"The Ten Core Competencies of Martial Soul?"
"What kind of bullshit is this?"
Moonlight spilled over a courtyard behind the Pope's Palace, where the night breeze carried a slight chill.
Qian Renxue, eight or nine years old, stood in a pavilion.
Across from her sat a man in a moon-white robe.
His silver hair fell past his shoulders, and his bearing was as cool and aloof as the moonlight that night.
He looked to be only about twenty, yet carried a composure at odds with his age.
His name was An Yi, a transmigrator.
His start had been the usual orphan setup, except that while others transmigrated to Holy Soul Village, he had appeared in Vast Sea City, on the continent's western coast, west of the village.
He had made a living from childhood by gathering seashells on the beach and doing odd jobs, until a turning point in his life came at the age of six.
Martial Soul Awakening.
The sun and the moon.
Twin Martial Souls and Innate Full Soul Power.
Such talent was as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns across the entire Douluo Continent.
Even more coincidentally, Spirit Hall had been preparing an expedition to Sea God Island at the time.
Bibi Dong, who was still the saintess then, happened to pass through Vast Sea City and discovered the exceptionally gifted child. She immediately thought of taking him as her disciple.
Keep picking up seashells on the beach, or follow Spirit Hall's saintess and enjoy the good life?
That choice needed no thought at all.
An Yi agreed on the spot.
But the real problem followed.
He knew how Spirit Hall's expedition would end. Two thousand Soul Masters would march on Sea God Island in overwhelming force, only to suffer a crushing defeat.
It was no expedition at all. They were going to feed the enemy kills.
He had thought about stopping them, but how many people would believe a six-year-old child, no matter how clearly he explained what would happen?
Besides, the Pope had ordered the expedition.
The two thousand Soul Masters had assembled, and the fleet was about to set sail. What right did a child like him have to tell them what to do?
Thus, not only did An Yi fail to dissuade them, he was taken aboard as well.
The fine-sounding excuse was that they were taking him out to see the world.
An Yi had wanted to curse right then and there.
See the world?
Damn it! Seeing this part of the world could cost me my life!
The outcome was no surprise-a crushing defeat.
An Yi had planned to stay aboard and run when they retreated, but before Bibi Dong returned, a hundred-meter wave came crashing down.
When he woke up, the people from Spirit Hall had either died or fled.
Faced with the wrath of Sea God Island's residents, An Yi promptly claimed that Spirit Hall had kidnapped him and forced him aboard as child labor.
A six-year-old child hardly looked like someone who had come to Sea God Island to fight.
Though Bo Saixi had no fondness for the people of Spirit Hall, she would not go so far as to take her anger out on a child who knew nothing.
And so An Yi escaped with his life.
Not only that, he settled down on Sea God Island.
The Sacred Pillar Trial on Sea God Island did not open until one turned eighteen, but in light of his extraordinary talent and silver tongue, Bo Saixi gave him special treatment, allowing him to enter the Sea God's Light and cultivate ahead of time.
Ten years of climbing, day after day.
Ten years of tempering, day after day.
At seventeen, An Yi finally broke through to Soul Saint.
When he turned eighteen, he promptly left Sea God Island.
He knew very well that no matter how gifted he was, without the Sea God's Heart, he could never obtain the Sea God Inheritance.
As for undertaking the Sacred Pillar Trial and becoming a guardian of Sea God Island?
What a joke.
He would cultivate painstakingly for a lifetime, only to tie himself to an island for good, and even stand guard at the gate for Tang San in the future?
It wasn't as though seawater had flooded his brain.
Running away was the proper path.
After he returned to Vast Sea City, his golden finger finally arrived on the very day he turned eighteen.
Beginner's gift package: Kong Deming template, Level 10 Soul Guidance Grand Library, Twin Martial Souls evolution.
The Kong Deming template gave him exceptional comprehension of Soul Tools.
The Level 10 Soul Guidance Grand Library stored all the knowledge Kong Deming had accumulated over his lifetime in An Yi's mind, including Soul Guidance Technology, metal materials science, and formation topology.
That meant that, given enough time and resources, he was fully capable of recreating Soul Tool Technology far beyond the current era on the Douluo Continent.
The final reward directly transformed his Martial Souls.
His original Sun Martial Soul evolved into the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon.
His Moon Martial Soul mutated into its counterpart, the Great Yin Heaven-Devouring Dragon.
One yang, one yin; one light, one dark.
That very evening, An Yi eagerly ran to the coast to see what his evolved Great Yin Heaven-Devouring Dragon looked like.
For some reason, Qian Daoliu appeared there and happened to witness the scene.
For various reasons, An Yi followed Qian Daoliu back to Spirit City and became Qian Renxue's teacher.
An Yi returned from his thoughts.
He casually tossed the booklet bearing the title "Ten Core Competencies of Martial Soul" onto the stone table.
"Why are you interested in this sort of thing?"
Qian Renxue shook her head. "I'm not. I heard people in the Pope's Palace say that Mom and this man named Yu Xiaogang... seemed to have been in a relationship. I asked around, and they called him Grandmaster. They also said he was the one who proposed these Ten Core Competencies of Martial Soul."
Qian Renxue paused, then asked in confusion, "You said it was bullshit? Does that mean all of it is wrong?"
