Douluo Continent: On Becoming a God Through Science

Chapter 155 Star Soul Technique, Searching for the Sea Princess

Poseidon Island is located in the West Sea of ​​Douluo Continent. The surrounding seas are dominated by three overlords: the Demonic Orca King, the Demon Soul Great White Shark King, and the final Deep Sea Demon Whale King.

As the place where the sea god became a god, the energy around Sea God Island is naturally the most abundant, and theoretically, it can give birth to more than three overlords.

However, due to the existence of the Deep Sea Demon Whale King, in the past 20,000 years, in order to break through the million-year dragon transformation bottleneck, a large number of soul beasts that were expected to become hundred-thousand-year soul beasts were swallowed by it and became its nourishment before they broke through the hundred-thousand-year bottleneck.

Only the Demonic Orca King and the Demon Soul Great White Shark King, two soul beasts with top-tier bloodlines, were able to survive in this brutal competition and eventually break through the 100,000-year bottleneck.

The former is because each member of the Demon Orca clan possesses considerable combat strength, and their large numbers make them difficult for even the Deep Sea Demon Whale King to provoke, thus allowing them to finally pass through the period of 100,000 years of achievement.

While the latter's group is weaker than the Demon Orca, it has the protection of the Sea Spirit Beasts of Seagod Island, so there is even less to worry about.

In summary, even the Deep Sea Demon Whale King wouldn't dare say he could easily take them both down.

But given the vastness of the ocean, there is always room for other spirit beasts to survive.

In the sea area radiating thousands of kilometers from Poseidon Island, the energy concentration drops significantly, but there are still sea spirit beasts that can reach the level of 100,000 years old, given the larger number of such creatures.

In the North Sea, north of the Douluo Continent, there is a race that has long worshipped the Sea God and lived a peaceful life—the Mermaids.

This group has the upper body of a human and the lower body of a fish; they are the mermaids of human legend. You Chen prefers to call them the mermaid clan.

The leader of the mermaid clan is even known as the Sea Princess.

The contemporary sea princess survived for ten thousand years, and in this era, she possessed a terrifying cultivation level of 590,000 years.

After all, it's not the vicinity of Seagod Island, so the energy concentration isn't that high. In addition, the Sea Princess no longer needs to improve her strength to maintain her status among the North Sea Soul Beasts, so she's naturally not in a hurry to improve her cultivation. After all, every time a ferocious beast breaks through the 100,000-year bottleneck, it will face a terrifying tribulation a thousand years later. Before truly surviving it, no one knows whether their hard work in cultivation is just a desperate attempt to be reborn.

Although its bloodline as a soul beast is not as strong as that of top-tier sea soul beasts like the Demonic Tiger Whale, it can definitely be considered a near-top-tier soul beast.

With 590,000 years of cultivation, she is comparable to a level 98 human Soul Master. Even a Limit Douluo could barely hold her own in the sea. Once this Sea Princess breaks through again and has 600,000 years of cultivation, she will probably be able to confront a Limit Douluo head-on in the ocean.

In terms of overall strength, the Sea Princess is definitely superior to the Demon Orca King.

But for You Chen, the difficulty of dealing with them wouldn't be much different.

Because the Sea Princess has a huge weakness compared to the Demon Orca King: her physical strength.

It's hard for human soul masters to judge, but among soul beasts, the smaller ones definitely won't have very high physical strength.

If the Demonic Orca King's physical strength is considered to be in the top tier of the Limit Douluo level, then the Sea Princess, whose overall strength is comparable to a level 98 human Soul Master, probably has a physical strength that is only at the bottom of the Super Douluo level.

It has weak defense and low vitality.

The Demon Orca King's size might be such that even a Super Douluo couldn't kill it after fighting for half a day, but the Sea Princess's size means that what would be a minor injury to the Demon Orca King could mean losing most of her body.

With You Chen's assassination skills comparable to those of a Grand Assassin, it's entirely possible that he could kill the Sea Princess before she could even react.

On the other hand, a large part of the Sea Princess's strength comes from her powerful mental energy. Mental energy is the greatest strength of this kind of spirit beast.

