The Oddball Yu Xiaogang

The next day.

Lin Fan lay in bed, listening to the rain pattering outside, bored out of his mind.

"So bored. My phone's dead, my power bank's dead, and the village doesn't even have electricity."

"It's 2025. Hard to believe places this rough still exist."

"If the villagers weren't so decent—and hadn't taken my kidneys—I'd swear I'd landed in some organ-harvesting den."

Click, click!

The sound of what seemed to be high heels striking the floor reached Lin Fan's ears.

"Dong'er's here," Lin Fan said.

Bibi Dong walked into the room and teased him. "Lin Fan, going blind hasn't been all bad. At least your hearing keeps getting sharper."

Lin Fan played along, answering with exaggerated indignation. "I'm already suffering, and you're making fun of me? Words can wound!"

Qian Xunji, who had followed Bibi Dong in, said, "That's enough, Dong'er. Stop teasing Xiao Fan."

"Xiao Fan, pick up where you left off."

"Mm." Lin Fan's ears twitched. He was about to begin when he noticed there were fewer footsteps. "Village chief, where's the village doctor who likes cracking sunflower seeds right beside my ear?"

"The two of them? It's raining, and the path outside has collapsed again, so they're overseeing the work."

"I see. All right, I'll tell you a little more." Lin Fan suspected nothing.

"After Tang San enrolled, he was assigned a class and a dormitory. Then came his first real step toward becoming a Soul Master: obtaining a soul ring. That's the advantage of Innate Full Soul Power. He could take his first soul ring before he'd even started cultivating."

"That's how cultivation works in the Douluo world. It's also why Tang San couldn't advance the Mysterious Heaven Skill to its second level, though he didn't know it."

"But Grandmaster really was useless. He mistook Tang San's Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul for ordinary Blue Silver Grass and wanted to make him a control-type Soul Master."

"That was a mistake. What defines Blue Silver Grass? Life. That's why it grows everywhere on the continent. It's hardy, adaptable, and thrives in almost any environment."

"You could say Yu Xiaogang's bad judgment held back Tang San's development early on. Otherwise, forget becoming a god at twenty-five—he might have done it by twenty."

"Haha!" Bibi Dong laughed. "So Tang San's decision to become Yu Xiaogang's disciple was a mistake too?"

Lin Fan curled his lip. "In short, making Blue Silver Grass a support-type Martial Soul would've helped Tang San more. He had the Clear Sky Hammer for offense. If Blue Silver Grass had healing and recovery soul skills, he'd have offense and support together. I can hardly imagine how formidable he'd be in a fight."

Qian Xunji nodded in agreement. "An offense-and-support combination does sound better than pairing offense with control."

Lin Fan smiled. "Yu Xiaogang clearly didn't understand that. That's why I said he only knew basic theory. His low cultivation limited his perspective and experience."

"What he did later in the Soul Hunting Forest was even stranger."

"Yu Xiaogang actually considered a ten-year Lone Bamboo for Tang San's Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul's first soul ring. His reasoning was that Lone Bamboo was tough while Blue Silver Grass was fragile, so it would strengthen that attribute."

Bibi Dong burst out laughing. "A ten-year Lone Bamboo? How did he come up with such a ridiculous match? That's leading his student astray!"

Qian Xunji said nothing. He just kept shaking his head.

Lin Fan nodded. "That's why I said Tang San would've cultivated faster without Yu Xiaogang interfering."

"If Tang San hadn't had the Mysterious Heaven Skill, which was better than ordinary meditation techniques, and if Tang Hao hadn't later helped awaken his Blue Silver Grass's true Blue Silver Emperor bloodline, Tang San's potential really would've been wasted."

"Fortunately, they encountered a century-old Mandala Snake, and Yu Xiaogang gave up on the Lone Bamboo."

"A Mandala Snake?" Bibi Dong said. "That soul beast is fairly rare. It was a good choice."

"But guess what happened." Lin Fan started laughing at the thought.

Bibi Dong grew curious. "What?"

Holding back his laughter, Lin Fan explained, "Yu Xiaogang was a level twenty-nine Soul Master, but he couldn't beat it. His Martial Soul, Luo Sanpao, could only eat radishes and fart—and I mean literally fart—to release a fog that confused soul beasts. In the end, the Mandala Snake bit him, and he nearly died from the poison."

"Hahaha..." This time, Bibi Dong couldn't hold back her laughter at all.

Lin Fan continued, "If Tang San hadn't had the Tang Sect's techniques and Hidden Weapons, the two of them would've died in the Mandala Snake's jaws."

Bibi Dong stared in surprise. "At six years old, with no soul ring, he killed a four-hundred-year soul beast?"

"That's right," Lin Fan said. "He used Purple Demon Eyes to find its weakness, Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track to dodge, Mysterious Jade Hand to withstand its fangs, and finally a Hidden Weapon to kill it in one strike. All four came from Tang San's previous life. They had nothing to do with his Martial Soul or soul rings."

"After killing the Mandala Snake, Tang San absorbed its soul ring and gained his first soul skill: Entanglement."

"And as a Tang Sect disciple, Tang San was skilled with poisons. He happened to be able to cure the Mandala Snake venom in Yu Xiaogang's body. If anyone else had been there, Yu Xiaogang would've died on the spot."

Bibi Dong looked thoughtful. "So Yu Xiaogang actually steered Tang San toward the wrong first soul skill?"

"Blue Silver Grass can certainly entangle things," Lin Fan replied, "but that's only its surface-level ability. Its true essence is life."

"Besides, Yu Xiaogang didn't know about the Blue Silver Emperor, so it's understandable that he misjudged it."

Bibi Dong laughed and slapped her thigh. "What an oddball! So that's what Yu Xiaogang is really like."

"I gave him too much credit before."

Qian Xunji suddenly spoke. "Xiao Fan, you said Tang San killed a four-hundred-year soul beast at six thanks to the Tang Sect's techniques and Hidden Weapons. Could other people learn those things?"

Lin Fan paused, then answered, "Of course. But Tang San is deeply attached to the Tang Sect and wouldn't share its secrets. Later, he founded the Tang Sect. Only after he became a god and no one could threaten him did he pass those things on to its core members. And I think Tang San was the only one who had the complete version of the most important technique, the Mysterious Heaven Skill."

"Of course, learning anything takes talent. Being allowed to learn doesn't mean you'll master it."

"So if someone tried to take those techniques from Tang San, he'd rather see them destroyed than hand them over."

"I understand," Qian Xunji said. "Those techniques are important, but it wouldn't be easy for Spirit Hall to obtain them."

Lin Fan nodded. "Right."

Qian Xunji continued, "Xiao Fan, I have another question."

Lin Fan smiled. "Just ask, village chief. If I know the answer, I'll tell you."

"It's about Qian Xunji. Suppose he'd chosen someone other than Bibi Dong back then—a woman with talent comparable to hers. Could his future child still have become the Angel God?"

Lin Fan paused again. The hypothetical came out of nowhere. It didn't sound like a question the village chief would ask.

"Village chief, if we're ruling out Bibi Dong, the books mention a few women from Qian Xunji's era whose talents were only a little below hers."

"First was Ah Yin, the Blue Silver Emperor. Second was Ah Rou, Xiao Wu's mother. Third was Ling Yuan Douluo, an elder of Spirit Hall, though I don't know whether she'd become an elder yet in Qian Xunji's time."

"Fourth was Bo Saixi, a Peerless Douluo—but forget about her. She was out at sea, where even Qian Daoliu couldn't beat her, let alone Qian Xunji. They didn't call her invincible on the ocean for nothing."

"As for anyone else, the books didn't say much."