The Fundamental Reason Why Soul Masters Are Ineffective

The sun hung high in the sky, and a gentle breeze blew. The semester had already been underway for several weeks. On this day, news finally arrived regarding the Soul Guidance courses that had been announced at the start of the term; the textbooks were finally arranged, and the scheduling for the courses and their related resources was nearly complete. Qian Duoduo, the dean of the Soul Guidance Department, had been so busy over these past few weeks that his sturdy frame had shed several pounds.

Coordination was no simple task; by comparison, compiling the textbooks was quite straightforward. The textbooks were only intended for introductory purposes, lowering the difficulty to a level these students could comprehend. Even so, for these geniuses of soul guidance, it was a bit difficult—perhaps these geniuses had never truly encountered a real struggle, making it hard for them to understand the lack of comprehension among ordinary people. However, this was all understandable, especially when these people were asked to choose between the two tasks. They had pounded their chests and guaranteed that they would certainly write it clearly.

But this made life miserable for Dean Qian Duoduo; in such a large Soul Guidance Department, there wasn't a single capable backbone to help him. In the end, he had to solve it himself, coordinating with various administrative departments. This process involved a great deal of suffering, and he ran through countless unnecessary distances before finally understanding the general details. The harder part was still to come; as the saying goes, touching interests is even more difficult than touching the soul. If the Soul Guidance Department opened courses, it would inevitably require more resources—for instance, the salaries for the instructors, though that was the smaller part; the greater part was training resources. Student training couldn't just rely on books; you had to have practice to verify and deepen the impression, which was the only way to truly learn. Knowledge gained from paper is always shallow; one must practice it to truly understand.

The resources required for this were massive. Even if all the non-essential parts of manufacturing soul guidance devices used ordinary metals, a small portion of rare metals was still needed to craft the cores. It wasn't that they couldn't afford rare metals, but rather that there was a price but no market. They were too scarce. One of the reasons the Sun Moon Empire was so advanced in soul guidance was its abundance of rare metal resources; having vast resources to consume for trial and error naturally allowed them to cultivate a large number of soul engineers.

The three great empires of the Douluo Continent had a major problem. You see, rare metals are produced in mineral veins. Even if the mineral veins in the three great empires were relatively scarce and of different types than those in the Sun Moon Continent, one could certainly find substitutes; the underlying logic remained the same. This led to a question: why were rare metals so scarce? This was a forbidden topic. No scholar had published an opinion on this issue, even though it was a simple question whose answer could be seen by anyone with even a little understanding. It was just that throughout history, those who studied this were people from traditional spirit master clans; they could not possibly go against their own interests to speak the truth.

The truth was that these clans occupied vast, rare territories, which were usually the locations of rare metal mineral veins; these places were typically the ancestral lands of these families. None of them were allowed to be touched. Every family had them, and when linked together, the scale was terrifying. This led to the scarcity of ores that shouldn't have been scarce. There was no trade with the Sun Moon Empire for rare metals here, and besides, rare metals were precious and restricted resources even in the Sun Moon Empire; it was impossible for soul engineers here to purchase them.

In other words, soul engineers needed rare metals, and only a small portion of traditional spirit masters needed a tiny amount of rare metals to manufacture various implements. However, the Tang Sect was one such group of spirit masters, but unfortunately, it had declined, and hidden weapons had long since fallen out of use. Only a small portion of the heritage remained. Originally, the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect and the Tang Sect were a perfect match—one spirit type was suited for finding rare metals, and the other was skilled at using them. Unfortunately, this combination was broken. If a cycle had been formed, it would have truly become a behemoth.

This combination of factors led to a severe shortage of rare metals for soul engineers in the three great empires, which severely limited the number of soul engineers. Without rare metals, you couldn't manufacture soul guidance devices, and the very concept of a soul engineer became a complete absurdity. Soul engineers also had no say in these three great empires; power was completely held by traditional spirit master clans. This made it highly likely that soul engineers would defect; the Sun Moon Empire was a complete paradise for them. If they really attacked, they might truly welcome the royal army with food and drink. But how could it change? Touching interests is more profound than touching the soul. Here, they could only watch the soul guidance devices of the Sun Moon Empire change with each passing day, making epoch-making progress. Here, they were marking time, unable to even catch up to the tail of the Sun Moon Empire, and even when taught hand-in-hand, they couldn't understand. The geniuses in Shrek Academy were also geniuses if placed in the Sun Moon Empire; the only reason they couldn't compare was environmental factors.

