Yu Xiaogang's Breakdown? The Bone Dragon Martial Soul's Uncanny Assault!

"Ridiculous!"

After a brief silence, Yu Xiaogang seemed to finally come to his senses. Though his face had turned red, he still flung his sleeve and shouted angrily:

"You're merely a six-year-old child. You only awakened your Martial Soul a few days ago and haven't even absorbed a Soul Ring. What do you know about Martial Souls? What do you know about cultivation?"

"Everything you said just now was nothing more than wild speculation based on your own imagination!"

Yu Xiaogang stared fixedly at Gu Ling, as though raising his voice loudly enough could reclaim the dignity he had just lost.

"Although the Bone Dragon Martial Soul has the word 'dragon' in its name, it is completely different from dragon-type Martial Souls that truly possess flesh and blood."

"A Bone Dragon has no powerful muscles, no abundant vitality, and none of the terrifying explosive power of the true Dragon Clan. All it has is a hard skeleton!"

"This determines that the Bone Dragon Martial Soul is far inferior to top-tier beast Martial Souls like the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon in terms of strength, speed, and explosive power."

At this point, Yu Xiaogang's tone unexpectedly regained its confidence. With his hands behind his back, he paced back and forth behind the desk as he continued:

"In a Soul Master's cultivation, the greatest taboo is neglecting one's strengths to pursue one's weaknesses."

"The Bone Dragon Martial Soul's greatest strength lies in its bones. Its hard bones can shield the Soul Master from attacks and strengthen the Soul Master's body after Martial Soul Possession."

"If one continuously absorbs Soul Rings from defensive Soul Beasts, the bones' density, hardness, and regenerative ability will constantly improve."

"Once their cultivation becomes strong enough, a Bone Dragon Soul Master can even turn their entire body skeletal, becoming a shield to block enemy attacks for their teammates. That is the Bone Dragon Martial Soul's true value!"

Yu Xiaogang spoke faster and faster.

"On the other hand, I believe the assault route you proposed is completely unviable!"

"Bones may indeed be sharp, but they lack the toughness of metal Martial Souls. If you turn them into weapons and clash head-on with enemies, you may wound the enemy for a thousand while damaging yourself for eight hundred."

"Furthermore, the Bone Dragon Martial Soul is inherently heavy and even less suited for speed. If you forcibly pursue attack, not only will you fail to catch agility-attack Soul Masters, you may even lose your original defensive advantage by excessively draining your soul power."

"By then, your attacks will be inferior to true assault-type Soul Masters, your speed inferior to agility-attack Soul Masters, and your defense will become an incoherent mess due to an incorrect Soul Ring configuration."

At this point, Yu Xiaogang abruptly stopped, raised a hand to point at Gu Ling, and said sternly:

"The final result will only be the needless waste of your Innate Full Soul Power! The fact that Bone Douluo became the continent's foremost defense-type Titled Douluo is enough to prove that my theory is correct."

"The Bone Dragon Martial Soul should follow the defense route!"

After finishing his speech, Yu Xiaogang's expression returned to one of certainty.

Tang San, who stood nearby, listened thoughtfully. Although he felt that Gu Ling's earlier words had made some sense, Yu Xiaogang's current analysis seemed far more detailed.

The Bone Dragon had no flesh and blood, only a skeleton.

Such a Martial Soul did seem better suited for defense rather than direct assault.

Yet in the face of Yu Xiaogang's seemingly reasonable theories, Gu Ling's expression did not change at all. He looked at Yu Xiaogang and asked calmly:

"Master, are you finished?"

Yu Xiaogang's face darkened.

"What? Even now, do you still think your idea is correct?"

"Whether it's correct or not, won't we know if we try it?"

Gu Ling slowly raised his right hand.

The next moment, a cold and powerful wave of soul power burst from his body.

"Bone Dragon, possess!"

Roar—!

Along with a low dragon roar, a massive, ghastly white phantom suddenly emerged behind Gu Ling. It was unmistakably a ferocious Bone Dragon!

Its enormous body was entirely formed of pale dragon bones. Its huge dragon head was raised high, two curved horns extended backward, and two ghostly pale flames burned within its hollow eye sockets.

