Do gods avoid causality?
No.
From what Xu Yuan knew, god-level experts cultivated laws and were heavily reliant on the universe—they couldn't possibly avoid their relationship with the surrounding heavens and earth.
So, was this a stage of transformation that occurred after reaching the god level?
Xu Yuan pondered, looking at the egg, unsure whether taking it out was a good or bad decision.
This egg might not be the reincarnation of a God King, but it was at least related to one.
The most critical issue was that Xu Yuan had no impression or information about this possible God King.
"Whoever this God King is, at least for now, they haven't become hostile towards me, and they seem to have lingering resentment towards the Plane Master."
This individual had revealed information about the Plane Master to Xu Yuan's father. It was highly likely that they didn't want the Plane Master to exist.
"It's unlikely they are targeting Tang Hao unless this God King has a grudge against Tang San."
In either case, this could count as Xu Yuan having an unusual ally.
The trip to Dou Ling went smoothly.
Xu Yuan didn't stay long on the Dou Ling Continent.
There weren't any particularly special resources here.
Between the two smaller continents, Star Luo Continent had been relatively well-developed, with many powerful innate martial souls, resources, and rare metals being excavated. In contrast, Dou Ling Continent lagged behind significantly.
It wasn't that Dou Ling lacked resources; rather, the Dou Ling Empire wasn't strong enough. Many unique resources from Dou Ling Continent had leaked out and were transported to Douluo Continent through various means by the Federation.
The Spirit Pagoda and Tang Sect were just part of it. On Dou Ling Continent, there were numerous research institutes funded by major powers from the other continent. Under the guise of research, they transported many rare resources discovered in Dou Ling to the Federation.
Without any special resources, Xu Yuan naturally wouldn't linger.
---
Deep Sea.
This mission had gone very smoothly, so Xu Yuan naturally had more time to focus on other things.
At this moment, he was deep in the ocean, actively drawing in lightning to temper himself.
The power of thunder coursed through his body, and this process lasted for three full months.
"It's still lacking a bit."
Xu Yuan frowned, sensing the changes in his blood essence.
By now, his blood essence contained faint traces of lightning—this was the result of tempering his body with thunder.
Adapting to the Five Elements Divine Lightning had taken him some time, which he completed before leaving Dou Ling Continent. Afterward, while in the deep sea, he had been trying to convert external thunder energy into Five Elements Divine Lightning.
While practicing the conversion, he also tempered his body, and his resistance to lightning reached an extremely high level. A month ago, he began using the Great Devouring Heaven and Earth Technique to assimilate the Five Elements Divine Lightning—not just relying on thunder to temper himself, but to supplement himself.
That's right, he was no longer resisting the roaming thunder within his body but devouring it using the five elements method.
After a month, he could feel the changes in his blood essence—it was close to the effect he envisioned, but something was still missing in the final step.
"What exactly is missing in this last step?"
Xu Yuan summoned the Heavenly Origin Five Elements Spear. The spear was condensed from his blood essence, with the power of thunder coursing through it. The original spear intent now carried a hint of destructive resonance.
"Is something missing? Or is the problem that deriving it from blood essence itself is flawed? Secondary derivation may have made the metallic attribute insufficient to cross the barrier of blood essence and function again—do I need to directly combine thunder with the metallic attribute?"
There were no reference cases for this.
The path Xu Yuan was taking with spirit souls was unprecedented.
Nurturing a spirit soul with various forces.
And the methods he employed were entirely new.
His spirit soul happened to be a metal-type spirit soul. By enhancing it with various metals, every addition of a special metal meant granting the metal spirit soul new abilities, thereby obtaining new soul skills from the spirit soul. This broke the upper limit of soul rings granted by spirit souls and avoided the monotony of soul skills.
No one had ever walked this path before, and the method was uniquely created by Xu Yuan.
So, he had to figure it out step by step.
His previous two successes didn't provide true references either.
Strictly speaking, the process of transforming thunder power into metal would be the stage where he truly perfected this method.
