A Fight Was Not Out of the Question

Nana genuinely thought she had done something wrong. Startled, she hurriedly apologized, even bending at the waist.

"I'm sorry!"

"I'm not doubting you, I just... I just..."

She stammered, but no matter how hard she tried, she could not get the rest out.

Because she had no idea what to say.

After all, deep down, she felt there was nothing wrong with her reasoning.

Xiao Hongchen really had been beaten that badly, Meng Hongchen really had been lying, and the man before her really did not look like a good-for-nothing.

Every link in her reasoning held up.

Yet why, after Xu Tianyuan put it that way...

Did she feel like she had become the unreasonable one instead?

Nana's CPU overloaded on the spot.

"Ah!"

Watching Nana flounder helplessly, Xu Tianyuan suddenly found teasing kids rather entertaining.

He continued sighing, his voice carrying an indescribable loneliness.

"The affection has faded, scattered, vanished."

"I was always a notoriously useless loser. Even if I offer my heart in earnest, no one will ever truly accept me."

"Let's just leave it at that."

Xu Tianyuan put on a despondent expression, as though all his vitality had been drained in an instant.

He bent deeply at the waist, his entire bearing changing from lively and energetic to a walking corpse in just two seconds.

Then he turned and left.

His retreating figure was forlorn, his steps heavy, each footfall planted firmly.

Nana's mind went blank.

She could not understand.

She could not make sense of it.

How had things ended up like this?

She had only asked a question. How had that turned into her hurting him?

Only after Xu Tianyuan's figure disappeared completely from view did Nana come back to her senses.

At that moment, she felt as though she had committed a monstrous sin.

The sky had come crashing down.

Villa 007.

In a wonderful mood, Xu Tianyuan hummed a little tune as he pushed open the courtyard gate.

Honestly, he gave his performance just now a ninety-five.

The remaining five points were deducted for Nana's reaction. If she had fallen apart just a little more, it would have been perfect.

First a shower, then bed.

The moment Xu Tianyuan's head touched the pillow, he fell into a deep sleep.

He even had a lovely dream along the way.

In his dream, he sat on a pile of Gold Soul Coins, basking in the sun. The sun was absurdly huge and brilliantly golden, bathing his whole body in comfort as his soul power shot upward.

Beside him, someone who looked like Xiao Hongchen knelt on the ground and massaged his legs, calling out "Lord Xu Tianyuan" as he worked.

By the time he woke from his lovely dream, daylight had arrived.

The days that followed settled into a regular routine.

Every day, Xu Tianyuan slept until sunrise, then went into the courtyard to bask in the sun.

For breakfast, he ate soy milk and fried dough sticks bought the day before. At noon, he went to the dining hall, spent the afternoon sunbathing again, and returned to the dining hall at night.

As for finding someone to cook for him, he had considered it.

But basking in the sun felt so good.

That sensation was difficult to describe.

Warm light fell on his skin, as though something were slipping into his body through his pores, circulating through every limb and bone before gathering in his dantian and becoming strands of pure soul power.

The increase in strength left him unable to stop.

He was so lazy he did not want to move at all.

And so, the matter of finding a cook was put on hold.

Just like that, three months quietly passed.

During that time, Xu Tianyuan did not attend a single class.

Every day, he simply repeated the same three things: sunbathing, eating, and sleeping.

Almost no one ever came to disturb him.

The academy was peaceful too. Students attended their classes and trained as usual. Occasionally, two or three students passed Villa 007 and peeked over the courtyard wall, catching sight of the legendary useless prince sprawled on a recliner, basking in the sun.

All in all, life was very comfortable.

The only major event was probably the approaching Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Tournament.

Apparently, in a few more days, the academy would send someone to lead its team to Star Luo City.

But Xu Tianyuan did not give it a second thought.

After all, tournaments or whatever seemed to have absolutely nothing to do with him.

He would rather bask in the sun.

It was not as though nothing at all happened during those three months.

Ju Zi visited twice.

