...
A brief silence fell over the room.
Huo Wu held the water glass in both hands, looking down at the slightly rippling surface of the water inside.
Xuan Hao's words were like a heavy hammer, mercilessly shattering her values of "honor above all else" that she had built up over the past decade.
Strangely enough, after her worldview was shattered, the despair and humiliation she felt from the defeat also largely dissipated.
Yes, what's the point of saving face if you're already dead?
Huo Wu took a deep breath and looked up at Xuan Hao again.
This time, her eyes no longer held that forced pride, nor that indignant shame of losing.
Instead, there is a pure, profound exploration of the unknown and the powerful.
"Xuan Hao."
Huo Wu stared into his azure eyes and finally asked the ultimate question that had been weighing on the minds of all the geniuses in the entire Heaven Dou Arena:
"Why...how are you so strong?"
"Sixteen years old, level seventy-nine, a 100,000-year soul ring, and a physique that can crush everything without even needing soul skills..."
Huo Wu's voice trembled slightly, "This kind of power has completely exceeded the comprehension of the Soul Master world. How exactly did you do it?"
"Why?"
Xuan Hao shrugged and asked in return, "Didn't I already perform on the high platform in front of all of you on the day of the opening ceremony?"
"What do you mean?" Huo Wu was stunned.
"First, talent."
Xuan Hao raised a finger. "My martial soul is inherently stronger than all of yours.
There's nothing to hide about that; it's an objective fact."
"There's a deceptive saying that's been circulating in the Soul Master world: there are no useless Martial Souls, only useless Soul Masters.
Anyone who says this is either stupid or malicious."
"In this world, whether a Soul Master can become a strong person in the future, and what height he can ultimately reach... depends at least 70% on the innate strength of his Martial Soul and the level of his talent!"
"Can the gap between innate full soul power and innate first-level soul power be bridged by hard work?
Is it possible for someone with a true dragon martial soul and someone with a hoe martial soul to stand on the same starting line?"
Huo Wu opened her mouth, but was unable to refute it.
Because she herself is proof of it.
With so many students at Blazing Fire Academy, why are only she and her brother Huo Wushuang able to become captain and vice-captain?
Isn't it because their martial spirits are inherently of a higher level than others?
"As for the remaining 30%..."
Xuan Hao raised his second finger. "There's a 20% chance. It depends on your luck."
"What family were you born into? Will you be able to meet a good teacher?
Will you encounter a top-tier soul beast that suits you when you go out to train?
Or even if you fall off a cliff, will you be able to pick up a peerless cultivation technique or a rare treasure..."
Xuan Hao chuckled softly, "These are all just luck."
"What about the remaining 10%?" Huo Wu couldn't help but ask.
"The last ten percent is the effort that you keep talking about all day and that makes you cry with emotion."
Xuan Hao scoffed, "In fact, in the face of absolute talent and luck, your personal efforts don't even account for one tenth of the influence."
"You work tirelessly from dawn till dusk, while others are living on a mountain of gold and silver, enjoying a single magical herb.
Tell me, how do you compare to them?"
Listening to Xuan Hao's theory that devalues "effort" to nothing, Huo Wu felt suffocated.
"Not only that."
Xuan Hao picked up his water glass and continued, "Let's take a step back.
The 70% of talent that determines your upper limit, and the quality of your martial soul that determines your lower limit... in the end, isn't it still a matter of luck?"
"Can you decide which woman's womb you'll be born into?
Can you decide whether a dragon or grass will emerge from your hand on the day you awaken?"
"cannot."
"Therefore, the height a person can reach in their lifetime is actually determined by God rolling the dice the moment you are born."
"Those biographies and novels outside are full of stories about defying fate and ordinary people rising up against all odds. I don't believe a single punctuation mark of that kind of bullshit and toxic motivational nonsense."
Xuan Hao curled his lips: "Because if such a miracle with an almost zero probability were to actually happen in reality, it would definitely not be because he shouted loud enough or sweated a lot."
"That must be because he stumbled upon an incredible stroke of luck that even the heavens would envy!"
"To put it bluntly, life is really all about luck."
Huo Wu was completely stunned.
She comes from a prestigious family and was taught from a young age that "hard work pays off" and "as long as you work hard, you can reach the top."
But this top genius recognized throughout the entire continent, this monster who trampled them all underfoot, casually attributed all his success to "luck".
"So..."
Looking at Huo Wu's utterly devastated state, Xuan Hao shrugged, somewhat bored.
"I've never thought that my current strength and achievements are anything to brag about or be proud of."
"If I were to put someone else in my position, I would give him my martial spirit, my bloodline, and let him experience the opportunities I've had, and consume the rare and precious herbs I've eaten..."
Xuan Hao said calmly, "The heights he can ultimately reach will definitely not be much less than mine."
"Even if you put a pig in my position and gave it all this luck and resources, it could become a 100,000-year-old soul beast that wreaks havoc everywhere."
Xuan Hao leaned forward, looking into Huo Wu's eyes, and said seriously, "I am not some god, nor am I some invincible monster."
"I'm just a little bit luckier than you guys."
"Therefore, you don't need to have any unnecessary admiration for me, and you don't need to feel that losing to me is something unacceptable."
Xuan Hao smiled and said, "After all, if you had my ridiculous luck and resources, you might be even more powerful than me now."
The room fell silent once again.
"you..."
Huo Wu bit her red lips, her voice becoming somewhat strange, and looked at him with a peculiar gaze:
"Xuan Hao, are you... are you deliberately trying to comfort me?"
Does he use belittling of his own achievements to resolve her feelings of frustration and humiliation?
You're overthinking it.
Xuan Hao shook his head decisively: "I've never had the habit of comforting people."
"Every word I just said to you is the absolute truth. Because it's what I believe in my very being."
"Those so-called strong people outside stand on high platforms every day, telling you young people with tears in their eyes how miserable they were back then, how much suffering they endured, and how much effort they put in that is unimaginable to ordinary people to get to where they are today."
"Do you really think they're teaching some kind of success secret?"
"That's all nonsense!"
"That's just brainwashing nonsense concocted by those who have already seized resources and status, in order to package themselves and make their rule seem more legitimate!"
"If they admit that their success is simply due to being born into a good family and having better luck than others, then why should the weak under them submit to them? Why should they willingly be ruled by them?"
"Therefore, they must emphasize hard work and suffering."
"In this way, they can legitimately attribute your failures to your lack of effort and hard work, thus perfectly concealing the cruel truth that the world is unfair from birth."
Xuan Hao looked at Huo Wu,
"I don't deny that hard work is indeed very important."
"However, the only prerequisite for effort to be effective is that you have the matching talent as a foundation!"
"When you have talent, hard work is called climbing."
"Effort without talent..."
Xuan Hao shook his head. "That's not called hard work.
That's called self-deception, it's called wasting effort."
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