"I'm sorry, I can't take you there, Yanyan."
Before Dugu Yan could finish speaking, You Chen interrupted with a regretful expression.
"Then, can I at least meet my senior brother?"
Dugu Yan felt a bit dejected, and her pretty face flushed as she shyly asked.
You Chen sighed softly and suddenly turned to the corner: "You Xing, what are you hiding there for? Can't you see your junior sister is calling for you?"
From the dark corner, the cold-faced man You Xing slowly emerged.
"Niece Yanyan, instead of focusing on your training, what are you doing here messing around?" You Xing said coldly.
"Ugh~"
Even though she had just been scolded by You Xing, Dugu Yan shivered, her face turning even redder.
You Xing: "..."
You Chen couldn't help but recall Ignis, his mouth twitching. Damn it, you're pulling the same trick on me, huh?
At least Ignis had to get serious; Dugu Yan was even more ridiculous, just using words to get by!?
You Chen felt that sometimes, he truly couldn't understand women.
Clearly, back then when he took on You Xing's persona, he had ruthlessly trampled Dugu Yan's beautiful face into the dirt, humiliating her thoroughly. Normally, one would expect her to keep her distance from You Xing, right? So how did Dugu Yan coincidentally awaken such special qualities? What the hell was going on!? The original text didn't mention Dugu Yan having such qualities, did it? No, it didn't!?
Although he had previously boasted that he wouldn't refuse beautiful meat delivered to his door, but...
Damn it, if he went ahead and did it, he wouldn't be able to explain it to Dugu Bo, his good brother.
While he initially had thoughts of using her as a tool, Dugu Bo was now working hard for him, and here he was, in the base, messing around with his granddaughter whom he had asked to take good care of...
You Chen could already imagine the resentful expression Dugu Bo would have when he saw him afterward.
And then there was the issue of seniority. Dugu Yan called Dugu Bo "grandpa," while Dugu Bo called Dugu Yan "sister-in-law"? Each to their own? It was a bit of a farce.
You Chen vaguely felt the presence of his conscience, which seemed to be aching.
This precedent could not be set.
Dugu Yan, blushing, said defiantly, "You Xing, are you avoiding me lately? You better clarify that."
Unlike when she faced You Chen, she directly called out his name in front of You Xing.
You Xing coldly replied, "Niece Yanyan, I hope you can put away those unnecessary thoughts. I, You Xing, am devoted to the path of the Great Way, and women... will only affect my training speed!"
He waved his sleeve and left, snorting coldly, "A so-called genius like you doesn't even have the qualifications to see me!"
"Ugh!"
Dugu Yan slumped to the ground like a duck, her face flushed as she made a strange sound.
In a mix of anger and embarrassment, she shouted at You Xing's retreating figure, "You Xing, remember this! I will catch up to you! I will prove that I, Dugu Yan, am definitely not trash or weak! At that time, I want to see if you will still say the same things as today! I am not your niece! I am your peer, your peer! Remember that!"
If her legs didn't tremble from time to time, this speech might have been quite persuasive, and it wouldn't be impossible for it to become a beautiful tale between future rivals.
But unfortunately, there were no "ifs," so You Chen thought this girl was clearly just using the opportunity to satisfy her peculiar preferences.
That was quite despicable!
How could Dugu Bo raise such a granddaughter?
He must be properly punished—
"Lord Alliance Master."
While the scene was unfolding over there, Nino had quickly returned and was reporting intelligence.
"Oh, go ahead, I'm listening."
You Chen responded calmly to Nino, urging her to continue.
After a while, You Chen slowly nodded, glancing at Dugu Yan's somewhat unsteady back, and said to Nino, "During my absence, you will mainly be responsible for supervising Dugu Yan's training. Yes, it's time to increase the intensity of her training. Tell her that I will check on her when I return."
As an elder, You Chen genuinely wanted to fulfill his responsibilities and properly cultivate Dugu Yan, so as not to let his good brother Dugu down.
"Understood."
Nino bowed her head, but looking at the unsteady Dugu Yan, a hint of sympathy surged in her heart. She was well aware of the usual training intensity of the Snake Head Lord's granddaughter.
'Fortunately, I am the messenger system, so I don't have to work that hard. Awesome.'
Although she usually acted like a corporate slave, waiting on You Chen's orders 24/7, Nino found happiness in the comparison.
...
After receiving the information from Nino, You Chen finally embarked on the journey to hunt for the subsequent Spirit Rings.
His first target was the fourth Spirit Ring of the second body.
