Feigning hesitation for a moment, Xiao Yan reluctantly nodded, "Alright, I agree with you."
This big shot was clearly targeting him. If he didn't deal with it now, it would be trouble later.
Soul beasts usually live deep in the forests.
Information there was scarce, so whatever this big shot planned would become clear.
If it was some twisted idea like soul-forcing possession, it would be perfect to turn the tables and kill him instead.
Killing for treasure — that was a classic plot in novels.
Yu Xiaogang beamed with joy at the reply: "I've already arranged things with the academy, so don't worry about classes. On the way there and back, I'll thoroughly explain some knowledge about Martial Soul cultivation."
"I believe by then you'll have a new opinion of me and will voluntarily become my disciple."
Xiao Yan almost laughed out loud. A Great Soul Master actually wanted him, a "Soul Saint," to become his disciple? Dream on. The idiom "daydreaming" fit this guy perfectly.
After discussing the soul beast hunt, Yu Xiaogang continued, "Xiao Yan, one of your Martial Souls is the Blue Silver Grass. What's your opinion on the Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul?"
Seeing the big shot seemed to have a lot to say, Xiao Yan found a chair and sat down, shaking his head slightly, "Big shot, I'm afraid you're mistaken. I have only one Martial Soul, Blue Silver Grass, not 'one of my Martial Souls is Blue Silver Grass' like you said."
Yu Xiaogang's face stiffened even more.
What sounded like a casual remark had an obvious probing meaning. Xiao Yan's guard was really strong.
"As for your question about opinions..." Xiao Yan looked at the big shot. "Testing me? Let me test you instead."
With firm resolve, Xiao Yan raised his hand and shot out a blue-golden blade of grass towards Yu Xiaogang.
The blade flew swiftly, slicing through the air with a whoosh, narrowly missing Yu Xiaogang's head and embedding itself into the wall behind him with a ding.
Yu Xiaogang only saw a flash of blue light before something brushed past his head.
"What was that?" he blinked in confusion and turned around, only to see a blade of Blue Silver Grass embedded in the wall.
So, that was Blue Silver Grass that just shot over.
Not reacting fast enough?
Xiao Yan's eyes narrowed. Was this big shot's power only level 29? Or was he just pretending not to notice, confident he wouldn't die?
"This is my understanding: a Martial Soul is just a Martial Soul, a power awakened by a person," Xiao Yan said plainly.
Having practiced martial arts for years, even though his Martial Soul was newly awakened, he had a certain grasp on this new power.
A newly awakened Martial Soul was no different than starting to learn a new martial art—it was simply a form of power.
Judging by his first soul technique, Martial Souls were somewhat more peculiar than ordinary martial arts.
As for how to utilize the Blue Silver Emperor Martial Soul, he had only just scratched the surface.
Looking at the Blue Silver Grass blade half embedded in the wall, Yu Xiaogang stood stunned for a while before saying, "This method of use is quite novel, but your development direction seems a bit unorthodox. You definitely should study properly."
Xiao Yan smiled faintly. In pure martial arts, there was no such thing as orthodox or unorthodox.
Eye gouging, groin kicks—moves that common people might use in fights—compared to deep martial arts, had the same purpose: to attack the enemy.
As for so-called "low-class" or "orthodox vs. heretical" styles, that was just added human judgment.
Martial arts is simply offense and defense.
If others can attack, you can defend. Using offense as defense is still defense.
Whether you can hold the defense depends on your strength.
Yu Xiaogang explained, "Martial Souls can roughly be divided into Beast Martial Souls and Tool Martial Souls. Plant-type Martial Souls like your Blue Silver Grass fall under Tool Martial Souls. The difference lies mainly in their form of manifestation."
"Most Beast Martial Souls work by attaching their power to the user's body, which Soul Masters call Martial Soul Possession. But Tool Martial Soul users differ; most Tool Martial Souls function detached from the body."
Xiao Yan nodded slightly.
He hadn't seen many Soul Masters — only Su Yuntao, Wang Sheng, Xiao Wu, and himself.
Most of their Martial Souls were Beast types. Using Su Yuntao as an example, Beast Martial Souls indeed manifested through possession.
They transformed the user into something like a beast.
Su Yuntao, after activating his Martial Soul, resembled a werewolf.
His own Blue Silver Emperor and hammer Martial Souls were completely different.
"Because of the unique function of Tool Martial Souls, their supportive capabilities are generally higher than Beast Martial Souls. To give a simple example, if your Martial Soul was something like rice, the kind we eat, then your Martial Soul could serve as food. And since it's formed from soul power, it would be even more effective than regular food."
"Martial Souls can be eaten?" Xiao Yan was learning something new.
Judging from the effect, soul power condensed food was like something touched by immortal energy, not a mundane thing.
If so, except for Beast Martial Souls, most non-poisonous plant-type Martial Souls could be eaten.
