Paths of Advancement

The autumn air is crisp and clear, Douluo Continent is filled with the magnificent scene of a bountiful harvest.

Looking down from 10,000 meters above the ground, vast expanses of bright yellow stretch out before you, a sight that inexplicably brings a sense of comfort.

Even noble Soul Master who had never experienced hunger couldn't help but smile from ear to ear when they saw the "Blue Silver Rice" being harvested.

There's no way around it. Although the price of this rice has been kept at a moderate level under the control of the Green Wood Merchant Association, its planting cost is also low. In addition, the yield per acre is quite high. With small profits and quick turnover, each harvest means a considerable income.

Over the years, many small and medium-sized Soul Master families have relied on land reclamation and planting "Blue Silver Rice" to obtain a stable source of income.

Isn't this much safer than guarding the outside of the Soul Hunting Forest and hunting Soul Beast for others?

The stronger Soul Master family is, the more land it can occupy, and if it really develops in this area, it will inevitably gain more benefits.

Of course, for them, there are still more cost-effective projects worth developing in the current Douluo Continent.

For example, cultivating "Blue Silver Grass" that has been aged for many years, raising birds, beasts, and fish with the bloodline of Soul Beast, and investing in newly emerging industries such as forging, carving, and brewing.

While seventy percent of the human kingdoms on the mainland were ablaze with excitement, in Lingyun City, at the Martial Soul Research Institute, Yu Xiaogang's heart was also burning with fervor.

Walking briskly up to the top floor of the research institute, Yu Xiaogang stood in front of a large door made of pure metal. He took a deep breath, suppressed his excitement, and then stepped forward to knock on the bright silver door.

A few breaths later, the door was opened from the inside, revealing Ling Yi's handsome, otherworldly face.

"You're here~" Ling Yi said with a warm smile, turning to Yu Xiaogang, "Come in."

"Um!"

Yu Xiaogang swallowed hard, his throat dry, and looked through the half-open door at the scene inside.

This is a huge room with a floor, ceiling, and four walls all covered with metal panels. It has an area of more than 500 square meters and a height of more than six meters!

Inside this huge room were seven or eight workbenches scattered around. In the left corner near the entrance, there was a row of pure metal cages with railings as thick as an average person's arm.

About a third of these cages were empty; the others contained either Wolf Bandits who were half-human and half-wolf, human Soul Master whose auras were weak, or Soul Beast covered in ferocious scales... The Weiyi thing they had in common was that all of them were sleeping peacefully at the moment.

"Don't worry~" Noticing that Yu Xiaogang's gaze unconsciously drifted towards the cage, Ling Yi reassured him gently, "Not to mention that they're all affected by the 'Soothing Incense' and basically won't wake up, even if they were awakened by a sufficiently strong external stimulus, they wouldn't be able to break free of the confinement in the Gao Qiang metal cage engraved with 'Soul-Binding Array Patterns' for a short time."

"And this is enough time for me to activate the ' God-Sealing Formation ' in this room."

Yu Xiaogang remained noncommittal to Ling Yi's words. What he cared about was not whether these imprisoned "experiments" would suddenly escape and attack people.

After all, don't be fooled by the fact that he is only a level 39 Soul Elder while Ling Yi is a level 66 Soul Emperor. He is Power Attack System Battle Soul Elder, while Ling Yi is a Healing System Soul Emperor. In terms of combat power and self-preservation ability, Yu Xiaogang is confident that he can crush his opponent!

Just a moment ago, Yu Xiaogang was thinking about whether he could continue the experiments on his own, without relying on Ling Yi, if he also had such a laboratory and this batch of "experimental subjects".

Just then, the two arrived at a workbench in the room.

"Xiaogang ~" Ling Yi pointed to a pile of petri dishes on the workbench and said with a hint of joy, "After two weeks of verification and screening, we have finally found six sequence lines that match the mutated bloodline in your body among more than three thousand bloodline compatibility tests."

Six types?!

Yu Xiaogang's wandering thoughts returned instantly, and his gaze was involuntarily drawn to several petri dishes on the workbench.

"Hmm!" Ling Yi nodded, his gaze also sweeping over the petri dishes from left to right, as he explained:

"The first method involves extracting the dragon bloodline from the ' One-Horned Flame Dragon Beast,' adding the power of light refined from an eighty-year-old 'Light Blue Silver Grass,' and combining it with other bloodline-activating potions, all of which are then injected into your blood sample."

