That's it! It all fits! Every last piece fits!

"Ah, yes, yes."

"Now it makes sense! That's it! This is the only way it makes sense!"

"If that's the case! If that's the case! Then wouldn't I... wouldn't I..."

Yu Xiaogang stared at Ye Wuhen with burning eyes, as though possessed.

At that moment, there was only one thought in his mind:

He would raise a god!

But Yu Xiaogang soon realized he had lost his composure. After all, Ye Wuhen had not formally accepted him as his master yet. He couldn't rush things.

"Ahem... as a rule, a Blue Silver Grass martial soul cannot possess soul power without a second martial soul."

Yu Xiaogang clasped his hands behind his back and explained in as calm a tone as he could manage.

"But Ye Wuhen very clearly has a god's gaze upon him, which makes this an entirely different situation."

"Just as Xie Guhong obtained six Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings through the Sea God, Ye Wuhen must also have received a blessing through that unknown god."

The more he spoke, the more pleasure rippled through Yu Xiaogang's cerebral cortex, as though he had opened the gates to truth.

"Ye Wuhen's Blue Silver Grass has turned green, and so have his soul rings. These unprecedented distinctions all highlight the traces that god has left upon him."

"As for that garden dream?"

"It might well be that god's divine kingdom, merely appearing in the form of a dream."

It fits! Every last piece fits!

Why did Blue Silver Grass possess soul power?

A god did it.

Why had Ye Wuhen's Blue Silver Grass, his hair, and even his soul rings turned green?

A god did it.

Why could Xie Guhong possess six Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings?

A god did it.

Why could his future self resolve Luo Sanpao's martial soul defect?

A god did it.

Yu Xiaogang kept running through deductions in his mind, heaping everything he could not understand onto the god.

Even his own imagined future resolution of his martial soul defect was attributed to the god behind Ye Wuhen.

Ye Wuhen had appeared at Nuoding Academy because he was destined to become the disciple of this peerless master of theory!

His future self in the Celestial Screen must have discerned the existence of the god behind Ye Wuhen, just as he had now.

And as he continued teaching Ye Wuhen in the future...

He, Yu Xiaogang, had earned that unknown god's appreciation through his own talents, and thus received a miracle!

Then, naturally, he had resolved his martial soul defect, become one of the strongest, and helped Yu Tiansheng resolve his martial soul defect along the way.

It fit!

It all fit!

This was why Yu Tiansheng qualified to appear in the Celestial Screen!

This was also why his own talents had failed to resolve his martial soul defect for nearly fifty years. It simply wasn't something a human could resolve!

Ye Wuhen was the worthy disciple foretold in his dreams!!

"Hehe... hehehe!"

"...Tang San, is your teacher... sick in the head?!"

Looking at the drool at the corner of the "Grandmaster's" mouth, Ye Wuhen tugged at the hem of Tang San's clothes beside him, his voice carrying a little more fear.

"...Teacher is just too excited."

Tang San looked at Ye Wuhen, a little more inexplicable complexity entering his voice as well.

When they first met, Ye Wuhen had acted indifferent, giving the impression of someone cold and aloof.

But Tang San was, after all, an adult with thirty or forty years of experience.

After several invitations and their walk to his teacher's office just now, Tang San understood.

Ye Wuhen wasn't cold and aloof at all, merely a socially anxious six-year-old child.

His supposed aloofness was only a protective shell for someone who barely dared to speak to strangers.

But... why?

They both had Blue Silver Grass martial souls, and they were both children from mountain villages.

Tang San not only had an additional Clear Sky Hammer martial soul, but had also been born with innate full soul power and possessed the Tang Sect Secret Arts.

Why was Ye Wuhen the one who had earned a god's favor?

Was he really inferior to this orphan from a mountain village?!

An indescribable emotion flickered through Tang San's eyes, but he quickly concealed it.

Ye Wuhen was, after all, someone favored by a god. There was no benefit in antagonizing him. Better to get along with him; after all, Tang San would still be his senior disciple brother in the future.

