A Deformed System, a Deformed Civilization

"I'm done. As long as I obtain a Soul Ring, I can use its power to condense my Golden Core in one go." Xia Tianling ended his cultivation and slowly withdrew his energy.

Just moments ago, he had completed the tempering of his final meridian, fulfilling the last requirement before condensing a Golden Core.

For a full three months, Xia Tianling had spent nearly all his time purely cultivating. Bibi Dong seemed to be busy with something, so she had Chrysanthemum Douluo and Ghost Douluo temporarily guide Xia Tianling's cultivation, hoping he could reach level twenty as soon as possible and obtain a Soul Ring first.

Unlike the simple cultivation of Soul Power on Douluo Continent, the Great Dao Longevity Scripture, tempered and refined by countless predecessors, was an orthodox immortal cultivation art that followed the path to heaven. The complete scripture included Foundation Establishment, Body Refinement, Spirit Refinement, supporting techniques, Meridians, analyses of the human body's structure, and countless other forms of knowledge. It was far more than a simple cultivation method.

Take levels eleven through twenty-one on Douluo Continent as an example. Soul Masters merely cultivated Soul Power, while Xia Tianling, as a cultivator of the Dao Scripture, needed to temper his Five Viscera, Flesh and Blood, Bones, and Meridians in preparation for Core Formation.

If he did not condense a Golden Core, Xia Tianling could still break through by obtaining a Soul Ring, but it would affect his cultivation in the next stage. Conversely, if Xia Tianling could easily form his core, he could break through the limits of a major realm even without a Soul Ring.

The immortal cultivation system of the Dao Scripture could be said to both restrain and complement the rules of Douluo Continent.

"Compared to Douluo Continent, this Golden Core seems equivalent to the Soul Core condensed by Titled Douluo in later generations. After cultivating in Spirit Hall for three months, I've gained at least some understanding of the world from the Original Work."

Over the past three months, Xia Tianling had received permission from Bibi Dong to freely browse the books stored in the Spirit Hall Library. Thus, aside from his daily cultivation, he spent his time buried in the library, absorbing a vast amount of knowledge.

Thinking back on everything he had seen and heard in the library over the past three months, Xia Tianling helplessly shook his head.

Douluo Continent's cultivation system was simply far too crude.

There were too few Self-Created Soul Skills, Soul Power cultivation methods were rudimentary, Body Refinement had never formed a true system, and hardly anyone cultivated Spiritual Power.

Compared to the Dao Scripture's cultivation method, where Spirit Refinement, Body Refinement, and Qi Refinement advanced together as one, the difference was like night and day.

Given such a deformed situation, Xia Tianling had every reason to suspect that the Soul Masters of Douluo Continent had become dependent on Martial Souls and Soul Rings to an appalling degree.

So dependent that this profession, with a history stretching back tens of thousands of years, had still failed to develop a proper cultivation method, or even so-called Self-Created Soul Skills that could be passed down.

Hadn't Yu Xiaogang's summary of Soul Power circulation methods become some precious treasure in the Original Work?

Even Fire Attribute Soul Masters, once separated from their Soul Ring skills, could not cast even a tiny, simplest, most basic Fireball Technique! Even Tang San, the protagonist, could only use ordinary skills as basic as Entanglement and Parasitism with the assistance of Soul Skills.

Even from the perspective of an ordinary modern person who had never encountered cultivation before, that was an utterly terrifying thing.

Fire users making fireballs, Water Element users casting Ice Spikes, wood users using Entanglement, earth users casting Earth Spikes, metal users adding Sharpness to weapons—was that really so difficult?

Was that some especially difficult task?

Shouldn't anyone with hands be able to do it?

Even in the later installments, after thirty thousand years had passed and humanity had already entered the interstellar age, the level of cultivation had somehow remained stagnant! Cultivation speeds only increased through breakthroughs brought by Life Cores and by stuffing themselves with Heavenly Treasures!

That was fucking absurd!

Besides, the Soul Master system was far too deformed.

Leaving aside worlds in the same Douluo Universe, such as Ice Fire Demon Chef, Stellar Transformations, Death God World, and others. Even the Dragon Knights of the Dragon Horse Twin Stars who appeared in the Original Work thirty thousand years later, as well as the cultivators of the Elf Planet where Yuan En Huihui came from, could advance through their own efforts.

Just which "incomparably gifted" great expert had created such a deformed system of Martial Souls plus Soul Rings?

Since both the Mysterious Heaven Skill and the Dao Scripture could allow ordinary people without Innate Spirit Power to cultivate, that proved that even ordinary people without Martial Souls or Innate Soul Power could grasp extraordinary power. It was merely a matter of how much power they possessed.

The profession of Soul Master was like a dying old man, its thinking rigid and its habits of thought far too deeply entrenched.

Martial Souls gave Soul Masters a power they could rely on from birth, but they also made people overly dependent, completely locking cultivators into a fixed way of thinking.

Not to mention auxiliary professions such as Alchemy, Artifact Refining, Talismans, and Formations, which could carry or assist cultivators in unleashing greater strength.

They did not even have the barest prototype of them!

In a cultivation civilization like Douluo Continent, which had existed for tens of thousands of years, the ones who could provide assistance to Soul Masters were somehow still ordinary blacksmiths?

