A Mythic Draw Arrives!

The hall was so quiet it was terrifying.

Hundreds of heads turned in unison, staring at the last row.

Yu Xiaogang stood on the podium, his expression instantly darkening. He had just passed judgment on Chen Xuan's martial soul, yet this brat had actually jumped out to challenge him in public.

"Chen Xuan." Yu Xiaogang pressed both hands against the podium, trying to project the authority of an elder and a master. "I already made it very clear. Your martial soul has no core attribute. It is scattered and cannot be classified."

"That's why I'm asking you." Chen Xuan spread his hands.

Five dull gray stones floated above his palm, slowly circling.

"You're a master, unrivaled in theory. Since there are no useless martial souls, then please, show these five stones a way forward."

Yu Xiaogang choked on his words.

His mind rapidly flipped through every martial soul compendium and ancient text he had ever read.

Stone martial souls were not unheard of. Some mutated meteorite martial souls possessed fire attributes, while some jade martial souls possessed spiritual attributes.

But Chen Xuan's five were nothing more than ordinary gray stones.

There was not even the slightest fluctuation of soul power.

"Your stones are dead objects." Yu Xiaogang's face stiffened, and his voice rose. "They have neither life force nor elemental fluctuations. They do not meet any of the basic conditions for evolution."

"Tool martial souls are dead objects too." Chen Xuan cut in immediately, giving Yu Xiaogang no chance to catch his breath. "Does the Clear Sky Hammer have life force? Does the Seven-Kill Sword have elemental fluctuations?"

Several sharp intakes of breath sounded below the stage.

The teachers in the front row exchanged glances, their expressions becoming extremely colorful.

Using the inherited martial soul of the world's number one sect to argue with him? This kid had some nerve.

Yu Xiaogang frowned deeply, his tone turning stern. "Tool martial souls possess specific physical attributes! A hammer has weight and destructive power; a sword has sharpness. What do your stones have? Other than being used to hit someone, do they possess any conditions for carrying soul skills?"

"Master, that isn't very rigorous."

Chen Xuan picked up the pebble on the table and tossed it lightly in his hand.

"You said there are no useless martial souls, only useless soul masters. Doesn't that mean the potential of a martial soul is limitless, and what matters is how the soul master develops it?"

He slapped the pebble onto the table with a crisp smack.

"So why does it suddenly become a matter of the martial soul itself lacking the necessary conditions when it comes to me?"

Chen Xuan looked at Yu Xiaogang on the stage, his voice calm and unhurried.

"If the martial soul itself is the problem, then shouldn't you revise that famous saying of yours?"

"Change it to—within the range you can understand, there are no useless martial souls. Anything you can't understand is a trash martial soul?"

The entire hall erupted in an instant.

The students might not have understood all the twists and turns, but the teachers understood perfectly.

This was no longer a question.

He was publicly tearing down Yu Xiaogang's signboard, throwing it to the ground, and stomping on it.

The dean of studies in the front row coughed and stood up, trying to smooth things over.

"Student Chen Xuan, the master's theories are aimed at mainstream martial souls with a foundation of soul power. An extreme case like yours cannot completely negate the master's contributions."

Chen Xuan glanced at the dean of studies.

"Director, martial soul research requires rigor. Since there are 'extreme cases,' that means the theory has flaws."

Chen Xuan spread his hands.

"Throwing every case you can't explain out of the framework makes everything left behind the truth, naturally. That's quite a convenient way to do scholarship."

The dean of studies opened his mouth, but was left speechless by the retort. He could only sit back down awkwardly.

Tang San suddenly shot to his feet.

He turned around and glared at Chen Xuan in the last row, his fists clenched tightly.

"Chen Xuan! Stop twisting words!" Tang San's voice suppressed his fury. "My teacher's theories have been verified by countless records! Your own martial soul has no potential, so what right do you have to question my teacher here?"

Chen Xuan did not even look at Tang San.

He kept his eyes on Yu Xiaogang on the stage.

"Master, the student you taught has quite a temper." Chen Xuan smiled. "But I'm asking you an academic question. Verified by records? Fine. Show me a record proving that ordinary stones can never evolve."

Yu Xiaogang stood behind the podium.

Sweat began to seep from his forehead.

A cold bead of sweat slid down his temple and into his collar.

He could not produce one.