However, for You Chen, mental strength is also his strength. Even if he is inferior to this sea princess, he is not afraid of her mental attacks at all by relying on the Star Tower in his mental sea, which directly reduces the threat level of the sea princess.

You Chen is a well-rounded individual; even if his mental power is ineffective, he is still at least at the upper-middle level of a Super Douluo in other aspects, enough to threaten the Sea Princess.

To deal with the Sea Princess, the most important thing to be careful about is not the Sea Princess herself, but the group of soul beasts she protects.

The Sea Princess can use her racial talent soul skill, Mermaid Song, to link the soul power of many sea spirit beasts together, achieving an effect similar to the seven-in-one soul power fusion in the original work.

This allows many ten-thousand-year-old and even thousand-year-old soul beasts, who were originally unable to pose a threat to You Chen, to now be able to hinder him.

If there were many other soul beasts around the Sea Princess during the battle, it would likely force You Chen to spend a lot of energy dealing with them.

Just as You Chen has the Star Tower and doesn't worry about the Sea Princess's mental attacks, he also can't guarantee that his group mental attacks won't be weakened and ineffective under the connection of the Mermaid Song.

Moreover, the Sea Princess is a ferocious beast with a strength of 590,000 years; it's possible she has other subordinate soul beasts at the 100,000-year level. You Chen can indeed instantly kill ordinary 100,000-year soul beasts, but this would require using some high-energy-consuming techniques, and there's no guarantee that the Sea Princess won't seize the opportunity while he's attacking other 100,000-year soul beasts to deliver a fatal blow.

Therefore, the best course of action is to find an opportunity when the Sea Princess is alone and kill her before the other guardian spirit beasts arrive to her rescue.

However, killing the Sea Princess, if it cannot be guaranteed that no news will leak out, would almost certainly mean turning against Seagod Island.

The mermaid race has always been hostile to humans, but like the island of Poseidon, they share a pure faith in the sea god.

Before becoming a god, the Sea God was also a human Soul Master. Whether the Merfolk hated the Soul Masters of Sea God Island as much as they hated other humans remains a big question mark.

No, there's no need to ask a question mark.

From the Sea Maiden Douluo, a half-human, half-sea spirit beast from the mermaid clan, it can be seen that there must be a close connection between the two.

To kill the Sea Princess, unless it's a truly clandestine assassination, given the sheer number of sea spirit beasts here, it's impossible for You Chen to avoid revealing any of his information.

Furthermore, given that he had just recently hunted down the Demon Orca King, the Seagod Island authorities would definitely link these two soul beasts, who had successively hunted down a 100,000-year-old soul beast and a ferocious beast, together, and might even decisively consider them as the same person.

So, will You Chen stop here and choose other soul beasts as his targets?

Of course not!

You Chen was extremely satisfied with both the soul skills and the age of the soul rings produced by this sea princess, so why would he miss it?

The enhancements that spirit rings provide to a spirit master are nothing more than spirit power, physical strength, and mental power.

The first two go without saying, but as for spiritual power, it is not something that can be improved solely by absorbing the spirit rings of spirit-type spirit beasts.

Even a ten-year soul ring can enhance a soul master's mental strength. However, soul beasts with an age limit of less than ten thousand years generally do not have high intelligence, so the corresponding increase in mental strength is negligible.

There are two reasons why Soul Masters in the old era regarded 10,000 years as the optimal age for the fifth ring.

One advantage is that it's unrelated to age limits. Each time a Soul Master equips a Soul Ring, it's like installing a Martial Soul stabilizer. This not only limits the unchecked growth of the Martial Soul's essence but also protects the Soul Master. When absorbing a Soul Ring, both the vibrations from the unrefined Soul Ring and the accompanying mental impact are correspondingly weakened.

This is one of the reasons why the more spirit rings one has, the higher the absorption period of the next ring. The optimal limit of each ring is almost doubled. The first few rings are fine, but even after ten thousand-year spirit rings, this is still the case. A large part of the credit goes to the restrictive effect of the previous spirit rings.

Why did You Chen, who clearly used the Soul Power Borrowing Technique, only increase the second ring's lifespan by 4 years, reaching only 6 years in the third ring?