Battle Armor did emerge two hundred million years later, but couldn't you think in other directions? Could rare metals only be used to make armor and mechs?

Make a Lifebound Weapon already! Give support Soul Masters some offensive ability too!

Put some thought into your own cultivation system, damn it!

Technology had developed, but this time it had completely veered toward technological civilization, while the original system had not been developed at all.

Martial Soul cultivation ×

Douluo technology √

The Body Sect had once been powerful enough that its old sect master could sweep through the world's heroes with a pair of iron fists. They had clearly found a bright path toward developing the human body's potential, yet after twenty thousand years of development, they had somehow developed it right out of existence.

It had developed, but not completely.

Too small. Their vision was truly too narrow! If they had developed themselves a little more, they would not have been mockingly called the floor tiles of fantasy by so many readers in his previous life.

Low emotional intelligence: fantasy basement.

High emotional intelligence: the ceiling of low martial arts.

And who could have imagined that the only cultivation-oriented technological creation unique to Douluo Continent—Soul Tools—could actually be lost to history!

Xia Tianling truly could not make sense of it no matter how much he thought about it!

It was like electrical appliances in his previous life.

One day, all the world's technological information suddenly disappeared, leaving behind a pile of technological creations. Yet everyone only knew how to use them; no one knew how to make or repair them.

People knew that a car would run if they put fuel into it, and that a light would turn on if they flipped the switch. But as for why it could run or light up, sorry, nobody knew!

What sort of circumstances could cause a technological gap of such magnitude? If something like that truly happened, civilization itself would practically have been reshuffled!

The most absurd part was that nobody had even tried to dismantle or recreate them. The current Soul Masters were like a group of primitive people who knew how to flip switches. They knew that it worked, but not why.

Even when Soul Tools reappeared ten thousand years later, they still had to learn from the people of the Sun Moon Empire. That was ridiculous!

What had the Tang Sect and Shrek, those two major powers, been doing for ten thousand years? Couldn't they make some contribution toward advancing the times?

Were the people of present-day Douluo Continent dumber than the ancients or something? If the ancients could create those things, why couldn't you?

The more Xia Tianling thought about it, the more his head hurt. His plan to reform the continent seemed to have a long road ahead.

No, he would have to keep properly educating Tang San in the future. How could that brat use all his abilities for crooked tricks and underhanded schemes?

Suddenly, inspiration struck him, and he came up with a wild idea.

"System, I wish to obtain the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record, the original version that's even more complete than Tang San's!"

"Ding! Host's wish received. Searching Fate Power."

"Ding! Wish successful. You have obtained the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record. Transmitting it to you now."

Feeling the unending stream of knowledge pouring into his mind, Xia Tianling revealed a wicked smile.

The Mysterious Heaven Skill, Mysterious Jade Hand, Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track, Purple Demon Eyes, and Hundred Forms of Hidden Weapons were all his now. Still, he only needed a basic understanding of these things. With the Dao Scripture, he had no need for them to enrich himself.

Guanyin's Tear and Mechanical Hidden Weapons, however, were worth studying.

The former was enough to allow a Soul Master at the Titled Douluo realm to slay a god, while the latter could advance technology at an extremely rapid pace.

"Yo, what are you thinking about, little Tianling? Why are you so happy?" Chrysanthemum Douluo approached him head-on, seemingly having just come from Ghost Douluo's place.

Without realizing it, Xia Tianling had already walked quite far while lost in thought.

Unlike the somewhat aged Ghost Douluo, Chrysanthemum Douluo lived with exquisite care. His appearance had been fixed by his Soul Power at what he looked like in his twenties or thirties. He was devilishly charming, yet also carried a feminine air.

"Hello, Grandpa Chrysanthemum. I just broke through to level twenty. I was about to find Grandpa Ghost and ask him to take me to obtain a Soul Ring."

As everyone knew, Chrysanthemum Douluo and Ghost Douluo had been partners and close friends for decades, sharing a deep bond. Naturally, Chrysanthemum Douluo had followed suit and had Xia Tianling call him Grandpa as well.

"Whoa, our little Tianling cultivates really quickly. Why look for that Old Ghost? Grandpa Chrysanthemum will take you!" Chrysanthemum Douluo looked at Xia Tianling with a benevolent expression.

After three months together, this had been a novel experience for Chrysanthemum Douluo, who, like Ghost Douluo, had neither descendants nor a partner. In the "well-behaved" Xia Tianling, Chrysanthemum Douluo seemed to have found the joy of family.

"That works too. Then I'll trouble you." Xia Tianling smiled and answered politely. Yet inwardly, he was screaming, WDNMD, it's so damn jarring for Chrysanthemum Douluo to make such a benevolent expression with that young face.

"It's nothing, it's nothing. We're family, no need to stand on ceremony." Chrysanthemum Douluo waved his hand dismissively, scooped Xia Tianling up, and immediately set off.

That was just how willful a Titled Douluo could be when taking someone out—they simply flew.

"By the way, Grandpa Chrysanthemum, could we make a trip to Nuoding City? I haven't seen my grandfather in months. I miss him a little, and I also want to tell him that I'm doing well now."

"Of course."