"BANG! BANG! BANG!"
The door shook violently under the pounding.
Zhu Zhuqing bolted away like she had been electrocuted.
Tang Lan had expected this.
He opened the door.
Liu Erlong's red-rimmed eyes locked onto Tang Lan, filled with expectation.
"Xiaogang—it's time for you to fulfill your promise!"
"Then no matter what happens next, keep your mouth shut." Tang Lan warned her in advance. "Otherwise, if this fails, don't blame me."
"What are you going to do?!" Liu Erlong tensed up. "Xiaogang doesn't respond well to force—don't be too harsh on him!"
Oh, come on.
Even now, you're still defending that guy?
Truly hopeless.
Tang Lan couldn't be bothered with more nonsense.
He walked past Liu Erlong, heading straight for Yu Xiaogang, who was standing in the hotel lobby, frozen in place.
Seeing Tang Lan,
Yu Xiaogang immediately snapped, "You used my name to take Blue Tyrant Academy from Erlong?! You—"
"BAM—!"
Tang Lan punched him clean across the room.
Liu Erlong, who had followed closely behind, immediately saw red!
Her Fire Dragon Martial Soul flared to life, and she was about to lash out in fury—
"If you attack me now, I'll drop this matter entirely." Tang Lan didn't even look back as he spoke.
Liu Erlong froze in place!
She turned, looking at Yu Xiaogang struggling to get up, and forcibly swallowed her anger.
…There was still hope.
The best way to control a love-brained woman was through the man she loved.
Then—
Tang Lan kicked Yu Xiaogang back down.
And sneered—
"So, the great Grandmaster is just a coward, huh?"
"The Holy Maiden of Spirit Hall abandoned everything for you, and you ran."
"Now, Liu Erlong doesn't care about worldly judgment, and you're still running?"
Straight to the heart!
Yu Xiaogang's face turned bright red!
"You don't understand anything!" he roared. "Neither of them were my choice!"
"Oh?" Tang Lan raised an eyebrow. "Was it forced by your master? Or is it because of your family bloodline?"
Yu Xiaogang's head snapped up!
How did he know?!
These were his deepest secrets, the things he could never bring himself to speak about.
How did Tang Lan know?!
"Yu Xiaogang! You're nothing but a fraud who craves fame!"
Tang Lan let loose.
"From the start, you wanted to take me as a disciple just to test your so-called theories."
"When I refused to be convinced, you turned to Tang San instead."
"You got yourself a genius student—so what? If he becomes strong, does that really have anything to do with you?"
"The truly great teachers are the ones who turn ordinary soul masters into Titled Douluos!"
"For the sake of your 'theories,' you ignored Tang San's future—
You rejected the invitation from the Imperial Academy and sent him to Shrek instead?"
"The Imperial Academy had a Contra overseeing it, funding from the Heaven Dou Empire, and a Platinum Bishop from Spirit Hall to assist in teaching."
"Resources? They had it. Guidance? They had it. Connections? They had it.
"What did Shrek Academy have?"
"And what kind of teacher tells their students to stir up trouble wherever they go, claiming that 'not causing trouble is cowardly'?"
Tang Lan unleashed a torrent of criticism,
leaving not a single shred of dignity intact.
Even Yu Xiaogang's precious "Ten Core Soul Theories" were dissected, broken apart, and thrown in the trash.
He was completely trashed.
Yu Xiaogang sat there, stunned, questioning everything he had ever believed.
Was he really this useless?
Liu Erlong stood frozen, her fists clenched, her whole body shaking violently.
—Her beloved was being torn apart by words.
And yet—she couldn't refute a single thing.
Because deep down, she was starting to wonder—
Was Xiaogang really always right?
Once Tang Lan had vented enough,
he saw Yu Xiaogang's crumbling world-view and knew it was time to switch gears.
Any more, and he'd have to bring up Bibi Dong,
which would definitely send Liu Erlong into a rampage.
