Two years and three months later.
Early in the morning, Yang Yunhai woke up as usual, ready to get dressed.
Suddenly, he froze, then his face lit up with joy.
"Did I break through!?"
Naturally, he felt the soul power inside his body was full, pressing against a certain bottleneck.
He closed his eyes to sense carefully—yes, it was true.
Without a doubt, his soul power had broken through to rank 10.
Counting the time, from awakening his martial soul until reaching rank 10, it had taken him a little over two and a half years.
Not fast, not slow. It should even be slightly quicker than Yu Xiaogang of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, who had family resources supporting him.
Why did he think so?
In the original story, during the fight between the Shrek Seven Devils and Heaven Dou Imperial Academy, Yu Tianheng had mentioned that he remembered being carried as a child by Yu Xiaogang, who gave him a relatively happy childhood, and so he respected Yu Xiaogang deeply.
Humans usually start remembering around 3 years old. At that time Yu Tianheng was at least 18 or 19. Add it up, he should've been at least 21.
This meant Yu Xiaogang, at around 20 years old, was still in the clan and received his first two soul rings under the clan's support. That was why his first two rings were of optimal years.
As for when he left, Yang Yunhai guessed it was when he hit bottleneck at rank 29. If he could've broken through, with a clan leader father backing him, with resources supplied endlessly, why would he leave? Even if people mocked him, he could have kept cultivating.
The most likely reason: too long stuck at rank 29, unable to advance, until the pressure became unbearable.
Yu Xiaogang himself once said to Tang San: rank 30 is a threshold, and if you can't break through it before age 20, it's extremely hard after. That wasn't just theory—it was from his own life.
So Yu Xiaogang very likely reached rank 29 before age 20, then got stuck.
After enduring clan gossip for years, he finally left, went to Spirit Hall to research, met Bibi Dong, broke up, then later met Flender and Liu Erlong. In the end, Flender founded Shrek Academy and Liu Erlong founded Blue Tyrant Academy.
And it was well-known Shrek had existed for 20 years by the time Tang San joined.
Adding all this together, Yu Xiaogang had lived in the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan for about 20 years, Shrek had 20 years of history, plus his time in Spirit Hall and wandering… easily over 40 years total. Which matched his age in the story.
This also supported the guess: Yu Xiaogang had reached rank 29 before 20, then stalled.
From 0.5 innate soul power to rank 29, a difference of 28.5 levels. He awakened at 6 years old and spent under 14 years to reach rank 29. That meant an average of over 2 levels a year.
And since soul power gets harder to advance later, from rank 0 to 10 should've been the fastest stage. By comparison, Yang Yunhai's own breakthrough didn't seem much faster at all.
Yu Xiaogang had clan resources. He had lightning tempering.
The only difference might be that he worked even harder.
'Fine, I'm still just trash…'
Suppressing his earlier excitement, he got dressed, washed, and ate breakfast before running straight to the Dean's office.
Inside the office:
"Blue Silver Grass can advance this fast?" Director Su was shocked when Yang Yunhai asked for leave to obtain his first soul ring.
In a great clan, if someone with only 0.5 innate soul power advanced to rank 10 in just two and a half years, he might believe it. Soul power before rank 10 was the easiest to cultivate.
But Yang Yunhai was just a commoner soul master. In this small city with no resources, reaching rank 10 so quickly was hard to believe.
Still, with Tang San and Xiao Wu shining in front of everyone, he had paid more attention to dorm seven. He knew Yang Yunhai was diligent, always training in the back mountain filled with Blue Silver Grass, spending afternoons and long nights cultivating. A true training fanatic.
Yet he didn't expect him to really reach rank 10 so fast—with Blue Silver Grass of all martial souls.
What a pity it was Blue Silver Grass. Director Su studied him up and down and sighed inwardly before speaking:
"Student Yang Yunhai, your leave request is approved."
"But I must remind you—think carefully before joining Spirit Hall."
Yang Yunhai came from Lone Grass Village, where the village chief was a retired Spirit Hall deacon, his sons and grandsons all Spirit Hall soul masters. Yang Yunhai wasn't asking the academy for help, but clearly intended to return to the village and rely on the chief to obtain a stronger hundred-year soul ring.
There was no way a team would take someone with Blue Silver Grass. So that was the only option.
"Not only Spirit Hall—any sect or power. Joining a soul master force has benefits, but you'll lose freedom. And with your martial soul and talent, even if you joined, you wouldn't get nurtured. Worse, you might even lose your life." Director Su rarely spoke this much, but Yang Yunhai's diligence had moved him.
"You're still young, maybe you don't understand. But until you know what future you want, don't rush into any power."
'Find a small academy, become a teacher, collect stipends every month. That'd be a good life.' Director Su thought to himself.
Even Yu Xiaogang, the so-called Grandmaster of theory, had failed to surpass rank 30. He didn't believe Yang Yunhai ever could.
"Yes, I'll think carefully. Thank you for the reminder." Yang Yunhai bowed politely.
Seeing he took it seriously, Director Su smiled and nodded. "Good. You may go. I hope you find a suitable soul ring."
Knock knock! The door opened with a creak.
They both turned—it was Yu Xiaogang.
"Director Su, I came to pick up this year's student martial soul records."
"Grandmaster, just in time." Director Su stood with a smile, then glanced at Yang Yunhai. "This child just broke through rank 10. Perhaps you can give some advice—what soul beast should he hunt?"
(End of Chapter)
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