Give Douluo a technological shock

It was so precious that it's almost impossible to find a second one, because the person is truly gone.

"This is the Martial Soul Lock I lost before."

Under the watchful eyes of Ah Yin, Mu En, Jin Lin, and others, Long Xiaoyao stiffly pulled out a Martial Soul Lock from his pocket, a lock different from the black dragon scale bracelet he had worn before. He held out his hand, as if to hand it to Chen Fu, who had been sitting in the main seat without moving.

"."

Chen Fu looked at Long Xiaoyao's outstretched, veiny finger and felt a little helpless. "You don't look like you're going to give it back to me."

"Okay, I understand. You can keep it for now, I don't need it."

Looking at the spirit lock with its own spirit ring in Long Xiaoyao's hand, Chen Fu thought to himself, "Forget it. With this amount of material, I could have made it by hand by piecing together atoms over several months using spirit buckles."

Chen Fu didn't go to "hand-rub" it because it was too time-consuming and the energy loss was too severe.

Chen Fu only wanted Long Xiaoyao to understand one thing: some things in Xingdou are very expensive! He couldn't just give everything to his old flame!

Even the Soul High-Wave Missile on Damocles' near-Earth satellite was specifically designed for evil soul masters by him and Electrolux based on their already mature theory of martial souls. However, Chen Fu divided it into two modes: one mode is to normally sever a portion of the martial soul's influence on the soul master's spirit, thus creating a one-way influence. You ask if this is inhumane and will cause martial soul problems? Of course, what humanity is there to talk about with evil soul masters?

The second model is developed entirely based on Huo Yuhao's graduation project, the Soul Annihilation Bullet. It directly targets the soul with a single shot, delivering the soul to the afterlife without harming the flowers and plants within range, thus protecting the parents of the Flower and Plant Protection Association.

Chen Fu's intention was simply to scare Long Xiaoyao and force him to make a choice, to make him realize that he was just a sycophant.

Furthermore, he was almost certain that Long Xiaoyao would not be able to kill Ye Xishui, and Long Xiaoyao's life was being secretly protected by Mu En. So, somehow, the triangular circle that should have been formed by the three human Limit Douluo gathering together had now turned into a close brotherhood circle.

Sigh. All I can say is that sincerity is truly a killer move.

"."

Chen Fu told Long Xiaoyao to take back the Martial Soul Lock with Ye Xi's Water Soul Ring first, and that she wouldn't take it back herself. However, Long Xiaoyao didn't listen and took it back. Instead, he stood there blankly in front of Chen Fu, his lips moved, but he didn't say anything in the end.

"."

Chen Fu could easily guess what Long Xiaoyao wanted to ask, even if he had no idea that Long Xiaoyao was trying to neither hand it over nor take it back.

But alas...

Chen Fu's eyes flickered slightly. At least Ma Xiaotao had a branch left; planted in the soil, it still had a chance to grow into a big tree. But yours...

Whether she is alive or not depends on your own heart.

Ye Xishui burned completely; she burned away everything about herself as "Ye Xishui," becoming a primordial seed.

A branch may inherit a part of the main body, but the seed is the beginning of everything.

"If you become powerful enough, then go and retrieve her from your own heart."

Chapter 204: The Ship of Theseus, the Beginning of the Age of Exploration!

How do we define whether a person is still alive?

Some say it's memory, others say it's the id among the three selves.

However, Chen Fu was unable to solve Long Xiaoyao's problems, which involved philosophical speculation.

Some say that a person dies three times in their lifetime.

The first is physical death, the second is the death of loved ones' memories of them, and the third is the annihilation of their traces in this world.

"Old Mu, have you heard a story?"

After dismissing Long Xiaoyao, Chen Fu, with a heavy heart, briefly returned to Star Dou City with Mu En. They were currently in a lake brimming with terrifying life force. Chen Fu looked at a phoenix egg at the bottom of the lake with a complex expression and said to Mu En beside her:

"There was a wooden ship called Theseus. People replaced the broken planks of Theseus with new planks. Over time, all the parts of Theseus's ship were replaced. At this point, was the ship still Theseus's ship?"

"I believe this ship is still the Ship of Theseus."

Mu En understood the meaning behind Chen Fu's question. He glanced at the phoenix egg at the bottom of the Lake of Life and expressed his affirmation to Chen Fu.

Although the parts of the Ship of Theseus are constantly being replaced, if the Ship of Theseus is regarded as a conscious whole, then the constantly added parts will eventually be "contaminated" by the overall will, and eventually form a new individual.

"If we reassemble a ship using the old parts taken from the Ship of Theseus, would the newly created ship still be the Ship of Theseus?"

Chen Fu walked steadily on the bottom of the lake, and the life-giving water around him would automatically avoid him under Mu En's control as he moved forward.

"It should also be the Ship of Theseus."

Moon paused for a moment, then realized that there seemed to be a plot hole in the story.

"Yes, that was also the Ship of Theseus."

Chen Fu smiled, stepped forward and touched the phoenix egg, which was half the height of a person. She could still feel its warmth in her palm.

Thinking to himself, with the current energy absorption efficiency, this phoenix egg will be able to hatch in a few years, beginning an exceptionally long period of nurturing the soul and enlightening the mind.

"So, Elder Mu, which of the two Ships of Theseus do you think is the true Ship of Theseus?"

Chen Fu smiled and glanced back at Mu En. This question would be the key to solving Long Xiaoyao's problem, and he was quite curious about Mu En's answer.

He had asked Electrox the same question before; in studying souls, these kinds of questions are inevitable. Electrox's answer was different because he was speaking from the perspective of a remnant soul.

