A Three-Year-Old Toddler, Shaking 100,000 Jin With One Arm?

Upon hearing this, the previously tense atmosphere within the Listening Rain Pavilion instantly turned rather bizarre.

Following that, a roar of unbridled laughter erupted throughout the main hall.

"Hahaha! A Little Milk Baby?"

"I actually thought this Shi Hao was some incredible heaven-gifted prodigy, but he turns out to be nothing more than a bumpkin who hasn't even been weaned!"

A bloated merchant laughed so hard that tears were streaming down his face, his thick palms slamming heavily against the table:

"Mr. Su, is this the protagonist you spoke of, the one who will one day trample the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths?"

"A mud-legged brat who is three years old and still won't let go of his beast-milk jar?"

"It's absolutely hilarious!"

"In our Tiandou City, any family with even a shred of foundation ensures that from the moment a child is born, they are bathed and cleansed with medicinal broths brewed from precious Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast meat and gentle, essence-strengthening herbs!"

"And he? He miraculously survives by drinking a few gulps of unrefined, gamey wild beast milk?"

"Even if he survives such crude feeding, he'll be nothing but a piece of trash for the rest of his life, unable to even awaken a Martial Soul!"

Among the crowd, several young soul masters who prided themselves on their noble status also shook their heads repeatedly, their eyes filled with haughty contempt.

"Too low-tier."

"I thought that old village chief might produce some legendary heirloom, but this is it?"

"If he were at our academy, a commoner child who couldn't even keep up with the most basic nutrition wouldn't even be qualified to pour tea or water for us."

Meanwhile, in that inconspicuous corner.

As Tang San listened to the mockery of those around him, he felt increasingly self-important.

He turned his head to look at Xiao Wu, who was listening intently, and said with a sense of superiority, as if pointing out the ways of the world:

"Xiao Wu, did you hear that?"

"This is the gap between commoners and soul masters."

"In a backwater place without even basic cultivation resources, a child raised on wild beast milk—his physical foundation has long been ruined by such crude food."

"My teacher's Ten Core Competencies of Martial Souls states clearly that a child's nutritional intake before awakening their Martial Soul at age six directly determines the level of their Innate Soul Power."

"A milk baby raised on garbage like that must have clogged meridians and floating, unstable blood-qi."

"Forget about trampling the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths; the possibility of him awakening even half a level of Innate Soul Power is practically non-existent!"

After speaking, Tang San crossed his arms over his chest and looked at Su Chen on the high platform with a face full of mockery.

"In order to force a tragic background onto his protagonist, this storyteller has completely disregarded the laws of reality and the iron rules of the soul master world."

"It is full of flaws and utterly ridiculous."

However, faced with the sarcasm of the crowd, Su Chen did not have the slightest inclination to refute them.

He simply watched this group of people reveling in their ignorance, much like one watching a play.

The beast milk of the Great Wilderness is low-tier?

Nutrition can't keep up?

Su Chen sneered inwardly.

If these bumpkins knew that many of the beasts the Stone Village hunted for milk possessed the faint bloodlines of Primordial Remnants, and that any one of them could crush their so-called Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts, he wondered if they would still be able to laugh.

"Clack—"

Closing his folding fan, Su Chen tapped it lightly against the tabletop. The crisp sound seemed to carry a certain magic, instantly drawing everyone's attention back to him.

"Do not be impatient, esteemed guests; let this Su explain in detail."

"The laws of survival in the Great Wilderness are cruel. The villagers of Stone Village know deep down that if they want to survive on this harsh land surrounded by ferocious beasts, tears and weakness are useless."

"Only strength—absolute physical strength—is the only reliance for survival!"

"Therefore, in Stone Village, regardless of gender or age, everyone must temper their tendons and bones and hone their physical bodies."

"Every morning, when the first ray of sunlight falls upon that withered, silent Willow Tree at the head of the village, the children of Stone Village begin their day's training on the open ground in front of the village."

At this point, Su Chen's speaking pace gradually slowed:

"They do not practice flashy spells, nor do they practice the so-called soul skills you speak of that require soul rings to unleash."

"They practice only one thing: strength!"

"In the center of the open ground, there sit several large cauldrons cast from pig iron and bronze."

"The bodies of the cauldrons are carved with mottled birds and beasts, exuding an ancient and desolate aura."

"Those little monkeys, only five or six, or seven or eight years old, are shirtless, their muscles taut like small stones."

"Their daily morning exercise is to lift those incredibly heavy bronze cauldrons high above their heads!"

Hearing this, many soul masters in the teahouse curled their lips in disdain.

Lifting cauldrons? That's it?

What kind of cultivation method is that? Isn't that just the manual labor done by the coolies in a mortal blacksmith shop?

Simply vulgar and unbearable!

In the eyes of these noble Spirit Masters, only meditation to absorb spirit power was the most elegant and noble path of cultivation.

However, just as the crowd prepared to mock him once more, Su Chen's unhurried voice drifted over again.

"As for those bronze cauldrons provided for the children's morning exercises..."

"The lightest one weighs a thousand catties."

"The heaviest weighs ten thousand!"

Upon hearing this, the entire Listening Rain Pavilion fell into instant, deathly silence.

The many Spirit Masters who had been full of disdain a second ago now had expressions as if they had seen a ghost, completely frozen in place.

A thousand catties? Ten thousand catties???

Used for the morning exercises of five or six-year-old children???

"Bullshit!!"

The first to stand up this time was not one of the hot-headed Battle Spirit Masters in the front row, but Tang San, who had been sitting in the corner priding himself on his wisdom!

At this moment, Tang San could no longer maintain his aloof composure. He slammed his hand onto the table and stood up, his eyes locked firmly onto Su Chen on the stage.

"Su Chen!"

"There must be a limit to how much you exaggerate in your storytelling! Do you really take us all for fools?"

Tang San's sudden outburst immediately drew the attention of the entire room.

Yet, he did not shrink back; instead, he puffed out his chest, took a large step forward, and retorted loudly:

"My teacher, Yu Xiaogang, has carefully studied the limits of the human body's load-bearing capacity!"

"A five or six-year-old child, before awakening their martial spirit and without the physical enhancement of a first spirit ring, has a maximum physical strength of no more than forty or fifty catties!"

"Even those born with divine strength would barely exceed a hundred catties!"

"Even a teenage Battle Spirit Master who has awakened a Beast Martial Spirit and attached a first hundred-year spirit ring would, at most, have a raw physical strength of a few hundred catties!"

"To lift a heavy object of over a thousand catties by physical strength alone, one would need to be at least a level 30 Spirit Elder, or perhaps a level 40 Soul Ancestor specializing in strength, to barely manage it!"

Speaking to this point, Tang San sneered repeatedly, as if he had seized upon Su Chen's greatest blunder.

"And yet, you are telling us that a group of five or six-year-old commoner children, who haven't even awakened their martial spirits and spend their days drinking beast milk, can casually lift bronze cauldrons weighing several thousand catties?"

"Such a lie, which defies human anatomy and the core common sense of martial spirits, is an utter absurdity!"

"You are simply spouting nonsense here, using ignorance as a gimmick!"