The Deformed System
Humans occupy most of the territory, and the number of Soul Master is absolutely enormous.
If this continues, how can Soul Beast possibly survive? This is clearly illogical.
The Far North.
The Ice and Snow Emperors were unusually silent after reading the contents of the diary. They exchanged a glance, both seeing the shock in each other's eyes.
They lived in the Far North for hundreds of thousands of years, witnessing firsthand how the exploration lines of human Soul Master pushed northward year by year, and how countless small and medium-sized Soul Beast populations completely disappeared.
Previously, they only thought it was due to human greed, that people would do anything for Soul Ring. But now, after hearing Lin Ye explain the situation clearly, they realized that this cultivation system was fundamentally a dead end.
A single Titled Douluo requires the consumption of three or four Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, which are hunted down by tens of thousands of Soul Master across the continent every year.
The Star Dou Forest and the Far North only account for a little over 30% of the continent's area. The reproduction rate of Soul Beast simply cannot keep up with the hunting efficiency, and extinction is only a matter of time.
The gods of the Divine Realm watched coldly, clearly allowing this distorted set of rules to consume the lives of beings in the lower realms, without caring in the slightest about the lives of the Soul Beast.
[Actually, it's even more outrageous when you think about it carefully. Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast is one in ten thousand, and each one has to cultivate honestly for 100,000 years to take shape.]
The result? For every Titled Douluo that humans produce, they have to sacrifice one, and sometimes several Titled Douluo are vying for a single Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast.
At this rate of consumption, even if the Star Dou Forest and the Far North combined only account for 30% of the land area, and even if the area doubled, it still wouldn't be able to withstand such devastation.
Ironically, while humans portray Soul Beast as ferocious and violent monsters and claim that hunting Soul Beast is doing justice and protecting their homeland, they actively travel deep into the territory of Soul Beast to exterminate them, not even sparing the newly awakened cubs.
Ultimately, it's hard to say who the invaders were, or who was more brutal.
Star Dou Forest, at the bottom of the Lake of Life.
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion's leisurely swaying golden tail suddenly stopped, and its paws unconsciously scratched the scorching hot ground beneath it.
She grew up deep in the Star Dou Forest and witnessed too many human Soul Master invading and indiscriminately killing innocent people, not even sparing Hundred-Year Soul Beast that had just gained sentience.
She used to think it was just human nature to be greedy and stop at nothing for Soul Ring, but now, following Lin Ye's words, she understands that it's this very set of rules that forces people to do it.
Humans must kill Soul Beast to cultivate, and Soul Beast can only hide deep in the forest to survive. This is an irreconcilable feud.
She knew better than anyone how difficult it was for Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast to cultivate, and after finally making it through, she ended up with Soul Ring and Soul Bone for a human Soul Master.
If this continues, in a few thousand years, there will be hardly any Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast left in the Star Dou Forest.
To be frank, this system was never intended to last long from the very beginning.
It's like a disposable consumable, squeezing every last drop of value from the Soul Beast while simultaneously locking in the upper limit of human growth.
I saw someone joke before that the Heavenly Dao of Douluo was suffering from a "powerlessness" disease, and the power level of the entire world could not rise, so it created this set of rules that caused mutual internal friction.
Looking back now, that statement was absolutely right.
In a normal fantasy world, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth is abundant, and everyone can cultivate by absorbing it through breathing exercises. At most, there are differences in talent and the speed of progress. How could one possibly have to hunt other living beings to level up?
[To put it bluntly, the world's energy level is too low to support too many high-level combatants, so they created this system of rules that resembles a breeding ground for monsters, forcing humans and Soul Beast to kill each other to suppress their populations and prevent the world's meager resources from being depleted.]
Shrek Academy, Inner Court.
Ma Xiaotiao fell into a rare moment of deep thought. In her current cultivation journey, she has hunted seven Soul Beast, ranging from those that had been around for a hundred years to those that had been around for ten thousand years, and she had always taken it all for granted.
It is a matter of course for Soul Master to acquire Soul Ring; this is common sense ingrained in the minds of every Soul Master.
But today, as Lin Ye peeled back the layers, he was shocked to discover that behind this set of "self-evident" rules lay nothing but bloody sacrifice.
She herself possesses an ultimate fire-type Martial Soul, making her requirements for Soul Beast attributes far more stringent than those of ordinary Soul Master. In the past, she only worried about not being able to find a suitable Soul Beast, never delving deeper into why Soul Beast were becoming increasingly scarce.
Looking back now, by the time their generation all become Titled Douluo, tens of thousands of years later, Soul Master might not even be able to find any decent Thousand-Year Soul Beast.
[It gets even more interesting if we go into more detail.]
Why is it that only humans can hunt Soul Beast to obtain Soul Ring? Why do Soul Beast gain no real benefit from killing humans?
This rule is clearly biased, forcing humans to act as the scapegoats, and relentlessly decimating the Soul Beast population.
If Soul Beast could also increase their strength by hunting humans, then it could be called a balanced racial conflict. But now, it's a complete one-sided massacre.
It's only because the number of Soul Beast is large enough, and because top-tier Ferocious Beast beasts guard the Star Dou Forest and the Far North, that they've managed to survive for so many years; otherwise, they would have been wiped out by humans long ago.
[And yet some people still praise the Douluo's cultivation system as rigorous and reasonable. I think they've been disciplined for so long that they've taken even the unreasonable aspects for granted.]
Returning to the Soul Tool, the Sun Moon Empire's approach wasn't entirely correct.
They relied too much on the Soul Tool themselves, neglecting the cultivation of their own Soul Power foundation, resulting in a scarcity of high-level Soul Engineer, with the entire legion relying on low-level Soul Master to maintain its size.
If they were to encounter top-tier combat power, the enemy would simply use decapitation tactics, killing the core high-ranking Soul Engineer, severing the command chain of the entire Soul Engineer Corps, and rendering it useless.
The path to truly going far is to develop one's own Soul Power cultivation and Soul Guidance Technology in parallel. With a solid foundation, one can then use Soul Tool to amplify weaknesses and compensate for shortcomings, thus truly raising the upper limit of overall strength.
Unfortunately, both sides went to extremes. The Douluo side looked down on Soul Guidance, considering it a heretical practice.
The Sun Moon Empire faction looks down on pure Soul Master, considering them an outdated practice, and each believes their path is the only correct one; neither is willing to back down first.
Only when both sides truly put aside their prejudices and integrate can the overall strength of the Douluo Continent truly reach a new level.
However, given the current state of complete hostility between the two sides, it seems they'll only learn to reflect after a real battle, after being hurt and awakened.
Shrek Academy, Inner Court Office.
Zhang Lexuan sighed softly.
Lin Ye is right. Pure Soul Master and pure Soul Guides cannot go far; combining the two is the way to long-term success.
However, the grievances between the two sides on the mainland run deep, and it is unknown how much bloodshed and cost will be required if they are to truly reach the point of integration.
There's another interesting point: despite having the Tang Sect and the inheritance of Hidden Weapon in the Douluo Continent, they haven't developed in the direction of Soul Tool, instead relying on their ancestors' legacy.