The Ten-Thousand-Year Deception Exposed, Tang San's Faith Shaken

"Second, your theory of Soul Ring age limits! Four hundred and twenty-three years for the First Soul Ring, seven hundred and sixty-four for the Second... You had the gall to present those figures as the fruit of your own research. But what were they really? Nothing more than rough averages Spirit Hall calculated after collecting the Martial Soul awakening records of hundreds of thousands of commoner and noble Soul Masters across the continent!"

"You used your personal ties with Spirit Hall's upper ranks to borrow the records its predecessors had labored over, then stole their work, dressed it up, and passed it off as your own discovery! Worse, your figures were rigid dogma! The limit for absorbing a Soul Ring depended on a Soul Master's physical strength, the capacity of his meridians, and his willpower! If someone had a body as strong as divine iron, why couldn't he absorb a thousand-year or even a ten-thousand-year First Soul Ring? You held up an average as iron law and misled Soul Masters everywhere into fearing to take a single step beyond it. You were an academic blight who ruined students and cut short their futures!"

"Shut up! Shut up!! Those were my findings! The truth I established!" Yu Xiaogang's eyes bulged with fury.

His chest heaved, and his voice rose to a shrill, miserable pitch.

Having his theft of Spirit Hall's texts exposed in public was like having the scholar's plumage he had relied on all his life ripped away, skin and flesh along with it!

Behind Yu Xiaogang, Tang San's face changed drastically.

He had always revered Yu Xiaogang as a master of theory with vast learning.

Never had he imagined those seemingly ingenious figures were merely copied averages from Spirit Hall's public records!

And Su Chen's judgment had only just reached its deadliest point!

Su Chen raised a third finger and pointed straight at Tang San, mockery filling his voice.

"Third, there's the theory you're proudest of, the Martial Soul Mimicry Theory and your hypothesis that plant Martial Souls can absorb animal Soul Rings. You're about to use your precious disciple as a guinea pig to test them!"

"You plan to have Tang San's Blue Silver Grass absorb a century-old Mandala Snake from the Soul Hunting Forest, don't you? You think you've discovered that Blue Silver Grass can accept anything, and you want to give it the snake's venom and toughness to prove your brilliant ideas!"

At Su Chen's words, Yu Xiaogang froze. His legs suddenly buckled, and he nearly fell to the ground!

His plan to take Tang San to the Soul Hunting Forest for a Mandala Snake Soul Ring was a closely guarded secret he had only just settled on in his room.

No one else knew about it!

How could this six-year-old boy have known what he was planning?

Su Chen gave a cold laugh, his voice chilling.

"You know the Mandala Snake is venomous and tough, but you don't know that the essence of Blue Silver Grass is the spirit of nature's plants, ever-renewing and embracing all things! Force a plant Martial Soul to take in a vicious, corrosive snake venom, and you might gain a trifling paralysis effect early on. But the price is damage to its very foundation, severing any chance for the essence of Blue Silver Grass to evolve into a higher form of life!"

"To satisfy your twisted, hypocritical need to prove yourself, to show the whole continent that Yu Xiaogang's theories are right, you don't care about a Soul Master's future or how far he might rise! You took Tang San as your disciple only to use him as a tool and guinea pig, so you could prove to the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan and Spirit Hall that you weren't worthless!"

"You ruin students, steal others' work, serve only yourself, and squander the promise of talented people everywhere! Yu Xiaogang, you shameless fraud, how can you show your face in this world? What gives you the right to call yourself Grandmaster?!"

In that final furious rebuke, Su Chen wove a trace of pure, radiant primordial dragon voice, driving it deep into Yu Xiaogang's sea of consciousness!

Every word struck at his heart!

Every cut drew blood!

Su Chen had not only torn the Ten Core Competencies to shreds. He had laid bare, under the light of day, the ugliest, filthiest selfish schemes Yu Xiaogang had hidden in the depths of his heart!

"Pfft—"

Yu Xiaogang's face turned from purple to blue, then from blue to white.

Blood surged into his throat. Unable to suppress the turmoil in his body or hold together his shattered defenses, he threw back his head and spat a great mouthful of dark red blood!

"Sanpao... Sanpao..."

Luo Sanpao, the fat-pig-like Mutated Martial Soul within Yu Xiaogang, was driven out of his body by the immense Dragon Might and the collapse of his master's mind.

Tail tucked between his legs, he cowered on the ground and let out terrified squeals like a pig being slaughtered.

Yu Xiaogang's eyes rolled back, and the muscles in his face twitched violently.

He toppled backward stiff as a board and hit the muddy grass with a heavy thud, unconscious on the spot!

Silence.

The entire tree-lined path fell silent. Only Luo Sanpao's whimpering echoed through it.

The surrounding students and instructors could hardly believe their eyes.

They looked at the unconscious Grandmaster lying in a pool of blood, then at Su Chen standing tall and proud. Every mind went blank with shock.

Tang San's face was white as paper.

He stood rooted to the spot, his convictions shaken more violently than ever before.

Teacher...

Was he really using me as a guinea pig to prove his theories?

The Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record of the Tang Sect said: Do not trust those you doubt; do not doubt those you trust.

But now an unhealable crack had been branded deep into Tang San's heart!

Just then, a system notification sounded in Su Chen's sea of consciousness!

[Ding!

Detected: The host used supreme Dragon Might and truth to publicly demolish Yu Xiaogang's Ten Core Competencies one by one, completely exposing the ugly truth of his academic theft and the harm he had done to his students!]

[Detected: Yu Xiaogang's convictions have been utterly shattered. With his heart meridian damaged, he spat blood and fainted. The Grandmaster's reputation at Nuoding Academy has been swept away, severely reducing Yu Xiaogang's core destiny by 3,500 points!]

[Detected: Tang San, the child of destiny, has begun to fundamentally doubt Yu Xiaogang, reducing Tang San's destiny by 1,500 points!]

[The Destiny Plunder System has triggered its highest-tier, world-ending critical reward!]

[Congratulations, host! You have obtained a heaven-defying divine item: one Self-Created Soul Skill Comprehension Card (upon use, you may gain a sudden insight and develop a divine-level self-created martial technique or Soul Skill)!]

[Congratulations, host! You have obtained 5,000 system destiny points!]

[Detected: The host's Dragon Emperor blood and vitality are in perfect harmony, and the level-twenty Soul Power bottleneck has fully stabilized. You urgently need the First and Second Soul Rings to break through and soar!]

Hearing the lavish rewards announced in his mind, Su Chen laughed coldly.

He did not spare the unconscious Yu Xiaogang on the ground a glance. He ignored Tang San, who stood beside him looking utterly lost.

He took Xiao Wu's soft, delicate hand and spoke calmly.

"Let's go, Xiao Wu. Some clowns have brought this on themselves. There's no need to bother with them."

"Mm! Brother Chen, you were so cool just now!" Xiao Wu's eyes sparkled with admiration as she clung tightly to Su Chen's arm.

The two walked away at an unhurried pace, leaving under everyone's awed, stunned gazes.

Behind them, Tang San gritted his teeth and struggled to help the unconscious Yu Xiaogang up.

He watched Su Chen's figure recede.

Malice and confusion churned together in Tang San's eyes.

Su Chen, no matter how strong your theories are, once Teacher takes me to obtain my First Soul Ring, I, Tang San, will repay today's humiliation a thousandfold!