Why Yu Xiaogang's Theory Still Had Believers, Electrolux on Nobles

"To be honest, when I was at Shrek, I read that Martial Soul Ultimate Absorption Theory devised by someone named Yu Xiaogang. It was completely wrong.

First, there was the legend of Sea God Tang San. Legend said Sea God Tang San absorbed a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Ring as his fourth Soul Ring. Since Sea God Tang San had absorbed a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Ring and was Yu Xiaogang's disciple.

Why didn't Yu Xiaogang say that the fourth Soul Ring could be a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Ring? The reason was obvious: Yu Xiaogang's theory was wrong. Even his disciple had broken his theory.

Even if Sea God Tang San was different because he was destined to become the Sea God, that was understandable. But Shrek also had many students whose fourth Soul Rings were Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Rings. Those cases were recorded too. Those geniuses were also formidable, but that was not important. Were they not slapping Yu Xiaogang's theory in the face?"

Electrolux also complained at this point. He had seen Yu Xiaogang's theory in Xiao Changge's spiritual world and wanted to criticize how so many people at Shrek had Soul Ring ages that exceeded Yu Xiaogang's Ultimate Absorption Theory.

Many elite Shrek students had already broken Yu Xiaogang's theory.

Yet a whole group of people still believed this master's theory. It was truly absurd.

For example, that old woman surnamed Zhou.

"To be honest, I truly cannot understand it. This man's theory is absurdly wrong. Even if it was a theory from ten thousand years ago, the gap was simply far too great.

Although I am not from the Douluo Continent and came from the Holy Demon Continent, after learning some of your continent's knowledge, I discovered that this man's errors were simply too enormous.

Why did people still believe his theory? Even if people's physiques had differed because of the era, things were different now. Why did they still use this set of theories?"

As Electrolux complained to Xiao Changge, he also felt that Tang San had become the dual god of the Sea God and Asura God only because the gods had spoon-fed him.

Otherwise, Tang San would sooner or later have been ruined by Yu Xiaogang. Seriously, if Tang San was the lucky child of that era, why had he taken Yu Xiaogang as his teacher?

Could it be that his original destiny had been to become Yu Xiaogang's disciple, but his fortune as the child favored by that era had kept him from being ruined?

That was truly ridiculous.

Yu Xiaogang's "Ultimate Soul Ring Absorption Age Theory" was itself established in the original Douluo novel as something based on "empirical approximation plus fundamentally flawed reasoning," not a pure scientific law. It was repeatedly disproven by the protagonist and later works. Its unreliability mainly showed itself on three levels: flawed modeling logic, flawed data selection, and complete obsolescence once the setting expanded.

(1) What did the original theory look like?

Based on three hundred years of Spirit Hall records, Yu Xiaogang took the highest successful absorption values among ordinary Soul Masters and assembled a chart:

First ring ≤ 423 years

Second ring ≤ 764 years

Third ring ≤ 1,760 years

Fourth ring ≤ 5,000 years

Fifth ring ≤ 12,000 years

Sixth ring ≤ 20,000 years

Seventh ring ≤ 50,000 years

Eighth ring < 100,000 years

Ninth ring = 100,000 years

On the surface, it looked like "Soul Power Level determined the limit," but the later original work explicitly pointed out that a Soul Ring's absorption limit was not a single-variable function of level. It was the combined result of Martial Soul quality, physical strength, spiritual power, and Soul Beast attributes.

(2) Why was it unreliable? The central flaws:

Yu Xiaogang treated "the statistical maximum" as "the physical limit."

He took the highest value that ordinary people in the archives had endured. It was fundamentally a conservative empirical value, yet he packaged it as an "iron law." Tang San had pointed it out as early as Chapter 27: the master had "never considered time or the Soul Master's own qualities."

Tang San absorbed a Man Faced Demon Spider for his third ring, around two thousand years old, exceeding 1,760 years. He survived and even gained an External Soul Bone.

Tang San directly absorbed a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Ring for his fourth ring during the terrifying period, far exceeding the five-thousand-year limit.