This can be seen from the instability of the Martial Soul Origin during the first three rings, as mentioned earlier. It is precisely because the Martial Soul Origin is not stable enough when absorbing the first three Soul Rings that its ability to cope with the vibrations of the unrefined Soul Rings is very poor.

Starting from the fourth ring, once the martial soul's origin has completely stabilized, the formula for calculating the optimal lifespan of the spirit rings begins to be significantly affected by the number of spirit rings.

With the help of the Soul Power Borrowing Technique, when You Chen absorbed the fourth ring, it was equivalent to using the Soul Power strength of a level 60 breakthrough Soul Emperor to absorb it. In addition, with his Martial Soul quality, terrifying physique, and heaven-defying spiritual power, the optimal age was enough to reach 15 years. The optimal age for the fifth ring was about 30 years, and absorbing a 60-year Soul Ring for the sixth ring was also not a problem.

Even without the Soul Ring Age Doubling Card that ignores the burden of Soul Rings, You Chen's seventh ring is enough to absorb a million-year Soul Ring, which is theoretically the true limit of Soul Ring age!

However, at that time, the total lifespan of the soul rings that You Chen's second incarnation will reach 190 million years, close to 200 million years!

To withstand a Soul Saint's cultivation level with a Soul Ring that has a lifespan of 200 million years...

Unless You Chen breaks through the two major bottlenecks of Title Douluo and Limit Douluo in his first life and undergoes two sublimations of his life level, or if there is a huge breakthrough in the Divine Elephant Suppressing Prison Technique, he probably won't be able to add any more soul rings to his second life.

We've gone a bit off-topic. Let's get back to the question of considering 10,000 years as the optimal age for the fifth ring.

The second element is naturally the absorption of the spiritual power gained from the previous stages.

Even if it's not as good as the spiritual power boost from a ten-thousand-year-old spirit ring, with four spirit rings, plus the fact that humans' innate spiritual power is far superior to that of spirit beasts, there's a good chance that this spiritual power will reach the Spiritual Connection Realm, which is what later generations called 100 points of spiritual power.

In addition, with the resistance of the four spirit rings to mental energy shock, it is normal to be able to successfully attach the ten-thousand-year spirit ring as the fifth spirit ring.

The Sea Princess, whom You Chen is now preparing to hunt as his soul ring, is a soul beast whose primary attribute is mental power.

Having absorbed this soul ring, You Chen's spiritual power will definitely be able to directly enter the late stage of the Spirit Realm and travel a considerable distance.

An even better outcome would be if the Sea Princess directly dropped her head soul bone. After absorbing her head soul bone, You Chen's spiritual power would definitely reach the peak of the Spirit Realm, and there would even be a considerable probability that he would directly cross the threshold of the Divine Origin Realm. If he also added the Dew of Longing for Autumn Water that he had deliberately kept until now, this considerable probability could be boldly increased to 100%.

Mental strength greatly influences a Soul Master's thinking speed and insight, indirectly enhancing their talent in many aspects, such as comprehending the origin of a Martial Soul.

Using divine sense for research and study will definitely greatly improve the efficiency of You Chen's subsequent cultivation plans.

Given all these factors, You Chen was determined to get the Sea Princess.

Following the directions indicated by the nautical chart, You Chen quickly resumed his journey.

Even at the speed of a drifting dust mote, it took a full day to fly from the West Sea to the North Sea.

The world's resources, such as rare minerals and marine plants, are more likely to be produced in places with higher energy concentrations.

This is why the West Sea of ​​Douluo Continent has become the most favored sea area by exploration fleets in the past six months.

The North Sea is the second most popular sea area after the West Sea.

However, just as the enthusiasm of adventurers setting sail was greatly dampened by the fact that the soul masters of Seagod Island disguised themselves as pirates to plunder the fleet in the West Sea, in the North Sea, a large number of soul beasts began to attack ships in an organized and systematic manner.

In addition, pirates are also rampant in the South China Sea and East China Sea, where resources are not so abundant.

Nowadays, You Chen regards pirates as Soul Masters of Seagod Island.

