Douluo Continent: Long Live the Spirit Hall

The three-headed, thousand-pound ant queen struggled weaker and weaker. Their hard shells gradually shattered and melted under the intense heat, and their life force was being refined bit by bit along with the power.

When the last bit of energy in their bodies is refined, the flames will send them to their final resting place, allowing the three brothers to depart in an orderly fashion.

"Hmm? During the process of refining these three soul beasts with my flames, it seems that their energy is gathering? The three soul beasts are combining into a soul bone?" Yan felt that there seemed to be a unique aura pulsating within the churning flames, similar to the energy fluctuations of condensing a soul bone, which made him feel a little strange.

In the original story, Tang San didn't obtain any soul bones when he hunted these three soul beasts. Instead, he absorbed all three soul rings together, causing them to mutate and all three to advance to 100,000-year soul rings. Could it be that things have taken a turn for the better with him here?

Yan was somewhat expectant, feeling that this conjecture might actually be true. The cultivation levels of these three soul beasts were all extremely close to 100,000 years. If Tang San couldn't even get a soul bone after killing three of them, then he was just unlucky. Yan didn't think he was that unlucky.

"Are they already dead? Good. Absorbing and refining all the energy directly will allow my cultivation to advance further." The moment the Three-Headed Thousand-Pound Ant King was killed by Yan, three waves of soul light rose up, and the rolling flames became even hotter. With the death of the Three-Headed Ant King, their defenses dropped significantly, their bodies were gradually refined away, and the energy within their bodies was also refined by the flames.

Yan sat cross-legged and reached out. A flame, carrying three surging soul lights, simultaneously entered Yan's body. The moment the three black and red soul lights collided with each other, Yan felt a boom, and an unparalleled surge of energy made his body tremble violently.

This kind of soul power with such a force attribute was like a raging storm in the ocean. Yan's body was lifted off the ground. Fortunately, he was prepared and after circling in mid-air to dissipate the energy, he landed firmly again.

Yan's martial soul instantly switched, and a yellowish-brown halo absorbed a large amount of soil, forming a mud giant behind Yan, which then slowly sank down to envelop Yan's body.

Yan's body was completely covered in mud and sand, and he seemed to have transformed into a giant made of mud and sand. His breathing had also become somewhat more stable.

However, this stability did not last long. Another wave of flames, carrying soul light, entered the body, and a red light burst out from the inside out. In an instant, the mud giant turned completely red, like a red-hot branding iron.

Intense energy fluctuations emanated from the surface of the scorching red sand giant, causing it to crack inch by inch. Within the cracks, intensely red, almost white-red, high-temperature light emanated, creating a terrifying scene as if Yan was about to explode.

Two figures arrived at this moment, and Xiao Wu was also startled to see Yan absorb three spirit rings at once.

"Oh my! Why was Brother Yan so impulsive? He actually absorbed three 90,000-year soul rings at once, which is nearly 300,000 years of soul power!"

"It's alright. He already possesses five 100,000-year soul rings, and his physical attributes far surpass those of ordinary people. Let alone 300,000-year soul power, he could safely absorb and refine even a 500,000-year-old ferocious beast." After getting a feel for Yan's condition, Qiu'er, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, shook her head and reassured Xiao Wu, "The only slightly dangerous thing right now is that he absorbed three soul rings at once, which is equivalent to having to withstand three rounds of soul backlash at once. This is indeed a rather dangerous process. The soul backlash from three nearly 100,000-year-old soul beasts—if it were a weaker martial soul, it would probably explode instantly, or even the whole person would just blow up. Only this freakish body can withstand it."

Chapter 463 Soul Ring Mutation · Martial Soul Evolution

Deep within the Star Dou Great Forest, Yan sat cross-legged, concentrating on refining the surging energy entering his body. Even if only a portion of the purest soul power from nearly 300,000 years was absorbed and refined by Yan to enhance his cultivation, it would still be a very large number.

Yan's soul power cultivation level instantly rose to the peak of the current level, and then he quickly broke through the realm and leveled up again, reaching the peak of a small level once more.

After a Soul Master breaks through level 70, it becomes extremely difficult to continue progressing. Soul Saints and Soul Douluos might be able to slowly increase their Soul Power level by simply waiting for the right time, but it's practically impossible for Title Douluos to do so.

Just like Dugu Bo, who has always been ridiculed as a disgrace to the titled Douluo, his level was stuck at level 91 until the internal troubles were resolved. And there are quite a few titled Douluo in this situation.

While it's true that titled Douluo don't face significant bottlenecks below level 96, in the vast Spirit Hall, very few actually reach level 95. The unbroken Ghost Moon Gate basically represents the limit that ordinary elders can reach, with level 95 being the guardian elders.

