In Douluo, there is a way to die.

Chapter 141 The Eve of the Stars
The next day, the Shrek Academy group got ready and set off early in the morning, running towards the Star Dou Great Forest.

Flander would never personally pay for carriages for the students. The Star Dou Great Forest is not very close to Soto City, so expecting him to pay for carriages is simply wishful thinking.

However, the students are all Soul Masters with cultivation levels close to Soul Venerable, and their physical fitness is not bad. It is not a big deal for them to obtain a Soul Ring for Oscar. It is not a tense period now. Even if Oscar does not obtain a third Soul Ring, his Soul Power level will still increase.

Flander always regarded all the theories of his good brother, "Master" Yu Xiaogang, as the golden rule. "The Ten Core Competencies of Martial Soul" states: Soul ring bottlenecks will not hinder level improvement. Even if you do not absorb a soul ring to break through the bottleneck, your soul power level will continue to accumulate and rise, and will be reflected after you absorb a soul ring to break through the bottleneck!
Although no one knows how Yu Xiaogang, whose cultivation level was only level 29 and who immediately went to absorb spirit rings to break through his level as soon as he reached the bottleneck, knew this theory that only spirit masters who were stuck at the bottleneck of spirit rings for a long time could know.

In short, running from Shrek Academy to the Star Dou Great Forest would not only save Flander some money, but also train these "little monsters"—why not? It sounds wonderful!

Compared to Flander, who was secretly pleased that his secret stash of money was saved, Ning Rongrong was clearly not so happy.

Throughout the journey, she remained ostracized, isolated from the "monsters" group. Compared to Oscar, who took turns supporting and helping her along the way, everyone in the group seemed to ignore her. This made her, who had been treated as a "precious jewel" in the sect since childhood, very uncomfortable. The ostracism from her peers deeply hurt the young girl's heart.

Just before nightfall, the group arrived at the closest Soul Hunting Town to the Star Dou Great Forest. According to Oscar, there are quite a few Soul Hunting Towns like this one that exist around the Star Dou Great Forest.

This town is about three times the size of the village where Shrek Academy is located. Various shops line the town, mostly selling items that can help with soul hunting. Soul hunting groups also hawk their wares on the main street, attracting soul masters who are in a bottleneck period.

Tang San looked at them with a hint of disdain. His teacher once said that a perfect team must be equipped with a full range of control, support, strong attack or defense, as well as agility attack type soul masters. Shrek Academy is only lacking agility attack type students. However, Xiao Wu, who is strong attack type, can barely serve as a substitute for agility attack type. It can be said that a team without any flaws has been initially formed.

As for those unorthodox teams on the street, they are mostly a mixed bag with huge flaws in their team composition. If they spend their whole lives in such an imperfect group, it wouldn't be surprising if they died in the world of Soul Masters one day.

Tang San sighed inwardly. If these people were to meet with misfortune in the future, it would be their own ignorance that would cause their deaths. After all, the Soul Master world treated his teacher's theories as a "joke." The consequence of not valuing theory is courting death!

While pondering, Zhao Wuji led his students into a hotel and checked them in. He casually gave them a few instructions and then booked a single room for himself and went upstairs, leaving the six of them to have dinner on the first floor.

Of course, the students also have to pay for their own accommodation and meals.

............................................................

"Wow, I didn't expect that kitten to be so lucky. I've heard Lanlan mention it; she used to be very hardworking."

On the second floor of the hotel, the door to a luxury suite was pushed open, and a languid female voice came from inside. A woman wearing a purple cheongsam, with purple hair and green eyes, walked out of the room with her arm around a petite girl, one arm naturally around the other's neck.

“I heard that her innate soul power is level seven. I didn’t expect her to reach level thirty so quickly. You are the same. You are even stronger than I was back then,” the woman said, rubbing her forehead with her other hand. “When I was twelve, I was only level twenty-two. If I hadn’t met Lanlan, I probably wouldn’t even be level forty now.”

"Yanzi, back then you were poisoned too badly, how could Grandpa Dugu dare to let you cultivate in peace..." Behind the two women, a woman dressed in a black dress and wearing a thin veil couldn't help but complain.

