Douluo Continent: On Becoming a God Through Science

Chapter 150 Absorbing the Eighth Soul Ring, Erming Arrives

Compared to the hotheaded Erming, Daming was quite intelligent.

It knew the immense power of the being capable of instantly killing the Emperor Golden Lion Beast; approaching rashly would likely be a death sentence.

Therefore, it specifically warned the other soul beasts not to approach that area easily, and only allowed a few sentinel soul beasts with both stealth and reconnaissance abilities to scout the edge of that area.

Therefore, only the strongest Sentinel Soul Beast saw You Chen's avatar from afar, recognized his identity as a Soul Master, and then relayed the message back.

Erming is sprinting towards them at full speed, but although the core area is not large, this place is located on the edge of the core area. Even if Erming runs at full speed, it will take at least half an hour to get here.

And half an hour?

For You Chen, who had already absorbed a 100,000-year soul ring, this absorption process was much easier than the last time.

In just about twenty minutes, You Chen successfully absorbed the soul ring.

With the addition of this fourth 100,000-year soul ring, You Chen's second incarnation's total lifespan has once again surpassed that of his first incarnation, and his soul power level in his normal state has reached level 50.

You Chen glanced at the corpse of the Emperor Golden Lion Beast. The drop rate of soul bones from such top-tier soul beasts was extremely high. For example, the Dark Gold Terror Claw Bear would definitely drop an external soul bone, and the Emperor Golden Lion Beast was no exception.

A gleaming golden left metacarpal bone emerged from within.

You Chen did not absorb it on the spot. Instead, he put it into his pocket along with the corpse, then disbanded all his avatars and hid it away again using the Concealing Breath Technique.

By the time Erming arrived, they had already vanished without a trace.

……

During the process of creating his own soul skills, You Chen realized that, unlike in the past, the energy of the 100,000-year soul ring was sufficient to condense two soul skills. However, there was another option: to concentrate all the energy into one soul skill, which would give it a higher strength.

However, the latter is actually something that can only be encountered by chance and is not something that can be sought after.

During the process of condensing a soul skill, You Chen realized that before the soul ring's age exceeded 100,000 years under the system's tools, perhaps due to insufficient compatibility, the interference power of You Chen's self-created soul skill secret technique was weakened, and the soul ring naturally began to condense into a soul skill.

However, after breaking through 100,000 years, it is natural to tend to create a second soul skill, rather than to continue to strengthen the first soul skill.

It seems the world's rules are more inclined to produce two relatively weak 100,000-year soul skills, rather than a single, stronger 100,000-year soul skill that approaches the power of a ferocious beast's soul ring skill.

That's why this natural development has occurred.

Fortunately, this soul ring was only a 90,000-year soul ring at the beginning, and it had already taken the first step in generating the first soul skill. This made it easier for You Chen to achieve the result of generating only one soul skill.

Ultimately, under You Chen's deliberate intervention, the only 100,000-year soul skill, "Emperor's Golden Body," was born from among the several possible soul skills that the Emperor Golden Lion Beast could generate.

A soul skill that is entirely constructed by the soul ring itself, without involving or calling upon the attributes of the Wandering Dust Martial Soul.

In other words, this is a soul skill that does not develop the power of the martial soul itself, but directly inherits the abilities of the soul beast.

Generally speaking, this kind of soul skill is significantly less effective than the one used by the soul beast in its lifetime.

After all, it's impossible for a counterfeit soul skill that has nothing to do with one's own martial soul to be stronger than the original one, right?

However, probably because You Chen used the time limit card to increase the time limit of the soul ring to 100,000 years, and supplied the energy that should have given birth to two soul skills to this one soul skill, in terms of effect alone, this soul skill is no worse than the Emperor Golden Lion Beast itself.

Using this soul skill will grant the user Emperor's Golden Body state, granting immunity to attacks below the God level for 5 seconds. During the 5-second invincibility period and the 10 seconds following the end of invincibility, the user experiences a massive power surge. Limited to 3 uses per day.

The bloodline of the Imperial Golden Lion Beast far surpasses that of the Trash Soft Bone Rabbit, so the original effect of the Imperial Golden Body is far stronger than that of the Invincible Golden Body.