"It seems like both, and it seems like neither. So what's your opinion?"

Moon hadn't thought about this question and couldn't answer it immediately, so he asked Chen Fu in return, hoping to get a different answer from her.

People from different perspectives will have different opinions.

After completing the routine inspection of the phoenix egg, Chen Fu took out an unknown embryo of similar height (about half a person's height) from his spatial soul tool and placed it on the other side of the Lake of Life.

"Electra believes that each newborn individual is independent and cannot be regarded as a person or thing. Even if that thing is built up from memories, it is still an independent individual."

"Because we need to look at problems from a dynamic perspective, and we cannot limit our perspective to the stagnant past."

"Take Ye Xishui's soul for example. She burned away everything that belonged to 'Ye Xishui,' including her feelings, her experiences, and we can't even use the defined term 'Ye Xishui's soul' to refer to her."

"Do you know why?"

These words are only spoken when talking to Mu En alone, because a buffer zone is needed, and Mu En is very suitable to be that buffer zone between him and Long Xiaoyao.

"why?"

Moon looked at Chen Fu, and he understood that Chen Fu was talking about something very important.

"Because if Ye Xishui's memories are used to corrupt that pure soul, then she becomes 'Ye Xishui,' understand?"

Chen Fu left the Martial Soul Lock, which came with its own spirit ring, with Long Xiaoyao. In effect, Chen Fu was giving Long Xiaoyao the power of choice.

The reason Chen Fu didn't say it outright was to save face for Long Xiaoyao, implying that they didn't know the method and wouldn't know how he did it.

That's why Chen Fu said to Long Xiaoyao: Whether Ye Xishui lives or dies depends on his heart.

"It feels very uncertain; Xiaoyao's ideas are always unexpected."

Mu En thought about it, but he still couldn't predict Long Xiaoyao's choice. Because last time, this guy was so determined to go find Ye Xishui, but at the last moment he backed down.

"I didn't have high expectations for the outcome; I just gave him a choice."

However, Chen Fu touched the "embryo" that Mu En had just placed behind his back, and his expression did not change much.

For someone as emotional as Long Xiaoyao, he's actually the easiest to guess.

"Never mind him. I want to ask you what you think about the Ship of Theseus. You just mentioned Elex's opinion, but not yours."

The thought of Long Xiaoyao's image gave Mu En a headache, so he decided to stop thinking about those headaches and instead focused his attention on the "embryo" in Chen Fu's hand.

Calling it an embryo is a bit inappropriate, because this thing is mostly soul-guided metal and contains intense spiritual fluctuations.

"Actually, I just said what I thought."

Chen Fu took one last look at the metal embryo, which had a number written on it: [Theseus Project - Soul State - Hong (Zero)].

Then he turned around and took Moon out. On the way, he explained to Moon, "I have always looked at these so-called Ships of Theseus from a developmental perspective. No matter how much they develop in the end, the Ship of Theseus, which is always changing, will record the initial data of all the subsequent Ships of Theseus that separate out."

"No matter how many ships they separated, the initial weight of all these ships combined would be equal to the ever-evolving Ship of Theseus."

"What if these Ships of Theseus, in their own development, developed something new? Anything small, once elevated to the scale of endless time, becomes incredibly terrifying."

Moon felt he still needed to persuade Chen Fu, because he found Chen Fu's ideas to be even more terrifying, because this person believed that the individual is the group, and the group is the individual.

"Well, the cognition of the soul is a process of mutual understanding and mutual contamination. Just like an ordinary person's soul can remember and possess an immature body to become extraordinary, but can never possess a true strong person. I can understand that you have not experienced the soul fusion experiment and do not understand this."

But as you said, endless time will generate endless variables, but tracing these endless variables back to their origins infinitely, the final source is still me. You don't need to argue with me anymore; even Electrolux couldn't win against me, and then he sulked and went off to play in the New World.”

"Forehead"

Before he knew it, Moon found himself overhearing a very rare piece of gossip.

Electrolux's unhappiness stems from Chen Fu's view of the Ship of Theseus, which implies that Electrolux exists in a superposition of truth and falsehood, making him forever unable to resist the ever-present subject. Unless he can acquire greater power in a shorter time, he is easily subjected to conceptual attacks from the subject.

"Let's go, Elder Mu, let's go to Dawn Port and wait. Judging by the time, Di Tian should be back soon. We'll need you to keep things under control then. Who knows what the Deep Sea Demon Whale King is thinking?"

Chen Fu beckoned Mu En to leave. Although Di Tian went to sea with Ilex and the others, his mission was different. He was to find the other super soul beast that Di Tian had sensed in the deep sea last time: the Deep Sea Demon Whale King.

"Okay, let's go."

Mu En nodded, then rolled up his robes and took Chen Fu away from the Lake of Life.

Heavenly Soul Empire, Bodien Academy.

At this moment, powerful figures gathered, almost all the representatives of the Heavenly Soul, Battle Spirit, and Star Luo Three Kingdoms forces were present. They were all in a newly built academic hall, staring at the two young men below, their expressions blank, not knowing what to say.

The eerie silence of the various factions was broken when a dashing old man, dressed in a very neat outfit emblazoned with the emblem of Bodien Academy—a golden World Tree half-burnt in the middle of a gear—seated at the head of the table.

"Cough cough!"

He coughed twice to draw everyone's attention to him, then glanced at his fellow Title Douluo colleagues. Seeing many new faces, he inwardly sighed that Title Douluo were becoming commonplace before finally speaking: