Meanwhile.
Heaven Dou Empire, Shrek Academy.
The atmosphere on the training grounds had become exceedingly strange.
Master Yu Xiaogang stood with his hands behind his back, head tilted upward as he watched the short-haired boy sitting cross-legged on the Sky Screen. A mocking curl touched his lips.
"Grandstanding. It's utterly ridiculous."
Yu Xiaogang shook his head, turned to face the people of Shrek behind him, and began lecturing them.
"Simply pointing your palms and soles toward the sky and striking some ridiculous pose is supposed to draw the so-called energy of heaven and earth into the body? That is complete nonsense."
"The acquisition of any power must follow rigorous martial soul theory."
"Without Soul Rings as a medium, how could the human body possibly withstand the violent energy from the outside world?"
Yet the moment his words fell, he sensed that something was off about the atmosphere around him.
No one echoed his theories.
Yu Xiaogang froze for a moment, then followed everyone's gazes and looked down.
His most prized disciple, Tang San, had somehow silently lain down on the dirt training ground.
Tang San had crossed his legs, turned the soles of his feet upward, laid his hands flat on his thighs with his palms facing up, and lightly closed his eyes. His breathing had become extremely steady. He had perfectly copied the posture of the boy on the Sky Screen and had clearly entered a state of attempting cultivation.
The sight instinctively filled Master Yu Xiaogang with rage!
Originally, he had been able to see admiration in the eyes of Tang San, this precociously intelligent child.
But with the appearance of the Sky Screen, that admiration had gradually vanished, replaced by doubt. And now, before everyone's eyes, Tang San had openly defied his will!
He had gone from Yu Xiaogang's supporter to his opponent!
"Little San! What are you doing?!"
Yu Xiaogang's face instantly flushed crimson, and humiliation and fury at being publicly betrayed by his disciple surged into his heart.
He rushed over to Tang San, his voice turning shrill with agitation. "Get up right now! This is all a fraudulent trick! Don't remain stubbornly deluded!"
Tang San neither opened his eyes nor responded.
At that moment, he was focusing all his mental energy on trying to sense whether the air contained the so-called Cosmic Energy.
He wanted to see whether this cultivation method could resonate somehow with his Mysterious Heaven Skill.
Seeing Tang San ignore him, Yu Xiaogang completely lost his mind.
"This continent is called Douluo Continent! Cultivating martial souls, absorbing Soul Rings, and becoming a Title Douluo is the only true path!"
"You are my, Yu Xiaogang's, disciple. You absolutely cannot cultivate such heretical rubbish!"
With a roar, Yu Xiaogang directly activated the Soul Power within his body.
"Come out, Luo Sanpao!"
Amid flashes of yellow light, a dirt-yellow creature resembling a pig appeared on the training grounds. Yu Xiaogang actually intended to use force and interrupt Tang San with his martial soul.
Just as Yu Xiaogang was about to act for real, two tall figures, like iron towers, stepped directly in front of him.
Zhao Wuji did not even activate his martial soul. He merely released a trace of a Soul Saint's pressure, frightening Luo Sanpao into collapsing onto the ground and whimpering.
Flender pushed up the glasses on the bridge of his nose, his expression exceptionally grave.
"Xiaogang, don't act on impulse."
Yu Xiaogang glared at his old friend. "Flender, are you going to stand by and watch Little San stray down the wrong path too?"
Flender's attitude was unwavering. "What do you mean, stray down the wrong path?"
"If this cultivation method is fake, Little San will lose nothing by trying it. But what if it truly works?"
Flender pointed around them, then toward the area beyond the training grounds.
"You can stop Little San from cultivating, but can you stop everyone in the world from cultivating?"
"The martial souls are still there, and Soul Rings are still useful. This merely adds another possible cultivation path to this world. There's nothing wrong with having one more road."
"You need to understand that this path can not only make existing Soul Masters stronger, but also give those with useless martial souls and ordinary people born without Soul Power a road straight to the heavens!"
Flender's voice grew increasingly impassioned. Even his Cat-Eagle martial soul spontaneously possessed him from the intensity of his emotions, changing the color of his pupils.
"Xiaogang, do you still not understand?!"
"If this method works, then you can cultivate too!"
In an instant, Yu Xiaogang felt as though he had been struck by lightning.
He looked blankly at his own hands.
That was right.
He himself had a mutated useless martial soul. He too belonged to the group that had originally been unable to cultivate.
But why, when someone had opened a road to the heavens that would allow even someone like him, with a useless martial soul, to cultivate, had his first thought not been joy or support, but rage and opposition?
It was because of his narrow-mindedness.
Because the theories he had spent half his life researching had become a joke before this new cultivation path, and he could not accept it.
Having instantly lost all strength of spirit, Yu Xiaogang turned away dejectedly. Like a walking corpse, he took unsteady steps and staggered off the training grounds.
Flender watched Yu Xiaogang's lonely retreating back and sighed. Then he turned to the other students present.
"What are you all standing around for? Hurry up and cultivate along with it!"
Flender's booming voice spread across the entire training ground.
"You should know that in cultivation, one step behind means falling behind at every step! Everyone across the continent is watching the Sky Screen. Others have already begun trying at the first opportunity. If you don't cultivate, you're choosing to fall behind!"
Hearing the headmaster's reprimand, Ma Hongjun, Oscar, and the others snapped awake as if from a dream. They hurriedly found relatively level ground, sat cross-legged like Tang San, and assumed the Five Hearts Toward Heaven posture.
Dai Mubai hesitated for a moment before setting aside his pride and sitting down as well.
Across the entire training ground, Ning Rongrong alone remained standing where she was.
Dressed in a magnificent gown, she looked disdainfully at the dust and dirt on the ground. Her chin was slightly raised, and nothing but provocation remained in her gaze toward Flender.
"The ground is so filthy. I refuse to lie down on it."
Flender turned to Ning Rongrong.
With the Sky Screen's appearance, Douluo Continent was bound to undergo an unprecedented upheaval.
Change bred chaos.
The future was destined to be an age of turmoil.
The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda was indeed a top-tier support-type martial soul, but a support-type martial soul was still a support-type martial soul. Its lack of personal combat ability was its greatest weakness.
On the battlefield, it could not even protect itself.
Now, the best opportunity to make up for her own lack of combat power lay right before her. Yet as the young sect mistress of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, she cared only about throwing a childish tantrum, without the slightest understanding of her martial soul's weaknesses or any thought of compensating for them. She could only be called an idiot!
"I'll say this one more time. Follow the teachings on the Sky Screen, lie down, and then attempt cultivation."
Flender's voice was icy, utterly devoid of his usual gentleness.
Ning Rongrong had no idea of Flender's calculations. Stubbornly, she said, "Whether I cultivate or not is a personal choice. Before this cultivation method appeared, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect possessed a top-tier martial soul. After it appeared, I believe it still does!"
"I think my father shares my opinion!"
Flender sighed softly and directly pronounced Ning Rongrong's future doomed in his heart.
Whether martial souls or Five Hearts Toward Heaven would become the future direction of cultivation had now completely become an unknown.
Still clinging to the superiority of a top-tier martial soul at a time like this—wasn't that simply courting death?!
Shaking his head, Flender could no longer be bothered with Ning Rongrong. He simply copied the movements of the short-haired boy on the Sky Screen and began attempting cultivation, seeking to comprehend the so-called Genetic Origin Energy.
Before you continue