"Holy... holy shit?!"
"Did I glitch the system?!"
Xiao Xuan rubbed his temples hard, his hands trembling with excitement!
Before the fusion, he had never practiced either the academy's basic spear technique or the two manuals Su Yuntao had given him. The system had even rated them "not initiated."
Yet after the three-in-one fusion, he had skipped the initiation stage and ascended to heaven in a single step, maxing out his proficiency and reaching the Perfection Realm!
Xiao Xuan's mind raced, and he instantly grasped the underlying logic.
That was it! The core mechanism of the Three-in-One Fusion of All Things was to unconditionally raise the fused product to the highest quality of its grade!
Three portions of Whale Rubber that were only a hundred years old and full of impurities had fused into a hundred-year supreme product without a single impurity!
And when applied to technique manuals... their highest quality was naturally complete mastery and perfection!
Now that he understood, Xiao Xuan was so excited he nearly kowtowed to the system twice on the spot!
Xiao Xuan had originally prepared himself to rise early and work late, spending years grinding away at the basics once he returned to the academy.
Never in his wildest dreams had he expected his system bro to do it all in one go, forcibly pouring ten years of mastery straight into his head!
That's my system bro for you!
After leaving the Spirit Hall, Xiao Xuan returned home. Finding that neither of his parents was there, he went to the backyard.
Xiao Xuan suppressed his excitement and grabbed at the air with his right hand. His Martial Soul, Lone Bamboo, instantly appeared in his grip.
With a thought, the spear moved with his body!
Xiao Xuan gave his forearm a slight shake. The shaft suddenly tore through the air with an ear-piercing shriek, and the spear tip traced an incomparably fierce spear flower through the air!
Power reached the spear tip, every turn smooth and effortless!
"What a spear technique!"
Looking at the length of Lone Bamboo in his hand, shaped like a long spear, Xiao Xuan's eyes shone with a sharp glint.
With Lone Bamboo as sharp as it was now, coupled with this intermediate spear technique he had completely mastered...
In a real life-or-death fight, even without using a Soul Skill, his close-combat combinations alone would be enough to string up an ordinary Soul Master of the same rank and beat him like a naughty grandson!
Next came Soul Power cultivation. There was no cheating at that.
His First Soul Ring, on the other hand, could be fused and upgraded. Presumably, its Soul Skill would deal more damage after the upgrade.
As for the two Hundred-Year Soul Rings needed for the upgrade, they would not be hard to get.
When he had upgraded the Three-Star Lone Bamboo, Xiao Xuan had noticed two other hundred-year-old Lone Bamboos nearby. He could use them to upgrade his Soul Ring.
But he would have to make a trip back to Lone Bamboo Village. Fortunately, there was no rush, so he could wait until the academy holiday.
With his plan in place, Xiao Xuan waited for his parents to come home and ate dinner before returning to Nuoding Academy.
However, Xiao Xuan had barely taken two steps through the academy gates when a black figure standing beside the tree-lined path caught his attention.
Yu Xiaogang stood in front of a flower bed with his hands behind his back and his chin slightly raised, apparently waiting for someone.
Xiao Xuan's mouth twitched. He inwardly cursed his bad luck and immediately pretended not to see him, turning aside to take a detour back to the dormitory.
But Yu Xiaogang's narrow eyes swept over the area like searchlights and locked onto him at once. He strode several steps sideways and blocked Xiao Xuan's path!
"And you are?"
Xiao Xuan stopped and frowned in feigned confusion, his face full of the resistance that said, "Do I even know you?"
Yu Xiaogang forced a self-satisfied smile onto his stiff, expressionless face and assumed the lofty air of a worldly master. He said mildly:
"Hello, child. I'm Grandmaster."
Grandmaster?
What kind of grandmaster?
A grandmaster of get-rich-quick pyramid schemes?!
"Is there something you need? If not, I need to hurry back to my dormitory to meditate. Please move aside."
All Xiao Xuan wanted was to get away from there as quickly as possible.
But Yu Xiaogang seemed incapable of understanding him-or perhaps, in Yu Xiaogang's mind, a commoner genius like Xiao Xuan ought to be moved to tears of gratitude upon meeting him.
Yu Xiaogang straightened his back and went on of his own accord:
"Xiao Xuan, I looked into your records. Your Innate Soul Power was originally only level one, but your Martial Soul underwent an extremely rare beneficial mutation. That caused your Soul Power to advance by leaps and bounds, and you absorbed a Hundred-Year Soul Ring within a month."
At this point, Yu Xiaogang's tone suddenly grew grave as he earnestly warned:
"But! I must warn you in all seriousness that even with a beneficial mutation, your Martial Soul will still have flaws and hidden dangers. It could even utterly ruin your future as a Soul Master!"
Having said this, Yu Xiaogang glanced at Xiao Xuan, seemingly to see whether his words had frightened him.
Then Yu Xiaogang continued:
"However, there's no need to feel inferior, because in this world-there are no useless Martial Souls, only useless Soul Masters!"
After listening to Yu Xiaogang, Xiao Xuan was completely speechless.
Wait, are you sick in the head?!
It's true I started with level-one Innate Soul Power, but it took me only a month to reach level ten, and I even absorbed a Hundred-Year Soul Ring and became a Soul Master...
You're telling me not to feel inferior?
What do I have to feel inferior about?
Am I supposed to feel inferior because I cultivate too quickly?
Xiao Xuan really wanted to crack Gangzi's skull open with a spear and see whether it was full of paste!
Yu Xiaogang failed to notice that Xiao Xuan was looking at him as if he were an idiot. Instead, he became even more absorbed in his grand speech:
"Child, what I'm about to tell you may shock you. But don't be afraid. As long as you follow my arrangements, your future achievements will be limitless!"
Yu Xiaogang took a deep breath, his expression growing somewhat solemn.
"My Martial Soul, Luo Sanpao, is also a Martial Soul that underwent a mutation! So on the entire Douluo Continent, no one understands Mutated Martial Souls better than I do!"
"I, Yu Xiaogang, am recognized as the foremost theoretician in the Soul Master World across the entire continent! Even the Pope of the Spirit Hall holds my talents in the highest regard!"
"Only by becoming my disciple and letting me personally tailor your path of growth will your Mutated Martial Soul not be a wanton waste of heaven's gifts!"
After saying it all in one breath, Yu Xiaogang lifted his chin proudly and put one hand behind his back, waiting for Xiao Xuan to kneel and kowtow to take him as his master, just as Tang San had.
Yu Xiaogang did not believe Xiao Xuan could listen to that speech and remain unconvinced.
However...
Xiao Xuan did not kneel, much less kowtow. Instead, he suddenly asked:
"Since your Martial Soul also mutated, and you understand Mutated Martial Souls so well... let me ask you, what level is your Soul Power now?"
Those words were like a sharp knife stabbing Yu Xiaogang in the lungs.
Yu Xiaogang's raised chin abruptly froze. His face instantly went from white to ashen, and the muscles at the corners of his eyes twitched several times!
Never in his dreams had he imagined that after listening to his grand speech, this six-year-old brat Xiao Xuan would not only fail to take him as his master on the spot, but go straight for the most humiliating sore point of his life!
"Insolence! Martial Soul cultivation is about overall ability!"
Both ashamed and furious, Yu Xiaogang swept his sleeve and let out a cold snort.
"My strengths lie in my invincible system of theory and my grand strategy. Soul Power Level cannot possibly measure everything about me!"