Yu Chen did not stand on ceremony regarding the five academies' promise to open their core inheritances. He knew well that the accumulation and collision of knowledge were important fuel driving his progress. Although most inheritances, such as the unique high-level Soul Skills and Meditation Methods of each academy, could only serve as references and broaden his horizons due to his Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan's top-tier inheritance and "Thunder God Power," one unique secret technique from Blazing Fire Academy—Ring Fusion—greatly intrigued him.
After carefully reading the Detailed Explanation of Ring Fusion Secret Technique, Yu Chen's eyes repeatedly lit up, and sudden understanding dawned on him.
"So that's how it is! Xu Sanshi's awakening of his Black Tortoise Bloodline in Douluo Dalu 2 was probably inseparable from this Ring Fusion secret technique!" Combining his vague memories from his previous life with the secret technique in hand, he deduced, "Xu Sanshi most likely learned the Ring Fusion secret technique first, but it placed extremely high demands on its user. Given his condition at the time, it would have been very difficult for him to use it normally. It required lengthy preparation, and the success rate was low. Yet it was precisely this difficult process of performing Ring Fusion that, to a certain extent, stimulated or guided the dormant Black Tortoise Bloodline within him, causing it to resonate and ultimately awaken! Bloodline awakening brought an all-around leap in his basic qualities, especially an increase in Spiritual Power and deeper control over his Martial Soul Origin. That, in turn, allowed him to use Ring Fusion smoothly!"
The principles behind the Ring Fusion secret technique were exquisitely ingenious and demanding. Its core lay in using Spiritual Power far exceeding one's current Soul Power Level as the control hub, forcibly and temporarily "fusing" the Soul Power origin of one or more Soul Rings into another Soul Ring, causing it to undergo a brief "sublimation" and unleash terrifying might far beyond its original age level!
Yet there was a hidden requirement that was easily overlooked but absolutely crucial—the Soul Beasts corresponding to the Soul Rings involved in the fusion had to possess a certain "connection" or "commonality"! This connection could be belonging to the same race, having highly compatible attributes, or even a predator-prey relationship. If the sources of the Soul Rings had conflicting or entirely unrelated attributes, forcibly fusing them would very likely result in the Soul Rings clashing and backfiring upon the user.
However, even if the condition of Soul Ring connection was met, the greatest threshold still stood before the vast majority of Soul Masters—Spiritual Power!
Ring Fusion's requirements for Spiritual Power were outrageously high. It did not demand an enormous total amount of Spiritual Power, but rather that its "quality" and "precision of control" had to greatly exceed the user's current Soul Power Level—exceeding that of Soul Masters with Martial Souls of the same cultivation level who trained normally without focusing on Spiritual Power! In other words, a Soul Master needed Spiritual Power that was "above the curriculum."
This created an awkward situation. In a Soul Master World generally lacking systematic methods for cultivating Spiritual Power, its growth mainly depended on the passive gains brought by increasing Soul Power and the tempering of Soul Shock when Absorbing Soul Rings. For Soul Masters with "ordinary" Martial Soul quality, their Soul Power progressed relatively steadily. If they were born with relatively strong Spiritual Power—though still nowhere near the monster that was Yu Yuanchen, whose souls from two lives had stacked together—they might temporarily reach an "above-the-curriculum" level of Spiritual Power at a certain stage and luckily learn Ring Fusion. This was also why, in the original work, some Soul Masters whose Martial Souls did not seem particularly outstanding were nevertheless able to master this technique.
But what about disciples of clans with top-tier Martial Souls? Their Martial Souls were powerful, and their Soul Power advanced at a rapid pace, often reaching high levels at a young age. Yet the growth of their Spiritual Power could not keep up with the surge in their Soul Power. Even if a clan occasionally produced a naturally gifted child with powerful Spiritual Power who learned Ring Fusion early, as his Cultivation Level rose rapidly, his Soul Power Level would soon catch up to—or even surpass—the "above-the-curriculum" margin of his Spiritual Power. The Ring Fusion secret technique he had originally been able to use would instead become unusable later because his Spiritual Power was "relatively insufficient"! It was simply a helpless paradox.
"No wonder... no wonder neither the Elephant Armored Sect nor even my Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan has ever had anyone known to be proficient in this technique." Yu Chen understood. "It isn't that the secret technique is not powerful enough. The problem is that its cultivation requirements fundamentally conflict with the growth pattern of top-tier Martial Souls."
But none of this was a problem at all for Yu Yuanchen!
Because the souls of his two lives had stacked together, his Spiritual Power's foundation for growth and potential had already far surpassed that of ordinary people. More terrifyingly, this stacking was not a simple one plus one. Under some mysterious rule, it produced a geometric growth effect more akin to multiplication! This ensured that his Spiritual Power, whether in total amount, quality, or growth speed, always remained slightly ahead of his Soul Power Level, barely meeting the Ring Fusion secret technique's incomparably harsh requirement of "above-the-curriculum Spiritual Power"!
"This technique was practically tailor-made for me!" Yu Chen felt invigorated. If he could master Ring Fusion, then at a crucial moment, he could fuse the power of lower-age Soul Rings into a higher-age Soul Ring. If he could one day obtain a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring and temporarily fuse the power of all his previous Soul Rings into it... he hardly dared imagine the explosive power that would result! Moreover, perhaps he could use this to temporarily awaken the Thunder Sacred Dragon Bloodline. At that point, his strength might be enough to fight a Soul Douluo head-on without losing. This would become another powerful trump card.
