Dugu Bo

"What was wrong?"

Like a girl next door, Dugu Yan asked Bai Xiao, as though she did not know anything.

"Oh, right. Didn't you say you liked collecting herbs? My grandfather has a medicinal garden. Want to come take a look with me during the break?" Dugu Yan asked Bai Xiao softly.

If I went to your grandfather's medicinal garden with you now, your grandfather would deal with me on the spot! Bai Xiao grumbled inwardly.

"You should come to the library with me instead! I'm very interested in the books at Heaven Dou Imperial Academy."

Thus, the two headed hand in hand toward the Library Pavilion, leaving behind a ground full of heartbroken women and men. The men had been wounded by the sight of girls scrambling to compete for Bai Xinghe.

After three months of hard work, Bai Xiao had used his naked-eye memorization method to go through all the proper and improper books at Heaven Dou Imperial Academy. In truth, Bai Xiao had Rem sort, classify, and store the information within the books.

As an artificial intelligence carried by a portion of Bai Xiao's soul and brain, Rem could help Bai Xiao develop his brain from another angle. Storing and organizing knowledge was something Rem could accomplish with ease.

The only drawback was that Bai Xiao needed to scan everything with his naked eyes—that was, stare wide-eyed at books. His eyes had gone blurry from reading; now, no matter what he looked at, it resembled a book.

From then on, a legend about a god of learning began to circulate through the academy.

Back then, Bai Xiao had spent two weeks finishing all the books on basic knowledge, then gone straight to the academy council and asked the headmaster to grant him access to more advanced material.

Meng Shenji had criticized Bai Xiao on the spot. "You finished them in two weeks? You merely skimmed through them, didn't you?"

Bai Xiao immediately refused to accept that and told Meng Shenji to quiz him. Meng Shenji decisively tested Bai Xiao, and the more he tested him, the more alarmed and shaken he became.

Bai Xiao answered every one of Meng Shenji's questions, and did so with astonishing speed and accuracy. The question would be asked one second, and Bai Xiao would give the answer the next.

Meng Shenji had nearly gone mad at the time. "How can there be such a genius in this world? And he's actually a student of our academy! Hahaha! Heaven blesses the imperial family! Heaven blesses Heaven Dou!" The more he spoke, the more crazed he became.

The commotion alerted the other two Soul Douluo on the academy council.

The two of them immediately decided that Meng Shenji had gone mad. While he was laughing wildly, they knocked him unconscious.

When Meng Shenji woke up, he uttered the three great questions of life: "Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing?"

From that day onward, another legendary rumor spread across the academy: "The headmaster is a lunatic."

After that, the way Meng Shenji looked at Bai Xiao became somewhat strange. There was thirty percent appreciation, thirty percent anger, thirty percent concern, and the remaining ten percent was doubt.

"Doubt over who he was, where he was, what he was going to do, where he had come from, and where he was going."

From then on, Bai Xiao received unrestricted reading privileges and began his daily routine of devouring books.

And every day, Dugu Yan accompanied Bai Xiao to the Library Pavilion, reading books, occasionally giggling foolishly, and occasionally glancing at Bai Xiao.

One day, Bai Xiao felt that the time was ripe. With a solemn expression, he looked at Dugu Yan and said,

"Yan'er, from the moment I first saw your green hair, and from the occasional fishy smell that comes from you, I suspected something..."

Before Bai Xiao could finish, Dugu Yan burst into tears. As she cried, she choked out, "I'm sorry, Xinghe. I deceived you. My Martial Soul is highly venomous. It can be passed down to descendants, and even a spouse can be infected. I didn't mean to deceive you..."

The instant Dugu Yan began crying, Bai Xiao felt himself locked onto by a wave of killing intent. As Dugu Yan continued speaking, that killing intent grew ever stronger.

Bai Xiao immediately knew that it was Dugu Bo.

When Tang San went to Shrek, Tang Hao had protected him in secret. Seeing Tang San get beaten up, he had even viciously thrashed Zhao Wuji. Let alone Dugu Bo, a madman who doted on his granddaughter!

Bai Xiao instantly lost his composure and hurriedly said, "No, I mean that I can cure the poison in your Martial Soul, and even improve your cultivation talent!"

"What?!"

Two voices cried out in shock.

One belonged to the weeping Dugu Yan. She had stopped crying, her entire face frozen, as though her mind had ceased functioning.

And the other—

A flash of green light streaked past. Dugu Bo instantly appeared before Bai Xiao, seized Bai Xiao by the collar with both hands, and lifted him into the air.

Seeing Bai Xiao raised by Dugu Bo, Dugu Yan immediately snapped back to her senses and hurriedly shouted, "Grandfather, you absolutely must not hurt Xinghe!!"

"Hmph! This brat dared make my granddaughter cry. I have to teach him a lesson!" Dugu Bo said, trying to comfort Dugu Yan.

"No, Grandfather, I misunderstood what Xinghe meant!" Dugu Yan hurriedly explained.

"Um, could you let me say a few words?" Bai Xiao, dangling in the air from Dugu Bo's grip, said weakly.