However, You Chen speculated that if the Emperor Golden Body was generated according to the initial steps of the two 100,000-year soul skills, it would probably only be invincible for 3 seconds, just like the Invincible Golden Body. The extra part would just be the subsequent enhancement.

Furthermore, the duration of the enhanced state and the number of times the Emperor's Golden Body could be used each day were probably not as many as they are now.

Besides the soul skills, You Chen also felt that the Stardust Dragon Martial Soul's origin had been strengthened, just like when the Starbone Dragon Martial Soul absorbed the fourth, fifth, and sixth soul rings of its previous incarnation.

Because the spirit ring has a higher age limit, reaching a full 100,000 years, and the Emperor Golden Lion Beast is a top-tier spirit beast, the corresponding spirit master's spirit is also at a super level, so even the super spirit has received a noticeable enhancement.

This may also be because the Stardust Dragon Martial Soul has only recently entered the Super Domain and still has a lot of room for growth.

You Chen felt that the most significant improvement was in strength, followed by resilience.

Overall, You Chen couldn't be more satisfied with this result.

The biggest gain, as expected, was acquiring the invincible skill.

Among all the soul skills, its priority is probably only below time and space skills.

Spatial skills are manageable, but as for time-based skills, even after searching through all the records of the Spirit Hall, only the "Dark Demon Evil God Tiger" spirit beast possesses such power.

However, while You Chen's second incarnation's fourth, fifth, and sixth spirit rings do not pursue or care about increasing the power of his martial soul's origin, it would be a different story if the spirit rings would create a conflict.

The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger, as a soul beast possessing extreme evil power, clashes with You Chen's Stardust Dragon Martial Soul beyond the realm of slaughter.

Even if it were only the fourth, fifth, or sixth spirit ring, which have a relatively small impact on the martial soul, You Chen did not intend to choose the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger.

If it weren't for the conflicting attributes, in order to pursue the evolution from Stardust Dragon to Meteor Dragon, the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger would undoubtedly be an important target for his seventh ring. You Chen could then use the power of time to glimpse the ultimate speed that surpasses human intelligence in that instant when he absorbs the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's soul ring and obtains the sublimation of his martial soul.

Although it's regrettable, You Chen wouldn't take such a gamble.

After leaving the core area and returning to the inner mixed area, You Chen quickly took out the left palm bone of the Emperor Golden Lion Beast.

There's not much to say. The value of this extra external soul bone is higher for You Chen than that of a 100,000-year soul bone. You Chen quickly absorbed it and, as it was being integrated into his palm, he also attached a 10,000-year soul bone to it, thus increasing the enhancement of his own martial soul as much as possible.

The enhancement of a spirit soul by a spirit bone is less significant than that of a spirit ring; more importantly, it increases the stats of the spirit master themselves.

Therefore, the improvement of the martial soul is negligible, and You Chen's own stats are already terrifying enough. Even a 100,000-year-old soul bone can only be considered icing on the cake, mainly enhancing the destructive power of his left hand.

After absorbing the essence, You Chen quickly grasped the information about the soul bone.

Rather than simply criticizing this "hint," which is somewhat like a game mechanic, Youchen tends to interpret it as part of the "rules of the world."

Both being external soul bones with a metal-based attribute, if the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear's right palm bone is characterized by shattering, then the Emperor Golden Lion Beast's is characterized by sharpness and piercing.

The accompanying Soul Bone Skill is "Emperor's Golden Sword," which gathers the sharpness of ultimate gold in the left hand to launch a penetrating attack that can pierce through anything, or it can be condensed and not released, maintaining its use as a weapon Soul Skill.

You Chen did not test the power of this move directly here, but just from the "sharpness of ultimate gold" and "ten thousand years soul bone skill", one can know that the power of this move is absolutely extraordinary.

It can be used as a supplementary killing move during the cooldown phase of "Sonic Shot" or as a weapon to increase the margin for error in close combat.

Like all external soul bones, this left palm bone also has a way to increase its lifespan.

