"Maple Forest Evening? Only accepts female Soul Masters? One Gold Soul Coin a night! Is... is this daylight robbery?!"
A middle-aged man with a crew cut passed Maple Forest Evening. Looking at its rates, he frowned deeply.
This place wasn't even in the city, yet staying here cost so much!
Only an idiot would go in!
But then a gleam flashed through the middle-aged man's eyes.
After all, Maple Forest Evening really was enormous. There was even a small hill inside.
He felt it could still attract some customers.
So he took out a large stack of books and walked toward Da Ming and Er Ming at the entrance.
"Hello, you two. I'm the renowned Grandmaster of the Martial Soul world. These are my most outstanding research findings, the Ten Core Competencies of Martial Soul! I'll leave these here with you, and you can sell them to the people renting rooms. How much you sell them for depends on your ability, but I'll take seventy percent of the proceeds."
"Oh, and many of the theories in here are no longer the old versions. I've also found successful examples, proving that all my theories are viable! Those Soul Masters certainly don't lack money. You'll earn at least three Gold Soul Coins for every copy sold. Isn't that better than running this place?"
The newcomer was none other than Yu Xiaogang.
Something had delayed him for a while, so he had sent Tang San and Xiao Wu ahead to attend Shrek Academy.
He had only arrived here today.
"Grandmaster? Ten Core Competencies of Martial Soul? Da Ming, what's that?" Er Ming casually opened a book, and reading it made him a little drowsy.
"Grandmaster... I think I've heard of him. Isn't he... some trash whose Soul Power can never break through to rank thirty...?"
As Da Ming spoke, his gaze fell on Yu Xiaogang as though he were examining a rare little animal.
His nose twitched. "You have... a lot of medicinal residue on you. You must have used plenty of medicinal ingredients when you were young. Otherwise, with your innate half-rank Soul Power, even cultivating to rank twenty-nine would have been very difficult!"
Yu Xiaogang's heart trembled.
In truth, he was the most prolific pill-popper on the Douluo Continent.
Although he had only innate half-rank Soul Power and his Martial Soul had mutated.
He was still Yu Yuanzhen's son, after all.
Using that connection, he had obtained plenty of medicinal ingredients, hoping to improve his aptitude.
Later, he had gone to Spirit Hall and seduced Bibi Dong.
Bibi Dong's status as Spirit Hall's Holy Maiden at the time had not only given him access to all of Spirit Hall's research, but also allowed him to receive her help.
Unfortunately, his Martial Soul was simply too useless. Without medicinal ingredients as powerful as Immortal Herbs, he had no way to break through his Martial Soul's shackles.
"There are no trash Martial Souls, only trash people? Heh... how laughable!"
Reading the words on one page, Da Ming couldn't help laughing.
"With that trash Martial Soul of yours, all those medicinal ingredients still couldn't get you to rank thirty? Does that statement mean you're trash, or that your Martial Soul is trash? Or are you saying that both you and your Martial Soul... are trash?"
Da Ming sneered and hurled the book in his hand to the ground.
Then he stamped on it and ground it viciously into tiny scraps.
Fury filled Yu Xiaogang's eyes as he gritted his teeth. "You! Who are you calling trash?! My disciple is a genius! His Martial Soul is mere trash Blue Silver Grass, but thanks to my guidance, his Soul Power will soon surpass mine at his young age!"
"What's more, my disciple absorbed the Soul Ring of a four-hundred-plus-year-old Mandala Snake for his Blue Silver Grass's first Soul Skill. Plant-type Soul Masters can absorb animal-type Soul Beasts' Soul Rings and gain even greater power. I've already proven that theory!"
Yu Xiaogang truly lived up to the title of Grandmaster. Once he started explaining, he went on at tremendous length!
"What's going on? Why is it so noisy outside?"
Yu Xiaogang's enraged shouting drew the people inside out.
Meng Yiran and Ah Yin looked toward the entrance in confusion.
"He wants to leave this book here for us to sell. Look at what's inside. It's practically harming people!"
Da Ming hurriedly opened a book for Ah Yin and Meng Yiran to read.
Although they were Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts with immense power.
Maple Forest Evening's rule was that its tenants were heaven itself, its emperors!
They had to act respectfully even toward Meng Yiran.
"So it's Grandmaster..." Meng Yiran had heard Yu Xiaogang's name too.
Then she threw the book onto the ground as well. "This thing is only fit for reference. Besides, Yu Xiaogang, write your books if you want, but don't bring your personal feelings into them.
"What do you mean, no trash Martial Souls, only trash people? Are you saying those senior Soul Douluos who never became Titled Douluos failed not because their Martial Souls were inferior, but because they're all trash?"
"I... that's not what I meant!" Yu Xiaogang trembled all over. If word spread that he had slandered everyone below Titled Douluo as trash, wouldn't they pound him into mincemeat?!
"Then what do you mean?" Meng Yiran pressed.
"What I meant was that even if your Martial Soul is inferior, you shouldn't give up cultivating."
"Then you're rank twenty-nine now, and you haven't progressed for decades. Is the reason you've remained at rank twenty-nine all this time that you haven't cultivated over those years?" Meng Yiran's words struck the nail on the head.
Yu Xiaogang's heart ached as though it had been stabbed.
He had tried so many methods over the years and had never stopped cultivating.
Yet he still couldn't break through that shackle and become a three-ring Soul Elder.
"Hmph! What kind of bullshit Grandmaster are you? You can't even do what you preach, yet you want to teach others? That disciple of yours must be a real dumbass to have taken you as his teacher!" Da Ming mocked.
In fact, Yu Xiaogang's original intent in saying that had come from seeing that Tang San possessed Twin Martial Souls.
He was telling Tang San that although his Martial Soul was merely trash Blue Silver Grass, he still had a Second Martial Soul, the Clear Sky Hammer.
As long as he didn't give up cultivating, the power of his Second Martial Soul, the Clear Sky Hammer, would sooner or later make him the world's strongest Soul Master.
They had belittled Yu Xiaogang until he wasn't worth a single coin, and his face turned green with rage!
When he finally heard Da Ming mention his disciple, Yu Xiaogang flew into a fury. "You! You can't talk about my disciple like that! He's strong, far stronger than ordinary people!"
"Heh, heh..."
Da Ming and Er Ming merely chuckled, their mockery turned up to the maximum.
Yu Xiaogang looked at Meng Yiran. Estimating her age from his experience, and seeing that she didn't look particularly strong, he pointed at her and said:
"My disciple is at a nearby academy. If you've got the guts, why don't you compete with him? If you lose, you'll not only apologize to me, you'll also have to sell the Core Theory of Martial Soul here for me unconditionally!"
The corner of Meng Yiran's mouth twitched. Do I look that weak? Still, she wanted to see who had been foolish enough to take Yu Xiaogang as his teacher.
So she nodded and said, "Fine! I agree. Hurry up and bring your disciple back."
"Hmph! Just you wait and see!"
With that, Yu Xiaogang hurried off toward Shrek Academy.
"He's heading toward Shrek? Yu Xiaogang just said his disciple's Martial Soul is Blue Silver Grass... Could it be him?"
Meng Yiran speculated.
Beside her, Ah Yin's gaze narrowed. For Blue Silver Grass to cultivate to rank twenty already said... everything.
She also wanted to meet this son from her previous life. No, this person's body had long since been taken over.
Then what did that count as?
Never mind. Given another life, she would treat everything from before as though it had never happened. Now she was Xiao Yexuan's lifelong maid-Xiao Yin.