Fourth Floor of the Spirit Hall Library
A burly bald man in a black T-shirt, light brown shorts, and black-framed glasses was flipping through books on the shelves. He took out a book, opened it, and walked toward the corner.
Suddenly, a buzz-cut boy carrying books appeared around the corner, and the two collided without warning.
The bald man merely swayed slightly from the impact, while the buzz-cut boy's frail body was knocked back repeatedly. He fell onto the floor, groaning in pain.
"Hey, hey, hey, watch out." The bald man hurried over, pulled the buzz-cut boy up, and asked with concern, "Are you alright?"
"I-I'm fine." The buzz-cut boy bent down as he spoke and picked up the books scattered across the floor.
"Here, let me help you." The bald man with glasses also lowered his head to help gather the fallen books. As he did, he asked, "My name is A Jie. Everyone calls me Jie Ge. What about you? What's your name?"
The buzz-cut boy stiffly nodded and said, "Hello, Jie Ge. My name is Yu Xiaogang."
As he spoke, he took the gathered books from A Jie's hands and stormed toward a desk deep within the library.
Jie Ge did not press further. Instead, he stood beside the shelf, holding an open book before his face. From time to time, he lowered the book in his hands, his greenish gaze peering through his lenses at Yu Xiaogang by the desk, sweeping from his buzz cut down to his waist and hips. He did this no fewer than three times.
If one looked carefully, one would notice that this pathetic Jie Ge was even holding his book upside down.
However, Yu Xiaogang did not notice that detail. At that moment, he too held a book in his hands, absentmindedly glancing toward another corner from time to time.
"Why hasn't she come yet? What on earth is she doing?" Yu Xiaogang's melancholy eyes were filled with hopeful light, as well as impatience toward someone.
Because this was, in his view, his best chance yet to solve his Malignant Martial-Soul Mutation.
It all began when Gangzi, at the age of six, failed to awaken the Golden Holy Dragon and instead awakened Luo Sanpao, a pig-like creature with 0.5 Innate Soul Power.
With his old father imparting his cultivation, along with several times the resources poured into him... ah, ptooey, with Gangzi's two hundred times the effort, he reached a realm that Soul Masters with 0.5 Innate Soul Power could only gaze upon from afar—Rank 29.
Yet once he reached this point, no matter how Yu Yuanzhen imparted cultivation to him or how many more times his cultivation resources increased, his Soul Power could not advance even an inch. He was like a cup filled with water; pouring in more would only make it overflow, accomplishing nothing.
Yu Xiaogang despaired. At the same time, the clan could no longer tolerate him. Even if the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan did not have geniuses like the Haotian Twin Stars, it still had lesser talents. Yet because of such a useless Lung Mist, the cultivation speed of an entire generation had been dragged down. The old Dragon King, Yu Yuanzhen, had not advanced a single rank in ten years. Thus, under pressure from the Elder Hall, Yu Yuanzhen had no choice but to cut off all support for Yu Xiaogang and prepare to send him off to manage the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan's markets.
Our Gangzi was not someone who accepted his fate. How could the son of a dignified Title Douluo endure being forever trapped at Rank 29, keeping company with those lowly low-rank Soul Masters? He decided to rewrite his destiny. Thus, he took his father's clan token and came to Spirit Hall, the sacred ground of Soul Masters throughout the world.
If there was any place in this world that might hold the possibility of changing Yu Xiaogang's crippled Martial Soul, it was probably here.
Using the clan's connections, Gangzi smoothly infiltrated Spirit Hall and gained the freedom to borrow the documents and knowledge of the first and second floors.
But such knowledge had long since become commonplace among the Upper Three Sects and the Soul Master circles. The documents above the third floor, Spirit Hall's true secrets, required a permit to access.
Yu Xiaogang could only stare helplessly from outside the ivory tower of Spirit Hall's knowledge.
But he was not someone who easily accepted his fate, so he set his sights on those who could bring him into the halls of knowledge above the third floor.
