All along the way, Xu Qing thought about how he should make use of his "cheat."
Xu Qing knew perfectly well that his Martial Soul was only ordinary Blue Silver Grass.
If he followed the usual path of cultivation, growing stronger would be incredibly difficult in itself.
What was more, this was the era of The Legend of the Dragon King. With Ah Yin around, he did not have the slightest chance, not to mention Tang Wulin.
This is so hard! Fuck! Should I learn from Tang Ya and take a different path?
Of course, becoming an Evil Soul Master was out of the question. There was no helping it-even if he did not consider himself, he had to spare a thought for his mom and dad.
Once he became an Evil Soul Master-even if he merely had some connection to Evil Soul Masters-Shrek and the other factions would hunt him down across the entire continent.
Still, there was one thing Xu Qing had to admit: Tang Ya's Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul was actually very powerful. It had simply been led astray by Sanpao and his disciple.
One could say that Tang San's ascension to godhood had nothing to do with Blue Silver Grass at all. After he became a god, his Blue Silver Grass was as good as crippled.
One could only say that Grandmaster was still Grandmaster, and an expert was still an expert. His ability to fool people was fucking incredible.
Tang San had suffered for his lack of education, too.
Of course, there was one Grandmaster whom Xu Qing did acknowledge: the Grandmaster in the comic. The difference was clear from how the two Grandmasters reacted upon encountering Lone Bamboo.
The Grandmaster in the animated adaptation: "This is a stalk of Ten-Year Solitary Bamboo. Its defining trait is toughness. Though its attack power is weak, its defense is quite good. It suits your Blue Silver Grass fairly well."
The Grandmaster in the comic: "That stalk of Lone Bamboo is a Ten-Year Soul Beast. It is tough by nature and has fairly good defense, but its attack power is weak. Most Soul Masters would make this choice. But I will give my disciple something better."
When they encountered the Datura Snake, Gangzi in the animated adaptation was a mascot, while Gangzi in the comic smashed a rock against his thigh to stay conscious and bought time himself so Tang San could escape on his own.
All in all, the Grandmaster in the comic was a true grandmaster, while the Grandmaster in the animated adaptation was a fake.
Still, it was an undeniable fact that Sanpao and his disciple had led Blue Silver Grass Martial Souls astray for tens of thousands of years. Otherwise, how had the Tang Sect in Peerless Tang Sect been wiped out?
Moreover, the current Tang Sect leader in The Legend of the Dragon King was Cao Dezhi, whose Martial Soul was the Heartless Sword. In the end, the Tang Sect leader did not even have the surname Tang, and there was not even a single powerful Blue Silver Grass Soul Master.
Ahem~ Getting off topic. Back to the point.
Xu Qing's greatest difficulty right now was figuring out how to make good use of this cheat-that parallel Earth.
Earth! A planet!
Xu Qing's eyes suddenly lit up. He had abruptly thought of the farming genre in cultivation novels.
Wasn't a planet equivalent to an incomparably vast space?
Besides bloodline, there was another path for Blue Silver Grass to develop: gathering the faith of the Blue Silver clan and using the power of faith to advance the evolution of his Martial Soul.
On the Douluo Continent, with Ah Yin, the true Blue Silver Emperor-or, more accurately, the Blue Silver "God"-around, gathering faith himself was practically impossible.
But the parallel world was different. It did not belong to Douluo Star, or even to this world.
If I use my own Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul as the foundation and split off countless stalks of Blue Silver Grass, then I'll have a whole planet's worth of Blue Silver Grass worshipping me. If I don't become emperor, who else could?
After all, the territory Ah Yin had controlled back then had only been the single landmass of the Douluo Continent.
But immediately afterward, two extremely thorny problems surfaced in his mind. That world was crawling with zombies.
The place he had visited before was merely a small town on the parallel Earth, yet zombies had already been everywhere.
If he went to a major city, a metropolis with millions of people like the capital, just how terrifying would the zombies there be?
In the zombie movies he had watched in his previous life, zombies could also mutate and evolve, becoming even more dangerous. At that thought, Xu Qing could not help feeling a headache coming on.
Moreover, Xu Qing did not know whether the parallel Earth contained Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi. Otherwise, Blue Silver Grass would have no way to become Soul Beasts, and planting more of it would do no good.
At the academy gates, dedicated teachers were responsible for receiving students from the Soul Master class. The treatment the Soul Master class received was clearly much better than that of the ordinary classes.
After bringing Xu Qing to the gates, Tang Xue reminded him to study hard, then returned the way she had come.
The ordinary classes taught only regular academic subjects, but the Soul Master class was different. Besides academic subjects, it would specifically teach these children with Innate Soul Power how to become outstanding Soul Masters, as well as impart all sorts of knowledge related to Soul Masters.
This year's Soul Master class had only sixteen students in total. After all, children with Innate Soul Power were rare to begin with, especially in a small city like Aolai City. This year's intake already counted as a relatively large one.
Under a teacher's guidance, Xu Qing soon found his classroom.
The classroom was a chaotic mess.
A group of six-year-old children had gathered together. Some excitedly showed off their Martial Souls, while others sat silently to one side, looking dejected. Clearly, the Martial Souls they had awakened were less than ideal.
Xu Qing could not be bothered with these little brats. He walked straight to the least crowded corner of the classroom and sat down.
Because of the zombies, he was mentally exhausted, so he simply slumped over his desk, planning to close his eyes and catch up on some sleep.
Just then, the sound of children talking came from beside him.
"Hey, you! What's your Martial Soul?"
A short, chubby boy approached another little boy and asked.
It was the first time any of the children in the class had entered a Soul Master class, and they were all full of curiosity about one another's Martial Souls.
The little boy said proudly, "It's Blue Silver Grass, just like the Tang Sect's founding ancestor."
As his words fell, he lightly turned his right hand over. Blue light swirled across his palm, and several slender stalks of Blue Silver Grass quietly grew out.
Blue Silver Grass?!
Tang Wulin!
Xu Qing, who had been catching up on sleep, abruptly raised his head and looked at the Blue Silver Grass in the little boy's hand.
Only then did he look at the little boy. It really was him.
Xu Qing did not harbor much dislike for Tang Wulin. He even felt a little envious. There was no helping it-the guy had been born a winner in life. After all, from an observer's perspective, Tang Wulin was really just the heir to a corporate group gaining experience at his own family's company.
Perhaps because of Tang Ziran and Lang Yue, Tang Wulin had been a fairly decent person early on. It could only be said that Shrek and the Tang Sect were far too good at brainwashing people.
Of Huo Yuhao and Tang Wulin, one had borne a blood-deep grudge and sworn revenge. And the other? He had even considered joining the army to defend his home and country. But after joining Shrek and the Tang Sect, both had changed. Huo Yuhao had become Huo Yuhao, and the other? He had gone even further, following the Tang Sect into becoming an arms dealer.
That was why people online in his previous life had said that discussing nations on the Douluo Continent was the most laughable thing of all.
Moreover, on the Douluo Continent, whether it was Spirit Hall in Douluo I or the Sun Moon Empire in Douluo II, Xu Qing did not consider them the true villains.
The greatest villain on the Douluo Continent was Tang San!
After all, what decent person schemed against his benefactor until not even their bones remained?!
Of course, the Sun Moon Empire would have been even more perfect without its dark history of collaborating with Evil Soul Masters.
Xu Qing only raised his head for a glance before letting it drop again.
He had no intention of taking the initiative to befriend Tang Wulin.