Master Yu's "True Worth"

"Go on up."

Zhou Qing was the first to climb the retractable ladder.

Tang San followed close behind.

After reaching the second floor, they found it fairly dim, though the area by the window was brightly lit. A desk and four wooden chairs stood there.

Other than that, the entire second floor was packed with all kinds of books. Most were storybooks, while a small portion concerned martial souls, Soul Tools, and soul beasts.

There was only one book about cultivation: Spirit Hall Elementary Meditation Technique.

But in Zhou Qing's view, Soul Master Cultivation Guide Manual would perhaps have been a more fitting title.

The reason there were so many books here was naturally because Zhou Qing had asked villagers traveling to Nuoding City or Falling Star City to sell grain to buy them for him.

Who told him he had spare money?

Right.

Falling Star City was the nearest city to Holy Soul Village within the Star Luo Empire. Whenever Holy Soul Village's grain was sold to the Star Luo Empire, it was generally taken there. It was a small city roughly the same size as Nuoding City.

Zhou Qing had bought so many books because he wanted to better understand the real Douluo Continent and consider his future cultivation.

After all, without some golden finger and with no way of becoming the invincible protagonist of a power-fantasy novel, he could only keep enriching himself and prepare for the future in advance.

Even if he awakened a martial soul without Innate Soul Power and could not cultivate—or found cultivation impossibly difficult—he could still become a Martial Soul Theory Grandmaster!

Among these books was also one titled Ten Core Theories of Martial Souls.

Author: Yu Xiaogang.

Originally, Zhou Qing had intended to view this world's Yu Xiaogang's theories objectively.

But!

Even among the small number of martial soul books he had asked others to purchase, he could find plenty of examples proving the errors in these "Ten Core Theories."

So, even though Zhou Qing had not yet met Yu Xiaogang in person, he had temporarily and rather arbitrarily defined him as someone who had memorized vast amounts of information on martial souls and soul beasts, yet had no idea how to analyze, organize, or summarize it—a man with lofty ambitions but meager abilities!

Considering Yu Xiaogang's predicament in the original work, where he could not break through Level 30, Zhou Qing could roughly understand that Yu Xiaogang might not have initially wanted to become a Martial Soul Theory Grandmaster at all. He had merely wanted to raise his Soul Power Level. Only after turning thirty, when he realized there was no hope of breaking through, had he begun seeking to prove himself in another way.

Why thirty?

Because if a soul master failed to break through Level 30 by the age of thirty, then barring exceptional circumstances, they would basically never break through again.

Judging by the original work, soul masters' lifespans did not seem to exceed those of ordinary people by much before reaching Level 99. They merely seemed able to attain the ideal upper limit of the human lifespan.

But Zhou Qing, who retained memories of his previous life, knew clearly that humanity's lifespan limit was more or less the same for everyone. It was just that most people, due to various internal and external factors, could not live to that natural limit.

A soul master's cultivation, whether through the nourishment of the body by soul power or the formidable martial strength brought by soul power, could protect one's lifespan from being drastically shortened by uncertain internal and external factors as much as possible—though grievous injuries left untreated or being killed were entirely different matters.

Yu Xiaogang had chosen another path to fame only after failing to break through Level 30 at thirty. By then, his thinking had already solidified.

Though ambition was not determined by age, theory was not something a person obsessed solely with becoming famous could handle.

As a Transmigrator, Zhou Qing understood very well that if one wanted fame, one could not focus only on fame. One needed another primary goal, with fame merely being an incidental gift gained along the way to achieving it.

And after turning thirty, Yu Xiaogang had undoubtedly shifted his primary goal from breaking through to Soul Elder to becoming famous. Even if he had continued cultivating over the years, it could not change the fact that he had already given up on cultivation in his heart.

Without the will to strive forward, even if he retained his old cultivation habits, he was bound to make no great breakthroughs—let alone when Yu Xiaogang had his heart set entirely on becoming famous...

When they reached the chairs, Zhou Qing handed Tang San a notebook. "Today, we'll learn new characters."

That was right.

