Douluo: Emerald Poison King

Chapter 501 - Limited Soul Ring
Why has road construction, which should be a top priority, become so low on the list?

Road construction is primarily for better transportation, providing greater strategic and economic value. In ancient times, grain transport typically resulted in losses of 90% or more, so transportation was a crucial consideration in almost everything. However, the Douluo Continent possesses extraordinary devices like storage soul tools.

A speed-attack type Soul Master can easily transport several tons or even tens of tons of goods with a storage Soul Tool. Over a hundred kilometers, the cost would be equivalent to only two steamed buns, with losses not even reaching one percent, let alone one-thousandth. Compared to normal transportation efficiency, it's on another level.

The ability to reduce transportation costs solely through manpower is a rare feature in the Douluo Continent that reveals its fantastical elements. This is also one of the main reasons why Chen Ming's territory develops at an absurdly rapid pace.

Because Soul Masters are so incredibly useful, one person can produce the output of a whole group in production, and their maintenance and consumption are even less than that of machines. They are truly the chosen ones.

In addition to these, Chen Ming is also researching spirit rings and attempting to create artificial spirit rings.

It's not a spirit, but a spirit ring.

With his current level of cultivation, power, and understanding of the rules of the Douluo world, Chen Ming is already capable of doing what true gods do. Creating a divinely bestowed spirit ring by hand is not impossible for him, but such a ring does not meet his requirements.

The upper limit of a divinely bestowed soul ring is very high, while the lower limit is also very low. It is suitable for high-level soul masters to absorb when advancing in rank, but for low-level soul masters, the effect is not obvious. Although it is better than ordinary soul rings, it is not worth the cost of making them.

Chen Ming is researching artificial soul rings that have a low lower limit, a high upper limit, better versatility, and lower cost.

Through analyzing a large number of soul beasts and dismantling their soul rings, Chen Ming gradually discovered the technique of extracting more soul rings from a single soul beast during the development process.

In gaming terminology, a spirit ring bestowed by a spirit beast is a special type of equipment.

For example, the data for a Soul Ring provided by a Hundred-Year-Old Soft Bone Rabbit would be as follows: Type: Hundred-Year-Old Soul Ring, Required Equipment Level: 10, Quality: Low, Required Equipment Attribute: None, Attribute Bonus: Speed.
The maximum enhancement level is 20.

However, the special feature of a Soul Ring is that this equipment comes with built-in enhancement from the start, and the enhancement is equivalent to the enhancement limit, so it can directly provide a large attribute bonus to the Soul Master in one go. Under normal circumstances, it will neither improve (break through the level limit) nor decrease (decrease the current level).

The attribute you absorb at any given time is what you get, and you can never regret it for the rest of your life.

Soul rings are heavily reliant on their age, as the age determines the enhancement level (providing attributes) and the maximum strength. Only a very few skills with unique mechanics can be considered exceptions. However, Chen Ming, through continuous experimentation, discovered a method that was considered unorthodox by the people of Douluo Continent.

This means directly splitting a Soul Ring that has been upgraded to its maximum level into several Soul Rings, each with the same maximum upgrade level but each upgraded to level 1. In gaming terms, it's like breaking down a fully upgraded piece of equipment into dozens of level 1 equipment of the same type.

The older a soul beast is, the more cultivation and soul power it possesses, with each stage and age doubling the increase. The energy within a 100,000-year-old soul beast far exceeds the combined soul power of 10,000 ten-year-old soul beasts.

Chen Ming, on the other hand, used the high-quality primordial energy within as a guide and ordinary heaven and earth energy as an aid to create a soul ring that looked like a ten-year soul ring, but in reality, it consumed less energy than a ten-year soul ring.

Using the soul of the eldest son of the Evil Emperor, which he possessed, Chen Ming extracted a portion of the source from the cultivation level. He then used a ritual to dilute this portion of the source and form a ten-year soul ring, which he then gave to a trusted confidant who had undergone his trials to absorb.

Such a spirit ring initially provides less attribute boost than a typical ten-year spirit ring, and its quality is also average. It may even absorb energy from the spirit master during cultivation, making it seem like a complete burden.