He pivoted back to the main point—
"Tell me, Yu Xiaogang—who cares about your love life?"
"You keep going on about 'sibling relationships are forbidden,' but do you think people care that much about your existence?"
"You think the world revolves around you?"
"If I see two soul beasts walking side by side, do you think I stop to investigate whether they're blood-related?"
"Who has that kind of free time?"
"Or is it that your entire issue with Liu Erlong… is just an excuse?"
Yu Xiaogang trembled!
Something flickered in his eyes—
a desperate attempt to grasp at clarity…
"Y-you mean—"
"You still don't get it?!"
Tang Lan grabbed him by the collar and spat in his face—
"As long as you two aren't actually a married couple, what the hell does it matter if your relationship is close?!"
BOOM.
Yu Xiaogang felt like he'd been struck by lightning.
He sat there, completely stunned.
Liu Erlong was just as dumbfounded.
—She had never even thought of it that way.
But then—
Yu Xiaogang's brief moment of clarityfaded.
His gaze dimmed again.
"I'm just a failure. Do I even deserve Erlong?"
"No!"
"That wouldn't be fair to Erlong. Loving someone doesn't mean you have to possess them—I just want her to be happy…"
"SLAP—!"
Tang Lan delivered a powerful backhand slap, sending Yu Xiaogang spinning through the air, completing two full rotations before crashing to the ground like a dead dog.
Liu Erlong's emotions conflicted—
She felt both heartache and immense satisfaction!
Want her to be happy?
"Are you a f*cking idiot?!" Tang Lan was utterly fed up. "Liu Erlong waited for you for twenty years—has she been happy?"
"No! You just didn't have the guts to face public judgment!"
"Stop pretending to be a noble man—what's wrong with being an honest scoundrel?"
"Yu Xiaogang, when you plagiarized Spirit Hall's theories, you weren't exactly holding yourself back, were you?"
"And—"
"You're no longer the so-called number one theorist of martial souls. You have nothing left to be proud of."
As he spoke,
Tang Lan tossed a copy of the Tang Sect Encyclopedia onto the ground.
"Read it carefully."
Yu Xiaogang hesitated, then picked up the book.
As he flipped through the pages, his eyes widened in shock!
Having been out in the wilderness with the team for some time,
this was his first time seeing the widely circulated Tang Sect Encyclopedia.
And now that he saw it—
Its theories completely shattered his own.
Many of the knowledge points inside were things he had never even heard of!
It was a true textbook for soul masters!
He flipped through the pages like a madman, his face becoming more and more unhinged.
It was over.
His only remaining pride—being the number one theorist—
was completely gone!
What status did he have left now?
He was just a failure—forgotten by the world.
Tang Lan, seeing Yu Xiaogang's mental breakdown,
felt utterly refreshed.
Satisfied, he stepped back and gestured to Liu Erlong, signaling her to go comfort him.
This time, Yu Xiaogang didn't resist.
Self-importance?
Public opinion?
He had nothing left.
This—
was the "fight fire with fire" treatment.
If Yu Xiaogang clung to his status,
then Tang Lan would prove that he was a complete nobody.
If he was just a worthless man,
who the hell would care about his love life?
Only one person.
"Xiaogang," Liu Erlong whispered gently. "Who cares if the whole world calls you a failure? As long as I, Liu Erlong, think you're the greatest, isn't that enough?"
That—
was the final push Yu Xiaogang needed.
He finally let go of everything, clinging to Liu Erlong like a drowning man grabbing a lifeline.
—Yet even at this point, he still didn't have the guts to take the initiative.
But to Liu Erlong, that wasn't a problem.
She was overjoyed!
She gripped his hand tightly, afraid that if she let go, he'd run again.
Seeing this,
Tang Lan turned and left without hesitation.
He couldn't stand watching any longer.
—A beautiful flower thrown into a pile of cow dung.
Unacceptable!
He needed to vent his frustration.
So—
Tang Lan went straight to Zhu Zhuqing's room!
(End of Chapter.)