When Tang Hao was brought up, Zhou Qing asked Tang San, "Old Jack gave you the village's academy recommendation outright, without even consulting your father. Aren't you going to talk to him about it?"
Tang San's expression darkened.
"That's something worth considering."
Ever since Zhou Qing's family had set up the forge nearby, Tang San had been spending less and less time at home. His daily schedule was packed, and his relationship with Tang Hao had grown increasingly distant.
These days, Tang Hao relied entirely on Tang San to bring him his meals.
If Tang San were to leave Saint Spirit Village to enroll at the Nuoding Elementary Soul Master Academy, he could already imagine Tang Hao protesting not out of concern, but because no one would be there to deliver his food!
Tang San was certain Tang Hao would absolutely do something like that.
But he didn't want to bring that up now. Instead, he dragged Zhou Qing to the forge, shut the door behind them, drew the curtains, and struck a suspiciously secretive pose.
"What are you up to?"
Zhou Qing wrapped his arms around himself and clamped his legs together, looking alarmed. "I'm a guy, you know! And you're only six! Are you that desperate?"
Tang San's face turned black. His eye twitched as he snapped, "You're six too! And what the hell is going through your head?!"
"How is this my fault? Guys in this village who are six or seven years older than us are already married or betrothed. Some are even discussing marriage formally." Zhou Qing shrugged but then got serious. "So what's this about? Just putting it out there no butt stuff, no mouth stuff. Hands are fine, but I might 'accidentally' crush yours."
Tang San's temple throbbed. "I'm not joking! And seriously are you always this gross?"
"Ahem, just lightening the mood! Don't take it seriously. With how dramatic you're being, I figured you had some kind of huge revelation. I had to calm my nerves a bit." Zhou Qing straightened up, raised his hands solemnly, and declared, "I'm ready now."
Tang San took a deep breath, steadying himself. Then he raised his left hand.
A flash of black light appeared, and a small black hammer materialized. Tang San grasped it but it was clearly heavy, as his arm instinctively dropped under the weight.
"You've got two Martial Souls... and one of them is a hammer," Zhou Qing noted, keeping a straight face. Still, deep down, he felt pleased Tang San had finally opened up to him completely.
"You're not even surprised that I have twin Martial Souls?"
Tang San dismissed the hammer and wiped the sweat from his brow. Just summoning the Clear Sky Hammer drained his soul power significantly—no doubt, it was a top-tier Tool Martial Soul.
"What's there to be surprised about?" Zhou Qing replied. "Unless it's a special case like mine, most people inherit their Martial Souls from their parents. You just inherited one from your father and one from your mother. That's it."
"Special case?" It was the first time Tang San had heard that term.
"I made it up. My Martial Soul is my heart well, more accurately, it's my entire cardiovascular system. It includes the heart, arteries, veins everything. That term fits better."
Zhou Qing had already figured this out. His Martial Soul wasn't just a simple heart—it was the entire circulatory system. When it awakened and merged with his body's natural system, he had felt every beat, every contraction, every pulse of blood.
In that moment—
He could sense the rhythm of his cells and the flow of life itself.
Even if that level of perception was faint, maybe even an illusion, Zhou Qing was convinced: his Martial Soul, even without undergoing any second or third awakening, was already a rare, top-tier existence.
And with the acupoint and meridian charts from Tang San's Xuantian Technique, plus his own scientific mindset from his past life, it would be a breeze for him to invent his own soul skills in the future.
"Anyway," Tang San interrupted his train of thought, "Are you saying my twin Martial Souls are really just a simple matter of inheritance?"
"What else could it be?" Zhou Qing shrugged. "Did you think one of your Martial Souls popped into existence out of thin air?"
"Maybe. You said both your parents had Blue Silver Grass, but your Martial Soul is a circulatory system. That's not the same at all."
"That's different." Zhou Qing looked exasperated. "I have a feeling that true 'Innate Martial Souls' are what humans were meant to have. The beast-type or tool-type ones might be deviations."
Tang San was speechless. That was basically a direct attack on everyone else's Martial Souls!
"I'm just joking. Let's talk business."
Zhou Qing's expression turned serious. "From a hereditary standpoint, twin Martial Souls are simply an inheritance from both parents. But in practice, it's incredibly rare."
"Why's that?"
Tang San had spent most of his recent time replicating the soul-guiding core array from the soul guide crystal. He hadn't had the chance to read Zhou Qing's new Martial Soul theory books.
People only had so much time and energy. In their division of labor, Tang San focused entirely on soul tools, while Zhou Qing handled foundational records and occasionally threw in modern scientific perspectives.
"Martial Souls vary in quality just like how innate soul power varies. I believe that the level of innate soul power reflects the quality of the Martial Soul."
Zhou Qing continued, "High-quality Martial Souls let you cultivate faster. Low-quality ones are slower. According to the basic meditation technique from Spirit Hall, and the Xuantian Technique you taught me, a Martial Soul functions like a built-in cultivation manual. Meditation is the process of connecting with it learning from it."
"Through gaining soul rings, Martial Souls grow, and may even mutate. This can alter their built-in techniques."
"In other words, any Martial Soul that can be cultivated is like having a secret manual in your soul. Even if you start with just level one innate soul power, with enough time centuries or millennia and perfectly matching soul rings, you could still reach the Title Douluo level."