However, with the absorption of energy, this spirit ring broke through the hundred-year limit within a month, and its quality and skill strength also increased further. The improvement of the spirit master's attributes was also raised to the level of a hundred-year spirit ring.

Although the absorbed soul power increased, considering its inherent amplification effect on the soul master, its impact on the soul master's cultivation speed became less noticeable. Several months later, the yellow soul ring turned purple, further enhancing its attribute amplification, quality, and skill strength.

At this stage, because the attribute amplification is also greatly increased, although it is still absorbing the Soul Master's energy to grow, the Soul Master's cultivation speed is further improved.

The faster a Soul Master cultivates, the faster their Soul Rings grow. The better the Soul Rings grow, the greater the improvement to the Soul Master's attributes and aptitude, creating a virtuous cycle.

In terms of innate soul power, a soul ring that grows to a thousand years old can increase a soul master's innate soul power cultivation speed by an extra half to one level. If it grows to a ten-thousand-year-old soul ring, it can probably increase the cultivation speed by two or three levels.

If a soul ring grows to 100,000 years, even a useless person with only half a level of innate soul power can obtain a talent equivalent to full innate soul power.

However, experiments have shown that a person cannot absorb such a spirit ring multiple times. A ten-year spirit ring produced by a spirit beast of the same species can only be absorbed once, and because spirit rings need to absorb the spirit master's energy to grow, they themselves consume a considerable amount of energy.

Because such spirit rings are designed to grow by consuming resources, if a second spirit ring is absorbed before the first one reaches its limit, both spirit rings will unceremoniously consume the energy acquired by the spirit master.

In the struggle for energy, more than half of the energy a Soul Master gains is taken away by the two Soul Rings, causing their cultivation speed to decrease rather than increase. Only by cultivating one of the Soul Rings for ten thousand years and relying on the attribute bonus can the cultivation speed be slowly restored.

The resources required to cultivate multiple limited spirit rings simultaneously increase exponentially. Both innate talent and the necessary resources and cultivation techniques must be of extremely high quality, and the pressure increases with each stage of growth.

Otherwise, it would be normal for a gradually growing limited soul ring to drain one's soul power in the opposite direction.

According to Chen Ming's estimation, the upper limit of the quality and age of such a spirit ring should be equivalent to the age and quality of the provider of the source power within the spirit ring. In other words, the theoretical upper limit of a spirit ring created from the energy of a 390,000-year-old ferocious beast could also reach 390,000 years.

If calculated by energy, Chen Ming could dismantle the Evil Eye Prince into tens of thousands of ten-year-quality, growable spirit rings in one go. If properly fed and supplemented with other means, the Evil Eye Prince alone could provide spirit masters with such spirit rings almost continuously.

This method is far more efficient for utilizing soul beasts than even soul spirit technology. However, it's incredibly inhumane for soul beasts, because the process of extracting their essence, healing them, and then extracting it again is like endlessly torturing them, even more painful than physical torture due to the division of the soul. And the duration is almost infinite.

One or two extractions are barely noticeable to a ferocious beast, barely even causing a minor injury; a fight would be far more taxing. However, thousands upon thousands of small-scale extractions would cause even a ferocious beast intense pain and permanent damage.

Chen Ming conducted an experiment using the Evil Eye Prince. When he extracted the primordial energy capable of creating hundreds of ten-year-quality spirit rings, the Evil Eye Prince experienced significant pain, but it was still bearable. However, upon reaching a thousand times, the Evil Eye Prince began to wail in agony.

After the experiment ended, Prince Evil Eye entered a state of slumber due to damage to his essence.

As for the spirit rings he created, Chen Ming didn't distribute them all. Instead, he allocated them to several other spirit masters who had completed the Sevenfold Blessing. He prioritized nurturing these believers who possessed both exceptional talent and a devout heart.

By combining modification techniques, soul power cultivation methods, and artificial soul rings, Chen Ming could artificially create a group of artificial soul masters with talent levels of six or higher. However, because the cost of doing so was several times, or even dozens of times, higher than that of normally cultivating soul masters, Chen Ming did not immediately implement large-scale popularization of this method.

Only when everything is on track, all resources have completed their basic cycle, and they will not collapse at will, will Chen Ming gradually try to arm all of humanity and achieve the comprehensive Soul Master plan.