Once this step was completed, his subsequent two attribute additions would proceed much more smoothly.
"Continue. Quantitative changes will eventually lead to qualitative changes. My nine-month leave still has four months left—I have plenty of time to temper myself."
Traveling across the sea alone in his mech to reach Dou Ling Continent took Xu Yuan only two months. While it seemed comparable to the time it would take to travel to Star Luo Continent by ship, in reality, Xu Yuan had been flying while searching for thunderstorm zones to cultivate.
If there had been no delays along the way, he could have reached Dou Ling Continent in just one month.
After arriving at Dou Ling Continent, Xu Yuan didn't waste time. He found the information left by his father, retrieved the flame egg, and left.
Now, another three months had passed, making it a total of five months since he started. He still had nearly half of his nine-month leave remaining.
Xu Yuan wandered in the ocean.
Ordinary soul masters naturally didn't have the qualifications to wander in the sea.
In the deep-sea regions, hundred-thousand-year soul beasts were not uncommon. Most powerful soul beasts were social, and among the top-tier groups, there would be at least one hundred-thousand-year soul beast.
This was very common in the deep sea.
Hundred-thousand-year soul beasts were even considered manageable. In the deep sea, one might even encounter ferocious beasts.
This was the ocean—the domain of sea soul beasts. Encountering powerful sea soul beasts would be even harder to deal with.
However, Xu Yuan was no longer an ordinary soul master.
At his peak, he already possessed the strength of a Level 96 Super Douluo. Of course, he was still far from matching a Level 96 Super Douluo wearing three-word battle armor.
(A/N: When discussing levels, the enhancements from battle armor aren't typically counted unless referring to combat power.)
Whether or not one wore battle armor represented two different tiers.
A Level 96 Super Douluo wearing three-word battle armor could reach the combat power of a Level 97 soul master from the era before battle armor was developed. If the quality of the three-word battle armor was high enough, they could even approach Level 98.
Although Xu Yuan's combat strength was only at Level 96, it was enough for him to wander alone in the deep sea. Even if he encountered danger, he could escape, and his Level 96-esque strength was sufficient to handle ordinary ferocious beasts below 300,000 years.
Though there were many powerful sea soul beasts in the deep sea, the ocean's vastness meant that Xu Yuan, who sought thunderstorm zones, had a low probability of encountering ferocious beasts.
In fact, Xu Yuan spent another two months in the deep sea, adding up to five months in total, without encountering a single ferocious beast.
"Quantitative changes indeed lead to qualitative changes. Though it didn't undergo a direct qualitative leap, I've finally sensed the breakthrough. Beneath that restless feeling, I've found the missing piece."
Xu Yuan took out the Heavenly Origin Five Elements Spear and observed the power of thunder coursing through the spear. The massive power of thunder compressed within the spear seemed ready to burst at any moment, carrying a wave of destructive resonance.
"It lacked its origin."
Whether vitality or blood essence, they inherently possessed an origin within the scope of the Heavenly Origin Five Elements Spear's origin tolerance range.
On the other hand, thunder wasn't Xu Yuan's natural talent and still didn't fall within his talent category, even now.
Xu Yuan himself didn't possess a lightning attribute.
How could he add a lightning attribute to his talents?
It wasn't difficult.
Xu Yuan could add a spirit soul to his Heavenly Origin Brush martial soul—a lightning-attribute spirit soul—to achieve this. There was an excellent choice: the Thunder Hell Vine, which had immense potential for growth. As long as it didn't die during the process of devouring lightning, it would practically be a free hundred-thousand-year spirit soul.
Of course, ensuring the Thunder Hell Vine didn't self-destruct while devouring lightning wasn't easy. Otherwise, Zhang Geyang, the Star Luo Continent head of the Spirit Pagoda, wouldn't have suppressed the growth of his Thunder Hell Vine spirit soul when it was still under fifty thousand years.
