Just thinking of this brought a bitter smile to Yu Xiaogang's lips.
Back then, although his Martial Soul had undergone a malignant mutation into Luo Sanpao, his family had still arranged for his first Soul Ring to come from a lightning-attribute draconic Soul Beast.
Unfortunately, when it came to his second Soul Ring, he had given up on himself and picked one at random.
By then, his cultivation speed had already slowed to a despairing crawl.
By the time he broke through to level twenty, he had long since become a notorious cripple on the continent.
A direct descendant of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, yet a good-for-nothing who couldn't even break through level thirty.
The gulf between what he was and what he should have been had utterly shattered him.
Under the weight of blow after blow, he chose a Soul Ring at random, effectively cutting off his own path forward.
As for Luo Sanpao's higher evolution, the answer was clearer still.
If Luo Sanpao had undergone a beneficial mutation back then instead of the same malignant mutation he had now, there could only have been two outcomes after a successful transformation.
The first was the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon, his family's inherited Martial Soul and the Martial Soul passed down through the direct line of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan.
The second was the possibility Yu Xiaogang believed most likely.
It would not be the inherited Tyrant Dragon Martial Soul, but the Golden Sacred Dragon, the Martial Soul Fusion Skill formed by the trinity of himself, Flender, and Liu Erlong.
No one understood better than he did the principles behind this trinity Martial Soul Fusion Skill, whose fusion rate of ninety-nine percent was rare even across the entire history of Soul Masters.
In this trinity Martial Soul Fusion Skill, Flender, the Horn of Flight, provided the ability to fly and his own Soul Power, while Liu Erlong, the Horn of Slaughter, provided the dragon's body.
As the Horn of Wisdom, Yu Xiaogang provided the most vital element of this trinity Martial Soul Fusion Skill: a vessel in the form of Luo Sanpao.
Luo Sanpao was the vessel through which the Golden Sacred Dragon descended, the container that fused Flender and Liu Erlong's powers. Without Luo Sanpao, this Martial Soul Fusion Skill could never exist.
From this, it was clear that if Luo Sanpao's flaws could truly be overcome, there were only two possibilities for its ultimate evolution: the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon it had been before the mutation, or the Golden Sacred Dragon it could become after a complete mutation.
Yu Xiaogang slowly closed his eyes.
There were two possibilities.
Either one would be enough to free him from his current predicament.
If things really were as Lin Mo had said earlier, and he had started strengthening the essence of Luo Sanpao's Martial Soul with Soul Rings from lightning-attribute draconic Soul Beasts whose bloodlines ranked higher than Luo Sanpao's...
If he had also switched Luo Sanpao's food to the flesh of those draconic Soul Beasts...
After all these wasted years, he should have been able to grind his way to level thirty, shouldn't he?
Level thirty.
It was a level an ordinary Soul Master could reach in just a few years, yet he had spent most of his life without ever getting there.
If he hadn't given up on himself back then, if he had been able to calm down and think things through, if someone had been there to point him in the right direction like Lin Mo had today...
Would everything have turned out differently?
But as soon as the thought crossed his mind, Yu Xiaogang couldn't help smiling bitterly again.
Unfortunately, there were no ifs.
What was more, he now faced a far more immediate problem.
With his and Luo Sanpao's current strength, how could they possibly hunt a draconic Soul Beast of that sort?
Even the weakest draconic Soul Beast was far beyond the ability of a twenty-nine-level Two-Ring Soul Grandmaster like him to handle.
Never mind those with even higher-grade bloodlines.
Back when he had taken two children to hunt for Soul Rings in the Soul Hunting Forest, if Lin Mo hadn't arrived like a divine soldier from the heavens, he and Tang San would likely have been killed by that Datura Snake.
At the thought, Yu Xiaogang drew a deep breath and silently made up his mind.
It seemed he would have to move up his plans.
He had originally intended to recommend Lin Mo to Flender's Shrek Academy after the school year ended.
Now, it seemed he would have to get in touch with Flender sooner.
Neither Lin Mo's thousand-year second Soul Ring nor the high-level dragon flesh Yu Xiaogang would need for Luo Sanpao's upcoming Martial Soul Evolution was something a lowly Two-Ring Soul Grandmaster like him could obtain.
He needed help.
And apart from Flender, he couldn't think of anyone else who could help him.
He just didn't know whether his former big brother would still acknowledge him as his little brother after all these years apart.
For years, he had deliberately avoided all contact with Flender and Liu Erlong, just as he had deliberately avoided any contact with his family.
It wasn't because he didn't cherish the past. He simply felt too ashamed to face them.
What right did a good-for-nothing who couldn't even break through level thirty have to call them brothers?
But now, he could no longer run away.
Time flew by.
After the school year began, Lin Mo's life returned to its old routine.
He got up at dawn to cultivate, squeezed in some reading and study during the morning, and devoted all his remaining time to cultivation.
He also stopped fixating on breaking through the Inversion of Three talent.
Instead, he let things take their course and began tempering his body, spirit, and Soul Power.
From what he had learned, in the world of The Outcast, the Inversion of Three and arts like the Golden Light Incantation were merely external aids, like a walking stick used to climb a mountain.
They could certainly help someone move faster and more steadily, but in the end, they were only supplementary.
On the path of cultivation, what truly mattered was the cultivation of one's nature and life.
Cultivating one's nature governed the primordial spirit, encompassing the mind, the heart, and the will.
Cultivating one's life governed the body, tempering the foundations of the flesh.
Cultivating nature and life together meant advancing the mind, will, and physique in unison.
On the Douluo Continent, the cultivation of life undoubtedly represented one's body—in other words, one's physical constitution.
All foundations lay in the body.
A strong body could bear greater power. A weak body couldn't bring out the true might of even the most powerful Soul Power.
As for cultivating one's nature, it was far more mysterious than cultivating one's life.
Still, it was easy enough to infer that on the Douluo Continent, it was definitely tied to the strength of one's mental power—in other words, one's soul—and was inseparable from the strength of one's will.
With that in mind, he would temper his body, improve his physical constitution, train his will and mind, and then let his Soul Power cultivation rise naturally.
As long as none of the three became a weakness, and his will was tempered to the utmost while his mental power and physique were pushed to their limits...
No matter how flashy your tricks are, I'll break through them with one punch.
That was the path Lin Mo had chosen for himself.
He would not chase flashy Soul Skills or rely on complicated methods.
The path he would take was to crush every obstacle with overwhelming strength.
What surprised Lin Mo, however, was that about a month into the new school year, Yu Xiaogang left a letter behind and suddenly departed without a word, vanishing for a long while.
In the letter, Yu Xiaogang only said that he had urgent business to attend to and would be away for some time. He told Tang San to cultivate properly at the academy and not neglect his studies.
As for where he had gone or when he would return, the letter didn't mention a single word.