'The first thing you should know is that underestimating this quadrant will lead to your death. They're not ranked 98th because of their lack of potential. In fact, in terms of birthing talents, they're not too far behind your home universe. It's just that their backstory is even more tragic than your own.
'While your talent was stolen away by a transcendent, their talents were rounded up and taken away. The 'geniuses' you see here, aren't the true geniuses of this quadrant at all.'
Dyon's smile disappeared.
Before his master's soul strand disappeared, she had told Dyon the story of their universe and how many experts had coveted them because of not just the energy density, but also their potential to birth talents. Of course, that was all then taken away by the entity. Although his universe could still birth great talents, its ability to do so was heavily crippled.
Just the thought of this was shocking considering just how many God level talents were still being birthed in their quadrant. It was even to the point where they were still comparable to the top most quadrants. Imagining what their talent level would be like had their energies not been stolen away… It was truly mind boggling.
But, now, the Dragon King was telling Dyon they weren't alone in their plight.
'You can consider yourselves lucky compared to them. Although your talent was sealed away, you still got the opportunity to live normal lives. In fact, you created branches of thought never before seen in the martial world. Things like physics and chemistry always existed, but they were never so properly explained nor understood. I can also tell that having that knowledge also helps you with your cultivation and comprehension.
'However, those of this universe were truly pitiful. The reason you have yet to understand the special nature of this universe is precisely because your soul is sealed away. You don't have the ability to sense just why the suppression is so heavy here.
'The energy needed to soul cultivate is similar, but different to that used by the Conventional Path. The hallmark of a good soul cultivation technique is its ability to efficiently convert Conventional Path energies to a usable form for the soul. However, that doesn't mean that readily usable forms of this energy don't exist. In fact, this quadrant, as a whole, is completely flooded with such energy. While Conventional Path energies are scarce, Soul Path energies are even denser than what is seen in the peak most quadrants.'
'What?' This explanation made sense, but it confused Dyon beyond belief. 'In this kind of environment, how could the Soul Path lose to the Energy Path?'
'That's obvious. The Soul Path has never been able to effectively translate their soul strength into battle prowess. I have no doubt that soon after your soul unseals, it will advance by leaps and bounds into the dao levels. But, I also have no doubt that even then, you would be no match for true dao formation experts. If you tried to fight, you'd die without leaving a corpse behind.'
'I don't believe it's so simple.' Dyon's frown deepened. 'Maybe in one on one combat, a soul cultivator would be looked down upon, but in war, I dare to say that no one is more effective than a soul cultivator. Everything from pills for recovery, to weapons for fighting efficiency, to formations for battles of attrition, soul cultivators are unmatched in all of these aspects.'
'You're too naïve. Not every soul cultivator is lucky enough to be gifted the [Dao of Array Alchemy] like you were, and even if they were, the formations you're talking about were things you learned from the second trial world, no? Haven't you noticed that large scales formations are rare in this day and age? It's a lost art.
'Something like using the feng shui of your surroundings to construct and power large scale formations is a feat that only the most ancient clans can do. And, even they can only maintain the formations they had from long ago, having lost the ability to construct new ones.
'Also, don't you find it odd that this quadrant is being controlled by others behind the scenes? Obviously this wasn't a fair a war.'
'Are you trying to say that this has something to do with the ban on Array Alchemy?'
'That's very likely the case. Such an accumulation of soul talent would definitely be a threat. Even with the general consensus being that formation theory and alchemy should be kept separate, it was only a matter of time before someone became curious enough to test it.
'Obviously, there's no such ban on array alchemy in the transcendent world because those who've lived for millions of years aren't so easily manipulated. Instead, there was just immediate all out war between the Chaos and Balanced Paths.'
'Alright… But if this quadrant was once known for its soul talent, how did everyone somehow forget that?'
'It's not that they forgot, everyone with enough power either learns of it or remembers it. It's just that they receive benefits from the current situation in this quadrant.
'There was a time where this quadrant was ranked into the top 20. It wasn't any higher because ranks were mostly fought for through combat, and for obvious reasons, a soul-based quadrant was weak in that aspect.
'However, after the Energy Path won, they no longer had the talent to sustain their ranking and continuously fell into disgrace.
'The vicious cycle continued because those with exceptional soul talent were taken away while only those who willingly crippled themselves or didn't have soul talent were able to continue living a normal life.'
Dyon didn't like where this was going. He understood why the Dragon King and Zabia would think he would go and do something stupid now.
Although having cultivation talent didn't necessarily mean that you would have good soul talent, having good soul talent almost guaranteed having good cultivation talent. Dyon was an exception only because his energy and body cultivation talent were sealed away, if not for that, how could his cultivation talent have been so poor before? Dyon didn't doubt that his original set of meridians were at least of the third grade, if not better.
The soul was capable of helping comprehension to varying degrees. Obviously someone with high levels of comprehension would also have high cultivation talent, and even in the cases where this talent was lacking, comprehension abilities could make up for it.
A person with high soul talent, but a poor meridian grade, could cultivate with the effectiveness of someone two to even three grades above them. Meaning, that girl that was taken away for her soul talent, even though she only had fifth grade meridians, could cultivate with the effectiveness of a person with third grade meridians at the very least. This was the benefit of soul talent.
So, if all those with soul talent were being taken away, that meant that all the true talents were either gone or were forced to cripple themselves at an early age. On top of that, without the resources of a high ranked quadrant, nor the benefit of using those soul talented individuals as alchemists, there was no method of repairing those crippled souls here. In fact, the level of pill needed to heal someone with an injured soul was unfathomable and the requirements increase depending on the talent level of the soul.
If it wasn't for Amphorae, Dyon's soul was still be unrepairable. Even though Zabia's soul was healed with a master level pill, Dyon's soul was so far and away more talented that even a comet level pill, even by the standards of his grand teacher, wouldn't be enough.
'Stop beating around the bush, Old Lizard. What is happening here?'
'There are very few mystic level techniques in this plane, but one among them was a core teaching of the former Soul Rending Peak of this quadrant. That sect was nothing like what's it's become today, it once had the ability hold its head high even among the best sects in existence.
'However, that mystic technique was very evil. So, although it increased the prestige of the sect, it was banned from being put into practice and only acted as reference for cultivation due to its profundity.
'This technique allows one to integrate the soul of another, making all of their experiences your own and even allowing you to absorb their soul cultivation to increase yours. The limitation of this technique was that those with weak soul talent wouldn't survive the process, thus making what you could gain from their soul very limited.
'As you might have guessed by now, those with soul talent aren't killed. Instead, they're brought to Soul Market where they're groomed. Most focus on learning a single technique for years, practicing it over and over again until perfection…
'Then, once they've reached their full potential, they're then ranked according to the usefulness of their soul...
'Sometimes they're auctioned....'
