Yu Xiaogang had been hanging his head, pretending to be dead. But when he heard the words "Soul Tool," his ears twitched, and he finally raised his head.
He looked at the oddly shaped long sword in Su Yun's hand, the one radiating a bone-chilling cold. A gleam suddenly flashed in his usually murky eyes.
What was this?
A forging technique he had never seen before!
A Core Array he had never seen before, even if it wasn't finished yet!
His professional instincts had kicked in.
Yu Xiaogang unconsciously took a couple of steps forward, wanting a closer look.
"Did you make this sword?"
Su Yun nodded.
"I know a little, just a little."
Yu Xiaogang's breathing grew ragged.
Though the Spirit Hall had driven him out, the academic fervor in his bones was still alive.
If he could figure out how this sword worked, perhaps he could improve his theories!
Perhaps he could make a comeback!
"Could I take a look?"
Yu Xiaogang reached out a trembling hand, completely forgetting the humiliation he had just suffered.
Watching this, Su Yun smiled like a demon.
"You want to see it?"
"Fine."
"Kneel down and beg me."
The air froze once again.
Tang San gripped Yu Xiaogang's sleeve tightly.
"Teacher! You can't kneel! We have our pride!"
Yu Xiaogang stood frozen, his face turning from blue to white.
Kneel?
Or not?
Dignity?
Or the truth?
It was a question.
Su Yun toyed with the sword in his hand, his eyes full of amusement.
He knew what Yu Xiaogang would choose.
For someone who could abandon his wife and child (Bibi Dong) for the sake of theory, and use his own disciple, what the hell did dignity matter?
Sure enough.
After a brief struggle, Yu Xiaogang pushed Tang San's hand away.
"Xiao San, what does personal honor or disgrace matter when it comes to scholarship?"
He gazed at the sword, his eyes gleaming with feverish excitement.
Then, plop! Down he went, kneeling with practiced ease!
Right there in the middle of the street, in front of Tang San, beneath the gaze of countless onlookers.
Yu Xiaogang knelt before Su Yun.
"Please... Young Master Su, let me take a look at the sword."
Looking at his teacher kneeling on the ground, Tang San felt his faith utterly shatter in that moment.
Was this great wisdom?
Was this integrity?
Watching this, Su Yun wasn't surprised in the slightest. He simply pulled out his diary and recorded this historic moment.
[Day X, Month X, Year X. Sunny.]
[Yu Xiaogang knelt.]
[For a look at a knockoff sword I'd thrown together, he tossed away the last shred of his dignity.]
[So this is the so-called "Grandmaster"?]
[Bibi Dong, oh Bibi Dong, just how blind were you back then to fall for a spineless coward like him?]
[Still, this proves one thing: if the temptation is big enough, there's no line people won't cross.]
[Today he can kneel for a sword. Tomorrow, he could sell out Tang San just to stay alive.]
[This show is getting better and better.]
Spirit City, Pope Palace.
Crack!
The sixth teacup had met an honorable end.
Bibi Dong looked at the scene in her diary of Yu Xiaogang kneeling, feeling as though she had lost face too.
She had given up on him long ago, but seeing just how spineless he was still made her feel sick.
"Spineless coward!"
She spat the words, then turned her attention to Su Yun's claim that he knew "a little."
"This brat can make Soul Tools?"
"And he got that arrogant Yu Xiaogang to kneel just for a look?"
A flicker of curiosity passed through Bibi Dong's eyes.
Just how many more surprises was this disciple of convenience hiding?
"It seems I still know far too little about him."
"Su Yun..."
"Who exactly are you?"
The streets were bustling, people coming and going.
Yet the small patch of ground outside the blacksmith's shop seemed to have been put on mute.
Yu Xiaogang cradled the long sword named Frostmourne (Fake).
He held it like a newborn baby, carefully and even reverently.
His fingers trembled as they brushed the inscriptions on the blade. The icy touch made every pore on his body stand on end.
Exquisite!
Simply exquisite!
Though he couldn't understand the operating logic of the Core Array, instinct told him this was technology that far surpassed the Spirit Master World's current understanding!
"How... how is this possible?"
Yu Xiaogang jerked his head up. His murky eyes were bloodshot, brimming with an intense hunger for knowledge and an equally desperate need to turn his fortunes around.
"It doesn't need to be guided by Soul Power, yet it can absorb the energy of heaven and earth on its own..."
"This is nothing short of a miracle!"
If he could master this technology, how could Yu Xiaogang not become famous throughout the world?
How could he not make those old fogies in the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan shut their mouths?
Looking at Yu Xiaogang kneeling on the ground, his face feverish with excitement, Su Yun's scorn was almost spilling out of his eyes.
"A miracle?"
He chuckled and beckoned with one hand.
The long sword Yu Xiaogang had treasured as if it were priceless seemed to answer the call. It flew out of his hands in an instant and returned to Su Yun.
"No! Let me look one more time! Just one more!"
Yu Xiaogang reached for it without thinking, but grabbed nothing. He pitched forward and sprawled on the ground in a sorry heap, like an old dog whose bone had been snatched away.
"Teacher!"
Tang San couldn't bear to watch any longer.
He rushed forward, helped Yu Xiaogang up, then glared at Su Yun with bloodshot eyes.
"What are you trying to do?!"
"If you're going to kill someone, at least make it quick! You humiliated my teacher—aren't you afraid you'll get what's coming to you?"
Su Yun toyed with the sword in his hand, regarding the master and disciple without a care.
"What's coming to me?"
"Kid, have you got something wrong?"
"Your teacher chose to kneel, and he chose to look at it. I didn't force him."
"And besides..."
Su Yun's tone shifted. He lightly flicked a finger against the blade.
"Clang!"
A crisp ring.
The long sword, which had been radiating cold and shimmering with light, suddenly seemed to lose its soul. Its glow dimmed in an instant.
Then came a crack.
The blade broke apart, crumbling into a pile of scrap metal that clattered to the ground.
"This..."
Yu Xiaogang's eyes widened in disbelief.
"It broke... it broke?"
"But this was a divine weapon! How could it break?!"
Su Yun shrugged, looking entirely innocent.
"What divine weapon? It's just a piece of scrap metal I hammered together on a whim."
"The Core Array was engraved incorrectly. The energy conflicts mean it can only hold together for half an hour."
"That's why I said I only knew a little."
Scrap metal?
A failed product?
Yu Xiaogang felt as though someone had punched him hard in the chest.
He had actually knelt in the street for a failed product?
He had thrown away every last bit of his dignity for a piece of trash that was about to fall apart?
"No... you're lying... That can't be..."
Yu Xiaogang muttered to himself, his mind in a daze.
He refused to believe it.
If that sword was junk, then what did that make him, kneeling on the ground just now?
A joke?
"Lying to you?"
Su Yun scoffed and kicked the broken sword on the ground over to Yu Xiaogang.
"Open your damn eyes and look."
"All the circuits inside are broken. They can't form a closed loop."
"Only a half-baked 'Grandmaster' like you would mistake this for a treasure."
"You haven't even touched the threshold of real Soul Tool Technology."
Before you continue