Douluo Continent: Martial Soul - Agave, Self-created Earth God Position

"Report! The editor-in-chief of the Martial Soul Daily is out requesting an audience!"

The voices of the attendants in front of the palace rang out from outside the main hall.

"Let him in." Qian Xunji's voice carried clearly to the outside of the palace gate.

He turned his head slightly and said to the attendants beside him, "Yue Guan, Gui Mei, you two stay. The rest of you, step aside."

The palace doors reopened, and the editor-in-chief strode in.

He walked to a spot ten steps away from the throne.

He then knelt down with a thud, not daring to raise his head, and held the manuscript in his hands.

"Bring it up!" Qian Xunji said calmly.

"Yes!" Ghostly figure flashed and silently appeared in front of the editor-in-chief, picked up the article, and handed it to Qian Xunji.

"The mark of Yue Guan?" Qian Xunji raised an eyebrow.

Yue Guan said, "It was written by my disciple."

He opened the cover and began to read it page by page.

About fifteen minutes later, Chihiro finished turning the last page.

"Editor-in-chief, what do you think of this article?" Qian Xunji's tone was very calm.

The editor-in-chief took a deep breath.

He paused for a moment, then continued, "I can't say for sure that the core method in this article will be effective, but I can say that it at least provides a completely new, verifiable, and extremely low-cost cultivation path."

"No rare herbs are needed, no soul beast meat is needed, and no expensive simulation training room is needed."

"Just learn this breathing method, then combine it with meditation, and practice it day after day."

"You mean the cost is extremely low?" Chihiro asked rhetorically.

"How low?"

The editor-in-chief continued speaking methodically.

"So low!!! Any awakened Soul Master, regardless of their background or innate Soul Power, can practice it."

The editor-in-chief's voice became more resolute, "Your Holiness, if this article is published, the beneficiaries will not be a particular family or power, but millions of low-level soul masters with low innate soul power who cannot afford cultivation resources."

"If these people can improve their soul power level when they are young, even if each of them only improves by three to five levels, they will still be a force to be reckoned with."

"And the advancement of these lower-level Soul Masters will eventually merge into the torrent of the Spirit Hall."

"Your Holiness, the foundation of the Spirit Hall has never been those powerful families and noble clans, but rather the millions of ordinary commoner spirit masters who awaken in villages and towns."

"If they become stronger because of this article, they won't be grateful to their own families!!! Because they have no families!!! They will be grateful to the person who published this article, the Spirit Hall, who allowed it to be published."

At this point, the editor-in-chief finally raised his head and looked directly into Qian Xunji's eyes.

"Your Holiness, this is uprooting the nobility."

These words, falling into the hall, were like a knife stuck in the table, its hilt still humming.

Qian Xunji's fingers stopped.

Yue Guan paused for a moment while playing with the golden chrysanthemum.

Even the ghosts in the shadows had a glimmer of light in their eyes.

The main hall remained quiet for a long time.

To uproot the nobility.

The editor-in-chief said he couldn't make the decision. And indeed, he couldn't.

Only the Pope can decide such matters.

"Let's verify it then."

"I need to see empirical evidence to determine whether the methods in this article are effective, whether the data is fabricated, and whether the conclusions are reliable."

He ordered Yue Guan: "Yue Guan, send this article to the Spirit Hall team and give it to the team leader."

Have the team leader select some promising young Soul Masters and have them train according to the methods described in the article. Don't make a fuss; don't tell anyone who wrote the article or where it came from. After a period of training, he needs to see results.

Yue Guan took the manuscript, bowed, and said, "Yes."

Qian Xunji added, "Everyone must keep this a secret. The contents of this article must not be circulated before it is officially published."

"Everyone participating in the experiment must sign a confidentiality agreement. If anyone leaks the information..." He didn't finish his sentence, but the three people in the hall knew what he meant next.

Qian Xunji turned his gaze to the editor-in-chief, looked at it for a few seconds, and then slowly said, "Editor-in-chief, I'm temporarily shelving this article. When it's published is up to me. Every word you heard or said today should stay buried in your heart."

The editor-in-chief knelt down with a thud, his forehead touching the ground, his voice trembling: "Yes, Your Majesty. I didn't say anything tonight, I didn't hear anything."