Later, Tang San's Clear Sky Hammer had eight hundred-thousand-year rings and one million-year ring among its nine rings. All nine rings exceeded the chart.

By the master's formula, Tang San should have exploded three times within his first three rings.

Moreover, it ignored key variables: the Mysterious Heaven Skill, Celestial Herbs, Twin Martial Souls, bloodlines, and so on.

Yu Xiaogang had not included any of these in his model:

Tang San had the Mysterious Heaven Skill as a foundation, plus the body-tempering Celestial Herbs of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. His physical body and spiritual power were overwhelmingly ahead of others at the same level.

After the Blue Silver Emperor awakened, its Martial Soul quality leapt upward. It was not the "waste Martial Soul" he believed it to be.

The delayed-ring strategy for Twin Martial Souls, where Tang Hao and Yu Xiaogang both advised Tang San not to add rings to the Clear Sky Hammer first, showed that at the same Soul Power Level, waiting until one's overall level was higher before adding rings allowed the absorption of older Soul Rings. This directly refuted the static equation of "a certain level equals a certain ring age."

There was also sample bias: he only looked at ordinary Soul Masters who had survived.

The archives would not systematically record exceptional cases with top-tier Martial Souls and abnormal physiques.

Yu Xiaogang stuffed the direct descendants of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, heirs of the Clear Sky Hammer, and monsters with Innate Full Soul Power plus the Mysterious Heaven Skill into the same chart as ordinary Soul Masters like Su Yuntao. It was equivalent to using average human jumping ability to calculate Jordan's dunking height.

Then the sequels simply flipped the table.

In The Unrivaled Tang Clan, Huo Yuhao had a million-year first ring from the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm. The master's chart was wrong even in its unit of measurement.

Tang Wulin, with the Golden Dragon King's Bloodline, could forcibly absorb Ten-Thousand-Year and Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Rings during childhood.

The God-Gifted Soul Ring mechanism explicitly showed that the limit was "how much you could withstand at the moment," not "what level you were."

In other words, the master's theory had already become invalid by the middle and late stages of Douluo 1. At most, it could serve as a beginner's safety manual in the early stages.

There was also a load of empty nonsense, copied from other people's theories.

Spirit Hall's library had abundant materials and was basically open for every Soul Master to visit, although some materials were restricted.

However, many absorption limits for Soul Masters, such as the limits for ordinary Soul Masters, were documented. Soul Masters could see them in Spirit Hall's library.

Yu Xiaogang discovered that some materials were restricted and required Bibi Dong's connections to access, but Spirit Hall had extensive records concerning ultimate Soul Ring absorption.

Moreover, this was common knowledge. When teachers or headmasters at many elementary academies helped students absorb Soul Rings and hunt Soul Beasts, they selected Soul Beasts that were easy to absorb and suitable for the students. This knowledge could be learned at elementary academies.

What Yu Xiaogang said was equivalent to saying nothing at all.

Even elementary academy teachers and headmasters knew to choose Soul Rings suitable for their students, yet Yu Xiaogang did not.

And how absurdly wrong was the Soul Ring he chose for Tang San?

First, when Yu Xiaogang initially planned to choose Tang San's first Soul Ring.

The first Soul Ring Yu Xiaogang chose for Tang San was a hundred-year Mandala Snake Soul Ring, yellow in color. They encountered and killed it in the Soul Hunting Forest. After absorbing it, Tang San gained Blue Silver Grass's first Soul Skill, Entanglement.

Yu Xiaogang's reasoning for the choice:

Path positioning: although Blue Silver Grass was considered a "waste Martial Soul," Tang San had Innate Full Soul Power. The master judged that the control path was his safest route, and the first ring needed to amplify the advantage of "binding and restriction."

Attribute compatibility: rather than choosing a pure plant-type Soul Beast, he selected a snake Soul Beast with entangling, toughness, and paralyzing poison. The Mandala Snake's neurotoxin and constricting traits perfectly supplemented Blue Silver Grass's soft control and interference abilities.