A pair of enormous bone wings grew from either side of the Bone Dragon.

There was no flesh or feathers upon those wings, only sharp, pale wing bones stretching outward. When fully spread, they nearly covered most of the space behind Gu Ling.

At the same time, a series of teeth-grinding sounds of bones scraping against one another rang out.

Gu Ling's arms transformed first. Pieces of pale bone armor covered their surfaces, spreading from his wrists all the way to his shoulders and fitting together seamlessly.

Then, his hands began to lengthen. Sharp bone claws grew from the tips of his five fingers, each one gleaming with a chilling light.

Finally, a dragon tail formed from stark white vertebrae slowly extended from behind him.

Most eerie of all, the bone tail did not hang stiffly to the ground. Instead, it slowly swayed behind Gu Ling like a living creature.

He looked exactly like a juvenile Bone Dragon wearing a human form.

Tang San's pupils narrowed slightly at the sight of Gu Ling after Martial Soul Possession, and Yu Xiaogang unconsciously took half a step back as well.

However, he quickly forced himself to steady his footing and said coldly:

"What does that prove?"

"The bone armor covering your body proves precisely that the Bone Dragon Martial Soul's primary ability is defense!"

"Is that so?"

Gu Ling asked in return.

The instant his words fell, his right arm abruptly lifted. The bone armor covering it rapidly writhed, and the originally thick bones continuously gathered toward his wrist.

Crack!

A long, narrow pale bone blade grew from the outer side of Gu Ling's wrist. It was over a foot long, and rather than being smooth, its surface was covered in tiny, sharp serrations.

Gu Ling casually swung it to the side.

Whoosh!

The wooden chair beside him did not even make much noise before the bone blade cleanly sliced it in half. The two broken halves then crashed onto the floor with a dull thud.

Before Yu Xiaogang could speak, the bone tail behind Gu Ling suddenly thrust forward.

Pfft!

The sharp tailbone instantly pierced through one corner of the desk.

Before that bone tail, the hard wooden board was as fragile as a sheet of thin paper.

Immediately afterward, the two bone spikes behind Gu Ling's shoulders suddenly detached from his body.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Two pale afterimages flew past Yu Xiaogang and accurately embedded themselves in the wall behind him. The hard bone spikes sank more than halfway into the wall, leaving only short sections exposed.

The office instantly fell deathly silent. Tang San looked at the bone spikes lodged in the wall, then at the bone blade on Gu Ling's arm, his eyes filled with shock.

Gu Ling had not absorbed a Soul Ring, so what he had just used was naturally not a soul skill. These were entirely abilities inherent to the Bone Dragon Martial Soul itself!

Yu Xiaogang's lips trembled slightly.

"Without even adding a Soul Ring, the Bone Dragon Martial Soul possesses such terrifying attack power?"

"This... this is impossible..."

Gu Ling ignored his loss of composure and merely controlled the bone blade on his arm to slowly retract.

At the same time, the two bone spikes embedded in the wall trembled slightly.

Drawn by his soul power, they actually pulled themselves free of the wall, flew back to Gu Ling's side, and reconnected with the bones behind his shoulders.

There was not the slightest delay in the entire process.

It was as though those bone spikes had never left his body.

Gu Ling looked at Yu Xiaogang and asked calmly:

"Master, do you still believe the Bone Dragon's bones can only be used for defense?"

"My bone armor can turn into bone blades. My spine can become a dragon tail. My bone spikes can leave my body and attack distant enemies. As long as my soul power is sufficient, even bones that have left my body can return to me."

At this point, Gu Ling raised his right hand, and his sharp dragon claws slowly clenched.

"I possessed these abilities without absorbing a Soul Ring."

"If the Soul Rings I absorb in the future can further strengthen my bones' sharpness, control, proliferation, and reassembly abilities, my methods of attack will only become more numerous."

"At close range, I can use bone claws and bone blades."

"At long range, I can use bone spikes and bone spears."

"If an enemy blocks my frontal attack, I may even control my bones to attack from the side—or even from behind them. That is the uncanny assault I spoke of."