Although Poseidon Island is located in the western sea region, it is nominally the controller of the entire ocean and a sacred place in the hearts of all sea soul masters. It is not surprising that its tentacles extend to the east, west, north, and south sea regions.

You Chen even speculated that in this North Sea region, there were cases where Sea Soul Masters were directly colluding with the Soul Beasts ruled by the Sea Princess.

However, these are not problems that You Chen needs to deal with right now.

Although many Soul Master fleets returned empty-handed, they also gained insight into the situation in the North Sea.

That Crystal Palace was seen by a Soul Master whose ship had been destroyed by a Sea Soul Master, who was being chased by numerous Sea Soul Beasts, and who had fled back in panic.

According to his description, it was a palace hidden in the deep sea.

Although the exact location was somewhat unclear due to its panicked escape, the Beast Soul Merchants Association still managed to determine its approximate location based on the route it took.

As for on-site investigation? You Chen couldn't bear to let his good employees waste their time in such a dangerous place.

Although the lack of this layer of verification does not rule out the possibility that the person lied in order to earn money from the information, considering the title of "Sea Princess," You Chen is willing to believe it this time.

It seems that only the merfolk are qualified to live in such a place in the North Sea.

If the Soul Master really lied, and You Chen made a wasted trip... then naturally he would have to simply disappear from the face of the earth.

Yes, literally vanished into thin air. Ignis would probably be quite happy to accept this task.

As they ventured deeper into the North Sea, You Chen gradually became convinced that the Soul Master was indeed telling the truth.

As he flew down the approximate route measured by the Beast Soul Merchant Guild, he began to clearly see the traces of several major soul beast clans that were dependent on the mermaid race.

Under his keen perception, the concentration of energy was gradually increasing.

This gives me an increasingly strong sense of "going deep into the core".

You Chen did not rush to go deeper. He wandered around the locations of several soul beast clans and carefully observed them. He immediately discovered that they vaguely formed an outer ring of protection.

His eyes lit up, and he took out the nautical chart. He marked it up, added the locations of several ethnic groups, and corrected a few incorrect landmarks. Then, using the method of calculating the center of a circle, he marked a new location for the "Crystal Palace".

The two Crystal Palace landmarks are only a few centimeters apart on the map, but in reality, they would probably be hundreds of kilometers apart.

If You Chen's calculations are correct, but he's a bit unlucky, he might have to search for quite a while longer on this vast ocean.

After all, the Crystal Palace is located beneath the sea surface, in deep water, and is not as easy to explore as those landmarks on the surface.

Then, just as You Chen had predicted, he concealed his presence and successfully located the Crystal Palace.

The Crystal Palace was much larger than the Soul Master had described. Rather than a palace, it was more like a massive underwater ruin hidden deep in a trench, its area nearly the size of a small city.

The quickest way to find the Sea Princess's location is naturally through a mental scan.

But You Chen must have lost his mind to do such a thing.

That would be tantamount to directly giving up one's advantages as an assassin hiding in the shadows.

If you really want to see the sea princess, you don't need to go through all this trouble.

Compared to the three dominant soul beast clans of Seagod Island, the mermaid race, along with their vassal clans, possesses a much higher sense of camaraderie.

To put it bluntly, if the goal was simply to lure out the Sea Princess, You Chen could have killed a thousand-year-old soul beast near the North Sea coast of Douluo Continent, attracted a ten-thousand-year-old soul beast, killed the ten-thousand-year-old soul beast, attracted tens of thousands of-year-old soul beasts, and so on, directly luring the Sea Princess out.

However, at that time, not to mention that the soul beasts would gather into a large army, it might even attract support from Seagod Island.

While sweeping directly with mental power wouldn't cause such exaggerated consequences, the essence is the same.

Given that the Sea Princess likely possesses even stronger mental power than she does now, it's hard to say who will discover whom.

You Chen went through all this trouble, gathering intelligence beforehand and personally exploring, all to keep things as secret as possible and avoid alerting other people or forces.

