A Scoundrel in Scholar's Clothing

After taking another look at the precise power output of the soul tools, Leng Xiyue gained a little more insight.

Ordinary soul power could be understood as an inert energy source, like relatively harmless electricity. Even if a soul-powered device was damaged, it would not cause a secondary explosion or any other dangerous accident. If extracted separately to power a weapon, it would not ignite as readily as gunpowder.

Otherwise, wouldn't anyone be able to pour soul power into a container, store it, and throw it out as a bomb later?

Only Soul Masters with relatively pure attributes, such as the fire element or lightning element, could directly provide more volatile soul power. With just a slight external stimulus, it would release a remarkable amount of kinetic energy, so replacing gunpowder with it presumably would not be much of a problem.

Soul Masters with those attributes were relatively rare, but in Spirit City, couldn't she find them by the handful?

With that line of thinking in mind, Leng Xiyue spent the next few days studying while using the Forge in her mind to design more firearm models and draw up the corresponding blueprints.

At the same time, she designed three types of ammunition. The first was naturally the Gunpowder Bullet, the second was the Soul Power Bullet she had been researching recently, and the third was the Psionic Energy Bullet, an improved version of the Soul Power Bullet.

Naturally, only she could charge the Psionic Energy Bullets. The potency of psionic energy was beyond question. Her armor currently lacked the corresponding components to cast spells or release shock waves at range, but that restriction only applied to using psionic energy directly against an enemy. If she used psionic energy as the propellant to launch a bullet, that limitation would naturally no longer apply. It counted as using a tool to supplement her ranged offensive capabilities.

Because psionic energy was relatively pure, the weapons compatible with Psionic Energy Bullets needed to be sturdier than those for the first two types. She had no need to sell these, either; once she made them, she would simply keep them for herself.

Soul Power Bullets did not have that restriction. In theory, a barrel made from ordinary steel should be able to withstand them, though the specifics still needed to be verified through practical testing.

In terms of potency, psionic energy surpassed soul power, which surpassed gunpowder. Now that the theory was well developed, her next step was to find somewhere to manufacture a few and test them.

Slowly closing the book in her hands, Leng Xiyue stretched.

With the Forge's help, producing this pile of blueprints was not difficult. The difficult part was developing them using Douluo's local resources. Many minerals had functions similar to those found on Earth, yet their names were completely different.

That required leafing through a great many books to understand the properties of these minerals and confirm her findings. Soul Power Weapons in particular would surely need a different firing mechanism from gunpowder weapons. Fortunately, she had found suitable substitutes to resolve all these issues.

Once she was swimming in the ocean of knowledge, relaxing and enjoying herself actually became very difficult. There was always another book nearby that caught her interest, and once she picked it up to consult it, an entire day would pass in reading.

The more she read, the more Leng Xiyue thought of Yu Xiaogang, that so-called foremost theorist on the continent. He had probably only gained access to this place to study by relying on Bibi Dong's status back then. Anyone dedicated to researching martial souls could likely have done the same. The Spirit Hall Sages had never been lacking in their research into martial souls. Yu Xiaogang had merely stood on the shoulders of countless Spirit Hall Sages, organized their findings, and added a few insights of his own, yet he had the gall to shamelessly call himself the continent's foremost theorist.

Take his signature line, for instance: "There are no useless martial souls, only useless Soul Masters." It sounded reasonable at first, but in truth, it was pure nonsense.

Yes, blue silver grass was useless, but what did that matter when someone had innate full soul power? With innate full soul power, who couldn't become a Soul Douluo?

The vast majority of trash martial souls were called that because they could not awaken a high level of innate soul power and had limited potential. Yu Xiaogang himself, for example, possessed a universally acknowledged trash martial soul. And he genuinely had no ability to change his own circumstances, so he could only keep preaching his hollow theories.

That was why Soul Masters of low status, such as the students at Nuoding Academy, looked down on him. After all, if his theories were really as powerful as he claimed, why couldn't he use them to break through level thirty himself?

The teachers and headmaster, however, fawned over him as much as they could. Rather than attributing that to any genuine learning or ability on his part, Leng Xiyue was more inclined to believe it was because of the elder status he had previously obtained through Bibi Dong. The local Spirit Hall treated him with respect, so others naturally did everything they could to win him over. But children unfamiliar with the ways of the world did not care about any of that. Their assessments struck the nail squarely on the head.

Yu Xiaogang had excuses of his own, of course. If these people could not reach the level needed to understand his theories, they were beyond saving. His own problem was an innate defect, the heavens' jealousy of a gifted man. What did that have to do with him?

But he had also forgotten that everyone's martial soul and soul power were left to the whims of fate. To prepare for a chance to confront the Grandmaster to his face someday, Leng Xiyue had deliberately read research on martial souls. She discovered that, in the early days, several elders of the Spirit Hall had traveled around conducting surveys. They found that even among ordinary people who all possessed trash martial souls and no soul power, Soul Masters with innate soul power above level three could still be born, at a ratio of one in eighty to one hundred. That proportion was certainly not low.

After making this discovery, those elders pushed through a law requiring local Spirit Hall branches to take the initiative every year and awaken martial souls in the villages surrounding their towns. In practice, the results had indeed been good. Holy Soul Village, for example, had once produced a Soul Saint-if that story had been false, someone would probably have forced the village to change its name long ago.

That raised a question. Since everyone received their talent through luck, what extra advantage did Yu Xiaogang have? Were those with poor talent to be dismissed as useless Soul Masters? Wouldn't anyone with good talent become a genius regardless of who trained them? Even the Spirit Hall would surely be helpless if tasked with training someone with poor talent. Instead, he used this theory to wash his hands of all responsibility and keep up his image as a master theorist.

All things considered, Leng Xiyue believed Yu Xiaogang was undoubtedly the most disgusting person in all of Douluo. Everything he possessed now had come through Bibi Dong, yet he later discarded her like a worn-out shoe and stood on the moral high ground to heap criticism on her. Whenever she could be of use, however, he did not hesitate to take advantage of the conveniences she afforded him, without the slightest guilt.

The sad part was that the Spirit Hall's own researchers had to pass assessment after assessment before they could borrow the books here, while those with access, like her and Bibi Dong, simply had no spare time for it. Otherwise, how would a posturing clown like him ever have had room to make trouble?

Rather than condemning the Grandmaster, her immediate priority was to turn her own theories and ideas into reality, rake in money, and improve her strength. Once she did, wouldn't she be able to knead him into whatever shape she pleased?

The young librarian still wore that same icy expression and had not even told her her name. She seemed unwilling to do anything or say a single extra word beyond the scope of her work. This time, however, Leng Xiyue enthusiastically stepped forward and gave her a hug. Now that she had finally completed her research, she could return to her residence and properly enjoy the few days remaining before she went to the Spirit Hall Academy.

Over the past few days, she had paid no attention whatsoever to such things. Once she returned tonight, she would have to take a good look at the Douluo Continent's recipes and have Javier arrange a few lavish meals, no matter what.