Douluo Continent: On Becoming a God Through Science

Chapter 28 Cultivation Techniques and Martial Arts

There's a reason why people in Douluo Continent aren't keen on developing their own soul skills.

Even if it's a cheat code given to the protagonist by the original author, it's a completely seamless connection to the Xuan Tian Bao Lu (Mysterious Heavenly Treasure Record).

Taking the Ghostly Shadow Technique as an example, if it is cultivated to perfection, it is at most equivalent to a ten-thousand-year soul skill.

For an ordinary person to cultivate it to perfection, it would take an unknown amount of time and effort.

But what about Soul Masters? They can solve it with just one Soul Ring.

The greatest purpose of these self-created soul skills is not for use by soul masters of their own type, but to help soul masters of other types fill in the gaps in their skills.

For example, offensive and support classes can learn agile footwork to enhance their output potential and survivability.

The problem is that the most suitable and skilled soul masters for developing this type of soul skill are those with agility-based attack abilities.

Is it necessary for agility-based Soul Masters to independently develop such Soul Skills? There's no need.

Wouldn't it be better to use this time to train your soul power?

Over time, this has led to a climate where the research and creation of original soul skills is extremely limited.

Even if one truly creates their own soul skills, they are generally not versatile and are mostly applicable only to martial souls inherited from a family, thus lacking widespread applicability.

The martial arts techniques that You Chen acquired were all general-purpose and did not require any martial spirit or additional talent.

With the systematic infusion of knowledge, he also overcame the initial hurdles and directly achieved entry-level mastery, saving a lot of cultivation time.

Aside from the mental technique "Soul-Stealing Technique" and the functional technique "Breath-Concealing Technique," You Chen doesn't intend to spend too much energy on the others.

In addition to the two items mentioned above, You Chen also acquired three martial arts techniques.

These are the fist technique "Cloud Movement Fist", the lightness skill "Flying on Grass", and the explosive secret technique "Five Qi Killing Skill".

Among them, "Cloud Movement Fist" is a fist technique that leans towards the water element. It uses soul power to manipulate cloud energy, making the fist technique unpredictable. It is a typical slow fist technique, which conflicts slightly with You Chen's agile attack style. However, from another perspective, it may be possible to achieve surprise and become a piece of the puzzle of You Chen's offensive capabilities.

The name "Flying on Grass" is simple, but its effect is quite remarkable.

As for the "Five Qi Killing Technique," it involves cultivating killing energy within the five internal organs and detonating it at crucial moments to enhance one's overall attributes. Although it places a considerable burden on the five internal organs, its effects are undeniably real.

Looking at it this way, it turns out that You Chen can actually use all three of the martial arts techniques and skills.

However, as the saying goes, even for someone like You Chen, it takes a considerable amount of time to cultivate to the point of mastery and perfection.

This is why You Chen had no intention of passing on these techniques and martial arts skills to Yan.

At first glance, showing Yan these versatile self-created soul skills might allow him to draw inferences from similar cases.

In reality, Yan developed his own unique soul skills that were exclusive to his martial soul. Giving him these things would only cause him more trouble.

With Yan's pig brain, You Chen felt that just understanding the contents of these cultivation techniques and martial arts skills would take a lot of time, let alone successfully getting started.

You Chen has a system-provided entry-level cultivation realm, and these three cultivation techniques and martial arts skills are equivalent to the effects of a hundred-year-old soul skill.

Putting aside fist techniques and agility, many people have a misconception: when transmigrating to Douluo Continent, they should choose amplification-type soul skills for their early, low-limit soul skills so that they won't be obsolete in the future.

This is a huge mistake.

The timeless amplification effect of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda has nothing to do with the age of the spirit ring; it's simply the inherent ability of the spirit itself.

Even with the same amplification soul skill, the amplification effect of a normal support-type soul master will vary depending on the target being amplified.

As for self-amplification, the amplification effect of a hundred-year soul skill and a ten-thousand-year soul skill will naturally be different.

The latter might still have some effect once they become a Title Douluo, while the former would likely be insignificant by then.

The Five Qi Killing Technique also applies to You Chen.

The effect looks promising, and it's somewhat useful for You Chen right now. However, he's about to absorb the fifth ring, and once he reaches the Soul King level, this secret technique will be nothing more than a mosquito's leg if he's only at the beginner level.

If the Soul Saint stage is still useful, then one must at least cultivate to the Great Completion level.

To have a significant effect on Title Douluo level practitioners, one would probably need to cultivate this secret technique to perfection.

However, this requires talent and opportunity, and it is not something that can be achieved easily.

Even if You Chen were to cultivate "Flying on Grass," he would not cultivate this seemingly wonderful "Five Qi Fiend Technique."

However, You Chen was somewhat moved by "Cloud Movement Fist," feeling that he could practice it a bit when he had some free time, and perhaps it could really become a decent killing soul skill.

However, unlike these three martial arts techniques, You Chen was more interested in the "Soul-Stealing Technique".

Even disregarding its inherent mental talent, considering its stealthy nature and extreme difficulty in defense, and the fact that it rarely misses its target once locked on, it is still worth learning.

Its effect is similar to "soul shock," but the emphasis is on the "deterrence" aspect. It uses mental power to instill fear in the target, creating a temporary loss of focus. If the target's mental power is significantly different from one's own, it can even severely damage their mental will, causing them to experience an inescapable fear when they see the user again in the future.

If someone is born with traits like "Dragon's Might" or "Imperial Majesty," it can add an extra deterrent effect to this skill.

As for whether there are any other hidden uses, that's for You Chen to discover on his own.

When I first acquired the Soul-Stealing Technique, although its power was stronger than the other three, it was still limited to the category of a hundred-year-old soul skill.

However, after this period of cultivation, although You Chen has not yet reached the minor achievement level, he has already become comparable to a thousand-year-old soul skill.

This also shows You Chen's talent in this area.

If You Chen puts all his energy into this "Soul-Taming Technique," he is confident that he can cultivate it to the Great Perfection level in a few months. According to the description of the technique, its power can probably reach the level of a ten-thousand-year soul skill, and it will not be outdated even when used by a Title Douluo.

Here we should briefly discuss some concepts related to the time limit of Soul Skills.

First of all, the same hundred-year soul skill will naturally have different power when used by a titled Douluo and a one-ring soul master.

However, this difference in power is due to the difference in the strength of their soul power.

The form of a soul skill and the soul power infused into it will remain largely unchanged. This is a limitation inherent in soul rings themselves.

Soul Ring skills are like pre-programmed programs; Soul Masters can basically only click to activate them and then select a target.

Many Soul Masters believe that self-created Soul Skills will not become outdated as they progress through their Soul Master level. A large part of the reason is that as their level increases, their control over Soul Power becomes stronger, and their Soul Power increases. Even if the level of their self-created Soul Skill remains the same, they can make the form of the Soul Skill more exaggerated and forcibly increase its power by injecting more Soul Power.

This method, which forcibly elevates a soul skill that is only a hundred-year soul skill when perfectly executed to the level of a thousand-year or ten-thousand-year soul skill, will naturally result in a huge waste of soul power and energy.

However, this choice is perfectly fine if the Soul Master does not possess the corresponding Soul Ring or Soul Skill.

Creating your own soul skills is inherently more "free" than creating soul rings or soul skills.

(End of this chapter)