Now that things have come to this, it's only natural to resort to the same old trick, just like when they used a clone to monitor the mental energy depletion of the Demon Orca King, they directly used their sensory abilities to find the Sea Princess's location.

After thinking it over, You Chen plunged into the water with a splash and swam towards the depths of the trench.

With You Chen's current physical condition, he could go a whole day and night without needing to breathe, even in the deep sea.

Of course, this will have some impact on combat strength, but not by much.

When it really comes down to a critical and necessary moment, one can use the air compression soul skill to forcibly displace the seawater and create a waterless, pure oxygen environment to facilitate combat.

The magical damage from pure oxygen is significantly reduced for powerful Super Douluo with exceptional physical strength, since their physical vitality is ridiculously strong, and the power of this continuous damage may not be greater than their natural health regeneration rate...

You Chen is such a physical powerhouse.

As for Youchen's starlight avatar, it had absolutely no need to breathe.

This crystal palace seems to be embedded in the trench. To enter, you need to break through the external structure of the building.

Damaging a building would naturally attract attention, and the main gate is always guarded by a soul beast, which, judging from its appearance, is a ten-thousand-year-old soul beast of the Sea Knife Fish clan.

The seven major clans—Sea Elephant Clan, Sea Whale Clan, Sea Knife Fish Clan, Seahorse Clan, Sea Serpent Clan, etc.—are direct supporters of the Princess Clan. Each of them is a powerful high-level soul beast, comparable to a high-level martial soul among soul masters.

Although it is difficult for these high-level soul beasts to break through the 100,000-year limit, under the protection of the Sea Princess, it is not difficult to nurture soul beasts of the 10,000-year level.

Among the best of the best, there are some who are even stronger than the average mermaid.

This sea knifefish must be an elite member of its kind to be able to directly serve as a gatekeeper.

However, You Chen has many methods to instantly kill this elite sea knife fish guarding the main gate.

But this might alert the other guards.

Fortunately, You Chen possessed the overpowered technique of Concealing Breath.

By blending perfectly into the environment and finding the guards' blind spots, You Chen easily infiltrated the Crystal Palace.

With his five senses, even in an unfamiliar environment like underwater, he was practically a superhuman.

Even without using the full mental map cheat, he still had a clear view of the surrounding situation, knowing exactly when and where someone would appear.

It didn't take long for You Chen to find a safe location and create six starlight avatars.

These starlight avatars were still essentially soul power. With You Chen's current control over soul power, he quickly molded them into the likenesses of the soul beasts in this underwater crystal palace by manually shaping them.

Judging from the size of the Crystal Palace's main gate, one can rule out large-sized soul beasts like the Sea Elephant and the Sea Whale that can move around inside.

Considering the role of guards, the main guardians are the spirit beasts of the two more agile races: the Sea Knife Fish Clan and the Seahorse Clan.

You Chen's avatar also transformed into the appearance of these two soul beasts, and quickly began to wander around the Crystal Palace, trying to find the location of its core palace as much as possible.

The six avatars led the way like cruise ships, while You Chen himself stayed in the center of the search circle formed by the six avatars.

The reason for choosing to sneak around instead of pretending to be a patrolman and extracting information from other patrolmen is twofold: firstly, the search efficiency is low, and secondly, being questioned would easily expose one's true colors.

Using an avatar allows for maneuvering even if the individual is unexpectedly discovered.

As long as he is not discovered to be a human intruder, being captured temporarily will not have any impact on You Chen. On the contrary, it can distract some of the patrolmen.

Everything went exceptionally smoothly as we ventured deeper into the territory.

You Chen noticed that the number of guards around him had decreased significantly, but their quality had increased dramatically.

The sea spirit beasts they encountered were all incredibly elite, and among them were probably some powerful beings capable of fighting against a Soul Douluo.

The image of mermaids gradually began to dominate the mainstream.

You Chen naturally became alert, which meant that he was gradually approaching the core area of ​​the Crystal Palace.

And at that very moment, despite not having encountered any other sea spirit beasts before, he suddenly found love around the corner.

Without any warning, without the slightest footstep or ripple in the water, Youchen's avatar bumped into a mermaid wearing a crown at the corner.

(End of this chapter)