Douluo Continent: On Becoming a God Through Science

Chapter 129 Memes and Genes, The First Half of a Theoretical Master's Life, Be Born—Stardust Dragon!

The spiritual impact of a ten-thousand-year soul ring is incomparable to that of a one-hundred-thousand-year soul ring.

However, for You Chen, whose spiritual power had reached the peak and limit of the Spirit Abyss Realm, such a spiritual impact was nothing more than a pebble thrown into the ocean, creating a small ripple.

Furthermore, at the very moment he incorporated the spirit ring into his martial soul and into his body, You Chen finally and naturally took that crucial step that he had long been able to cross, and his spiritual power directly entered the Spirit Realm!

The sudden increase in spiritual power brought about a dramatic change in You Chen's spiritual world. The spiritual impact of a mere 100,000-year-old soul ring was completely invisible in this surging tsunami.

At the center of this spiritual world, a crystal-clear, dazzling sphere gradually took shape!

Taking advantage of the leap in life level, when spiritual power moves from tangible and intangible to tangible and materialized, and spiritual power is completely materialized, You Chen began to condense his spiritual core!

The Soul Core, a completely unfamiliar thing to the vast majority of Soul Masters in this world, actually appeared many years ago.

After You Chen initially deduced the plan and secret method for condensing the soul core, the first person to try it was his close friend, Devan, who is now a Soul Douluo!

Devan also completed the condensation of the wind-type soul core when he advanced to the Soul Saint, which is one of the reasons why he is now so powerful among all the Soul Douluos.

Besides Divan, You Chen also had two other trustworthy friends who had completed the condensation of their soul cores.

With three successful cases, coupled with You Chen's mental strength far exceeding that of ordinary Super Douluo and his unique talent in mental strength, completing the condensation of this spiritual core was a natural outcome.

You Chen didn't even feel much joy because of this.

After all, in his plan, given his talent in mental strength, this was the easiest soul core to condense successfully.

Yes, his goal isn't just one spiritual core. To perfect the Essence, Qi, and Spirit triad system, he naturally needs two more cores to achieve a perfect triad cycle...

We are still a long way from this goal, and there's nothing to be happy about.

You Chen's most pressing task right now is naturally to complete the refinement of his soul rings and achieve the sublimation of his martial soul, breaking free from its shackles!

After acquiring the "Perfect Sacrifice Sanctuary First Ring (II)" and evolving his Martial Soul from Stardust Dragon to Starbone Dragon, You Chen successively acquired the "Summoning Wind Spirit Fifth Ring (I)", "Archaeopteryx Sixth Ring (I)", "Star Hero Beast Second Ring (II)", and "Star Hero Beast Third Ring (II)".

Although the two soul rings of the same body seem to have a higher age limit, the improvement of the wind element original power of the martial soul is not even as good as the improvement of the sacred original power of the first ring of the Sacrifice Saint Domain.

In order to complete the crucial step of transforming the Starbone Dragon into the Stardust Dragon, You Chen chose to first use the second and third soul rings of his second incarnation to supplement the secondary stellar power, and then rely on the three soul rings of his first incarnation to make up for the lack of wind element origin.

And the most important thing is the seventh ring, which is the result of accumulating strength and breaking through the constraints!

With dragon blood, the top-tier wind-type soul beast, Wind Conquering Dragon, was chosen by You Chen for this crucial role!

Now, after You Chen's precise calculations, at the moment when the age of the spirit rings exceeded 100,000 years, the power of the Starbone Dragon's martial spirit source finally reached the "perfect evolution ratio"!

The moment the balance of power was achieved, You Chen naturally entered a state of complete dragon transformation. His entire body was filled with swirling winds and shimmering starlight, and his martial spirit... finally began to sublimate and evolve!

……

Long, long ago, before he came into this world, when he was reading the original work, You Chen began to think about it.

A spirit master inherits their spirit from their parents; typically, they will inherit the more powerful spirit from their parents.

Inheriting a beast spirit or a plant spirit would be somewhat plausible.

There are basically two official explanations. One is that modern Soul Masters are descendants of ancient transformed Soul Beasts, so they can naturally inherit these Martial Souls.

