Combat power is one aspect, but the most important thing is that You Chen has always had a survival ability that surpasses combat power.
It can be said that now, unless he himself is unwilling, only a god could kill him.
Therefore, he no longer needs to be as extremely restrained and cautious as before.
After reconciling with himself, the taut string in his heart naturally relaxed.
You Chen felt that his tranquil mind was incredibly clear and at ease.
Clearly not in a state of hyper-focus, yet his thoughts were exceptionally agile and clear, with many ideas bubbling up like bubbles, all becoming insightful the moment they surfaced.
This feeling… was as if he had entered a moment of inspiration…
"Moment of inspiration… no, this is!"
You Chen suddenly came to his senses, exclaiming, wanting to amplify and stabilize this state through the moment of inspiration, but the instant he had such a thought, his mental state inevitably withdrew from this ethereal clarity.
'It's over…'
You Chen felt a bit regretful, yet also somewhat relieved.
It was obvious that holding onto such a utilitarian mindset would absolutely prevent him from entering the realm of "a heart as clear as a mirror."
You Chen slightly clenched his fists.
A heart as clear as a mirror… this was precisely the necessary condition for You Xing in the original game to allow Stardust Dragon to evolve into Meteor Dragon.
"I didn't expect to touch upon that realm by coincidence in such a situation," You Chen sighed.
However, in this real and fantastical world, can one still rely on this mental state to allow Stardust Dragon to evolve?
You Chen was not in a hurry.
Where there is one, there is two; since he had already touched the surface of the realm of a heart as clear as a mirror, with his talent, he would surely be able to truly step into that domain one day.
He had that confidence.
In the cultivation of mental realms, sometimes taking a detour is the real shortcut; there is no need to rush.
You Chen quickly began to continue his previous reflections.
From the previous battles, it was clear that his greatest shortcoming now… was the control over Stardust Power.
This power, formed by the perfect fusion of three elemental forces, was already comparable in strength to the legendary ultimate power.
Even without the many advantages You Chen had, simply mastering this ultimate power would be enough to threaten a Titled Douluo at the Soul Saint stage.
In You Chen's hands, it was a terrifying power that could directly threaten a Super Douluo.
It was also because of its terrifying might that, in previous battles, You Chen did not dare to use it lightly.
After all, his opponents were not people he intended to truly kill.
The only time he used it was merely to crush Qian Renxue's weapon soul skill.
From that one instance of use, You Chen was able to further confirm some characteristics of Stardust Power.
First, there was "purification." Just like Qian Renxue's Angelic Holy Power and Angel Domain could purify and dissolve the enemy's soul power, You Chen's Stardust Power also had a similar effect.
However, compared to the relatively gentle coverage and dissolution of Angelic Holy Power, You Chen's Stardust Power was more domineering, fierce, and hard-hitting.
While shattering Qian Renxue's soul skill, it directly eroded back, inflicting heavy damage on her.
This purifying power was the manifestation of the originally holy attribute within Stardust Power.
Next was "amplification." It raised the quality of You Chen's soul power to a strength far beyond its original realm.
It was this amplification power, combined with the purifying power, that exhibited such overwhelming might.
This amplification power was the manifestation of the originally stellar attribute within Stardust Power.
Lastly, there was "speed." The most typical technique executed with Stardust Power was shooting at supersonic speeds, so fast that even a Super Douluo could not react.
Naturally, this speed power was the expression of the original wind attribute power within Stardust Power.
Purification, amplification, and speed—these three elements could be said to have perfectly combined to form the ultimate Stardust Power.
With You Chen's insight, it was not difficult to judge the effects that could be derived from mastering Stardust Power.
By combining the effects of purification and amplification, one could completely exhibit a "healing" power.
Amplification applied to oneself could easily form an amplification-type soul skill.
As for speed, using Stardust Power to replace the original self-transformation soul skill, after reconstruction, could allow the speed of the technique to increase several levels.
