Breaking Everything, Rebuilding Order?
Ju Zi walked to the window, gazing at the towering Virtue Hall in the distance, and the confusion in her eyes was gradually replaced by determination.
Despite the wavering, we must continue on this path.
If resources are insufficient, we should find new resources; if there is a talent gap, we should reform the teaching system. We cannot stand still just because there are problems.
As for that so-called set of world rules... she's not in a position to think that far ahead yet.
All she knew was that only by becoming stronger herself, making the Sun Moon Empire stronger, and standing at the top of the continent, could she have the right to talk about the future.
As for Lin Ye's suggestion of "simultaneous cultivation of Soul Power and Soul Guidance Technology," she could try writing a proposal and submitting it to the academy; perhaps it would gain the dean's attention.
With that thought in mind, Ju Zi turned back to her desk, spread out a new sheet of white paper, and held the pen with a steady and powerful grip.
Neat lines of handwriting appeared on the paper, beginning with the title. "Proposal Regarding the Addition of Advanced Soul Power Cultivation Courses to the Soul Guidance Department."
Having discussed the Sun Moon Empire, let's talk about the Holy Spirit Cult and the Evil Soul Master, who are universally condemned.
On the mainland, everyone regarded Evil Soul Master as heinous monsters, believing that they were inherently evil, indiscriminately killing innocent people, and that everyone had the right to kill them.
Few people have considered how the first batch of Evil Soul Master came to be. They couldn't have just sprung from a crack in a rock, could they?
To put it bluntly, the emergence of Evil Soul Master is itself a deformed product of this cultivation system.
Martial Soul can be righteous or evil, light or darkness; this is the balance of the Heavenly Dao, and there is no inherent right or wrong.
However, human society has established rules: only Martial Soul that conform to mainstream understanding are considered "righteous," while those Martial Soul associated with death, darkness, and curses are all labeled as "Evil Martial Soul."
People with Evil Martial Soul are ostracized and hunted down from a young age, and they can't even obtain Soul Ring normally.
Think about it, a child whose Martial Soul is a corpse can't exactly hunt Plant-type Soul Beast, can he?
He could only find Soul Beast that matched his own attributes, but most of these Soul Beast were defined as "fierce and evil," and human Soul Master would kill them on sight, along with those who possessed such Martial Soul.
Desperate, they had no choice but to take a shortcut: cultivating with living people and using sinister methods to increase their strength. Since they were going to die anyway, they might as well take a gamble.
Mainstream society drove them to the brink, then turned around and condemned them as evil and cruel—this is exactly the same logic they use when dealing with Soul Beast.
First, they define you as evil, then killing you becomes perfectly justified, and even stealing your things seems legitimate.
Shrek Academy, Inner Court Office.
Zhang Lexuan put down the file in her hand and frowned as she looked at the diary entries in her mind.
Is that so? She had never really considered the origins of Evil Soul Master or why some Soul Master existed in the first place.
It's not that they're stupid or can't think of what Lin Ye is saying, but rather that they wouldn't think of it, they simply couldn't imagine that there could be such an interpretation.
It's like there are actually two paths in front of them. But they only ever take one path: to wipe out any Evil Soul Master who try to interfere.
But what Lin Ye was talking about was a different path: putting oneself in the shoes of Evil Soul Master and experiencing why Evil Soul Master becomes Evil Soul Master.
Zhang Lexuan felt that Lin Ye's words made sense, but no matter how reasonable they were, the Evil Soul Master was essentially a person with a dark heart.
There may be people whose Martial Soul are of the dark attribute, but who are kind-hearted. She does not deny the existence of such people, but they definitely make up a very small percentage.
Most Soul Master with the Dark attribute are Evil Soul Master who have dark minds and want to harm humanity.
How did the Holy Spirit Cult grow to its current size? It certainly didn't rely on any crooked or heretical methods to seduce people.
They relied on the mutual support and solidarity of all the ostracized and oppressed Evil Soul Master across the continent.
We're all people rejected by mainstream society; if we didn't stick together, we'd all be dead long ago.
Of course, I'm not trying to whitewash Evil Soul Master' indiscriminate killing of innocent people. Harming innocent civilians is definitely wrong, and there's no way to defend that.
But everything has a cause and an effect. If the root problem isn't solved, even if one Holy Spirit Cult is destroyed, a second or third will emerge.
As long as these rules exist, and as long as mainstream society continues to eradicate dissent, Evil Soul Master will never disappear.
What's even more interesting is that the Sun Moon Empire and the Holy Spirit Cult cooperated. The Empire provided resources and protection to the Holy Spirit Cult, while the Holy Spirit Cult helped the Empire with the dirty work and dealt with the forces of the Douluo Continent.
Both sides tacitly agreed to exploit each other; in the face of self-interest, the distinction between good and evil becomes meaningless.
The Holy Spirit Cult isn't stupid either. They know they are pawns of the Sun Moon Empire, but they also need the Sun Moon Empire's power to develop themselves. Incidentally, they want to use the Sun Moon Empire to stir up trouble on the continent, and the more chaotic it is, the more opportunities they have.
Both sides have their own ulterior motives, each believing they can exploit the other. In the end, it's truly uncertain who will outmaneuver whom.
To put it bluntly, all the chaos in the Douluo Continent, whether it's the hatred between humans and Soul Beast, the conflict between Douluo and Sun Moon Empire, or the battle between righteous Soul Master and Evil Soul Master, is essentially the same thing.
The root cause is insufficient global power and resources, leading to so much conflict and internal strife, forcing everyone to kill each other to keep population and strength within the world's capacity to sustain itself.
Everyone is a pawn; no one is a true winner.
Soul Beast struggle on the brink of extinction, humanity is consumed by infighting, the Sun Moon Empire is drinking poison to quench its thirst through expansion, and the Holy Spirit Cult is barely surviving in the darkness.
Everyone believed they were right, and everyone was fighting tooth and nail to survive, but no one looked up to see the hand manipulating the chessboard above them.
To break this deadlock, unifying the continent won't work, killing all the Soul Beast won't work, and even becoming a god won't help.
Only by completely shattering this cannibalistic set of rules and rebuilding an order that allows all living beings to thrive can we truly escape this cage.
However, that's just talk. To actually achieve that, we'd first need to bring down the guy hiding in the Divine Realm who's controlling everything. Difficult, extremely difficult.
After these last words, everyone who heard them fell silent to varying degrees.
Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineering Academy, Female Dormitory.
Ju Zi stared at the words on the paper, remaining motionless for Jiujiu.
Smash the rules, rebuild order?
These eight words were too heavy, so heavy that she doesn't even dare to think about them now.
She used to think that unifying the continent was the end, but now she realizes that it was just the entrance to another cage.
So what? Life is a journey, taken one step at a time.
Ju Zi picked up her pen and added a line at the end of the proposal, "The ultimate goal of Soul Guidance Technology is to benefit all people, not to consume and wage war."
The handwriting is firm and powerful, penetrating the paper.
She didn't know if she could make it that far, nor did she know what the future of the continent would hold.
But she knew that from this day forward, her goal would no longer be merely revenge and expansion.
She wanted to see what the world was like after the cage was shattered.