Douluo Continent: Long Live the Spirit Hall

The Fiery Lion roared to the sky, its enormous sound waves echoing through the heavens and earth. Crimson flames rose from its body, shooting up to over ten meters high. The flames spread rapidly, and the temperature outside the Golden Lion Plains forest rose quickly.

The Flaming Lion, with its royal bloodline, is hailed as the master of flames, specializing in wide-area attacks. One of its most famous soul skills is the Fire Resisting Ring, which is both offensive and defensive. If memory serves, Fire Dance from Blazing Academy possesses such a soul skill.

The Fiery Lion, king of beasts, roared and charged at the challenge from the Hundred-Year-Old Flame Lions, spewing flames that covered a large area of ​​the field.

"Boom bang bang..."

A group of century-old Flame Lions clashed fiercely with the Blazing Demon Lions, but they were powerless to resist the latter's overwhelming strength. The king's might was unstoppable, and the Blazing Demon Lions sent the Flame Lions flying with just a few slaps.

"You stay here."

On the treetop of an ancient tree on the outskirts of the dense forest, Feng Lin, Yan, and Liya closely watched the battle. When Feng Lin saw the Fiery Demon Lion displaying its extraordinary prowess and kingly might, a glint flashed in his weathered eyes. After giving instructions to Yan and the other two, he darted out.

"Roar~~~"

The moment Feng Lin released his Gale Eagle Martial Soul and appeared in the sky, the three Lion Kings who were about to clash simultaneously looked up at the sky, and then they felt the threat from Feng Lin.

Even the strongest Flame Lion was filled with vigilance at this moment. The Flame Lion was not a Titan Giant Ape. Even a hundred-year-old Titan Giant Ape would most likely not fare well against a Soul King.

When a Soul Master faces a Soul Beast of the same level, the strongest factor is never brute force, but rather a combination of sustained combat ability and strategic thinking. Feng Lin, being incredibly shrewd, chose a suitable moment and, after releasing his Martial Soul, charged directly at the Flaming Lion.

"Roar……"

The Flaming Lion, naturally, would not sit idly by and wait to die in the face of Feng Lin. It raised its head and spewed out a huge golden fireball.

Feng Lin's Gale Eagle Martial Soul was originally an agility-based attack type. He reacted quickly to the Flame Demon Lion's attack, suddenly dodging the fireball to the side, and then accelerated again, rushing straight towards the Flame Demon Lion.

The Fiery Lion roared, and the flames on its body instantly changed from crimson to golden-red, causing the surrounding temperature to soar.

"call out!"

At this moment, Feng Lin's fifth spirit ring shone brightly, and a whirlwind of azure wind-attribute energy swirled around him, protecting him from the high temperature of the flames while also greatly increasing his speed.

A burst of azure light shot past as fast as lightning. Before the Flaming Lion could even react, Feng Lin's killing move arrived.

"puff……"

As the blue light flashed and dissipated, its lower abdomen suddenly burst open, large patches of crimson fur were cut off and scattered, and bright red blood gushed out from the wound, turning the ground into a blood-red mess.

"call out!"

A cyan shadow hovering in the sky swiftly descended in front of the Flaming Lion. Feng Lin handed Yan a longsword and gave him an encouraging look. Then, he unleashed his powerful Soul King aura without any concealment, forcing many soul beasts to retreat.

Yan walked up to the extremely weak Flame Lion. The latter had been severely injured by Feng Lin's soul skill. Although it was not dead yet, it did not have much fighting power. It could only stare at Yan with a strong but weak warning posture. However, Yan did not hesitate for a moment when holding the long sword in his hand.

As the longsword pierced through his throat, the Flaming Lion finally fell before Yan. Looking at the yellow aura that began to gather after the soul beast fell, a hint of fervor appeared in his eyes.

About fifteen minutes later, an orange glow appeared on the corpse of the Flame Lion, and an orange halo rose above its remains.

"Don't disappoint me with your first spirit ring."

Yan did not hesitate any longer. He sat down cross-legged and then circulated his soul power to reach out to the halo. With a whoosh, the orange halo was placed on Yan's palm, and he slowly closed his eyes to refine his first soul ring.

Chapter 16 Returning to the Source from the Ashes

"boom……"

On the Golden Lion Plain, when the Flaming Demon Lion's soul ring was placed on Yan's palm, a flame instantly rose up.

