Chapter 40: The Secret of Soul Ring Fusion, The Trail of the Purgatory Vine
The five academies promised to open their core legacies together, and Yu Chen did not stand on ceremony. He knew well that the accumulation and collision of knowledge were important fuel for his own progress. Although most of the legacies, such as the high-level Soul skills and meditation techniques unique to each academy, offered limited effects for him—as he already possessed the top-tier Legacy of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan and the Thunder God Power—they still served as useful references to broaden his horizons. However, one unique secret technique from the Blazing Academy—Soul Ring Fusion—caught his great interest.
After carefully reading through the "Detailed Explanation of Soul Ring Fusion," Yu Chen's eyes sparkled, and he felt a sudden sense of enlightenment.
"So that's how it is! The Awakening of Xu Sanshi's Black Tortoise Bloodline in Douluo II must be inseparable from this Soul Ring Fusion secret technique!" He combined his vague memories from his past Life with the secret technique in his hands to deduce, "It is highly likely that Xu Sanshi first learned the Soul Ring Fusion secret technique, but this technique has extremely high requirements for the user. Given his state at the time, it was extremely difficult to execute under normal conditions, requiring long preparation time and having a low success rate. And it was precisely this difficult process of executing Soul Ring Fusion that, to a certain extent, stimulated or guided the sleeping Black Tortoise Bloodline within him, causing it to resonate and finally awaken! The Bloodline Awakening brought a comprehensive surge in his basic qualities, especially the growth of his Spiritual Power and deep control over his Martial Soul's Origin, which in turn allowed him to smoothly use the Soul Ring Fusion technique!"
The principle of this Soul Ring Fusion secret technique could be described as exquisite yet harsh. Its core lies in using a powerful Spiritual Power that far exceeds the current Soul Power Rank as a control hub, forcibly "fusing" the Soul Power Origin of one or more of one's own Soul Rings into another Soul Ring, causing it to "sublimate" in a short time and burst out with terrifying power far exceeding its original age Rank!
But within this, there exists a hidden requirement that is easily overlooked but crucial—the Soul Beast Origin corresponding to the Soul Rings participating in the Fusion must have a certain "connection" or "commonality"! This connection could be the same species, highly compatible attributes, or even a predator-prey relationship. If the attributes of the Soul Ring sources conflict or are completely unrelated, the outcome of forced Fusion is highly likely to be a Soul Ring conflict and backlash against oneself.
However, even if the condition of Soul Ring connection is met, the biggest threshold still stands before the vast majority of Soul Masters—Spiritual Power!
The requirements for Spiritual Power for Soul Ring Fusion are outrageous. It does not require the Soul Master to have a huge total amount of Spiritual Power, but rather that its "quality" and "control precision" must far exceed their current Soul Power Rank (exceeding that of a Soul Master with the same Martial Soul and same cultivation level who does not focus on Spiritual Power)! In other words, it requires the Soul Master to possess "off-the-charts" Spiritual Power.
This created an awkward situation: in the Spirit Master's world where systematic Spiritual Power cultivation methods are generally lacking, the growth of a Soul Master's Spiritual Power mainly relies on the passive boost from Soul Power improvement and the tempering from Soul shocks when absorbing Soul Rings. For those Soul Masters with "ordinary" Martial Soul quality, their Soul Power progress is relatively slow. If they are born with relatively strong Spiritual Power (though far from being a monster like Yu Yuanchen who has two lives stacked), it is possible that at some stage, their Spiritual Power level will temporarily be "off-the-charts," thus luckily learning Soul Ring Fusion. This is also why some Soul Masters in the original work, whose Martial Souls did not seem top-tier, were able to master this technique.
