Bang! Bang! Bang!
Yu Xiaogang had just lain back down when he heard someone knocking.
"Who is it?!"
Silence reigned outside. No one answered.
Yu Xiaogang frowned and had no choice but to force himself out of bed.
Thankfully, Tang Hao had just helped seal his wounds. Otherwise, he wouldn't even have been able to stand.
He opened the door!
Yu Xiaogang looked around, but saw no one. Then he glanced down.
He froze!
"Xiao San!"
A shrill, eunuch-like voice burst from his mouth. He forgot all about the pain between his legs.
He hurriedly crouched down and dragged Tang San, who had collapsed outside the door, into the room.
"Xiao San... Xiao San, wake up!"
After helping Tang San onto the wooden bed, Yu Xiaogang frantically shook him.
Tang Hao had only just left. If he saw his beloved son beaten into this state—
the Clear Sky Hammer would probably smash Yu Xiaogang's skull to pieces!
Fortunately, Tang San had merely fainted from a surge of anger.
After coughing violently a few times, he slowly opened his eyes.
"Su Chen! You vile scoundrel! Tang San and I will never coexist!"
When Yu Xiaogang heard that this was somehow related to Su Chen again, his gaze instantly darkened.
"Xiao San, are you all right?"
Only when he heard his teacher's voice did Tang San come back to his senses.
"Teacher, I'm fine."
Tang San shook his head, then looked down and realized he was lying on his teacher's bed.
He hurriedly got up. His teacher was still recovering, yet he had made him give up his bed. He really wasn't fit to be called a person!
"Teacher, you're injured. Please lie down and rest."
Seeing how respectful his student was, a hint of satisfaction flashed in Yu Xiaogang's eyes. He took the opportunity to lie back down.
The pain between his legs had indeed started drilling into him again.
"Xiao San, can you tell me what happened?!"
Tang San opened his mouth, his eyes darting away. For a long while, he couldn't force out a single word.
He couldn't exactly tell Yu Xiaogang that news of his castration had spread all over Notting Academy.
To protect his teacher's dignity, he could only feel him out tactfully. "Teacher, you're so learned. Is there any Soul Tool in this world that can record past events and project them for everyone to watch?"
At that, Yu Xiaogang furrowed his brows and quickly searched through his supposedly "vast" store of knowledge.
"Other than in ancient times, the core methods for making Soul Tools have long been lost. What the major powers possess today are basically Storage Soul Tools. I've never heard of anything like the recording device you describe."
Yu Xiaogang paused, then asked in confusion, "Given how long ago they were made, perhaps some strange relics like that really do exist. But Xiao San, why are you asking? And how did you end up fainting outside the door?"
Tang San squeezed his eyes shut in misery, his face full of humiliation.
Remembering how he had been forced to slide onto his knees on the training field, he wanted nothing more than to find a crack in the ground to crawl into!
Why was he still unable to beat that Su Chen, who had humiliated him?
"Teacher... I lost again. I couldn't break free from Su Chen's strange kneeling Soul Skill at all."
Tang San recounted what had happened, lowering his head, somewhat ashamed of having let Yu Xiaogang's teachings down.
He deliberately left out the part where Su Chen had exposed the recording.
Yu Xiaogang froze for a moment. Then, after thinking it over, he suddenly understood.
"It must be a Martial Soul issue."
"A Martial Soul issue?"
"That's right, a Martial Soul issue!"
To salvage his reputation as "invincible in theory," Yu Xiaogang began talking nonsense without even blushing.
"Your First Martial Soul is Blue Silver Grass, a Trash Martial Soul by common consensus. That boy Su Chen has a sword for his Martial Soul! The difference in quality between them is like heaven and earth. Naturally, the gap between your Martial Souls creates a suppressive force!"
"So it's not that you lack strength. Your Martial Soul was at a natural disadvantage from the start!"
As he said this, Yu Xiaogang had long since tossed his famous theory—that "there are no useless Martial Souls, only useless Soul Masters"—to the far corners of the sky.
He was shamelessly applying a double standard.
Tang San felt as if the clouds had parted and the sun had come out.
