Xiao Wu looked at Li Jin and tilted her head.
"Do you believe he can plan your first soul ring for you?"
Li Jin smiled and shook his head.
"I don't."
"Good!" Xiao Wu's smile bloomed like a flower. For all her carefree ways, she was actually quite attentive.
"Then let's go back. Don't bother with these two."
Yu Xiaogang clenched both fists, his expression darkening.
As a renowned grandmaster of theory on the Douluo Continent, he had actually been looked down on by two little brats today.
"Fine, fine, fine. Don't you regret this."
"Early tomorrow morning, I'll take Little San to the Soul Hunting Forest to hunt soul beasts and make him a one-ring soul master with a hundred-year soul ring."
"As for you two, just wait for the academy to arrange ordinary ten-year soul rings for you and waste your talents."
"When that time comes, even if you beg me on your knees, don't expect to become my disciples so easily."
Yu Xiaogang's malice seemed to condense into a fine thread, linking him to Li Jin.
Nine-colored light flashed through Li Jin's eyes.
"Grandmaster Yu, save those words until you've come back safely from the Soul Hunting Forest. Don't end up unable to beat even a hundred-year soul beast."
An invisible ripple spread out. No one noticed that the space between Yu Xiaogang's brows had darkened slightly.
Li Jin and Xiao Wu left and returned to Dorm Seven.
The gloom in Tang San's eyes deepened.
He inwardly cursed Li Jin and Xiao Wu for having eyes yet failing to see, actually refusing to take Yu Xiaogang, whose theories were unmatched, as their master and become his junior martial brother and sister.
As malice arose in his heart, the space between his brows also darkened slightly.
He supported his teacher, Yu Xiaogang.
"Teacher, don't be angry. It's not worth making yourself ill over those two idiots."
"They can't see your abilities, so they don't deserve your guidance. But I know what you're capable of. Teacher, what is the Soul Hunting Forest? And what are soul beasts?"
Yu Xiaogang settled the pent-up anger in his heart. Looking at the obedient, sensible Tang San beside him, his mood eased somewhat.
At least he still had someone with twin martial souls as a fallback.
It seemed he would have to teach him properly. If he taught him badly, there would be no margin for error.
He forced a smile onto his stiff face.
"Little San, that's an excellent question."
"Come, follow me to my place. I'll explain it all to you properly."
"All you need to know is that I'll definitely make you the finest soul master."
Tang San's eyes lit up, and he nodded emphatically.
"Teacher, I believe in you!"
Yu Xiaogang's face filled with gratification. Now this was a good disciple of his.
Suddenly, after taking only a few steps, he felt something sticky beneath his foot.
He looked down. He had actually stepped in a pile of dogshit.
His face instantly turned as black as the bottom of a pot, and his good mood vanished without a trace.
"Fuck, who's keeping a dog at Nuoding Academy? Why is it shitting wherever it pleases?"
Beside him, Tang San's pupils contracted slightly. He possessed the Purple Demon Eye, yet even he hadn't noticed that pile of dogshit just now. It was as though it had suddenly appeared beneath Yu Xiaogang's foot.
He was just about to offer Yu Xiaogang a word of comfort when, despite having practiced Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track since childhood, he seemed to kick a small stone. He stumbled and fell, his palm landing squarely on the pile of dogshit Yu Xiaogang had just stepped in.
That sticky sensation thoroughly disgusted Tang San.
It's over. My Mysterious Jade Hand isn't clean anymore.
Fuck, what's wrong with this pile of dogshit?
Why have Teacher and I gotten tangled up with this pile of dogshit?
Tang San looked up to see Yu Xiaogang's face full of gratification. He reached out and patted Tang San's head.
"Little San, I know you're filial, but there's no need to clean up this dogshit with your hand. Get up. Come wash with me."
"Fuck, the work-study students clean this area. Next time, I'll tell the dean to dock their wages."
Thoroughly sickened by the dogshit, Tang San nodded viciously at those words.
But only when the academy docked his work-study wages did he learn that this area was his to clean.
One had a foot covered in dogshit, the other a handful of it. Master and disciple, Yu Xiaogang and Tang San, slunk off to wash the dogshit away.
Then the water pipe suddenly burst, spraying water all over them and soaking them like drowned rats.
Yu Xiaogang's face was gloomy, and Tang San looked much the same.
How could anyone be this unlucky!
Meanwhile!
Li Jin and Xiao Wu returned to Dorm Seven.
Xiao Wu flopped onto the bed and rolled back and forth. The soft satin bedding was simply too comfortable.
It was a feeling she had never experienced sleeping on the grass in the Star Dou Great Forest.
Just then, Wang Sheng came over and asked nervously:
"Brother Li Jin, Sister Xiao Wu, that Yu Xiaogang didn't make things difficult for you, did he? Did he make you apologize to Tang San?"
Li Jin smiled and answered:
"No. He wanted us to take him as our master. He said it would be our loss if we didn't."
Wang Sheng listened, dumbstruck.
"That Yu Xiaogang is way too thick-skinned! Saying it'd be your loss if you didn't take him as your master."
"Brother Li Jin, with Yu Xiaogang here earlier, I was too embarrassed to spell it out. He's just a freeloader. He doesn't supervise a class or teach any lessons. He wanders around the academy all day and looks down his nose at us whenever he sees us."
"You didn't take him as your master, did you?"
Xiao Wu lay on the bedding with her chin propped in her hands. Having taken off her shoes, she swung her two tender white feet behind her, looking especially cute.
"Of course not. I think that Yu Xiaogang is a fraud. He can't fool clever Sister Xiao Wu."
Li Jin patted Wang Sheng on the shoulder.
"Sister Xiao Wu is right. Of course we didn't take Yu Xiaogang as our master."
"Wang Sheng, you're an upper-year student, so you must have learned the Meditation Method already. Teach me now."
"I'll cover your dinner tonight too."
Wang Sheng's eyes lit up. Something like the Meditation Method could be learned by anyone, as long as they attended class.
Trading the Meditation Method for dinner.
A good deal!
Such a good deal!
After joining Li Jin for a meal on the cafeteria's second floor today, he had finally learned what it meant for food to have color, aroma, and flavor in perfect harmony.
"No problem, Brother Li Jin."
Wang Sheng then taught Li Jin the Meditation Method.
In less than a minute, Li Jin successfully entered a meditative state, drawing the free-floating energy between heaven and earth into his body.
His soul power circulated and flowed into his dantian.
Occasionally, his soul power rampaged through his meridians and even happened to break open a meridian by accident, increasing the speed of his soul power circulation by 1%.
The koi physique was terrifying indeed!
An afternoon passed, and Li Jin awoke from his meditation.
He took Xiao Wu along, brought Wang Sheng and the others too, and went to the cafeteria's second floor for another meal.
When they returned to Dorm Seven, they saw that Tang San was already back.
Tang San was quite a sorry sight, his face covered in dirt and his entire body soaking wet. Today had truly been unlucky beyond belief.
Looking at Li Jin and Xiao Wu standing together as they returned to Dorm Seven surrounded by the other work-study students, an inexplicable fire rose in his heart.
Why was I so unlucky?
Why did they have it so comfortable?
It's unfair!
Far too unfair!