't think of himself as some kind of saint, but he wouldn't treat his own people as if they weren't people.

Thinking this, Jiang Lin looked down again, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.

He saw two figures, one old and one young, enter the city. The old man asked a passerby where Nuoding Academy was.

Tang San had arrived. How long could that Hundred-Thousand-Year Hooligan Rabbit stay away?

He had to seize this chance before Tang Hao noticed Xiao Wu.

If Tang Hao found out Xiao Wu was there, Jiang Lin didn't believe he wouldn't be tempted.

"Elder Chen, they're here."

Chen Xuan's hand paused as he sipped his tea. Following Jiang Lin's gaze, he looked at the old man and boy.

"All right. I'll intercept her outside the city gates. Are you coming?"

At the question, Jiang Lin thought for a moment, then shook his head.

"You're a Titled Douluo, Elder Chen. You should have no trouble intercepting a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast that's bound to come here."

Even if something went wrong, Jiang Lin couldn't help.

What difference would one somewhat stronger Soul Elder make if even a Titled Douluo couldn't handle it?

In front of the entrance to Notting Junior Soul Master Academy.

Since Old Jack and Tang San had to spend time asking for directions to Nuoding Academy, it was only natural that Jiang Lin, who knew the place well, arrived first.

Jiang Lin looked at the familiar surroundings, and a trace of reminiscence passed through his eyes.

For the year after awakening his Martial Soul, Jiang Lin had received some basic education at Nuoding Academy.

At seven, after reading through the books on Martial Souls and Soul Beasts that Gangzi had collected, Jiang Lin applied to graduate from Nuoding Academy.

As for Gangzi's own theories, Jiang Lin hadn't dared read even a single word.

Looking back, he hadn't believed the warnings and had let his curiosity get the better of him. He'd wanted to see for himself whether Gangzi really deserved all the abuse he'd gotten from netizens in his previous life.

Maybe he was like the Grandmaster in the manhua? That would have been the real deal.

But the result was obvious. Jiang Lin believed it now. He admitted it: he'd been a little disgusted.

Jiang Lin still remembered Gangzi saying, "Your Martial Soul is of good quality, but it carries too much killing intent. To avoid problems later, I recommend absorbing a life-attribute Soul Ring to balance it out."

Jiang Lin had laughed in anger right then. A Blood Fiend Divine Thunder Halberd absorbing a life-attribute Soul Ring? Heh. All he could say was that Gangzi was consistently himself.

At that thought, Jiang Lin glanced in another direction.

By the roadside not far away, a thin, middle-aged man in a gray robe stood watching the students arriving to register, deep in thought.

Yu Xiaogang, the so-called theoretical grandmaster who hadn't broken through level thirty until he was over fifty.