Each time, she stood outside the courtyard gate, not daring to enter, her head lowered and her voice hushed, looking like a thief.

On her first visit, she reported that she had already repeated his words to Xu Tianran.

"I told him you mocked him for having crippled legs, being impotent, and being unable to father a son."

After hearing that, Xu Tianyuan laughed on his recliner, slapping his thigh.

"Well done."

Ju Zi looked up at him then, her gaze complicated. In the end, she said nothing and turned to run away.

On her second visit, Ju Zi brought news.

Xu Tianran had sent men to intercept him, figuring he would sooner or later go out to seek other pleasures. But when he never showed up, Xu Tianran flew into a rage.

After hearing that, Xu Tianyuan's smile deepened.

"Then let him keep sending people to watch."

After Ju Zi left, Xu Tianyuan lay on his recliner, gazing at the blue sky and marking that debt down in his heart once again.

Aside from Ju Zi, Ke Ke also visited once.

The green-haired girl stood outside the courtyard wall and shouted loudly enough for half the villa district to hear.

"Ju Zi! Are you in there? You haven't come back to the dorm for three days! Did that perverted prince kidnap you? Did you get beaten again?"

Xu Tianyuan was in the middle of sunbathing and nearly rolled off his recliner at her shout.

He answered from behind the courtyard wall.

"No, she's busy."

"Busy with what?"

"Busy playing games."

Ke Ke fell silent outside the courtyard for three seconds, then let out an earth-shattering shriek and bolted.

Lying on his recliner, Xu Tianyuan blinked blankly.

What was that about?

Little girl, your thoughts are dangerously off track.

As for Jing Hongchen, the dean had also come by once, though he kept his distance.

It was a bright, sunny afternoon. Xu Tianyuan was growing drowsy in the sunlight when he suddenly felt someone's gaze settle on him.

He squinted over and saw Jing Hongchen standing outside the courtyard gate with his hands behind his back, his expression somewhere between frustration and pent-up resentment.

The two stared at each other across the courtyard wall for three seconds.

Jing Hongchen said nothing, then turned and left.

After that, the voices grumbling about him at the academy gradually dwindled.

As for the results of all that sunbathing...

They were so good that Xu Tianyuan could only laugh.

On the first day, level thirty-three.

On the seventh day, level thirty-five.

By the end of the first month, Xu Tianyuan's soul power level had firmly reached thirty-eight.

Halfway through the second month, he reached the level-forty bottleneck.

At noon that day, with the sun directly overhead, Xu Tianyuan lay on his recliner and suddenly felt the soul power in his dantian surge, as though something had been forced open.

Immediately afterward, a Soul Ring slowly rose from beneath his feet.

His fourth Soul Ring.

The Soul Ring was such a deep purple that it was almost black.

Xu Tianyuan opened his eyes and stared at the Soul Ring for a long while, marveling inwardly.

Condensing Soul Rings by sunbathing really was the current meta.

When other people reached level forty, they thanked heaven and earth if they could find a fourth Soul Ring two or three thousand years old.

His, on the other hand, was practically black with purple, its age absurdly high. If word got out, it would infuriate a whole crowd of Soul Masters to death.

After condensing his fourth Soul Ring, he continued sunbathing.

In the third month, level forty-seven.

In just three months, he had risen from level thirty-two to level forty-seven, a full fifteen levels.

And that was only his level.

In terms of soul power purity, Xu Tianyuan far surpassed every Soul Master of the same rank.

Others painstakingly ground out their soul power bit by bit through meditation. His had been tempered again and again by Sunshine, every strand carrying the scorching Power of the Sun, its purity and density outrageously high.

Even compared with an ordinary Soul Emperor, his total soul power and its purity were no inferior.

With that as his foundation, plus the enhancement from the Pride Sin Template and the sunlight shining on him, Xu Tianyuan felt he could even trade blows with a Soul Douluo.

At high noon, even a fight against a Titled Douluo was not out of the question.

Of course, that was only his own impression.

He had never put it to the test.