stonecrandall Chapter 25 To practice this skill, one must first castrate oneself.
Chapter 25 To practice this skill, one must first castrate oneself.
In the Notting College logistics area, there is a room in a very remote location that no one usually goes to.
This place is Yu Xiaogang's room. To put it nicely, he's devoted himself to his studies; to put it bluntly, he's just slacking off and wasting his days.
"Knock knock knock."
There was a knock on the door, not too loud, not too soft, three knocks.
Yu Xiaogang was looking down at a very old book; the paper was brittle, and he had to be careful turning each page. His brow was furrowed; he was at a crucial point, and being interrupted was incredibly annoying. Couldn't these students and colleagues just give him a break?
"Enter."
His voice was dry and cold; you could tell he was in a bad mood just by listening.
The door creaked open, and Li Fulan walked in. He was wearing a neat teaching assistant uniform and carrying a paper bag that looked bulging—but it was actually empty, just for show.
He glanced around the room, a slight smile playing on his lips. Without any ceremony, he found a chair and sat down. There were two books on the chair, which he casually tossed aside, his movements as natural as if he were at home.
"It's you?"
Yu Xiaogang raised his head, his eyes were dull and listless, but he still recognized him—wasn't this the person who had told Tang San that he had twin martial souls?
What are you doing here?
Li Fulan wasn't annoyed. She smiled and got straight to the point.
"I am honored to serve as a teaching assistant at Nottingham Junior College, Master. I have come here specifically to learn."
He paused, his eyes brightening slightly. "Everyone outside says the books in your room are unparalleled. Especially your research on martial soul mutation and soul ring classification—if you say you're second, no one on the entire continent dares to claim first. I'm just a newcomer to this field, and I'd like to borrow a few of your books to broaden my horizons."
He didn't say the words "theory is invincible" aloud, but the meaning was clear.
Yu Xiaogang's lips twitched, and the wrinkles on his face moved, clearly understanding the unspoken meaning, but his expression remained tense.
Books are not to be lent out.
He picked up the book again, lowered his head, and adopted a posture of seeing the guest off.
"Besides, these things are too advanced. You're only at level fifteen soul power; it's a waste of your time to study them. Stop aiming too high all the time. Focusing on steadily increasing your soul power is far more important than anything else."
Li Fulan rolled her eyes inwardly. Well, this old guy's putting on airs, and he's quite the actor.
Fine, if you won't listen to reason, you'll have to suffer the consequences.
"The master is right." He sighed, feigning regret. "I didn't mean to bother you. But there was a little incident on the playground today, and I thought I should come and talk to you."
As he spoke, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a dark, indistinct object.
"Smack."
The object was slammed onto the table, landing right next to Yu Xiaogang's ancient book, only two inches away from his fingertips.
It was a hidden arrow, finely crafted, with a glossy black material; it was clearly not an ordinary item.
Yu Xiaogang glanced at it out of the corner of his eye, and his body visibly stiffened.
He was, after all, from the Blue Lightning Tyrannosaurus Rex family, so his eyesight was still sharp. This thing was clearly a hidden weapon, very ingenious, concealed in a sleeve without anyone noticing. If it were to be shot out, it would take half a life, if not death.
"this……"
His throat felt like it was blocked by something, and his voice changed.
"Your esteemed student, Tang San, gave it to me during our sparring session today." Li Fulan's smile faded, and she tapped the table absently with her fingertips, "Tap, tap, tap." "Master, you're a master of theory; you know the rules better than I do. In a non-life-or-death sparring session, what's this kind of concealed weapon used against a teacher, according to the Soul Master world, called again?"
A sneak attack. Despicable. Of bad character.
If this gets out, Tang San's reputation will be ruined, and his master, who just took on a disciple, will also be scolded. He will be labeled as "incompetent in teaching," and how will he ever be able to survive in the industry again?
"Impossible," Yu Xiaogang retorted instinctively. "That mistress isn't that kind of person..."
"Yes, it is. I have it." Li Fulan interrupted him, her tone unhurried, as if chatting casually. "You may not have looked closely, but there's a poison tank on it. It's empty now, but if it were filled with poison... do you think I'd still be sitting here talking to you like this?"
Sweat beaded on Yu Xiaogang's forehead.
He desperately needed Tang San. He was Tang San's only hope of proving his theory, his sole chance to turn things around, and he couldn't afford to make even the slightest mistake.
The room was eerily quiet; even the crackling of the old oil lamp could be heard clearly.
After a long while, Yu Xiaogang let out a long breath, feeling completely drained, his shoulders slumped.
What do you want?
"To pursue my studies," Li Fulan laughed again, slowly putting the hidden arrow back into her robes. "You've allowed me to study in this room; consider today's incident a minor misunderstanding, a teacher-student exchange gone awry, and let it be over."
Yu Xiaogang clenched his teeth and glanced at the bookshelves that filled the room. They represented most of his life's work, collected one book at a time.
"OK."
He squeezed out the words through his teeth, as if it were cutting flesh.
"But there are conditions."
He turned around, his back to Li Fulan, and walked to the bookshelf.
"First, you're not allowed to take the books out of this room; you can only read them here. Second, you're limited to one hour a day, not a minute more. Third, you're not allowed to damage them. If any book has a folded corner or a missing page, you'll be in serious trouble."
"make a deal."
Li Fulan readily agreed, "An hour is enough; I read quickly."
Yu Xiaogang snorted coldly, feeling very disdainful.