"By the way, Wuhen," Tang San asked, as though something had occurred to him, "you weren't coming back to the dorm before, and you kept staying in the woods."

"I made a special trip into the woods to find you, too. Why didn't I see you? What were you doing?"

"Uh... dreaming."

Ye Wuhen was a little embarrassed. Being so absorbed in dreams didn't seem very good, especially since the excuse he had given the academy was that he was using the woods to cultivate.

"The green garden is lots of fun, and Grandfather really welcomes me visiting him often."

"As for why you couldn't find me, my Blue Silver Grass was probably protecting me. After all, Grandfather said he didn't want to see me get hurt."

"Oh, right. Grandfather is the kindly old man I mentioned. He prefers me calling him that."

He made the Blue Silver Grass protect Ye Wuhen simply because he didn't want him hurt?

Tang San fell silent once more.

This Grandfather really did seem to be very loving toward Ye Wuhen...

"Just as I thought, Ye Wuhen. You are someone beloved by a god."

Yu Xiaogang sighed with feeling, without forgetting the most important matter.

"With a god's love, cultivating with Blue Silver Grass is no longer impossible."

"But..." Yu Xiaogang's voice suddenly became exceedingly gentle. "But even someone beloved by a god cannot become a qualified god... ahem, successor, without a good teacher's guidance."

"And though I am no great talent, I have studied martial soul theory extensively. My 'martial soul ten core competitiveness theories' are renowned throughout the world. Surely that qualifies me to teach a genius like you."

"..."

Though Ye Wuhen was only six, however foolish he might be, he had more or less understood what Yu Xiaogang wanted.

"So after all that, Grandmaster, you want to be my teacher? But I'm a student at Nuoding Academy. Aren't you already my teacher?"

"Hehe, I am not a teacher at Nuoding Academy. Those mediocrities outside aren't qualified to receive my instruction, unless..."

"You truly want me to be your teacher!"

Yu Xiaogang had originally intended to be a little modest and use the same spiel he had given Tang San.

But looking into Ye Wuhen's somewhat innocent emerald eyes, he really feared the child would take him for someone who was "freeloading."

"Uh..."

Ye Wuhen looked hesitant. He felt that the man before him was a creep, but he had no proof.

Still, it seemed that unless he called him Teacher, getting away today might be difficult.

"But... I refuse!"

Between being pestered and merely calling him Teacher, Ye Wuhen decisively chose a third option.

All he wanted now was to get away from this pair of lunatics, master and disciple.

What a waste of time. He would have been better off going to the garden. He wasn't playing with Tang San next time.

"Good! Huh?!"

"You refuse?!" Yu Xiaogang, who had been about to clap in delight, froze. As though suspecting he had misheard, he asked again.

"I am a master of theory. No one is better suited to teaching you and Tang San than I am, and you're actually refusing?"

"..."

Ye Wuhen said nothing. His emerald eyes swept Yu Xiaogang from head to toe before he gave a ringing reply:

"I don't want to. You're too much of a creep."

"If Grandfather and the spirits in the garden found out my teacher was someone like you, I might get laughed at."

"You... would get laughed at? I!"

Yu Xiaogang's face flushed scarlet. Though it had reddened several times already, this time it was pure fury-commonly called overheating.

But he did not dare curse aloud, or even criticize Ye Wuhen. A god's power was absolute.

From Ye Wuhen's description alone, he could tell how deeply the god behind him loved him.

"Pfft!"

An unnatural flush spread across Yu Xiaogang's face. After the rush of his fantasies about the future, Ye Wuhen had abruptly mocked him with "creep" and "laughed at."

Plunging from great joy into great sorrow, Yu Xiaogang spat out a mouthful of blood. His eyes rolled back, and he collapsed onto the floor.

(P.S. I still somewhat underestimated the Grandmaster's reputation. At readers' request, I've revised Ye Wuhen's storyline.)