Second Soul Skill Reversal

Could merely breaking through to level 40 really trigger a phenomenon of heaven and earth?

Previously, Ning Rongrong certainly would not have believed it. But this moment was different from that moment; after witnessing the power of the Holy God with her own eyes, and seeing Zhao Xiaoya break through to level 51 in an instant and condense a soul ring, Ning Rongrong suddenly felt that a breakthrough triggering a natural phenomenon was not so strange after all.

Especially since the thunder was followed by nothing more than a light drizzle.

Ning Rongrong felt as if she had forgotten something, and when she sensed the soul power within her body still rising steadily, she suddenly remembered—

Hadn't the Silver Dragon King said that upon reaching level 40, she would definitely appear in the Silver Dragon King Palace?

Yet right now, she was about to condense her soul ring and break through to level 41...

Wait, that didn't seem to be something she needed to worry about.

As she pondered, she discovered that her aura had actually stalled at the peak of level 40.

However, in the eyes of Lu Ma, it was not like that at all. In Lu Ma's eyes—

Level 40, breakthrough!

Level 41, breakthrough!

The soul power continued to climb until it was just past level 42 before it finally stopped.

Opening the character panel, it now looked like this:

[Ning Rongrong, Level 40 (42)]

[Martial Soul: Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda (+4)]

Next, he clicked into the martial soul interface; after using the Holy Spirit Scroll, there was still the Holy Spirit Pill to be used.

[Reversed Second Soul Skill (Consumes Holy Spirit Pill 2/3)]

[Reversed Third Soul Skill (Consumes Holy Spirit Pill 3/3)]

[Acquire Fourth Soul Skill (Please complete the relevant task)]

Before clicking into this interface, Lu Ma was still considering how to use the Holy Spirit Pill, as both soul skills could be reversed.

Setting aside special effects, the first soul skill was Strength Amplification; it was already known that after reversal, it absorbed the opponent's strength and could be used for a counterattack. By extension—

The second soul skill was Speed Amplification; after reversal, it could theoretically absorb the opponent's speed upon meeting certain conditions. In other words, it was a speed reduction, a form of soft crowd control. But if the values were set high enough, it would be no different from hard crowd control; for example, absorbing 99.99% of an opponent's speed would be no different from rendering them immobile.

The third soul skill was Poison Attribute Amplification. If reversed using the same logic, this skill would allow him to absorb the opponent's poison attribute damage. To increase its potency, it might also lower the opponent's poison resistance. But if he did that, the reversed skill would be indistinguishable from Trapped Beast.

Lu Ma thought for a moment and decided that reversing the second soul skill was the better choice. His primary means of output was the Eight Spider Lances; although the Eight Spider Lances had a trait where subsequent attacks were guaranteed to hit after the first one landed, the first strike was not guaranteed. Thinking about it, applying a speed reduction aura to the opponent would be very useful.

With that in mind, he directly reversed the second soul skill.

[Second Soul Skill: Speed Amplification]

[Provides a 60% speed attribute boost to a designated unit (limited by soul power level)]

[Reversed Second Soul Skill: Mitosis]

[Absorbs 60% of the target's speed attribute. Then performs a perfect mitosis, generating a clone identical to the original body; the original body's attributes remain unchanged.]

[The clone possesses 60% of the original body's attributes, has independent consciousness, and fully obeys the original body's commands. The clone and the original body have independent health pools; the death of the clone does not affect the original body. The clone can be summoned again after 600 minutes.]

[The clone can use all of the original body's non-reversed soul skills with 60% effectiveness and can be released in tandem with the original body. The clone does not possess any soul bones.]

[Special Effect: When the target is a plant-type soul beast or plant-type soul master, additionally absorbs 6% of all their attributes.]

[Soul Ring Age: 3,000 years]

Silence, a long silence.

Lu Ma looked at the reversed second soul skill. The effect slightly exceeded his expectations.

