Reversal of the Second Soul Skill

Could breaking through to level 40 really draw down strange phenomena from heaven and earth?

Before, Ning Rongrong would never have believed it. But this was different. After witnessing the Holy God's power with her own eyes, and seeing Zhao Xiaoya break through to level 51 in an instant and even form a Soul Ring, Ning Rongrong suddenly felt that it wasn't so strange for a breakthrough to bring on strange phenomena from heaven and earth.

Especially since all that came after the thunder was just a light rain.

Ning Rongrong felt as though she had forgotten something. When she sensed the Soul Power inside her body continuing to rise, she suddenly remembered—

Hadn't Her Highness the Silver Dragon King said she would definitely appear at the Silver Dragon King Palace once Ning Rongrong reached level 40?

But now, she was about to form a Soul Ring and break through to level 41...

Wait, no. That didn't seem like something she needed to worry about.

As she thought this, she realized that her aura had stopped at the peak of level 40.

But Lu Ma saw things differently. In his eyes—

Level 40. Breakthrough!

Level 41. Breakthrough!

Her Soul Power kept climbing until it reached a little over level 42, then finally stopped.

He opened the character panel. It now looked like this:

[Ning Rongrong, Level 40 (42)]

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

Next, he opened the Martial Soul interface. After using the Holy Spirit Scroll, there were still the Holy Spirit Pills to use.

[Reverse Second Soul Skill (Holy Spirit Pills consumed: 2/3)]

[Reverse Third Soul Skill (Holy Spirit Pills consumed: 3/3)]

[Obtain Fourth Soul Skill (Complete the relevant mission)]

Before opening this interface, Lu Ma had still been wondering how to use the Holy Spirit Pills. After all, he could reverse either of his two Soul Skills.

Setting aside the special effects, the first Soul Skill was Strength Amplification. Once reversed, it absorbed the opponent's strength and let him use it to counterattack. That much was known. By the same logic—

The Second Soul Skill was Speed Boost. Once reversed, it could absorb the opponent's speed after certain conditions were met. In other words, it slowed the opponent down—a form of soft control. But if the percentage was high enough, it would be no different from hard control. For example, absorbing 99.99% of the opponent's speed would leave them practically unable to move.

The Third Soul Skill was Poison Attribute Amplification. Reversed according to the same logic, it would let him absorb the opponent's poison damage. To make it stronger, it might also lower the opponent's poison resistance. But that would make the reversed Soul Skill no different from Trapped Beast.

Lu Ma thought it over and decided reversing the Second Soul Skill would be better. His main means of dealing damage was the Eight Spider Lances. They had the property of guaranteeing that every attack after the first hit would land, but the first hit wasn't guaranteed. Thinking about it that way, giving the opponent a slowing aura would be very useful.

With that, he reversed the Second Soul Skill.

[Second Soul Skill: Speed Boost]

[Increases the speed attribute of a designated unit by 60% (subject to Soul Power Level)]

[Reversed Second Soul Skill: Mitosis]

[Absorbs 60% of the target's speed attribute. Then performs one perfect mitosis, creating a clone identical to the original. The original's attributes do not change.]

[The clone possesses 60% of the original's attributes and has independent consciousness, but obeys all of the original's commands. The clone's and original's health are calculated separately. The clone's death has no effect on the original. The clone can be summoned again after 600 minutes.]

[The clone can use all of the original's non-reversed Soul Skills at 60% effectiveness, and its effects can stack with the original's. The clone has no Soul Bones.]

[Special Effect: When the target is a Plant-type Soul Beast or a plant-type Soul Master, additionally absorbs 6% of all attributes]

[Soul Ring Age: 3,000 years]

Silence. A long silence.

Lu Ma stared at the reversed Second Soul Skill. Its effects slightly exceeded his expectations.

Not only did it absorb 60% of the target's speed attribute, just as he'd imagined, but it also absorbed an additional 6% of all attributes from plant-type Soul Masters.

More importantly, Mitosis could summon a clone capable of using Soul Skills normally. That solved the problem of not being able to use Strength Amplification and Trapped Beast at the same time. Its effects were only 60%, but that was enough.

For example, when he'd beaten Zhao Asi earlier, Lu Ma had discovered that the Eight Spider Lances could benefit from a lot of boosts.

In its initial state, with no boosts, the damage was 5% of Zhao Asi's health.

With Strength Amplification, the damage rose to 8%.

With Strength Amplification and Poison Attribute Amplification, the damage rose to 12.8%.

If the attack also received the clone's boost, the damage would reach an astonishing 19.208%, nearly 20%!

In other words, with all the boosts, level-33 Ning Rongrong would only need six full sets of Eight Spider Lances attacks to defeat a weaker Soul Douluo. What if Ning Rongrong became a Soul Ancestor, or even a Soul King? Would one-shotting a Soul Douluo still be far off?

Did those numbers make any sense?

"But I can't rule out the game designers having messed up the health values." Lu Ma quickly regained his composure. Zhao Asi's health didn't mean every Soul Douluo had the same amount. In one game Lu Ma had played, the health of an early-game level-70 boss was even lower than that of a late-game level-30 elite monster.

The reversal of the Soul Skill was complete. Lu Ma turned his attention to the remaining Fourth Soul Skill.

It was marked "Complete the relevant mission."

That suited him. Lu Ma wanted to see what the mission interface looked like now, so he followed the prompt and opened the mission panel.

The mission panel was simple, with only one page. The missions were listed plainly on it.

[(Important) Disrupt the Third Saintess Ritual:]

[Go to Star Dou Great Forest—Lake of Life to submit.]

[Mission Reward: Fourth Soul Ring—10,000 years]

[(Important) Investigate the Holy Spirit Cult:]

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

[Mission Reward: None for now; additional rewards will be given based on mission progress]

[(Regular) Shrek Special Training:]

[Core Objective: Obtain a Silver Soul Badge]

[Tracking: Return to Shrek Academy.]

[No reward.]

[Note: Upon breaking through to Soul Ancestor, the mission objectives will change]

Another long silence.

Lu Ma had a rough idea of what opportunity Ning Rongrong had encountered: the Lake of Life. That could only mean Silver Dragon King Gu Yuena.

He didn't know how Ning Rongrong had obtained this opportunity, why Gu Yuena was awake at this point in time, or what conflict she had with the Holy Spirit Cult.

But none of that mattered. He just had to get the reward.

The Holy Spirit Cult mission could wait. It was a week away, after all.

As for the Shrek mission at the bottom, there was a lot to complain about.

Not only was there no reward, but what did it mean that the mission objectives would change upon reaching Soul Ancestor?

Lu Ma forced himself to calm down and started thinking about what becoming a Soul Ancestor would affect.

After thinking it over, he figured it was the Great Soul Arena.

Here, teams were ranked according to their highest-level member. If Ning Rongrong broke through to Soul Ancestor, then the soon-to-be-formed Shrek Seven Devils would have to enter Soul Fighting at the Soul Ancestor level. After all, Shrek couldn't find an eighth member to take Ning Rongrong's place.

If the Shrek Seven Devils became a Soul Ancestor-level team, they wouldn't be able to fight the Mad Battle Team or the Imperial Fighting Team.

Lu Ma didn't think it mattered much if they couldn't fight them, but the game designers apparently disagreed.

Maybe he should just abandon this mission.

Lu Ma thought it over and ultimately decided to give it up. If the objectives changed, so be it.

He saved the game, opened the map, and headed straight for the Star Dou Great Forest.