"I've heard one of your Soul Master theories: there are no useless martial souls, only useless Soul Masters."
"You say your martial soul held you back, but didn't you say there are no useless martial souls? So weren't you actually calling yourself useless?"
Gu Ping'an looked at Yu Xiaogang with puzzled, questioning eyes, wanting to see how he would answer.
"Hmph!"
"Boy, martial souls differ from one another. Don't you know that some people have greater talent than others?"
"..."
Gu Ping'an, Dugu Yan, and the others were all speechless.
Wasn't that just stating the obvious?
And was he saying his martial soul was useless, or that he himself was useless?
Knowing Yu Xiaogang's personality, he was definitely talking about Luo Sanpao!
"Really? So is your martial soul useless, or are you?"
Gu Ping'an went straight to the heart of the contradiction.
Veins bulged on Yu Xiaogang's forehead. His eyes turned bloodshot, and he panted like an ox as he fixed Gu Ping'an with a murderous stare.
He couldn't break through to rank thirty.
If he said his martial soul was useless, that meant his martial soul theory was wrong.
No matter what, he couldn't admit that the martial soul theory he had painstakingly researched was wrong.
Say that he himself was useless?
His pride and self-respect would never allow him to admit he was useless.
"Teacher, who are they?"
Just then, a low voice that still carried a hint of childishness sounded behind Yu Xiaogang.
Tang San!
Gu Ping'an looked toward the voice and saw two children, a boy and a girl, walking shoulder to shoulder behind Yu Xiaogang.
Tang San brought the little girl to Yu Xiaogang's side and swept a somewhat cold gaze over Gu Ping'an and the others.
"Tang San, long time no see!"
Gu Ping'an greeted him with a smile.
"You're..." Tang San frowned. He didn't recognize the person before him.
"Looks like you've forgotten!"
A stalk of silvery-white blue silver grass appeared in Gu Ping'an's palm. This was its original appearance when he had awakened his martial soul.
"You're... Gu Ping'an."
They had awakened their martial souls at the same time. Their blue silver grass had been identical except for its color, and both had possessed innate full soul power.
Tang San couldn't have forgotten him even if he wanted to.
"You're that child from over a year ago!" Yu Xiaogang stared at Gu Ping'an, curiosity and fervor almost spilling from his eyes.
Blue silver grass, innate full soul power.
Twin martial souls, just like Tang San.
Once he exposed the secret of the boy's twin martial souls, he would surely bow and accept him as his teacher, just as Xiao San had.
Then both his disciples would have twin martial souls. Once they became Titled Douluos, who would dare call him useless?
His only regret was that he hadn't found him over a year ago.
Now he couldn't have the boy absorb a Mandala Snake for his first soul ring.
"Tang San, it looks like you've been slacking off this past year or so!"
Gu Ping'an stared at the top of Tang San's head and shook his own regretfully.
Absorbing soul rings accelerated physical development.
He was a Soul Ancestor who had absorbed four soul rings, while Tang San was merely a Soul Master somewhere in the teens.
In terms of height alone, he stood a head taller than Tang San.
Yu Xiaogang's stiff expression gradually darkened, as though water might drip from it.
As Yu Yuanzhen's grandson, he had seen plenty of children who were the same age yet differed greatly in height.
Take his own childhood in the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect, for instance. Every child around him had been taller than him.
Back then, his soul power hadn't been his only source of inferiority. His short stature had been one too.
"Gu Ping'an, was it?"
Yu Xiaogang spoke in a commanding tone. "Tell me what rank you are now!"
"Me? I just trained casually and already broke through rank thirty!"
Gu Ping'an looked casual, even a little lazy, as though he truly had broken through rank thirty with hardly any effort.
"Impossible!"
"Unless you..."
Before he could finish, four soul rings rose from beneath Gu Ping'an's feet: yellow, purple, purple, purple.
According to his calculations, once Tang San absorbed the soul bone he had prepared, a thousand-year second ring wouldn't be a problem.