Another reason is that, due to the Dragon God or other reasons, the bloodline of soul beasts spread into human bodies. In addition, the fusion of the world rules of Douluo Continent, under many influences, led to the birth of martial souls and soul masters.

But regardless of the explanation, one thing remains unavoidable: the martial soul inheritance of a soul master is related to bloodline.

So here's the problem.

Animals and plants can both be said to have bloodlines.

But scissors, hammers, sickles... these tools didn't exist at the beginning of creation; they were gradually invented and created during the development of human civilization.

Let alone spirit beasts, even humans themselves could not possibly possess the bloodline of "scissors, hammer, and sickle"!

You Chen was very curious.

He was very curious about the essence of a martial soul... what exactly is it?

Then, after truly transmigrating to this Douluo world, in order to truly gain a foothold in this dog-eat-dog world, You Chen, by chance, embarked on the path of research.

At the age of 12, he published "Refuting the Ten Core Competencies of Martial Souls," and began to show his talent by stepping on Yu Xiaogang's head.

At the age of 13, he published the "Six-Dimensional Martial Soul Scoring Method" and, based on this scoring method, gave reasonable evaluations to the martial souls recorded in the collection, allowing the world to have a clearer understanding of low, medium and high-level martial souls.

At the age of 14, he proposed the hypothesis that "the cultivation of martial spirit is the cultivation of the three elements of essence, qi and spirit" and applied for a research project on "the human body's absorption efficiency of various resources" and was granted a laboratory.

At the age of 15, he published "Don't Use Whale Glue," which caused a huge stir in the Soul Master world and earned him what could be called his first pot of gold.

16 years old, "A suitable plan for Soul Master Foundation Building".

Then, he began his research on soul tools.

At the age of 18, he invented the "Soul Tool for Testing and Collecting Data".

At 20, a year of accumulating knowledge and experience, he successively released "On the Essence of Martial Soul Awakening from the Perspective of Early Awakening of Martial Soul", "The Bottleneck of Soul Masters and the Evolution Brought by Soul Rings", and "The Choice of Soul Rings".

Countless novel viewpoints and values ​​from another world severely impacted the Soul Master world of Douluo Continent.

then……

25 years old, "A Conjecture on Memes and Genes".

This is a fresh take on the concept of genes already proposed in "The Bottleneck of Soul Masters and the Evolution Brought by Soul Rings," and it is also the first time he has truly lifted the veil of curiosity about traversing the world.

"In my conjecture, the things that determine the inheritance of a Soul Master's Martial Soul, and the things that support the structure and performance of life, I call—genetic information."

The genetic information engraved in our bloodline, I call it 'genes'... The reason why the Blue Lightning Tyrannosaurus is known as the number one beast spirit in the world is because their 'genes' have stabilized to the point that they start at the level of high-level spirits to top-level spirits. If they can stably strengthen their spirits from nine rings to the title of Douluo, they can basically have the strength of a super spirit.

But reality is more complex than that. The genetic information existing only through bloodlines—that is, genes—cannot verify the birth of the vast majority of weapon spirits! Therefore, I propose a second concept—"memes"!

Memes are the counterpart to genes. If genes are hereditary information mediated by tangible substances like bloodlines, then memes are hereditary information mediated by intangible spiritual substances like will, thought, spirit, and knowledge. Material corresponds to bloodlines and genes; the soul corresponds to the spirit and memes!

The reason why tools like hammers and scissors, products of human civilization, can become the martial souls of Soul Masters is proof that their knowledge and beliefs have been passed down through memes! Their forging and cutting skills have been sublimated into martial souls! ..."

This was a concept and conjecture proposed by You Chen when he was 25 years old.

Judging from the birth of weapon spirits, the genetic information of Douluo Continent includes not only genes, but also memes.

Memes can be used to store genetic information, which seems like a great discovery, but... what good will knowing this do? What changes will it bring to the world?

No! This is by no means a meaningless discovery with only theoretical value!

This discovery means that in this world, things like will, thought, spirit, and knowledge can have a direct impact on life!

You Chen began his research by noting that the first few soul skills of several martial souls that had been passed down for many years—the Evil-Eyed White Tiger, the Netherworld Cat, and the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon—were exactly the same.