First, he would hunt the fourth Spirit Ring of the second body, directly breaking through to level 80, then hunt the eighth Spirit Ring of the first body to break through to Soul Douluo, and finally complete the fifth and sixth Spirit Rings of the second body. With these four Spirit Rings, his soul power level would surely reach level 90.
Half a year was enough for You Chen to clarify his Spirit Ring goals.
The reason for choosing this route was closely related to his hunting targets.
First, a key consideration must be taken into account: the second body would almost certainly be You Chen's main combat state in the future, while the Spirit Rings on the first body were destined to be abandoned later.
Thus, the Spirit Rings on the first body should be chosen as much as possible to be self-transformed, directly converting into self-created soul skills.
On the other hand, the Spirit Rings of the second body could be selected from those soul beasts that had never been chosen before, which were aimed at evolving the Martial Soul, closely matching the original attributes of the Martial Soul and enhancing its fundamental power, thus producing powerful soul skills.
Alternatively, he could directly choose high-age soul beasts with higher attribute enhancements.
Either select skills that are difficult to self-transform and can only be used through Spirit Rings, or choose those with high attributes.
Considering the above needs, the first two Spirit Rings in You Chen's hunting order were both in the Star Dou Forest, while the subsequent Spirit Rings would be hunted in the ocean.
The comparison between the soul beasts of the Star Dou Forest and those of the ocean lies in the fact that the variety of soul beasts in the Star Dou Forest is richer, capable of producing a wide range of Spirit Ring skills, while the ocean has abundant soul beast resources, with a greater number of ferocious beasts.
Of course, in reality, the ferocious beast resources in the core restricted area of the Star Dou Forest are also very rich.
However, compared to the scattered ocean soul beasts, the ferocious beasts in the Lake of Life are gathered under the command of Emperor Tian, making them relatively united.
If you want to hunt one of them, it will almost certainly provoke a counterattack from other ferocious beasts.
Especially the leader of the ferocious beasts, the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King Emperor Tian, whose strength, combined with the Golden Dragon Claw, had likely reached the quasi-divine level among the three stages of Ultimate Douluo.
Even if You Chen broke through to Titled Douluo, he would most likely not be a match for Emperor Tian.
More critically, there was a first-level god lurking at the bottom of the Lake of Life, who was currently recovering and sleeping.
Unless necessary, You Chen naturally hoped that these ferocious beasts would quietly sleep and hibernate, just like in the original Douluo.
Moreover, considering You Chen's ambitions and stance, there might be a future possibility of uniting with these low-intelligence soul beasts, which had lived for hundreds of thousands of years without even receiving nine years of compulsory education, or rather... utilizing them.
The limit age of the fourth Spirit Ring of the second body is around 100,000 years. Without considering the strength of attribute enhancement or self-transformation into his own things, the goal was, of course, that kind of skill that You Chen believed he could not master due to the compatibility and control of his Stardust Dragon Martial Soul, yet was extremely powerful and useful.
A skill that had appeared countless times in the original text—Invincible Golden Body!
To be precise, it was a variant of that skill.
Depending on the type of soul beast, one could guess what kind of Spirit Ring soul skill would be produced before the hunt.
With the vast knowledge You Chen had gained from reading countless books in the Martial Soul Hall, he was naturally well-versed in the records of predecessors who absorbed Spirit Rings, knowing which soul beasts could produce which powerful soul skills.
His target soul beast was called the Emperor Golden Lion Beast.
This was a soul beast with a bloodline strength even greater than that of the Wind Chasing Dragon, possessing a certain degree of golden bloodline.
The Emperor Golden Lion Beast was, in fact, the king among ordinary Golden Lion Beasts!
In this era, the Emperor Ruyi Beast had not yet appeared, and soul beasts lacked cultivation buffs and luck enhancements. In the land area of Douluo Continent, 100,000-year soul beasts were extremely rare.
Even in the offering hall of the Martial Soul Hall, very few people possessed a 100,000-year Spirit Ring.
While 100,000-year soul beasts were indeed powerful, for the offering hall, they were as easily hunted as 10,000-year soul beasts were for the Body Sect.
The reason there were so few 100,000-year Spirit Rings was due to their rarity. Even if a Soul Master capable of withstanding a 100,000-year Spirit Ring appeared in the Martial Soul Hall, they would still struggle to find targets.
Otherwise, Bibidong would not have only given her second Martial Soul a single 100,000-year Spirit Ring.
She didn't care about the issues of overhunting 100,000-year soul beasts leading to soul beast riots.