Spirit Hall's archives contained no records of ordinary stone martial souls evolving. Those who awakened such martial souls generally had zero innate soul power and could not even become soul masters. Who would study their evolutionary paths?

Chen Xuan was a freak.

He had innate soul power at rank nine, yet his martial soul was five lousy stones.

This was completely beyond the scope of Yu Xiaogang's decades of research.

The discussions in the hall grew louder and louder.

Everyone watched Yu Xiaogang on the stage, waiting for this "master" to deliver a forceful rebuttal.

One second.

Two seconds.

Half a minute passed.

Yu Xiaogang's lips moved, but no sound came out.

His theory, which he had always been so proud of, was like a sheet of paper covering a window before Chen Xuan's unconventional mutated martial soul. One poke, and it leaked from every side.

"Master?" Chen Xuan urged. "Can't find one?"

Yu Xiaogang's face alternated between green and white.

He gripped the edge of the podium so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

If he failed to give an explanation today, the prestige he had painstakingly built at Nuoding Academy would be utterly crushed by this six-year-old child.

But he truly did not know.

"Chen Xuan." Yu Xiaogang took a deep breath, clenched his jaw, and forced out the words with difficulty.

"Your situation... falls outside my theoretical framework."

The entire hall burst into uproar.

The master had admitted defeat?

The master who always had "there are no useless martial souls" on his lips had actually admitted in person that there were martial souls he could not explain?

Even Tang San froze. He turned toward Yu Xiaogang on the stage, his face filled with disbelief.

His teacher had actually yielded?

Chen Xuan pocketed the pebble from the table.

The five floating gray stones also vanished into his palm in an instant.

"I understand."

Chen Xuan nodded, his tone relaxed.

"Since your theories do not apply to these few lousy stones of mine, I won't trouble you any further. I'll find my own path."

He stepped out from his seat and headed down the aisle toward the hall's doors.

As he passed the first row, Tang San stood at the edge of the aisle, his face livid.

"Chen Xuan, you've gone too far." Tang San lowered his voice. Having lived two lives, he valued respect for teachers and the proper way above all else. Chen Xuan's actions today had crossed his bottom line. "You are insulting my teacher's life's work. You have no idea how much my teacher sacrificed for these theories."

Chen Xuan stopped.

He tilted his head and looked at Tang San's face, written all over with righteous indignation and anger.

This kid had really been thoroughly brainwashed by Yu Xiaogang.

"Tang San, do you think everything your teacher taught you is the truth of this world?"

Chen Xuan curled his lips.

"He merely happened to gamble right on a genius like you."

"When you encounter something he cannot explain one day, then see whether his so-called truth still works."

With that, Chen Xuan walked around Tang San and pushed open the hall doors without looking back.

Sunlight streamed through the gap, stretching his shadow long behind him.

The doors slammed shut with a bang.

All the discussions, shock, and Tang San's murderous glare were sealed behind them.

Chen Xuan walked along the tree-lined path outside the teaching building.

He was in quite a good mood.

Today, he had personally torn a hole in Yu Xiaogang's facade of being all-knowing and all-powerful.

Tang San undoubtedly hated him to the bone now.

But it did not matter. This was only the beginning.

Little by little, he would shatter every belief Tang San had built since childhood.

First, let him grow accustomed to being right. Then tell him what wrong truly meant.

Just then, a large patch of blinding red light suddenly appeared in the lower right corner of his vision.

The system's alarm blared madly in his mind.

[Warning! Detected intense hostility from nemesis Tang San!]

[Current hostility value has exceeded the critical threshold!]

[Special draw conditions triggered—]

[At midnight tomorrow, the first guaranteed 'Mythic' draw will arrive!]

Chen Xuan stopped walking.

He stared at the blood-red words on the panel.

Mythic?

Equipment like the Flame Bow and Wind Eagle Crossbow, capable of killing opponents above their rank, was only rated "Epic" by the system.

What could a Mythic draw produce?

A finishing move? Or the ultimate form of the Light-Shadow Stone?

Chen Xuan stroked his chin and suddenly felt that he had gone too easy on Tang San in the hall.

Had he known that provoking hatred could trigger a guaranteed Mythic draw, he would have pointed at Tang San's nose and cursed him directly.

"Fine." Chen Xuan looked up at the azure sky and rolled his wrist. "Midnight tomorrow. I hope this Mythic reward lives up to how angry Tang San got."