Lighting a "Fire"
Zhou You's speech at the research institute revealed a truth that had been deliberately ignored for a long time.
This means that the total number of Soul Masters in this world has been continuously increasing, and the rate of increase is far faster than the reproduction rate of Soul Beasts.
In reality, Soul Beasts not only face the threat of Soul Hunting by Soul Masters, but the areas where Soul Beast live are also constantly being encroached upon by human activities.
Almost every slightly larger gathering place for Soul Beasts on the continent has Soul Hunting base built around it, which is equivalent to a "poison circle" formed by humans, constantly shrinking the living space of Soul Beasts.
This world is too hostile to Soul Beasts and too lenient to Soul Masters. From an outsider's perspective, Soul Beasts seem to have been created specifically as cultivation resources for Soul Masters.
When reading books in his previous life, he could ignore the details and simply consider it a lazy design by the author. But living in this world, he had to think deeply about this issue.
After all, there really are "gods" in this world!
Zhou You had long suspected that the abnormal cultivation ecosystem of the Douluo Continent was likely the result of direct intervention by "gods".
As for the purpose? Perhaps it's to cultivate talent?
According to the original work, the "gods" would set up God Trial in the mortal world to select qualified successors, indicating that the "divine position" was more like a job, and the predecessor could relinquish the "divine position" to the next successor.
As for why these "gods" did this, and where those "gods" went after passing down their "divine positions," there is currently too little information for Zhou You to know.
But he knew that "gods" didn't necessarily set up God Trials only after their fall; the selection of successors might have begun much earlier.
The most typical examples are the "Sea God" and the "Asura God". Both of these deities were first-generation gods and were still alive and well, but they had already set up God Trial for themselves.
In particular, the "Sea God" is probably the only one in the original text who is undoubtedly a deity who ascended from a mortal to a god through self-cultivation and the gathering of faith.
What reason would a mortal have to abandon the Godhead he has cultivated after going through countless hardships to finally become a god? Is it because he is tired of it? This is probably not a convincing reason.
Zhou You wasn't sure either, but the current situation in the Douluo Continent was very similar to a large-scale RPG game. The Soul Master group born under this framework must have some kind of purpose.
So who is responsible for all of this?
Based on his knowledge of the original text, as well as his research and observations over the years, Zhou You concluded that the only suspect was undoubtedly the deities.
Even if they weren't them, they were at least beings of the same level as them.
Then he would have to consider whether there would be any hidden dangers if he continued to follow the "Soul Master" training system.
After all, no matter how strong an individual is, they cannot escape the game rules designed by others.
In the original novel, Tang San's ending seems perfect: he has family, love, and brothers, is renowned throughout the continent, and eventually becomes a main god. But from another perspective, isn't this also the result arranged by the gods?
Without the power bestowed by the "Sea God," he would have died when facing Qian Renxue's pursuit. And when faced with the "Asura God" forcibly choosing him as his successor, neither Tang San nor Xiao Wu had the right to refuse.
We cannot ignore the fact that they are actually not in control of their own destiny just because they ultimately benefit from it.
Zhou You's immediate concern is figuring out if these deities are playing a game of chess, and if so, what the truth behind it is.
But he couldn't study this problem alone; that would be too conspicuous. There was no guarantee that some eccentric deity might be secretly spying on him, since there were quite a few deities with a "previous record" in the original work.
So he decided to bring together all the smart people in the world to think about this problem. But he couldn't just throw such a grand topic at us right away, so he started with small things, hoping that more people could learn something from them.
True scholars are all people with a strong thirst for knowledge. The topics that Zhou You raised were not only quickly accepted by the scholars present, but many of them were also able to draw inferences from them and think of more questions.
For example, regarding the mechanism of Soul Beast Transformation, they have always known about it, but never delved into the underlying principles.
Why can Soul Beasts Human Form Transformation?
As we all know, no matter what kind of Soul Beast it is, as long as its cultivation level continues to increase, its lifespan will also increase accordingly. Especially after breaking through to the 100,000-year level, Soul Beasts have almost no theoretical lifespan limit.
Although it's so extraordinary that it requires enduring a heavenly tribulation every few hundred years, it's still better than directly Human Form Transformation a human and gambling on a slim Divine Machine, right?
Even if a Soul Master reaches the pinnacle of cultivation, if they do not become a god, they will eventually succumb to the power of time and turn into a handful of dust.
Only Hundred-Thousand-Year Soft Bone Rabbit, Soul Beast that is not known for its physical strength, would choose to take the risk of Human Form Transformation a human in order to fight for a sliver of hope, given the high probability that it would not be able to withstand the heavenly tribulation.
Now, considering the questions raised by Zhou You, scholars have to think more deeply about whether this world has indeed been too lenient towards human Soul Masters, almost openly favoring them.
But science requires a spirit of questioning. A person with a belief in God would probably start to thank God and pray to Him at this moment, while scholars who believe more in reason and logic have become wary.
There must be more to this than meets the eye!
The entire research institute became noisy again, and everyone stopped what they were doing and began listing the problems they had previously overlooked.
"So!" An old scholar opened his arms wide in the crowd and waved vigorously so that everyone could see him.
"We must admit that the young man was right. Perhaps there is indeed one, or more than one, higher-level entity in this world that designed and transformed the world into what it is today."
"Do you all remember the question we discussed before? It was about the origin of 'Soul Tools'. We all agree that in the distant past, there existed a highly prosperous soul tool civilization on the Pan-Continent, and the Soul Tools they left behind are proof of that!"
"But why did such a civilization ultimately disappear? Who destroyed them?"
No one can explain why, because there is almost no information left about that civilization, which is very unusual. After all, too many Soul Tools have been excavated in the Douluo Continent, but no detailed information about that civilization has been found.
"Here's a bold hypothesis: the so-called 'Soul Tools' might be Soul Skill carriers created by Ancient Remnants to Simulation the abilities of Martial Souls or Soul Beasts. That's why their working principle is similar to that of Martial Souls; they are essentially from the same origin!"
These words caused an uproar throughout the research institute, leading to an even more heated argument. Some agreed, while others disagreed, and the two sides began a more intense debate.
Zhou You mingled among them, standing in the middle and moving between the two sides. Sometimes he stood on the affirmative side, sometimes on the negative side, and sometimes he even debated with himself.
Ning Rongrong and the Soul Saint guard clearly saw that he deliberately created topics on both sides, letting those old scholars argue, as if he wanted to add fuel to the fire if the excitement wasn't big enough.
Because so many people were speaking, no one noticed his "bad behavior" for a while.
Zhou You single-handedly turned the entire research institute upside down, even alarming Ning Fengzhi!