An hour? You? Many of these books are written in the ancient language, which is very obscure. He studied them for many years before he even began to understand them. You're way too arrogant.
"I'm going to check on the mistress." He didn't want to stay any longer, so he pushed open the door and left.
The door slammed shut.
The politeness on Li Fulan's face vanished instantly. He stretched, his joints cracking, and glanced around at the bookshelves.
"An hour?"
He pulled a small, palm-sized object from his pocket and pressed the switch.
"That's enough."
The instrument hummed, and a red light swept across the bookshelf.
He scanned through the Soul Beast Compendium, the Martial Soul Mutation Record, the Botany Record, the Mineral Record, and so on, sending the data directly to the base.
When Li Fulan glanced at a few yellowed and brittle old books, her eyes lit up. Although the words on the covers had faded, they were still legible—"Records of Mainland Herbs," "A Brief Compendium of Poisons," and "Compendium of Materia Medica."
It became.
I've got the medical texts.
He leaned back in his chair, crossed his legs, and started humming a little tune.
Yu Xiaogang, Yu Xiaogang, all the wealth you've accumulated over most of your life is now mine to enjoy.
Li Fulan heard a crisp "ding" sound in her ear, and the progress bar of the holographic scanner finally reached 100%.
"Done."
With a casual wave of his hand, the silver metal sphere that had been floating in the air obediently flew back into his palm, transforming into a stream of light and disappearing into his storage space. Looking at the treasure trove of knowledge he had just amassed, Li Fulan felt no remorse whatsoever. Instead, he felt a sense of sacredness, as if he were making a digital backup of it.
Just as he was about to pack up and leave, his gaze suddenly fell on a book in the most conspicuous position on his desk—"The Ten Core Competencies of Martial Soul: Manuscript".
"Since I've already come all this way, wouldn't it be impolite of me not to leave a souvenir?"
Li Fulan touched her chin, and that signature, chilling smile reappeared on her lips.
He thought of Tang San.
That "protagonist" with the soul of an adult, proficient in hidden weapons and poisons, and possessing a reserved and ruthless personality. Since we're all transmigrators—though Tang San doesn't know this—as a fellow townsman, how could I not give him a little something to say goodbye?
"System, get me a piece of aged parchment, the kind that looks like it was dug out of an ancient tomb thousands of years ago, with an aura of decay and mystery."
The next second, a yellowed parchment with worn edges, exuding a faint musty smell and the fragrance of ancient ink appeared in his hand.
Li Fulan picked up the quill pen that Yu Xiaogang used to jot down inspirations, dipped it in ink, took a deep breath, focused her energy, and began to write with flowing strokes.
At the very top of the paper, in an extremely vigorous and powerful handwriting that conveyed a sense of resolute determination, he wrote eight large characters:
To practice this skill, one must first castrate oneself.
After writing this line, Li Fulan almost couldn't help but laugh. This was a meme etched into the DNA of every Chinese man. He wondered what Tang San, a soul from an ancient martial arts world, would look like upon seeing it. Shock? Conflict? Or… eager to try it out?
"A title alone isn't enough; there needs to be some substance."
Li Fulan stopped laughing and began to write furiously below.
This time, he didn't write anything fabricated, but rather some real, practical information—the Quantum Meditation Method: A Misplaced Version.
He repackaged the simplified meditation method he had taught his students on the playground during the day into an obscure and difficult-to-understand ancient Chinese text. At first glance, it appeared to be an extremely profound technique that could harness the power of heaven and earth, triggering a resonance between the martial spirit and the primordial energy of heaven and earth through specific meridian pathways, thereby achieving a leap in soul power.
This part is true.
With just a little deduction, Tang San could discover its ingenuity, which would definitely make his treasured "Mysterious Heaven Skill" pale in comparison.
but.
Li Fulan made a tiny, almost imperceptible change at one of the most crucial meridian points.
He changed the soul energy vortex, which should have been running clockwise, to run counterclockwise.
This change doesn't show any problems at lower levels; it might even accelerate cultivation. However, as soul power levels increase, this reversed energy vortex becomes like a time bomb buried within the body. What happens at levels 30 or 40, or at crucial moments when breaking through bottlenecks…
boom.
He went mad from practicing qi cultivation, and his meridians were severed.
At best, it would mean the complete loss of one's cultivation; at worst, it would mean the body would explode and one would die.
"Perfect."
Li Fulan blew the ink off the paper, looked at this "peerless secret manual" full of malice and traps, and nodded in satisfaction.
"Tang San, Tang San, this is the 'Sunflower Manual' your teacher gave you. Although it doesn't have a second volume, the contents of the first volume alone are enough to give you a run for your money."
He carefully folded the parchment, then opened the manuscript of "The Ten Core Competencies of Martial Souls" and tucked it into the page about "the bottleneck in Blue Silver Grass cultivation".
This location was chosen in a very tricky way.
Tang San's biggest headache right now is the Blue Silver Grass's useless spirit attribute. He'll definitely search through Grandmaster's manuscripts to find a solution. When he turns to this page, he sees this "ancient fragment" tucked inside, seemingly unintentionally collected by Grandmaster...
Just thinking about that scene makes me tremble with excitement.
After doing all this, Li Fulan carefully examined the scene, wiping away all the fingerprints and traces she had left behind—except for the piece of paper, of course—then straightened her collar, hummed an unknown tune, and pushed open the door to leave.