So, when he was 28 years old, "Soul Ring Selection II: The Influence of Human Intelligence and Subjective Consciousness on Soul Rings" was released.

The most important success was the "self-created soul skill".

It was thanks to this research that You Chen was able to evolve his martial soul into a Starbone Dragon by relying on the adaptive soul ring bestowed by the system and using the absolutely pure soul ring as the best carrier of his ideas!

This can actually be considered a byproduct of the research on "memes".

Perhaps You Chen's research motivation couldn't be considered entirely pure, and we can't rule out his desire for power in the process...

However, he ultimately devoted all his efforts and most of his life to this cause.

At 29, his book "The Essence of Martial Spirit" was banned.

However, You Chen did not stop exploring martial spirits.

You Chen, now 38, has many different thoughts than he did more than a decade ago.

He even expressed his disagreement with some of the views expressed in his own past research.

For example, regarding the birth of martial spirits, he now tends to believe that all martial spirits initially originated from "memes," while "genes" are merely a more stable form of inheritance that follows.

Take the Clear Sky Hammer as an example. Perhaps it was created as a model at first, but in the process of being passed down and gradually becoming stable, it may have truly become part of the Soul Master's bloodline and genes!

The difference between beast spirits and weapon spirits may not be the difference between genetic inheritance and meme inheritance, but rather the difference that stems from humanity's initial yearning for the power of the bloodline of spirit beasts and the power of the creation of skills and tools.

Human thoughts and beliefs, under the influence of the world's rules, have traversed the long river of time, creating a miracle known as Martial Souls.

People in the past did not know the power of thought, but they never stopped thinking.

Perhaps You Chen still cannot prove that martial spirits originated from memes, but he can prove the influence of memes, that is, human will, on martial spirits.

There is a huge difference between "knowing" and "not knowing" when it comes to understanding the essence of a martial spirit.

This is the "activity of consciousness." Consciousness can not only reflect the external phenomena of things, but also grasp the essence and laws of things.

In a fantasy world where phenomena can be interfered with through the mind, mere cognition is an extremely powerful force.

And so, this was the answer You Chen arrived at—

"The strongest Soul Master's success is inevitable! They can even create their own Martial Soul—Stardust Dragon, come out here!"

You Chen, whose body was bursting with powerful soul energy fluctuations, suddenly opened his eyes and let out a thunderous roar!

Simply imagining it is not enough to make a martial soul evolve.

If this could be achieved simply through imagination, given You Chen's superior thinking compared to all other Soul Masters in the world, he wouldn't need to be so troubled.

But what if we add the immense energy generated when a martial soul breaks free from its shackles and undergoes a sublimation at the seventh-ring Soul Saint stage?

The Stardust Dragon Martial Soul, radiating starlight, underwent a dramatic change, gradually approaching the perfect form of the Stardust Dragon that You Chen had imagined!

"The gathered prayers will become the shining stars of new life, transforming into a radiant path—be born!"

The crimson spirit ring began to spin rapidly.

"Stardust Dragon!"

In an instant, the martial spirit changed with the wind...

The perfect energy evolution ratio constructed by the soul rings of the second incarnation, the martial soul sublimation power brought by the seventh ring after 100,000 years, and the powerful driving force of the consciousness that has been working tirelessly for a single purpose for 33 years, the driving force called the obsession of writing with a wish... all three overlap at this moment!

Since the age of 6, he has been cultivating, starting from simply seeking a path to become stronger, and then gradually understanding the truth of martial spirits. He has been moving towards his goal step by step with unwavering determination, experiencing countless hardships and countless days and nights of hard work!

Finally... the Stardust Dragon soars through the skies!

(Dragon Cancer's smile.jpg)

……

Even someone as steady as a feather would excitedly raise the flag at this moment!

They flew happily in the sky for most of the day.

"That speed!"

After trying to accelerate and decelerate, and estimating the time needed to accelerate to the maximum speed and the difficulty of forcibly stopping from the highest speed, You Chen looked excited.

If he were to fight Feng Zhenglong again, You Chen would never fall into the same predicament of being forcibly shaken off as before!