A clever housewife cannot cook without rice; no genius can transcend the limitations of an era. The gap between the two places was epochal. You cannot expect Newton to understand the photoelectric effect; is he a fool because he couldn't understand it? Everyone knows it is a matter of the era. The only way to solve this is to slowly catch up. And one must cast off the baggage to catch up with full force. Only then would there be a tiny chance to rival the progress of the Sun Moon Empire. When the soul guidance devices of the Sun Moon Empire allow soul engineers to have combat power that is not inferior to traditional spirit masters, that will be the time when the Sun Moon Empire truly unifies the world.

Such soul guidance devices will inevitably appear as the level of soul guidance improves. At that time, traditional spirit masters will inevitably be eliminated; any person or thing that attempts to resist the tide of the era will be completely crushed. You must adapt to the era, not expect the era to adapt to your needs.

Therefore, Shrek's soul engineer cultivation plan is destined to fail. Its goal is to cultivate a large group of spirit masters familiar with soul guidance who can resist the Sun Moon Empire. The reality is that there are not enough resources. In the end, this plan will inevitably be scaled back or completely canceled.

In the end, they might concentrate all resources on a few individuals to achieve some results. Everyone knows the truly successful method, but if everyone were to execute it, the cyclical law would not exist. The most intense instance was the Spirit Hall of ten thousand years ago attempting to unify the world, allowing the Angel family to completely control all the world's resources. Although there hasn't been a war that swept the continent in these ten thousand years, there have been constant, not-so-small frictions.

The only time a continent-level war was about to break out was when the Sun Moon Continent and the Douluo Continent collided, but at that time, the conflicts were not yet intense, so everyone retreated. You must know that truly intense conflicts will never stop a war; such a war has a term: the cyclical law. There are wars brought about by land annexation, and there are periodic great depressions brought about by overproduction. Everyone knows that if everyone took a little less, a war that might sweep themselves up would not break out, but will they stop?

History has proven and will continue to prove that war is inevitable. What Shrek needs to do is create a true powerhouse to gain a foothold in this war. After all, Shrek is just an academy. It has no need or strength to go head-to-head with the Sun Moon Empire. When the Sun Moon Empire starts a war, there is no need to have a conflict with Shrek; they just need to treat Shrek as the true number one academy on the continent, just like the three great empires. The Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineer Academy will inevitably be castrated to secure Shrek's neutrality. As long as the leader is not brain-dead, this will inevitably be the way it is handled.

What Shrek needs to do is to improve its level as much as possible so that it can have more say in future negotiations. This is called united front value. Poor Dean Qian Duoduo still does not truly understand this principle, so he, as a dean, is currently under Yan Shaozhe. Theoretically, the two are equal, but the academy's master decisions are still made by Yan Shaozhe. Yan Shaozhe knows about the arrangements regarding soul guidance, while he, the dean of the Soul Guidance Department, does not. From this, one can know the Sea God Pavilion's assessment of Qian Duoduo's level.

It is thanks to Qian Duoduo's high-level ability to handle finances—in other words, his superb financial management skills—that he is able to reasonably utilize money to exert the greatest capability. Only in this way did he prop up the not-so-wealthy Soul Guidance Department.

Each class brings in 1,000 people; even with Shrek's extremely high elimination rate, there are over 3,000 students in school over six years. Many students go home to inherit the family business before finishing their studies. The resource consumption for so many people is not a small number; even if you asked the Sun Moon Empire to support the resources for so many people in an instant, it would not be simple.

This absolutely correct measure is destined to fail; there is no way around it. Unless you state that solution that everyone knows in their hearts. You must also have the ability to implement that method.