Flames swept across Yan's right hand, and the Fiery Commander Martial Soul was released to possess him. His body began to change, and his skin became as solid as granite, covered with crimson patterns. As the power of the hundred-year soul ring surged in, the flames on his body also underwent subtle changes.

The originally crimson flames underwent a further transformation, beginning to take on a hint of golden fire. The temperature continued to rise, gradually approaching the original dark red lava power. It must be said that the benefits brought by this Flaming Lion Soul Ring are absolutely enormous, but it is also extremely difficult to completely absorb and refine it.

Yan felt as if his right hand was immersed in magma, with incredibly hot energy surging into his body. The violently hot torrent crashed against his body, making him feel as if his internal organs were being burned, causing his body to tremble uncontrollably.

Fortunately, he was prepared. He sat cross-legged with his palms facing upwards, and with great difficulty, he calmed his mind and guided the external soul power to circulate through his body according to the meditation path he had deduced. He also used this energy to open up his eight extraordinary meridians.

Yan closed his eyes, completely absorbed in the moment. Although he was surrounded by soul beasts, he was not worried about his safety because Feng Lin was there to protect him. He devoted himself to refining the soul ring, his consciousness completely immersed in the scalding sea of ​​soul power.

Yan struggled to draw out this surge of heat that swept through his entire body. After this baptism, the ferocity within his soul power gradually dissipated, and ultimately all the energy converged at the center of Yan's sea of ​​consciousness, where his martial soul resided.

Yan's consciousness suddenly changed. At this moment, he entered the Martial Soul Space again and saw a phantom flame figure constantly rising and falling and transforming in a sea of ​​fire. It was his Martial Soul, the Blazing Flame Commander.

This sea of ​​fire, constructed from the primordial energy of the Flaming Lion Soul Ring, was quite peculiar. The dancing flames were a deep crimson gold, exuding an extraordinary aura. As wisps of crimson gold true fire merged into the Martial Soul, the Flame-Governing Martial Soul began to change.

The originally ordinary crimson flames gradually took on a golden hue, as did the patterns on the surface of the martial soul. The surrounding temperature gradually increased, and the aura continued to transform, gradually approaching the original Flame Lord martial soul.

"The Martial Soul is the other side of the mind's imprint, and the acquisition of Soul Skills by refining Soul Rings is related not only to the Soul Beast being refined, but also to myself. What kind of Soul Skills do I need?"

A realization dawned on Yan's mind, and he looked at a certain spot in the sea of ​​fire. The next moment, in the endless sea of ​​fire, a point of light merged into the brow of the Flame Commander Martial Soul, and then golden flames shone brightly.

The moment Yan confirmed his first soul ring skill in his heart, there was a noticeable change in him. A bright yellow soul ring pulsed around him, and then a fire storm appeared out of nowhere.

At this moment, Yan seemed like a black hole, devouring endless flames and forming a huge vortex of fire in the sea of ​​fire.

Before long, a huge torch rose from the center of the flame vortex. Yan, with his eyes closed, moved his body, flames flowing over his skin, making him look like an enormous ball of fire. At this moment, his aura surged, as if his strength had suddenly increased significantly.

"Is this my first soul skill? It feels pretty good."

Just as Liya was worried that Yan might be lost due to the backlash of the massive energy of the Hundred-Year Flame Lion Soul Ring, the enormous flames subsided once more. As Yan spoke, he slowly opened his eyes, looked at his powerful hands, and couldn't help but clench his fists and smile.

"Xiao Yan, you did it."

Liya observed Yan and felt that nothing was wrong before cautiously speaking.

"Sister Liya, don't worry, I did it."

Yan smiled slightly at Liya, then clenched his fist, and a ball of fire with a brilliant golden color swirled in his palm. He then slapped it out, and the golden fireball quickly drew an arc before accurately hitting a boulder ten meters away.

The next moment, sparks flew everywhere. Under the extremely high temperature, even the boulders began to burn. After about ten minutes, the flames finally went out, but a dark crater with a diameter of more than half a meter was left in the spot.

"call out!"

Yan unleashed another palm strike, and this time the fireball streaked across the sky. After ten meters, it began to gradually dissipate and shrink. After about twenty meters, it exploded with a "poof" and completely disintegrated.

