Knowing the What, but Not the Why

After Xuan Zi was taken away for emergency treatment, the atmosphere in the pavilion grew rather awkward.

To divert Su Xian's attention, Mu En hurriedly picked up the conversation and asked humbly, "Teacher Su, that mathematics, physics, and that industrialization you mentioned sounded like they could wrest the very wonders of creation from heaven and earth! In this day and age, does everyone study this science?"

"Of course."

Hearing someone show interest, Su Xian immediately perked up and launched into an explanation, spittle flying. "Science and industry are the backbone of a powerful nation! In our current era, we went from having nothing to having all nations pay homage, all thanks to countless patriotic scientists with exceptional foundations in mathematics and physics."

"Without the heavy industrial system they established, without nine years of compulsory education for everyone, how could we have become an industrial powerhouse? So, uncles, you must make sure the children study mathematics and science properly! Only knowledge can change the face of poverty here on Daliang Mountain!"

Su Xian grew more impassioned as he spoke, trying to awaken these mountain villagers to the importance of education.

His painstaking efforts, however, were clearly flirtatious glances wasted on the blind.

The big shots of the Sea God Pavilion were thinking only about how to use science to research immortal herbs and how to use industrialization to smash the Sun Moon Empire. Who the hell cared about poverty on Daliang Mountain?

Yan Shaozhe listened with a sour feeling in his heart.

As the distinguished dean of the Martial Soul Department, he could not help wanting to take a sarcastic jab at this blind man as he watched him pontificate on affairs of state.

"How very righteous you sound, Teacher Su."

Lowering his voice, Yan Shaozhe deliberately asked, "Since you're one of those highly qualified pillars of the nation, how many gold soul... ahem, how much does the state pay you every month?"

"..."

Su Xian's lofty declarations came to an abrupt halt.

Why was this young fellow called A-Shuozhe so annoying?!

He just had to bring up the one sore subject!

Remembering his meager monthly volunteer teaching allowance, Su Xian's heart bled, and his defenses crumbled on the spot.

"I've noticed something about you, young comrade. Why is your ideological awareness so low?!"

Su Xian reproached him bitterly. "Isn't talking about money vulgar? This is called a spirit of dedication! Do you understand dedication? I answered the organization's call and volunteered to teach on Daliang Mountain!"

My awareness is low?

Yan Shaozhe was unhappy too. "Weren't you the one who just said that learning science could earn you big money and change your fate, Teacher Su? What's wrong with asking about your salary?"

"It's precisely because Daliang Mountain is poor that it needs highly qualified people like me to alleviate poverty!"

Su Xian shot straight back, mercilessly exposing Yan Shaozhe's shortcomings. "Besides, you're a grown man with working hands and feet, the only young, able-bodied worker in the village! Instead of going to a coastal city to work and earn money, you spend every day hiding at the village entrance, loafing around and shooting the breeze with a bunch of old men and women, and you have the nerve to ask about my salary? Did a dog eat your ambition?!"

"You-!" This head-on barrage of abuse left Yan Shaozhe choking, his face scarlet as he rose to his feet in anger.

He was the distinguished dean of Shrek's Martial Soul Department! A rank-ninety-five Super Douluo! He oversaw the entire Martial Soul Department of Shrek!

And now a blind man had actually called him "a village layabout with no ambition"?!

Yan Shaozhe clenched his fists, wanting nothing more than to slap that venomous mouth of his to pieces!

But with his hand raised halfway, he felt Mu En's warning gaze beside him and forcibly restrained himself.

If I can't afford to offend him, can't I at least get out of his way?!

Yan Shaozhe stamped his foot hard, walked over to a pillar in the corner of the pavilion, and squatted on the ground with his arms folded across his chest, withdrawing into himself like an aggrieved young wife.

"Ahem, yes, exactly! Teacher Su coming to teach in our impoverished backwater is a great act of virtue and kindness. Bringing up money really was vulgar."

Secretly delighted to see his old rival put in his place, Qian Duoduo hurriedly smoothed things over and steered the conversation back on track. "But Teacher Su, there's something I don't quite understand."