If before mastering Stardust Power, You Chen was a Super Douluo with a focus on physical strength, after mastering Stardust Power, his attribute panel returned to a hexagonal shape.
Thus, You Chen quickly wrote the first line on his schedule: 1. Stardust Power…
The cultivation of Stardust Power could also be seen as the cultivation of soul power. If You Chen could achieve control over Stardust Power like he currently did with wind-type power, his control over soul power would likely reach a so-called perfect level.
After soul power, there was Divine Power. You Chen had already made plans in this regard; he had a clear idea about the subsequent development of the "Soul Control Technique."
So he quickly wrote the second line: 2. Divine Power, Soul Control Technique…
However, recalling the state of a heart as clear as a mirror he had unintentionally entered earlier, he added a few more words: Split Mind Refining Soul Technique.
After breaking through Divine Power, You Chen estimated that it wouldn't take long before he could naturally leap across two realms, from the Five Hearts realm to the Seven Hearts realm.
Every additional split mind would exponentially increase the demand for Divine Power. You Chen estimated that even if his Divine Power could break through to the Spirit Domain realm, reaching the level of Divine Sense, having a ten-heart realm would be about right.
Therefore, he was not too anxious in this regard.
This technique, which condensed his thoughts on Divine Power from the first half of his life, was already quite complete.
However, with his keen intuition regarding Divine Power, he could vaguely sense that the path of splitting the mind was likely in direct opposition to the path of a heart as clear as a mirror.
That was why he added this note.
The three elements of essence, energy, and spirit naturally led to the final aspect: "the body."
The cultivation of the body involved the second Soul Core that You Chen planned to condense when breaking through to Titled Douluo and transcending life, which was currently more important than the previous two.
This was also the reason he specifically established a business association and brought Dugu Bo to help promote it.
Resources; the demand for resources to cultivate "Godly Elephant Suppressing Prison Strength" was extremely vast.
In other words, to break through faster, a large amount of resources was needed to be invested.
And if we talk about Douluo Continent, what has the most abundant and suitable resources for body cultivation? Naturally, it is… soul beasts.
You Chen had his eyes set on the huge cake of sea soul beasts.
The land-based soul beast resources, with the development of the business association, had gradually been delivered to him, but You Chen still felt it was not enough.
Compared to the land-based soul beast resources, the total biological resources of sea soul beasts were at least ten times more!
However, even after the emergence of "Whale Gel," the enthusiasm of land Soul Masters for exploring the ocean remained very lacking.
The biggest reason was that the ocean is very dangerous.
Not only are there sea soul beasts, but there are also sea Soul Masters who are extremely hostile to land Soul Masters.
Not to mention that behind these sea Soul Masters and sea soul beasts stands a Sea God Island…
Ordinary land Soul Masters, if they do not go out to sea in groups of ten or a hundred, can easily perish in the ocean.
Of course, after the new function of whale gel emerged, there were indeed land Soul Masters venturing out to sea in large numbers.
However, these land Soul Masters were all from major sects and powerful factions.
The sea soul beast resources they hunted would not flow into the market but would be used for themselves.
The most typical example is whale gel.
Before the emergence of "Whale Gel," the Martial Soul Hall had already swept away the vast majority of whale gel from the market, followed closely by keen factions like the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School.
Like sharks smelling blood, the whale gel that had accumulated and flowed into the market over the past few hundred or even thousands of years on Douluo Continent was completely scavenged.
Compared to the extreme rarity of a thousand-year second ring a thousand years later, during this period, young Soul Masters with a bit of background could basically possess a thousand-year second ring because the people of their era had used the whale gel resources accumulated over the past hundred times in their bodies, leading to such a brief prosperous era.
With You Chen's current physical quality, the cost-effectiveness of using whale gel to enhance his physical quality was far inferior to directly consuming the flesh of large, high-age sea soul beasts.
It's not that whale gel is ineffective, but rather that You Chen's body has a higher resource utilization rate. Using something that others use to enhance their physical qualifications for cultivation is completely inferior to the enhancement gained from equally priced soul beast meat.
