The air in the garden seemed to freeze.
The sunlight was still warm, but the temperature around Qian Renxue seemed to plummet.
Xiao Wu's eyes widened as she glared at Yu Xiaogang, cheeks puffed with indignation. She was clearly very unhappy with what he had said.
Tang San looked awkward and troubled. He opened his mouth, wanting to say something. "Teacher, Ye Yang's..."
However, Qian Renxue spoke first.
"Grandmaster's 'teachings' are truly ear-splitting."
Qian Renxue's tone was perfectly calm, as though she were stating a fact that had nothing to do with her. "Ants, moths... Grandmaster's theories are indeed exquisite, even his metaphors are so... vivid and lifelike."
"But does a Soul Grandmaster stuck at level twenty-nine really have the right to say such things?" Qian Renxue gave a scornful laugh and looked at Yu Xiaogang with disdain.
Yu Xiaogang's face instantly turned livid, as if someone had given him a hard slap.
"You... what did you say?!"
Yu Xiaogang's voice trembled faintly. He stared at the young man before him, dressed in coarse clothes and regarded by him as an "ant," his eyes filled with disbelief and offended fury.
He had never imagined that a "good-for-nothing" without even a Martial Soul would dare to expose his deepest wound so bluntly.
Tang San and Xiao Wu were also stunned by this sudden outburst.
The gentle smile on Tang San's face froze completely. He looked at "Brother Ye Yang" with shock and confusion.
Was this really the taciturn village big brother he remembered, who had seemed calm, even resigned, about having no Martial Soul?
Xiao Wu's pretty eyes widened, her small mouth falling open. She looked from Yu Xiaogang's ugly expression to "Ye Yang," whose face was calm yet disdainful. A trace of satisfaction and deep curiosity flashed in her eyes.
The air in the garden seemed to freeze, and even the sunlight appeared to carry a hint of coldness.
Qian Renxue met Yu Xiaogang's furious gaze, the mocking curve of her lips deepening.
She slowly took a step forward. It seemed casual, but carried an invisible pressure that made Yu Xiaogang's heart tighten for no apparent reason.
"I said," Qian Renxue's voice was not loud, yet it rang as clearly as ice beads hitting the ground, carrying a lofty, appraising air.
"A 'Grandmaster' whose Soul Power would be stuck at level twenty-nine for his entire life, unable even to cross the threshold into the Soul Elder rank..." She deliberately emphasized the word "Grandmaster," her sarcasm so thick it could not be dispelled.
"What gives you the right to spout nonsense here and presume to judge other people's fates? And what makes you think that those who haven't awakened a Martial Soul are doomed to crawl in the dust?"
"Do you know what true power is? Do you know what true talent is?"
With every question Qian Renxue asked, her gaze grew sharper. The innate arrogance and authority of the Spirit Hall's young mistress and heir to the Angel God were displayed without reserve on Ye Yang's resolute, handsome face.
It was not deliberate imitation. It was the natural presence of a superior, flowing from the depths of her soul.
Although she had only one Soul Ring, her Soul Power was genuinely at level thirty. Seeing Yu Xiaogang's Soul Power was still a simple matter.
"Your theories are nothing but guesses made by someone trapped at the bottom of a well, staring up at a patch of sky no bigger than his palm."
"How vast is the real world? How profound is true power? How could your mere level-twenty-nine Soul Power possibly glimpse even a fraction of it?"
Blasted by these merciless words, Yu Xiaogang's face turned from green to white. His lips trembled as he tried to retort, but at that moment the theories he had always been proud of seemed so utterly feeble.
His opponent had seized upon his greatest weakness with pinpoint accuracy: his Soul Power Level. All his prestige teetered on the brink before the fact that he was stuck at "level twenty-nine."
Tang San instinctively wanted to step forward and shield his teacher. He could not tolerate anyone humiliating his revered mentor like this.
But the cold, noble aura that suddenly rose from Qian Renxue stopped him dead in his tracks.
It was a heart-pounding pressure unlike anything he had ever felt from "Brother Ye Yang"!
The young man before him felt so unfamiliar that it unsettled him.
"Who... who are you, exactly?!" Yu Xiaogang finally found his voice, hoarse with a mixture of shock and rage.
"How could an orphan from Holy Soul Village... how could he have such insight and... such bearing?!"
He absolutely refused to believe that the person before him was Ye Yang, the ordinary young man without a Martial Soul whom Old Jack had picked up!
That penetrating gaze, that air of standing above all others—there was no way they could belong to a country boy!
Qian Renxue looked at him coldly, as if he were a buffoon putting on a show.
She did not answer Yu Xiaogang's question. She merely spoke in a calm voice that brimmed with confidence:
"I'll walk my own path. Whether I'm a dragon or a worm isn't for you to judge."
"As for the threshold of a Soul Master..." A meaningful curve touched her lips. Her gaze swept over Yu Xiaogang, then seemed to pass over Tang San and Xiao Wu as well. "In my eyes, it has never existed."
With that, she paid no further attention to Yu Xiaogang, whose expression kept changing between shame and fury, nor to Tang San, who remained doubtful, or Xiao Wu, whose eyes were full of curiosity.
As if the breathtaking confrontation had never happened, she simply turned around with calm composure, hoisted her battered bundle onto her back, and set off toward the academy gates.
Her back was straight and proud. In the somewhat shabby courtyard of Nuoding Academy, she seemed utterly out of place, yet radiated an indescribable strength.
Sunlight fell upon her, as if gilding her with a faint golden glow.
Yu Xiaogang remained where he was, his face flushing red and then white, his chest heaving violently. The curse of "level twenty-nine" clung to him like a bone-burrowing maggot, gnawing at the last remnants of his dignity.
"Stop!" Yu Xiaogang's voice was hoarse and shrill, like sandpaper scraping. All his usual composure had vanished.
Qian Renxue did not slow down. As if she had not heard that venomous shout, she continued toward the academy gates at an unhurried pace.
That utter disregard was more insulting than any words, and it completely ignited Yu Xiaogang's pent-up fury.
"I said—stop!!!"
Yu Xiaogang suddenly stepped forward, and his Soul Power burst forth!
Though it was only level twenty-nine, the Soul Power he released in that instant still carried an undeniable pressure for ordinary people and low-rank Soul Masters.
Two yellow Soul Rings lit up around him as his hands rapidly formed seals before his chest.
"Luo Sanpao!"
Accompanied by a somewhat comical "brr-brr" cry, a strange creature appeared before Yu Xiaogang. It resembled a small pig, with a pale purple body, a fat head, big ears, and round eyes.
This was Yu Xiaogang's Martial Soul, Luo Sanpao, whose mutation had failed.
"Farts like thunder, Earth-Shattering Luo Sanpao!"
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