Human Progress

On the way back to Spirit City, none of the three spoke. The details of the experiment had to remain confidential. Although they had the Titled Douluo badge and the Lord of Plants badge radar here, it was better to be cautious.

Ye Kai, meanwhile, was considering what came next. At this point in the timeline, the Soul Beast forces on Douluo Continent were nearly invincible. It was only because the Soul Beasts had set their sights high, aiming to counterattack the God Realm, that they did not care much about the current continent. Though their plan ultimately failed, they still paid little attention to it.

(People say the Soul Beasts are hopeless romantics, but in my opinion, Douluo 2 was manipulated. First of all, Emperor Ruishou Three-Eyed Golden Lion Wang Qiu'er carried a trace of Tang Wutong's divine consciousness, which meant God King Tang had already set his sights on her. He not only gained the chosen one of the Soul Beasts' fortune, but also brought the chosen one of humanity's fortune under his command. As for Douluo 3, I haven't read it all and only know some of the settings, so I won't comment.)

Otherwise, judging by the rather mediocre combat strength of Titled Douluo in Douluo 1, the Ferocious Beasts of the Star Dou Great Forest's Core Region alone would have been enough to contend with all the continent's Titled Douluo.

No Soul Cores, no Soul Tools, no Dou Armor—this was also why Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Rings were so rare in Douluo 1. They simply could not defeat them.

Counting only those obtained through hunting, only Bibi Dong, Golden Crocodile Douluo, and Tang San had them: Bibi Dong's Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Rings, Golden Crocodile Douluo's Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Ring, and Tang San's Million-Year Soul Ring. (Tang Chen's were not recorded in the original work. Qian Daoliu and Bo Saixi advanced after their God Tests, while Tang Hao's and Tang San's other Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Rings came from sacrifices.)

Level 95 could barely match a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. Below level 95, only Titled Douluo like Tang Hao, whose Martial Soul quality was high and who had numerous trump cards, could wrestle with a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast.

But after Soul Cores came into existence, both the quality and quantity of Soul Power experienced explosive, exponential growth. (Personally, I think Soul Cores greatly increased the recovery rate of Soul Power, which was not particularly different from increasing one's total Soul Power.) Combined with the enhancement of Soul Tools, nearly every figure above level 95 during the era of The Unrivaled Tang Sect had a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring.

Not even counting the protagonist group, within Shrek Academy alone in The Unrivaled Tang Sect, Dean Dragon God Douluo Mu En had Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Rings starting from his seventh Soul Ring. Xuan Zi, master of Seagod Pavilion and Holy Spirit Cult Supreme Elder, also had a Hundred-Thousand-Year Ninth Spirit Ring. Vice Dean Cai Meier had a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring as well, while inner court senior sister Zhang Lexuan's eighth and ninth Soul Rings were also Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Rings.

Zhang Lexuan might even have obtained her eighth Soul Ring herself. According to Supreme Elder Xuan Zi's recollection, when he led a team to hunt Soul Beasts, eight out of twelve inner court disciples died. The team had encountered a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast after becoming separated from him, and only managed to kill it after losing eight people.

Twelve eight-ring Soul Douluo—no, aside from Zhang Lexuan, there were most likely Seven-Ring Soul Sages among them—were already capable of taking down a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. What level of combat strength was that? In Douluo 1, it would have taken a mixed formation of twelve seven- and eight-ring Soul Masters to match Chen Xin or Gu Rong.

Then there was the Holy Spirit Cult. Its current leader, God of Death Douluo Zhongli Wu, had three Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Rings. The Holy Spirit Cult's chief Imperial Supporter, Dragon Emperor Douluo Long Xiaoyao, had two. The deputy leader, Evil Phoenix Douluo Feng Ling, had one. Blue Silver Saintess Tang Ya had two. That did not even include the level 99 Limit Douluo Supreme Leader, Zhongli Wu's mother Ye Xishui, or the former leader, also a level 99 Limit Douluo.

Without a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring, how could you dare call yourself a Super Douluo in Douluo 2? (Song Lao, Xian Lin'er: Was that polite?)

These examples were enough to prove that ten thousand years later, Titled Douluo were stronger than the Titled Douluo of ten thousand years before.

