Ye Wuchen could not help laughing aloud at the absurd exchange between father and son on the light screen.
"Master, what are you laughing at?" Shui Bing'er asked, puzzled.
"At Yu Xiaogang, that prancing clown." Ye Wuchen shook his head.
"The heavenly screen hasn't even given its assessment yet, and he's already borrowing the tiger's might to swagger like a fox, actually treating himself as the continent's First Master."
[Ye Wuchen]: Don't let yourselves be misled, everyone. The heavenly screen only said Yu Xiaogang would be reviewed first, not that he was the continent's First Master. Let's see its actual assessment of this "Grandmaster" before saying anything else.
Ye Wuchen's comment was like a basin of cold water, dousing Yu Xiaogang's newly kindled arrogance.
On Shrek Academy's training grounds, Yu Xiaogang stared at the unfamiliar name "Ye Wuchen," his face livid with rage.
[Yu Xiaogang]: Where did this ignorant clown come from! How could a frog at the bottom of a well like you question this Grandmaster's wisdom and theories? Since the heavenly screen chose to review me first, it must be because I am the best!
[Tang San]: Ye Wuchen, was it? Don't let me find out where you are. For daring to insult my teacher like this, you've already given yourself a reason to die!
In the Far North, Shui Bing'er's willow-leaf brows shot up.
She was just about to confront Yu Xiaogang and Tang San when Ye Wuchen stopped her.
"Bing'er, don't get angry over prancing clowns. Keep watching the heavenly screen's review."
[Subject of review: Yu Xiaogang] [Age: 52] [Background: Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan] [Martial Soul: Luo Sanpao (mutated martial soul)] [Soul power level: Level 29 Soul Grandmaster]
Most Soul Masters had heard this basic information before, so it caused little stir.
But immediately afterward, the scene on the heavenly screen changed, revealing an exceptionally clear recording.
In it was a fair-skinned, plump little boy of only six.
He stood in the center of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan's awakening array, his face full of anticipation as he awaited his martial soul awakening.
This was Yu Xiaogang at six years old.
As the awakening ceremony proceeded, none of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan's signature lightning appeared around Yu Xiaogang.
A strange creature that looked part pig, part dog, its entire body giving off a foul smell, appeared at his feet.
Innate soul power: Half a level. Martial soul: Luo Sanpao.
At this sight, everyone on the light screen burst into laughter.
[Yu Xiaogang's martial soul mutated during its awakening. This should have been a rare beneficial mutation, with an extremely high chance of evolving directly from the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon into the legendary Golden Sacred Dragon!] [However, Yu Xiaogang had been gluttonous, lazy, and pleasure-seeking since childhood, neglecting physical training. As a result, his frail body could not withstand the immense bloodline power required for the Golden Sacred Dragon mutation.] [Ultimately, the beneficial mutation failed, and the top-tier martial soul, the Golden Sacred Dragon, degenerated into a pig that could do nothing but fart-Luo Sanpao!]
"Gluttonous and lazy," "neglecting physical training," "degenerated into a pig"...
Those searing words left Yu Xiaogang standing on Shrek Academy's training grounds as though struck by lightning.
But he was, after all, a man who had spent half his life swindling people under the title of "Grandmaster," and his mental resilience was unlike that of ordinary people.
After a brief panic, he gritted his teeth and frantically poured his thoughts into the heavenly screen's chat, trying to salvage his tottering dignity.
[Yu Xiaogang: Utter nonsense! This is merely the road I traveled to get here.
The hardships and trials of my youth were precisely what drove me to strive harder and devote myself to martial soul theory.
Far from discrediting me, those past humiliations only prove how difficult and significant my rise to become the continent's First Master has been!]
Many lower-ranking Soul Masters were taken in by his words about being "crippled in body but unbroken in spirit," and for a moment, they did not know how to refute him.
Just then, a golden comment drifted across the top of the light screen.
[Bibi Dong: Xiaogang, I believe in you. You once told me that there are no useless martial souls in this world, only useless Soul Masters. Your wisdom is enough to bridge the gulf between martial souls.]
Countless people widened their eyes, scarcely able to believe what they were seeing.
The Pope of Spirit Hall!
Bibi Dong, that lofty empress who ruled the continent's largest organization of Soul Masters.
She was actually speaking up publicly, at a time like this, for a good-for-nothing the heavenly screen had branded a "pig"?!
In the Far North, Shui Bing'er's beautiful eyes shifted as she caught the most fatal flaw in Bibi Dong's words.
[Shui Bing'er: Your Holiness the Pope of Spirit Hall, that's a very interesting statement.
Since this "Grandmaster" personally proposed that "there are no useless martial souls, only useless Soul Masters"...
Then may I ask, as the person who proposed that theory, isn't Yu Xiaogang's own Luo Sanpao a trash martial soul, while he himself is a useless Soul Master who still cannot break through level thirty in his fifties?
He has both a trash martial soul and is a useless Soul Master.
Doesn't the theory he proposed prove to the entire continent that he himself is a complete and utter good-for-nothing?]
At Shrek Academy, Yu Xiaogang felt a metallic sweetness rise in his throat and nearly spat out a mouthful of blood.
He wanted to argue, only to find himself speechless.
Because Shui Bing'er was using his own theory to slap him in the face.
Far away in the Papal Hall in Spirit City, Bibi Dong had originally intended to continue defending her former lover.
Her stunning face was filled with embarrassment and anger, and her hand clenched tightly around her scepter, yet she could offer no rebuttal.
The heavenly screen's "public execution" had only just begun, and the scene high in the heavens changed once more.
This time, a young adult Yu Xiaogang appeared.
Impeccably dressed and deliberately cultivating a melancholy, brooding air, he was approaching the young Bibi Dong, who was still Spirit Hall's Saintess at the time.
The footage clearly recorded how Yu Xiaogang used honeyed words to deceive the inexperienced Bibi Dong.
And how he exploited her feelings for him and her privileges as Saintess to brazenly slip into Spirit Hall's Highest Archives.
Inside the archives, Yu Xiaogang greedily pored over the Martial Soul Secret Manual, Soul Beast Compendium, and cultivation insights that generations of Spirit Hall elders and consecrators had compiled with their blood and lives.
He copied down this precious material, haphazardly pieced it together and altered it, then brazenly signed his own name to it.
[A fraud who deceived the world and stole his reputation! Over ninety percent of his published "Ten Core Competencies of Martial Soul" was stolen from the records of Spirit Hall's predecessors, clumsily cobbled together and riddled with errors and omissions. His so-called "original theories" offer almost no practical guidance and are nothing more than a combination of plagiarism and conjecture.]
"Pfft-!"
Unable to suppress the blood surging in his chest any longer, Yu Xiaogang spat out a great mouthful of blood and staggered several steps backward, nearly collapsing to the ground.
If he could still numb himself to the pain of his failed childhood martial soul awakening with the excuse that "fate was unfair"...
Then the heavenly screen had now exposed his ugly theft of Spirit Hall's theories to the public, even directly repudiating the "invincible theories" he took such pride in.
This undoubtedly snapped the last remaining backbone of Yu Xiaogang's life.
"No, this isn't real. This is slander! This is an illusion!"
Yu Xiaogang completely lost control, pointing at the heavenly screen and hurling abuse like a madman.
"You blind heavenly screen! What do you know about martial souls? What do you know about theory? I, Yu Xiaogang, am the cleverest man in the world. My theories are invincible!"
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