Wu Zhangkong brought the three students into his office.
The room was pitifully small, barely ten square meters. Aside from a desk, a bookcase, and a single chair, there was barely any space left.
"When I called you all useless just now, I meant you three, too."
The cold opening line from the aloof ice prince immediately made all three of their expressions shift slightly.
No reward at all? Not even a bit of praise?
Wu Zhangkong turned to Tang Wulin.
"You did fine today, but you still didn't fully utilize your advantages. Your Blue Silver Grass has mutated, hasn't it? Its tenacity is above average. However, your soul power is far too low, and you can't sustain it for long. In that kind of situation, if your opponent has more soul power than you, your odds of winning drop sharply. Right now, your priority should be raising your cultivation."
Tang Wulin replied helplessly,
"But Teacher Wu, I'm also learning forging…"
Wu Zhangkong's brow twitched.
"Forging? You're a soul master—what are you doing learning forging? A clumsy bird needs to fly early to reach the forest. You're already a clumsy bird, and you still want to waste time on meaningless things?"
Tang Wulin lowered his head.
"But… everyone says my martial soul is trash. And my soul spirit isn't good either…"
Wu Zhangkong cut him off directly.
"So you've decided to become a forger instead? Nonsense. Listen up—you're my student now, and unless I declare you a lost cause, you'd better devote yourself fully to the path of a soul master."
Off to the side, Xie Xie's mouth twitched.
Didn't you call us all trash five minutes ago?
Still, watching Tang Wulin get scolded did give him a tiny bit of satisfaction.
Serves you right for punching me in the face twice.
"...Okay." Tang Wulin responded quietly.
Of course, he wouldn't give up forging. The sense of accomplishment he gained from it was irreplaceable. With his martial soul, all he ever experienced was defeat and humiliation.
Wu Zhangkong turned his cold gaze to Xie Xie.
"What are you smirking at? You think you're any better than him? Hiding your twin martial souls is fun for you? You've got soul power at the eighteenth rank, sure, but isn't that mostly thanks to your inborn advantage? Full innate soul power, right? Feeling proud of yourself?"
Xie Xie looked up, stunned.
How… how does he know all that!?
Wu Zhangkong's voice was icy.
"Don't flatter yourself. There are plenty of useless twin martial soul holders in history. As an agility-type battle soul master, you used both your martial souls today and couldn't even get close to your opponent. Is that something to be proud of?"
"I…"
Xie Xie flushed bright red, unable to respond.
Tang Wulin, still curious, asked,
"Teacher, what's a twin martial soul?"
Wu Zhangkong frowned.
"What were your primary school teachers doing, sleeping through lectures? You've never heard of twin martial souls?"
He continued,
"Twin martial souls mean having two martial spirits. The benefits are obvious—people with twin spirits are usually born with full innate soul power. It makes cultivation easier, and both martial souls can have soul rings attached."
"However, since entering the soul spirit era, that advantage has been greatly limited by spiritual power. No human's spirit is strong enough to support eighteen soul rings' worth of soul spirits. Unless you're someone like the first generation Tower Master of the Spirit Pagoda—whose martial soul itself was spiritual, and each soul spirit was powerful enough to carry multiple rings."
Tang Wulin looked toward Xie Xie.
We're both human—why's the gap so ridiculous? I've got a "trash" martial soul, and he's out here with twin spirits.
Wu Zhangkong suddenly turned to him again.
"You think his martial soul is better than yours?"
Tang Wulin hesitated—wasn't it obvious?
Wu Zhangkong snorted.
"Not necessarily. His martial soul is a dagger. His second one is likely too, just hidden. Daggers have a short attack range—what use are they in modern mech combat? Among all combat professions, agility types face the most restrictions once they become mecha pilots. On the other hand, control-type soul masters are the ones whose martial spirits provide the most aid in mecha battles."
Xie Xie's eyes widened in disbelief.
What the hell—is Tang Wulin your son or something!? Why are you tearing me down to boost his confidence? This is so unfair!
Wu Zhangkong turned to Nan Fusheng.
"As for you, Nan Fusheng—your performance today was commendable. But you've also revealed your weaknesses. You're far too dependent on your soul skill. No ability is flawless."
"What if you run into an opponent who can counter your skill? What then? From what I've seen, your technique needs cast time and requires spiritual locking, right? Now imagine you're facing a spiritual-type soul master, like the once-legendary Ice Spirit Douluo Huo Yuhao. You think you'd be faster than him?"
"I understand, Teacher Wu," Nan Fusheng replied.
He didn't argue—because he could tell what Wu Zhangkong was doing.
This wasn't about correcting mistakes.
This was targeted pressure—classic PUA tactics, designed to suppress their egos and grind away their arrogance.
Still, Nan Fusheng had to admit, Wu Zhangkong wasn't wrong. His soul skill did have this vulnerability.
But ultimately, Wu Zhangkong's perspective was too limited.
After all, Tang Wulin was already capable of Thousand Refinements at the age of nine. That level of talent in forging was practically unheard of, even in the forging world. If Wu Zhangkong ever said something like "don't waste time on forging" in front of Tang Wulin's forging teacher, he'd probably be hunted down.
As for Nan Fusheng's first soul skill, what people saw wasn't the real thing.
What he showed the world was "Steal," a modified soul skill derived from his Time Worm martial soul. This was something he had carefully developed. His actual soul skill, if exposed, would immediately label him a dark soul master, or at the very least cause people to avoid him like the plague.
No one liked the idea of being parasitized.
So he deliberately only revealed "Steal", a power he knew he'd be using often in the future.
What he claimed it did: Temporarily steal a target's consciousness, causing them to faint for a few seconds. The effect varied depending on the strength of each party's mental power.
What it was:
First Soul Skill: Time Theft.
This allowed him to steal a segment of another person's consciousness. Depending on the mental gap, it could vary in duration and effectiveness.
But there was a hidden cost.
As a Sequence 5 Dream Stealer, Nan Fusheng could extract others' desires, dreams, and even memories. He could snatch a thought someone was about to act on, causing momentary confusion in his target.
However, he couldn't keep the thought.
Instead, he was forced to act it out himself.
For example, if he and Xie Xie stood at the edge of a cliff, and Xie Xie had the intent to jump, Nan Fusheng could steal that thought, causing Xie Xie to momentarily freeze.
But Nan Fusheng would then be the one jumping off the cliff.
That was a huge risk.
Luckily, during his testing, he discovered that he could delegate the cost to either his martial soul or soul spirit.
So if he "stole" someone's urge to jump, he could let his Time Worm act out the motion, taking the psychological and energetic backlash instead of himself.
This workaround made his ability far more viable—and dangerous.