Not to mention the Dou Armor of The Legend of the Dragon King era. Three-Word Dou Armor could already give a Soul Saint the combat strength of a Titled Douluo, while Four-Word Dou Armor directly granted the strength of a Limit Douluo. Yet at that time, Four-Word Battle Armor Masters were only Soul Douluo.

There were also terrifying weapons like Soul Guidance Mechs. Even Di Tian had said that he could not fight several top-tier Soul Guidance Mechs at once.

That was why Soul Beasts had nearly gone extinct during the era of The Legend of the Dragon King.

The Star Dou Great Forest—no, it should have been called the Star Dou Little Grove by then—had only its Core Region left, which had not been conquered by humanity because of the Ferocious Beasts and the Spirit Pagoda. (It was even possible that, because the Spirit Pagoda was a top power on the continent and Huo Yuhao had become a god, they had spared it out of respect for Huo Yuhao and the Spirit Pagoda rather than exterminating it completely.)

After pondering for a long while, Ye Kai concluded that Soul Tools and Dou Armor would be difficult to develop without sufficient technological support. For now, he could only rely on Soul Spirits to ease the relationship between humans and Soul Beasts. (Ye Kai: It definitely wasn't for the sake of some Dragon King and some Three-Eyed Lion.) As for Soul Cores, he would not experiment with them for the time being. According to the original work, condensing a Soul Core still carried considerable risk.

As they exited the Soul Hunting Forest, Ye Kai saw a Spirit Hall deacon walk up to Ghost Douluo and report, "Your Excellency, the mission has been completed."

Ghost Douluo nodded in satisfaction without saying anything.

Ye Kai understood immediately. It seemed that experimental subject had already been dealt with.

That was fine too. Leaving aside the need to keep the experiment confidential, the Fallen of this era were the kind where killing them all might wrong a few innocents, but killing every other one would definitely leave countless scum at large. Dead was dead.

Ye Kai suddenly thought that, since he had already left Spirit City, he might as well visit Little Angel on the way.

Even if Little Angel could not yet begin the Angel Nine Trials at this stage—she would have to kneel without food or water for a full 108 days—he could not let her neglect her cultivation.

Besides, poisoning the Second Prince and Third Prince one after another was truly unwise. Moving too hastily would only draw the attention of Xue Ye and Prince Xue Xing.

Ye Kai decided to give Qian Renxue a small lesson in political maneuvering.

"Ghost Elder, I won't be returning this time. It's been too long since I last left Spirit City, so I want to visit Heaven Dou City while I'm at it. Just inform Teacher directly," Ye Kai said to Ghost Douluo after making up his mind.

"Mm... fine. I'll have a few people guard you." Ghost Douluo considered it for a moment. Although Ye Kai had initiated the experiment, it had now succeeded. All that remained were comparative experiments on the healing abilities of Healing Soul Masters and Soul Rings exceeding their age limits, so Ye Kai did not absolutely need to be present. If the child wanted to go out and have some fun, then he could.

As he spoke, Ghost Douluo summoned two Spirit Hall Soul Sages who had not yet left and ordered them to escort Ye Kai to Heaven Dou City.

However, Ghost Douluo clearly could not have imagined the fury he would face when Bibi Dong learned that her beloved disciple had gone to play with that disobedient daughter of hers—and that Ghost Douluo had been the one to approve it.

Not wanting to delay his cultivation, Ye Kai chose to travel by running instead of taking a carriage.

Although it would take much longer, he treated it as a hiking trip. Moreover, with fifty kilograms of weights and a Gravity Amulet set to triple gravity, nearly every step he took left a small crater in the ground. His cultivation progress was not much slower than training specifically at the Training Field.

The reason he did not use Teleportation was that Ye Kai had not yet sensed the mark on Little Angel. Through repeated experiments, he had found that he could sense any mark within the distance his Soul Power could support for Teleportation. Marks beyond his current Soul Power capacity could not be sensed.

During the three-day journey, Ye Kai traveled both main roads and side paths. Whenever he passed through a village, he would go in to inspect it, treating villagers injured while hunting or working and earning some Healer Points along the way.

Ye Kai recorded everything he saw and heard along the road in a notebook. He then referred to the policies of various nations on Blue Star in his previous life, adjusted them according to the actual circumstances of Douluo Continent, and prepared to select several pilot areas for experiments after the Spirit Hall Empire unified the continent. Of course, he would first have to remove the obstruction of God King Tang.