Basic Theory Overwhelms!

"Very likely, but not certain."

Although Zhou Qing knew perfectly well that Tang Hao's Martial Soul was the Clear Sky Hammer, he could not possibly know that right now. Besides, as an amateur researcher devoted to rigor, he had to be professional and analyze every possibility for Tang San.

"Why?" Tang San asked in confusion.

"For example, someone's Martial Soul might be a yellow ox—a Beast Martial Soul—but they have no Soul Power. According to the information I have on Martial Souls, before a Soul Master reaches Level 70 and becomes a Soul Saint, they do not possess a Martial Soul Avatar... What exactly a Martial Soul Avatar is, I don't know yet, but according to the book, it means that at this stage, a Beast Martial Soul wielder can completely transform into something resembling a Soul Beast."

Zhou Qing speculated for Tang San. "So, I boldly named the stage before a Beast Martial Soul is cultivated to Soul Saint the Growth Period. Every time a Soul Master advances by a major rank during this stage, more parts of their body can transform into parts resembling those of a Soul Beast. I call this process Beast Transformation."

"Take the Yellow Ox Martial Soul as an example. If its wielder has no Innate Soul Power and cannot cultivate, then they could never transform into an ox to plow fields."

"Besides, the one possessing the Martial Soul is a person. The Yellow Ox Martial Soul gives its awakened wielder greater strength and endurance than ordinary people, giving them an advantage in farming. But they could also go to the city and do manual labor, or become a blacksmith. After all, life skills do not necessarily have to be bestowed upon humans by Martial Souls. Humans can learn them on their own."

"Third Brother, if your Martial Soul were a yellow ox, would you rather clear a field and farm it, working bitterly for over half a year to earn twenty Silver Soul Coins, or go find work in the city? For example, becoming a blacksmith. Once you learned the trade, you could earn nearly fifty Silver Soul Coins in half a year on average—perhaps even more."

Tang San naturally chose the latter without hesitation.

At that moment, Tang San's thoughts broadened as well. His father was a blacksmith. His Martial Soul could be a forging hammer, a Beast Martial Soul like a yellow ox that gave him strength and endurance, or even a Plant Martial Soul—after all, people did not necessarily choose their work according to the traits of their Martial Souls. Perhaps someone simply liked being a blacksmith?

What was that thing Zhou Qing had said?

Right!

One had to respect the diversity of human choices!

Setting down the materials in his hands, Tang San picked up the book, "Spirit Hall Elementary Meditation Technique." After flipping through it for a while, he felt that the cultivation techniques of this world were just a little strange.

Close one's eyes, sense the pulse of one's Martial Soul within the body, use that sensation to perceive the pattern by which Soul Power flowed through channels unlike blood vessels, and learn to actively control that pattern with one's mind.

To be honest.

Tang San, who had yet to awaken his Martial Soul, did not know how to describe this technique.

Cultivating the Mysterious Heaven Skill also required calming one's mind and allowing Internal Energy to circulate through the body according to the Zhou Circulation. Using the Ren and Du Meridians as its foundation, it rose to the Baihui Acupoint atop the head, descended to the Yongquan Acupoint on the soles of the feet, and then connected the Yintang Acupoint between the brows, the Shanzhong Acupoint in the chest, and the Guanyuan Acupoint three inches below the navel—the three great dantians these points represented.

Although Tang Sect techniques such as Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track, Mysterious Jade Hand, Purple Demon Eye, and Controlling Crane Capturing Dragon could not cultivate Internal Energy or raise one's cultivation, they still needed to be practiced alongside the Mysterious Heaven Skill to achieve the best results.

But the techniques of this world...

At least judging from this "Spirit Hall Elementary Meditation Technique," it seemed that as long as one possessed Innate Soul Power upon awakening one's Martial Soul, one could sense the cultivation route bestowed upon humans by that Martial Soul while meditating.

How convenient was that?

The Martial Souls of this world truly were miraculous!

Tang San secretly marveled, then turned to the next page of the Basic Meditation Method and found that it was actually a diagram of the human body showing the route of Soul Power circulation.

Yet in his eyes, it was the simplest method of cultivating Internal Energy, containing only the Zhou Circulation of the Ren and Du Meridians.

"What is this?"

Tang San was somewhat surprised. Although it contained no markings for acupoints, only two lines connecting the brain, throat, front of the chest, Lower Dantian, spinal column, and so on, in his previous life, it had been the most basic cultivation diagram for the Lesser Zhou Circulation.

"This is the basic route for circulating Soul Power summarized by Spirit Hall. It is said that every Soul Master's Soul Power circulation passes through these two lines." Seeing Tang San's surprise, Zhou Qing knew that this was probably the most basic Internal Energy cultivation technique.

In his previous life, when Zhou Qing had helped his parents buy Chinese medicine, he had seen similar diagrams on the walls of traditional medicine shops. The acupoints marked on those were far more complicated than the ones in this diagram.

