Dean Chen looked at Yu Xiaogang with a deep frown. He had long since grown accustomed to the latter's rude habit of barging in without even knocking.
When he was young, a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast had gravely wounded him in the Star Dou Great Forest. Yu Xiaogang and the others of the Golden Iron Triangle had happened to arrive and driven the Soul Beast back with their Trinity Fusion Skill, saving his life. If not for that life-saving debt, he truly wouldn't have wanted Yu Xiaogang to stay at his Nuoding Academy.
For more than ten years, he had given Yu Xiaogang a nominal teaching post, with no classes to teach and a salary every month. After letting him eat and drink for free all these years, he had done more than enough for Yu Xiaogang.
Yet Yu Xiaogang had always used that life-saving debt to boss him around.
It was only because he was good-tempered. Anyone with a slightly worse temper would have thrown Yu Xiaogang out long ago.
"Xiaogang, everyone who comes to Nuoding Academy comes here to study. How could I expel someone on the strength of a word or two from you?"
Dean Chen spoke helplessly.
He didn't even need to ask about this sort of thing. Over the years, Yu Xiaogang had clamored for him to expel dozens of students, if not a hundred. At first, he had been somewhat biased in Yu Xiaogang's favor, thinking the students might truly have behaved badly, as Yu Xiaogang claimed.
But after looking into the matter, he had discovered that the two sides had come to this point over nothing more than a few verbal quarrels. Yu Xiaogang was simply making unreasonable demands.
And that wasn't all. Yu Xiaogang also belittled students, with the result that the entire school, teachers and students alike, disliked him. Every so often, students even wrote letters complaining about him.
By now,
he had long since come to regret agreeing to take Yu Xiaogang in. Now he couldn't bring himself to drive him away, but he couldn't let him stay either. He was truly blocked at both ends.
"Chen Qingfeng, we've known each other for so many years. Must you really fall out with me over a new student?"
Hearing Dean Chen brush him off like that, Yu Xiaogang flew into a rage. Things were different this time. His newly accepted disciple, Tang San, was still watching from outside the door. He had already lost face in front of Tang San once. If it happened again, how could he establish his authority before his disciple in the future?
"Xiaogang, could you stop being so unreasonable?"
"Do you know how much trouble you've caused me over the past ten years and more? Do you know students write letters every year asking me to expel you? For the sake of our old friendship, I've suppressed all those complaints for you!"
"I'm not asking anything else of you. I'm just begging you to stop looking for trouble when there's none to be found, all right?"
Dean Chen looked at Yu Xiaogang, weary at heart. Dealing with the records was bothersome enough, and now Yu Xiaogang was stirring up trouble for no reason. He even felt like slapping him.
As soon as the words left his mouth,
Yu Xiaogang's face instantly turned ashen.
What does he mean, I'm looking for trouble?
It was clearly that shameless brat who deliberately insulted me!
The anger in Yu Xiaogang's heart flared higher and higher, especially with his disciple Tang San still watching. Yet Chen Qingfeng had actually refused to give him face in front of his disciple. I see you already have a way to die!
Bang!
"Chen Qingfeng, after all these years of friendship, you keep making excuses when I ask you to expel one new student. Fine, fine, fine! I was wrong about you. I'm telling you, I'll give you two choices today: either I stay, or that new student stays. In short, if I'm here, he isn't; if he's here, I'm not!"
"You choose!"
Yu Xiaogang took a hard line, demanding that Chen Qingfeng make a choice.
But
Dean Chen hesitated for only a few seconds before giving his answer.
"Then you should leave!"
Those words stunned Yu Xiaogang on the spot. He had never expected Chen Qingfeng to choose a new student he had never met over the man who had saved his life.
Those words left him in an awkward position.
"Fine, fine, fine! I'll leave, then!"
To keep from losing face before his disciple, he could only give a defiant answer.
"Chen Qingfeng, you'll regret this!!!"
With that, he slammed the door and left.
"Yu Xiaogang, I'm the dean!!!"
Dean Chen had practically blurted the words out.
Only after Yu Xiaogang left did he come back to his senses. Perhaps this outcome wasn't such a bad thing. At least, once Yu Xiaogang was gone, the students wouldn't write complaint letters anymore.
Meanwhile,
Yu Xiaogang, who had acted on impulse, had calmed down a little. But once he did, he regretted it. He hadn't saved a single cent over the years. If he left Nuoding Academy, he would have no income at all. Spirit Hall only issued Gold Soul Coins to people within a certain age range; at his age, he had long since lost the right to collect them.
"Teacher, are you really leaving Nuoding Academy?"
At that moment, Tang San spoke.
After going through this whole string of events, he had already begun to feel a faint trace of regret over taking Yu Xiaogang as his teacher.
Yu Xiaogang noticed the look in Tang San's eyes and cried out inwardly that this was bad. He immediately prepared to salvage his image in Tang San's eyes.
"Little San, do you trust your teacher?"
Yu Xiaogang gazed at Tang San with a serious expression.
"This... of course I trust you, Teacher!"
As a feudal warrior, Tang San did feel some regret, but he had already taken Yu Xiaogang as his teacher, and it was too late to take it back. Even if the road ahead was a dead end, he could only grit his teeth and keep going.
"The teachers and students of Nuoding Academy all lack the discernment to recognize a person's worth. They think my title of 'Grandmaster' is nothing but an empty name. But they're wrong. How could they possibly comprehend my talent? All these years, I haven't taught them simply because they're all mediocre. But you're different. You're a genius."
"Only a genius is qualified to receive my instruction."
Yu Xiaogang clasped his hands behind his back, putting on the air of a man whose talents had gone unrecognized.
How could Tang San, a shut-in, have ever seen someone show off like this? Yu Xiaogang immediately stunned him.
"Take your Twin Martial Souls, for example. An ordinary person would probably attach Soul Rings to both your Martial Souls while you were still only a Soul Master. But I tell you, that way of thinking is wrong!"
"That would only waste the true potential of Twin Martial Souls."
"With Twin Martial Souls, you should focus on cultivating one Martial Soul and attach no Soul Rings to the other. Keep cultivating like that until you become a Seven-Ring Soul Sage, then attach Soul Rings to your Second Martial Soul. At that point, not only will you be able to raise your Soul Power Level quickly, but every Soul Ring on your Second Martial Soul will be at least fifty thousand years old."
"Just think: if you cultivate to the level of a Titled Douluo, the power of nine Soul Rings, each at least fifty thousand years old, will converge in you. How terrifying will your strength be then?"
At this point, a trace of pride appeared on Yu Xiaogang's face. Once he had raised Tang San, who would dare say his reputation was undeserved?
"Teacher, you possess great talent!"
Tang San, who had seen little of the world, was immediately taken in by the grand promises Yu Xiaogang painted for him and praised him repeatedly.
"This is merely the most insignificant part of your teacher's wisdom. Unfortunately, the world does not understand my painstaking efforts and even spits on me and curses me. But I don't care. This is merely the world's test for me."
"One day, I will teach a god into being and let the world know that my talent, Yu Xiaogang's talent, is beyond their imagination."
As he spoke, Yu Xiaogang looked at Tang San.
"Little San, your teacher swears that I will devote everything I've learned in my life to teaching you, hold nothing back, and raise you into a god!!!"
"Teacher!!!"
Tang San was deeply moved.
When he thought of what his teacher had gone through, hatred filled his heart.
"Damn that Gu Chen! He dared to insult my teacher and subject him to such humiliation. You already have a way to die!!!"