Master and Disciple Turn Against Each Other! Yu Xiaogang, You Have Given Me Reason to Kill You!

Cough, cough... A violent bout of coughing came from a mud pit several yards away.

Half of Tang San's body lay submerged in filthy mud. Pressing his left hand to his chest, he tipped back his head and coughed up a mouthful of dark, clotted blood.

At the sound, Yu Xiaogang shuddered and scrambled out of the mud on all fours.

Su Chen had become a nightmare he could never hope to touch. Now only Tang San, his disciple with Twin Martial Souls, could prove Yu Xiaogang's worth!!

Suppressing his shock and fear, Yu Xiaogang hurried through the mire toward Tang San, assuming the air of a caring, stern teacher who had everything under control.

"Xiao San!! Hold on... I'm coming to save you!"

Yu Xiaogang bent down and reached out to help Tang San up.

"What a blessing! Heaven watched over us both! When that three-thousand-year Subdragon attacked, I knew neither of us could survive by strength alone. To save your life, I risked having every meridian in my body severed and used myself as bait to draw the Ferocious Beast away. Then I fought my way to the outer camp to summon Spirit Hall's patrolling officers!"

As he spoke, he beat his chest in anguish. "But those short-sighted guards were too afraid of the dangers within to come in! Burning with worry, I could only drag my battered body back here alone! Seeing you alive, I'd be content even if my body were smashed to pieces!"

Beneath the dead tree, Tang San's eyelids trembled. He slowly opened his eyes.

To summon help?

Tang San lowered his head. Tangled hair hid his eyes as muddy water dripped from it.

In the shadows Yu Xiaogang could not see, Tang San smiled.

Summon a patrol? Use himself as bait?

When the Dark-Armored Bloodhorn Dragon descended, Tang San had seen Yu Xiaogang's undisguised terror and desperate desire to save his own skin perfectly clearly!!

His panicked retreat, and that shouted order—"Hold it off!"—were carved word for word into Tang San's heart!!

If Su Chen had not arrived and knocked the Subdragon back with one punch, Tang San would have been a puddle of minced flesh in this mud half an incense stick ago!!

Utterly shameless! Utterly despicable!

He sneered inwardly as savage killing intent churned through the depths of his mind.

The third general principle of the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record: Anyone who betrayed a fellow disciple in a moment of danger and left him to die had given that disciple reason to kill him!

Yu Xiaogang, you have given me reason to kill you!!

In the ledger of judgment within his heart, Tang San marked Yu Xiaogang's name on the page reserved for those he had to kill.

That good-for-nothing who called himself Grandmaster was nothing but a selfish clown who stole other people's theories!

Pfft!

Another mouthful of blood splashed onto his clothes. Tang San knew that if he broke with Yu Xiaogang now, a gravely wounded six-year-old like him could never make it out of the perilous Soul Hunting Forest alone.

Endure. He had to endure!

Tang San hid his fury and killing intent behind a weak, grateful expression.

"Tea... teacher... I understand... You risked yourself to save me. I'm... grateful beyond words..."

Hearing Tang San's halting words, so full of reverence, Yu Xiaogang finally felt his heart drop back into place. Self-satisfaction surged through him.

This genius disciple with Twin Martial Souls was only six years old after all. However precocious he might be, he still could not escape Yu Xiaogang's control and schemes!

"Good child, don't speak!" Yu Xiaogang helped Tang San lean against a stump and checked his pulse. "Your injuries are too severe. Your Innate Soul Power is on the verge of running wild. If your meridians can't disperse the energy trapped inside them, the very foundation of your Martial Soul will be destroyed!!"

Tang San was deathly pale, his breathing growing fainter. "Teacher... that four-hundred-year Mandala Snake... Su Chen, that villain, stole it and absorbed it... What am I supposed to do about my First Soul Ring?"

At the mention of Su Chen and the Mandala Snake, Yu Xiaogang's face twitched with venom and humiliated rage.

"Don't mention that madman again!" Yu Xiaogang snarled through gritted teeth. "That little beast defied heaven by absorbing a Soul Ring beyond the age limit. He may look impressive, but a fatal flaw already lurks in his meridians. Sooner or later, heaven will punish him, and his body will burst apart!"

He rose and paced anxiously across the churned mud, his narrow eyes sweeping the edge of the dim forest.

For Yu Xiaogang, the situation was a hair's breadth from disaster. The Mandala Snake was dead, and the Hundred-Year Soul Beasts that had lived nearby had fled in terror from Su Chen's Ancestral Dragon Pressure.

If he could not help Tang San obtain a First Soul Ring and break through soon, Tang San might die of his injuries. Yu Xiaogang would lose his only means of vindicating himself, and he would have no way to answer to anyone when he returned to Nuoding Academy!

"I have to find a Soul Ring... now!"

Yu Xiaogang's gaze suddenly fixed on a length of dried vine clinging to the edge of a collapsed pit nearby.

Its leaves had withered, and its shriveled body gave off the yellowish pallor of death. No thicker than a little finger, it emitted a trace of Soul Power so faint it was nearly imperceptible, scarcely stronger than common grass.

Deadwood Vine! An inferior, defective Soul Beast far beneath even Ten-Year Solitary Bamboo!

Yu Xiaogang hurried over to the Deadwood Vine and stared at its white glow, so faint it was nearly extinguished.

After a brief struggle, ruthless obsession took over his eyes. He turned back to Tang San and struck a grave, inscrutable pose. "Xiao San!! I've found your chance to turn this around!!"