Age pressed to the limit: according to Yu Xiaogang's calculations, the safe upper limit for a first Soul Ring was around 423 years. That Mandala Snake was a little over four hundred years old, commonly said to be 422 years, right at the limit without causing the body to burst. Its value for the cost was highest.

Soul Skill effect.

Entanglement: Blue Silver Grass bound the target, with the grass carrying the Mandala Snake's paralytic toxin. It restricted movement while interfering with Soul Power, making it Tang San's most crucial single-target control opener in his early days.

But was this correct? Strictly speaking, it was correct in the short term but wrong in the long term.

First, from the short-term perspective.

Why was it "correct for Tang San"?

The route was accurately positioned: Blue Silver Grass was a waste Martial Soul in its early stage. Yu Xiaogang did not make it pursue brute-force offense, instead anchoring it to the control path. The first ring needed to solve the question of "how to control." The Mandala Snake's entangling, toughness, and neuroparalytic poison upgraded Blue Silver Grass from "limp noodles" into a "poisonous noose." Entanglement became Tang San's most reliable opening skill in the early stages.

The ring age was cleverly selected: that snake was around four hundred years old, close to the 423-year limit he had calculated for a first ring, but below the actual limit Tang San could withstand, since Tang San possessed Innate Full Soul Power and the Tang Sect physique. The absorption went smoothly without bursting his body, maximizing its value.

It broke the era's understanding: the mainstream view at the time was that "plant Martial Souls should absorb plant Soul Beasts." Yu Xiaogang dared to use an animal Soul Ring because he judged that Blue Silver Grass had the trait of "non-exclusivity and passive fusion." If he had conservatively chosen a medicinal plant, Tang San's first Soul Skill would have been far more mediocre, and he would have had one less foundation for later exceeding limits to absorb the Man Faced Demon Spider.

From the perspective of the long term and the proper way for a Martial Soul to absorb Soul Rings, this approach was wrong.

First, let us discuss the first issue: was Tang San's Martial Soul truly Blue Silver Grass?

No. Tang San had Twin Martial Souls. His second Martial Soul was a top-tier Martial Soul, the inherited Clear Sky Hammer of the Clear Sky Sect, the number-one sect in the world at that time.

Although the Clear Sky Hammer itself was not the strongest existence among top-tier Martial Souls, no one could deny that the elders of the Clear Sky Sect could become Titled Douluo, and the sect had the most Titled Douluo among the upper three sects. This showed that the Clear Sky Hammer was indeed formidable.

At the very least, possessing the Clear Sky Hammer qualified one to embark upon the path of the strong.

Therefore, a Martial Soul that could coexist with the Clear Sky Hammer as Twin Martial Souls could not possibly be low-tier. Blue Silver Grass was famously a waste Martial Soul.

Many Soul Masters with Blue Silver Grass basically could not cultivate.

Moreover, judging from the later plot, many people knew that Tang San's Blue Silver Grass was actually a Blue Silver King with Blue Silver Emperor bloodline, merely not yet awakened.

Furthermore, whether Blue Silver King or Blue Silver Emperor, Blue Silver Grass essentially emphasized the life element. If Tang San had absorbed only life-type Soul Beasts, he should have been able to bring the Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul to its fullest potential.

The Soul Bone Soul Skill left behind by Tang San's mother also clearly told him that Blue Silver Grass should cultivate life-based Soul Skills.

Yet Yu Xiaogang taught him to cultivate poisonous techniques. Could that unleash its greatest power? It could only be said that it was acceptable in the short term, but it would fail on top-tier battlefields in the long run. Furthermore, an ability like Entanglement could be released even without a Soul Skill.

Had Tang San absorbed it for nothing?

It could be said that Yu Xiaogang's theory was absurdly wrong. Its problems were not obvious in the short term, but in the long term, a whole pile of issues appeared immediately. Tang San was the clearest example.

To put it bluntly, Yu Xiaogang was like the guide NPC in the starting village of a game. He gave people the impression that he knew everything, but in truth, he knew only a little.

Especially after Tang San broke his theory by absorbing his fourth Soul Ring, Yu Xiaogang did not even know that absorbing a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Ring would cause Soul Shock.