Not only did it have the effect of absorbing 60% of the speed attribute as he had imagined, but it could also absorb an additional 6% of all attributes from plant-type soul masters.

More importantly, this was Mitosis, which could summon a clone capable of using soul skills, solving the problem of being unable to use Strength Amplification and Trapped Beast simultaneously. Although the effect was only 60%, that was enough.

For example, when he was beating up Zhao Asi earlier, he discovered that the Eight Spider Lances could benefit from many bonuses.

In the initial state, without any buffs, the damage was 5% of Zhao Asi's health.

After consuming Strength Amplification, the damage reached 8%.

After consuming both Strength Amplification and Poison Attribute Amplification, the damage reached 12.8%.

If he also received the bonus from the clone, the damage dealt would reach a staggering 19.208%, nearly 20%!

In other words, once fully buffed, a level 33 Ning Rongrong only needed to land six sets of Eight Spider Lances attacks to defeat a weaker Soul Douluo. If Ning Rongrong became a Soul Ancestor or a Soul King? How far would she be from instantly killing a Soul Douluo?

Was this value reasonable?

"But one cannot rule out the possibility of the game designers having poor health point balancing." Lu Ma quickly calmed down. Zhao Asi's health did not represent all Soul Douluos. In a game Lu Ma once played, the health of early level 70 boss monsters was sometimes even lower than that of late-game level 30 elite monsters.

The soul skill reversal concluded, and Lu Ma turned his attention to the remaining fourth soul skill.

It was marked with "Please complete the relevant task."

Coincidentally, Lu Ma also wanted to see what the current task interface looked like. Following the prompts, he opened the task panel.

The task panel was simple, consisting of only one page, with the tasks listed intuitively on the screen.

[(Important) Disrupt the third Saintess Ritual:]

[Please proceed to the Lake of Life in the Star Dou Great Forest to submit.]

[Quest Reward: Fourth Soul Ring - Ten Thousand Years]

[(Important) Investigate the Holy Spirit Sect:]

[Wait for the Holy Spirit Sect to hold a meeting]

[Quest Reward: None currently, will be added based on quest progress]

[(Common) Shrek Special Training:]

[Core Content: Obtain the Silver Soul Badge]

[Tracking: Return to Shrek Academy.]

[No reward.]

[Note: Upon breaking through to Soul Ancestor, quest content will change]

Another silence followed.

Lu Ma now roughly understood what kind of fortuitous encounter Ning Rongrong had stumbled upon; the Lake of Life could only mean the Silver Dragon King, Gu Yuena.

Although he did not know how Ning Rongrong had obtained this opportunity, nor why Gu Yuena was awake at this time, let alone what conflict she might have with the Holy Spirit Sect.

But that was unimportant; he only needed to secure the rewards.

The Holy Spirit Sect quest was a week away, so there was no rush.

As for the Shrek quest at the bottom, there were far too many things to nitpick.

Not only was there no reward, but what did it mean that the quest content would change upon breaking through to Soul Ancestor?

Lu Ma forced himself to calm down, then began to consider what exactly becoming a Soul Ancestor would affect.

After thinking it over, it all came down to the Great Soul Arena.

In this place, the Great Soul Arena was tiered according to the member with the highest soul power. If Ning Rongrong broke through to Soul Ancestor, then the Shrek Seven Devils, a team about to be formed, would have to participate in Soul Ancestor-level soul fights. After all, Shrek could not find an eighth member to replace Ning Rongrong.

If the Shrek Seven Devils became a Soul Ancestor-level team, they would be unable to fight the Mad Battle Team or the Imperial Battle Team.

Although Lu Ma personally felt that not fighting them didn't matter, the game designers apparently disagreed.

Perhaps he should just abandon this quest.

Lu Ma thought about it and ultimately decided to give up on the quest. If the content changed, so be it.

After saving his progress, he pulled up the map and headed straight for the Star Dou Great Forest.