The Wind Chasing Dragon that You Chen had found earlier was basically the highest-level soul beast that could be easily found on the surface.
For ordinary Soul Masters, 100,000-year soul beasts were nothing short of legends.
However, staying at the 80,000 to 90,000-year cultivation level, soul beasts of the Wind Chasing Dragon's caliber could still be found with some effort, even without the Martial Soul Hall's control over soul beast information.
100,000-year soul beasts are rare, and aside from the issues of cultivation speed and breaking through bottlenecks, a bigger problem is the Heavenly Tribulation.
Whether or not there is the Emperor Ruyi Beast's luck enhancement, the intensity of the Heavenly Tribulation will naturally differ.
Thus, a large portion of soul beasts capable of breaking through to 100,000 years, out of fear of the Heavenly Tribulation, either deliberately refrain from fully cultivating, progressing at the slowest rate of one year per year, or think of making more preparations to accumulate a bit more foundation, increasing their chances of surviving the Heavenly Tribulation, and are not in a hurry to break through.
And this Emperor Golden Lion Beast is one of them.
The stronger the bloodline, the stronger the Heavenly Tribulation. Even with a golden bloodline, the Emperor Golden Lion Beast does not dare to be careless. It is only reasonable to stay at the 90,000-year level for as long as possible.
But this gave You Chen an opportunity.
The 90,000-year Emperor Golden Lion Beast was indeed stronger than the previous Wind Chasing Dragon, but it was still only at the level of an ordinary Titled Douluo.
Only after breaking through to 100,000 years could it rely on its powerful bloodline to possess Super Douluo-level combat power at the 100,000-year mark.
And for the now more settled You Chen, an ordinary Titled Douluo had completely become a weakling that he could easily kill.
The Emperor Golden Lion Beast is primarily a gold attribute soul beast, which means it has little compatibility with the Stardust Dragon Martial Soul's attributes.
However, at this level of cultivation and bloodline, low compatibility simply means a weaker enhancement of the Martial Soul's fundamental power, but the Spirit Ring enhancement and Spirit Ring soul skills would not be significantly discounted.
Because they all share an absolute commonality of having sufficiently strong vitality.
You Chen was certain that he would use the Spirit Ring age card to increase the Emperor Golden Lion Beast's Spirit Ring to 100,000 years.
Adding a few more Spirit Rings of similar age afterward, You Chen's Martial Soul's fundamental power would grow significantly.
Although it might still not compare to previous advancements, You Chen was not pursuing a qualitative change in his Martial Soul through these Spirit Rings; as long as there was a certain quantitative change that allowed him to feel the transformation of his Martial Soul, that would be enough.
All of this was to accumulate and attempt to take another step forward in the future.
So compatibility was secondary; what You Chen valued was the soul skills of the Emperor Golden Lion Beast.
Unlike before, where he pursued a promising future and enhancement of the Martial Soul's essence, now he was focused on strength.
What is strength?
Pure attack skills were of no use to You Chen; they could only be said to be better than nothing.
What You Chen valued were mechanism-type skills or skills with good functionality.
The invincible skill was undoubtedly a strong mechanism skill.
In the records of the Martial Soul Hall, there were several different Soul Masters who obtained the Spirit Ring of the Emperor Golden Lion Beast and gained records similar to the Invincible Golden Body.
Compared to the Invincible Golden Body produced by the 100,000-year Soft Bone Rabbit, using the Spirit Ring of the Emperor Golden Lion Beast, combined with the secret method for self-created soul skills, and with You Chen's current Divine Power in the Spiritual Realm, it was basically impossible to go wrong.
You Chen flew at high speed, directly entering the mixed area of the Star Dou Forest. His astonishing speed made most flying soul beasts feel as if a hurricane had passed by, completely unaware of a Soul Master flying through.
Upon entering the inner mixed area, close to the core area, You Chen quickly landed.
Rustle, rustle~
After the initial sounds of leaves and branches rustling, You Chen completely lost his presence, blending seamlessly into the forest.
Unlike the special environment of the Disaster Mountain Range, in the Star Dou Forest, once You Chen used the Concealment Technique, it was as if a cow had sunk into the sea; only a 100,000-year soul beast at a close distance could detect some anomalies.
But even for a 100,000-year soul beast, if You Chen did not reveal any hostility to trigger their instinctive alertness, they would not be able to detect his presence.
Having learned from his previous experience in the Disaster Mountain Range, You Chen felt as if he had returned to his own backyard while searching for targets and hunting opportunities in the Star Dou Forest.