To put it bluntly, there was no meaning in elevating this character's status later on, and it created a pile of problems because of it.

This showed how absurd Yu Xiaogang was. When Yu Xiaogang went to Bibi Dong seeking the cultivation method for Twin Martial Souls, Bibi Dong refused and even threatened to kill Tang San. Yet Yu Xiaogang said he would destroy Spirit Hall. What kind of ridiculous statement was that?

How many years of Soul Master subsidies had Yu Xiaogang received, all provided by Spirit Hall? What right did he have to say that?

In any case, Yu Xiaogang was quite absurd.

Then, ten thousand years later, there was the current Shrek Academy.

At Shrek Academy, teachers still used Yu Xiaogang's theory even now. Although many teachers had stopped choosing to adopt it, that old woman surnamed Zhou still used Yu Xiaogang's theory.

She taught students using that flawed theory.

And one had to know that the current master of Sea God Pavilion, Mu En, Yu Xiaogang's descendant, had directly broken Yu Xiaogang's theory.

Mu En had not broken Yu Xiaogang's theory in the sense of actively refuting it, but as a top-tier sample, he empirically proved that Yu Xiaogang's unified ring-age chart was merely an empirical value rather than an iron law. Moreover, Mu En himself had no motivation to "break" it, because his first few rings had not exceeded the limits to an outrageous extent.

Mu En's Soul Ring configuration was yellow, yellow, purple, black, black, black, red, red, red.

First ring: yellow, hundred-year, below 423 years, entirely within Yu Xiaogang's chart.

Second ring: yellow, hundred-year, below 764 years, also within the chart.

Third ring: purple, below one thousand years, below 1,760 years, still within the chart.

Fourth through sixth rings: black, Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Rings. The fourth ring being ten thousand years already exceeded Yu Xiaogang's five-thousand-year limit, but this was a common phenomenon in the later Douluo world.

Seventh through ninth rings: red, Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Rings.

In other words, the age ranges of Mu En's first three Soul Rings did not actually exceed Yu Xiaogang's "ordinary Soul Master safety limits." What truly exceeded them were his fourth ring and beyond, the Ten-Thousand-Year black rings, along with the final three Hundred-Thousand-Year red rings. But this had long ceased to be news among Titled Douluo and Limit Douluo. Tang San, Bibi Dong, and Qian Renxue had all done it. It was not Mu En personally "breaking" the theory.

Why could he still be considered to have indirectly overturned Yu Xiaogang's framework?

The core flaw in Yu Xiaogang's theory was not the specific numbers, but the claim that "there exists an absorption age limit universally applicable to all Soul Masters." Mu En's value lay in this:

His Martial Soul was the Radiant Sacred Dragon, a mutation of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon with ultimate light. It was a top-tier dragon Martial Soul, and his physical body and spiritual power were naturally able to endure older Soul Rings.

If he had been born before Yu Xiaogang and absorbed an eight-hundred-year yellow ring as his first ring, Yu Xiaogang's 423-year chart would have immediately become invalid.

As the level 99 Limit Douluo benchmark in The Unrivaled Tang Clan, Mu En's very existence told readers that Yu Xiaogang's theory had never been universally applicable. It was entirely the fantasy of a useless person, something he had concocted out of self-importance.

"Teacher, have you considered a possibility? Could it be that Shrek did not overturn Yu Xiaogang's theory because Yu Xiaogang had taught Sea God Tang San, and the current Sea God Pavilion master, Mu En, was his descendant?

"And in their eyes, Yu Xiaogang's ability to teach Sea God Tang San proved that he truly had ability. They simply had not comprehended it.

"Furthermore, Sea God Tang San was the 'hero' who helped noble Soul Masters rule the continent and prevented Spirit Hall from overthrowing their rule.

"So they could not allow Tang San to have any stain. That was why Yu Xiaogang was exaggeratedly praised, because Yu Xiaogang was Tang San's teacher. If Yu Xiaogang was a fraud who deceived the world, and Tang San was his student, then those nobles across the continent would feel that their status was being challenged, and people would question their rule.

