"Uncle Jian, are you all right?"
Seeing Sword Douluo in such a sorry state, Ning Fengzhi asked after him as soon as he was safe.
Bone Douluo could naturally tell that Sword Douluo was uninjured, but seeing his old friend looking so bedraggled, he could not help taking some pleasure in his misfortune.
Yet Sword Douluo paid it no mind at all. He simply stared at Gu Yang, then said evenly:
"Well done, boy. That second Soul Skill of yours-if someone fails to dodge it in time, anyone below Soul Emperor would have absolutely no chance of survival!"
"What?!"
Ning Fengzhi's pupils contracted sharply. As an Auxiliary System Soul Master, he could not discern the intricacies involved, but Sword Douluo understood them.
Ning Fengzhi could hear the seriousness in Sword Douluo's words just now. He did not sound as though he was joking.
Bone Douluo had not tried it himself. Though he had guessed that Gu Yang's second Soul Skill was formidable, he had never expected it to earn such an assessment from Sword Douluo.
Sword Douluo looked solemn and earnest. "Gu Yang, I stand by what I said before. Follow the Power Attack System path in the future!"
"A person's time and effort are limited, after all. You can't pursue both defense and power attack at once. With your first Soul Skill, Bone Armor, you actually already have enough. As your strength increases, the defensive power of your first Soul Skill, Bone Armor, will continue to improve as well. That's why you should focus on developing your offensive skills!"
"Add elemental attacks and increase the offensive strength of your bones. Judging by what you've shown now, if you follow the Power Attack System path, your future will be limitless. You might not even be weaker than the continent's twin peaks of old!"
The continent's twin peaks Sword Douluo spoke of naturally referred to Tang Chen of the Clear Sky Sect and Qian Daoliu of Spirit Hall.
In Sword Douluo's view, he was not exaggerating at all. At the very least, those two surely had not been as terrifying as Gu Yang when their Soul Power Levels were in the twenties.
"Gu Yang, Uncle Jian has a point. Since you have such talent, you should put it to good use. You're already this strong now. If you keep strengthening your attacks, it really is impossible to imagine how far you might go."
Ning Fengzhi took the opportunity to offer his persuasion as well.
Compared with the Defense System, the Power Attack System was indeed more sought-after.
How could passively taking a beating compare to taking the initiative to strike?
Why was Sword Douluo's influence on the continent so much greater than Bone Douluo's?
Why was the emblem representing the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect on Spirit Hall's Elder Token the Seven Kill Sword rather than the Bone Dragon?
Did people really think it was only because Sword Douluo's Soul Power Level was one level higher than Bone Douluo's and he was stronger?
There was nothing unreasonable about Ning Fengzhi and Sword Douluo urging him to develop his offensive strength.
However, Gu Yang truly had no intention of continuing to strengthen his attacks. Or rather, he leaned more toward diversifying his attacks and adding variety to his methods.
As for offensive strength? Once Gu Yang's idea for All-Killing Ash Bones became reality, its absurdly destructive property of killing on contact would naturally give him the strongest attack.
By comparison, blindly strengthening his attacks now seemed more like wasting Soul Ring slots and skill slots.
Of course, these were things Gu Yang could not explain to Ning Fengzhi, Sword Douluo, and Bone Douluo.
He could only agree verbally for now.
Transmigrator's diary:
[March 24, 2639, Douluo Calendar.]
[Saturday.]
[Light rain.]
[Today is my 2,921st day on the Douluo Continent, and this young master's eighth birthday.]
[Through one dull, tedious day of cultivation after another, my Soul Power Level has finally reached thirty. I can finally obtain another Soul Ring.]
[Honestly, cultivating is really boring.]
[But whenever I think about how all this hard cultivation now is so I can show off better later, it all feels worthwhile.]
[After all, without these years of hard cultivation day after day, I couldn't possibly have broken through to become a level-thirty Soul Elder at eight.]
[You know, that princess Ning Rongrong next door is only at Soul Power Level seventeen right now.]
[I seriously suspect that princess is a masochist. I've clearly disciplined her like a dog, just the way Dai Mubai did in the original story, yet however I chase her away or bully her, nothing works. She sticks like taffy.]
[Maybe the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect has too many simps, and yours truly is the lone flower standing above the rest, making me seem especially unique.]
[The more unique something is, the easier it is to get hooked.]
[What you can't have always keeps you restless.]
[If I simped too, maybe that princess Ning Rongrong would stop clinging to me.]
[But this young master can't do it. I really can't!]
[Damn it, I get the feeling Ning Fengzhi is fanning the flames behind the scenes too. He keeps inviting me over for meals, and every single time it's with Ning Rongrong. His intentions are practically written out in plain sight on his face.]
[On Douluo, dating young is legal.]
[Come to think of it, Tang San and that rabbit spirit seem to have started at the junior Soul Master Academy too.]
[Then there are Dai Mubai and Zhu Zhuqing. They definitely weren't late either.]
[By comparison, even Oscar counts as a late starter.]
[Oscar-right, that princess needs to hurry up and find Oscar so I can have some peace.]
[Wait, could my appearance end up beating apart that pair of lovebirds?]
[Please, no! I'd rather break up that tiger-and-cat pair.]
[Well, it's mealtime again. I have to go to Ning Fengzhi's place again today. He's the sect master, after all, so it's hard to refuse.]
[Fortunately, I'll be heading out to obtain my third Soul Ring soon. This time, I'm definitely staying out a few extra days. I absolutely refuse to come back early.]
[I'm not going to Sunset Forest. I'll go farther away, to Star Dou Great Forest! That way, I can stay out a little longer too.]
[I'm quite looking forward to my third Soul Ring. Barring any surprises, its age should be able to pass ten thousand years.]
[With these words, on the 2,921st day since transmigrating to Douluo, personally penned by Gu Yang in his quarters at the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.]
After finishing, he put the notebook into his Storage Soul Tool. Before Gu Yang could even catch his breath, a soft, sweet girl's voice came from outside the door.
"Gu Yang, are you there? Dad told me to call you over for dinner!"
A girl in a pale cyan little-girl-style outfit, with long chestnut hair, pushed the door open and entered, looking around the room with curiosity all over her face.
"Could you knock first next time?" Gu Yang said coldly.
He had only been writing in his diary this time. What if she had caught him watching something...
Caught him cultivating, that was. An interruption like this could easily cause something to go wrong.
"The door wasn't closed anyway. Besides, this is my home. Why should I have to knock?" Ning Rongrong promptly replied, taking it all for granted.
Only when she met Gu Yang's gaze and remembered that he would never indulge her did Ning Rongrong grow afraid. She obediently said, "All right, I'll knock first from now on."
As she spoke, Ning Rongrong took out a small jade bottle and placed it in front of Gu Yang.
"What is it?" Gu Yang asked reflexively.
Ning Rongrong smiled faintly, dimples forming on both cheeks. "This is your birthday present. They're pills bought from some Breaking Clan or something, apparently. They're calcium supplements. Your Martial Soul is bones, and you love cultivating so much. Getting some extra calcium will be good for you!"
"..."
"Since you've come to get me, let's go. We shouldn't keep Sect Master Ning waiting too long."
One did not strike a smiling face. Since Ning Rongrong had actually remembered his birthday, Gu Yang said no more and went with her to Ning Fengzhi's place for dinner.
(A timid little question: this is a new book-is anyone reading?)