Like his Blue Silver Emperor Martial Soul.
If you cooked a hotpot with it, sizzling it intensely and paired with special dipping sauce—it would be delicious.
"Martial Souls can indeed be eaten. This is called Food-type Soul Masters in the Soul Master world," Yu Xiaogang explained, "High-level Food-type Soul Masters are always the most sought-after talents in the army. As long as such a Soul Master reaches level 30 or above, they can provide rations for a hundred soldiers, greatly reducing the army's resource consumption."
"Eating is just an energy replenishment process, and soul power is a form of energy. When soul power itself can be turned into energy that people can absorb, it's essentially no different from food to the human body."
Xiao Yan nodded repeatedly. If he compressed the energy highly into the Blue Silver Emperor to create an energy aggregate, could it boost one's internal strength or soul power?
Like spiritual stones in cultivation novels—just simply restoring internal or soul energy would be a huge breakthrough.
Imagine after expending a lot of internal or soul energy, eating some Blue Silver Emperor and recovering quickly — how awesome would that be?
Plus, if you prepared some in advance as a backup energy source, you'd never fear internal energy depletion. The "Six Vein Machine Gun" could finally earn its name.
"However, nothing is absolute. While most Tool Martial Souls lean toward support, some Tool Martial Soul users can become combat Soul Masters. For example, if your Martial Soul was a knife or a sword, it could be used as a weapon, enough to become a battle-type Soul Master."
Seeing this, Xiao Yan's mouth curled up slightly.
Su Yuntao, the steward of the Martial Soul Hall, had once doubted, "A sickle can become a weapon?"
Douluo people seemed overly rigid about the concept of weapons.
If it's about killing tools, forget swords and sickles—sometimes a pen can be deadly.
For the crude, a rock or a brick works too.
"What the commoners call 'divine weapons' is just their short-sighted, frog-in-the-well perspective. True divine weapons are powerful Tool Soul Masters' Martial Souls refined to an extreme, becoming divine weapons."
Mentioning "divine weapons," Yu Xiaogang's eyes showed the image of his ideal divine weapon: a black hammer.
The Hao Tian Hammer, feared throughout the Soul Master world!
And its wielder, the Supreme Hao Tian, was Yu Xiaogang's most admired idol.
After immersing himself in memories for a long time, Yu Xiaogang resumed, "Although Martial Souls differ in type, they share some commonalities."
"In terms of development direction, they can generally be divided into Food-type, Reconnaissance-type, Combat-type, Healing-type, Control-type, and so on."
Xiao Yan roughly understood this. Some martial arts masters were not all-rounders but specialized in one aspect—be it swordplay, fists, or lightness skills.
But the truly top experts were all-rounders.
"Therefore, before obtaining your soul rings, you need to decide which direction your Martial Soul will develop toward. Martial Soul cultivation must focus on one development direction."
Looking at Xiao Yan, Yu Xiaogang had already prepared a whole set of arguments to prove his theory.
Xiao Yan didn't care much. Develop in one direction? That would be a huge injustice to his Blue Silver Emperor Martial Soul.
Sure, Martial Souls limited development in many ways, but couldn't a person cultivate something else to strengthen themselves?
The Martial Soul was static, but the person wasn't dead.
Take the Food-type: prepare plenty of restorative food in advance and master powerful combat ability — crazy recovery plus insane fighting power, basically a super berserker.
Invincible!
It seemed like people on this continent only talked about Martial Souls and soul rings, never mentioning other skills.
Did they only know Martial Soul cultivation?
Xiao Yan couldn't help but doubt.
Seeing Xiao Yan's face darken, his brows furrowed tight, Yu Xiaogang was secretly delighted.
"You're still young, so it's understandable that controlling your Martial Soul's development direction is difficult."
At this, Yu Xiaogang showed a proud smile and talked on eagerly:
"Many might think your Blue Silver Grass is a useless Martial Soul, but I disagree. After extensive research, Blue Silver Grass also has its advantages. If Blue Silver Grass could produce strong innate soul power at awakening, becoming a combat Soul Master would be almost guaranteed."
"It's a pity the innate soul power at awakening is very weak for Blue Silver Grass. But you are different..."
Talking about his research, Yu Xiaogang clearly grew more excited: "According to my comprehensive analysis of Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul, I think you should develop it toward the Control-type direction."
Xiao Yan felt he should hurry to develop Food-type uses of Blue Silver Grass to replenish his own consumption.
As for Control-type?
Ordinary Soul Saints couldn't even defend against the Six Vein Divine Sword; controlling a corpse wasn't very useful.
And those stronger than Soul Saints probably couldn't be controlled either.
Developing Control-type was basically self-sabotage.
Yu Xiaogang continued proudly, "Control-type Soul Masters use their Martial Souls to control opponents, achieving offensive or supportive effects."
(End of Chapter)