The Difference Between Eating and Devouring.

The Azure Serpent Emperor truly lived up to the bloodline of a top-tier Soul Beast.

During this time, Li Chang'an's snake clone had constantly raised its years by hunting and feeding on Soul Beasts. Even though part of the power he obtained had to be shared with his main body, in a short time, it had still gone from a Hundred-Year Soul Beast to a Thousand-Year Soul Beast!

However, after reaching a thousand years, Li Chang'an learned from the scattered information inherited through his bloodline that his growth would no longer be that fast from here on. In the early stage, it had only been because he was too weak, and because the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor's bloodline was noble from birth with a sufficiently high upper limit, that he had been able to become a Thousand-Year Soul Beast in less than a year after being born.

But from the thousand-year level onward, raising its years would no longer be so easy. By conservative estimate, if the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor wanted to become a ten-thousand-year Soul Beast, it would probably take twenty or thirty years, perhaps even several decades.

As for a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, it would probably take two or three hundred years to even be possible, and perhaps not even several hundred or a thousand years would be enough.

A hundred thousand years was already considered reaching true sentience for a Soul Beast. That level was absolutely not something that could be reached in a short twenty years.

Of course, there were exceptions to everything. If Li Chang'an could devour large numbers of high-year Soul Beasts with powerful bloodlines, or certain heavenly treasures, such as Immortal Herbs, then he could speed up this growth process.

It was just that no matter how much he sped it up, there was still ultimately a limit. It was impossible to get fat in one bite.

With the bloodline of the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor, if he wanted to become a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, or even a Million Year Soul Beast, within twenty years, then even with the help of Immortal Herbs, it was probably impossible.

Unless he possessed the same ability as the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger, he might as well wash up and go to sleep.

Speaking of which, a Soul Beast like the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger, which possessed devouring ability, was actually extremely powerful. Its devouring ability allowed it to rapidly turn the cultivation of the prey it devoured into its own in a short time, thereby achieving tremendous growth!

Ordinary Soul Beasts, meanwhile, needed time to digest and absorb the prey they swallowed after hunting it. During the digestive process, there would also be great loss in the energy produced by the prey; it was not absorbed one hundred percent.

From this alone, one could see just how great the difference between the two sides was.

Of course, even a monstrous and powerful Soul Beast like the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger, under the circumstances where the God Realm had blocked off the path to godhood for Soul Beasts, had no future to speak of at all.

So in Li Chang'an's view, if he wanted to become a god, he still had to rely on the human main body.

There was no point pinning hopes on the Soul Beast Clone.

In his view, the purpose of this clone was to share cultivation with the main body and boost its cultivation, allowing him to grow quickly.

Humans and Soul Beasts were different, so there was no need to worry that the power shared by the Soul Beast Clone would not be enough.

Purely in terms of the quantity of Soul Power, Soul Beasts completely crushed humans. That was because the energy that could be carried within such a massive body was far beyond what humans could compare to.

One must never think that because a Soul Ring only allowed a Soul Master to rise by one or two levels, the energy inside a Soul Beast would be about the same as a Soul Master's, or perhaps even less. Thinking that way would be wrong.

Li Chang'an had once tried directly swallowing a small Soul Beast alive, without giving it the chance to condense a Soul Ring after death. In the end, he discovered that at the same level, a Soul Beast that had not manifested a Soul Ring contained more energy in its body than one that had manifested a Soul Ring.

This made him speculate that the Soul Ring appearing after a Soul Beast's death was merely a few dozenths, or even less, of all the energy inside the Soul Beast. The energy in the Soul Ring that humans absorbed was at most only a small portion of the Soul Beast itself. The remaining energy either dissipated into heaven and earth, or still remained within the Soul Beast's corpse. Occasionally, it might even turn into a Soul Bone.

Otherwise, if the energy contained within a Soul Ring was all the energy inside the Soul Beast, then after a Soul Master finished absorbing a Soul Ring, how could he possibly only rise by such a tiny bit?

So after discovering this point.

Whenever Li Chang'an hunted Soul Beasts afterward, he killed the prey at the fastest speed possible, not giving the corpse time to condense a Soul Ring before eating it into his stomach. Sure enough, the energy he obtained was far greater than before.

The appearance of a Soul Ring after a Soul Beast's death was a world rule that had been artificially altered. But condensing a Soul Ring required time, so as long as he took advantage of that period to eat the corpse into his stomach as quickly as possible, no Soul Ring would appear.

