A Master Seeking a Disciple

"From now on, I'm a Soul Master!"

Tang San held a round metal badge in his hand, feeling quite excited.

After undergoing an advancement assessment at the Spirit Hall Branch, Spirit Hall would issue Soul Masters a badge like this.

His name was engraved on one side of the badge, while the other bore two intertwined thorns. This badge could prove his identity as a Soul Master and could also be presented as evidence in court.

After registering at Spirit Hall, Fang Yuan led Tang San back to Notting Academy.

After bidding his teacher farewell, Tang San returned to his dormitory.

He had moved in half a month ago, yet he had not spent a single day there until now.

The moment he pushed open the dormitory door, several pairs of eyes turned toward him.

It was not class time, and quite a few work-study students were in the dormitory. Seeing Tang San return, some of them greeted him.

On the first day of school, Tang San had briefly gotten acquainted with some of the other work-study students, so they were not complete strangers.

They remembered that Tang San had gone out because his teacher had taken him to obtain a soul ring. One after another, they crowded around him, curious to see what age his soul ring was and what skill it possessed.

Tang San smiled as he dealt with his enthusiastic classmates, but he did not show them his soul ring.

Soul skills were among a Soul Master's greatest secrets. Tang San had a steady temperament and had no intention of showing off to others.

Just then, the dormitory door was kicked open with a bang, and a little girl with a scorpion braid strode in on her long legs.

Her face was puffed up in anger.

Seeing the girl return, the work-study students hurried over to greet her, allowing Tang San to escape their pestering.

"Big Sister Xiao Wu, did the teacher keep you after class again and try to persuade you to become that Master's disciple?" one student asked.

At those words, Xiao Wu's anger immediately flared. She planted one foot on a stool, pointed outside, and cursed:

"Those teachers are all lackeys! They bully me because I'm a work-study student, pulling this stunt every day and telling me to become that bragging Master's disciple. Isn't it just because he has a good relationship with the principal?

"And that Master himself, always saying that if I don't become his disciple, all my talent will go to waste. Waste his big fat head!"

Xiao Wu's little face had flushed red, clearly burning with rage.

Since enrolling, she had only wanted to familiarize herself with human society and learn some knowledge related to Soul Masters.

Yet for some reason, everyone at this academy had gone mad. They all acted like pimps, constantly trying to recruit her for some so-called Master.

After asking around, Xiao Wu learned that this Master was only level twenty-nine himself, so she had directly refused his request to take her as a disciple.

What a joke. With cultivation this low, what could he possibly accomplish through theoretical research, no matter how deeply he studied it?

The Master then decisively displayed the persistence of a sticky plaster. Not only did he often block Xiao Wu's path himself, he also frequently had the instructors keep her behind alone after class to brainwash her like some pyramid scheme.

Xiao Wu had been driven beyond endurance and had already begun seriously considering where else she could go if she stopped attending this junior Soul Master academy.

She turned her gaze toward the dormitory, only to unexpectedly spot someone.

"Huh, you're Tang San, right? When did you get back?"

Xiao Wu looked at Tang San, who was sitting on her bed and sorting through his things, and asked in surprise.

She still remembered this boy somewhat. After all, on their first day of enrollment, that self-proclaimed Master had also pestered Tang San, saying he wanted to take him as a disciple.

In that sense, Xiao Wu and he could even be considered fellow sufferers.

If Tang San's teacher had not been there at the time to drive that Master away, then perhaps Tang San would have...

Wait, Tang San's teacher?

Xiao Wu suddenly thought of something. Her eyes widened at once, as if she had discovered a new continent.

Beside her, Tang San honestly said, "I just got back. Earlier, I..."

He was about to say something else when Xiao Wu flashed before him.

Looking at Xiao Wu standing so close, Tang San could not help but feel a little nervous.

Even counting the thirty years of experience from his previous life, the number of times he had spoken with girls could be counted on one hand.

Xiao Wu stared intently at Tang San and asked with some urgency in her voice:

"Tang San, is your teacher still accepting disciples?"

"Huh?" Tang San was surprised. He had thought Xiao Wu wanted to say something to him, so why had the topic suddenly shifted to his teacher?

Seeing Tang San blank out, Xiao Wu quickly clasped her hands together and moved them up and down before her chest.

"When you see your teacher again, can you ask whether he's willing to accept another disciple? Please?"

"Xiaogang, the teachers haven't been too happy lately either. They say that if they keep the same student after class all the time, rumors will start spreading around the school."

In the principal's office at Notting Academy, the principal looked somewhat embarrassed as he gently tried to persuade the person sitting across from him.

The man seated opposite him was a middle-aged man with a buzz cut and a somewhat stiff expression. He was Yu Xiaogang.

Upon hearing the principal's words, Yu Xiaogang cast a cold glance at him. A trace of disappointment flashed through his eyes as he said, "Fine. If you think my request has crossed the line, then you needn't help me anymore."

With that, he abruptly rose to his feet and prepared to leave.

The principal hurriedly tried to dissuade him. "Master, it's not that I don't want to help you. It's just that after all this time, that female student still has no intention of taking a master. How about choosing someone else? Notting Academy has quite a few students with good talent as well."

As he spoke, he could only laugh bitterly to himself.

His friend's personality was simply too headstrong and stubborn. At the slightest disagreement, he would leave.

As a friend, he naturally hoped to see him take in a highly talented disciple. But if the student absolutely refused, could the academy really keep harassing her?

Yu Xiaogang halted, but he did not turn around.

With his back to the principal, he said coldly, "Do you think just any crooked melon or misshapen date can become a disciple of mine, the Master? Don't bring this up again. Even if I cannot find a satisfactory disciple, I will never settle."

With a sweep of his sleeve, he left, leaving only the principal seated where he was, smiling bitterly again and again.

As he walked out of the principal's office, Yu Xiaogang felt increasingly unwilling to accept this.

He was the Master!

He was the theoretical Master famed throughout the land for the Ten Core Competencies of Martial Souls Theory, the foremost researcher of Soul Master cultivation methods, renowned in Spirit Hall and the two great empires!

Yet now, when he had finally decided to take in a disciple, he kept running into walls?

The twin martial soul genius he had favored most had been snatched away by some brat who had appeared out of nowhere. The next best choice, a female student born with full soul power, had repeatedly rejected him?

This was utterly absurd. Others should be begging the Master to accept them; when had the Master ever needed to beg someone to become his disciple?

Thinking this, Yu Xiaogang headed toward the student dormitories.

That ungrateful female student, I'll give you one last chance!