However, he did not begin cultivating immediately. Ring Fusion was excellent, but finding an opportunity to resolve the bottleneck in tempering his liver was more urgent. He temporarily postponed cultivating the Ring Fusion secret technique and began extensively reviewing the five academies' records on all kinds of Lightning Attribute Soul Beasts and Plant Spirit Beasts, as well as exploration reports on famous Dangerous Places and secret lands across the continent. What interested him was not the academies' own hidden foundations, but broadly circulated public or semi-public information brought back from all over the continent by generations of explorers and academy seniors.
His target was clear—he was searching for traces of the Thunderclap Nethervine!
Whether it was to comprehend the mysteries of lightning's Life Force that might surpass his Awakening Spring Thunder Artistic Conception, or to obtain a Soul Ring and Spirit Bone containing Ultimate Thunder and the Thunder God Bloodline, the Thunderclap Nethervine was the best option he could think of at present.
Yu Yuanchen had already learned a little about the Thunderclap Nethervine from his clan's records, but the descriptions had been scarce. They merely stated that it was a legendary Lightning Attribute divine being with the Thunder God Bloodline, and that its whereabouts were difficult to trace. Yet after combining this with the far more extensive collections of the five academies, his understanding of this super Soul Beast gradually became clearer and more complete.
The Thunderclap Nethervine was, without question, the emperor of Lightning Attribute Soul Beasts! It was born with the Ultimate Thunder attribute, and its Origin Power surpassed that of the vast majority of Lightning Attribute Soul Beasts in the world. It also carried a trace of the Thunder God Bloodline, giving it an exceptionally exalted status. Furthermore, it was unique. During any given era, only one existed in the entire Douluo Continent. Only after the current one died could the next one possibly be nurtured over long years in a Gathering Place of heaven and earth lightning essence.
However, Heavenly Dao was impartial. While granting it unparalleled talent and potential, it also gave it the harshest shackles. Its method of increasing its Cultivation Level was not merely absorbing Heaven and Earth Origin Qi, but primarily cultivating through "devouring the lightning of Heavenly Tribulation"! Every time it drew in and devoured Heavenly Thunder, it was like dancing on a knife's edge, like opposing the rules of the entire world. This was because the lightning of Heavenly Tribulation was, in a sense, a manifestation of Plane Law. Devouring Heavenly Thunder was equivalent to stealing the Plane Origin! Thus, from the moment of its birth, it was rejected by the plane and subjected to the exclusion and suppression of the entire world.
For this reason, it was nearly impossible for the Thunderclap Nethervine to break through the fifty-thousand-year cultivation boundary. Historical records seemed never to have contained a Thunderclap Nethervine that had surpassed fifty thousand years. That fifty-thousand-year chasm was likely a true fatal Thunder Tribulation for it, with virtually no chance of survival. Even so, with less than fifty thousand years of cultivation, its true combat strength, relying on Ultimate Thunder and the Thunder God Bloodline, was already no weaker than that of an ordinary Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast! In terms of quality, it was undoubtedly the pinnacle among all Lightning Attribute Soul Beasts on the Douluo Continent, without equal!
"Devouring Heavenly Thunder, stealing the Plane Origin... that is going against the heavens." Yu Yuanchen was deeply shaken, but his resolve to find it grew even firmer. Such a heaven-defying being must contain unimaginable Life Force and mastery over lightning. It was precisely the key to tempering his liver and comprehending lightning's Life Force!
He buried himself in the sea of books, refusing to overlook even a single phrase. Combining the clan records with the scattered information from the five academies, he carried out cross-comparisons and logical deductions.
After several days and nights of uninterrupted research and analysis, several seemingly unrelated pieces of information scattered throughout different texts gradually linked together in his mind, pointing toward a possible direction:
An exploration record from Godwind Academy concerning a valley somewhere in the Star Dou Great Mixed Zone mentioned that a hundred years ago, the area had experienced abnormally frequent and highly concentrated thunderstorms. The lightning had been a rare deep purple, and after the storms, the plants in the valley had not been scorched and withered. Instead, they had displayed an unusual abundance of Life Force.
A mineral chronicle from Blazing Fire Academy recorded that a strange kind of Thunder-Struck Stone had once been discovered in an area near the edge of the Star Dou Great Forest's Core Zone. Rather than containing purely destructive lightning energy, it retained a faint trace of Life Aura. The cause of its formation was unknown, but it was suspected to be related to some powerful being capable of granting Life Force to lightning.
An ancient hydrological map annotation from Skywater Academy vaguely mentioned that trace amounts of active Lightning Element had long been detected in the water upstream of a certain underground river in the Star Dou Great Forest. Unlike ordinary violent Lightning Element, it leaned more toward nourishment.
A geological report from Boulder Academy even mentioned that the geomagnetic field in a certain part of the Star Dou Great Forest was abnormally active. Its magnetic fluctuations differed from those of ordinary lightning regions and carried a unique rhythm.
Viewed individually, these pieces of information might have been nothing more than strange anecdotes. But after marking them all on a map of the continent, especially while focusing on the vast and mysterious Soul Beast habitat that was the Star Dou Great Forest, Yu Chen discovered that these anomalous locations, though scattered, faintly formed a fan-shaped region pointing toward the forest's northwest, near the border between the Mixed Zone and the Core Zone!
"Star Dou Great Forest... the northwest region..." Yu Chen's finger landed heavily upon that location on the map, sharp light glinting in his eyes.
Though it was still only a conjecture, and the area was still vast, this was already the most likely clue he had found regarding the Thunderclap Nethervine!
The opportunity to temper his liver, the temptation of an Ultimate Lightning Attribute Soul Ring, and the mystery of going against the heavens by stealing the lightning of Thunder Tribulation all drove him to make the journey!
He decided that after making some preparations, he would leave Elemental City under the pretext of gaining experience and venture deep into the Star Dou Great Forest to search for the legendary Thunderclap Nethervine! This would be a journey where opportunity and danger coexisted.
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