Pu Jie was dumbfounded.
Although he didn't know why Yu Xiaogang insisted on Tang San absorbing the obviously mismatched spirit ring of the Black-Headed Yellow-Tailed Bee, his worldly-wise instincts could tell that Gangzi was saying one thing but meaning another.
Just a moment ago, his eyes were dodging, his face full of guilt, reluctance, and hesitation—
And the next second, he was spinning it as a divine gift, saying not absorbing it would be an insult to fate.
This… this, this…!
Truly a role model for our generation!
After all these years of blindly bootlicking, this was the first time Pu Jie genuinely felt respect for the Grandmaster.
He even began to feel that his cultivation was still too shallow—there was still room to improve!
In the shadows,
Nangong Lingyun's expression became one of pure joy.
He had deployed the Killer Bee purely on a "what if it works" whim. After all, it was far more obviously unsuitable than the Sawtooth Viper.
Gangzi may be pretending, but he's no idiot. Tang San may be naive, but he's not brain-dead.
What he had actually prepared for Tang San were spirit beasts like the Silver Ring Snake or the Poison Octopus.
Sure, they weren't as completely disastrous as the Killer Bee, but the chances of Tang San accepting and absorbing them were much higher.
Sure enough, Tang San did raise doubts.
But who could've predicted that Yu Dashi would deliver such a clutch assist?
Nangong Lingyun screamed in his heart:
"I hereby declare, today's MVP is the Grandmaster—undisputed master of bullshitting. Even pulled out the 'Child of Destiny' card—amazing!"
And Yu Xiaogang wasn't even done yet.
"Besides," he continued, "the Black-Headed Yellow-Tailed Bee isn't that incompatible.
Its venom targets blood vessels and the heart. Your first spirit ring, the Sawtooth Viper, mainly affects the bloodstream.
Xiao San, think carefully—what would happen if you combined the two?
That's right. The poison of the Blue Silver Grass would become unmatched."
"As for traits like toughness, we can improve those with your third or fourth spirit rings."
"You should know by now—you're not like other people.
The moment you were born with innate full spirit power, your path to Title Douluo was already set."
"So there's no need to focus on the effects or combat power of a single spirit ring."
"What matters is the synergy between all nine skills."
"The Black-Headed Yellow-Tailed Bee may not skyrocket Tang San's current power, but it can make the future Title Douluo Tang San's martial spirit even stronger."
The most outrageous yet oddly convincing thing about Yu Xiaogang was:
He always managed to use sound reasoning to reach catastrophically wrong conclusions.
Like that infamous line mocked by countless readers and fanfics alike:
"There are no useless martial spirits, only useless spirit masters."
Said in another context, the line isn't technically wrong.
After all, a spirit master's strength isn't solely determined by talent—hard work, luck, and personal choices also play key roles.
Take Ji Juechen, who had innate spirit power of only three, yet created his own sword techniques and mastered the Dragon-Slaying Sword Intent. He became a powerhouse among Title Douluos.
Or Huo Yuhao, with only one level of innate power, who later became the God King of Emotion.
Even Tang San's true innate spirit power wasn't that high.
But when it's a fifty-something-year-old who hasn't even broken through level 30 saying it, it's impossible not to roll your eyes into another dimension.
Everything Yu Xiaogang just said sounded legit in theory.
If you're a genius spirit master, choosing your rings with long-term development in mind is perfectly rational. No one could argue with that.
But here's the problem—if you attach a Black-Headed Yellow-Tailed Bee, will the Blue Silver Emperor even have a future?!
When Yu Xiaogang finished speaking,
Tang San furrowed his brows and began seriously thinking.
He tried to find flaws in his teacher's logic, but even after several minutes, he came up empty.
In fact, the more he thought about it, the more convinced he became.
The two sides were on completely different levels in terms of information. Gangzi was a master manipulator, and coupled with years of accumulated authority—
After a long silence, Tang San sighed deeply and resigned himself:
"Teacher, I'll listen to you."
Tang San pulled a long sword from the soul guide at his waist and sliced off the Killer Bee's head with a single strike. Then he sat cross-legged and began to absorb the spirit ring.
No one knew—
The real reason Tang San was so resistant to the Black-Headed Yellow-Tailed Bee wasn't because he understood martial spirit theory so well, or because he'd seen through Yu Dashi's trap.
It was because… he really wanted a spirit ring that granted an entangling skill. The Killer Bee clearly couldn't provide that.
After being schooled by Nangong Lingyun with this move repeatedly over the past two years, he was practically traumatized. In his mind, entangling was a god-tier skill.
…
This was his second time absorbing a spirit ring, so Tang San was already familiar with the process.
In just two hours, that yellow-orange ring of light enveloped his martial spirit.
Tang San slowly opened his eyes, a deep look of confusion in them.
Just like with his first ring,
Even though it was a poison-type spirit beast, and mediocre in every other regard,
The poison enhancement he got wasn't as strong as expected. Instead, his toughness and durability had improved significantly again.
This bizarre phenomenon—
Whether by conventional thinking or Yu Xiaogang's unconventional theories, it just couldn't be explained.
Could it be… there was some hidden secret within this so-called "trash" martial spirit Blue Silver Grass?
…
A few minutes later, Tang San used his Blue Silver Grass to absorb the Killer Bee's venom from Yu Dashi's body, still confused, and walked out.
In the treetop,
Nangong Lingyun gleefully opened his virtual screen.
No.1[You used mental power to control a mutated spirit beast, the venomous Killer Bee, to attack Tang San, injecting him with its deadly heart poison.Achievement Unlocked: [Sixteen Pits for San] – Pit Level: High.+800,000 Satisfaction Points]
No.2[You personally went to the Spirit Hunting Forest and snatched away the Ghost Vine that was meant to become Tang San's spirit ring—A vine that would've drastically boosted the Blue Silver Emperor's plant attributes, toughness, and devouring traits, and granted an ultimate soul skill: Spore Parasitism.]
[You then personally traveled to the Sunset Forest and carefully selected a "top-tier" spirit beast—the Black-Headed Yellow-Tailed Bee.While its venom potency ranks top-class, it contributes nothing to the host's physique or mental strength, and completely lacks the plant and vitality attributes the Blue Silver Emperor needs.As a result, Tang San's originally high-tier, near-peak quality martial spirit, the Blue Silver Emperor, suffered damage to its life essence.Its quality has now dropped to mid-tier, and the chance of a second awakening to Emperor status is near zero.Achievement Unlocked: [Seventeen Pits for San] – Pit Level: Super.+12,000,000 Satisfaction Points]
[Due to this, Tang San's martial spirit has not developed or evolved properly. His physique and spirit were not strengthened normally.Current Blue Silver Emperor strength is only 50% of its original version at the same stage.Physique is 3/7, Spirit is 4/7.Achievement Unlocked: [Eighteen Pits for San] – Pit Level: Top-Tier.+4,000,000 Satisfaction Points]
[Tang San ended up with a nearly useless second spirit ring and second spirit skill: Blue Silver Flying Leaf.Achievement Unlocked: [Nineteen Pits for San] – Pit Level: Top-Tier.+4,000,000 Satisfaction Points]
(End of Chapter)