Nine Phoenix Ceremonial Flute, Three-Life Soul-Suppressing Cauldron for Support?

Nording Junior Soul Master Academy, office.

Said to be an office, it was actually just a cramped little room with walls covered in all sorts of yellowed martial soul charts.

At this moment, the atmosphere inside the room was even more scorching than the blazing sun outside.

"Listen to me, your Nine Phoenix Ceremonial Flute should definitely take the support route!"

Yu Xiaogang braced his hands on the desk, his body leaning slightly forward, a trace of unquestionable certainty in his voice.

Opposite him stood a six-year-old boy.

With green robes, black hair, and emerald eyes, even at such a young age he could already be seen as destined to be a handsome figure in the future.

"No, I want to take the power attack stream!"

Xiao Lin shook his head in refusal.

Yu Xiaogang took a deep breath, trying hard to make his tone sound a bit gentler:

"Xiao Lin, you are still young and don't understand these things. The positioning of a martial soul depends on its characteristics. Look at the name of the Nine Phoenix Ceremonial Flute... a flute is an instrument to begin with, and what is its purpose? It is to produce sound, right?

Therefore, its soul skills are naturally suited for the deceleration and interference streams. You stack a few deceleration soul skills on it, blow the flute in the back during battles to emit sonic waves to interfere with opponents and create output opportunities for teammates. This is the correct way to use it."

He spoke with spittle flying everywhere, feeling all the more righteous the more he talked, and his back straightened a bit unconsciously:

"I am a master of theory, the martial soul world's recognized master of theory! I have studied martial souls for twenty years and proposed the Ten Core Competencies Theory. The soul master world across the entire continent refers to my research results! Could I possibly lie to a child like you?"

Xiao Lin picked his ear and casually blew on his fingernails: "Oh."

This single "oh" almost choked Yu Xiaogang to death.

"What kind of attitude is that?!" Yu Xiaogang's voice rose by an octave.

"Master," Xiao Lin raised his head, those emerald eyes staring straight at Yu Xiaogang, his gaze clear yet carrying an indescribable sharpness, "I want to ask you a question."

"Go ahead."

"Why is the Nine Phoenix Ceremonial Flute called the 'Nine Phoenix'?"

Yu Xiaogang was stunned, opened his mouth, but failed to utter a word.

Without waiting for his answer, Xiao Lin continued on his own.

"The Nine Phoenix is a divine bird from the Great Wilderness, sharing the same origin as the phoenix and controlling flames and musical tones. Since the Nine Phoenix Ceremonial Flute is named after the 'phoenix', it inevitably contains the phoenix bloodline within it. What is a phoenix? It is the king of all birds, a divine beast reborn from fire! You are asking a martial soul containing phoenix bloodline like mine to take the support route, to slow people down and interfere?"

He paused, the corner of his mouth curving into a sneer: "Isn't this putting the cart before the horse?"

"Audacious!" Yu Xiaogang slammed his hand on the table, his entire face twisting.

"What does a little brat like you understand about martial soul theory?! Do you know what soul ring pairing is? Do you know the linkage effects between soul skills? You don't know anything, yet you are spouting nonsense here!"

"I don't know?" Xiao Lin smiled, smiling exceptionally brightly.

"Then do you know that the Nine Phoenix Ceremonial Flute comes with wind and fire attributes? Do you know that sonic wave attacks are inherently its own characteristic, completely eliminating the need for deliberate development? You haven't figured out anything at all, yet you come right out and tell me to go support. Are you really not trying to harm me?"

Yu Xiaogang was refuted to the point of speechlessness. His lips trembled for a long time, yet not a single word popped out.

Watching this appearance of his, Xiao Lin only found it funny.

Of course he knew the origin of the Nine Phoenix Ceremonial Flute. Wasn't this the martial soul of Xiao Xiao from The Unrivaled Tang Clan ten thousand years later?

How did Xiao Xiao walk her path in the original work? Support and control, but what was the result? From start to finish she was just a passerby, her presence so pitifully low that even readers couldn't remember who she was.

He had no desire to become like that.

He was a time-traveler. In his previous life, he was a national intangible cultural heritage inheritor, proficient in dozens of musical instruments like the guqin, vertical bamboo flute, transverse bamboo flute, and pipa. He practiced the "Guangling Melody" while staying up late until he died suddenly, and the moment he opened his eyes, he found himself an orphan at the Nording Orphanage.