In fact, all soul bones will increase in age as they are nurtured by the soul master's soul power (as set in the original work). In other words, apart from external soul bones that cannot be separated, the more times and for longer a soul bone is passed down, the higher its age will be.

However, there is no extra method to increase the lifespan of a normal soul bone, and it requires a long time to accumulate. In the case of a novel where the plot usually only lasts for twenty or thirty years, this effect is practically negligible for the protagonist.

The way the Imperial Golden Lion Beast increases the lifespan of its left palm bone is very simple: it absorbs different precious metals. Each precious metal has an upper limit, meaning that once the left palm bone has consumed a certain amount, it will become picky and refuse to eat anymore.

As the behind-the-scenes boss of the Beast Soul Merchant Guild, collecting precious metals is not a problem for You Chen, but some rare precious metals are truly priceless and scarce.

"Anyway, let Grace and Dugu Bo worry about it then. I'm not after a specific number of years; I'll be satisfied if I can reach 200,000 years and achieve the level of a ferocious beast soul bone. That's the harvest from the Emperor Golden Lion Beast. Next, it'll be time for my eighth soul ring."

A 100,000-year soul ring easily pushed You Chen's soul power level to the bottleneck of level 80.

The ninth ring of a lifetime still has the pursuit of breaking through the level of life, but the eighth ring has almost no restrictions.

This time, You Chen's goal was also very clear.

Stardust Power is formed by the fusion of three powers: wind, stars, and divinity. Naturally, increased control over these three powers can also aid in the cultivation of Stardust Power.

Of these three powers, the wind element, which accompanied You Chen from beginning to end, was undoubtedly the one with the highest degree of control. Even if we consider the progression from beginner to mastery, You Chen's control over the wind element was already at the late stage of mastery.

The power of stars followed closely behind. The first three rings of You Chen's second incarnation were all related to the power of stars. In addition, he had devoted a lot of effort to studying the Star Avatar in recent years, and his progress in this area was also catching up. Although it was not as good as the power of wind, it could at least be considered to be in the early stage of the Great Completion.

In terms of divine power, You Chen is extremely weak...

Although both skills, Star Avatar and Star Avenue, involve the use of divine power, they are primarily based on the power of stars.

In the Sacrificial Sanctuary, the three types of power are arguably equal in quantity.

You Chen has also specifically set aside a research project in this field over the past six months, devoting more of his time to it.

but……

That's too profound.

You can become more and more proficient at using and practicing a particular domain by relying on your intuition.

But how can this feeling be completely transformed into a product of one's own understanding?

For at least the past six months, You Chen has gained almost nothing.

Even though it's only weakened and not as good as a ten-thousand-year soul ring skill in the talent domain, You Chen hasn't made any progress in developing a "self-transformed soul skill" yet.

Relying on familiarity and intuition with the Sacrificial Sanctuary, one can naturally gain some inspiration for the fusion of the three power systems, but wanting to comprehend one of the power systems individually? That's very difficult.

You Chen's control over divine power is so poor that it's barely at the beginner level, let alone a minor achievement.

After all, he's not a god. Since he hadn't spent much time studying it before, his level of proficiency naturally wouldn't be very high.

However, You Chen has clearly realized that his low level of control over the divine power has significantly affected his control over the power of stardust.

Therefore... the eighth ring, with the most lenient conditions, should naturally be used for this divine power.

Since You Chen had taught Yan to use Soul Rings and Soul Skills as his teachers, Yan naturally wouldn't abandon his own methods.

He knew that a large part of the reason he hadn't been working on improving his control over divine power was that he didn't have a soul skill that was entirely based on divine power. The cost-effectiveness of learning and improving such a skill was too low, which was why he hadn't touched this area for so long.

Then, a new problem arose.

Like the power of stars, soul beasts that wield divine power are extremely rare.

Based on the information You Chen gathered through the Beast Soul Merchant Guild, even in the Star Dou Great Forest, there were no Sacred-type Soul Beasts with a level of 80,000 to 90,000.

There are none that are 80,000 or 90,000 years old; the highest age is only around 50,000 years.

But... You Chen can't accept a soul ring that's less than 100,000 years old.

The extra 50,000 years of time limit card means that he will need to complete more tasks to make up for the missing seventh ring of his perfect second incarnation.