An Yi chuckled and tapped the tabletop with his fingertips. "Before we talk about right and wrong, there's one question we need to settle first."
"What is a theory?"
Qian Renxue blinked. "A theory?"
"That's right."
An Yi held up one finger. "A theory isn't just an opinion you toss out and then support with a few examples. A real theory must have a logical framework whose parts corroborate one another."
"It needs to be tested against a large body of facts, be able to explain phenomena that have already occurred, and have a certain degree of predictive power."
"Simply put, it shouldn't just tell you what happened. It also has to tell you why it happened and under what conditions something similar will happen again."
Qian Renxue seemed to understand, but not quite.
An Yi was in no hurry and switched to a simpler example.
"Take the saying: dragons beget dragons, and phoenixes beget phoenixes."
"Is that true?"
Qian Renxue nodded. "Of course it is."
"Then tell me, why do dragons beget dragons and phoenixes beget phoenixes?" An Yi looked at her.
"Why are a dragon's offspring still dragons? Why are a phoenix's offspring still phoenixes? Why can't a dragon give birth to a phoenix or something else?"
Qian Renxue was taken aback.
She had never considered these questions. As far as she was concerned, dragons begetting dragons and phoenixes begetting phoenixes was only natural.
An Yi continued, "Suppose someone could explain the reason behind it and build a complete model proving the conditions under which this pattern holds, and could use the same model to explain reproduction in other living creatures."
"Only then would it count as a real theory."
"As for dragons begetting dragons and phoenixes begetting phoenixes?"
"That's just a phenomenon."
An Yi glanced at the booklet. "Now look at what's written in here. He surveyed several hundred Soul Masters, gathered some claims about Martial Souls, Soul Rings, and Soul Master cultivation, then drew a series of conclusions based on his own understanding."
"Some of those conclusions may indeed have value as references."
"But the question is, what gives him grounds to declare them universal laws?"
"He proposed claims based only on limited observations or intuition. They might be true, but they haven't been thoroughly verified at all. Can that be called a theory?"
"Without completing the full cycle of empirical verification, any assertion is merely a hypothesis."
"There's no shame in a hypothesis. Any research can begin with a conjecture."
"The real problem is that he rushed to present his conjectures as conclusions without completing the subsequent verification, and even gave them an intimidating-sounding name."
"The Ten Core Competencies of Martial Soul."
At this, An Yi couldn't help laughing.
"The name certainly sounds impressive."
"Unfortunately, the contents... are half true and half false, plausible but misleading, and designed to grab attention."
Qian Renxue fell silent for a moment, then suddenly looked up. "But Teacher, if there are problems with these things, why do the people in Spirit Hall still call him Grandmaster?"
An Yi answered with a question. "Do you know who Yu Xiaogang's father is?"
"Yes. The clan head of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, Thunder Douluo, Yu Yuanzhen."
As soon as she finished speaking, Qian Renxue froze.
Then, as though something had occurred to her, her expression turned peculiar.
"Teacher, do you mean... everyone calls him that out of respect for Yu Yuanzhen?"
"What else?" An Yi asked.
"Do you think it's really because his theories are so profound?"
"In this world, sometimes what is said doesn't matter. What matters is who says it."
"A Titled Douluo might say something offhand, and even if it contains mistakes, people might still hold it up as truth."
"But if an ordinary person with no power or influence said the same thing, how many people would be willing to listen seriously, even if he were right about everything?"
"The Soul Master World is, in the end, a place that prizes strength."
"If Yu Xiaogang weren't the son of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan's head, and didn't have a Titled Douluo like Yu Yuanzhen for a father, how many people do you think would be willing to listen to his lectures based solely on his cultivation as a Soul Grandmaster below level thirty?"
Qian Renxue nodded thoughtfully.
What An Yi had said was not profound. Quite the opposite: it was the most realistic side of the Soul Master World.
Strength determined status, and status determined one's voice.
As for how much a person actually knew, people might not care at all.
"Of course."
An Yi changed tack.
"There's nothing inherently wrong with being well born and having people willing to listen to you."
"The real question is whether what you say has any value."
"And what is the value of a theory?"
Qian Renxue asked instinctively, "What is it?"
"To guide practice," An Yi said.
"A theory that can't guide practice, no matter how flowery its language, is ultimately just a pile of words with no practical value."
"That's the biggest problem with Yu Xiaogang's ideas."
"He can't prove them right, and others can't prove them wrong, because many of his ideas lack clear standards for verification. He hasn't even clearly stated the specific conditions under which they apply."
"What can you use to guide cultivation?"
"Is he going to make other Soul Masters follow his advice just because he says, 'I think so'?"
An Yi shook his head.
"Soul Master cultivation isn't as simple as writing a few words on paper."
"How to absorb Soul Rings, how to circulate Soul Power, how to develop a Martial Soul-every step can affect a cultivator's strength, or even their life."
"If his judgment is flawed, who bears the consequences?"
"He has others risk the results of their cultivation, or even their lives, to test an unverified hypothesis."
"If they succeed, his theory is brilliant and mighty."
"But what if they fail?"
"Is the cultivator's talent insufficient, or is there a problem with the cultivation method itself?"
"If he can't even determine the reason for failure, what's the point of this so-called theory?"