Thus, You Chen did not care about the state of the whale gel market; what he hoped for was for more land Soul Masters to venture into the sea and open up the blue ocean market.
Or more sea Soul Masters could come ashore.
After the increase in exchanges between land and sea, more ocean resources would appear on land, and then… the information about the ocean would also become richer.
This would facilitate his subsequent hunting of sea soul beasts and provide himself with fierce beast Spirit Rings.
The ocean is vast and lacks reference points; exploring the ocean alone to find suitable hunting targets is too time-consuming and labor-intensive.
What You Chen valued most was time.
Although after understanding his inner self, You Chen was no longer as anxious as before, he still had no intention of wasting time on such meaningless matters.
Since it can be entrusted to others, why do it himself?
As for the specific effectiveness? You Chen could only say he would have to wait and see.
The third line of text was already written.
The fourth line naturally led to the cycle of essence, energy, and spirit, as well as the preliminary plan for the third Soul Core.
Continuing to the fifth line, You Chen's hand suddenly stopped after writing a few words.
The content he initially drafted for the fifth line was: Martial Soul Evolution.
He used the purifying power of Stardust Power to erase these four words, rewrote them, and erased them again.
After several revisions, he finally wrote down: Enhance the control of the original power of Martial Soul, refine and improve the original power of Martial Soul, and study the domain.
After several moments of hesitation, You Chen finally established the preliminary research direction for the next evolution of Martial Soul—Sacrificer's Sanctuary.
The evolution result he favored the most was, of course, the orthodox route that could evolve all the way to the ultimate form in the original work, the Meteor Dragon.
Before this, he had not tried to comprehend "high speed" or the realm of "a heart as clear as a mirror" like You Xing.
The latter goes without saying, but for the former, it must be mentioned that You Chen had not used the Spirit Bone technique "Acceleration" from the "Wind Dragon's Left Leg Bone" in previous battles.
Like the right arm bone of the ancestral bird, You Chen had also raised it to the hundred-thousand-year level and obtained the simple yet powerful soul skill "Acceleration."
No matter when, speed had always been You Chen's strongest aspect in battle.
Speed is undoubtedly an attribute that becomes increasingly difficult to enhance as one rises, with the marginal effect of input and output dramatically increasing.
Without using any soul skills, relying solely on the Martial Soul itself and the enhancement of his body, combined with his control over wind-type power, You Chen's speed was already firmly at an upper level among Super Douluos.
A thousand-year soul skill like the power of the cold wind would hardly add any boost to You Chen's speed.
But the Starry Road still had a significant effect.
Especially when used at night, You Chen was even confident that he could shake off an Ultimate Douluo solely by speed.
And during the Starry Road period, how fast would it be to use the hundred-thousand-year "Acceleration"?
At least, that would be a speed that You Chen's current reaction and Divine Power could not adapt to.
More critically, the consumption of soul power was terrifying.
If he did not use the Starry Road, it would be fine, but during the Starry Road, if he added the acceleration soul skill, You Chen's soul power would drop below fifty percent in just one second.
What does fifty percent mean?
For a Soul Master with a Soul Core, over eighty percent is considered a "healthy green blood" state, between fifty and eighty percent is a "yellow blood" state that requires caution, and below fifty percent, needless to say, is "red blood breaking," precarious.
Of course, this refers to soul power.
The more soul power one has, the more powerful the Soul Core. If soul power drops below fifty percent, the recovery power of the Soul Core would be minimal.
However, Soul Masters from the old era without a Soul Core do not need to consider so much; the speed of soul power recovery has always been far behind that of Soul Masters with a Soul Core, so they never have to worry about such issues.
The acceleration soul skill seems to be designed to counteract the marginal effect of increasing speed; the higher the speed increases, the more soul power is required.
But from the fact that it can still significantly enhance You Chen's current speed, it is already worth the hundred-thousand-year limit.
