When Tang Mo and Hu Liena arrived at the classroom, the Soul Saint responsible for teaching was already inside, resting with his eyes closed.
"You must be Tang Mo, my new student. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Li Songnian, a level seventy-four Support System Battle Soul Master. My Martial Soul is the Healing Jewel." After introducing himself to Tang Mo, Li Songnian looked him up and down.
The name of Li Songnian's Martial Soul alone made its considerable healing abilities clear. The experience he had accumulated over many years of using healing skills on Soul Masters told him that Tang Mo was far from ordinary.
If Soul Masters were seen as gusts of wind, the Power Attack System was like a gale, brimming with explosive force.
The Agility Attack System was like a swift wind, possessing both speed and destructive power.
The Control System was like an ever-changing wind, sometimes fast and sometimes slow, sometimes strong and sometimes weak.
The Support System was a perfectly temperate spring breeze that made people feel warm.
The Food System was a wind carrying the aroma of food, unconsciously settling people's hearts like the warmth of home.
The Defense System was a wall formed from wind, carrying a powerful sense of weight and solidity.
To Li Songnian, Tang Mo's aura fell entirely outside the scope of the six systems of Soul Masters. He felt that Tang Mo was an active volcano that could erupt at any moment, yet on the surface, he appeared utterly still, like an extinct volcano that would never erupt.
"Hello, Teacher Li." Tang Mo simply nodded to Li Songnian before introducing himself. "Your student, Tang Mo. Martial Soul: Tang Sect Grandmaster. Level twenty Quasi-Soul Grandmaster. As for which system I belong to, I don't know either."
Li Songnian was not displeased by Tang Mo's somewhat casual attitude. He even felt that Tang Mo was being excessively modest.
When Xie Yue and Yan had first met him, they had been terribly arrogant. Had he not given them a beating, the two probably would never have behaved themselves in his classroom.
Although his Martial Soul possessed only healing abilities, he was still a Soul Saint, after all. Bolstered by his level seventy-four Soul Power, his strength was terrifying. Two little brats who had only recently become Soul Masters could not withstand his brutal beating at all.
As for Hu Liena? Although she had displayed no arrogance, Li Songnian could tell that her fanning the flames had played a part in the eruption of Xie Yue's and Yan's discontent.
To put it plainly, Hu Liena had completely hoodwinked Yan, sending him straight into a frenzy of provocation against an unbeatable opponent.
As for why Xie Yue, her own older brother, had fallen for it too? One could only say that without risking a child, one could not catch a wolf. To hoodwink Yan, she had to hoodwink Xie Yue as well.
Watching the perfectly courteous Tang Mo, Li Songnian realized that it was not that the boy lacked arrogance, but that his arrogance had gone too far.
He had not needed to arrive so early. He had come ahead of time only because he feared his new student would be another troublemaker and wanted to test Tang Mo's mettle.
If Tang Mo proved just as arrogant, he would not mind letting him experience the brutal beating his seniors had endured in the past.
Although not having to discipline Tang Mo left Li Songnian feeling relieved, he also realized that Tang Mo was being so courteous because the boy felt no need to put on airs with him.
This mindset was more like a superior's tolerance toward a subordinate. Simply put, it was not being ashamed to ask those beneath him, rather than humbly seeking instruction.
While Hu Liena remained utterly bewildered, a contest between teacher and student quietly came to an end.
Without realizing it, Li Songnian had accepted as fact that he occupied the lower position when facing Tang Mo. Not only had his attempt to establish his authority over Tang Mo failed, it had instead put him on the back foot.
The two-pronged approach of beatings and intimidation, which had worked every time on Hu Liena and the other two, had accomplished nothing with Tang Mo.
"Your two seniors haven't arrived yet, so I won't begin the lesson for now. Go review the material first." As Li Songnian spoke, he raised a hand and pointed at a nearby stack of teaching materials taller than a person.
There were no fewer than four such stacks in the classroom. Clearly, everyone who studied here had to read through a person-high stack of material.
Tang Mo walked up to a stack of brand-new materials and briefly leafed through them, one volume after another, from top to bottom.
The benefits of his resilient soul were fully apparent at that moment. Although he could not remember everything at a glance, reading through the material once was enough for him to retain its general contents.
Soon, he had gone through all the material before him and formed a rough guess about Li Songnian's teaching plan.
The person-high stack of material looked substantial, but it was only enough to give a Soul Master a rough understanding of the Soul Master World.
The material could be divided into four categories:
First, Common Soul Beast Data.
Second, Optimal Soul Ring Allocation for Soul Masters.
Third, Major Historical Events of the Soul Master World and its general framework.
Fourth, an overview of Martial Soul development for the six systems of Soul Masters.
Anyone who thoroughly digested all the material before him could shed the status of a novice in the Soul Master World. Their store of knowledge would even surpass that of most Soul Hunting team members who licked blood from the edges of their blades.
But this material could, at most, lay a foundation. In particular, it offered only a general scope for Martial Soul development.
Truly valuable material required a separate application before it could be accessed through Spirit Hall.
Taking Hu Liena as an example, both the methods for developing mental-type Martial Souls and the information on mental-type Soul Beasts had been collected through countless hardships by generations of Spirit Hall members.
In a sense, had Yu Xiaogang not established a connection with Bibi Dong, he could never have proposed his so-called Ten Great Martial Soul Core Competition Theory.
Aside from Spirit Hall's material, the information most readily accessible to him came from the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect. However, that material had its limitations. It mainly discussed development paths for the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Martial Soul and information on Soul Beasts suitable for use as Soul Rings.
In other words, if he had doggedly pored over the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect's material, he could only have ended up writing a Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Development Guide.
At this thought, Tang Mo's contempt for Yu Xiaogang deepened a little further.
Seeing Tang Mo flip through the material at such incredible speed, Li Songnian frowned slightly.
Besides being a Support System Soul Master, he was also a scholar, and he held this material in considerable reverence and cherished it.
Seeing Tang Mo show not the slightest reverence for it, he instinctively wanted to interrupt him.
But because he had lost the upper hand in their earlier contest as teacher and student, he could hardly criticize Tang Mo's behavior.
"Rustle, rustle, rustle..."
The sound of Tang Mo turning pages rang continuously through the palace serving as their classroom, making Li Songnian frown and bringing a different glint to Hu Liena's eyes.
Li Songnian would never have shown such patience with Hu Liena and the other two. In her eyes, Tang Mo's ability to leave Li Songnian dissatisfied yet afraid to show it to his face amounted to accomplishing what others could not.
Accomplishing what others could not was enough in itself to inspire admiration. Combined with the frustration Tang Mo had dealt Hu Liena earlier, it was enough for him to leave a bold, vivid impression in her heart.
Noticing the change in their gazes, Tang Mo acted as though he had seen nothing and continued leafing through the books on his own.
Just as he finished the last piece of material, Xie Yue and Yan approached from the distance and finally stepped into the classroom.
"Teacher Li."
The two cupped their fists in salute to Li Songnian, their expressions quite respectful.
Clearly, Li Songnian had long since won them over, and they were willing to regard him as a true teacher. To them, Li Songnian was their superior.
Li Songnian nodded slightly, signaling for them to take their respective places.
Yan walked to a spot diagonally in front of Hu Liena and stopped. Then he instinctively glanced at her. That single glance was enough to bring anger into his eyes.
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