Tang San forced his eyes open and followed Yu Xiaogang's pointing finger. When he saw the shriveled, yellow ten-year Deadwood Vine, his heart sank.

"Teacher... that's... a ten-year Deadwood Vine?" His voice wavered.

Ten years! No poison, no toughness—just a Deadwood Vine on the verge of dying! If he added its Soul Ring to his Blue Silver Grass, his Martial Soul would not evolve at all. He would become a laughingstock at the very bottom of the Soul Master World! It was the difference between clouds and mud compared with the path he had planned: a pinnacle control-type Martial Soul combining deadly poison, toughness, and binding power!

Yu Xiaogang's expression turned solemn. He crouched and gripped Tang San's shoulders, launching into an earnest lecture:

"Xiao San! You're too caught up in appearances! What have I always taught you? The quality of a Martial Soul depends entirely on how its Soul Master uses it! When it comes to Soul Rings, you must never reach beyond your grasp!"

He pressed on. "The Mandala Snake is a beast, full of deadly poison and violent malice. Forcing its ring onto the plant-type Blue Silver Grass was risky to begin with! This Deadwood Vine may be young, but it comes from the same plant lineage as your Martial Soul! Your meridians are badly damaged, and your bones are shattered. Absorbing an older Soul Ring would only pile snow upon frost! The Deadwood Vine's gentle nature will guide the world's Soul Power through you with the least strain, cleansing your marrow and strengthening your core! True mastery needs no embellishment; dead wood blooms again! Break through the first stage with the purest plant essence, lay a flawless foundation, and when you absorb your second and third Soul Rings, all you've stored up will burst forth!"

Seeing Tang San unmoved, he urged him on. "Xiao San, your life is at stake! To preserve the foundation of your Martial Soul—and prove our theory to everyone one day—absorb it! It's your only way to survive!"

As Tang San listened to Yu Xiaogang's high-sounding excuses and shameless distortion of the truth, his killing intent nearly erupted from him!!

To hell with dead wood blooming again! To hell with storing up strength for later!

A white ten-year Soul Ring was worthless—a disgrace to any Soul Master with a shred of dignity!!

But the raging poison and rebounding Internal Power inside him had struck his heart meridians. His vision was already darkening.

Absorb it, and he had a slim chance to survive. His Second Martial Soul, the Clear Sky Hammer, could make up for it someday.

Refuse, and he would die in this wilderness today!!

"All right... I'll... do as you say, Teacher..."

Tang San forced each word through his teeth, steeped in humiliation and hatred.

Yu Xiaogang was overjoyed. He drew the short blade he carried, hurried over, and severed the dying Deadwood Vine's root with one stroke.

Hum...

A dim, faint ring of light slowly rose from the dead root.

Its glow was weak as a guttering candle. The energy it emitted was nothing compared with the gust raised by one casual step from Su Chen.

Yu Xiaogang drew the white ring over to Tang San and urged him, "Quick! Clear your mind and channel your Soul Power to draw it in!"

Tang San closed his eyes and struggled to raise a hand. Circulating a faint thread of the Mysterious Heaven Skill, he pulled the deathly white Ten-Year Soul Ring above his head.

Crack...

A muffled snap sounded within him, like a chain breaking. The weak outside force finally forced open the bottleneck of the Mysterious Heaven Skill's first stage, and his Soul Power struggled up to the threshold of level eleven.

Tang San slowly opened his eyes and spread his left palm. The deep-blue Blue Silver Grass growing there had been fragile but full of life. Now ugly yellow-brown streaks marred it, and the edges of its leaves had shriveled and curled like dried grass!

A Ten-Year Soul Ring pulsed beneath his feet, giving off a pitiful white glow!

White! The lowest-grade, most worthless ten-year white ring in the history of Douluo Continent!

"Good! Good! You did it! Xiao San, you've become a Soul Master!" Yu Xiaogang hid his embarrassment at the sight of the white ring and clapped in praise. "Its color may fall a little short, but your injuries have stabilized. It proves the truth of my theory that plants of the same lineage can nourish each other!!"

Tang San lowered his head and stared at the yellowed, fragile Blue Silver Grass in his palm.

Humiliation! Humiliation enough to drown the heavens!

Su Chen strode beneath twin purple thousand-year rings, ruling the world like a god descended from the ninth heaven.

Yet Tang San, who had lived two lives and considered himself a favored son of heaven, had fallen so low that he had absorbed a ten-year white ring and refined his Martial Soul into dead grass!

Su Chen... Yu Xiaogang...

Tang San's eyes burned red, and his chest heaved. The one who stole my opportunity deserves to die!! The one who ruined my path and treated me like a pawn deserves it even more!

Just wait... Once I've mastered Hidden Weapons and awakened the Clear Sky Hammer, I'll tear out your tendons, break your bones, and hack you to pieces. I'll make you pay for destroying my path and foundation today!

"Teacher..." Tang San withdrew his Martial Soul and put on a weak, obedient expression. "My injuries are no longer serious... Let's... return to Nuoding City."

"Good! Let's head back!" Yu Xiaogang breathed a sigh of relief and hurried to help Tang San, whose arm was broken, to his feet.

In the cold, damp forest, master and disciple each harbored their own schemes. Trailing their battered bodies through mud, blood, and fallen leaves, they stumbled toward the exit of the Soul Hunting Forest.