The Emerald Scale Snake Emperor truly lived up to its name as a top-tier spirit beast bloodline.
During this period, Li Chang'an's serpent clone continuously hunted and devoured spirit beasts to increase its years of cultivation. Even though part of the power gained had to be shared with his human body, the clone still advanced from a hundred-year spirit beast to a thousand-year one in a short time!
However, after reaching the thousand-year level, Li Chang'an learned from fragments of inherited bloodline memory that his growth would no longer be so rapid. The early growth had been fast because he was initially too weak, and because the Emerald Scale Snake Emperor's bloodline was inherently noble and powerful, its potential was vast. Thus, in less than a year after its birth, it had already become a thousand-year spirit beast.
But from the thousand-year level onward, advancing further would not be so easy. Conservatively, it might take twenty to thirty years—or even longer—for the Emerald Scale Snake Emperor to reach the ten-thousand-year stage.
As for becoming a hundred-thousand-year spirit beast, that might require two to three hundred years, perhaps even several hundred or a thousand years.
For spirit beasts, a hundred thousand years was already the threshold of sentience—a level that could never be reached in merely a couple of decades.
Of course, there were exceptions. If Li Chang'an could devour large quantities of high-bloodline, long-lived spirit beasts—or consume certain heavenly treasures, such as immortal herbs—then the process could be accelerated.
But no matter how much he accelerated it, there was still a limit. No one becomes fat in one bite.
Even with the Emerald Scale Snake Emperor's bloodline, to become a hundred-thousand-year, or even million-year spirit beast within twenty years—even with immortal herbs—was simply impossible.
Unless he possessed the same devouring ability as the Dark Devilgod Tiger, he might as well forget it.
Speaking of which, spirit beasts like the Dark Devilgod Tiger, who possessed devouring abilities, were incredibly powerful. Its devouring ability allowed it to rapidly convert the cultivation of its prey into its own strength, enabling explosive growth in a short time!
Ordinary spirit beasts, however, had to digest what they consumed slowly. During digestion, a significant portion of the prey's energy was lost—it was far from a full absorption.
That alone showed how vast the gap between the two was.
Still, even a monstrous spirit beast like the Dark Devilgod Tiger had no future. Since the path for spirit beasts to become gods had been completely blocked by the Divine Realm, even it had no way forward.
Thus, in Li Chang'an's view, if he wanted to become a god, he would have to rely on his human body.
The spirit beast clone could no longer be counted on for that.
Its true purpose, in his eyes, was to share cultivation energy with his human self—to assist his main body's training and accelerate growth.
Humans and spirit beasts were fundamentally different, and there was no need to worry that the energy shared by the spirit beast clone would be insufficient.
In terms of pure spiritual power, spirit beasts utterly crushed humans. Their massive bodies could store far more energy than any human could ever hold.
One must never think that just because a spirit ring only raises a Spirit Master by one or two levels, the energy inside a spirit beast is comparable to—or even less than—a human's. That would be a grave mistake.
Li Chang'an had once tried swallowing a small spirit beast alive, preventing it from releasing a spirit ring after death. He discovered that, at the same level, a spirit beast that hadn't yet formed a ring contained far more energy than one that had.
From this, he deduced that a spirit ring was merely a fraction of a spirit beast's total energy—perhaps one-tenth, even less. The energy absorbed by a human from a spirit ring was only a small portion of what the beast originally possessed. The rest either dissipated into the world or remained within the corpse, occasionally forming a spirit bone.
Otherwise, if all of a beast's energy were contained within its ring, how could a Spirit Master only rise a few levels after absorbing one?
After realizing this, Li Chang'an began killing spirit beasts as quickly as possible, consuming them before their corpses could form spirit rings. The result was a dramatic increase in the energy he obtained.
The formation of a spirit ring was essentially a modified world rule. But since forming a ring required time, eating the body before that process finished would prevent the ring from appearing altogether.
This was the conclusion he reached after multiple experiments.
And because the energy stored within a spirit beast's body far exceeded that of a human, even if the clone's growth rate slowed, the amount of spiritual power it could share was still enough to propel his main body's cultivation rapidly forward.
Becoming a Titled Douluo within twenty years was no longer a distant dream—with the clone's support, it was entirely achievable. His only real concern now was whether he could obtain an immortal herb capable of transforming his body completely. That would determine whether he could earn the recognition of the Vast Sea Cosmic Barrier and inherit the position of Sea God.
——Time Skip——
Heaven Dou Imperial Academy.
Li Chang'an opened his eyes in the dormitory. Instinctively, he looked out the window—dawn had arrived, the first light of the morning sun spreading across the sky. It was the perfect time for training.
He got out of bed, washed up, and changed into light training clothes suitable for movement.
Then he walked out into the spacious courtyard of the dormitory.
Raising his hand, he summoned the Emerald Scale Sword and began practicing, one move after another—
Slash, thrust, lift, sweep, block, hook, crash, tap, wipe, raise, cloud, parry, intercept, carry, pierce, cut, slice, present.
Eighteen fundamental sword forms flowed naturally from his hands, smooth and unbroken like drifting clouds and flowing water.
This wasn't some mighty sword technique—just the basic sword movements, meant to familiarize himself with his martial spirit.
He didn't want to face an enemy one day and not even know how to use his sword properly—that would be truly embarrassing.
To Li Chang'an, there was no need to pursue powerful sword techniques at his current stage. What mattered most was simple: his sword had to be faster and sharper than his opponent's.
If he could strike faster than the enemy could react—cutting their throat or piercing their defense—then all the elegant swordplay in the world would mean nothing.
"All martial arts under heaven are invincible, except for speed!"
Once his sword was fast enough to take a life before the opponent could respond, even the most exquisite techniques would be useless.
Strength overwhelms skill—that was the truth.
Moreover, in this world, everyone relied on spirit abilities, not martial techniques. Even Sword Douluo, whose spirit was the Seven Kill Sword, merely relied on its power combined with spirit skills, not on swordsmanship itself.
People of Douluo Continent didn't care about martial technique—only about spirit skills. There were no grand sword arts like those found in wuxia or xianxia worlds, because spirit abilities could compensate for all shortcomings.
Take Tang San, for instance. His "Crane-Capturing Dragon," "Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track," and other martial arts looked impressive—but only worked in the early stages. Against true masters, those skills were practically useless.
You can dodge with "Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track"?Then I'll just use a lock-on spirit skill—let's see where you can hide.
You can redirect attacks with "Crane-Capturing Dragon"?Then I'll cover you in poisonous mist—let's see how you redirect that.
The only real advantage of such martial arts was their accessibility—anyone could learn them. But to call them powerful? Hardly. And no matter how exquisite a martial art was, it still depended on the user's strength.
A Titled Douluo could destroy a boulder with a casual release of spirit power, producing terrifying destructive force.
In contrast, a mere Spirit Master of level ten—even if given a hundred-thousand-year spirit skill—could only unleash a pitiful fraction of that power.
Everything in this world was built upon one's level. Only overwhelming strength was the true foundation.
Li Chang'an understood this deeply. There was no need to waste time studying self-created skills or coveting Tang San's so-called "Tang Sect arts." All he needed to do was raise his level quickly and acquire good spirit abilities—enough to crush his peers with ease.
If a level-50 Spirit King fought a level-30 Spirit Ancestor, could he possibly lose? Did people not understand what level suppression meant?
Of course, that wasn't to say technique was unimportant—but compared to raw power, it came second. First, grow strong; then, refine your technique. Without strength, everything else was meaningless.
And speaking of that, there was one classic counterexample in the original story…
(End of Chapter)
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