"After using thirty-six catties of dragon blood and twenty-eight 'Light Blue Silver Grass ' plants, and through seventy-nine experiments, a trace of extremely weak Dragon Power was born in your blood sample."

"I must say, the mutated bloodline sample within you contains far more active energy factors than the other bloodline samples from your clan that you provided before!"

"You know, according to my original estimate, it would take at least hundreds, or even thousands, of repeated trials to have any hope of getting even a little bit of positive feedback."

"As for the birth of Dragon Power..." Ling Yi glanced at the pile of culture dishes on the workbench next to him, shook his head and said, "It all depends on luck."

That was another batch of experimental control groups made from blood samples of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan provided by Yu Xiaogang.

Yu Xiaogang wasn't too concerned about how much effort and time Ling Yi had spent. Looking at the petri dish on the far left of the workbench, he asked impatiently, "What does that wisp of Dragon Power represent? Is it the direction my Martial Soul is heading?"

More than half a month ago, he returned to Lingyun City with more than 400,000 Gold Soul Coin. After finding the city lord Ling Yi, he revealed his identity as the son of the patriarch of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, and applied to have his Mutated Martial Soul researched at the Martial Soul Research Institute, and invited Ling Yi to participate.

For various reasons, Ling Yi accepted Yu Xiaogang's invitation and specially set up a research project on the "Dragon Martial Soul Bloodline Advancement Sequence".

Afterwards, Yu Xiaogang collected blood samples from more than ten dragon-type martial soul masters on the Douluo Continent, including the "Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon," "White Armored Ground Dragon One-Horned Fire Tyrant Dragon Billowing Sea Plesiosaur," "Azure Flying Wing Dragon Martial Soul. "Soul Master

In addition, Yu Xiaogang funded the acquisition of a series of experimental consumables in the shortest time on the Douluo Continent through the channels provided by Lingyun City. These consumables included the flesh and blood of various dragon-type Soul Beast, as well as a series of rare materials with different attributes.

"That's right."

Ling Yi gave Yu Xiaogang an answer that made him beam with joy, "Although that wisp of Dragon Power dissipated as soon as it was born, if it can succeed once, it means it can succeed many times."

"After several more verifications, I finally used an enhanced version of the ' Soul Storage Crystal ' to capture that wisp of Dragon Power. By studying its characteristics and comparing it with ancient texts, I can confirm that the nature of that wisp of Dragon Power is very similar to the legendary ' Radiant Holy Dragon '!"

"In other words, Xiaogang, your ' Luo Sanpao ' has a chance to advance its bloodline towards the ' Radiant Holy Dragon '!"

Upon hearing this, Yu Xiaogang could no longer contain his excitement. He stepped forward and approached the petri dish that seemed to emit a faint glow, his eyes flashing with intoxication and fervor.

"The Radiant Holy Dragon! It's the Radiant Holy Dragon! It must be the Radiant Holy Dragon!!"

He murmured softly, his Yu Xiaogang body trembling with excitement.

After a while, Yu Xiaogang finally suppressed his inner fervor, glanced at the remaining five culture dishes out of the corner of his eye, and turned to Ling Yi: "City Lord Ling, what about the rest? What are their attributes?"

"Don't rush," Ling Yi said calmly, his smile unchanged.

Seeing Yu Xiaogang's impatient look, he didn't waste any time and continued, "The second method is to use the blood of the ' Purple Lightning Python ' and the sap of the ' Thunder Element Tree ' to create a ' Lightning Element Activator,' which will stimulate the mutated bloodline in your blood sample and trace back to the bloodline power that originally belonged to the ' Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon.'"

"The ' Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon '?" Yu Xiaogang's joy faded slightly, and a strange look appeared in his eyes.

If it were him in the past, upon hearing that his Martial Soul had a chance to become the "Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon," he would have jumped for joy.

The fact that "Luo Sanpao" looks no different from a pig has always been a sore point for him, while his clansmen whose Martial Soul is "Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon" are his long-cherished desire, and he longs to be one of them.

But now, with the "Radiant Holy Dragon" as a precedent, he felt a little disdainful when he heard about the possibility of the "Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon".

Ling Yi noticed the change in Yu Xiaogang's expression but didn't say anything, simply continuing his introduction.

"... With the combination of ' Iron Armored Dragon Turtle ' bone fluid and ' Primal Magnetism Ore Core ' powder... there is hope that it can advance towards becoming the ' Golden Earth Dragon King ' among the Earth Element Dragons..."