"Go ahead, Uncle Mo Niu."

Qian Duoduo probed cautiously, "You made science and industry sound so miraculous just now! Then let's suppose, just suppose, that Shrek Academy in that novel, Peerless Tang Sect, wanted to pursue industrialization and science too. Could they pull it off?"

At this question, even Yan Shaozhe, who had been sulking in isolation, pricked up his ears.

Mu En leaned forward slightly, staring intently at Su Xian.

"Shrek pursuing industrialization?"

Su Xian rubbed his chin in thought, then delivered a blunt, merciless verdict. "They couldn't! In fact, unless they completely shatter their existing entrenched beliefs, sooner or later the Sun Moon Empire will crush them on the level of civilization itself!"

"Why?!" Deeply shaken, Mu En could not help pressing him. "Doesn't the novel say that Shrek has a ten-thousand-year legacy and the deepest foundations in the world? Could they really not even learn some new technology?"

"Uncle Mu En, this involves questions of underlying logic and systems."

Sitting cross-legged, Su Xian took a deep breath and began dissecting the Douluo Continent's cultivation system. "However deep Shrek's foundations are, they're still nothing more than a simple 'mystical system'! Their greatest failing, and the failing the entire Douluo Continent has shared for ten thousand years, can be summed up in one sentence-"

"They know the what, but not the why!"

"Look at the people of Shrek, or rather, the Soul Masters of the entire continent."

Su Xian showed no mercy as he tore away the fantasy world's fig leaf. "They know they have to awaken their martial souls at six, that killing soul beasts and absorbing soul rings gives them soul skills, and that Titled Douluos are incredibly powerful."

"But! In ten thousand years, has anyone investigated what kind of energy soul power actually is? Is it dark matter? Or a special magnetic field?"

"Has anyone used biology to map the genes governing martial soul inheritance and study why mutated martial souls occur?"

"Has anyone used physics to break down the precise energy equation for soul power converting into heat when a fireball soul skill is unleashed?!"

Su Xian's barrage of soul-searching questions slammed into Mu En's and Yan Shaozhe's hearts!

No!

Never!

For ten thousand years, every Soul Master had been desperately meditating, absorbing, and fighting.

Yet not a single person had ever thought about the underlying logic behind it all!

"That is the tragedy of mysticism!"

A trace of pity seeped into Su Xian's voice. "All they know is to treat these phenomena as gifts from the gods, or as common knowledge to be taken for granted!"

"When they see an unparalleled genius with twin martial souls, all they do is exclaim, 'This is a child of destiny!' Then they feed him resources in the most primitive, force-fed fashion."

"But what would a real scientist do?"

Su Xian sneered. "A scientist would pin that genius to an experimental table, draw his blood, study his genetic sequence, and analyze the structure of his meridians! Then they would determine the probabilities and conditions for twin martial souls to form, and ultimately mass-produce that 'destiny'!!!"

Mass-produce twin martial souls?!

Mu En shuddered all over, while Yan Shaozhe was so frightened that he sat straight down on the ground, his worldview suffering a devastating blow.

"This is the fundamental reason Shrek's soul guidance technology stagnated for ten thousand years and was overtaken by the Sun Moon Empire!"

Su Xian delivered his closing statement:

"Shrek cares only about results, not the process of deriving them! They pursue only the ultimate in individual martial might while neglecting the systematic construction of civilization! They lack that spirit of inquiry that seeks to uncover the origins of the world!"

"By contrast, although the Sun Moon Empire still uses soul power to inscribe formations, they've already reached the industrial threshold of standardization, mass production, and modularization! They've already begun trying to use rational logic to investigate the laws governing resonance between metals and soul power!"

"If Shrek keeps clinging to its outdated notions of martial soul orthodoxy instead of breaking so-called mystical cultivation down into a rigorous system."

Su Xian shook his head and gave a grating scoff. "Then a few hundred years from now, when the Sun Moon Empire's Fixed Soul Cannon Shells rain down on Sea God Island like a torrential storm."

"Those ten thousand years of Shrek's foundations will amount to nothing more than a slightly bigger firework under industrial artillery!"