Undoubtedly, in terms of speed alone, his Stardust Dragon Martial Soul already possesses super performance, no... even exceptional performance!

Not only his speed, but You Chen could also feel that after his martial soul was attached to him, all his physical abilities had been greatly enhanced!

Compared to before, this is an absolutely unimaginable qualitative change!

The amplification effect of the Martial Soul Possession is affected by the strength of the Soul Power, i.e., the level. However, because You Chen's physical qualities were too exaggerated, even though there was a 30-level difference in Soul Power between his first and second incarnations, he didn't feel much difference.

But things are different now. If he were to switch back to his second incarnation, even excluding the effect of having an extra 100,000-year soul ring, his various enhancements would decline significantly.

Of course, this is probably also because the strength of soul power undergoes a qualitative change after breaking through to the Soul Saint stage.

But most importantly, it is still the improvement of the quality of the martial soul!

"I thought that even if it completed its evolution, the Stardust Dragon Martial Soul would at most be a quasi-super quality, the same level as the Azure Phoenix Douluo's Azure Phoenix Martial Soul. But now... there's no doubt about it! This is... a super Martial Soul!"

Although he hadn't had time to calculate the exact values ​​yet, You Chen was certain that the Stardust Dragon was definitely a super martial soul!

In fact, in terms of the level of the original power of the martial soul alone, the super martial soul is already the highest level in the world!

God-level martial souls may have a different name and seem to be of a higher quality than super martial souls, but that is not actually the case.

The so-called god-level martial soul can be simply understood as a super martial soul that has been developed to its ultimate level!

As you can see from the original work, before those Soul Masters became gods, their Martial Soul quality was at most at the Super level. The reason why people in later generations called their Martial Souls God-level Martial Souls was more due to a kind of faith or the blessing of ancestor worship!

However, You Chen confirmed this through his observation of his eldest disciple.

Even after absorbing the first three rings, Qian Renxue's martial soul's original power did not increase in the slightest. In other words, her martial soul had already reached the end of its evolution as soon as it was born.

The reason why one can grow from one pair of wings to three pairs of wings is not because of insufficient original power, but simply because it requires a higher level of soul power to support it.

Being born at the top is definitely an advantage, but on the other hand, it also reduces the possibility of further exploration.

Perhaps by growing from weakness, this angelic martial soul could continue to evolve and become stronger, but at least Qian Renxue no longer has that possibility.

Just like the "God-given Level 10 Soul Power" she received, her Martial Soul is also a fixed Martial Soul directly bestowed by the gods.

In a sense, Qian Renxue can be said to have been born to become an angel god...

"So, how should I continue to improve?"

Even You Chen was somewhat confused about the direction of improving his Stardust Dragon Martial Soul at this moment.

In his initial vision, the Stardust Dragon was merely a top-tier martial soul. Only by continuing to evolve into the Meteor Dragon could it reach the super level, and then go a step further to become the final form of other Stardust Dragons such as the Meteor Quasar Dragon or the Cosmic Edge Dragon, which could be called the ultimate super martial soul, or a god-level martial soul.

But now?

The Stardust Dragon is already a super martial soul. Even if it can evolve again, it will probably reach the limit of martial souls in this world and this universe after another evolution.

"In short, there's no need to rush, there's plenty of time."

You Chen's eyes quickly regained their firmness.

If you don't understand, just keep researching!

Hasn't that always been how he's lived?

You Chen slightly raised his hand, and a dazzling ball of soul power immediately condensed in his hand.

The biggest change after a martial soul evolves isn't speed, but... energy!

He didn't actively control it, but the wind power, star power, and divine power naturally began to merge. This merged power should now be called—Stardust Power!

You Chen quietly looked up, and in an instant, the power of stardust condensed and burst forth at an extremely terrifying speed, shooting straight towards a mountain peak not far away.

In an instant, the summit of the mountain vanished into nothingness.

The self-created Soul Skill, Sonic Shot, has been successfully completed.

Smoke was rising slightly from You Chen's kiss, clearly indicating that this move also placed a considerable burden on him, and was still a powerful move that could not be used casually.