"And... the ' Holy Flame Winged Divine Dragon '..."

"And... ' Thunderfire Thunderbolt Dragon '..."

After explaining the fifth advancement sequence in one breath, Ling Yi's voice finally stopped in the empty room.

"Anything else?"

Having calmed down, Yu Xiaogang's gaze had just shifted to the petri dish on the far right of the workbench when he suddenly noticed Ling Yi had stopped speaking. He turned back to look at him, somewhat puzzled, and asked, "What's the attribute of this last one?"

Upon hearing this, Ling Yi's smile faded, his brows furrowed slightly, and he said in a lower voice, "This... was an accident."

As he spoke, his gaze fell upon the dark red liquid in the petri dish.

Following Ling Yi's gaze, Yu Xiaogang also turned his attention to it, and in a daze, he seemed to notice that the dark red liquid wriggled twice.

A dozen minutes later, on the third floor of the Martial Soul Research Institute, in room 301.

Ling Yi looked at Yu Xiaogang, who was lying on the stone bed awaiting examination, and said, "My personal suggestion is that you strive towards becoming the ' Radiant Holy Dragon.'"

"After all, whether according to the records in the ancient texts or the comparison of the Dragon Power I extracted and sealed in the ' Soul Storage Crystal,' the power level of the ' Radiant Holy Dragon ' is higher than that of other final forms, including the ' Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon ' and the ' Golden Earth Dragon King.'"

"Of course, everything has its advantages and disadvantages. While the ' Radiant Holy Dragon ' is stronger, the resources, time, and effort required to successfully advance it far exceed those of the other paths!"

"If you prefer a safer option, then the ' Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon ' is the best choice."

"After all, if my speculation is correct, your ' Luo Sanpao ' should be the result of the backlash of bloodline power after the ' Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon ' failed to mutate and advance into the ' Radiant Holy Dragon.'"

"In this situation, you can either gradually replenish the 'nutrients' needed for advancement until ' Luo Sanpao ' successfully advances to ' Radiant Holy Dragon ', or you can return to your original state, abandon the advancement, and instead trace back to the ' Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon ' power that was originally dormant within you."

"Of course, if you have other aspirations for your future cultivation, the ' Golden Earth Dragon King ' with its primary earth element attribute, the ' Holy Flame Winged Divine Dragon ' with both light and fire attributes, and the ' Thunderfire Thunderbolt Dragon ' with both lightning and fire attributes are also within your selection range."

"Anyway, the resources you need to consume will vary depending on the route, since it involves different attributes such as light, lightning, fire, and earth."

Ling Yi's clear voice echoed softly in his ears, while Yu Xiaogang himself was caught in a state of endless entanglement.

Deep down, he definitely wanted to advance his Martial Soul towards the "Radiant Holy Dragon".

But he was also well aware of how difficult this was. Leaving aside the effort required of Soul Master during the advancement process, the resources alone, according to the calculations Ling Yi had given him, even at cost price, would bankrupt his father, Yu Yuanzhen, and cripple the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan!

After spending the first half a month of experimentation, he now had less than 200,000 yuan left.

This was because Ling Yi, as the leader of the experiment, was able to make the most of every material, with almost no waste. In addition, Lingyun City paid the cost price when purchasing the experimental materials. Otherwise, it would be questionable whether even a single Copper Soul Coin would be left from the 400,000 Gold Soul Coin that Yu Xiaogang brought.

After reviewing Yu Xiaogang's medical report and personally examining him, Ling Yi said to Yu Xiaogang, who had just stood up, "Go to room 404 on the fourth floor and use the ' Nine Shao Sound-Stabilizing Soul Guidance Array ' there to temper your bones and muscles. Of all the tonics you've taken over the past two years, aside from what you've absorbed and what you've lost for various reasons, a small portion remains hidden within you."

"Over the past two weeks, I've taught you the ' Beast Martial Soul - Xingyi Fist II' - Jiao Snake Shooting Breath, and you've almost mastered it. As long as you combine it with the ' Nine Shao Sound-Stabilizing Soul Guidance Array ' in Room 404, it should be enough to raise your Soul Power to level 40."

"After that, you can choose the attribute of your Fourth Soul Ring based on the direction of your Martial Soul advancement."

"After you break through, come back here and have A Huan and the others check your bone and joint strength and meridian resilience to determine the upper limit of your Fourth Soul Ring's absorption period..."