A month wasn't especially long, but it wasn't especially short either.
Yet for Douluo Continent as it stood, this month
was like someone dropping a super-mega thunderclap into a peaceful cesspit.
<General Theory of Martial Souls: From Beginner to Titled Douluo>
This plain-language primer, personally prefaced by Spirit Hall's Pope, Qian Xunji, and drawing on thousands of years of Spirit Hall's accumulated knowledge,
sold for three Copper Soul Coins—less than the cost of a few pancakes, at a rock-bottom bargain price—and swept across every village and town on the continent like a storm.
It exploded!
The commoner Soul Masters at the bottom of society were swept into a frenzy.
For the commoners who had spent generations bent over the earth, and who had occasionally awakened a Martial Soul but didn't even know what a Soul Beast looked like, this book was practically scripture!
Before, they hadn't known what Spirit Ring to add to their sickle Martial Souls. They'd gone out and killed a Ten-Year Soft Bone Rabbit, only to get a Soul Skill that made them act cute. Their lives were ruined.
But now, the book clearly stated in big letters:
For a sickle Tool Martial Soul, it was recommended to seek out Solitary Bamboo over ten years old or a strength-type Soul Beast. It was best not to exceed four hundred years, and one's physical fitness had to be taken into account.
Spirit Hall had even thoughtfully included a map of common Soul Beast distributions across the continent at the end of the book, marking each species' weaknesses in crystal-clear detail.
In no time, Spirit Hall's standing in the hearts of commoners across the continent soared through the roof.
Countless low-ranking Soul Masters set up ancestral tablets to Qian Xunji at home and burned three sticks of incense before them every morning and evening.
The most immediate return on all this prestige was that the enrollment gates at Spirit Hall's branches were swamped.
According to statistics from subordinate Red Robed Bishops,
in just one month, the number of promising commoners and backbone talent recruited by Spirit Hall had surged a full twenty percent compared with the same period last year.
And as General Theory of Martial Souls continued to catch on, that figure was still climbing at a terrifying rate.
Pope Hall,
Qian Xunji sat with one leg crossed over the other, a glass of red wine in hand. As he listened to the system notifications in his mind ringing like a cash register, he grinned so widely his back teeth showed.
[Host has completely broken the Soul Master World's monopoly on knowledge, profoundly changing the fate of low-ranking Soul Masters! Subversion Points +50; +90; +140] [Host has preempted the "Ten Core Competencies," greatly damaging the fortune of an important figure from the original story, Yu Xiaogang! Subversion Points +1000] [Detected...]
"System, show me my total earnings for this month." Qian Xunji gave the order in delight.
[Settlement complete. Subversion Points earned this month: 96061. Current total balance: 108061.]
"One hundred thousand! A whole one hundred thousand!"
Making money while lying down felt ten thousand times better than dragging himself to the Far North to fight for his life.
Knowledge was power. Knowledge was Subversion Points, too.
With General Theory of Martial Souls out, whatever grand move Yu Xiaogang had been cooking up in the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect—his "Ten Core Theories"—had died in the womb before he could even unveil it.
Just imagine: by the time Grandmaster stepped onto the stage, full of confidence, ready to shock the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's disciples with "the First Soul Ring should be four hundred and twenty-three years old,"
even the old lady sweeping the floor below could pull out a copy of General Theory of Martial Souls, which cost only three Copper Soul Coins, slap it in his face, and sneer, "My grandson memorized this when he was three. Who do you think you are?"
Just thinking about it made Qian Xunji feel like he could eat two extra bowls of rice.
Beyond the commoners' response and the surge in Subversion Points, Spirit Hall had also flourished over the past month.
Taking advantage of the momentum behind General Theory of Martial Souls, Qian Xunji had acted with thunderous decisiveness, purging several senior parasites who had rested on their laurels and lined their own pockets.
Those old fossils had originally planned to use their seniority to weep and complain to Qian Daoliu. But Qian Daoliu hadn't even agreed to see them. He'd simply sent Golden Crocodile Douluo to slap them straight into the Inquisition.
Spirit Hall was now united from top to bottom, as solid as a sheet of iron.
"Reporting—"
A bishop in charge of the intelligence hub hurried into the study, his excitement barely contained.
"Your Holiness the Pope, there's been a major development with the Talent Recruitment Edict you personally issued a month ago!"
Qian Xunji uncrossed his legs and sat upright. "Oh? How many of those oddballs I was looking for—people with Soul Power but no Martial Soul—have you found?"
"Your Holiness, we've gathered more than two hundred people of different ages who meet your requirements at the secret training camp outside Spirit City!"
The bishop swallowed, his voice edged with disbelief.
"Back home, they'd all been dismissed as congenital cripples and useless trash. They couldn't even get enough to eat. But after we retested them as you instructed, we discovered that although they had no externally manifested Martial Soul, their bodies were astonishingly strong!"
"Well done!" Qian Xunji slapped the table and stood up.
More than two hundred Body Martial Souls.
This was an unparalleled gold mine, untouched and waiting to be dug up.
In the era of Douluo One, nobody understood the concept of a Body Martial Soul. These people had all been thrown into the mud like garbage. Now Qian Xunji had scooped them all up with a sack.
"Lead the way. I'll inspect these treasures myself."
A short while later, at a valley camp on the outskirts of Spirit City,
more than two hundred people in tattered clothes, of all heights and builds, stood uneasily on the drill ground.
They had been looked down on since childhood and treated as useless trash without Martial Souls. If not for Spirit Hall's edict, they would probably have spent their whole lives waiting to die in the slums.
Surrounded by a group of Red Robed Bishops, Qian Xunji stepped onto the reviewing platform. His deep gaze swept over the crowd below, as palpable as a physical force.
"Who among you has the highest cultivation?" Qian Xunji asked coolly.
"Your Holiness, it's the scar-faced man." The bishop pointed toward a massively built, scar-covered middle-aged man at the front of the crowd.
"This man is called Lei Meng. When we found him, he was helping someone hunt Soul Beasts in the Star Dou Great Forest. And... his cultivation had actually reached rank seventy-one, making him a Soul Sage!"
Qian Xunji's eyes lit up. Rank seventy-one?
A man with no systematic guidance, who didn't even know the concept of a Body Martial Soul, had managed to cultivate to the Soul Sage level by figuring everything out on his own? How much hardship had he endured? How monstrous must his talent be?
"Lei Meng, step forward!"
At Qian Xunji's command, the iron-tower-like man strode forward and dropped to one knee beneath the reviewing platform. "This commoner Lei Meng pays his respects to Your Holiness the Pope."
"Raise your head. Release your Martial Soul and Spirit Rings. Let me see them."
Lei Meng took a deep breath.
No Tool Martial Soul appeared, and no Beast Martial Soul possessed him. Yet his already massive fists swelled in an instant, a layer of dark-golden, rocklike calluses surfacing over his skin. A pure, domineering physical force erupted!
White, yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black—
Seven Spirit Rings slowly revolved beneath his feet.
"Your Holiness, this commoner has no Martial Soul... My Martial Soul is this pair of fists." Lei Meng raised his fists, each larger than a cooking pot. A trace of unmistakable inferiority flashed in his eyes,
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