"Well, there are still quite a few 'Chosen Ones' (high-level Destiny Power users) left on this continent that haven't been harvested yet. If even Xue'er's 100,000-year limited-time cards aren't enough, and we're really short on years of limited time, we can just do more quests."

Now that his strength has increased, You Chen is no longer in such a hurry.

A limited-time card that lasts for a thousand years, unless you're using a special card, will probably only be available once every six months or every few months.

This amount of time is well within the acceptable range. After all, he still has a lot of training to do, and he can easily find some tasks to do in between.

However, once you miss a spirit ring, it's hard to get one back.

This time, You Chen's goal is not to generate only one soul skill like the Emperor Golden Lion Beast.

In order to better utilize spirit rings to learn and control divine power, at his current level, one super-powerful 100,000-year spirit skill is far inferior to two ordinary 100,000-year spirit skills.

Soul rings and soul skills are determined during the process of soul ring generation.

If you don't accumulate 100,000 years of experience when your soul rings are generated, it's equivalent to losing one sacred soul skill.

Although he had never systematically trained in divine power, he was quite familiar with it because he had a disciple with an angelic martial soul.

Without even needing to search through his memory palace, You Chen could find many suitable targets.

The soul beast that You Chen is targeting this time is called the Holy Spirit Bird.

As its name suggests, the Holy Spirit Bird is regarded as an auspicious creature and a holy spirit, both among soul beasts and in the eyes of humans in the past.

This Holy Spirit Bird dislikes killing and prefers peace and nature. Although it belongs to the near-top-tier soul beasts like the Wind Conquering Dragon, it is willing to protect weak creatures while possessing great strength.

Because they do not kill, but only absorb the essence of heaven and earth to cultivate, the Holy Spirit Bird can quickly reach a cultivation level of ten thousand years by relying on its bloodline, but few can break through one hundred thousand years.

Therefore, although it is only auspicious in name and does not have the same effects as the imperial auspicious beast, as long as the soul beast is not evil, it will naturally feel close to the Holy Spirit Bird and will not usually be hostile to it.

There are even ancient records that humans in the past worshipped and offered sacrifices to the sacred bird.

However, You Chen naturally didn't care whether this soul beast was benevolent or a saint among beasts; he only cared whether it was useful to him.

With You Chen's current perspective, anything less than a near-top-tier soul beast no longer catches his eye.

The Holy Spirit Bird, he thought, was a target that perfectly suited his desires.

This 50,000-year-old Holy Spirit Bird also inhabits the core area.

Not long after You Chen re-entered the core area, he discovered its whereabouts.

Unlike the Imperial Golden Lion Beast, this Holy Spirit Bird, which dislikes fighting, chose to submit to the Ming Dynasty early on.

Da Ming and Er Ming were very friendly to the Holy Spirit Bird, a spirit beast that did not fight or compete, and allowed it to live in an area close to them.

You Chen was unaware of the reasons behind this; he merely analyzed the phenomenon and concluded that it would be extremely difficult to wait for the Holy Spirit Bird to reach the edge of the area far from the Great Ming and the Second Ming.

You Chen had no intention of spending another month or two in this remote mountain valley for a Holy Spirit Bird.

Waiting any longer isn't a solution. If Da Ming and Er Ming really come to the rescue, he'll try his best to use his Starlight Avatar to hold them off. If all else fails... he has another plan.

Having made up his mind, You Chen quickly began to take action.

The Holy Spirit Bird is like a social butterfly among soul beasts, and is often accompanied by other soul beasts.

This is the second problem.

Fortunately, You Chen is no longer the same as before. He is not afraid at all when several soul beasts of tens of thousands of years level are united together.

According to the rules of the Spirit Hall, spirit masters should avoid killing spirit beasts that are not their targets, but You Chen had no such concerns.

To prevent these guys from causing trouble again after I start absorbing spirit rings, I'll kill them all at once.

No further description is needed. Even the strongest among them, the Holy Spirit Bird, is only a quasi-top-tier soul beast with a lifespan of 50,000 years, possessing only top-tier Soul Douluo-level combat power.