So the problem was the quality of his Martial Soul!
Having given Tang San a way to save face, Yu Xiaogang changed the subject. A sinister smile curled at the corner of his mouth.
"Xiao San, don't blame yourself. Don't worry. Someone will deal with that little beast!"
Tang San jerked his head up and blurted out, "Teacher, who do you mean?"
Yu Xiaogang smiled mysteriously, keeping him in suspense.
"You'll know when the time comes!"
Night fell!
Tang Hao made his move!
During the day, he had swept his mental power across all of Nuoding City and confirmed there wasn't even a Soul King here at Level 50.
Suppressing his aura, he went straight to the outside of Dorm Seven.
He condensed his mental power into a thin line and drove it straight into Su Chen's mind.
Su Chen was fast asleep when a voice suddenly rang in his mind.
"Brat, come to the back hill."
Su Chen's eyes flew open. Beside him, Xiao Wu was sprawled out like an octopus.
"Brat, come out!"
The low, hoarse voice rang in Su Chen's mind again.
A disdainful smile touched his lips. He didn't even need to guess who had come.
Rat Douluo.
He swung his legs out of bed. Everyone in Dorm Seven was sleeping like the dead.
As soon as Su Chen stepped outside, he saw a black-robed figure racing toward the back hill.
All that effort just to play mysterious.
With that outfit, he really lived up to the name Rat Douluo!
As he walked after him, he activated the system.
His first Soul Skill was indeed a powerful control skill, but against a Titled Douluo, he still didn't feel quite safe.
Su Chen didn't hesitate to spend his Abstract Value!
"4500 Abstract Value deducted. Soul Power Level increased to Level 20!"
"Ding! Congratulations, host! You have unlocked your second Soul Skill: Shared Adversity!"
[Shared Adversity: Absolute Defense! Any damage you take is reflected back with one hundred percent effectiveness! You can designate any target within fifty meters to take the damage, or reflect it directly back at the attacker!]
After reading the Soul Skill description, Su Chen didn't feel nervous in the slightest!
Just tell me, who could stand against the rules?
With this shameless divine skill, combining absolute defense and reflected damage, forget one big rat—
Even if a God King descended today, he'd have to beat himself half to death before leaving!
The back hill wasn't far from the dormitory.
Tang Hao arrived first.
He stood with his hands behind his back, facing away from the path up the hill, deliberately radiating the supposed supreme pressure of a powerful expert.
About fifteen minutes later, Su Chen reached the back hill too.
At a glance, he spotted a middle-aged man in a tattered cloak, striking a pose.
Tang Hao was putting on airs.
But to Su Chen, he just looked like an idiot.
He couldn't beat Spirit Hall, so he came to bully a student at a junior academy.
Feeling someone approach, Tang Hao kept his back to Su Chen and asked, "Brat, what force are you from?"
Su Chen didn't take him seriously. He calmly walked forward, though he had known Tang Hao would come looking for trouble.
Even so, he still looked down on Tang Hao.
You had to hand it to the Tang family—they were all cut from the same cloth. When the young got beaten, the old came running. Shamelessness was their specialty.
"Hey, mister, why are you dragging someone out into the wilderness in the middle of the night instead of sleeping? What do you want?"
As he spoke, Su Chen gave a lazy yawn.
At Su Chen's dismissive attitude, a fierce killing intent flashed through Tang Hao's eyes.
Did he really think that having a strange Soul Skill meant he could run wild across the Douluo Continent?
"Brat, you probably don't know much about me."
"Perhaps you still don't understand what sort of existence stands before you." Tang Hao slowly turned around as his Soul Rings appeared one after another, descending from above.
Yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black, black, red!
Nine dazzling Soul Rings rose into the air in succession, pulsing wildly.
Especially the final Soul Ring, crimson as blood: a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring!
The moment it appeared, the air around them twisted violently.
Its savage aura bent every tree on the hill!
"Now, I'll ask you one more time."
Tang Hao looked down at Su Chen as if a god were looking down upon an ant.
"Which force are you from?"
He could hardly wait to see the brat who had humiliated his son tremble under his pressure, drop to his knees, and beg for mercy!