Advice

Zhou You did not know whether his words had gotten through to Yan, but for a good while afterward, Yan stopped running over to Hu Liena and settled down to cultivate his Soul Power instead.

His efforts paid off, and quickly. In less than a week, Yan's Soul Power Level officially broke through to level 20.

That meant he could prepare to hunt for his second Soul Ring.

Zhou You was not surprised. By now, he had gotten to know Liu Suxin and Yang Tianxiong quite well and had learned many practical techniques from them.

Among them was a trick for sensing the strength of an opponent's Soul Power and judging their level.

It required a Soul Master to act as a signal receiver. When an opponent gave off Soul Power fluctuations, the Soul Master could pick them up and make a rough estimate of the target's Soul Power Level.

The method was quite useful. It let a Soul Master keep their eyes wide "open" and avoid offending people they should not offend, making it a handy little trick for steering clear of danger.

Its accuracy, however, depended on how well the Soul Master had mastered it. After all, an opponent might conceal or disguise their Soul Power fluctuations.

Some experienced Soul Masters even used that to fish for unsuspecting prey, so misjudgments were not uncommon in practice.

Yan obviously had not reached that level, though. Zhou You had sensed that he had been only one step away from level 20, which was why he had gone out of his way to give him a pointer.

Now it seemed those words had had some effect.

"So when are you planning to go Soul Hunting?"

"Teacher Liu told me to spend a few more days consolidating my cultivation and stabilize my Soul Power first, then go hunt for a Soul Ring." Yan grinned. His progress had made him very happy too.

"I see." Zhou You nodded. "You'll be going to the captive Soul Beast area for this hunt, right?"

"I guess so?" Yan scratched his head, looking utterly clueless.

Zhou You wore a thoughtful expression, which made Yan feel that something was amiss. Suddenly, a light flashed in his mind.

"Boss, d-don't tell me you want to go too?"

"Yeah, I want to have a look." Zhou You admitted it calmly.

Yan's eyes went wide. "Boss, has your Soul Power Level reached level 20 too?"

Zhou You gave him a speechless look. "How could that be possible?"

What he cultivated was Qi. Measured against a Soul Master's level, he should currently have been around level 13. Although its strength far exceeded that of a Soul Master at the same level, he had yet to reach the bottleneck of his current realm.

"Whew, boss, you nearly gave me a scare." Yan breathed a sigh of relief, then asked curiously, "Then what do you want to go there for?"

"Don't you think Soul Beasts themselves make excellent subjects of study?" A special gleam appeared in Zhou You's eyes. "A Soul Master's Soul Skills come from the Soul Rings born when Soul Beasts die. Aren't you curious how that mechanism came about and how it works?"

"Huh?" Seeing Zhou You's passion suddenly flare up, Yan shrank back a little. "S-should I be curious?"

Those words cooled Zhou You's enthusiasm somewhat. It suddenly dawned on him that, in this world, a Soul Master with an insatiable thirst for knowledge like his was actually an oddity.

He sighed, leaving Yan inexplicably uneasy, unsure what he had done wrong.

"Boss, don't be angry. I'm not saying the things you do are meaningless... No, that's not what I mean. I mean, I'm not as smart as you think I am..."

The guy always got tongue-tied at critical moments, but Zhou You understood what he meant.

"I'm not angry, and I don't blame you. I just feel..." He suddenly fell silent.

Did he feel sorry for those Soul Masters? That did not seem right. Even if they knew how to cultivate without knowing why it worked, as long as they cultivated step by step, they could still achieve great things in the future.

Even if those were only achievements in the worldly sense, for mortals, that was enough, was it not?

Cultivators were not necessarily seekers of the Dao. He should have understood that long ago. Yes, he should have grown used to it by now. This path had always been a lonely one.

With that thought, Zhou You calmed the slight ripples that had risen in his heart.

But seeing him like that only made Yan more nervous. "Boss?"

"Yan."

"I'm here!" Yan answered instinctively.

"Have you decided what kind of Soul Beast you want to hunt?"

Yan scratched his head. "Is there something I should know about choosing one?"

Zhou You looked surprised. "You haven't thought about it? Then how did you choose the first time you went Soul Hunting?"

