When it came to Martial Souls and spirit rings, Zhou Qing immediately got excited.
This left Tang San feeling a little helpless.
After all, none of them had even awakened their Martial Souls yet!
Still, from Tang San's perspective, knowing these things in advance wasn't necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it could even help him walk a better path in the future.
"All right, that's enough. Time to head back."
Tang San cut Zhou Qing off, halting his enthusiasm.
But Zhou Qing was still brimming with excitement. "I have a theory. Soul Masters cultivate by circulating soul power within their bodies, enhancing speed and strength. This might actually count as a kind of soul skill—just a weaker one, which is why it's not considered a formal soul skill. And what if soul beasts are able to unleash their abilities because they possess unique internal soul power circuits based on their species?"
"And the reason soul rings contain a soul beast's skills is because they preserve the beast's soul power circuit used to unleash that ability?"
"So when a Soul Master obtains a soul ring and gains its skill, it's essentially because their Martial Soul forms a connection between their own internal soul power network and the soul circuit encoded in the ring?"
"Martial Souls are incredible!"
Tang San was left utterly stunned as he listened.
He had never expected Zhou Qing to deduce something so advanced just from watching a soul ring shatter.
Thinking deeper, the techniques described in the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record—with the Mysterious Heaven Skill as its core—focused on linking the body's meridians and acupoints. Even side techniques like Purple Demon Eye, Mysterious Jade Hand, Controlling Crane Catching Dragon, and Ghost Shadow Perplexing Step each had their own internal energy flow routes, yet all seamlessly connected with the Mysterious Heaven Skill.
This was remarkably similar to how Soul Masters cultivated soul power through meditation, established internal flow routes via Martial Souls, and then added soul skills after acquiring soul rings.
The theory matched perfectly.
The only difference was:
The Mysterious Heaven Skill and those four techniques formed a fully integrated system. They didn't need a Martial Soul as a central connector—they were one unified whole.
As the Mysterious Heaven Skill improved, so too did the strength of the techniques tied to it.
In contrast, the skills granted by soul rings didn't seem to scale up in power as the Soul Master leveled up. At most, a Soul Master could increase soul power output to enhance usage frequency and sustain skills longer.
One path relied on the quantity of soul power.
The other continuously enhanced the efficiency and strength of skills themselves.
And Tang San was certain:
His method was superior.
If he treated Purple Demon Eye, Mysterious Jade Hand, Controlling Crane Catching Dragon, and Ghost Shadow Perplexing Step as soul skills, then they were essentially four evolving soul skills that would grow stronger with his cultivation!
Especially Purple Demon Eye—it could work in tandem with the Mysterious Heaven Skill or be cultivated on its own. It was a supreme method for strengthening both vision and spiritual power.
"I just thought of something else!"
Zhou Qing continued, eyes sparkling. "What if, after obtaining a soul ring and mastering its skill, a Soul Master could bypass the Martial Soul as the 'central connector'—and instead directly link their own internal soul power circuit to the soul ring's encoded skill circuit? Wouldn't that allow the soul skill to truly become part of the Soul Master's own cultivation, letting it grow stronger over time?"
Tang San opened his mouth, at a loss for words.
Was such a thing even possible?
When he silently asked himself that question...
He found himself thinking: Yes, it just might be.
After all, the relationship between the Mysterious Heaven Skill and those four techniques was exactly like that.
In theory, if the method was discovered, Soul Masters might truly be able to make the skills of soul beasts their own—no longer needing a Martial Soul or soul ring as a medium.
[Zhou Qing, you're incredible.]
Tang San sincerely praised him in his heart.
At the very least—
In all the books Zhou Qing's family had bought about Martial Souls and Soul Masters, none of them mentioned anything like this. And based on what he'd seen in Wuhun Hall's Beginner Meditation Manual, Tang San seriously doubted that the major sects or clans in this world had reached such a conceptual level.
Even if some had glimpsed this idea, it could never match the perfect system embodied by the Mysterious Heaven Skill and its companion techniques.
"Aah, I can't wait to awaken my Martial Soul! Then I can head to Nuoding City and buy more books!" Zhou Qing sighed wistfully. It was also a subtle expression of his frustration with the current state of Saint Spirit Village—and the Douluo Continent at large.
Take Saint Spirit Village for example.
Whether selling grain to Falling Star City or to Nuoding City, the villagers almost never brought children along.
Why?
Zhou Qing's parents were a tragic case from the past four years—a brutal reminder.
They "offended a Soul Master" and lost their lives.
But grain still had to be sold.
So now, any villagers with children either left them behind—or asked Old Jack or other trusted friends to look after them.
At the very least, if tragedy struck, the children would still survive…
---
When Tang San returned to the smithy, the sun was nearly setting.
As soon as he entered, he heard Tang Hao's familiar snores. But he was already used to it. He began making the fire and preparing dinner.
Once the food was ready, Tang Hao emerged from his sour-smelling room right on time. Without using chopsticks, he dumped the entire plate of pickled vegetables into his bowl, then gulped the porridge straight down.
Tang San: "…"
But he wasn't hungry yet anyway. The meat from that big white carp earlier still sustained him. He drank a little porridge and called it a meal.
As Tang Hao got up to return to sleep, Tang San suddenly stopped him.
"Dad."
"What is it?" Tang Hao lifted the curtain impatiently. "I already told you—don't ask me about your Martial Soul. When you awaken it in a couple of years, you'll know what it is."
"No, I just wanted to ask—can I have this iron piece?" Tang San got up, walked over to the bellows, and picked up a scrap of metal.
Zhou Qing had suggested using a mixture of Blue Silver Grass and fish scales to attract and daze the Spirit-Tuned Turtle…
But that plan didn't feel very reliable.
The Spirit-Tuned Turtle was still a soul beast, and far larger than the two of them combined. There was no way it would casually climb over a fallen tree just to investigate bait.
So Tang San planned to craft some useful hidden weapons with whatever materials he had on hand first.
"You want to forge something?"
A hint of disdain flashed in Tang Hao's eyes. "With your size, you can't even lift the forging hammer."
Still, before letting the curtain fall, Tang Hao muttered: "Just don't break the forge. If you do, don't bother eating anymore."
"Thanks, Dad."
Tang San expressed his gratitude, but all that came from inside the room were snores once again.
"Sigh…"
Tang San set the iron piece down and started cleaning the dishes…
---
"Soul rings have their own internal soul power circuits…"
Zhou Qing, after returning home, went straight up to the second floor and began documenting what he had observed about the natural disintegration and dispersal of the soul ring in the air. He then pushed his theorizing even further.
"Soul Masters cultivate by meditating to perceive their Martial Souls, thereby forming an internal soul power circulation loop.
Soul rings preserve the soul power flow circuits of soul beasts' abilities. With the Martial Soul's help, those loops get integrated into the Soul Master's system…
Based on everything known so far, it feels like Soul Masters who possess Martial Souls and are able to cultivate can be crudely compared to those model kits from my previous life—assembly toys that let you build anything. You have the general frame, but what you build in the end depends entirely on your choices.
And without a manual, people just piece things together randomly into strange shapes."
"As for the sects and clans that have formed over centuries, they've probably gone through thousands of trial-and-error attempts—and finally managed to compile something like a nearly complete instruction manual for assembling those models…"
Ps: read advance in patreon.com/XenTronix