This was the result he had discovered after many experiments.

And precisely because the Soul Power reserves inside a Soul Beast's body were not something humans could compare to, even if the Soul Beast Clone's later level increase speed could not match the main body's, the Soul Power it could share would still be enough to support him as he continued advancing by leaps and bounds.

If he wanted to become a Titled Douluo within the next twenty years, then with the contribution of the Soul Beast Clone, it was not too difficult a matter for Li Chang'an. The only thing he needed to care about was whether he could obtain Immortal Herbs and be thoroughly Reborn. Because this was tied to whether he could gain the recognition of the Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud and inherit the Sea God's position.

...The dividing line of time...

Heaven Dou Royal Academy.

Li Chang'an opened his eyes in the dormitory and subconsciously raised his head to look out the window. He saw that the sky had already brightened, and the morning sun had just risen. It was the perfect time for morning exercise.

After getting out of bed and washing up, he changed into a set of close-fitting training clothes convenient for movement.

He arrived in the dormitory's broad courtyard.

He raised his hand and summoned the Azure Scale Sword, then began to practice each move, one after another.

—chop, thrust, flick up, sweep, intercept, hook, snap, tap, wipe, lift, cloud, brace, block, carry, pierce, cleave, pare, hold.

The eighteen most basic sword moves flowed from his hands like drifting clouds and running water.

This was not some powerful sword skill. It was only the most basic techniques for using a longsword, allowing him to become more familiar with the Martial Soul in his hand.

Otherwise, if he faced enemies in the future and did not even know how to use a sword, that would be a huge embarrassment.

In Li Chang'an's view, at his current stage, he did not need to pursue any powerful sword techniques at all. He only needed the sword in his hand to be faster and sharper than the enemy's!

Then no matter how exquisite his opponent's sword moves were, if they could not keep up with his speed, and he easily slit their throat and pierced their defense, everything else was empty talk.

Of all martial arts under heaven, only speed was unbreakable!

When the sword in his hand could become so fast that his opponent could not react, and easily take the enemy's life, then no matter how exquisite their moves were, they were useless.

Overwhelming ten techniques with one force was exactly this principle.

What was more, in this world, everyone relied on Soul Skills. There were no powerful sword techniques of the kind he imagined that could be learned. Even Sword Douluo, who was named after the sword, in truth merely relied on the power of the Seven Kill Sword combined with Soul Skills.

The people of Douluo did not value technique. They only valued Soul Skills. So there were no powerful and dazzling sword techniques like those in martial arts or xianxia worlds. Because Soul Skills were enough to make up for all shortcomings.

For example, in the Original Work, Tang San had many martial arts, such as Controlling Crane Capturing Dragon and Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track... They seemed quite impressive, but in truth, they were only somewhat useful in the early stage. Later on, when facing those truly powerful experts, the effect of these martial arts was extremely limited.

Your Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track could dodge, right?

Then I would directly use a locking Soul Skill, making it so that no matter where you fled, you would ultimately have to take this move.

Controlling Crane Capturing Dragon could divert attacks?

I would spit out a mouthful of Poison Smoke and cover you with it. Let's see how you diverted that.

If there was one advantage to these martial arts, it was that anyone could practice them. But if one had to say how powerful they were, they really were not. Besides, no matter how powerful or exquisite a martial art was, it still depended on the user's condition.

A Titled Douluo-level Soul Master, even with just a simple release of Soul Power, could easily shatter boulders and create powerful destructive force.

Conversely, for a Soul Grandmaster of just over ten levels, even if you gave him a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Skill, the destructive power he could unleash would still be pitifully weak.

Everything was built upon level. Only one's own strength being powerful was the foundation!

Having seen through all this, Li Chang'an understood that he had no need to painstakingly research some Self-Created Soul Skill like in other fan novels, nor did he need to covet the Little Scoundrel's Tang Sect's Ultimate Skills. He only needed to raise his level as quickly as possible and obtain some good Soul Skills. That would be enough to crush countless peers.

If I, a level-fifty Soul King, fought a level-thirty Soul Elder, could I possibly lose? Do you understand what level suppression means or not!

Of course, this was not to say technique was unimportant. It was just that compared to technique, he should first raise his strength, then consider researching technique afterward. Without strength, everything was empty talk.

Speaking of this, he had to mention a typical negative example from the Original Work.