"Hey, don't rub it in. I'm just encouraging Xiangxiang," Dugu Yan patted Bai Chenxiang's shoulder. "Don't put too much pressure on yourself, Xiangxiang. It's just that Zhu Qing has surpassed you. Don't worry, as long as you don't give up and follow Lanlan, you, Zhu Qing, and me and Lingling will achieve a lot in the future."

Not long ago, Bai Chenxiang was the first to reach the bottleneck of level 30. According to the tradition of the Min clan in obtaining soul rings, apart from this third soul skill, they only focus on one type of soul skill: acceleration-type soul skills or soul skills that assist in acceleration.

It must be said that the four major clans with single attributes did indeed grasp the "version answer" in the Douluo era, which is what Yin Lan often said: "When choosing soul rings and soul skills, you should prioritize abilities that you cannot learn yourself, with powerful self-amplification as the primary choice and special mechanism types as the secondary choice." This is because the Douluo worldview system dictates that in the face of powerful numerical values, everything else is useless, especially those things that can be learned on your own.

The four major clans with single attributes focus on "strength," "speed," "attack," and "defense," respectively, choosing to amplify their own attributes to surpass their peers in a particular attribute.

The problem is that the soul rings on those four items were indeed too straightforward. They only focused on attack, defense, speed, and strength, and didn't pay any attention to other attribute enhancements.

The self-amplification effect is indeed significant, but if it cannot be applied comprehensively, such a direct confrontation is nothing more than a glass cannon, resulting in the fact that apart from Yang Wudi, the other three performed only moderately.

Yes, Yang Wudi, after absorbing the full "pure attack attribute" self-amplification, shot one of Qian Renxue's two generals, the Serpent Spear Douluo She Long, with a single normal attack, leaving him severely injured and on the verge of death. In terms of performance, it even surpassed the Clear Sky Hammer!

Back then, Yang Wudi was only level 82, while She Long was level 93, a difference of eleven levels. What's even more amusing is that Yin Lan actually asked She Long about his soul skills, and the answer she got was that She Long's martial soul was roughly the same type of Title Douluo as Yang Wudi's. Apart from his martial soul true form, none of his nine soul rings had any self-amplification. All of his soul ring skills were of the "direct attack" type, which meant that theoretically he could train them all himself (laughs).

If Yang Wudi hadn't been obsessed with alchemy in his early years, causing toxins and impurities to accumulate in his body and slowing down his cultivation, he might have had to take over the titles of "Number One Weapon Soul in the World" and "Number One Attack in the World" after becoming a Title Douluo (laughs). Of course, this is all assuming Tang San didn't exist.

Bai Chenxiang's original plan for the third soul skill was the classic tradition of flying-type martial soul masters: "flight"!
Upon hearing about her intention to acquire a spirit ring, Yin Lan felt somewhat uneasy. Spirit masters of this era truly possessed a pure and clear beauty. For a spirit master with a flying-type spirit, not equipping their third spirit ring with a "flying" spirit skill was as if they had lost the ability to fly.

So Yinlan set aside some time to teach Bai Chenxiang and Zhu Zhuqing her theories, and then personally taught them how to fly for a few days.

Then, Bai Chenxiang was shocked to discover that the ability to fly could actually be developed on its own without using soul skills. At that moment, it was as if she had opened the door to a new world.

Although Bai Chenxiang still hasn't learned how to fly for a long time, she can still hang in the air for short periods and glide without any problems. The main problem is that with only two spirit rings at this stage, the wings generated after her martial soul is attached to her are as weak and small as her body, barely able to lift her body. Yin Lan predicts that after she obtains her third spirit ring and her martial soul develops further, she may be able to truly learn to fly for a long time on her own.

Therefore, Bai Chenxiang's original plan for a third soul skill was rejected by Yin Lan.

As for what kind of soul skill to give her, Yinlan had already considered her future development path when she took her in.

Just like the issue of the four major clans with single attributes mentioned earlier, the idea of ​​acquiring self-amplifying soul skills is not wrong, but you can't just focus on a single self-amplification. You also need to take care of other aspects in order to unleash powerful combat strength.