"Very good." Qian Xunji nodded in satisfaction. "You may leave! Reward him with a thousand gold soul coins."

Qian Xunji waved his hand, and the editor-in-chief, as if granted a pardon, got up from the ground and backed out of the main hall.

The moment the palace doors closed, he leaned against a pillar outside the palace, his legs went weak, and he almost slipped and fell to the ground.

A night breeze blew, and he realized that he was soaked in cold sweat.

After resting for a while, they went to the side hall to receive their reward.

-----------------

That day, Sabo sat in a corner on the first floor of the library, as usual.

He was unaware that his submitted article had somehow ended up in the hands of His Holiness the Pope, and then, through Teacher Ju, was delivered to the leader of the Spirit Hall team.

Before it can be officially published, it needs to undergo a period of verification.

He's been sitting here for two hours now, and he hasn't moved an inch.

"Sabogo—"

A clear, sweet voice came from the entrance of the library, soft and gentle, with the sweetness of a little girl.

Sabo paused for a moment, his brow furrowed slightly, but quickly relaxed again as he continued writing.

"Sabo, I've come to play with you!"

The sound was louder and closer than before.

Sabo didn't even look up; the pen scratched on the paper as if he hadn't heard it at all.

Six-year-old Xia Xue stood in the corridor on the first floor of the library, her hands behind her back, her long golden hair tied into two small ponytails.

She was wearing a pair of white leather shoes, with a little dust on the surface, indicating that she had run all the way from the Douluo Palace.

She hurried to Sabo's table, only to find he hadn't even glanced at her. She puffed out her cheeks and shouted again, "I said, I came to play with you!"

Still no response.

Sabo lowered his head, turned a page of the book, and continued to write and draw on the new page.

Of course he knew Xia Xue had arrived; he knew it from the first time she called out.

He deliberately ignored her, thinking that the child would get bored after a while and leave naturally.

Xia Xue looked down at Sabo, and Sabo looked down at his book. The two remained in this stalemate for a while.

Xia Xue pouted.

"Sabogo!"

No response.

"Sabo!"

There was still no response.

Xia Xue's patience finally ran out.

She went around the table to Sabo, reached out her two little hands, grabbed his right arm, and started shaking it. As she shook him, she cried, "Play with me, play with me, play with me..."

Sabo's arm was shaken so badly that the pen drew a long diagonal line on the paper, completely ruining the half-written words.

He took a deep breath, put down his pen, closed the book, turned his head, and looked at the little one hanging on his arm.

"Xia Xue," his voice was calm, so calm that a hint of helplessness could be heard, "I want to read. Could you go outside and play for a while...?"

Sabo's lips twitched. He hadn't mentioned her identity and wanted to ignore her, but this little princess's status was undeniable.

He couldn't kick them out, nor could he lose his temper, so he could only endure it.

"I really need to read a book."

Sabo tried to pull his arm out of Xia Xue's grasp.

But she held on very tightly, her little fingers wrapped around his sleeve like an octopus, and he couldn't pull them away at all.

Xia Xue looked up: "No. You have to play with me today."

"I've been sitting in the Douluo Palace for half a day already. I don't care, if you don't stay with me, I'll tell Dad you're bullying me."

Sabo remained silent for a moment.

Suddenly, an idea struck him.

"Xia Xue," Sabo's tone suddenly softened, as if he had thought of a good idea, "would you like to learn something fun?"

Xia Xue blinked: "What fun thing?"

Sabo pressed his advantage: "This isn't something you can learn all at once. You need to memorize the breathing rhythm first."

"When you practice, find a quiet place, close your eyes, and feel the flow of breath within your body. Once you've mastered that, come back to me, and I'll teach you the next step."

Sabo thought to himself, "It took me several months to even get the hang of this breathing technique. No matter how smart Xia Xue is, she'll probably need at least a month or two to learn it. A month or two of peace and quiet is worth it."

Xia Xue picked up the page, looked at it again and again, then carefully folded it and stuffed it into her skirt pocket.

She looked up at Sabo and said something that sent chills down his spine: "Sabo, you said it yourself. Once I've learned it, you teach me the next step. You can't go back on your word."

"I won't renege on my debt," Sabo said, thinking that he would deal with it a month or two later.

Xia Xue skipped away, her two little golden tails trembling.

Sabo watched her walk through rows of bookshelves, her figure growing smaller and smaller until she disappeared at the entrance of the library. He finally breathed a sigh of relief, picked up his pen again, opened the book, and continued writing and drawing.

Finally, we can have a few days of peace and quiet.

Sabo silently prayed that he could have a month of peace and quiet.

However, the quiet lasted only seven days.

Seven days later, in the afternoon, Sabo was sitting in his usual spot reading a book about matching spirit rings with plant-type martial spirits when that familiar yet troublesome voice came from the entrance of the library again.

"Sabogo!"

Saab's pen tip left a black dot on the white paper.

He took a deep breath, told himself to calm down, and then looked up.

She ran with an excited look on her face, as if she had something really good to share with him.

She ran to Sabo, placed her hands on the edge of the table, slightly out of breath, and her whole body was glowing with golden light.

"Sabo, I've learned your breathing technique. Would you like to take a look?"

Sabo's first reaction was disbelief.

While the basics of the Ripple Breathing Technique are not difficult to grasp, truly "learning" it and reaching a state where it operates naturally without conscious control is not easy.

It took him quite a long time to achieve that back then.

Xia Xue has only practiced for seven days. What can she have accomplished in seven days?

He didn't say "impossible" directly, but looked at Xia Xue and asked in as gentle a tone as possible, "You really learned it?"

Xia Xue nodded vigorously, "Really. If you don't believe me, I can practice and show you right now."

Sabo put down his pen, leaned back in his chair, and crossed his hands in front of his abdomen. "Please begin your performance."

Xia Xue took two steps back and stood in the middle of the aisle.

She closed her eyes, her hands hanging naturally at her sides, and her small chest began to rise and fall.

Sabo's expression changed.

He could tell what that breathing meant. It wasn't imitation, it wasn't just copying.

Instead, they truly grasped the core of the ripple breathing technique, that "continuous, wave-like" rhythm.

This requires a deep coordination between the body and breathing, an instinct that can only be developed through daily practice.

Xia Xue maintained this breathing rhythm for about two minutes, then opened her eyes, looked at Sabo, a smile playing on her lips, her tone revealing undisguised smugness: "How was it?"

Sabo opened his mouth, but for a moment he didn't know what to say.

He looked at the six-year-old girl in front of him, at her clear blue eyes, at the small, proud curve of her lips, and suddenly realized that his understanding of the word "talent" was still too shallow.

He knew that Xia Xue was very talented, as the daughter of Pope Qian Xunji, she had innate level 20 soul power.

But he didn't expect her talent to be this high.

Moreover, judging from her breathing rhythm just now, her level of mastery has surpassed that of many beginners who have been practicing for half a year.

"You...you really only trained for seven days?" Sabo's voice was a little dry and incredulous.

Xia Xue tilted her head and thought for a moment, then counted on her fingers: "On the first day, I practiced for half an hour and felt tightness in my chest, almost unable to breathe."

"The next day, my chest tightness was much better, but I couldn't count the beats accurately; sometimes it was fast and sometimes it was slow."

"On the third day, I was practicing in the garden behind the Douluo Palace when I was disturbed by a little bird, so I chased the bird for a long time."

The fourth day…

She spoke slowly and deliberately, but when she got to the seventh day, her tone suddenly changed, as if she were talking about something trivial. "When I woke up on the morning of the seventh day, I found that I didn't need to consciously count the beats anymore; my breathing naturally became the rhythm."

"It's like...like the body remembers it itself."

It's as if the body has memorized it.

When Sabo heard this, the pen in his hand fell to the table with a soft thud.

He looked down at the rolling pen, his mind blank for a moment.

Summer snow, it only took seven days.

He looked up at the little girl in front of him who was still talking incessantly about her practice process, and suddenly smiled.

There are always some people in this world who are born to run faster, jump higher, and learn faster than others.

Jealousy is useless, resentment is useless, the only thing to do is accept the fact and continue on your own path.

Xia Xue saw Sabo laugh and thought he didn't believe her, so she got anxious: "If you don't believe me, I can practice again for you! This time you can count the beats and see if I made any mistakes!"

"No need." Sabo reached out and ruffled the little tail in her hair; it felt surprisingly soft.

Xia Xue frowned slightly, but didn't pull away. She really didn't like being touched on the head, but Sabo's hands were very warm.