Douluo: The Chosen Ones of Their Versions Gather, but the Eras Are Misaligned

Wind Blades rapidly condensed and shot toward them. More than a hundred Wind Blades tore through the air, their momentum not much weaker than a Soul King's Ten-Thousand-Year soul skill.

"Damn it..."

Despair rose in Gu Qingyu's eyes.

It seemed their journey through the Spirit Ascension Platform would end here.

It was just a pity for little Tang Wulin. He was still so young; hopefully, this would not leave him with any psychological trauma.

As she thought that, she suddenly felt her body grow light.

An arm wrapped around her waist and lifted her directly into the air, carrying her skyward.

"Ah! Th-this is?"

She heard Han Lingyi's startled cry. Turning her head, she found that Han Lingyi had also been swept into the air by the waist.

Beneath them, more than a hundred Wind Blades swept over the spot where they had just been standing. Dozens of gashes instantly appeared across the ground, and several nearby trees were caught in the attack and slowly toppled over.

Who else could have saved them but Bai Chen?

Although they had been more of a hindrance than help along the way, their intentions had been good. Bai Chen could not simply watch three kind people die before his eyes.

Besides, even for Bai Chen, dealing with so many Soul Beasts would not be easy. At a time like this, he still needed a few helpers.

Bai Chen said calmly,

"We can't stay in the air for too long. Prepare for battle."

He was currently holding the two girls with both arms, while the Evil God Hook had wrapped around Li Shaohan. It could be said that all his attack methods had been sealed. He did not dare remain airborne in such a state for long. If a flying Soul Beast spotted them, it would be a dead end.

"Wulin, you..."

Just as Gu Qingyu was about to say something, Bai Chen beat his wings and suddenly dove toward the ground, landing below.

He set them down and said flatly,

"Any questions can wait. Our top priority now is resolving the crisis in front of us."

"He's right, Sister Qingyu."

The one who unexpectedly spoke up for him was Li Shaohan, who had been displeased with him all along. Li Shaohan took a deep breath and forced a stiff smile.

"We paid a huge price to get in here. We can't leave so soon."

"...You're right."

Gu Qingyu glanced at the two Soul Rings circling Bai Chen and asked in a low voice,

"Tang Wulin, can we leave command of the battle to you?"

Under normal circumstances, she would never let a six- or seven-year-old child command her.

But this was a special situation. Judging from everything that had happened, Bai Chen was clearly the most suitable person to take command.

Gu Qingyu was kind, not stupid. Seeing Bai Chen's performance now, how could she fail to realize that he had been pretending before?

Bai Chen nodded steadily.

"Mm. Leave it to me."

Level Twenty-Four

The place where Bai Chen brought them down was directly in front of the wolf pack.

While they had been talking, the distance between both sides had already closed to the point where they could clash at any moment.

This distance was perfect for them. If they pulled back any farther and the wolves unleashed another group Wind Blade attack, they would still have no choice but to flee in panic.

Bai Chen spread the wings on his back and flew into the air again, shouting,

"I'll handle the wolf king. Keep the other enemies tied down for me."

With that, he flew directly over the dozens of Wind Demon Wolves in front of him and headed straight for the largest wolf king.

This was the advantage of a top-tier flying Martial Soul. If either of his other two incarnations from different eras had been here, it would have been difficult to bypass the wolf pack blocking the way. They could only have forced their way through with raw strength.

But with a flying Martial Soul, he could break through from the air.

Naturally, the wolves would not just stand by and watch. As a howl rang out, the Wind Blade Dance from earlier appeared once more and swept toward Bai Chen alone.

Bai Chen twisted and darted through the air, dodging whatever he could and shattering whatever he could not evade with the Evil God Hook.

Even so, several wounds inevitably appeared on his body.

Fortunately, just then, several Wind Demon Wolves cried out in agony. The other three had already begun fighting as well, and Bai Chen immediately felt the density of the Wind Blades decrease considerably. He was finally able to land safely in front of the Wind Demon Wolf King.

This Wind Demon Wolf King was fully five meters long. Seeing Bai Chen descend from the sky, it did not panic. Instead, it took a step back and signaled for the two Wind Demon Wolves beside it to move forward.

Once Soul Beasts reached the millennium level, they possessed a certain degree of intelligence. Wolf-type Soul Beasts, which were already known for their cunning, were even more so.

Yet before it could issue further instructions, Bai Chen had already rushed forward at high speed. The Evil God Hook pierced through the Century Wind Demon Wolf on the left, while his tiger claw slammed the other Century Wind Demon Wolf to the ground.

Bai Chen had even severely wounded a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast before. Century Soul Beasts posed no threat to him at all.

Black streams of light rose up. After devouring the energy of another Wind Demon Wolf, Bai Chen felt his cultivation improve again. He was only one step away from breaking through to the next level.

"Grr..."

Seeing its two subordinates instantly defeated, the wolf king bared its fangs at Bai Chen in warning. At the same time, a cyan sphere of light rapidly condensed above its head, with dozens of Wind Blades visibly spinning at high speed within it.

This was its killing move. After seeing its trusted subordinates swiftly crushed, the wolf king's contempt had completely vanished.

It intended to use this move to tear Bai Chen to pieces.

But it would never have the chance to unleash that attack.

It only saw a blur before its eyes. By the time it came to its senses, Bai Chen's Evil God Hook had somehow already pierced through its skull.

"Awooo—"

The wolf king immediately let out a huge wail and struggled desperately with the last of its life force.

But it was useless. Other than making it die faster, it accomplished nothing.

Black-red light gradually devoured the wolf king starting from its head. As pure energy entered his body, the bottleneck of his level shattered, and Bai Chen finally advanced to Level Twenty-Four.