"The Soul Master leading the team chose it for me."

"I see..." Only then did Zhou You remember that Yan was still just a child, after all. Though a little precocious, he was clearly not mature enough to plan his own path.

He fell silent for a moment, then asked, "There's a book in the Library called Ten Core Competencies of Martial Soul. Have you read it?"

Yan looked embarrassed. "To tell you the truth, boss, I've never even been in there. My head hurts whenever I see a book."

Oh, a lousy student, Zhou You thought indifferently.

He sighed. He could only teach him some basics.

"Your Martial Soul has Fire and Earth dual attributes, so a Soul Beast with both attributes would naturally be the best choice. But if you really can't find a suitable one, you need to have other options ready."

Yan's attention was drawn by his words, and he asked instinctively, "Then how should I choose?"

Zhou You found the Soul Beast Illustrated Guide and opened it, using his memory to find the section on earth-attribute Soul Beasts.

"Rock-Armored Boars, Sunken Earth Mole Crickets, Thick-Rock Turtles... These are all fairly common earth-attribute Soul Beasts that are easy to find."

"The earth attribute is characterized by heaviness, solidification, and powerful defense. More unusual abilities include gravity manipulation, earth and stone manipulation, and Earth Vein Power.

"Compared with direct-attack Soul Skills, earth-attribute Soul Skills usually lean more toward defense, Steel Body, and control. I think you..."

Zhou You saw Yan frowning and understood that he did not like that sort of thing.

"Looks like you don't much like being passive, so let's look at fire-attribute Soul Beasts." He flipped through the book again, his finger moving as if it had a locator, and turned straight to the pages on fire-attribute Soul Beasts.

"Most fire-attribute Soul Beasts have fairly straightforward offensive abilities. If you choose to hunt one, it can effectively strengthen your fire-attribute attacks. On the other hand, once they reach the hundred-year level, they're usually fairly difficult to deal with."

"You don't seem to think much of that? I'm not talking about how hard they are to kill. Of course I know other high-level Soul Masters do the fighting during a Soul Hunt, and you just deliver the finishing blow. But I'm talking about how hard it is to absorb the Soul Ring. I imagine you've experienced that feeling of your body almost being torn apart."

Yan's expression changed at once, as if he had recalled some painful memory.

"Your First Soul Ring is impressive. Its attack power is strong." Zhou You began by acknowledging Yan's First Soul Skill. Truth be told, if his own Martial Soul had not been a little unusual, an ordinary defensive Martial Soul probably would not have withstood the impact of Yan's First Soul Skill.

But that was the problem. Why would anyone insist on taking it head-on?

"You've probably realized that your First Soul Skill has considerable flaws. Leaving aside its Soul Power consumption, from a tactical standpoint, for your First Soul Skill to do its job, your opponent would have to stand still and let you hit them. Otherwise, you'd have a hard time hitting a Soul Master with faster reactions."

"That means, for your First Soul Skill to take effect, you'd need a Control System teammate to restrain the enemy first. Only then could you deal perfect damage."

"But we haven't started practical team combat training yet. I'm guessing that when you train one-on-one against others, you often run into the awkward situation of missing with your First Soul Skill and wasting your Soul Power."

Judging by Yan's expression, Zhou You knew he had guessed correctly.

For now, Yan was only sparring with lower-level Soul Masters. Thanks to the differences in experience, talent, and Martial Soul quality, his First Soul Skill could occasionally pull off a sneaky success.

But the farther he went, the more apparent the drawbacks of his First Soul Skill would become. If Yan kept developing along those lines and did the same with every Soul Skill, sooner or later an opponent would target him on all fronts.

Was that not what had happened when they fought the Shrek Seven Devils? The Golden Generation's average Soul Power Level had clearly exceeded that of the protagonist's team, yet their results had been ugly indeed.

So he said mildly, "By now, you should have understood what I'm getting at. Your biggest weakness right now is your lack of mobility. So, do you think you should keep strengthening your offensive power and obtain another Soul Skill that consumes a tremendous amount of Soul Power,

"or find a way to make up for your weakness and improve the agility you lack?"

"I won't give you a specific recommendation. Make the choice yourself."