Nuoding Junior Soul Master Academy, First Meeting with Tang San

"It costs more for a reason. Take them back, and you'll understand tonight. If you're not satisfied, you can always come back and find me."

Shi An's gaze was serious, his tone utterly certain.

That night, when the angel statues gave off golden holy light, those people nearly dropped to their knees in tearful gratitude.

They were really just statues mixed with fluorescent powder, more than enough to fool those idiots.

Of course, Shi An could not guarantee they would never discover the trick.

That was why he always moved on after every sale, lest someone sack him and beat him senseless.

When he returned to Nuoding City, he did not go back to Stone Village.

That village had never given him much sense of belonging.

After his parents died, his family's fields had been divided up, with people claiming they were cultivating them on his family's behalf.

Yet every year, they never gave him any of the wheat harvest. Instead, they said that the food he ate each year was worth more than the harvest, and that he was the one taking advantage of them.

Shi An neither resented nor thanked them.

Although he had not starved to death these past few years, he had never truly eaten his fill.

If he had not secretly set a few traps in the mountains and occasionally caught some game, he would probably have been as skinny as a monkey.

Now that he had become a soul master and gained the ability to support himself, he would no longer have anything to do with Stone Village.

He likely would never return there again.

There were still more than two months before Nuoding Junior Soul Master Academy opened.

Shi An did not intend to waste those two months.

He planned to visit the library at Nuoding Junior Soul Master Academy and learn more about the common knowledge of soul masters, martial souls, and soul beasts on Douluo Continent.

As for how he would get in, Nuoding Junior Soul Master Academy did not prohibit soul masters from entering, and there were also work-study students who had not returned home.

One more person would make no difference. No one would care.

At worst, he could pay the tuition early and begin studying at the academy ahead of time.

What could anyone do to him?

The library at Nuoding Junior Soul Master Academy was not very large, merely a single building.

There were not many books inside, but they were all basic reference materials, which satisfied Shi An well enough.

Even if someone gave him more complicated theories now, he would probably need time to puzzle through them.

Haste made waste. Taking things one step at a time was the proper path.

A master like Yu Xiaogang, who published useless, even utterly superfluous theories just to become famous, was no different from the so-called experts of Shi An's previous life.

Shi An opened an illustrated guide to soul beasts. The content was detailed, but the drawings were truly hard to praise.

The few simple strokes could not exactly be called lifelike. They could only be described as... clearly not human.

Shi An even came across Yu Xiaogang's Ten Core Competencies of Martial Souls.

Fine, he flipped through it, and the first sentence he saw made the corner of his mouth twitch.

[There are no useless martial souls, only useless soul masters.]

Well, damn. In one short sentence, he had insulted himself twice.

Shi An had no idea whether Yu Xiaogang had truly brainwashed himself or simply did not understand the meaning of those words and was merely using them to show off.

In any case, Shi An had no favorable impression of Yu Xiaogang, so he casually put the book back.

There was no other reason. Holding a pile of shit in his hand was disgusting.

Two months passed in a flash. Shi An read every book in the library and remembered seventy to eighty percent of them.

At the very least, he would not fail to recognize soul beasts when he encountered them.

The academy's teachers gradually returned, and after paying the registration fee, Shi An moved straight into a dormitory room.

With money paving the way, he moved directly into a private teachers' dormitory, avoiding the need to squeeze in with others.

He was about to head into town to buy some daily necessities when, upon reaching the entrance, he ran into quite a spectacle.

A gatekeeper had stopped an old man and a child outside the academy gates, and they seemed to have gotten into an argument.

Shi An did not hurry away. Instead, he stood some distance off and watched the show.

The child, who looked about Shi An's age, had short light-blue hair and wore coarse hemp clothes covered in patches of all sizes. His complexion was sallow, his body thin. One glance was enough to tell he was malnourished.

Shi An recognized him at first sight as Tang San.

Mainly because he was too distinctive. Other children at this age had nothing but innocence and stupidity in their eyes, while he...

His gaze was cold and sharp, his expression calm. He did not look like a child, but rather an adult weathered by countless hardships.

"What is wrong with you?! I was speaking to you properly, yet you actually shoved me around! Just wait! I'll go to Martial Soul Hall right now and ask Master Su Yuntao to testify for us!"

The old man staggered after being pushed by the gatekeeper, anger appearing on his face. As he spoke, he turned to leave with Tang San.

However, at that moment, a figure with a crew cut and a protruding belly appeared outside the gates.

How should Shi An put it? He looked presentable enough, but he stared at everyone as if heaven was first and he was second.

The gatekeeper's arrogant expression immediately turned fawning when he saw him, and he showered Yu Xiaogang with flattery.

Yu Xiaogang gave him a cold look, clasped his hands behind his back, and said icily, "I saw everything that happened just now. I will report this matter to the headmaster. If there is a next time, pack up your things and get out."

The gatekeeper dared not speak despite his anger. After all, he was only a somewhat stronger ordinary person. Before a soul master, he could only humble himself.

Yu Xiaogang turned to Old Jack and Tang San, his tone becoming gentler as he said, "Sir, could you let me see the Martial Soul certificate?"

From the gatekeeper's behavior just now, Old Jack could tell that this man was certainly someone of high status.

He immediately handed over Tang San's Martial Soul certificate.

Yu Xiaogang scanned it twice, and a brilliant light immediately flashed in his eyes.

Just as he was about to speak, his left foot suddenly tripped over his right, and he landed flat on his backside.

For some reason, there was a protrusion exactly where he sat.

The next second, Yu Xiaogang's calm expression twisted into a savage grimace. His stiff face instantly turned red, and his teeth began chattering uncontrollably.

"Teacher, what's wrong?" Old Jack hurried forward in concern, intending to help Yu Xiaogang up.

Yu Xiaogang forcibly steadied his expression and waved Old Jack away, saying in a slightly trembling voice, "Don't move. I've suddenly gained some insight. Leave this place quickly. Don't stay here and get hurt by mistake later."

Old Jack looked at Yu Xiaogang's flushed face with some hesitation, but thinking that this might concern a soul master's abilities, he did not dare ask further and led Tang San into the academy.

The gatekeeper also wisely left. Only Yu Xiaogang remained outside the gates of Nuoding Junior Soul Master Academy.

Yu Xiaogang looked around. Seeing no one nearby, he shakily braced himself against the ground and tried to stand.

Yet the moment he moved, a heart-rending pain shot through him from behind.

Yu Xiaogang let out a miserable scream, then instantly clenched his teeth, forcing himself not to make another sound.

If anyone saw this, his lifelong reputation as a master would be ruined!