Gang and Jian

Hard and Sharp

Drawing on historical knowledge from his past life, Quan Yi made a simple analysis and came up with a possible reason.

Douluo Continent was a strictly hierarchical society. Whether it was status or Soul Power Level, changing one's circumstances was extremely difficult.

The spirit master families at the top of society possessed powerful Martial Souls, which in turn granted them higher Innate Soul Power.

Their talents already surpassed those of ordinary people, so these spirit master families had no need to improve their cultivation methods.

As for spirit masters at the bottom, such as those born into commoner families, their education and outlook were far too limited. They had never even considered making improvements.

Moreover, spirit masters had to break through Level 30 before the age of twenty. Otherwise, no matter how hard they worked afterward, they would never overcome that bottleneck.

Thus, the entire Spirit Master World had fallen into the trap of Talent Theory. No one would bother researching cultivation methods.

But there had to be people in this world who continued such research. First, they needed an educational background. Second, their talent had to be poor—otherwise, they would have no reason to study such things.

Lastly, and most importantly, they had to be people who had not resigned themselves to fate. Only those who still harbored unwillingness in their hearts would do what no one else did.

But Quan Yi was different. Though he possessed so-called talent, that was not a reason for him to stop advancing.

Now that he knew improvement was possible, there was no reason not to do it. It seemed another task had to be added to his schedule.

As he pondered, his soul power completed a circuit through his body. Yet Quan Yi did not sense any increase in soul power. Instead, he felt the presence of some sort of wall.

Is this a bottleneck?

Quan Yi slowly opened his eyes and said to Quan Yue, "Father, I've already mastered meditation. I can begin training in fist techniques now."

"Very good. Since you've mastered meditation, you can officially begin learning some fist techniques."

"Our Quan Family Fist Technique combines offense and defense, forming its own school. The most important parts are the two sets of techniques I'm about to teach you. The essence of our Quan Family Fist Technique lies within them."

"One is a defensive technique—Hard. The other is an offensive technique—Sharp."

"Hard condenses soul power onto the hands, forming a tough membrane that can be used for both offense and defense."

"Sharp condenses spikes on the fists. When those spikes pierce the body, soul power enters the enemy's body and deals internal damage."

Rather than fist techniques, they sounded more like soul power manipulation techniques.

Quan Yi voiced his doubts.

"Father, these are soul power manipulation techniques, not fist techniques, right?"

"Haha, correct. They aren't fist techniques at all. But Hard and Sharp are indeed the most important components of the Quan Family Fist Technique. As long as you learn Hard and Sharp within these two months, you'll have passed."

Quan Yue did not explain much further. Although Quan Yi still had questions, Quan Yue had already begun his explanation. Quan Yi could only focus and listen carefully.

The principles behind Hard and Sharp were very simple: control soul power and condense it onto both hands.

Hard compressed soul power into a thin membrane, forming a sturdy defense over the hands.

Sharp condensed soul power into spikes. With a punch, it could easily pierce the body's surface defenses and inject soul power into the enemy's body.

After explaining, Quan Yue demonstrated. Black light surged from his hands and quickly covered both of them.

Isn't this Armament Haki? The thought surfaced in Quan Yi's mind.

His black hands gleamed with a metallic luster and looked exceptionally hard.

Suddenly, Quan Yue's right hand began to change slowly. The knuckles gradually bulged, eventually forming sharp spikes.

After the demonstration, Quan Yue instructed Quan Yi, "Sharp is an advanced technique derived from Hard. You can practice Hard first, then cultivate Sharp."

Quan Yi did not waste any words and immediately began training.

Only after he started did Quan Yi realize that he had underestimated the difficulty of learning Hard and Sharp.

Although the principles were simple, the actual practice was fraught with difficulties.

First, controlling soul power within the body was easy. But once soul power left the body, the difficulty of controlling it increased sharply.

Once soul power left the body, it dissipated rapidly. Fixing it onto the surface of the body was extremely difficult.

Furthermore, to form a soul power membrane hard enough to be effective, more soul power had to be condensed. As the amount of soul power increased, so did the difficulty of controlling it.

The consumption of soul power was simply too great. A single attempt consumed one-tenth of his soul power, limiting the number of attempts he could make each day. Much of his time was also wasted on meditation.

No wonder fist technique training had to be conducted in the basement. The basement was the Simulated Cultivation Environment for the Gauntlets Martial Soul, and soul power recovered far faster here than anywhere else.

Though the difficulties were numerous, they did not defeat Quan Yi. In order to complete this trial within two months, he decisively gave up sleep and replaced it with meditation.

After a week, Quan Yi could already condense soul power over the surface of his skin and maintain it for a period of time.

Quan Yi's soul power was dark red. Once it covered his hands, it looked like lava wrapped around them—gorgeous, yet suffused with danger.

However, his soul power was still unstable. The soul power membrane often fluctuated, and whenever it did, its hardness decreased. Still, everything was moving in a positive direction.

This progress had far exceeded Quan Yue's expectations. Back then, it had taken Quan Yue half a year to barely learn Hard.

Innate Full Soul Power offered no help whatsoever in controlling soul power. What soul power control required was powerful Mental Power.

Could it be that Quan Yi also possessed talent in Mental Power that surpassed ordinary people?

What Quan Yue did not know was that Quan Yi was a reincarnator. Though Quan Yi's body was only six years old, his soul was already over twenty.

That meant Quan Yi had more than a decade of additional development compared to children his age. Naturally, his Mental Power was far stronger.

At Quan Yi's pace, perhaps he would not even need two months. One month might be enough for him to completely master Gang and Jian.

Quan Yi had no time to observe Quan Yue's reaction. At that moment, all his attention was focused on training.

Although practicing Gang and Penetration did not physically exhaust him, the mental burden was immense. Yet as he trained, Quan Yi could feel that burden gradually easing.

At the time, Quan Yi did not know that this was a sign of his Mental Power growing stronger.

As his Mental Power increased, Quan Yi's control over his soul power continuously improved. With the same amount of soul power, the film of soul power around his hand became thinner and more stable.

In the second week, Quan Yi completely mastered Gang.

After that, he mastered Jian even faster. After all, Jian was merely condensing spikes on the foundation of Gang.

On the twenty-eighth day of training, Quan Yi went to find Quan Yue.

"Father, I've already mastered Gang and Jian."

Quan Yue had lost count of how many times he had been astonished.

Through these past few weeks of observation, Quan Yue had come to understand Quan Yi more deeply.

Quan Yi possessed a will of steel. Compared to his determination, Innate Full Soul Power seemed insignificant.

Quan Yue had once worried that, after awakening such extraordinary talent, Quan Yi would begin to slack off in his training.

But there was not the slightest trace of laxness in Quan Yi.

Putting himself in Quan Yi's place, Quan Yue realized that he simply could not train day and night without rest as Quan Yi did.