"This... is impossible!"
"Absolutely impossible!"
"How could you be a Soul Ancestor?"
"The maximum age for a second ring is 764 years! It's fake! This is definitely fake!"
Yu Xiaogang looked utterly shattered and clutched his head with both hands.
Muttering about how it was impossible, he staggered backward until he disappeared from everyone's sight.
"..."
"Tang San, what's wrong with your teacher?"
Gu Ping'an turned innocently toward Tang San.
"I..."
Tang San badly wanted to stay and ask how the other boy had cultivated so quickly, but the thought of Yu Xiaogang made him suppress the urge.
"I'll go check on my teacher first."
He immediately ran in the direction Yu Xiaogang had left.
The little girl who had come with him called out and followed.
"Why did that Yu Xiaogang run away?" Shui Bing'er couldn't quite understand.
Gu Ping'an had only displayed his soul rings-and a weakened version of them at that-yet the man seemed to have fallen apart.
"He just couldn't accept it!
"Tang San is his disciple. Like me, he has blue silver grass and innate full soul power, yet my cultivation far exceeds his. Doesn't that prove his teacher is no good?
"A purple second ring breaks his supposedly optimal second-ring limit of 764 years, proving his martial soul theory wrong."
Still, even Gu Ping'an hadn't expected Yu Xiaogang to be this fragile.
He had merely seen the number and colors of his soul rings, yet he had broken down and run away.
Thinking about Yu Xiaogang's life, he seemed to have spent it running away.
Running away from the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect!
Running away from Spirit City!
Running away from his wedding to Liu Erlong!
It seemed understandable that he couldn't accept it right away.
"Let's go! That's enough for today!"
He would wager that neither Yu Xiaogang nor Tang San felt calm right now. They would definitely come looking for him later.
Things went just as he had imagined.
By now, Yu Xiaogang had run back to his room and slumped onto the floor, constantly muttering that it was impossible.
Books lay scattered all around him, rummaged through and left in disarray. Who knew where he had collected them?
Tang San's mind was filled with the sight of Gu Ping'an revealing his martial soul and soul rings.
Yellow, purple, purple, purple-the colors were branded into his heart.
Why could Gu Ping'an absorb a thousand-year second ring?
Why did he cultivate so much faster than him?
If he could get his hands on the method...
Could he do it too?
"Teacher, are you all right?"
Upon entering Yu Xiaogang's room, Tang San immediately approached him with concern.
Behind him, the little girl who had followed him all the way glanced around the room and quickly looked away, intense disgust and contempt flashing through her eyes.
"Brother San, is Grandmaster all right?"
"Xiao San, trust your teacher. The maximum soul ring age is definitely around 764 years."
Yu Xiaogang grabbed Tang San's shoulders with both hands, his expression certain.
"That boy called Gu Ping'an is already ruined."
"Increasing soul power is a gradual process. For him to become a Soul Ancestor in just over a year, he must have taken large quantities of forbidden drugs."
"He may look impressive now, but he'll never break through to Soul King in his lifetime."
"No, he doesn't have a lifetime left. Forbidden drugs drastically diminish life force. Even living another few years would be more than he could hope for."
"Teacher, then why is his second ring a thousand-year soul ring?" Tang San asked.
As for why Gu Ping'an had cultivated so quickly, he felt Yu Xiaogang's analysis was entirely correct.
Yu Xiaogang had simply thought of it before he did.
In his previous life, the Tang Sect had possessed some forbidden drugs as well.
Their effects varied.
Taking them could greatly increase one's strength in a short time, but would also severely shorten one's lifespan, leaving three to five years at most, or as little as a day or two, even less than an hour.
Gu Ping'an had no idea that Yu Xiaogang and Tang San had already sentenced him to death, convinced that he wouldn't live more than a few years.
"Xiao San, he's going to die anyway.
"You're from the same hometown. Take the opportunity to ask him how he absorbed soul rings beyond the age limit.
"That would count as a contribution to the Soul Master World."
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