After all, Zhang Geyang was already a Level 98 Super Douluo with top-tier three-word battle armor and was a key figure in the Spirit Pagoda. The methods he'd tried must have already reached the limits of normal circumstances.
Xu Yuan had some confidence that he could help the Thunder Hell Vine grow to a hundred thousand years.
However, adding another spirit soul to the Heavenly Origin Brush wasn't part of his plan.
While it seemed like a match, it was actually redundant.
Xu Yuan's most powerful soul skills were executed with the Heavenly Origin Five Elements Spear. Even his previously strongest killing move—the Dream Space and other mental-type soul skills—were now being integrated into his spear techniques.
The spear—naturally a strong offensive martial soul.
With spear techniques, any attack could be unleashed to its maximum potential.
After achieving this integration, Xu Yuan's spear techniques would surpass his mental-type soul skills.
Or rather, everything was originally one.
All techniques would be integrated into his spear techniques.
An ultimate weapon martial soul wasn't just about excelling in one direction—it was about overall perfection.
Using the five elements to encompass all forces, thereby laying the foundation for a peerless divine spear.
This was Jue's path, and it was also Xu Yuan's path.
Strictly speaking, his Brain martial soul and Heavenly Origin Brush martial soul played more auxiliary roles.
The Dream Space of the Brain martial soul provided convenience for his cultivation, while the Heavenly Origin Brush martial soul compensated for many deficiencies, allowing him to understand the principles of various martial soul techniques.
Adding a powerful offensive spirit soul to the Heavenly Origin Brush would be redundant, as Xu Yuan would hardly use it.
"There are basically no auxiliary lightning-attribute spirit souls, so my solution lies in another path."
Xu Yuan looked at the Heavenly Origin Five Elements Spear in his hand. The swirling five-element energy around the spear grew increasingly dense.
The five-element energy merged with the power of thunder.
The Five Elements Divine Lightning flowed ceaselessly within his body. A sharp metallic aura emerged, and Jue's true form involuntarily surfaced. On its body, the dense power of thunder seemed to solidify, forming tangible lightning patterns that intertwined with the five-element patterns. Within the spear, the power of thunder was embedded, saturating every corner of the spear.
Success.
By using the power of the five elements to contain the power of thunder, and transforming the essence of the five-element attributes into the essence of the Five Elements Divine Thunder, Xu Yuan successfully derived a lightning attribute.
After deriving the lightning attribute, he then condensed the Thunder Source Metal.
As the Thunder Source Metal took form, Jue's true form underwent a transformation. In granting Xu Yuan his sixth soul ring, Xu Yuan also gained the lightning attribute, and Jue acquired the essence of the lightning attribute.
At this moment, even if the essence of the Five Elements Divine Thunder were to regress to its original five-element essence, it would have no impact.
Virtual essence.
First cook the raw rice into cooked rice, and then everything can naturally fall into place!
This kind of virtual thinking wasn't new to Xu Yuan. He had previously entertained the idea of whether it was possible to help soul masters condense an external soul core within their battle armor.
After all, one of the most important principles behind battle armor was expanding the limits of the soul master's capacity to hold soul power. It created more pathways for soul power circulation while enriching and personalizing the improvement of the soul master's internal meridians.
The human body has countless meridians that, when combined, can produce various effects—but these effects are often mediocre.
At least, this was the case for human soul masters on Douluo Star.
The reason why there were still peerless experts even before the era of battle armor was because martial souls compensated for this. Martial souls expanded the pathways through which soul power could flow.
Of course, the key difference lies in the fact that martial souls don't provide additional pathways but rather strengthen specific meridians, enhancing their effects. A single node in the meridian system might originally produce one effect, but under the influence of a martial soul, it could produce two or three effects, allowing the soul master to selectively activate one, two, or all of them.
This is the critical way in which the quality of a martial soul impacts a soul master.
The principle behind battle armor also involves expanding the pathways for soul power circulation. Unlike martial souls, battle armor achieves this physically by creating new pathways outside the soul master's body, compensating for deficiencies in the soul master's natural meridians.