"Whew, that wasn't easy."

He let out a soft sigh and shook his head slightly.

It was not as though he had never tried cultivating normally these past few days, but the speed could only be described as crawling like a turtle.

It was no exaggeration to say that, at his current cultivation speed, a year of normal cultivation might not even compare to the improvement a single Millennium Soul Beast in the Spirit Ascension Platform could bring him.

Bai Chen did not linger in his reflections for long. After all, the danger brought by the wolf pack had not yet been completely resolved.

After adjusting his mood, he threw himself back into battle.

After losing the wolf king's leadership, the wolf pack's morale and combat strength both declined noticeably. One minute later, the once-mighty pack had been completely slaughtered.

Only then did the four of them truly relax.

Gu Qingyu looked at Bai Chen with a complicated expression.

"Little brother, you..."

But before she could continue, Bai Chen interrupted her directly.

"Thank you for taking care of me along the way, but I have important business to attend to. Let's part ways here."

After saying that, he gave them a polite nod, then turned and left without looking back.

Gu Qingyu watched him go, opening her mouth, but in the end, she could not bring herself to ask him to stay.

They had thought they were taking care of a child, only to end up being taken care of by him instead.

After Bai Chen walked out of their sight, he quietly let out a breath.

He had not lied in his final words. He truly did have something urgent to do now.

He looked around, and after confirming that no one was nearby, he extended a hand toward the tree in front of him.

The next moment, specks of cyan light gathered before his palm and eventually condensed into a sharp Wind Blade that shot straight forward.

Bang!

A slash mark immediately appeared on the tree.

"Hmm..."

Bai Chen stared at the mark and fell into thought.

While slaughtering the wolf pack earlier, after killing one of the Wind Demon Wolves, he had suddenly felt as though something new had appeared within his body.

The sensation was somewhat similar to absorbing a Soul Ring. A sudden intuition had arisen in him: as long as he wished it, he could release Wind Blades just like those Wind Demon Wolves.

The facts proved that his intuition had been correct.

But the power of this Wind Blade was rather questionable.

Whether in terms of condensation speed or power, it was far inferior to the genuine Wind Blades he had just witnessed.

Moreover, whenever he used this soul skill, he always felt as if his soul power was circulating sluggishly. Could this really be considered a soul skill? He did not feel this way when using his two genuine soul skills.

"..."

Bai Chen narrowed his eyes and raised his hand again.

Well, this soul skill did not consume much anyway. He could try it a few more times and see what happened.

The fact that he could obtain new soul skills through Devouring Power was far too important to Bai Chen. He needed to thoroughly study how this ability worked.

Thus, Bai Chen spent the next hour studying his newly acquired ability in this area.

Whenever Soul Beasts happened to pass by, he would casually kill them to restore his soul power.

After an hour had passed, Bai Chen finally gained a preliminary understanding of this ability.

First and foremost, the most important point was that the power of this soul skill was not fixed.

Bai Chen discovered that as his number of attempts increased, both the release speed and attack power of the Wind Blades gradually improved. At the same time, the sluggish sensation in his soul power circulation also slowly faded.

Although it still could not compare to a true soul skill, at this rate, raising this soul skill's power above the average level was only a matter of time.

A New Ability

If he used a game as an analogy, soul skills were like game abilities that required proficiency. Generally speaking, soul skills granted by Soul Rings naturally began with over ninety percent proficiency. Therefore, no matter how inept the user was, they could still release the soul skill normally.

This was the greatest difference between the soul skill system and other systems, including magic systems. Soul skills were simply too convenient. For the vast majority of Soul Masters, the innate strength of their soul skills was already sufficient, leaving no need for further development.

However, Bai Chen's situation was different. Though he could obtain skills through devouring, the proficiency of those skills had to be built up from scratch.

That was why the Wind Blade he had released for the first time earlier had been so weak. The reason was that this soul skill's experience bar was empty, and its proficiency had not yet been raised.

As proficiency increased, both the casting speed and power multiplier of the skill would improve, while its soul power consumption would decrease significantly. If Bai Chen raised this skill's proficiency to ninety percent, it would be no different from gaining another soul skill.

With that, the issue of the soul skill's power had received a preliminary answer.

But this ability still had many mysteries that remained unresolved.

First, what were the conditions for obtaining soul skills through devouring?

This ability definitely could not activate unconditionally. Otherwise, given the number of Soul Beasts Bai Chen had killed so far, he should have dozens of soul skills by now.

There had to be restrictions and conditions behind this ability.

Bai Chen guessed that the first condition was probably attributes.

The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger itself possessed six attributes: evil, time, darkness, space, hurricane, and lightning. This Martial Soul should only be able to obtain abilities related to those six attributes, perhaps with strength included at most.

The fact that the first soul skill Bai Chen obtained through devouring was wind-elemental had already partially proven this. If he could only acquire soul skills related to those six attributes in the future, it would be completely confirmed.

As for the second condition, it was probably a matter of probability, just like Soul Bones.

Bai Chen had killed dozens of Wind Demon Wolves, yet he had only taken the Wind Blade ability from one of them.

This showed that he could not obtain a soul skill from every opponent with a one hundred percent success rate.

He could not say what the exact probability was, but since this ability had triggered so quickly, it was probably not so low as to be hopeless.

As for more conditions and restrictions, he would have to explore them slowly in the future.

No matter what, this discovery was absolutely good news for Bai Chen.

During his previous battle with Huo Yuhao, he had noticed his current problem: his offensive methods were far too limited.

Why had he not relied on his ability to fly and fight a guerrilla battle against Huo Yuhao? Because Huo Yuhao had long-range attacks, while he did not...