"That would affect them badly. After all, Yu Xiaogang and Tang San both represented the interests of noble Soul Masters."

After Xiao Changge said this, Electrolux felt that it made sense.

Because of his past experiences, Electrolux had little favorable impression of nobles.

Electrolux had not specifically delivered a speech "on nobles" in The Unrivaled Tang Clan, but combining three threads—his identity in his previous life, the prior experience of being killed by powerful aristocratic groups, and his attitude toward Huo Yuhao, the illegitimate son abandoned by the duke's estate—his view of the noble and powerful class was extremely clear:

(1) He himself was a "traitor raised by the noble class."

In the Divine Throne storyline, Electrolux was the son of the Xidi City Lord of the Pangbo Empire, changed to a prince in the theatrical version, the Son of Light, and a genius mage who had grown up consuming noble resources.

But how had he fallen? He was framed jointly by his lover Fuluo, princess of the Xiya Empire, the Glorious Vatican, and the Pangbo Empire's royal family:

He was charged with treason.

His relatives were slaughtered.

He was wanted across the entire continent.

In other words, he was not a commoner who hated the rich. He had personally been crushed once by the feudal power network of "empire, church, and royal marriage alliances."

Thus, when he later slaughtered the Pangbo Empire and dismantled the Glorious Vatican, he was not fundamentally opposing humanity. He was opposing the ruling class that "packaged exploitative interests in bloodline and divine authority."

(2) Regarding "noble bloodline" itself: he had completely stripped away its mystique.

In the original The Unrivaled Tang Clan, the spiritual foundation he left Huo Yuhao contained several very direct signals:

He advised Huo Yuhao that "he could freely vent his hatred, but must not let hatred ferment." He recognized Huo Yuhao's value not because Huo Yuhao was the White Tiger Duke's son, but because the child had crawled from the mud without becoming completely corrupted. In Electrolux's eyes, the aristocratic "father" connected by blood had long gone bankrupt.

Before dying, he said, "If there is another life, I do not wish to be the Son of Light again. I only want to be an ordinary human, marry a pure woman, and live an ordinary life." He actively abandoned the narrative of nobility and the chosen one.

"With the sun and moon in my grasp, I pluck the stars; there is no one like me in this world." What he took pride in was personal will and strength, not a surname, title, or noble rank bestowed by an empire.

(3) Regarding the Douluo Continent's nobles, such as the Star Luo Empire duke's estate: he presumed they were "illegitimate."

Huo Yuhao was cast out by the White Tiger Duke's Estate as a useless illegitimate son, while his mother was abused by the main family. Electrolux watched all of this from within his sea of consciousness.

His response was not "ruler and subject, father and son."

Instead:

He helped Huo Yuhao take control of the situation and taught him not to be consumed by hatred.

He taught him necromancy, provided a trump card for survival, and finally burned his divine consciousness to transform Snow Empress into a Soul Spirit. Throughout it all, he stood on the side excluded by noble family law.

His actions amounted to a declaration: the "legitimacy" of noble households was invalid to him. He only recognized an individual's choices and moral bottom line under oppression.

(4) But the boundary should be noted: he opposed "corrupt nobles and powerful figures," not order itself.

Electrolux was not an anarchist. He had once been loyal to the empire and rejected the Glorious Vatican's recruitment. His later repentance also came because Long Haochen and Cai'er showed him that not all people were filthy.

Therefore, to put it accurately:

Toward nobles who sucked blood through lineage, harvested people through marriage alliances, and used churches or families as blades: contempt, and physical elimination when necessary.

Toward strong people who established themselves through ability and did not oppress others with their family background, even if they were born noble like Long Haochen: he treated them as equals.

Toward "noble castoffs" like Huo Yuhao: he instead treasured them most, because such people best proved that a person's worth had nothing to do with their surname.

In one sentence, Electrolux's view of nobles was:

"I was once a young master, and young masters once had my entire family killed. Bloodline ceased being proof to me long ago. Someone who can keep from rotting inside is worth more than ten thousand dukes."