Furthermore, battle armor is worn by the martial soul, so the effects of the martial soul on the soul master's meridians are equally applicable within the context of battle armor.
With this in mind, Xu Yuan conceived the idea of condensing an additional soul core within battle armor.
It didn't need to exist permanently—even a fleeting condensation would be enough to cause a qualitative change in the soul master at that moment.
Unfortunately, this idea only existed theoretically, and it held little practical use for Xu Yuan.
Three is a very special number. Condensing another virtual soul core wouldn't bring about a qualitative leap but would instead waste effort.
If he had the energy, why not use it to deepen his control over the heavens and earth with the existing soul cores?
From three comes everything.
With three major soul cores as a foundation, he already had the qualifications to gradually gain control over the heavens and earth. Even if he couldn't fully claim dominion over them, it was enough to aid in comprehending the laws of nature and advancing his soul power.
Condensing another virtual soul core would require solving the challenge of forming it, as well as figuring out how to disperse it afterward.
Condensing liquid soul power into a soul core was relatively easy; the difficulty lay in returning that soul power to its liquid state.
Theoretically speaking, a soul master's meridians couldn't handle it.
The Heavenly Origin Five Elements Spear bathed in thunder.
Xu Yuan seemed to transform into a spear.
The illusory shadow of the spear enveloped him, and an endless surge of thunder engulfed both him and Jue.
Amidst the purple-black thunder, a halo gradually formed.
It was a black soul ring, and upon closer inspection, it seemed to flicker endlessly with infinite thunder. Purple-black lightning patterns flowed within the soul ring.
The sixth soul ring—complete!
The entire sky's thunder seemed to have been devoured. The once gloomy sea suddenly became calm and clear.
Xu Yuan floated in the air, surrounded by six black soul rings.
Beyond the six black soul rings, another soul ring faintly appeared, seemingly on the verge of forming.
The seventh soul ring—no external assistance needed, just self-awakening.
According to Xu Yuan's plan, he could condense this soul ring at any time.
However, he decided to wait until the moment Jue's true form underwent heavenly forging.
"This time, after absorbing such a vast amount of thunder power and condensing the Thunder Source Metal, Jue's years have also increased."
Xu Yuan carefully sensed and roughly estimated the extent of Jue's increase in years.
"Two years ago, I spent two months raising Jue from twenty thousand years to sixty thousand years. Now, after condensing the Thunder Source Metal and devouring a massive amount of thunder power to replenish its essence, Jue's years have increased by another twenty thousand."
In other words, Jue's current years had reached eighty thousand.
It was time to consider breaking through to the hundred-thousand-year mark.
Star Lord's breakthrough had inspired Xu Yuan. The key to reaching a hundred thousand years might lie in mastering the laws of nature.
And Jue was the least in need of worrying about insufficient mastery of the laws of nature. Since Xu Yuan would assist him in completing heavenly forging through smithing, it would naturally trigger the Rule Lightning Tribulation.
"I still have two months of vacation left. First, I'll go to Tian Dou City to consult my Master Uncle about some questions regarding heavenly forging. While I'm there, I'll also slightly enhance my spirit at the Spirit Ascension Platform."
Xu Yuan transformed into a streak of light and disappeared into the skies above the ocean.
---
Half a month later, Tian Dou City.
"I knew it wouldn't take you long to digest your soul forging, but I didn't expect it to be this short," Zhen Hua remarked after witnessing Xu Yuan's soul forging.
When Xu Yuan was a fourth-level blacksmith, he'd had the opportunity to break through to spirit forging early on but had instead devoted significant effort to fusion forging, perfecting it to an extreme.
During the years he practiced spirit forging, his fusion forging continued to improve. Before even entering soul forging, he had already pushed fusion forging to its peak.
The key to advancing from a seventh-level to an eighth-level Soul Forging Artisan lay in fusion forging, and Xu Yuan had already perfected it. Thus, when he mastered soul forging, he could be said to have directly entered the eighth level.
