Care to Bet?

"Fine!"

"If you win, I'll apologize to you in front of everyone and admit I'm inferior to you."

"If you lose, I won't ask for anything else. Just give me that soul bone."

Yu Xiaogang agreed on the spot.

He simply couldn't imagine any way Yang Jian could possibly beat him.

As long as the wager went through, even if Flender stopped him in the end and he couldn't bait Yang Jian to his death, he could still blunt the boy's edge and regain some dignity.

More importantly, he could win that soul bone from the Three-Headed Flood Dragon Wolf King.

"So that's why you dared to bet with me. You had your eye on my soul bone."

Yang Jian sneered.

"Heh, isn't that the truth?"

"So the supposedly renowned Grandmaster is nothing but a petty coward who clings to life and covets other people's soul bones."

"When I get home, I'll make sure my dad spreads the word about all your glorious deeds, oh great Grandmaster!"

Ning Rongrong folded her arms and mocked him.

Dai Mubai's opinion of Yu Xiaogang sank even further. "Grandmaster, this really isn't something a grandmaster ought to do."

"A wager means accepting defeat if you lose. How is that beneath a grandmaster?"

Tang San, who had remained silent all this time, spoke up as well. "If you're scared, just refuse. Why waste so many words?"

"If you think the stakes are unequal, you can change them. Isn't that only reasonable?"

Hearing Tang San's twisted reasoning, so blatantly biased toward Yu Xiaogang, Dai Mubai and the others immediately looked angry.

"Enough! Quiet down, all of you!"

Seeing the atmosphere turn into drawn swords and strung bows, Flender had no choice but to interrupt.

Who didn't know that absorbing a soul ring beyond one's level-especially this far beyond it-meant certain death?

Provoking a child into doing something fatal just to scheme for the soul bone he'd worked so hard to obtain-was that something an elder should do?

But...

Yu Xiaogang was his former sworn brother, while Yang Jian was the successor he had the highest hopes for.

The palm and the back of the hand were both his own flesh.

He could only steer the conversation elsewhere.

"Yang Jian, be straight with me. Are you really planning to absorb this soul ring?"

"What else? Do you think I'm joking? I've told you eight hundred times: all my accumulated effort is finally bearing fruit. My talent hasn't dried up... Forget it, forget it. I can't explain it in a few words. You'll understand once I've absorbed it."

"Wait, Yang Jian!"

Flender saw that Yang Jian didn't seem to be joking in the slightest.

He grew serious too. "Absorbing a ten thousand year soul ring means resisting the soul beast soul impact. You know that. Since you dare to absorb it, you must be confident."

"But as your teacher and your elder, along with all these brothers and sisters beside you, I care about you. We all do."

"So can you tell me why you're confident you can absorb this soul ring?"

To keep Yang Jian from brushing him off, Flender promptly included everyone present in his appeal.

He even gave Ma Hongjun a pointed look.

After all, everyone knew Ma Hongjun was Yang Jian's loyal little follower.

The bond between them was, to some extent, stronger than Yang Jian's ties with the others at the academy.

"Yeah, boss. We all want to believe you can absorb this soul ring, but it really is a little too hard to believe."

Ma Hongjun spoke up.

"That's right, Brother Yang. We're all curious. For instance, weren't your soul rings yellow, purple, purple? How did they become purple, purple, black?"

"Is that some kind of trick you're using, or have your soul rings really improved?"

Ning Rongrong's question immediately drew everyone's attention.

Exactly.

This was one of the things they truly wanted to know.

If it was only a trick, she would have to stop him from absorbing this soul ring, even if it made him angry.

But if his soul rings' ages had genuinely increased...

Then she would have to ask him exactly how he'd done it.

Everyone in the soul master world knew that a soul ring's age and a soul master's soul power determined the strength of a soul skill.

Yet every soul master could only increase their soul power, not the ages of their soul rings.

Even a Titled Douluo's first soul skill could, at most, still only be a hundred-year skill.

But if there were some way to raise that first soul skill to a thousand years, or even ten thousand, a hundred thousand...

"What are you thinking?"

Before Ning Rongrong could lose herself in fantasies of the future, Yang Jian saw right through her and interrupted. "My soul rings really did improve, but it's not as mystical as you're imagining. I just got them by feeding Xiaotian."

"What else did you think?"

"That I have some mighty hand spanning heaven and earth, capable of controlling changes in soul rings?"

"That I'm the god in charge of soul rings on the Douluo Continent?"

Yang Jian smiled, deliberately steering the conversation away.

Of course he couldn't reveal the system's existence in front of everyone.

"Bullshit!"

"You're talking bullshit!"

"That's impossible! Stop spouting alarmist nonsense!"

"Aren't you just relying on your powerful spiritual strength and a simulation-type soul skill from your second martial soul to pull this off?"

"Even now, you're still trying to deceive everyone?!"

A second martial soul?

Yang Jian actually had a second martial soul?

Was that really true?

"Otherwise, how do you think someone with only half a level of innate soul power reached level forty and became a Quasi-Soul Ancestor at fifteen?"

Yu Xiaogang finished speaking.

Even Yang Jian froze for a moment.

Gangzi had actually stumbled onto the truth with his wild guesses. He really did have another martial soul.

Except it was a system reward he'd stolen with a "kiss," not some innate twin martial souls.

"But even with twin martial souls, you still can't absorb this soul ring. If you try, your body will explode and you'll die."

"I advise you not to throw your life away just because you're too embarrassed to back down!"

"Gangzi, are you ever going to shut up?" Yang Jian interrupted impatiently. "I accept your wager! If I win, you only have to tell the world that your so-called ten martial soul theories were all copied from the Spirit Hall Library and altered predecessors' theories, stolen for your own use."

What?!

How does he know I went to the Spirit Hall Library when I was young because of my connection to Bibi Dong?

I never had any real strength to begin with, and my martial soul is the most worthless kind of mutated martial soul. Without my reputation in martial soul theory, how am I supposed to get by in the soul master world?

This fucking bastard wants to ruin me!

Fine, fine, fine!

I'd been planning to let Little San inherit your soul bone after you died, then spread word of your genius and lament your untimely death.

But now, since you want to ruin me, I'll make sure you won't find peace even in death!

Yang Jian, oh, Yang Jian. Once you're dead, I'll destroy your reputation, whatever it takes!

"Are you betting or not? Stop wasting time. The soul ring's going to dissipate."

Yang Jian urged him on.

"Fine! I'll take the bet!"