"Is twenty meters the limit? It really can't compare to a dedicated long-range soul skill."

Yan shook his head in disappointment, then the flames surrounding his body gradually subsided, and his aura began to decline, eventually returning to calm.

At this moment, Liya also walked up to Yan's side and asked curiously, "Little Yan, is this the first soul ring ability you obtained? Isn't the most powerful area skill of the Flame Lion the Fire Resistance Ring?"

Liya found it quite strange. Yan's move just now looked very powerful, but it didn't match the power of a hundred-year-old soul skill at all. Most of the first soul skills of fire attribute soul masters are things like fire rays, which can reach hundreds of meters away and are quite powerful.

Even for ranged attacks like Flame Ray, area-of-effect attacks like Fire Resistance Ring, which combine offense and defense, are quite good. Moreover, the Flame Lion's Fire Resistance Ring is extremely famous and has power far exceeding that of similar skills. She thought Yan would choose this skill.

"It's not a resistance ring, nor even an offensive soul skill, but a percentage-based amplification soul skill. I call it Rebirth from the Ashes, or the Fiery Lion Transformation."

Yan shook his head. He had thought about this first soul skill. Sister Liya's idea was not wrong. Whether it was the flame ray or the fire resistance ring, they were soul skills that could quickly form combat power. However, these soul skills were basically useless in the later stages and were not recognized by Yan.

He didn't want to waste any of his spirit ring slots. He hoped that the first few spirit rings would still be useful in the later stages of the game, rather than being useless.

Yan had studied the Douluo Continent world. In this world, the power of spirit ring skills is closely related to the age. As the cultivation of spirit power increases, the power of a hundred-year spirit skill will gradually decrease.

Especially after reaching the Soul Saint level, a Soul Master's casual strike can draw upon the energy of heaven and earth, rendering Soul Skills like Flame Rays practically useless, even less effective than a Soul Saint's casual punch.

However, there are also some bugs in Douluo's skills, namely the percentage-based amplification soul skills.

These support-oriented soul skills can temporarily boost a soul master's strength, especially with percentage-based boosts. The strength of the boost depends on the soul master's inherent strength and is unrelated to the year of birth, which is quite overpowered.

Chapter 17 Comparison of Changes

"Xiao Yan, your first spirit ring can amplify yourself, but in the early stages of battle, especially when facing opponents with strong offensive and ranged spirit skills, you will still be at a disadvantage."

On the Golden Lion Plain, after listening to Yan's introduction of the first soul skill, Liya was quite worried for him, not that she thought he hadn't considered things thoroughly enough.

In the long run, soul skills with percentage-based amplification are definitely stronger than pure offensive or ranged skills, but in the early stages of combat, they will mostly be at a disadvantage.

Yan did not refute, but the reason he chose a percentage-enhancing soul skill was a combination of the novels he had read in his previous life and the current situation.

A Soul Master's first and second Soul Skills are only worth a hundred years at most. They are fine to use in the early stages, but by the mid-stages, especially after becoming a Soul King, the boost to combat power becomes very weak because the Soul Ring's age and level are too low. This is especially noticeable in offensive Soul Skills.

Let's take an example to compare Dai Mubai and Ma Hongjun. In the later part of the original novel, they both reached the title of Douluo. Comparing their battles in the early and later stages, it's easy to find the differences.

In the early stages, they often used Phoenix Fire Line and White Tiger Blazing Light Wave as their regular means of defeating and fighting enemies, and this continued until the end of the Soul Master Competition.

However, in the later stages of the decisive battle, they basically only used those soul skills that were over ten thousand years old, because in the early stages, the power bonus of these two types of attack soul skills was too small. If you had the time to release these soul skills, you could gather soul power and launch a burst of attacks with greater power, so the cost-effectiveness was simply not good enough.

However, compared to Ning Rongrong, another character among the Seven Devils, as a support-type Soul Master, she only adds percentage-based amplification Soul Skills. In the later stages, when all her Soul Rings are activated simultaneously, she directly doubles the combat power of her teammates. Her early-stage Hundred-Year Soul Skills are still useful in the late game, only the duration of the amplification is different.

However, what Sister Liya said actually makes a lot of sense. For fire attribute soul masters in the early stages, pure attack soul skills do have an advantage.

More precisely, in low-level battles, if one player only has pure amplification-type soul skills while the other has attack-type or ranged soul skills, the player with the pure amplification-type soul skill will almost certainly lose.

