Douluo Continent: On Becoming a God Through Science

Chapter 5 Theory of Martial Soul Evolution (1)

A transparent spirit ring hovered around You Chen, revealing him.

"Success! It has to be a success! First spirit ring, absorb it!"

With a roar in his heart, You Chen's soul ring rapidly contracted and merged into his body.

A look of joy immediately flashed across You Chen's face.

It's done! It really is done! He actually started absorbing it smoothly!

Even though he had gained a deeper understanding of the underlying rules of this world through years of theoretical research and had guessed this possibility, You Chen still couldn't help but get excited.

To clear his mind of distractions, You Chen immediately closed his eyes and focused all his energy on absorbing the soul ring.

While absorbing the soul ring, You Chen continuously channeled his soul power, seemingly trying to actively create a soul skill—a soul skill that best suited the abilities of the "Stardust Dragon"!

The soul skills born after absorbing a soul ring can be either developed from the spirit itself (which may produce skills completely unrelated to the absorbed spirit beast's soul ring) or related to the spirit beast that produced the soul ring (which may have nothing to do with the spirit itself, such as a blade of grass developing the ability to stop time).

There are only these two tendencies, the only difference being the degree of their influence.

However, the subjective initiative and individual will of the Soul Master are by no means unaffected in this process.

"Memes and Genes," a work he published when he was 25, verified the influence of human will on martial spirits and soul skills.

And when he obtained his fourth spirit ring at the age of 28, it was also verified in his own life.

It's not that you can get any soul skill you want. As you can imagine, obtaining soul skills is not a purely idealistic process.

Limited by the soul beasts chosen by the soul master, the closer they are to the original power of the martial soul, the easier it is to develop the martial soul's own abilities. The parts that are not compatible or cannot be digested naturally become "losses".

This first spirit ring, which contains no spirit beast power, is like a blank blueprint that can be freely drawn upon by the spirit master according to their will!

Developing the inherent abilities of one's martial soul and constructing soul skills that suit it is undoubtedly the best way to maximize the use of soul ring energy to evolve the martial soul!

Someone like You Chen is like someone who has seen the reference answer in advance, who describes the abilities of the evolved martial spirit, and then guides the martial spirit to evolve!

Having just arrived in this world, You Chen somewhat blindly believed in the concept of "absorbing soul rings beyond the time limit".

He had seen this process in many fan fiction novels: the protagonist with average talent absorbs the soul ring of a suitable soul beast beyond the limit, which breaks the shackles of his martial soul and evolves it from a trash martial soul to a power that can dominate the entire field.

But upon closer examination, one will find numerous flaws in it.

Would a family or sect that has passed down its martial spirit through generations choose a suitable soul beast that is worse than the one he researched on his own?

Look at Bibi Dong and Tang San, their second martial souls exceed the optimal lifespan by more than a hundred or a thousand years.

If it's really that amazing... then Tang San and Bibi Dong's second spirit strength should be able to easily reach the god level.

In reality, the difference in the combined age of Bibi Dong's two martial souls is at least hundreds of thousands of years, but there is no qualitative difference in the quality of the martial souls.

When Tang San first started cultivating Blue Silver Grass, he also absorbed it beyond his limits, but he didn't even make Blue Silver Grass show some of the characteristics of the Blue Silver Emperor in advance.

Why does absorbing a spirit ring beyond the normal age limit allow a martial spirit to evolve? Does evolution come from pain and the exploitation of potential? But conversely, wouldn't it be more reasonable to evolve naturally, like Pokémon evolution, without pain and even comfortably?

Simply equating the absorption of spirit rings beyond the time limit with the evolution of martial spirits is clearly a bit of a misunderstanding.

After breaking through this barrier of preconceived notions, You Chen quickly understood this point.

In order to find out the real reason behind this, You Chen began in-depth research.

With the knowledge reserves of the Spirit Hall, he quickly figured it out.

First of all, while it is true that absorbing spirit rings beyond limits can improve the quality of a martial spirit and even evolve it, in the real Douluo Continent, it is definitely not as miraculous as depicted in fan fiction.

It's one thing for an intermediate-level martial soul to evolve into an advanced-level martial soul with just one spirit ring, but it's another two or three spirit rings to reach the top level, where a Soul Saint, Soul Emperor, or even Soul King can evolve a trash martial soul into the strength of a super martial soul.

Are those large families that have been passed down for hundreds or thousands of years just sitting around doing nothing?

For the vast majority of people in this world, the evolution of a martial spirit is a gradual process that requires the efforts of countless generations.

Take You Chen as an example. Normally, after he broke through his original talent limitations by relying on whale glue and the second, third, and fourth rings that exceeded his age limit, he could continue to cultivate step by step. If he worked hard to cultivate to the end in this life, he would have a chance to reach the Soul Emperor level and evolve his original intermediate martial soul into an advanced martial soul.

If you get married and have children at this time, the probability of your offspring inheriting a high-level martial soul will greatly increase.

If this tradition continues for thousands of years, perhaps a new, naturally occurring top-tier martial soul will be born.

You Chen couldn't be sure about other martial souls, but his own "Stardust Young Dragon" martial soul definitely had that potential!

After absorbing the fourth spirit ring and evolving his martial soul, You Chen realized that the true nature of his martial soul was never the Wind Dragon! It was actually the ace monster "Stardust Dragon" of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5DS, the protagonist of the series!

It's just that because of his lack of aptitude, his martial soul was inherently deficient, which is why it degenerated into this state.

He was multitasking at the time, playing Yu-Gi-Oh! 5DS on his computer while reading Douluo Continent fanfiction on his phone, and inexplicably ended up in this world.

I thought this time travel was only related to him reading Douluo Continent fanfiction, but it turns out Yu-Gi-Oh! is involved too!

You Chen felt a little regretful after his martial soul evolved for the first time.

If he had known the truth about his martial soul earlier, his choice of spirit rings would have been more perfect. Perhaps his third spirit ring would have allowed his martial soul to complete its first evolution, giving him more opportunities and possibilities for the next evolution.

But it's definitely not too late now.

Now he has another chance!

This brings us back to You Chen's research on spirit rings and the evolution of martial spirits.

You Chen discovered through observation and research that, apart from the seventh ring which is a special soul skill fixed as the true form of the soul, the first three rings are far more efficient at evolving a soul master's martial soul by absorbing soul rings!

Absorbing a perfectly matched 400-year soul ring in the first ring brings an evolution to the martial soul that is no less than that of a Soul King absorbing an ordinary 10,000-year soul ring in the fifth ring!

Just like in the original work, the earlier you absorb rare and precious materials, the better, all of which emphasizes the importance of "early".

With this inspiration, You Chen began his research along this route.

What exactly affects the evolution of a martial soul brought about by absorbing a spirit ring?

Is the person young and energetic? How many spirit rings do they already possess? What are their spirit power, physical attributes, and mental strength? How well do their acquired spirit skills match their martial spirit? ...

Over twenty years, through a long period of time, relying on his extraordinary wisdom, he finally found the answer!

It was an answer that, while not absolutely correct, was vague but enough to show him the way forward.

Is Qi and Blood a limiting factor? Correct!

Soul rings and soul power are limitations? Correct!

Is the compatibility of spirit rings a limitation? Correct!

Ultimately, the evolution of a martial soul is essentially a mutation caused by the enhancement of the martial soul's original power.

(End of this chapter)