Lin Tianyang anxiously said, "Dad! He's my disciple!"
"You're still my son, and he's just a disciple." The dean scoffed dismissively.
"Giving him to you, what's it to me? Can't you just find another one?"
Lin Tianyang panted heavily. "Then go find me another genius who can react this fast and level up three times in a month and a half!"
"I've been working hard to teach Fang Ling for months. Isn't it a bit much for you to just come and reap the rewards?"
The dean sneered, "Look at what you've taught him, just misleading the boy with your lack of skill."
"He was able to land a strike on you! How does that count as misleading him?"
"You ignored endurance and strength training, which take long-term effort, and didn't work on his flexibility, which greatly enhances combat agility and evasiveness?"
"I was correcting his technique errors first. That training comes later…"
The two started to argue. Meanwhile, Fang Ling quietly slipped over to his dumbfounded master's wife and tugged at her sleeve.
"Master's wife."
She pinched Fang Ling's cheek. "Those two argue all the time. It looks serious, but it's never really a big deal… probably."
"Probably…"
Fang Ling watched as the two activated their martial souls and went all out in a fight.
In the end, Lin Tianyang was beaten black and blue, losing unsurprisingly. He reluctantly reached an agreement with his father.
Fang Ling would still be Lin Tianyang's disciple, but the dean would take over most of the teaching.
Lin Tianyang would also have to train alongside him and undergo rigorous cultivation.
The idea was to correct his lazy and undisciplined nature from the past few years.
He had participated in the Soul Master Tournament at age 24, already at level 39.
By age 28, he reached level 46, gaining seven levels in four years.
That's less than two levels per year.
Fang Ling gained three levels in just a month and a half.
Although cultivation difficulty increases over time, he was only at the Soul Sect level.
It's not like the drastic slowdowns that occur after level 60.
He had been far too indulgent in a life of comfort!
Even though the dean wanted grandchildren, in the world of Soul Masters, strength is what truly matters. To protect family, one must cultivate diligently.
That was the gist of the long speech the dean gave to Lin Tianyang.
Besides, Fang Ling needed a sparring partner.
They couldn't expect the old man to keep fighting him just to build up his missing combat experience.
Time flew by, and two months passed in the blink of an eye.
With Lin Tianyang fully cooperating and Shuman Yun always on standby to heal any injuries from training,
Fang Ling's lack of combat experience was quickly addressed.
His scythe technique hadn't made a breakthrough during his previous spar with the dean, Lin Yuehua.
But in these two months of intense fighting with his teacher Lin Tianyang, he finally made a major breakthrough.
Scythe Technique Lv2 → Lv3 (Skill Specialization: Deeper instruction has made you more proficient in various scythe techniques. Although your combat skills are still at the beginner level, your overall combat power already surpasses most people.)
Scythe Technique Level 3 wasn't particularly powerful, Fang Ling's mastery was still only rated as beginner on the panel.
However, with his natural talent for combat and enhanced reflexes, he could wield it as if it were Level 4.
And he had a hunch: Level 4 would be a new milestone.
With the breakthrough in scythe technique, it was only natural that his movement technique improved too.
With guidance from his grandmaster and tough training focused on flexibility, his movement technique also advanced.
Movement Technique Lv2 → Lv3 (Skill Specialization: Increased body flexibility allows you to perform more evasive maneuvers and attack more fluidly. This is the current limit of your movement technique. The loss of the lower part of your left leg prevents further progress.)
His crippled leg limited his movement technique, there was no way around it.
Even though the prosthetic was made of higher-grade material, it was still an ordinary artificial limb, not a high-tech cybernetic prosthesis.
Fang Ling wasn't surprised, he had long prepared for this.
Before coming here, he had borrowed maps from the Spirit Hall in Nuoding City, not in vain.
After realizing he was in the Douluo Continent, he didn't remember much else, but due to his disabled leg, he clearly recalled the location of the Blue Silver Emperor's right leg bone, which could regenerate limbs.
It was in a stretch of continuous mountains near Holy Soul Village.
The outer mountain walls were extremely steep, almost vertically aligned with the ground.
At the location of a pool, there was also a waterfall 20 meters wide and 200 meters tall.
The map provided by Spirit Hall wasn't very detailed, but river paths and mountain formations were marked.
Such a large waterfall would obviously be included.
It wasn't exactly nearby, but also not too far.
A 20-meter-wide and 200-meter-high waterfall would require a massive water source, only a large river could support that.
At first, he followed the river downstream to find it, but failed.
That meant the waterfall came from a large underground river, following the source wouldn't work.
So Fang Ling started reasoning in reverse.
The waterfall emptied into a pool, but the pool wasn't overflowing. Where did the water go?
It could only be draining into an underground river.
And there just happened to be a river emerging from a series of steep mountains, coming from underground.
With all that, he easily pinpointed the mountain area with both a large waterfall and a pool on the map.
Unfortunately, he couldn't retrieve it yet.
Climbing the mountain and entering the cave behind the midsection of the waterfall aside.
Tang San was still in Nuoding City during this time, which meant Tang Hao likely lingered around those two locations.
If they crossed paths, Fang Ling would die without a doubt.
Even if Tang Hao hadn't fully recovered, he could still smash him into pulp with a single blow.
Fang Ling didn't believe he had any way of avoiding the perception of a Title Douluo.
What to do?
Wait.
In four years, Tang San would leave for Soto City to join Shrek Academy, and Tang Hao would follow him.
He'd seen the test during the day, and at night, Tang Hao even beat up Zhao Wuji.
The distance between those two places was far, even a Title Douluo wouldn't travel back and forth daily. That would be the best time to obtain the soul bone.
For now, he would make do with the prosthetic.
He just needed to stay in the shadows and bide his time until the right opportunity arose.
Fang Ling was tenacious and didn't rely on luck. He had patience.
Aside from the two skill breakthroughs, his strength and endurance also grew remarkably.
The dean's training focused more on the basics.
After some thought, Fang Ling revealed a shocking fact to them: he could eat a lot and absorb it quickly, one meal equaled three.
All three of them were stunned beyond words.
Efficient energy absorption meant stronger physical development and the ability to acquire higher-level spirit rings.
A strong "hardware" foundation was essential to fully unleash scythe techniques.
Otherwise, he'd only be able to dodge and counterattack passively, like now.
Likewise, stronger hardware meant more efficient killing and leveling up.
At the dean and teacher's request, he now ate five meals a day.
Since his master's wife, a healing-type Soul Exalt, was always on standby, and he had plenty of energy, the dean and teacher pushed his training to the extreme, almost inhumanely.
In just two short months, his strength and endurance improved dramatically.
Fang Ling could now grip the scythe with both hands and barely block a standard downward slash from Lin Tianyang.
The Flowing Wind Blade wasn't known for raw power, but Lin Tianyang was a Soul Sect, empowered by four spirit rings.
And a downward slash from above was one of the most powerful types of strikes.
Even an ordinary swing could easily kill a regular person.
Fang Ling being able to withstand it was proof of his astonishing growth.
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