Because the percentage-based buffing soul skills in the early stages are auxiliary skills, and even though they are both hundred-year soul skills, in the early stages you only get a fixed increase of one or two times, while others may get ten times or more, especially in the first and second rings.

Yan had just tested the limits of his soul skill. Before absorbing the first soul skill, he could only play around with it within two or three meters in front of him. But with the first soul skill, almost everything within ten meters was an effective attack range. The attack power within five meters was considerable, but beyond ten meters, there was almost no accuracy or power.

These data look pretty good, but compared to other Soul Masters, let's not even talk about the range of Ma Hongjun's Phoenix Fire Line and Dai Mubai's White Tiger Blazing Light Wave skills. Let's just talk about Tang San.

Tang San's first soul skill absorbed a hundred-year-old Mandragora Snake with low affinity, and it was still a control-type area-of-effect soul skill.

After absorbing the spirit ring, he tried out the skill. Within a range of fifty meters, he could control the Blue Silver Grass to launch attacks from any position, covering an area of ​​ten square meters.

Tang San can create a ten-square-meter net of Blue Silver Grass anywhere within fifty meters. Compared to Yan's pitiful ten-meter effective range, without considering the issue of attribute restraint, it is obvious whose soul skill has the advantage in the early stages.

Even a control-type Soul Master like Tang San has such an attack range, so you can imagine the power of other attack-type Soul Masters' skills. At least in the early stages, as a low-level Soul Master's trump card, the Hundred-Year Soul Skill undoubtedly amplifies combat power tenfold when used.

Therefore, percentage-based buff-type Soul Masters have a tough time in the early stages. When fighting against others, they will basically be kited, and the opponent will just let you keep stacking buffs before getting close.

If this problem isn't solved, and we don't have enough combat power in the early stages, we might be wiped out at any time, and then there's no future for us.

Of course, Yan also had his own considerations. Compared with ordinary soul masters, his biggest advantage was that he had a cheat code. With the assistance of an AI, he could avoid the hit rate of ranged attacks to the maximum extent. When he got close, it would be a matter of whose wild punches were more powerful.

"Xiao Yan, your martial spirit has recovered quite a bit, hasn't it? The temperature of the flames seems to have increased a lot, almost as high as before."

Liya didn't dwell too much on Yan's first soul skill. Instead, she became concerned about the changes in Yan's martial soul. She could sense that after Yan's martial soul absorbed the first soul ring, the flame temperature had increased significantly. Although it was not as high as during the Flame Lord era, it had still improved considerably.

"The Flaming Lion Soul Ring has greatly enhanced my abilities; it truly lives up to its reputation as a top-tier King-level Soul Beast."

Yan also noticed the changes in himself. He absorbed the soul ring of a top-tier king-level soul beast that was nearly four hundred years old, which greatly improved and transformed his physical attributes and soul power.

This transformation also made him understand some things, realize the flaws in some of his assumptions, and understand more of his shortcomings.

According to a certain master's theory, after soul power reaches level ten, continuing to cultivate will not improve cultivation level, but when one obtains a soul ring, all one's potential will be unleashed in one go, continuously increasing several levels or even directly reaching the maximum level.

It is well known that the physical fitness of a six- or seven-year-old child is absolutely incomparable to that of a ten-year-old teenager. So, is it possible to allow a child to reach level ten and then stop using the rings, instead focusing on continuously training their physique to push their limits?

This could very well break the limits, with the first spirit ring reaching over 500 years in age. After level 20, the body would continue to be honed, and the second spirit ring could potentially start at 1,000 years.

This is a great idea. Some Soul Masters with weak Martial Souls can use this method to continuously absorb higher-limit, high-quality Soul Rings to transform their Martial Souls and gradually narrow the gap with the disciples of top Martial Soul families.

Yu Xiaogang's theory is not wrong, and there is no shortage of smart people in the world. If Yan can think of something, there is no reason why others wouldn't have the same idea. Why haven't we heard of anyone doing this before? This involves the issue of efficiency.

Two people with similar talent, a level 10 Soul Warrior and an 11th-level Soul Master, will have completely different cultivation efficiency. This is similar to a congenital martial artist and an acquired martial artist; they are completely different levels, with different daily energy absorption caps and different refining efficiencies.