The wisdom of those who came before

Zhou You looked at the man in surprise, unable to understand why he would reveal something so important.

"Surprised?" the man said with a smile. "Actually, this is no secret to many people, and Spirit Hall no longer needs to rely on the Angel God's name to establish itself in the world."

"May I ask..." Zhou You paused. He didn't know how to address the man.

Fortunately, the middle-aged man seemed to guess his predicament and said of his own accord, "You may call me Priest."

"Lord Priest?"

"Just Priest will do."

"Priest, may I ask why you told me all this?"

"I don't want you to think the Angel God is an evil god who uses Mental Power to fool the world, even if you don't care much for Him."

"Uh." Zhou You thought the priest was being a little too blunt.

"It seems I've said a bit too much," the priest said considerately. "If you didn't come to pray to the god, then you came for the Library?"

"Yes." Since they had already come this far, Zhou You had nothing to hide.

"It's rare for a child your age to be interested in such dry, dull things. Please follow me."

With that, the middle-aged man walked straight to a side door of the hall and went in.

Zhou You thought it over briefly, then stepped forward to follow.

It had just occurred to him that, after all, this was inside the academy. Surely no one would go out of their way to target a mere minor Soul Master like him.

He followed the priest to a door. When it was pushed open, a flight of steps led downward, with numerous irregularly shaped transparent crystals embedded in the walls on either side.

The priest tapped one with a finger, and it gave off a brilliant white light. Then the other crystals lit up one after another.

In the blink of an eye, the entire passage was brightly illuminated.

Zhou You looked at the crystals, a thoughtful expression crossing his face. Were these some kind of soul tool? Or simply a mineral?

Before he could give it much thought, the priest had already started down the steps, and Zhou You hurried after him.

Before long, they reached an underground space. It was extremely vast, as large as a subway station, but its layout was complex, like a giant maze.

"Stay close. It'll be troublesome if you get lost here," the priest warned, then continued forward.

Zhou You followed closely.

A few minutes later, they finally reached their destination.

After passing through a relatively narrow passage, the space before them suddenly opened up. Zhou You's eyes lit up, and he immediately walked forward.

Looking up, he saw an enormous cylindrical structure surrounding the area. Numerous display platforms extended from the rock walls, covered with all kinds of parchment books and scrolls, and even some clay tablets.

Zhou You took a quick glance and found that many of the books looked like original ancient texts. His spirits soared!

But the priest's next words shattered his fantasy of reading those ancient texts directly.

"Don't even think about the things displayed up there. They're kept there as artifacts, not for reading. Most of the valuable knowledge in them has already been recopied and compiled into books. Look over there."

Zhou You looked in the direction the priest was pointing and saw row upon row of square bookshelves directly ahead, neatly arranged like dominoes and filled with books.

"Those are what you can read."

"Then I..."

"You can go now."

With that confirmation, Zhou You immediately stepped forward and picked a book from a shelf.

The title stopped him in his tracks.

—On the Origin of Soul Power

He could hardly wait to open it. There was a line on the title page.

"But we still believe that much of what it discusses has merit. We hope readers will distinguish carefully between its claims.]"

Zhou You nodded. He had to admit, those words had succeeded in hooking his interest.

He turned the page, and the very first chapter lifted his spirits.

[Chapter 1: Soul Power—That Which the Martial Soul Refines]

[First, we must acknowledge one point: "Soul Power" is a form of energy refined by the Martial Soul from the Heaven and Earth Power it absorbs. The Martial Soul is the principal participant in the process of refining Soul Power.]

Just as I thought! Zhou You's eyes shone with startling brightness.

He'd thought as much. With so many Soul Masters on the Douluo Continent, someone was bound to discover this principle.

He continued reading, sometimes frowning, sometimes delighted, sometimes shaking his head, and sometimes slapping the table in admiration...

He found that much of the book corresponded with the results of his own analysis. In particular, regarding the capture of Heaven and Earth Vital Energy, which the book called "Heaven and Earth Power," the author argued that Soul Masters should focus on controlling and sensing their Martial Souls while cultivating, using their Martial Souls' power to make contact with and absorb Heaven and Earth Power.

But when Zhou You attended Liu Suxin's classes, he found that what she taught was a method of using Mental Power to directly capture Heaven and Earth Vital Energy.

It merely included some additional tips on improving the precision of Mental Power control and making it easier to sense and capture Heaven and Earth Vital Energy.

During this process, the Martial Soul was rarely discussed, as though it weren't particularly important to this process of cultivating Soul Power.

The book addressed this as well, claiming that this approach was "making a leaky ladle."

People breathed Heaven and Earth Vital Energy every moment they lived in the world. If this method worked, then in theory everyone would only need to stay alive to increase their Soul Power, but that clearly did not accord with objective fact.

Without a special method, the Heaven and Earth Vital Energy drawn in by Mental Power would not be refined into Soul Power. It would simply pass through the body, leaving nothing behind.

Of course, some people with exceptionally gifted Martial Souls were exceptions. Certain Martial Souls possessed a degree of instinct and would automatically absorb Heaven and Earth Vital Energy, though the rate varied depending on the Martial Soul's quality.

When Soul Masters with high talent absorbed Heaven and Earth Vital Energy into their bodies haphazardly, their Martial Souls would automatically take over before it could leak out, retaining a portion of it and refining it into Soul Power.

This was also why Soul Masters with greater Martial Soul aptitude were always more efficient at cultivating Soul Power.

Ultimately, it was the result of the Martial Soul exerting itself in the process.

Therefore, although the focus of Soul Master cultivation was somewhat misplaced, absorbing Heaven and Earth Vital Energy into the body still created an environment where the vital energy was relatively concentrated for a short time.

In a sense, this indirectly reduced the difficulty of absorbing vital energy for the Martial Soul and helped promote the refinement of Soul Power to a certain extent.

The only drawback was that it placed high demands on the quality of the Martial Soul.

That was because the Martial Soul was not only a vital energy "processing plant," but also a container for Soul Power. It could hold the Soul Power that had already been refined and prevent it from dissipating outside the body.

When the focus of cultivation was placed on the Martial Soul, even the Martial Soul of a Soul Master with poor aptitude could still refine and accumulate Soul Power, albeit more slowly.

But when the focus was placed on the person, a Soul Master with poor aptitude would turn into a giant leaky ladle, losing as much Heaven and Earth Vital Energy as they absorbed. Their Martial Soul would still work at its own sluggish pace, without any improvement in efficiency, while their Mental Power would be heavily depleted in a futile effort.

This might be why talent was still held to be everything on the Douluo Continent today.

As for why the correct method wasn't made widely available?

Well, that was a question worth pondering.

First, there was an unrelated topic to consider: did the world today, or rather, human society as a whole, want as many Soul Masters as possible?

The answer was probably no.

Leaving aside the issue of class struggles within humanity, there were natural resources alone to consider. Soul Beasts presumably reproduced far more slowly than human Soul Masters did.

If the correct cultivation method were made public, it probably wouldn't take ten thousand years. Within a few thousand years, the Soul Masters of the Douluo Continent could drive Soul Beasts to extinction.