Currently, he can only select a small number of people with strong will and outstanding contributions to conduct small-scale pilot projects, using more resources than to train ordinary soul masters to cultivate a devout guard team, equip them with soul tools, and train them as the Imperial Guard or the Guardian Army.

However, even though he only demonstrated a portion of his abilities, Chen Ming's improvement in Soul Masters was beyond the realm of reason.

After all, the name "Douluo Continent" is widely recognized as a fantasy sewer, and its development in all aspects is simply unlike that of a fantasy world.

Many frustrated small families and independent Soul Masters quickly chose to join Chen Ming's ranks, desperately trying to demonstrate their value and hoping to improve themselves or their family's descendants and further enhance their talents.

Chen Ming was happy to take the decent Soul Masters under his command, then modify and improve their talents, and finally put them back into the other party's hands, openly letting the other party cultivate these people as the next generation of leaders.

This method would be considered crude in a fantasy novel; such blatant support of one's own people while suppressing dissidents and manipulating puppets would be a laughing stock. But in the world of Douluo Continent, where talent is predetermined, Chen Ming's actions are practically those of a living saint.

Asking for little, giving a lot, breaking through the limits, and improving the family's bloodline—what else could this be but a saint?

Freedom? They don't even have that kind of thing, do they? Only those with power have freedom. Those without power, even the emperors of two great empires, cannot achieve the freedom to do whatever they want.

It doesn't matter who the next generation leader chooses to side with, as long as the family's strength and the quality of their martial souls improve, that's all that matters.

They wanted to be loyal subjects of the new emperor, regardless of which emperor it was. To put it bluntly, even if their attempt to follow the new emperor failed and their families were wiped out, as long as one or two improved geniuses survived and spread their bloodline, they would consider it a huge victory.

They would be willing to undergo a transformation if it meant producing a Soul Douluo or even a Title Douluo in their family!
After a year and a half of development, Chen Ming had nearly a million followers in the Douluo Continent, of which more than 95% were ordinary civilians, and about 5% were Soul Masters.

In the Douluo Continent, a world where only one in a thousand people can become a Soul Master, this ratio is so high that it has made both empires wary.

During this period, Chen Ming also established his own divine title and demonstrated his own powers.

God of life and death, plague and healing, corruption and new life.

Everything will die, everything will decay, yet new life will be born from decay. All things exist in the cycle of life and death, and after decay, everything will be reborn.

During the development process, Chen Ming didn't just sit idly by doing research. Instead, he accomplished a great deal, utilizing his existing team to create the prototype he envisioned in the early stages of the large-scale startup.

The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School found a way to provide the lack of food, as well as the necessary materials and craftsmen. While expanding the mines, they also sought out Soul Masters from the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda to explore the mineral veins.

It could be said that the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School was given all the dirty and hard work, treating them as cheap, readily available labor. Their rapid development even forced them to poach people from all over the country and from all walks of life at exorbitant prices, then send them to the pioneering areas to work as cogs in the machine.

Furthermore, because a large number of Soul Masters came to Chen Ming's territory with their own provisions for the sake of their future, the previously lacking technical jobs were greatly replenished. With the work of various professionals, the entire territory was thriving.

As for overall coordination, Chen Ming simply assigned his own people who were already prepared.

The Soul Masters brought from the Sun Moon Continent are not only capable of creating Soul Tools, but they are also the heads of a family or several research projects. With the exception of a very few individuals, they all possess excellent management skills and have professional management experience.

Apart from the core personnel in Soul Guidance Mech Technology, almost all the Soul Guidance Masters were recruited to the Frontier Zone and became disciples of Dugu Bo.

Those skilled in management will submit written reports every three days, which will be adjusted by Chen Ming. Those skilled in teaching soul tool technology will begin selecting suitable personnel to spread the technology.

Chen Ming plans to take the remaining small group back to the Sun Moon Continent, allowing them to develop within his territory there, much like the international students of yesteryear, using the knowledge they gained from the Douluo Continent to develop the Sun Moon Continent.

Incidentally, Chen Ming also borrowed some professionals from the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School, intending to bring them to the Sun Moon Continent so that these Soul Masters, who were born with the ability to find mineral veins, could work well on the mineral-rich Sun Moon Continent.

(End of this chapter)