Titled Douluo

The kingdom's regional preliminaries lasted only half a month. During that time, Li Chen occasionally went to watch a match when he was bored. All he could say was that words failed him.

With how blatantly they threw those matches, they might as well have simply forfeited. In the end, an unknown academy advanced.

That academy's team had four Soul Elders and three Soul Grandmasters. The local academies were rotten to the core. Rather than spending money to buy off their opponents, they would have been better off using it to improve their students.

Surely it wasn't because the students would leave after graduation, while money in their own pockets would stay theirs?

Once the closing ceremony ended, the Haagen-Dazs Kingdom would escort them to Heaven Dou City for the Promotion Tournament.

"Wine Fox, I'm level 90, so I'm going to get a Soul Ring. You'll lead the team for now."

"Master, are you sure you don't need my help?"

"Just lead the team. It's not like I'm hunting a hundred-thousand-year soul beast. Even if I were, I could kill it with ease. I'll wait for you in Heaven Dou City. All right, be good."

With that, he left the team and went to the Emerald Merchant Guild in Haagen-Dazs City, where he used the Teleportation Stele to arrive instantly in the Star Dou Great Forest.

After casually killing a thousand-year soul beast, Li Chen was about to absorb its Soul Ring when he suddenly wondered whether he could feed it to the Transmutation Table.

Then, once his ninth Soul Ring disabled mob death drops, his leveling problem would be solved.

He put the idea into action immediately. Raising a hand, he took out the Transmutation Table and placed each Soul Ring on it. The warm Soul Rings became cold icons on the table.

Next, he selected the purchase option. Beyond quantity, he could actually choose their age as well, from 1,000 to 9,000 years, though only in increments of a thousand.

A 9,000-year Soul Ring actually cost the same as nine Thousand-Year Soul Rings. It really calculated the price through simple addition.

"In that case!" Li Chen was no longer in a hurry to absorb his ninth Soul Ring. First, he wanted to collect every type of Soul Ring.

He killed another thousand-year soul beast and sold its Soul Ring, but the Transmutation Table still contained only one type of Thousand-Year Soul Ring.

"Wait." Looking at the Transmutation Table, Li Chen switched straight into creative mode, took out a random Enchanted Book, sold it, then bought it back.

Just as he had suspected, its appearance and name were still those of an Enchanted Book, but it had no enchantment. The Transmutation Table had wiped it away.

In other words, Soul Rings were much like Enchanted Books. The Transmutation Table could not recognize any of the information about the soul beast within a Soul Ring.

He just did not know whether it would automatically match his martial soul like a god-given soul ring. For now, he would first collect one of each, from ten-year soul rings to Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings.

Hundred-year and ten-thousand-year soul beasts were practically everywhere in the Star Dou Great Forest, but ten-year ones were surprisingly hard to find. He could only give up on those for now.

He transmuted a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring. The Soul Ring produced by the Transmutation Table did not appear as a ring, but as a black, diamond-shaped crystal.

With Invincibility activated, everywhere was a safe zone. He sat down cross-legged, crushed it, and began absorbing it. The moment he started, he sensed something was off.

It felt no different from absorbing a ten-year soul ring. Not only was there no Soul Shock from a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring, but the absorption process was exceptionally smooth.

He successfully absorbed it in less than half an hour. A black Soul Ring appeared, and he entered the command he had designed and prepared in advance, "disable mob death drops," into the Command Block.

"Now I'm a Titled Douluo too. Should I come up with a title for myself?" Li Chen opened his eyes and looked at the nine Soul Rings circling his feet.

Wither Douluo? Storm Douluo? Sovereign Douluo?

After thinking of a whole slew of titles, he found none particularly satisfying and gave up. A title was not a necessity anyway.

He transmuted one Hundred-Year Soul Ring, one Thousand-Year Soul Ring, and one Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring. In his hands, they became three diamond-shaped crystals, each retaining its Soul Ring's original color.

He casually put the three Soul Ring Crystals into his Storage Ring. He only needed to confirm their shelf life, mainly whether they would dissipate like little Soul Rings.

Then he would complete the collection with a ten-year soul ring and a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring, and announce Heaven Beyond Heaven's existence with great fanfare after the Soul Master Tournament.

From then on, everyone across the Whole Continent would advance under his control, rather than going to the Star Dou Great Forest to hunt for Soul Rings.

"Looks like I can make another tidy sum off the Star Dou Great Forest while I'm at it. After all, this command only keeps soul masters in check."

Before going, however, he first selected his level 90 MOD.

[Player, please select the MOD to add from the following three MODs.]

[Aether]: Adds the "Aether" dimension and its associated creatures, items, and portals.

[Twilight Forest]: Adds the "Twilight Forest" dimension and its associated creatures, items, and portals.

[AbyssalCraft]: Adds the "AbyssalCraft" dimension and its associated creatures, items, and portals.

Li Chen looked at this batch of MODs. All of them added dimensions. He had not even fully explored the Nether, and he had never been to The End. Now he was actually going to add another one.

He had never played AbyssalCraft, so he ruled it out immediately. Either of the remaining two seemed fine to him. Why couldn't he have them all?

After some thought, he decided to add "Aether" first. This time, he felt nothing after making his selection.

After all, this MOD was somewhat fundamentally different from the others. He would explore it properly when he had time later.

[Ding! The MOD loading interface has been updated! Once the host reaches level 100, you may select three MODs from a random pool of 100.]

"Three out of a hundred, too? Why has the system suddenly become so generous?" Li Chen looked at the unexpected system notification.

Aside from binding to him and reminding him to select MODs, this was the first time it had proactively displayed a notification. He just hoped the system would not stuff the pool with garbage and make him sift through shit for gold.

"Time to find Di Tian and collect a protection fee. After all, I've protected the soul beasts from the fate of being hunted down whenever soul masters want Soul Rings to advance."

Li Chen flew straight toward the Lake of Life, making no effort to conceal his aura along the way.

Powerful waves of soul power spread like a rising tide. Wherever he passed, birds and beasts scattered through the woods in alarm. Even some ten-thousand-year soul beasts crouched low, not daring to move.

He had flown for roughly the time it took to drink a cup of tea when a series of dull tremors suddenly came from the dense forest ahead. The ground shook faintly, and swathes of trees were snapped from within by something crashing through them, toppling with a thunderous roar.

Then an enormous ape stepped out of the forest, blocking his path.

The Titan Giant Ape, Er Ming.

"Human, this is no place for you." Er Ming spoke, his voice low as muffled thunder.

Hovering in midair, Li Chen looked down at this overlord of the Star Dou Great Forest no differently than he would an ordinary monkey. "I'm in a good mood right now. You hundred-thousand-year Soul Ring, get out of the way yourself, and maybe you'll live a couple more days."

It was not that he was looking down on Er Ming. Even as a Soul Saint, he had been able to clash head-on with the nearly eight-hundred-thousand-year-old Evil Emperor without using Zeroing. Now that he was already a Titled Douluo, wasn't Er Ming just a big monkey by comparison?

But to Er Ming, those words were naked provocation. Who was he? He was the forest's overlord, a hundred-thousand-year soul beast.