Of course, these situations actually apply to Soul Masters with average talent who have never obtained a red Soul Ring. As long as a Soul Master has refined a 100,000-year red Soul Ring, their Martial Soul and talent have definitely undergone a major transformation, and breaking through to level 95 will definitely not be a problem.

Yan's talent is already unparalleled in this world. Not to mention his own soul ring configuration, for him, level 96 is just a process of energy gathering, and there is no bottleneck at all.

Just like now, as he continuously refined the soul power of the three soul beasts, his cultivation level quickly approached level ninety-five.

The backlash from the three ant kings' souls was indeed formidable. As Yan continued to refine his soul power, his mental sea was also in turmoil.

The backlash from soul beasts that are over ten thousand years old cannot be taken lightly, especially when facing three at once. Yan was afraid of being overwhelmed, so he only breathed a sigh of relief after completely erasing the soul imprints of those three.

At this moment, Yan's body was also under some pressure. A large amount of soul power surged in, and every meridian in his body was expanded to its limit. The intense pressure also caused his blood flow to increase tenfold instantly, and his heart was beating like a completely abnormal person.

Amidst the loud bangs, bursts of light and flame erupted from Yan's body, the flesh and blood mixed within turning to ash the moment they detached from his body.

Yan's body couldn't quite handle refining three spirit rings at the same time, but fortunately he had prepared energy reserves in advance, chugging down a lot of life essence before refining the spirit rings.

Although his flesh and blood were constantly being impacted by energy, losing their vitality and exploding away from his body, his self-healing ability was stronger, and he naturally survived the most dangerous period.

Through repeated eruptions and fusions, Yan's transformation into a sand giant underwent significant changes, with more earth-attribute energy being condensed into it.

The giant's size was rapidly expanding, and golden lines were constantly appearing on its body, as if it were shouting with extreme excitement.

Boom boom boom boom boom...

A series of deafening explosions, inaudible to the outside world, resounded continuously within Yan's body, each explosion signifying the complete fusion of more energy into his body.

His aura became more refined and powerful, and he quickly broke through to level 95, reaching a watershed bottleneck at the Title Douluo level.

For Title Douluo, although there is a significant difference in soul power between levels 91 and 95, it cannot create an absolute advantage. They can make up for it by relying on the quality of their martial soul or by using their soul bones and soul skills.

However, once you exceed level 95, it becomes extremely difficult to fight opponents of higher levels. Although there is only one level difference between level 95 and level 96, there is a very obvious difference in absolute soul power, which is about 20%.

Such a significant difference in soul power cannot be compensated for by the quality of one's martial soul, ordinary soul skills, or soul bones. Unless there is a severe counterplay between the two sides' martial souls and soul skills, a level 96 player versus a level 95 player would be an absolute stomp.

The gap between level 96 and level 95 is so large that the difficulty of breaking through is naturally extremely high. The Spirit Hall has about 30 titled Douluo, but only 10 of them have exceeded level 95.

Excluding Bibi Dong and the two elders Guiju who recently broke through, the remaining seven are all enshrined in the Hall of Worship, and they are all over a hundred years old.

The Spirit Hall possesses the vast majority of the Title Douluo on the Douluo Continent, and with the occasional special training from Qian Daoliu, a level 99 Limit Douluo, it achieves a ratio close to three to one.

As for the other forces besides the Spirit Hall, not counting Seagod Island and the already defunct Tang Chen, only Tang Xiao and Chen Xin are above level 95.

Besides the two mentioned above, among the remaining old guys from the three upper sects, Yu Yuanzhen of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Sect and Gu Rong of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect are both top-tier Dragon Martial Souls, but they are both stuck at level 95, which shows how difficult it is to break through to level 96.

Because level ninety-six is ​​so crucial, this realm has a new name: Super Douluo. Yan is currently attempting to break through the bottleneck of Super Douluo, and he firmly believes that this barrier cannot stop him.

After the backlash from the Three-Headed Thousand-Pound Ant King was completely obliterated, their energy naturally became less turbulent. After reaching the peak of level ninety-five, Yan continuously challenged the bottleneck, utilizing the energy accumulated from nearly three hundred thousand years of soul power transformation. Through continuous attacks, he finally achieved results.

Time passed second by second. Yan had gone through this continuous process of breaking through the bottleneck countless times. In the end, the remaining ant king energy condensed into a ball and burst out instantly. After actively merging into Yan's soul power, it produced a qualitative change.

"Boom!"