Of course, combining the two was also crucial, which was why Zhen Hua hadn't immediately awarded Xu Yuan the badge of an eighth-level master craftsman.
Now, just a few years later, Xu Yuan's soul forging had developed its own unique characteristics.
"For heavenly forging, follow me."
Zhen Hua led Xu Yuan to the rooftop.
"No matter how much I explain, it's better for you to witness the actual process of heavenly forging. I'll demonstrate it for you, and with your current level of cultivation, you should be able to grasp the key points during my demonstration. Though you've already gained control over the forces of heaven and earth and have some understanding of the laws, focus on observation and deduction. Once your mental power breaks through to the Spirit Domain Realm, you can attempt heavenly forging. At that time, I'll guide you through the entire process."
The rooftop was a large platform with a massive glass dome. The dome resembled a glass sphere covering the area, located on the seventy-eighth floor, spanning over two thousand square meters, and was extremely spacious.
Entering the rooftop required passing through three security checkpoints, highlighting the strictness of the facility.
"Though it may look like an ordinary glass enclosure, its protective capabilities are designed to match those of a mothership's shield. Even a Limit Douluo couldn't break through it in a short period of time," Zhen Hua said confidently.
"I've told you before—heavenly forging requires drawing upon vast amounts of the forces of heaven and earth. These forces are inherently unstable due to various factors and can be weakened or absorbed. That's why I built this Ascension Platform. Its value rivals that of a complete set of four-word battle armor. Of course, this platform is worth every penny—it increases my success rate by ten percent!"
This wasn't a ten percent overall increase but rather a ten percent boost on top of Zhen Hua's already existing success rate.
For instance, if his original success rate was ten percent, with the Ascension Platform's assistance, it would rise to eleven percent.
Based on expected values, it would take a hundred forging attempts to recoup the cost of one heavenly-forged piece. A full set of four-word battle armor consists of at least eleven components, meaning at least 1,100 forging attempts would be required to break even.
Even for a divine craftsman, completing 1,100 soul forges in a short time would be impossible. Even forging once a day would take three years, and Zhen Hua couldn't sustain that pace.
Let alone heavenly forging.
In his lifetime, relying solely on the success rate to produce enough heavenly-forged metal to break even was virtually impossible.
Nevertheless, Zhen Hua had constructed this Ascension Platform and took great pride in it.
A full set of resources for four-word battle armor?
He could afford it.
He could pay the price!
However, improvements in forging techniques couldn't be bought with money.
Better conditions and a more relaxed forging environment brought different levels of efficiency and allowed him to perceive higher realms. Perhaps even a slight leap in perception could grant him insight into a higher level, significantly advancing his heavenly forging skills.
"My initial breakthrough was due to luck. In the year following my first successful heavenly forge, I conducted nearly forty forging attempts, with only two successes."
"The second year, I forged fifty times and succeeded five times."
Xu Yuan's gaze flickered.
He reached a ten percent success rate in the second year?
"The third year, I forged fifty times and succeeded ten times."
"Nowadays, I make sure to replenish my blood essence and spirit before forging. I attempt forging at most ten times a year, with up to five successful pieces."
As Zhen Hua spoke, immense pride was evident on his face.
Fifty percent!
Of course, nurturing blood essence and spirit, along with consuming rare herbs, indirectly contributed to increasing his success rate. He was simply doing everything possible to maximize it.
Achieving a fifty percent success rate was indeed remarkable.
Xu Yuan fell silent for a moment.
Even with the full support of a divine craftsman, producing heavenly-forged metal would take at least a year per piece. And securing a share of the divine craftsman's output might require competing with four or five Limit Douluos simultaneously.
This highlighted just how rare four-word battle armor was.
Even though Zhen Hua's success rate had reached an astonishing fifty percent, his blood essence was no longer at its peak. Each forging drained him, requiring time to recover. Consequently, the annual output of heavenly-forged metal hadn't increased but had instead decreased.
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