Douluo Continent: Dragon's Journey Across the World

Chapter 14 The Innate Difference in Soul Power

Just as Yu Xiaogang was enjoying the compliments from the two, Director Su suddenly thought of something: "Dean, Yang Ping'an from our academy is actually quite good. Although he has only entered the fifth grade, his soul power is already at level eight. He should be able to become a soul master before graduation."

Dean Wu was puzzled: "Yang Ping'an? That's unlikely. I remember that his innate soul power was only half a level. Even if he trained hard for four years, it would be impossible for him to reach level eight. That means that in those four years, he could increase his soul power by nearly two levels per year on average? Even some of the outstanding students in our school can probably only achieve this kind of improvement."

Director Su quickly said, "This should be correct. Every year at the end of the year, all students have to take final exams and soul power tests. Yang Ping'an's academic performance is the best in the whole grade. When he took the exam at the end of last year, his soul power was already at level eight. I personally tested him."

Dean Wu was somewhat relieved after hearing this: "If that's really the case, then Yang Ping'an's performance is quite good. He should be able to become a Soul Master before graduation. I remember that our school has never had a student with half a level of innate Soul Power successfully graduate."

Director Su nodded: "Our academy does not have any students with innate soul power who can graduate. Normally, one needs to have level three innate soul power to become a soul master before graduation. Even with level two innate soul power, only a few students can reach the threshold of graduation."

"Director Su, could you please give this student special attention? That way, we'll have one more graduate."

……

Yu Xiaogang listened to the conversation between Dean Wu and Director Su, his face appearing somewhat cold.

Yu Xiaogang recalled his own cultivation experience. As the son of the Blue Lightning Tyrannosaurus Clan patriarch, he received a lot of resources from the clan, but his improvement speed didn't seem to be this fast. Yang Ping'an's martial soul and innate soul power level were exactly the same as his, but his environment was worse than his, so how could his improvement be faster than his?

However, when Yu Xiaogang thought of his apprentice Tang San, his expression immediately relaxed: "Dean Wu, the kid you mentioned may be good, but he is only at the half-level of innate soul power. His soul power may increase relatively quickly in the early stage, but his rate of increase will likely slow down soon. After all, the level of innate soul power and martial soul determine the upper limit of a soul master, which is a universally acknowledged fact in the soul master world."

Upon hearing this, Dean Wu and Director Su fell silent. What Yu Xiaogang said was indeed reasonable and a fact universally acknowledged in the Soul Master community.

Director Su seemed a little embarrassed, but Dean Wu quickly smoothed things over: "What the master said makes sense, but as teachers at the junior soul master academy, being able to watch our students grow is the greatest achievement for us."

Seeing the expressions on their faces, Yu Xiaogang didn't say anything more.

However, after returning to his dormitory, he hurriedly flipped through various books and searched for a lot of Soul Master training data, but he couldn't find any similar records at all. At least, no student with half a level of innate Soul Power could become a Soul Master before graduating from elementary school.

The next morning, when Tang San arrived at Yu Xiaogang's place to study, he noticed Yu Xiaogang looking rather busy and immediately asked, "Teacher, what materials are you organizing? Is it important?"

After spending time together, Yu Xiaogang has gained Tang San's trust, especially since respecting teachers was the top priority in Tang San's previous life's teachings at the Tang Sect.

Upon seeing Tang San arrive, Yu Xiaogang seemed to remember something and quickly asked, "Xiao San, there seems to be a student named Yang Ping'an in the fifth grade of your school. Have you heard of him?"

Tang San looked a little puzzled: "Teacher, this Yang Ping'an is considered an oddball in the academy. It is said that his cultivation aptitude is extremely poor, his innate soul power is only half a level, and his martial soul is also very strange. However, his academic performance is excellent, and he is very hardworking. In the four years since he entered the academy, he has always been a loner and has never interacted with anyone. He is very aloof."

"When I went to the blacksmith shop a few days ago, I think I saw him working at the blacksmith shop on the next street. And this guy was very strange. He actually summoned his martial spirit and put it on the blacksmith's workbench to sleep."

Yu Xiaogang asked in surprise, "What did you say? He summoned his martial soul, the Purple-Gold Mastiff, and placed it on the blacksmith's workbench? What's the purpose of that?"

Tang San simply shook his head; he didn't understand why Yang Ping'an did that either.

The master and apprentice were completely baffled. After some discussion, they decided to go to the site to take a look.

When the two arrived at the blacksmith shop where Yang Ping'an worked in the afternoon, they saw Yang Ping'an working hard at forging, while the golden mastiff was sleeping soundly on the empty workbench next to him.

When Yu Xiaogang and his companion arrived, the golden mastiff seemed to smell something special. It suddenly opened its eyes, sniffed carefully, but only for a few moments before ignoring it.

After observing for a while, Yu Xiaogang and his companion found that the golden mastiff didn't seem to be acting strangely. Apart from occasionally opening its eyes halfway, it seemed quite relaxed and enjoying itself.

Yang Ping'an seemed to sense a gaze from the shadows, turned around and saw that it was Yu Xiaogang and Tang San.

However, Yang Ping'an did not show any unusual expression, but simply continued working in silence.

Over the next few days, Yu Xiaogang came to the blacksmith's shop every day, but each time he only stood at a distance and observed carefully for a long time before giving up when he found nothing.

After seeing Yu Xiaogang leave, Yang Ping'an sneered inwardly: This Yu Xiaogang claims to be a master, but he doesn't even understand his own martial spirit and cultivation methods, leaving the Purple Gold Mastiff with nothing but empty talk. He's just a name without substance.

Through these four years of training, especially after the Purple-Gold Mastiff spent four years in the blacksmith shop, Yang Ping'an could clearly feel the Purple-Gold Mastiff's growth.

Especially after the Purple Gold Mastiff spends a pleasant afternoon at the blacksmith's shop and is then recalled into its body, the growth of this martial spirit seems to benefit its own body.

In normal Soul Master cultivation, theoretically speaking, within the same major realm, the cultivation speed should decrease as the Soul Power level increases.

Yang Ping'an, on the contrary, always felt that his cultivation was slightly faster than when he first started. Even if the improvement was very small, it would still be noticeable over the years.

For example, in the past year, his soul power has increased by two levels, or even more than two levels. When he first started cultivating, he could only increase by less than two levels in a year. Yang Ping'an is now quite confident that he can break through to level ten when he graduates from the fifth grade. Of course, this does not take into account the final bottleneck of level ten.

As Yang Ping'an delved deeper into his reading over the past few years, he gained a better understanding of the Soul Master cultivation system and felt that the Soul Master world was unpredictable. In his previous life, he had only gained a superficial understanding of the original work.

Of course, it was only after these years of study that I realized just how terrifying the talents of those Soul Masters with innate full Soul Power were, and how great the difference was between innate Soul Power.

But Yang Ping'an himself is very confident that as long as he has enough time, he will definitely not be worse than those geniuses in the future.

(End of this chapter)