In this life, based on the simple chart released by Spirit Hall, Zhou Qing could roughly guess that the Soul Power cultivation routes obtained through sensing one's Martial Soul also followed the Lesser Zhou Circulation path of the Ren and Du Meridians for most people. Moreover, judging by the format of this Basic Meditation Method, the people of this world were still far from having summarized the functions of the human body's various Meridians and acupoints.

But Zhou Qing also guessed that the more powerful the Martial Soul, the more detailed, precise, and comprehensive the Soul Power circulation route obtained by sensing it would be. Thus, its cultivation speed would be faster.

From this perspective, did the amount of Innate Soul Power a Martial Soul possessed also represent the number of Meridians needed when the body cultivated Soul Power?

Without a doubt.

The more numerous and comprehensive the Meridians required to circulate Soul Power, the faster the cultivation speed, and the stronger and more comprehensive the enhancement to the body.

And Tang San's Mysterious Heaven Skill?

Zhou Qing guessed that, since Tang San had continued to cultivate this technique as his primary method in the original novel, the Mysterious Heaven Skill likely involved an enormous number of Meridians and covered a vast range. It was most likely superior to the Blue Silver Emperor and the Clear Sky Hammer.

Otherwise, Tang San would not have ignored the cultivation methods brought by two top-tier Martial Souls and continued cultivating the Mysterious Heaven Skill. Although Tang San was rather rigid in certain moral beliefs, when it came to his own cultivation, he was a pragmatist.

Uh...

It was also possible that, after seeing the Soul Power cultivation method Yu Xiaogang had provided, the Tang San of the original novel had simply never considered coming into contact with the native meditation methods of the Douluo Continent. Thus, he never learned of the Soul Power cultivation route diagrams inherently carried by the Blue Silver Emperor and Clear Sky Hammer. After all, in the original novel, he raised his Soul Power solely by relentlessly cultivating the Mysterious Heaven Skill, as well as by adding Soul Rings to his second Martial Soul and refining part of the energy contained within those Soul Rings.

However, the Mysterious Heaven Skill already formed a complete system and possessed all sorts of cultivation theories.

Even if some Soul Master in this world possessed a God-level Martial Soul and had a cultivation method even stronger than the Mysterious Heaven Skill, the lack of fundamental theory meant that the Soul Master with the God-level Martial Soul would not be able to explain much about it.

Under such circumstances, even if the Soul Power cultivated by that Soul Master was incredibly profound, their efficiency in utilizing their own Soul Power might be far inferior to Tang San, who cultivated the Mysterious Heaven Skill.

It was not that the Mysterious Heaven Skill overwhelmed every cultivation method in this world. Rather, the fundamental theories of a martial cultivation civilization contained behind the Mysterious Heaven Skill overwhelmed the simple cultivation theories this world had summarized merely through meditating to sense Martial Souls.

"Is that so?"

Tang San nodded to show that he understood. He also vaguely realized that the cultivation techniques formed and controlled by the Soul Masters of this world through the process of meditating upon their Martial Souls—

A powerful Martial Soul might not have cultivation efficiency or effects inferior to his Mysterious Heaven Skill. It might even cultivate faster than the Mysterious Heaven Skill. But from the extremely crude contents of this basic technique, he roughly understood one thing:

The Soul Masters of this world had an extremely inadequate understanding of the human body.

However, judging from the fact that this technique had been categorized, organized, and summarized by Spirit Hall, if this world also had sects and martial arts clans, then their cultivation techniques were probably summarized according to the Martial Souls of their respective clans and sects. For those who possessed Martial Souls unrelated to those sects or clans, or Soul Masters whose Martial Souls bore no resemblance to them at all, those cultivation techniques were most likely not very suitable.

Still, they should be more useful than the Soul Power circulation cultivation methods conveyed to Soul Masters by some Martial Souls with low Innate Soul Power.

As for this kind of basic technique being distributed freely...

Tang San did not think much of it. Cultivating Internal Energy required specific breathing methods, yet this Basic Meditation Method did not mention them at all... Perhaps that was because Soul Masters' cultivation methods were based on sensing their own Martial Souls. Different Martial Souls gave Soul Masters different breathing patterns during cultivation, so one naturally could not simply write down a single method.

Or perhaps even Spirit Hall had never realized that the most important thing in cultivating Internal Energy was not the Martial Soul, nor meditation, but breathing?

After that thought popped into his mind, Tang San did not know how to judge this world's Cultivation System. It was powerful and convenient, yet its fundamental theories were incredibly weak, making it seem—

Strange.

Of course.

That was only Tang San's current opinion. Everything would have to wait until he awakened his Martial Soul two years later.

The Soul Power circulation diagram included with the Basic Meditation Method resembled an illustration in a book.