Yu Xiaogang's loss of composure even stunned Flender. Yu Xiaogang suddenly dropped to his knees and frantically rummaged through the scattered manuscripts, his bony fingers gouging deep marks into the pages.
"Found it!"
Yu Xiaogang suddenly raised a sheet of paper with charred edges. A fragmented Spirit Ring ratio diagram had been drawn on it in cinnabar, and Yu Xiaogang said like a madman:
"Several centuries ago, a Soul Master with the Demon Bear Martial Soul successfully absorbed a two-thousand-year Demon Bear Soul Beast Spirit Ring as his third Spirit Ring by force... That was a strength-type Martial Soul, and the Soul Beast matched the Martial Soul!"
With that thought, Yu Xiaogang said like he had gone insane:
"Right, that's it. It must be so. That Shen Lian must be the same."
Watching his old friend in such a state on the ground, Flender could not bear it, but he still said to Yu Xiaogang:
"Xiaogang, Shen Lian's Martial Soul isn't a Beast Martial Soul. It's a Tool Martial Soul—a powerful long blade."
Hearing Flender's words, Yu Xiaogang's voice grew lower and lower until it became a despairing murmur. Then he continued muttering to himself:
"Could my theory... have been wrong from the very foundation?"
Yu Xiaogang curled up amid the scattered manuscripts, his bony fingers repeatedly rubbing a page with curled corners titled Ten Competitiveness of Martial Souls.
Moonlight filtered through his fingers, illuminating the Spirit Ring ratio diagram traced in cinnabar on the page—his theoretical cornerstone, built over thirty years of painstaking effort. Now, it felt like countless fine needles stabbing painfully into his eyes.
He suddenly grabbed a chunk of gravel and viciously smashed it against the four words "Optimal Ratio" on the Mu Jin slab. Mu Jin chips flew as the ink blurred and spread like