It is also hard to say that this is not due to You Chen absorbing the high compatibility and additional effects brought by the Wind Dragon Spirit Ring.
Otherwise, even for a hundred-thousand-year Spirit Bone technique, it would still be somewhat against the heavens.
But at least for now, this is a soul skill that is difficult to use.
You Chen estimated that he would probably have to wait until he breaks through to Titled Douluo, with the total amount of soul power of a Titled Douluo, plus a stronger reaction at that time, to use this acceleration soul skill as a normal killing move.
As for now, it could at most only serve as an escape skill or a trump card in a desperate situation.
And experiencing that feeling in a high-speed state?
Can you experience it in just one second!?
So at this current stage, regarding the topic of Martial Soul evolution, You Chen's main focus could only be on the original power of Martial Soul.
Improving control is one aspect; directly enhancing the power itself is another.
As mentioned before, enhancing the original power of Martial Soul is not limited to absorbing Spirit Rings and Spirit Bones.
When a Soul Master's soul power level is sufficiently high, and their control over the original power of Martial Soul is at a Microscopic level, they can autonomously refine and enhance the original power of Martial Soul.
However, this efficiency cannot compare to absorbing Spirit Rings, especially those Spirit Rings that can significantly enhance the original power of Martial Soul.
Moreover, Martial Soul evolution is not a simple "stacking" process; without opportunities, the original strength you can autonomously enhance has its limits.
For example, with a top-quality Martial Soul, you can accumulate and enhance it to the limit of top quality through this method, but you cannot break through to super quality.
This opportunity could be a Spirit Ring, an unprecedented epiphany, or a life transcendence that breaks limits… In short, it will not be easily achieved.
However, You Chen's goal was not to spend a long time enhancing the original power of Martial Soul, nor was he thinking that this alone would allow Martial Soul to evolve.
He believed that with the remaining number of Spirit Rings he had and the expected time frame, it would be enough to push the original power of Stardust Dragon's Martial Soul to its limit.
He wanted to better comprehend the changes in the original power of Martial Soul after its evolution.
Just like before, pursuing the best energy ratio and the path of evolution.
However… You Chen had a vague premonition.
This time, he would not find a "perfect evolution ratio," or rather… achieving the energy combination of Stardust Power was already the most perfect energy ratio.
But he still decided to verify this.
Only by confirming and truly negating this possibility could he fully invest in the next possibility.
The existence of the domain was one of the possibilities he anticipated.
Originally, he was almost completely in the dark about the capabilities of the domain.
With nearly negligible energy consumption and, in contrast, exceptionally powerful effects, it clearly contained a black box operation that he could not understand at this stage.
However, the "rule characteristics" in Qian Renxue's task rewards suddenly gave him considerable inspiration.
It only required a tiny portion of "activation" and "maintenance" energy, yet brought about extremely exaggerated effects…
Was it that more of the consumption was "paid" by other things?
Or was it that the realization of the domain's effects was not dependent on the Soul Master themselves, but rather the Soul Master merely turned the key to activate this ability?
Perhaps only through in-depth research could he gain some insight.
In any case, having established the content of the fifth line, You Chen began to continue writing the sixth and seventh lines…
Transformation of the True Form of the Weapon Soul…
Integration of Techniques and Martial Skills…
Optimization of Soul Skills…
...
With the established goals in mind, You Chen began a period of relaxed and enjoyable cultivation and exploration of the mysteries of Martial Soul.
The only downside was…
Dugu Yan, this little girl, kept finding him to interact with his avatar You Xing, which required him to occasionally inject his consciousness to respond.
Later, You Chen simply called You Xing over under the pretense of closed-door teaching, thinking that this would deter Dugu Yan.
Who knew, this girl was persistent and came to him under the guise of asking the teacher for advice…
To be honest, before Dugu Bo left, he had promised to look after Dugu Yan, allowing her to come to him with any questions.
As a result, this ended up backfiring on him.
But aside from that, everything else was going smoothly.
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