The initial speed of fire already possesses the speed of a wind dragon's roar and the power of a star dragon's roar.

After completing the Soul Saint stage of Martial Soul sublimation, each Soul Master's control over the origin of their Martial Soul will greatly increase. Even if they previously knew nothing about this, they can still successfully reach the entry level.

The same goes for You Chen. If he was only at the "early stage of the Spirit Realm" before, he has now at least progressed to the "mid stage of the Spirit Realm," which is equivalent to using the results of "Illuminating the Origin" multiple times at once.

Without actually trying it, You Chen sensed that the duration of his spiritual burst had increased significantly, while the duration of weakness had also been greatly shortened.

"With my current level of control over my martial soul's origin power, it probably won't take long before I can initially perfect the 'Sonic Speed ​​of Fire' technique. At that point, it will be at least a soul skill of the 100,000-year level!"

Moreover, it's an instantaneous 100,000-year soul skill!

Its power is self-evident.

You Chen has just reached the Soul Saint realm, and his strength has greatly improved. He has firmly stood at the Title Douluo level, and when he unleashes his full power, even Super Douluo are not afraid of him at all.

After he has spent some more time digesting and consolidating his growth in all aspects, his strength can still increase slightly!

First up is "The Divine Elephant Suppressing Prison Force"!

After this leap in life level, You Chen felt that the difficulty of cultivation had been greatly reduced.

Having previously absorbed two 100,000-year-old soul bones, he had greatly strengthened his foundation, especially the life-type Blue Silver Emperor Soul Bone, which was no less than undergoing several Bone and Marrow Transformation procedures.

But this breakthrough, perhaps due to the evolution of the martial soul, has made the reduction in difficulty even more obvious!

No, it's not just because of that! It's also because their soul power level and physical attributes are gradually converging!

Of the original three elements of essence, energy, and spirit, You Chen's soul power had always been the weakest link. But now... with his previous accumulation and this 100,000-year soul ring, You Chen's soul power level has jumped to level 78! It's not far from his physical body!

The three elements of essence, energy, and spirit complement each other. When the differences between the three are so small, the speed of cultivation can naturally be increased!

You Chen felt that it would only take him three years at most to fully master the Giant Elephant Realm, which he had only half-cultivated so far!

If one cultivates the Divine Elephant Suppressing Prison Technique to perfection on their own, their physical strength will be comparable to that of a Title Douluo. Not to mention that You Chen also has a host of soul rings and soul bones.

You Chen had a premonition that once the 840 million particles in his body contained the power of the illusory giant elephant, his physical attributes would probably reach the level of a Super Douluo!

Having discussed soul power and physical attributes, how can we not mention You Chen's currently strongest aspect: mental power?

All soul cores can enhance soul power strength and soul power recovery speed, but different types of soul cores also have their own special properties.

Just as You Chen condensed a spiritual core, the strength of his spiritual power received an additional boost, and most importantly... his recovery ability also increased dramatically! It surged! It surged!

Just like with soul power, as long as it is maintained at more than 80% of its reserves, the recovery speed is a hundred times faster than before!

Even if you lose 50% of your strength, your recovery speed can still be ten times faster than before!

This means that... You Chen can now use the Soul-Suppressing Technique, which he previously used as a trump card, as a regular technique!

For those whose mental strength is weaker than that of the Spirit Abyss Realm, he can use a Soul-Stunning Technique to immobilize them without any hesitation and then kill them instantly!

And he himself consumes almost nothing!

In addition, You Chen's Soul-Slaying Technique is already effective against Title Douluo powerhouses at the Spirit Abyss Realm.

It wasn't just because of his breakthrough in spiritual realm, but also because...

The moment he used the Soul-Suppressing Technique to cause Feng Zhenglong's energy backlash and death, his Soul-Suppressing Technique naturally reached its perfect state!

As the first truly perfected system cultivation technique, You Chen easily perceived the difference between perfection and the state before perfection.

That feeling... was like facing a blank canvas from which you could paint at will.

"Perhaps I can also incorporate some of the spiritual techniques that I didn't have time to cultivate, which were previously rewarded by the system."

This idea naturally came to You Chen's mind.

(End of this chapter)