Yan felt his brain buzz for a moment, then felt refreshed and exceptionally clear-headed, with inexhaustible strength in his limbs. This pleasant feeling made him feel quite comfortable, and he had an urge to become drowsy.

Of course, Yan did not indulge in this instinctive impulse, but instead focused his mind to continue refining his soul power and evolving his martial soul.

As his cultivation level broke through to level 96, his martial spirit also underwent a tremendous change. The mud and sand giant that originally appeared very soft and weak had now transformed into a dark golden stone giant, shining with golden light and quite majestic.

The golden stone giant that Yan transformed into exuded the terrifying power of a top-tier martial soul. A circle of light surrounded its body, and its body shimmered with a dark golden light that was identical to that of the three-headed Thousand-Pound Ant King. Just by comparing it to the Thousand-Pound Ant King, one could understand how powerful the giant's defense was.

Of course, the fact that Yan's martial soul underwent such a shocking and obvious change also means that his second martial soul has also completed a huge evolution and transformation.

Soul Masters are most likely to undergo transformations, such as spirit mutation or even evolution, at levels 30, 70, and 90.

Reaching level 30, the Soul Master level, is a significant hurdle; most Soul Masters need to reach this level to absorb a thousand-year Soul Ring. Level 70 allows one to return to their origin and obtain the secret of their Martial Soul True Body, which is the pinnacle that most Soul Masters aspire to.

As for a level 90 Title Douluo, being able to cultivate to this level means that even an ordinary beast spirit has been upgraded to a top-tier spirit, and he himself is a founding ancestor of a sect.

Yan's second spirit is actually not very strong. When he split his spirit, flame was the main spirit and earth was the secondary spirit. His second spirit only had a barely complete form.

However, after Yan refined the Three-Headed Thousand-Pound Ant King, his second martial soul immediately advanced to the top level among the top. All of this was due to the three soul rings that were at least 90,000 years old and the soul power foundation that was nearly 300,000 years old, which allowed his martial soul to successfully evolve and reach the sky in one step.

"This feeling is really great."

Yan felt the surging power within his body. He touched his hands together slightly, and the clanging sound of the golden stone giant's fists colliding reverberated through the air, even distorting space for a moment.

Yan refined the three-headed Thousand-Pound Ant King to complete the evolution of his martial soul, naturally inheriting their key characteristics. Not only did his defensive capabilities increase significantly, but his strength and explosive speed also reached their peak.

What the Thousand-Pound Ant King could do before, the Golden Stone Giant can now do as well, and even do better.

With a thought, Yan unleashed a golden halo, and three violent soul lights rose up, appearing one after another as illusory outlines of soul lights above the head of the golden stone giant.

Within the golden halo, the dark gold light and the earthy yellow soul light blended perfectly, making Yan's golden stone giant even larger and more majestic. Many more fine golden patterns appeared on its body, making it appear even more mysterious and unpredictable.

The soul light that had been swirling around the Golden Stone Giant's body continued to flow, and its dense aura was like a continuous mountain range, giving people an extremely calm feeling.

As the dazzling soul light gradually faded, three bright red soul rings appeared in Qiu'er and Xiao Wu's sight. They were instantly stunned, completely at a loss for words to express their feelings.

The three crimson spirit rings shone brightly with interplay of crimson and golden light, and the surging energy fluctuations made the golden stone giant resemble a standing demon god. Its intense aura was extremely terrifying, almost suffocating.

"How is that possible? Aren't those three ants 90,000 years old?"

Xiao Wu stared in astonishment at the three spirit rings arranged on the surface of the golden stone giant's body, and couldn't help but exclaim. She knew these three guys very well, and knew very well that they hadn't broken through 100,000 years, so why would they bring 100,000-year spirit rings after they died?

"Mutation? But I've only ever heard of mutated martial souls or soul beasts. Soul ring mutations are extremely rare, especially since this is a 100,000-year soul ring."

Qiu'er, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, was also stunned. For soul beasts, 90,000 years and 100,000 years are two different levels, and this is even more true for soul rings.

A 100,000-year spirit ring not only has greater skill power, but also has two spirit ring skills that can be used together for a burst of power. If it also has the spirit bone of a corresponding spirit beast, its power will be doubled.

In the original novel, Tang San easily defeated the many Title Douluos of the Spirit Hall. Besides the author's forced cheating, a large part of the reason was the ultimate killing move of this combination of 100,000-year-old spirit skills. Basically, no one of the same level could withstand such a round of combo attacks.

Chapter 464 Stellar Mutation

Deep within the Star Dou Great Forest, as Yan fully unleashed the powerful might of his second martial soul, a terrifying and violent aura swept across the surrounding area.

