Ye Feng pointed at Ye Qing, then at himself.
"Over the past few years, you've read quite a few books about Soul Masters. I won't dwell on Martial Souls; nearly every book you've read introduces them."
It was nothing more than the titles for Soul Master ranks, the colors corresponding to Soul Ring ages, the existence of Soul Bones, and the different types of Soul Masters and their specialties.
Ye Qing had indeed read about all of that, and it was more or less consistent with what the original novel described.
So Ye Feng didn't repeat that dry, elementary knowledge. It was all in the books anyway. Instead, he focused on teaching the meditation methods that helped Soul Masters cultivate.
"Meditation methods, as the name suggests, involve clearing your mind and drawing the primordial energy of heaven and earth from the air into your body, transforming it into your own power," Ye Feng said.
"Basic meditation methods merely involve clearing your mind, then letting the Soul Power in your body circulate passively and absorb primordial energy on its own. They're extremely inefficient, consuming time and effort for twice the work and half the results."
"Intermediate meditation methods build upon basic ones. By following the meridians recorded in the method, you can actively circulate your Soul Power and perform simple refinement. This can slightly increase your cultivation speed, though the efficiency varies according to each Soul Master's talent."
"Advanced meditation methods are generally cultivation methods available only to major sects and factions. Our Shrek Academy also has an advanced meditation method, and it's one of the very best on the Douluo Continent, second only to the Mysterious Heaven Skill passed down by Tang San, the founder of the Tang Sect."
"Namely, the book in your hands."
After hearing Ye Feng's explanation, Ye Qing lowered his head and opened the advanced meditation manual commonly used at Shrek. His expression promptly became that of the old man squinting at his phone on the subway.
The eight extraordinary meridians and twelve primary meridians were all missing. There was only a pseudo-greater heavenly circuit running from the limbs through the torso and up to the Baihui acupoint at the crown of the head.
How was this thing any different from Tang San's castrated Mysterious Heaven Skill?
Although Ye Qing hadn't been a medical student in his previous life, his interest in webnovels meant he had certainly looked up things like the acupoints and meridians frequently mentioned in fantasy novels. Even if he hadn't memorized them, he knew roughly where they were.
This meditation manual was clearly missing the most important part.
That left Ye Qing with no choice but to wonder.
Could Shrek have riddled the Tang Sect with holes over these ten thousand years, even getting their hands on the Mysterious Heaven Skill? Then, out of fear of Tang San, rather than use the original, had they heavily modified it into Shrek's own advanced meditation method while keeping roughly the same effectiveness?
Wait...
Fuck... that actually seemed possible!
Ye Qing's expression became even harder to describe.
Meanwhile, Ye Feng was still going. "This advanced meditation method has undergone improvements and refinements by countless Shrek predecessors over the past ten thousand years. I've heard it even drew inspiration from the Mysterious Heaven Skill passed down by the Tang Sect's founder, Tang San, greatly improving its cultivation efficiency."
Well, well, well. 'Drew inspiration,' did it?
They really were cut from the same cloth...
After that, Ye Feng began teaching Ye Qing this "Shrek advanced meditation method" in detail. At least to Ye Qing, cultivation techniques and the like were all a little abstract.
With Ye Feng's help, he didn't have to worry about finding the wrong meridians. He only needed to follow the Soul Power Ye Feng sent into his body, circulating his own along with it through the meridians in a greater heavenly circuit.
After completing three greater heavenly circuits, Ye Feng withdrew his Soul Power. By then, Ye Qing could already circulate his Soul Power and cultivate on his own, so there was no need to keep guiding him step by step.
Nor did he interrupt Ye Qing's cultivation.
Every Soul Master's first cultivation session was important. The longer it lasted, the better their cultivation aptitude was. This could also serve as a kind of test.
And the principle behind this test was simple.
A Martial Soul was like a Soul Master's second soul, and cultivation was like feeding it. Naturally, the more it ate, the faster it grew.
The longer someone cultivated, the more primordial energy their Martial Soul could accommodate. The most direct manifestation was the speed at which their Soul Master rank increased.
Of course, this formula wasn't absolute.
Some people absorbed less primordial energy over half a day than a top genius did in a few dozen minutes. Sure, the flop had cultivated for half a day, but could you really say he was more talented than a top genius who had cultivated for only two hours?
The primordial energy a top genius absorbed in two hours would take that flop an entire day to absorb without eating, drinking, sleeping, or resting!
Fortunately, Ye Feng was strong enough to roughly sense how quickly Ye Qing absorbed primordial energy. Combined with the duration of his cultivation, this allowed him to work backward and deduce Ye Qing's cultivation aptitude.
Yes, a scientific approach.
This was precisely why the geniuses of the Peerless Tang Sect era had such much higher Soul Power levels than those of the Spirit Hall era in Douluo I.
At twenty-four, Feng Xiaotian was only a Soul Ancestor, while Long Aotian had already become a Soul Saint before turning twenty.
Even among geniuses, there were gulfs!
Not to mention premium medicines like the Mystic Water Pill, which could increase innate Soul Power and would have been considered a miracle drug in the Spirit Hall era.
Now, Ye Qing could likewise receive Shrek's very best training. It was easy to foresee that he would never lack cultivation resources in the future.
Ye Feng was also conducting this test so he could allocate Ye Qing's cultivation resources more appropriately later on.
Medicinal baths, whale rubber, pills rolled from medicinal ingredients, and various training plans.
As one of Shrek's Celestial Dragons, he naturally had no need to attend some elementary Soul Master Academy. Just as Bei Bei hadn't attended one either, instead learning about Soul Masters alongside Zhang Lexuan.
They only needed to wait until they were old enough, then enroll directly in the Shrek Outer Court.
While Ye Feng was still calculating how to secure more cultivation resources for his precious grandson, Ye Qing had already begun pondering the meditation method.
As an outsider, he naturally wasn't trapped in the same rigid thinking as Douluo's natives.
From this meditation method, Ye Qing could already deduce a few things.
Clearly, when "drawing inspiration" from the Mysterious Heaven Skill to create this Shrek meditation method, that "Shrek predecessor who drew inspiration from the Mysterious Heaven Skill" hadn't entirely overlooked the possibility of making it more complete.
Since the Mysterious Heaven Skill circulated through far more meridians than ordinary meditation methods, could I build upon it and make the Shrek meditation method surpass the Mysterious Heaven Skill?
This Shrek meditation method contained many traces of attempts to open up other meridians.
As for why Ye Qing could tell?
That was simple too.
Human meridians were broadly similar, but everyone's meridians differed. They weren't identical in every person. The greater heavenly circuit formed by extending through the eight extraordinary meridians and twelve primary meridians was indeed the same, but what about those hidden meridians that had never been opened up?
Those were where a great many individual differences manifested.
Before you continue