As is well known, the outer circle's area is larger, with the total area of the core area being less than one-fifth of the outer circle. Coupled with You Chen's current Divine Power search range, it took him only an hour to find the trace of the Emperor Golden Lion Beast.
Even in the core area, the Emperor Golden Lion Beast could still be considered a dominant force. When You Chen discovered its whereabouts, he saw it using a golden paw to swat a huge black bull away.
That big black bull seemed to have a breath not weaker than an ordinary 50,000-year soul beast, and most importantly, its size was enormous, a full one and a half times larger than the Emperor Golden Lion Beast. Yet, it was swatted away like a small child by the golden lion, crashing through numerous plants before finally stopping.
However, You Chen found this scene utterly unremarkable.
The biggest characteristic of the Emperor Golden Lion Beast is that, compared to its feline agility, it is more domineering in strength.
Although it may not match the Titan Giant Ape in terms of raw power, it has the advantage of speed, making it unafraid of the Titan Giant Ape at the same level.
Its only relative weakness is its defense, but that is only slightly weaker compared to its strength and speed; it is not a disadvantage compared to those quasi-top-level soul beasts.
Moreover, while the Titan Giant Ape possesses a gravity domain, the Emperor Golden Lion Beast has the Emperor Golden Body.
In the state of the Emperor Golden Body, the Emperor Golden Lion Beast can not only be invincible for a short time but also has a slightly longer power enhancement time than the invincible period.
In this state, even the Titan Giant Ape would have to avoid its edge.
But... all of this was meaningless to You Chen.
The reason he had not yet made a move and was still waiting was simply to find an opportunity for the Emperor Golden Lion Beast to move as far away from the Lake of Life area as possible.
You Chen was also unsure whether this character, who had not appeared in the original text, had been subdued by Da Ming and Er Ming.
If they had a big brother-little brother relationship, and he attacked the little one only to encounter the older one, You Chen would still have a headache.
After all, both Da Ming and Er Ming were top-level soul beasts, possessing Super Douluo-level combat power at the 100,000-year stage.
If they were too close, and he was caught while absorbing the Spirit Ring, that scene would be too beautiful to imagine.
Thus, You Chen needed to pull the Emperor Golden Lion Beast as far away as possible before swiftly resolving it and absorbing its Spirit Ring.
This time, You Chen was not like a few years ago, needing to split his focus and create a clone in Notting City, running back and forth.
As he patiently waited, only a few days passed before he found the opportunity.
The Emperor Golden Lion Beast had just finished foraging and was about to return from the boundary between the inner mixed area and the core area when You Chen made his move.
Unlike with Dugu Bo, Spiny Seahorse Douluo, or Serpent Spear Douluo, You Chen was aiming to kill the Emperor Golden Lion Beast from the start, so he showed no mercy and struck with lethal intent.
First, he used the Air Compression from the Ancestor Bird Spirit Bone to enhance his attack. Just as the Emperor Golden Lion Beast sensed the abnormal airflow and became alert—
The extremely compressed Stardust Power erupted at sonic speed!
In an instant, it obliterated the Emperor Golden Lion Beast's head.
Thud...
This top-level soul beast, stronger than Dugu Bo, Spiny Seahorse Douluo, and Serpent Spear Douluo, didn't even have time to use its invincible life-saving skill before it was killed instantly.
You Chen didn't think much, his figure flashing as six Starlight Avatars appeared, and he flew straight toward the black Spirit Ring with a hint of blood red, beginning the absorption process.
After half a year of training, the Starlight Avatars had already gained a bit of Stardust Power. In terms of Spirit Ring age, they had far surpassed the original 10,000-year Spirit Ring soul skill, gradually approaching the Stardust Phantom that You Chen had only used in the Spiritual Realm Burst state, which could completely simulate the power of his true self.
Now, each of these six avatars possessed combat power at the threshold of Soul Douluo, capable of stalling even an ordinary Titled Douluo for a while.
Just as You Chen was absorbing the Spirit Ring of the Emperor Golden Lion Beast...
The intense fluctuations of soul power here, along with the disappearance of the Emperor Golden Lion Beast's aura, quickly attracted the attention of many soul beasts in the core area.
And Da Ming and Er Ming, located on the outskirts of the Lake of Life, were no exception.
"A strange aura, and that Emperor Golden Lion Beast is dead?"
Da Ming, whose Divine Power surpassed Er Ming's, quickly understood the situation and ordered several 10,000-year soul beasts performing sentinel duties to investigate the situation.
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