A colossal human figure stood on the earth, its entire body seemingly cast in gold, radiating a dazzling and beautiful golden light. Golden lines and ripples appeared and disappeared on its dark gold exterior from time to time, displaying its extraordinary and powerful nature.

At this moment, in front of this dark golden giant, the raging flames were gradually receding and dissipating; this was the fiery pit where the Three-Headed Ant King had perished.

Fang Caiyan had just refined the three thousand-pound ant kings to death here. In addition to obtaining three mutated and evolved 100,000-year soul rings, he also refined the last essence of the three soul beasts into something similar to soul bones.

Golden-red flames leaped continuously in the deep pit. Yan, beneath the golden stone giant, could sense a special energy contained in the flames ahead. For some reason, he had an epiphany and subconsciously reached his right hand into the flames.

"This is……"

A sudden burst of flame swept up Yan's right hand, instantly covering his right arm. Immediately afterwards, he sensed a scalding, special energy continuously merging in from the outside in.

The three-headed Thousand-Pound Ant King had nearly 100,000 years of soul beast cultivation, so it naturally developed something similar to a soul core. However, its foundation was relatively weak, and although it had a large amount of energy in its body, it could not utilize it well. None of them had truly completed the condensation of a soul core, so they were naturally unable to generate soul bones.

However, Yan's method of using flames to kill these three guys was a misstep in itself. It melted and sublimated the special energy within the three Thousand-Pound Ant King brothers, creating a special energy that could enhance their soul bones.

Among the several soul bones in his body, the most suitable for fusing with a single energy are naturally the limb soul bones, with the arm bones being the first. His right arm bone is of a lower age, so it is more attractive to that special energy for fusion, naturally advancing to a higher age.

Yan's right hand was burning hot, and special golden patterns appeared on his right hand, forming a unique soul bone light.

His right arm bone was originally only about one-third the size and completeness, but with his cultivation and energy resonance over the years, it has also improved considerably, and now it has nearly 50% completeness, which is about 50,000 years old.

However, as this special energy merged into the right hand, the completeness of the soul bone light visibly increased rapidly, and soon became a complete soul bone phantom of the right hand, with a blood-red soul light contained within it, reflecting the golden soul bone light.

His right arm soul bone originated from the 30,000-year-old Golden Earth Fire Dragon King, possessing the dual attributes of fire and power. Needless to say, the fire attribute is well-suited to his first martial soul, making the Golden Dragon Flame quite powerful.

After the Golden Earth Fire Dragon King merged with his right arm bone and transformed into the Golden Dragon Soul, it also brought him rare golden energy, which is the ultimate power attribute.

However, the power within him was mainly fire, so there wasn't much room for the golden power to be used. But as his cultivation level continued to increase, and with the later contract with the Three-Eyed Golden Lion Qiu'er, his martial soul once again came into contact with this power.

The Three-Eyed Golden Lion is a descendant of the legendary Golden Dragon King. She can use her special abilities to transform into a human and evolve into a Golden Dragon Martial Soul, gaining the ultimate power attribute of gold. This indicates that her own concentration of golden bloodline is extremely high.

Yan formed a contract with it, and the two exchanged their essence. The golden bloodline originating from the Golden Earth Fire Dragon King within him was activated once again. However, it did not cause much change to Yan's own attributes. It wasn't until now, when he refined the soul ring again, that it finally showed its quality.

The Thousand-Pound Ant King is a soul bone primarily based on strength, but due to its low bloodline, it has not evolved any special bloodline and cannot reach the level of ultimate strength.

However, judging from their three dark gold appearances and the powerful burst of energy, it can be determined that their path to advancement is also related to the golden bloodline. If they are allowed to advance for 100,000 years, they might actually be able to complete the bloodline transformation and become something like the Golden Ant King.

Although they did not successfully transform, after being refined by Yan, that special energy resonated and sublimated with the golden bloodline of Yan's right hand, finally achieving a transformation of ultimate power.

Yan's golden right arm bone was thus upgraded to a 100,000-year soul bone. In addition to the original soul skill Golden Flame Dragon Break, it gained a powerful new soul bone skill, Golden Thousand Pound Transformation.

This 100,000-year-old soul skill naturally comes from the Thousand-Pound Ant King. As the name suggests, it's a burst of power amplification. Ordinary insects already possess strength hundreds of times their own weight, but the Thousand-Pound Ant, a soul beast, is even more terrifying in this respect, almost unmatched by any other living being in the same proportion.

The ability Yan acquired is related to this; it's a true burst of immense power. Combined with his various skills, Yan has an urge to try a full-force attack—maybe he could smash a city with a single punch.

"Ha ha ha ha……"