Human Progress

On the road back to Spirit City, the three of them remained silent. The details of the experiment had to be kept confidential. Although the Titled Douluo Card and Lord of Plants Card radar were here, it was still better to be cautious.

Ye Kai, meanwhile, was considering what came next. At this point in the timeline, the Soul Beasts' forces on Douluo Continent were practically invincible. However, the Soul Beasts had set their sights extremely high—their goal was to counterattack the God Realm. Although their plan ultimately failed, they still did not care much about the current continent.

(Everyone says the Soul Beasts' side was driven by love, but in my view, Douluo 2 was the result of a scheme. First, the Emperor Ruishou Three-Eyed Golden Lion Wang Qiu'er in Douluo 2 possessed a trace of Tang Wutong's divine consciousness, meaning she had already been targeted by the Tang God King. He not only obtained the child of destiny on the Soul Beast side, but also brought the child of destiny among humans under his command. As for Douluo 3, I haven't read the whole thing and only know some of the settings, so I won't comment.)

Otherwise, considering the rather unimpressive combat strength of the Titled Douluo in Douluo 1, the Ferocious Beasts in the Core Region of the Star Dou Great Forest alone would basically have been enough to fight the entire continent's Titled Douluo.

There were no Soul Cores, no Soul Tools, and no Dou Armor. That was also why there were so few Hundred-Thousand-Year Spirit Rings in Douluo 1—because humans simply could not win those fights.

Counting everything up, the only people who obtained Hundred-Thousand-Year Spirit Rings by hunting were Bibi Dong and Golden Crocodile Douluo, while Tang San obtained a Million-Year Soul Ring. (Tang Chen's original work never recorded one. Qian Daoliu and Bo Saixi upgraded theirs after undergoing their God Tests. Tang Hao and Tang San's other Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Rings were all obtained through sacrifice.)

A rank-95 cultivator could barely match a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. Below rank 95, only Titled Douluo like Tang Hao—with a high-quality Martial Soul and numerous trump cards—could wrestle with a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast.

After Soul Cores appeared, both the quality and quantity of Soul Power underwent explosive, exponential growth. (Personally, I think Soul Cores greatly increased the speed of Soul Power recovery, which was not all that different in practice from increasing one's total Soul Power.) Combined with the amplification provided by Soul Tools, by the era of The Unrivaled Tang Sect, practically anyone above rank 95 possessed a Hundred-Thousand-Year Spirit Ring.

Leaving aside the main cast, within Shrek Academy alone in The Unrivaled Tang Sect, the Dean, Dragon God Douluo Mu En, had a Hundred-Thousand-Year Spirit Ring starting from his seventh Spirit Ring. The Seagod Pavilion Master and Holy Spirit Cult Supreme Elder Xuan Zi also had Hundred-Thousand-Year Spirit Rings as their ninth Spirit Rings. Vice Dean Cai Meier had one as well, while the eighth and ninth Spirit Rings of the inner courtyard's senior disciple Zhang Lexuan were also Hundred-Thousand-Year Spirit Rings.

It was even possible that Zhang Lexuan had hunted her eighth Spirit Ring herself. According to Supreme Elder Xuan Zi's recollection, eight of the twelve inner-court disciples died during that Soul Hunt. They 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, most of them were probably Seven-Ring Soul Saints—had already been able to bring down a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. What level of combat strength was that? In Douluo 1, it would have taken a mixed team of twelve seven- and eight-ring cultivators to fight Chen Xin and Gu Rong.

Looking at the Holy Spirit Cult, its current leader, God of Death Douluo Zhongli Wu, had three Hundred-Thousand-Year Spirit Rings. The Holy Spirit Cult's chief Imperial Supporter, Dragon Emperor Douluo Long Xiaoyao, had two. The vice leader, Evil Phoenix Douluo Feng Ling, had one. Blue Silver Saintess Tang Ya had two. And that was without even counting the rank-99 Limit Douluo Supreme Leader, Zhongli Wu's mother Ye Xishui, or the former leader, who was also a rank-99 Limit Douluo.

You dared call yourself a Super Douluo in Douluo 2 without a Hundred-Thousand-Year Spirit Ring? (Song Lao, Xian Lin'er: Where are your manners?)