Zhou Qing was teaching Tang San how to read.

From the age of two, Zhou Qing had begun learning to read through primer books brought back by Holy Soul Village's villagers.

If there had only been books, Zhou Qing would not have known Douluo Continent's writing either. Fortunately, Old Jack knew more than two hundred commonly used characters.

That was only normal.

After all, he was a village chief. And Old Jack had once let slip a piece of inside information while chatting with other elders: for country folk like them, one of the requirements for becoming a village chief was being literate.

After learning the pronunciation and writing of more than two hundred commonly used characters from Douluo Continent, Zhou Qing began teaching Tang San to read. He had even found a lost set of symbols resembling the English alphabet in books recording Douluo Continent's history, then modified them and brought the English alphabet into this world to better assist his literacy studies.

When Tang San learned that Zhou Qing had improved upon a lost script and created twenty-six English letters, he was instantly awestruck—

He did not consider the possibility that Zhou Qing was a Transmigrator. Instead, he felt that Zhou Qing possessed extraordinary talent and decided that he absolutely had to recruit him into the Tang Sect in the future.

"These are roughly all the commonly used characters. I've learned them all."

Tang San learned quickly as well. In half a year, he had mastered every common character.

In truth, if Tang San had not needed to care for his slovenly father, he could have learned even faster.

"Mm. Then next, go read those storybooks." Zhou Qing pointed at the bookshelf filled with local Douluo Continent fairy tales.

"I'm not a child."

Tang San was speechless.

"Children often say they aren't children." Zhou Qing carried the books related to martial souls, Soul Tools, and soul beasts to the desk. Picking up paper and brush, he began planning for the future.

Most books villagers could buy were those available on the market. But even so, Zhou Qing believed that, as someone from another world, he could draw from these books patterns that the people of this world had not discovered—or had overlooked.

Seeing that Zhou Qing had entered his focused state, Tang San did not disturb him. He could only take a fairy tale book titled Pulling Up Seedlings to Help Them Grow from the shelf.

The phrase "Pulling Up Seedlings to Help Them Grow" made Tang San quite nostalgic. If not for the martial souls in this world, he would have thought he had merely been reborn into a different era of his original world.

The book described the son of a farmer who had awakened a Rice Stalk Martial Soul. With Innate Soul Power Level One, he embarked upon the path of cultivation. At twenty, he broke through to Level 10. His First Spirit Ring did not come from a Plant Soul Beast, but from a ten-year Horned Lizard. After using the soul skill granted by this spirit ring, the leaves of his Rice Stalk Martial Soul gained sharpness, and its attack power increased as well.

Because of this, the farmer's son believed that Plant Martial Souls could become more powerful by absorbing spirit rings from animal soul beasts. Yet compared to other attack-type martial souls, the attack power of the Rice Stalk's First Soul Skill after obtaining the Horned Lizard spirit ring was not worth mentioning. It was even inferior to the Cleaver Martial Soul of someone who was not a soul master.

And compared to other possessors of Rice Stalk Martial Souls, his martial soul's ability to help crops grow better was almost the same as when it had first awakened, only slightly stronger... In the end, after turning thirty, this soul master lost the subsidy provided by Spirit Hall, fell into financial hardship, and ultimately took the path of the Fallen Ones. He began continuously devouring the lives and remains of living beings, before being arrested and exiled by Spirit Hall soul masters.

Tang San was extremely curious about martial soul cultivation. Yet martial souls could only be awakened at the age of six, so he could not personally experience their wonder. Still, these storybooks gave him a rough understanding of martial soul cultivation—it required spirit rings.

Moreover, Plant Martial Souls were best off absorbing spirit rings produced by Plant Soul Beasts. Otherwise, sacrificing the martial soul's original advantages and preventing them from developing to their fullest just to gain an attack soul skill with a minuscule amount of power would not be worth it.

This had been Zhou Qing's intention.

Though they were only storybooks and contained a great deal of artistic embellishment, encountering them from a young age would at least allow Tang San to recognize the "true worth" of Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang in the future.