But what about the Sect disciples who possess top-tier Martial Souls? Their Martial Souls are powerful, and their Soul Power progresses rapidly, often reaching high Ranks at a young age. However, the growth of their Spiritual Power cannot keep up with the rapid rise of their Soul Power. Even if a Sect occasionally produces a talent born with strong Spiritual Power who learns Soul Ring Fusion in advance, as their cultivation improves rapidly, their Soul Power Rank will soon catch up to or even exceed the "off-the-charts" extent of their Spiritual Power, causing the Soul Ring Fusion secret technique that they could originally use to become unusable in the later stages because their Spiritual Power is "relatively insufficient"! This is simply a helpless paradox.
"No wonder... no wonder neither the Elephant Armored Academy nor even my Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan has ever heard of anyone mastering this technique." Yu Chen understood in his heart, "It's not that the secret technique isn't powerful enough, but that there is a fundamental contradiction between the cultivation conditions and the growth model of top-tier Martial Souls."
But for Yu Yuanchen, all of this was not a problem at all!
His Spiritual Power, due to the superposition of two lifetimes of Souls, had a growth base and potential that far exceeded ordinary people. What was even more terrifying was that this superposition was not a simple one plus one, but under some mysterious rules, produced a geometric growth effect similar to "multiplication"! This made his Spiritual Power, whether in terms of "total amount," "quality," or "growth speed," always slightly ahead of his Soul Power Rank, barely meeting the extremely harsh "off-the-charts Spiritual Power" requirement of the Soul Ring Fusion secret technique!
"This technique is simply tailor-made for me!" Yu Chen felt excited. If he could master Soul Ring Fusion, at critical moments, he could fuse the power of low-age Soul Rings into high-age Soul Rings, and even in the future, if he could obtain a 100,000-year Soul Ring, he could temporarily fuse the power of all previous Soul Rings into it... The power that would burst out is unimaginable! And perhaps he could use this to temporarily awaken the Thunder Saint Dragon Bloodline. At that time, his strength might be enough to go head-to-head with a Soul Douluo without being defeated, which would be another powerful trump card for him.
However, he did not start cultivating immediately. Although Soul Ring Fusion is good, finding an opportunity to solve the Bottleneck of liver tempering was more urgent. He temporarily put the cultivation of the Soul Ring Fusion secret technique aside and began to read a large amount of information records about various thunder-attribute Soul Beasts, plant-type Soul Beasts, and investigation reports on some famous dangerous places and secret places on the Douluo Continent in the libraries of the five academies. What he was concerned about was not the secrets of the academies themselves, but the public or semi-public information that had been widely circulated and brought back from all over the Douluo Continent by past explorers or Seniors of the academies.
His goal was clear—to find the trail of the Thunder Hell Vine!
Whether it was to comprehend the mystery of thunder vitality that might exist within it, which transcended his "Awakening of Spring Thunder" Concept, or to obtain the Soul Ring and Soul Bone containing the ultimate thunder and Thunder God Bloodline, the Thunder Hell Vine was the best choice he could think of at present.
Regarding the Thunder Hell Vine, Yu Yuanchen had some understanding in the Family classics, but the records were sparse, only saying that it was a legendary thunder-attribute divine object, possessed the Thunder God Bloodline, and its trail was hard to find. Combined with the more extensive library collections of the five academies, his understanding of this super Soul Beast gradually became clear and full in his mind.
The Thunder Hell Vine is undoubtedly the king of thunder-attribute Soul Beasts! It is born with the ultimate thunder attribute, its Origin power is superior to the vast majority of thunder-attribute Soul Beasts in the World, and it also carries a trace of the Thunder God Bloodline, with a very high status. Moreover, it is unique. In the same era, there will only be one in the entire Douluo Continent. Only after the current one dies is it possible for the next one to be conceived in a place where the heaven and earth thunder Origin Qi gathers after a long period of time.