His memories had only awakened a few days ago, and before he could properly digest the fact that he had time-traveled, he was targeted by this so-called "master of theory."

Innate rank nine soul power, twin martial souls—the Nine Phoenix Ceremonial Flute and the Three-Life Soul-Suppressing Cauldron.

That's right, he actually also possessed a second martial soul, the Three-Life Soul-Suppressing Cauldron, except he hadn't directly exposed it.

When he saw the names of these two martial souls, he was stunned.

The Nine Phoenix Ceremonial Flute, the Three-Life Soul-Suppressing Cauldron—weren't these precisely Xiao Xiao's two martial souls?

The combination of two top-tier instrument martial souls should have been a path leading straight to the heavens.

Yet Xiao Xiao walked the wrong path.

She chose support and control, living her life straight into becoming a background board.

Xiao Lin did not want to follow her old path.

The Nine Phoenix Ceremonial Flute contained the phoenix bloodline and was naturally connected to flames and musical tones; this was clearly a path of power attack!

The way of musical tones: killing people with sound, controlling the field with music. This was its correct opening method!

As for the Three-Life Soul-Suppressing Cauldron—a cauldron was a sacred vessel of the state, capable of suppressing rivers and mountains and fixing the destiny of the realm. This was clearly a top-tier control-system martial soul!

One attack and one control, complementing each other; this was Xiao Lin's path!

Xiao Lin truly detested masters like Yu Xiaogang who pretended to understand while knowing nothing. Wasn't this misleading the youth? If he hadn't been a time-traveler, he really would have been fooled.

Knowing that cutting off someone's future was akin to killing their parents, Xiao Lin naturally wouldn't be so polite.

"Master," Xiao Lin reined in his smile, his tone turning serious.

"I know you're a theoretical master, and I respect your knowledge. But in this matter, I have my own thoughts. For the Nine Phoenixes Descending Flute, I'm going to take the forceful attack route, entering the Dao through rhythm and taking the phoenix bloodline as the core, forging a path of my own."

"You..." Yu Xiaogang shook all over with anger. "You're ruining your own future, you're a rotten piece of wood that can't be carved!!"

Yu Xiaogang cursed angrily; did he still want to take Xiao Lin as a disciple to put his own theories into practice?

"Whether I'm ruining my own future, time will prove." Xiao Lin said indifferently, "As for you, Master, I have a question I've always wanted to ask you."

"What question?"

"That Ten Core Competencies theory of yours, did you really research it yourself?"

Yu Xiaogang's expression changed instantly.

"Or," Xiao Lin's smile grew meaningful, "did you copy it from the Spirit Hall's classics?"

"What are you talking about?!" Yu Xiaogang practically roared, veins throbbing on his forehead. "Those are the fruits of my lifelong research! I visited countless soul master families, consulted countless ancient texts, and summed them up bit by bit!"

"Oh?" Xiao Lin tilted his head. "Then can you explain to me how a level twenty-nine soul master figured out the optimal age configuration for the seventh and eighth soul rings? You're not even a soul saint, you've never even seen what a seventh soul ring looks like—how did you research that?"

"I... I deduced it through theory--"

"Theoretical deduction?" Xiao Lin interrupted him. "Then did you deduce why you're stuck at level twenty-nine? Didn't you say there are no trash souls, only trash soul masters? Then does this level twenty-nine of yours mean that you yourself are trash?"

"You... you!"

Yu Xiaogang's face turned from red to white, from white to cyan, and finally into a wretched shade of gray. His lips trembled, and his finger pointed shakily at Xiao Lin, but he couldn't get a single word out.

Every single one of Xiao Lin's words struck at his sore spot.

That's right, he had been stuck at level twenty-nine for twenty years.

He shouted every day that "there are no trash souls, only trash soul masters," but wasn't he himself the best counterexample to that phrase?

Although Luoshanpao was not an exceptionally strong soul, it shouldn't have been so bad that he couldn't even break through to level thirty. When it came down to it, he was the one who wasn't good enough, he was the one with limited talent, it was himself.

No, it's not like that!

Yu Xiaogang shook his head fiercely, banishing the thought from his mind. His theory was right; something must have gone wrong somewhere, there must have been a problem with Luoshanpao's soul, there had to be.