For example, Bai Chenxiang's second soul skill is acceleration, which increases speed by 200%. For a hundred-year soul ring, this boost is indeed ridiculously strong.

In theory, sufficient speed can be converted into sufficient attack. However, the prerequisite for this conversion is that the "body" that constitutes this speed, namely the Soul Master of the Agile Clan, must have a sufficient physical strength.

Otherwise, it could result in a disastrous situation where, after accelerating to the maximum speed, you crash headfirst into the other party and "go to the underworld" together... If the opponent is someone with a strong physique like Yinlan, it might even turn into a comical situation where only the other party gets covered in blood.

If the Agile Clan can gain self-amplification of other attributes—attack, defense, and strength—while also acquiring the self-amplification of the acceleration attribute, even if only by a small amount, it might even affect the pure acceleration, reducing the magnitude of the acceleration. Ultimately, the result would certainly be better than a single acceleration.

Alternatively, one could use other means to modify the weak "Swift" martial soul through acquired means, thereby strengthening its power. The simplest method would be through soul rings and soul bones.

As we all know, the spirit beast from which a spirit ring originates will reflect and affect the spirit master's spirit, while spirit bones can directly bring a spirit master new spirit bone skills. Choosing the right spirit bone can also make up for a spirit master's weaknesses in certain aspects.

Just like Zhu Zhuqing's first soul skill "Netherworld Thrust", the effect is speed +100%, but she herself is a Netherworld Cat martial soul with powerful sharp claws. Her martial soul strength is enough to convert this speed into effective output.

In a world where the extraordinary exist, speed that cannot be converted into practical effect is useless. The Min clan is said to be "agile and offensive," but in reality, they only have "agility" and no "offense." Yin Lan does not want her future subordinates to be just empty shells. On the battlefield, everyone is slaughtering each other, while Bai Chenxiang is crying and being chased up and down by the enemy... She and her people should be a generation that amazes the entire continent!
Then some people might ask, does a soul beast really exist that can provide a powerful boost to the main attribute, bring additional boosts to other attributes, and also influence a soul master's martial soul through its own characteristics and the soul rings it produces?

It really exists (laughs).

Among bird-type spirit beasts, there is a famous one called the Emerald Demon Bird. It possesses extremely high speed and attack power, and because it likes to eat the brains of other creatures, it always kills its enemies with a single blow. A flock of Emerald Demon Birds can be said to be a catastrophic disaster for most living beings in the world.

However, these creatures went extinct because they angered the dragons, even daring to eat their brains (how embarrassing).

But this case is enough to prove that Yinlan's idea is correct. The combination of powerful speed and powerful attack allows the Emerald Bird to output enough power to pierce through the skull of a dragon.

On the other hand, there is another bird-like soul beast with the opposite approach, which is also very famous, namely the Jade Bird.

Yes, the Jade Bird follows a completely opposite path to the Emerald Demon Bird. It possesses incredible speed and, due to its hardened body, formidable defensive capabilities. This type of soul beast uses itself as a "bullet" to destroy its opponent!

Judging from the results, it was no different from the Emerald Bird!
The powerful Jade Bird can even use "spatial power" to tear apart its enemies while colliding with them, making it a Douluo version of "God's Might Lightning Blade"!
The only pity is that the Jade Bird's cultivation can only reach a little over 100,000 years. Their ability to harden their bodies is not under their own control. The higher their cultivation, the faster they are and the harder their bodies become. Most Jade Birds will turn into a substance like "jade" when they reach 100,000 years of cultivation, and then lose all their vitality. This is also the origin of their name.

This kind of soul beast naturally only inhabits the Star Dou Great Forest and cannot be found in the Sunset Forest. Yin Lan's goal for this trip is to find a suitable Jade Bird to improve Bai Chenxiang's martial soul.

As a result, while the group was still on their way, Zhu Zhuqing also broke through to level 30. This forced Yinlan to bring forward some of the subsequent arrangements for Zhu Zhuqing to the present, and thus postponed their entry into the forest by one day.

(End of this chapter)