However, the Heavenly Dao is impartial. While granting it unparalleled talent and potential, it also gave it the harshest shackles. Its way of improving cultivation is not simply absorbing Origin Qi of heaven and earth, but mainly by "devouring Heavenly Tribulation thunder" to Cultivate! Every time it triggers and devours heavenly thunder, it is like dancing on the tip of a knife, confronting the rules of the entire World. Because Heavenly Tribulation thunder is, in a sense, the embodiment of the power of the plane's Law, devouring heavenly thunder is equivalent to stealing the Origin power of the plane! This makes it unwelcome by the plane from the moment of its birth, and it is rejected and suppressed by the entire World.
Because of this, it is almost impossible for the Thunder Hell Vine to break through the 50,000-year cultivation limit. In historical records, there seems to have never been a Thunder Hell Vine exceeding 50,000 years. That 50,000-year chasm is likely a truly hopeless doomsday Lightning Tribulation for it. But even so, with its cultivation of less than 50,000 years, by virtue of its ultimate thunder and Thunder God Bloodline, its true combat power is not weaker than an ordinary 100,000-year Soul Beast! In terms of quality, it is undoubtedly the peak of all thunder-attribute Soul Beasts on the Douluo Continent, bar none!
"Devouring heavenly thunder, stealing the plane's Origin... This is going against the Heavenly Dao." Yu Yuanchen was shocked in his heart, and at the same time, his determination to find it became firmer. Such a Heaven-Defying object, the vitality contained in its body and its control over thunder must have reached an unimaginable Realm, which is the key to his tempering his liver and comprehending thunder vitality!
He buried himself in the sea of books, not letting go of any words. Combining Family records with the scattered information from the five academies, he conducted cross-comparisons and logical reasoning.
After several days of sleepless reading and analysis, several pieces of information that seemed unrelated and scattered in the corners of different books gradually connected in his mind, pointing to a possible direction:
An exploration record from the Divine Wind Academy about a valley in the Star Dou Great Forest mixed area mentioned that a hundred years ago, abnormally frequent and concentrated thunderstorm weather was encountered in that area. The thunder color was a rare deep purple, and after the thunderstorm, the plants in the valley were not scorched, but instead showed an unusual vitality.
A mineralogy book from the Blazing Academy recorded that in a certain area near the edge of the core area of the Star Dou Great Forest, a strange "lightning-struck stone" was found. What was contained inside was not purely destructive thunder energy, but a trace of weak Life breath remained. After identification, the cause of its formation was unknown, and it was suspected to be related to a powerful existence capable of endowing thunder with vitality.
In an ancient hydrological note from the Heavenly Water Academy, it was vaguely mentioned that upstream of a certain underground river in the Star Dou Great Forest, trace amounts of active thunder elements were detected in the water quality for a long time, which was different from the violent nature of ordinary thunder elements and tended more towards nourishment.
Even in a geological report from the Rock Academy, it was mentioned that the geomagnetic field in a certain part of the Star Dou Great Forest was abnormally active, and the frequency of magnetic field fluctuations was different from ordinary lightning areas, carrying a certain unique rhythm.
These pieces of information, viewed individually, might just be curiosities, but when he marked them all on the map of the Douluo Continent, especially when focusing on the Star Dou Great Forest, this vast and mysterious Soul Beast habitat, Yu Chen discovered that these abnormal locations, although scattered, vaguely formed a fan-shaped area pointing to the northwest of the forest, near the edge of the mixed area and the core area!
"Star Dou Great Forest... Northwest area..." Yu Chen's finger pointed heavily at that position on the map, and his eyes flashed with sharp light.
Although it was still just a guess and the range was still very large, this was the most likely clue he could find so far about the Thunder Hell Vine!
The opportunity for liver tempering, the temptation of the ultimate thunder-attribute Soul Ring, and the mystery of going against the Heavenly Dao and stealing the Lightning Tribulation all drove him to go there!
He decided that after making some preparations, he would leave Elemental City under the pretext of training, go deep into the Star Dou Great Forest, and look for the legendary Thunder Hell Vine! This would be a journey where opportunity and danger coexist.
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