"Higher-ranked Martial Souls naturally suppress, even devour, lower-ranked ones. It's extremely difficult for the two to coexist in balance."
His gaze shifted to Tang San, then returned to Yu Xiaogang.
"I don't know what Tang San's Second Martial Soul is. But if his First Martial Soul is merely ordinary Blue Silver Grass, then by all reason, it should have been devoured completely by his Second Martial Soul long ago. They shouldn't be able to coexist at all, let alone awaken at the same time."
"Grandmaster, can you explain why that is?"
Yu Xiaogang opened his mouth, but for a moment, no words came.
He wanted to say something. Every case and document he had ever studied flashed through his mind.
But just then, those cases and documents were like scattered beads. No matter how he tried, he couldn't string them into a complete chain.
"This..." His Adam's apple bobbed. "Twin Martial Souls are exceedingly rare to begin with, and the rules governing them..."
"In other words, you don't know either." Zhao Linchuan cut him off, his tone still calm. "Then let's move on to the second one."
"'There are no Trash Martial Souls in the world, only Soul Masters who don't work hard at cultivation.'"
He gave a soft laugh, the mockery in it entirely undisguised.
"Grandmaster, how many people on this continent have been born with such frail Martial Souls that they've spent their whole lives without ever breaking through to Soul Scholar?"
"Were they all simply people who didn't work hard?"
"Douluo's people number in the tens of millions, yet how many of them can cultivate?"
"Those countless ordinary people who can't awaken Soul Power, or whose Martial Souls are destined to be mediocre—are they all just 'not trying hard enough'?"
He shook his head, as if genuinely perplexed.
"Grandmaster, I'm not rejecting your idea entirely. But if hard work can solve everything, then what do we need talent for? What do we need opportunity for?"
Yu Xiaogang's lips began to tremble.
"As for the third one: Martial Souls are divided into Beast Martial Souls and tool Martial Souls. Those that can possess the user are Beast Martial Souls; those that can't are tool Martial Souls."
He tilted his head and looked at Yu Xiaogang. "Grandmaster, let's set aside whether your classification is even correct. For instance, which category does my 'Glimmer' belong to?"
"Don't you think this is the sort of pointless drivel even a six-year-old knows?"
"And then there are the fourth, fifth, and sixth ones," Zhao Linchuan continued, speaking as if to himself. "Tool Martial Souls are mostly used for support; Soul Masters have different paths of development; Soul Rings are divided into ten-year, hundred-year, thousand-year, ten-thousand-year, and hundred-thousand-year..."
He spread his hands, looking helpless. "Grandmaster, aren't these all publicly available information in the Soul Master World?"
"Every textbook at every junior academy covers these things. You've listed them as core theories?"
"When did this completely public information become a 'core theory' that needed to be 'summarized'?"
Yu Xiaogang's breathing grew ragged.
"And the seventh and eighth: Soul Rings have to be obtained by hunting Soul Beasts; the older the better; only the one who personally kills the Soul Beast can absorb its Soul Ring..."
He paused, a touch of absurdity creeping into his voice. "That doesn't even count as common knowledge. It's just... a statement of fact."
"It's like saying, 'People need to eat to live,' and then venerating it as the great 'First Law of Human Survival'?"
Yu Xiaogang's face turned from blue to white.
"The ninth one: 'Plant-type tool Martial Souls can absorb Soul Rings from animal Soul Beasts.'"
Zhao Linchuan's expression grew a little strange. "Grandmaster, you really are something. You've managed to uncover a 'new discovery' that's never been seen before on Douluo Continent."
"Before your theory appeared, I suppose not a single plant-type Soul Master had ever absorbed a Soul Ring from an animal Soul Beast?"
"Because they didn't know it could be done? They had to wait for you to 'discover' it?"
"Or did every previous attempt fail, with your theory alone 'breaking new ground'?"
His gaze fell on the manuscript in Yu Xiaogang's hands, as if it were some ridiculous object.
"As for the tenth one: the Soul Ring bottleneck doesn't stop Soul Power from accumulating; that accumulated Soul Power is revealed once a Soul Ring is obtained..."
Zhao Linchuan tilted his head slightly and spoke without hurry. "Grandmaster, let me give you an example."
"Take a bottle. Once it's full of water, what good does it do to keep pouring more in?"
He paused, then answered his own question:
"Once a bottle is full, no matter how much more water you pour into it, it'll only overflow. The amount of water inside the container won't increase."
"A Soul Master's body is that bottle. The capacity of their meridians and Soul Sea has a limit."
"If a Soul Master reaches a bottleneck and refuses to absorb a Soul Ring, setting aside whether that choice makes any sense to a normal person, even if they keep cultivating, the Soul Power in their body will only accumulate up to the limit of their meridians. After that, it won't increase any further."
He sighed and went on:
"Grandmaster, just what roadside stall did you pick up these so-called Ten Core Theories of Martial Souls from?"
"Why are they packed with nothing but publicly available information from the Soul Master World?"
One rebuttal after another, each clear in its logic and aimed straight at the heart of the matter.
Yu Xiaogang's body began to tremble.
Tang San's brows had long since drawn tight. A faint wavering had appeared in the way he looked at Yu Xiaogang.
His teacher's theories, the ones he had always been so proud of... They really were just simple things dressed up as profound scholarship?
Can he really teach me how to cultivate...?
At last, Zhao Linchuan looked back at Yu Xiaogang. His tone was even, but his words landed like the final straw.
"Grandmaster, you said you investigated four hundred and sixty-seven Blue Silver Grass Soul Masters."
"I have no intention of denying the effort you put in. But after spending so many years on a single 'Trash Martial Soul,' what exactly were you hoping to accomplish?"
"If you'd spent that time cultivating yourself, with your intelligence and perseverance, surely you'd be a powerful Titled Douluo by now, wouldn't you?"
"After all, as you yourself said—there are no useless Martial Souls in the world, only Soul Masters who don't work hard at cultivation. Isn't that right?"
Yu Xiaogang trembled, but didn't know what to say.
For a moment, an eerie silence fell over the room.
Then Zhao Linchuan spoke again, breaking the deathly silence. "Grandmaster, why won't you answer me? Is it because you haven't been trying hard enough?"
"You... You... You!!"
Yu Xiaogang's whole body shook violently. His left hand clutched his chest while his right pointed at Zhao Linchuan. A rattling sound caught in his throat, and his face twisted with shame, humiliation, and some kind of unbearable pain.
"Cough, cough, cough—Ugh!"
Overcome with rage, he suddenly spat out a mouthful of bright red blood. It splattered across the title page of his precious manuscript, blooming into a glaring patch of crimson.
"Teacher!" Tang San's face changed drastically. He hurried forward and caught Yu Xiaogang's swaying body.
Yu Xiaogang tremblingly grabbed Tang San's arm, but his eyes were still fixed on Zhao Linchuan. Through clenched teeth, he forced out a broken, hoarse command to leave.
"Get... get out!! Get out of here!!!"
Zhao Linchuan said no more. He only inclined his head slightly.
"Goodbye."
He turned and pushed open the door. Just then, the system notification sounded in his ears.
[Ding—] [Task completed: Refute Yu Xiaogang's beloved Ten Core Theories of Martial Souls and make Tang San doubt Yu Xiaogang's true abilities] [Reward issued: Sword God Solderos Experience Card (five minutes)... stored in system space]
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