"But most people don't. Why? Probably because their Martial Soul picked up mismatched soul rings like a plant-type soul choosing a beast-type ring. That messes up the whole trajectory."
"Short-term, you won't notice. Long-term, it's crippling unless your Martial Soul is innately powerful or you have an external cultivation method like Xuantian Technique."
"That theory still has holes, and no real-world examples to confirm it. I may revise or scrap it later."
Still, given what Tang San knew, his decision to cultivate Xuantian Technique rather than follow Yu Xiaogang's rigid method was absolutely correct. If he'd followed Yu Xiaogang's soul ring combinations, he might've ended up ruined.
Tang San nodded frequently, amazed at how deeply Martial Souls were integrated with cultivation itself in this world. Then something occurred to him.
"Wait, aren't we off-topic? What's this got to do with me having twin Martial Souls?"
"It's very relevant," Zhou Qing said. "Each Martial Soul offers a unique path of cultivation. They may overlap in the basics like using the Ren and Du meridians but the details vary. Training with both could be dangerous if you can't balance them."
Tang San understood. It was like cultivating two different internal martial arts manuals at once. If you weren't careful, you could suffer a fatal backlash.
Zhou Qing continued, "From this perspective, the body tends to favor stronger Martial Souls. The one with more complex soul power pathways overrides the weaker one. That's the dominant Martial Soul the one that manifests."
"So under what conditions would both Martial Souls manifest?" Zhou Qing asked rhetorically, then answered, "Only when both have equally potent soul power pathways. If they're balanced, the body accepts them both."
"At first, I thought your full innate soul power was purely from cultivating Xuantian Technique. When I touched the crystal ball, it only absorbed soul power from that technique, not my natural Martial Soul energy."
"Since both of your Martial Souls seem ordinary Clear Sky Hammer and Blue Silver Grass I figured they didn't come with soul power, and you cultivated all of it yourself."
Tang San felt a cold sweat. When he'd touched the crystal, it really had only absorbed energy from Xuantian Technique. His Martial Souls hadn't reacted at all.
Am I... a twin trash Martial Soul holder?
He kept listening.
"But judging by how heavy that hammer was so much that your soul power couldn't even sustain it must be incredibly powerful."
"Likewise, your Blue Silver Grass can't be ordinary. Maybe it has the potential to match your hammer or is even stronger but hiding its strength."
"That's the only way your body could support twin Martial Souls."
Tang San considered this and asked, "Can you prove it?"
"Easily." Zhou Qing went next door to grab the basic meditation method from Spirit Hall and handed it to Tang San. "Use this to meditate. Don't use Xuantian Technique just feel how your soul power flows through each Martial Soul."
Tang San complied. Xuantian Technique was peaceful and controlled. As long as he didn't activate it, there was no risk.
"Which one should I sense first?"
"The hammer."
Tang San sat cross-legged and followed the meditation instructions. With his enhanced spiritual perception from Purple Demon Eye, he immediately received a response from the Clear Sky Hammer.
Soul power flowed through him in a completely different pattern from Xuantian Technique, forming clear meridian and acupoint routes in his mind.
This cultivation method is no weaker than Xuantian Technique!
Tang San was shocked. Though his spiritual power wasn't strong enough to fully "see" inside himself, he had memorized enough diagrams to understand the essence of what he was feeling.
And he now realized: most soul masters couldn't sense this early on because they lacked spiritual perception. Only by cultivating further and gaining soul rings did their Martial Soul's full pathway gradually reveal itself.
The advanced versions of the meditation technique probably provided more intricate maps—not as direct cultivation methods, but as aids in identifying a Martial Soul's unique path.
For Martial Souls without innate full soul power, every breakthrough could bring changes in the soul power flow. Without spiritual awareness, most soul masters couldn't keep up.
For those with low innate power, choosing the wrong soul ring early on could doom their entire cultivation journey.
"How was it?" Zhou Qing asked as Tang San opened his eyes.
"The hammer has its own cultivation method, and it's powerful on par with Xuantian Technique. And it suits the hammer perfectly."
Tang San realized that Martial Souls needed specific soul power to truly shine. Xuantian Technique was peaceful, but it might not bring out the hammer's full potential.
Who would've thought in his past life, he died chasing the Xuantian Technique. In this life, he had not one but two… maybe even three world-class techniques to choose from.
Is this fate making it up to me?
Last life, I had nothing. This life I have Martial Souls that grant supreme techniques… and a lifelong friend to share it all with.
"Did you try sensing your Blue Silver Grass?" Zhou Qing asked.
"I'll give it a try."
Tang San closed his eyes again and reached out to his other Martial Soul. Immediately, Blue Silver Grass manifested in his mind's eye. A flow diagram began to form but compared to the hammer, it was faint, hazy.
He could sense its strength it was no weaker than the hammer but the pathway details were too unclear to fully read.
No doubt, his Blue Silver Grass was powerful. But why was its pattern so vague?
He opened his eyes and reported his findings.
Zhou Qing nodded knowingly. "That proves it your Blue Silver Grass isn't ordinary. It's on par with the hammer. The reason it's blurry might be because it hasn't matured yet. Or maybe your spiritual power isn't strong enough."