The examples above were enough to prove that, ten thousand years later, the combat strength of Titled Douluo was greater than that of Titled Douluo ten thousand years earlier.

Not to mention the Dou Armor of The Legend of the Dragon King. Three-Word Dou Armor could already grant a Soul Saint the combat strength of a Titled Douluo, while Four-Word Dou Armor could directly grant the combat strength of a Limit Douluo. And at that point, a Four-Word Dou Armor Master was only a Soul Douluo.

There was also the formidable weapon known as the Soul Guidance Mech. Even Di Tian had said he could not fight multiple top-tier Soul Guidance Mechs at the same time.

That was also why the Soul Beasts were nearly 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 Woods by then—had only survived because the Core Region had not been conquered by humans, thanks to the Ferocious Beasts and the Spirit Pagoda. (It was even possible that the humans had refrained from wiping them out completely because the Spirit Pagoda was one of the continent's top powers and Huo Yuhao had become a god. They had to show Huo Yuhao and the Spirit Pagoda some respect.)

Ye Kai pondered for a long while. Soul Tools and Dou Armor would be difficult to develop without sufficient technological support. For now, only Soul Spirits could ease the relationship between humans and Soul Beasts. (Ye Kai: It's definitely not because of a certain Dragon King and a certain Three-Eyed Golden Lion.) As for Soul Cores, he would not experiment with them yet. According to the original work, condensing a Soul Core still carried considerable risks.

As they left the Soul Hunting Forest, Ye Kai saw a Spirit Hall Steward 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. It seemed that the experimental subject had already been dealt with.

That was for the best. Leaving aside the need to keep the experiment confidential, the Fallen of this era could not all be killed without accidentally wronging some innocent people. Kill one every other person, and there would definitely be a large number of scumbags slipping through the net. If they died, so be it.

Ye Kai suddenly thought that since he had already left Spirit City once, he might as well stop by to see Little Angel.

Even though Little Angel was currently unable to begin the Angel Nine Trials—she would have to kneel for 108 days without eating or drinking—she still could not be allowed to neglect her cultivation.

Moreover, continuously poisoning the Second Prince and Third Prince to death had been extremely unwise. Acting too hastily had instead attracted the attention of Xue Ye and Prince Xue Xing.

Ye Kai decided to give Qian Renxue a little shock through political scheming.

"Ghost Elder, I won't be going back this time. I haven't left Spirit City in too long, and I want to stop by Heaven Dou City. You can tell my teacher directly." Having made up his mind, Ye Kai spoke to Ghost Douluo.

"Hmm... All right. I'll send a few people to guard you." Ghost Douluo thought for a moment. Although Ye Kai had initiated the experiment, it had already succeeded. The follow-up only required comparative experiments on Healing Soul Masters' healing abilities and Spirit Rings exceeding their upper age limit, so Ye Kai did not necessarily have to remain there. If the child wanted to go out and have some fun, he could go.

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

Ghost Douluo clearly could not have imagined the fury Bibi Dong would unleash when she learned that her beloved disciple had gone to see her rebellious daughter—and that the one who had agreed to it was Ghost Douluo himself.

To avoid delaying his cultivation, Ye Kai did not choose to take a carriage. Instead, he decided to run.

Although it was much slower, he could treat it as a hike and outing. Besides, with fifty kilograms of weight combined with the Gravity Amulet's triple gravity, practically every step he took left a small crater beneath his feet. His cultivation progress was therefore not much slower than when he cultivated specifically in the Training Field.

The reason he did not use Teleportation was that Ye Kai had not yet sensed the mark on Little Angel. After repeated experiments, Ye Kai had discovered that he could sense any mark whose Teleportation distance his Soul Power could support. Marks beyond his current Soul Power's Teleportation range, however, could not be sensed.

During the three-day journey, Ye Kai traveled along both main roads and back roads. Whenever he passed through a village, he would go in and inspect the place, while also treating injuries the villagers had suffered while hunting or working, earning some Healer Points along the way.

Ye Kai recorded everything he saw and heard during the journey in a notebook. He then referred to the policies of various countries on Blue Star in his previous life and made some adjustments based on Douluo Continent's actual circumstances. He planned to select several pilot locations for experiments after the Spirit Hall Empire unified the continent—but first, he would have to eliminate the Tang God King's interference.