After careful and deliberate observation, he soon chose his prey.
Holy Maiden Bibi Dong: inexperienced and easy to deceive!
Gangzi turned his buzz cut and hatched wicked thoughts. Through several chance encounters, his frail body trembled as he exuded the melancholy air of a scholarly youth, immediately drawing Bibi Dong's curious gaze. Thus, the two began to interact, and before long, they became familiar with one another.
Qian Xunji usually kept a very strict watch over Bibi Dong, while Yu Xiaogang took the opportunity to bring her out for fun whenever he could. He took her to Coconut Grove City to admire lanterns and showed her all the beauty of the world that could not be seen within Spirit City. A few years earlier, when the glory-seeking Pope Qian Xunji had launched an expedition to Sea God Island, Yu Xiaogang had set out alongside the Holy Maiden and returned in defeat, sharing an experience of life and death with her.
Before long, he had utterly bewitched the Holy Maiden, and Gangzi achieved his goal.
The Holy Maiden opened the doors to the depths of the Spirit Hall Library for him.
Through this, he could borrow confidential knowledge inaccessible to outsiders beyond Spirit Hall.
But...
Nothing, nothing, nothing—on countless nights, the buzz-cut boy's eyes were wide and bloodshot. No matter how he searched, he could not find a way to resolve his Malignant Martial-Soul Mutation.
Damn Spirit Hall. You don't even have a way to reverse Luo Sanpao into the Golden Holy Dragon. How dare you call yourselves the sacred ground of Soul Masters? the buzz-cut boy thought resentfully.
Yu Xiaogang realized a desperate truth: if even Spirit Hall had no way to resolve his Malignant Martial-Soul Mutation, then would he not have to stand at attention at Rank 29 for the rest of his life?
No, absolutely, absolutely not. There had to be a way. There had to be.
Gangzi displayed his only virtue: he would never accept his fate.
Relying on his close relationship with the Holy Maiden, Gangzi would always casually probe her for information concerning Spirit Hall's core secrets.
For example, who Spirit Hall's Worship Hall enshrined, what their Martial Souls were, what ranks they had, and what abilities each Soul Bone of the Angel God Armor possessed, among other things.
The Holy Maiden, who was in the throes of love, had no guard on her tongue. She poured out nearly everything she could and could not say to Gangzi in one breath.
Among those many secrets, Gangzi noticed one in particular. Hidden away by the Worship Hall, the Pope's younger brother, Qian Xunyi, possessed Soul Rings that surpassed conventional configurations: a thousand-year second ring, a ten-thousand-year fourth ring, and a hundred-thousand-year eighth ring. More importantly, his Six-Winged Angel had evolved. It had evolved...
That was right. The Six-Winged Angel, a God-Level Martial Soul known as the pinnacle of all Martial Souls, could evolve even further. Yu Xiaogang, who suffered deeply from the degeneration of his Martial Soul, was so jealous that he could barely breathe, yet he also saw hope.
If even the Six-Winged Angel could evolve, then as long as he grasped the secret of evolution, could his Luo Sanpao also evolve into the Golden Holy Dragon? No—perhaps it could go even further and evolve into the legendary progenitor of power, the Golden Dragon.
Then, if he wrote the method for absorbing Transcendent Spirit Rings and the secret of Martial Soul Evolution into his Soul Master theories, creating the Twelve Great Competencies of Martial Spirits, would he not flourish in both Martial Soul cultivation and the field of Soul Master theory?
At that thought, the buzz-cut boy's breathing quickened.
Thus, he questioned Holy Maiden Bibi Dong further. Unfortunately, Bibi Dong did not know this secret, so Gangzi hinted that she should ask her teacher, Qian Xunji. As Qian Xunyi's older brother, Qian Xunji surely knew the secret.
And now, filled with anticipation, Gangzi was waiting for Holy Maiden Bibi Dong to bring back the secret he had been longing for.
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