Spirit Hall was a typical theocratic regime, though the people of Douluo Continent didn't seem to believe much in the Angel God anyway.
The farmers in Spirit Hall's territory were doing fairly well. Compared with the serfdom under the aristocratic rule of the two great empires, Spirit Hall was still a little too feudal.
The farmers in the two great empires couldn't even be called farmers. They were serfs under the thumb of the kingdom's nobles.
The kingdoms owned all the land, and the serfs had no personal freedom, either. They were essentially the nobles' property, and whether they got a full meal depended on their masters' mood.
Spirit Hall, on the other hand, had a very complicated political system. Qian Xunqian would call it a half-feudal, half-imperialist state.
It was half-feudal because Spirit Hall still relied on farmers working the land for its basic income.
Yet every year, Spirit Hall had to build or repair Martial Soul Awakening Halls across Douluo Continent, and it also had to subsidize Soul Masters.
There was no way Spirit Hall, an organization barely the size of Balak Kingdom, could raise such a huge sum just by collecting rent from the land.
Clearly, Spirit Hall had other sources of income.
The first was the tribute paid to Spirit Hall by the two great empires.
With its powerful foundation of Soul Masters, Spirit Hall intimidated the two empires and forced them to spend money to keep the peace.
The other source was competitions. When Qian Xunqian studied Douluo Continent, she was baffled by how seriously people took the Soul Master Tournament.
It was as if Soul Masters would die if they didn't compete.
Tang San seemed to find missing out on the championship, or even merely tying with Skywater Academy, more painful than Xiao Wu's death.
Was one competition really that important?
One second, he'd beaten Huo Wu of Blazing Fire Academy and smugly declared, "My Blue Silver Grass is immune to fire!"
The next, he'd tied with Shui Bing'er and Xue Wu's Martial Soul Fusion Skill and fallen into despair. "Could all my effort over the years have been for nothing? Should I give up on Blue Silver Grass?"
If Dugu Bo hadn't played therapist and talked Tang San through it, Tang San really would have switched to cultivating the Clear Sky Hammer.
That old poison really had to play both father and mother: he gave Tang San Immortal Herbs and Soul Tools, and even served as his counselor. He was powerful, too. Now that was a true teacher for Tang San!
And Yu Xiaogang, a genius who hadn't even reached rank thirty before turning fifty—what right did he have to call himself one?
Later, she understood. The main purpose of holding the Soul Master Tournament was to rake in money from the nobles, just like the NBA or the World Cup.
The nobles didn't have many ways to entertain themselves. They enjoyed watching Soul Masters Soul Fight and were willing to spend money, so that was how the Soul Masters earned their income.
The two great empires and Spirit Hall had Great Soul Arenas in their cities, and every four years they held a "Soul Master Olympics." If there weren't enormous profits to be made, who would put on a competition like that?
Qian Xunqian understood clearly that competitions were, at best, part of the tertiary sector. Without a solid foundation in agriculture and industry, prosperity built on competitions alone could never last.
After all, the nobles' money also came from exploiting the serfs on their estates. The whole of Douluo Continent still rested on the backs of countless slaves and farmers.
In her view, Spirit Hall was indeed much better than the two great empires. After all, most of its spending went toward maintaining its powerful foundation of Soul Masters.
It wasn't like some later country with a "kill line," which only knew how to squeeze its own foundation dry.
But winning the "who's worse" contest would only leave Spirit Hall stagnant! Obsessing over which was the worst—the two great empires, Spirit Hall, Shrek, the Tang Sect, or the Sun Moon Empire—and deciding the others must therefore be good was utterly meaningless.
"Only by creating a better Spirit Hall can we follow the right path!"
In Title Village, Qian Xunqian brought Bibi Dong along to experience farming firsthand. They studied the soil and made farm tools, talked extensively with the villagers, and compiled a wealth of practical knowledge.
With Gold Soul Coins as an incentive, the villagers held nothing back. Over the course of a month, Qian Xunqian frantically recorded everything she learned, intending to return to the laboratory and improve the technology.
Even farmers in Spirit Hall's territory, where their status was relatively high, had no more than iron hoes and oxen for plowing. That was enough to show just how backward the countryside was. Research into agricultural Soul Tools couldn't wait.
Back in Spirit Hall's own laboratory, Qian Xunqian relied on her impressive hands-on skills and spent a week cobbling together a tiller.
But her ambitions didn't end there. So what if she'd made one tiller? She couldn't keep hand-building them around the clock. Industrial mass production was still the best answer!
As a new generation genius of Spirit Hall, she spent every day either in the laboratory or driving a tractor in the fields. Qian Daoliu understood his niece, but he was also deeply troubled.
Wasn't she wasting her talent?
Qian Xunqian didn't care. First of all, she thought competitions were especially stupid. Besides its nickname as the Continent of Romance, Douluo Continent also had the reputation of being the Continent of Competitions.
In the original story, it seemed that cultivation and raising Soul Power existed solely to let people compete in the Soul Master Tournament. There didn't seem to be anywhere else to demonstrate the advantages of being a Soul Master.
In the end, Soul Masters only got to show off their strengths during war. But really, it seemed as if Soul Masters had been born just to compete...
Something so meaningless wasn't worth her time. She might as well drive a tractor every day!
At the same time, Qian Xunqian shamelessly asked her uncle for a loan.
Qian Daoliu was so furious that his hair stood on end. She opened her mouth and asked for a million Gold Soul Coins. Did she think they were Sugar Beans?
Qian Xunqian scratched the back of her head and said:
"My Innate Spirit Power Cultivation Device is still being tested. I'm not planning to sell it yet. So, Uncle, dear Uncle, please be kind. Once I've got the school set up, you'll be our school's first principal!"
Qian Daoliu laughed in exasperation.
"Do you even know what kind of school you're setting up?"
"An Agricultural Academy!"
"If you were setting up a Soul Master Academy, I wouldn't say a word. But you—what do you want an Agricultural Academy for? To train people to farm? They're perfectly good Soul Masters. Why would they go off and work the fields?"
Qian Xunqian gave Qian Daoliu a detailed explanation of her plans.
Why set up an Agricultural Academy?
1. To generate income. She had researched many agricultural techniques, and putting them to use could increase crop yields and bring in money for Spirit Hall.
2. Only agricultural development could provide the feed needed to raise Soul Beasts. That was the only way to breed Soul Beasts continuously and ensure Soul Masters never ran short of Soul Rings! Agriculture and Soul Masters were closely connected, so helping farmers meant helping Soul Masters!
3. Agriculture was the foundation of the future Soul Tool industry. It would provide the raw materials needed to produce Soul Tools. Without solid agricultural support, mass production of Soul Tools in the future would be nearly impossible!
Every point Qian Xunqian made emphasized how the plan would benefit Spirit Hall and its Soul Masters. She had the old man so thoroughly convinced that Qian Daoliu was left blinking in confusion.
He thought, How come he'd never known farming had so many benefits? Oh no! After all those years as a Soul Master, he'd wasted his life! It seemed his contributions didn't even measure up to those of a farmer.
Qian Daoliu looked at his niece, who had grown up all wrong, with a jumble of emotions, then let out a long sigh.
"Little brother! It's not that I didn't do my best to raise Qian'er. The child's just too clever. There's nothing an old man like me can do about her!"