With the Starlight Avatar providing cover, You Chen didn't let a single one escape, and wiped out all the ten-thousand-year-old soul beasts that had gotten involved in the scene.

Then, he had his six avatars protect him from the shadows while he began absorbing the spirit rings.

With the blessing of the Soul Ring Limited Time Card, this Soul Ring quickly transformed into a blood-red color.

Compared to the Imperial Lion Beast, the Holy Spirit Bird, with its compatible attributes, has a significantly higher compatibility.

Every ten times the lifespan of a spirit ring represents a qualitative change. Even though the Holy Spirit Bird is only a near-top-tier spirit beast, with a high degree of compatibility, the improvement it brings to You Chen is no less than that of the top-tier bloodline Emperor Golden Lion Beast.

Compared to the surging life force that could only be felt when absorbing the Emperor Lion Beast, this time there was an even greater surge of sacred and pure power.

You Chen carefully comprehended the changes brought about by absorbing the soul ring, while simultaneously diverting his attention to interfere with the development of the soul ring's soul skills.

Since the goal was to strengthen and refine control over divine power, You Chen naturally chose skills that were as unrelated as possible.

One of them is, of course, the most representative power of divine power: the power of "healing".

Healing is naturally one of the signature skills of the peace-loving Holy Spirit Bird. You Chen felt that the process of creating his own soul skill was as smooth as the relief after ten days of constipation.

Although he hadn't actually started using it, You Chen already felt that he was gaining some understanding in the process of creating his own soul skills.

For his other soul skill, Youchen chose a destructive skill that is the complete opposite of healing.

In terms of killing, divine power often focuses on purification and dissolution.

The former is more of a fusion of light and divine power, while the latter is more of a fusion of fire and divine power.

Perhaps it is this innate affinity that makes the divine power with strong destructive force more likely to be generated in soul beasts and martial souls that possess both holy and fire attributes or holy and light attributes, thus further highlighting its characteristics of "purification" or "dissolution".

However, the sacred power of the wandering dust has absolutely nothing to do with flames or light.

In this world, there are no soul beasts that can combine the power of stars and divinity, or wind and divinity.

That's why he specifically chose the Holy Spirit Bird, a soul beast that uses holy power as its means of attack but does not possess the attribute of fire.

During the process of developing this soul skill, You Chen quickly felt the majestic side of divine power.

A vastness that encompasses evil and darkness and then utterly crushes them, and a merciless majesty that purifies everything equally, like a god.

He realized that the divine power was different from his previous understanding.

Suddenly, You Chen raised an eyebrow slightly.

The starlight avatar placed outside has already sensed the approach of living beings.

"So they really came."

If the preference is to "coexist peacefully," You Chen would not hesitate to slaughter other unrelated ten-thousand-year-old soul beasts, just to prevent their subsequent interference and to deter other soul beasts.

He had foreseen this situation when he made that choice.

……

"Hmph! That stubborn lion is one thing, but it has repeatedly slaughtered soul beasts in the core area, and this time it directly massacred so many of our companions!"

Erming's eyes were bloodshot, burning with rage, and he charged toward Youchen with even faster and more ferocious movements than before.

The earthquake, which seemed to herald the wrath of the earth, caused countless surrounding spirit beasts to scatter and flee.

Erming and the Emperor Golden Lion Beast did not get along, but the other soul beasts were different.

Although they are not yet "companions" in reality, they are all loyal little brothers in its heart!

How could Erming not be furious when his underlings were massacred!

Erming especially loved playing with that Holy Spirit Bird, treating it like his favorite pet!

Within minutes, Erming saw Youchen's clone, which he had placed hundreds of meters away from his main body.

"Humans...!!!"

It roared, emitting a somewhat muffled and angry human voice.

Some soul beasts can speak normally after only tens of thousands of years of cultivation, not to mention the Titan Giant Ape with a lifespan of 100,000 years.

It deliberately spoke to convey its anger truthfully.

The muffled, thunderous sound echoed through the forest for a long time, seemingly conveying the master's message successfully.

You Chen's six starlight avatars had already sensed Er Ming's movements and were converging on this location.

The war is about to start.

(End of this chapter)