#9 - Hard and sharp

Combining his historical knowledge from his previous life, Quan Yi briefly analyzed the situation and came up with a reason.

The Douluo Continent was a strict hierarchical society, where changing one's status or soul power level was extremely difficult.

Soul Master families at the top of society possessed powerful Martial Souls, which also granted them higher innate soul power.

Their talents were already superior to ordinary people, so these Soul Master families did not need to improve their cultivation methods.

On the other hand, lower-level Soul Masters, such as those from commoner families, had low levels of education and limited perspectives. They couldn't even conceive of the idea of improvement.

Moreover, Soul Masters had to break through level 30 before the age of twenty; otherwise, no matter how hard they tried afterward, they would be unable to overcome this bottleneck.

As a result, the entire Soul Master world was trapped in a predicament of solely valuing talent. No one would research cultivation methods.

But there must be some people in this world who continue to research. And these people must have an educational background. Secondly, their talent must be poor; otherwise, they would have no reason to research this.

Finally, and most importantly, this person must not have given up. Only those who still harbor unwillingness in their hearts will do what no one else will do.

But Quan Yi was different. Although he had so-called talent, that was not a reason to hinder Quan Yi's progress.

Now that he knew that improvements could be made, there was no reason not to do it. It seemed that another task had to be added to the schedule.

While thinking, soul power had already circulated once within Quan Yi's body, but Quan Yi did not feel an increase in soul power, but rather the existence of some kind of wall.

Is this the bottleneck?

"One is a defensive fist technique—'Gang' (坚, Firm), and the other is an offensive fist technique—'Jian' (尖, Sharp)."

"'Gang' condenses soul power on the hands, forming a hard membrane, which can be used for both offense and defense."

"'Jian' condenses sharp thorns on the fist. When the thorns pierce into the body, soul power will enter the enemy's body, causing internal damage."

Rather than calling them fist techniques, they were more like soul power application skills.

Quan Yi raised his doubts.

"Father, these are soul power application skills, not fist techniques, right?"

"Haha, that's right. These are not fist techniques at all, but 'Gang' and 'Jian' are indeed the most important components of the Quan family's fist techniques. As long as you learn 'Gang' and 'Jian' within these two months, you will have passed."

Quan Yue didn't explain much. Although Quan Yi still had questions, Quan Yue had already begun to explain. Quan Yi could only concentrate and listen carefully.

The principles of 'Gang' and 'Jian' were very simple, which was to control soul power and condense it on both hands.

'Gang' required condensing soul power into a thin film, forming a hard defense on the hands.

'Jian' was to condense soul power into a sharp thorn shape. With a punch, it could easily pierce through the body's surface defense and inject soul power into the enemy's body.

After speaking, Quan Yue demonstrated. Black light emerged from Quan Yue's hands, quickly covering both hands.

Isn't this Armament Haki? This thought appeared in Quan Yi's mind.

The black hands showed a metallic luster, looking very hard.

Suddenly, Quan Yue's right hand slowly changed, with the fist peak slowly protruding, eventually forming a sharp thorn shape.

→

After demonstrating, Quan Yue instructed Quan Yi: "'Jian' is an advanced move of 'Gang'. You can practice 'Gang' first, and then cultivate 'Jian'."

Quan Yi didn't hesitate and immediately began to cultivate.

Only after Quan Yi started practicing did he realize that he had underestimated the difficulty of cultivating 'Gang' and 'Jian'.

Although the principle was simple, the practice was full of difficulties.

First of all, controlling soul power within the body was very simple, but once soul power left the body, the difficulty of controlling soul power increased sharply.

Once soul power left the body, it would dissipate rapidly. It was very difficult to fix soul power on the body's surface.

Moreover, to form a soul power membrane with sufficient hardness, more soul power had to be condensed. As soul power increased, the difficulty of control also increased.

The consumption of soul power was too great. Each attempt consumed one-tenth of his soul power. The number of attempts he could make each day was limited, and a lot of time was wasted on meditation.

No wonder fist technique training had to be carried out in the basement. The basement was a mimetic cultivation environment for the Gauntlet Martial Soul. Here, the recovery speed of soul power far exceeded other places.

Although there were many difficulties, they did not stump Quan Yi. In order to complete this test within two months, Quan Yi decisively gave up sleep and replaced it with meditation.

After a week, Quan Yi could already condense soul power on the surface of his skin and maintain it for a period of time.

Quan Yi's soul power showed a dark red color. After the soul power covered his hand, it was like magma wrapped around his hand, beautiful and filled with a dangerous aura.

However, the current soul power was still unstable. The soul power membrane often fluctuated. Once fluctuations occurred, its hardness would decrease. But everything was developing in a good direction.

This progress had far exceeded Quan Yue's imagination. Back then, Quan Yue had spent half a year to barely learn 'Gang'.

In terms of soul power control, innate full soul power could not bring any help. Soul power control required strong mental power.

Could it be that Quan Yi also had extraordinary talent in mental power?

What Quan Yue didn't know was that Quan Yi was a reincarnator. Although Quan Yi's physical age was six years old, his soul age had exceeded twenty years old.

This meant that Quan Yi had more than ten years of development time than his peers, so his mental power would naturally be very strong.

According to Quan Yi's progress, perhaps he wouldn't need two months. He could completely master 'Gang' and 'Jian' in just one month.

Quan Yi had no time to observe Quan Yue's reaction at this time. His attention was focused on cultivation.

Although the cultivation of 'Gang' and 'Tou' (透, Penetration, likely a typo for 尖, Jian) did not make the body tired, the mental burden was very heavy. However, with cultivation, Quan Yi could feel that his mental burden was gradually decreasing.

Quan Yi was not yet aware that this was a manifestation of mental power increasing.

With the increase of mental power, Quan Yi's control over soul power was constantly strengthening. Under the same soul power, the soul power membrane on his hand became thinner and more stable.

In the second week, Quan Yi completely learned 'Gang'.

After that, Quan Yi mastered 'Jian' even faster. After all, 'Jian' was just about condensing sharp thorns on the basis of 'Gang'.

On the twenty-eighth day of cultivation, Quan Yi found Quan Yue.

"Father, I have mastered 'Gang' and 'Jian'."

Quan Yue had lost count of how many times he had been surprised.

Through these few weeks of observation, Quan Yue had a deeper understanding of Quan Yi.

Quan Yi had an iron will. Compared to Quan Yi's willpower, innate full soul power seemed insignificant.

Quan Yue had once worried that Quan Yi would become lazy in his cultivation after awakening such high talent.

But Quan Yue could not see any slackness in Quan Yi.

Quan Yue put himself in Quan Yi's shoes and found that he could not do as Quan Yi did, cultivating tirelessly without sleep.