Douluo Dalu: I have a Soul Beast Clone

The Azure-scaled Snake Emperor truly lives up to its title as a top-tier soul beast bloodline.

During this period, Li Chang'an's snake avatar continuously increased its age by hunting and devouring other soul beasts. Even though part of the gained power was shared with his main body, it still managed to grow from a hundred-year soul beast to a thousand-year soul beast in a short time! However, after reaching the thousand-year mark, Li Chang'an learned from fragmented information passed through his bloodline inheritance that his growth would slow down significantly. In the beginning, it was due to its weak state, and with the noble bloodline of the Azure-scaled Snake Emperor, which had a high growth potential, the soul beast became a thousand-year soul beast in less than a year.

But after this point, its growth would not be so easy. It was estimated that it would take 20 to 30 years, or possibly even longer, for the Azure-scaled Snake Emperor to reach the ten-thousand-year level. As for reaching the hundred-thousand-year soul beast level, it might take two to three hundred years, or even several hundred or more.

For a soul beast, reaching the level of a hundred thousand years is already considered a legendary achievement, and it is not something that can be attained in just 20 years.

Of course, there are exceptions. If Li Chang'an could consume high-level soul beasts with powerful bloodlines or certain treasures like immortal herbs, the growth process could be accelerated. However, there is always a limit. He could not simply "eat his way to greatness."

With the bloodline of the Azure-scaled Snake Emperor, it would be impossible to become a ten-thousand-year soul beast or even a million-year soul beast within twenty years, even with the help of immortal herbs. Unless he had the same devouring ability as the Dark Demon Evilgod Tiger, he would have to give up on such a dream.

Speaking of which, the Dark Demon Evilgod Tiger, a soul beast with devouring abilities, is extremely powerful. Its devouring ability allows it to quickly convert the cultivation of devoured prey into its own, resulting in rapid growth.

On the other hand, when ordinary soul beasts hunt and consume prey, they need time to digest and absorb the energy. During the digestion process, there is also a significant loss of energy, meaning they don't absorb all of it.

This is where the difference lies.

However, even the Dark Demon Evilgod Tiger, a soul beast with such terrifying power, has no future in the path of becoming a god, as the gods have sealed off their way in the divine realm.

Therefore, Li Chang'an believes that becoming a god should rely on his human body, not his soul beast avatar.

The soul beast avatar's role, in his view, is to share power with his main body to accelerate his cultivation, allowing him to grow quickly.

Humans and soul beasts are different in nature, so there's no need to worry about the power shared by the soul beast avatar being insufficient.

Simply in terms of soul power, soul beasts are far superior to humans. Their vast bodies can contain far more energy than a human can.

Don't be fooled into thinking that since soul rings only make soul masters level up by one or two ranks, the energy inside the soul beasts is comparable to that of humans, or even less. That's not the case.

Li Chang'an had previously experimented with devouring a small soul beast directly, not giving it a chance to condense a soul ring after death. He found that for the same rank, soul beasts without soul rings contained far more energy than those with soul rings.

This led him to speculate that the energy contained in a soul ring is only a fraction of the soul beast's total energy. The energy from a soul ring is only a small portion of the soul beast's power. The rest of the energy either dissipates into the world or remains in the soul beast's body, sometimes even turning into soul bones.

After realizing this, Li Chang'an began hunting soul beasts and killing them as quickly as possible to prevent them from forming soul rings, immediately devouring their bodies. As a result, the energy he gained was far greater than before.

The appearance of soul rings after a soul beast's death is a rule altered by the world. Since it takes time to form a soul ring, as long as he devours the corpse quickly, no soul ring will appear.

This was the result of many of his experiments.

Since soul beasts' energy reserves are far beyond what humans can compare to, even though the speed of the soul beast avatar's growth is slower than that of the main body, the soul power it can share is more than enough to help Li Chang'an continue progressing.

In the next twenty years, reaching the rank of Title Douluo will not be too difficult for him with the contribution of the soul beast avatar. What he needs to worry about now is whether he can obtain immortal herbs to fully transform and gain the recognition of the Seagod's Trident, thus inheriting the Seagod's position.

... Time Skip...

Heaven Dou Royal Academy.

Li Chang'an opened his eyes in his dormitory and instinctively looked out the window. The sky was already light, and the sun was rising—it was the perfect time for morning training.

After getting out of bed and freshening up, he changed into comfortable athletic gear for practice.

He made his way to the spacious courtyard of the dormitory.

Raising his hand, he summoned the Azure-scaled Sword and began practicing a series of basic sword techniques.

— Chop, thrust, sweep, cut, block, parry, strike, point, wipe, lift, cloud, guard, block, lead, pierce, slash, shear, hold.

The eighteen basic sword moves were executed smoothly as flowing as a river.

These were not any powerful sword techniques, just basic sword stances that would help him familiarize himself with his weapon, ensuring that he wouldn't be caught off guard in a real fight.

To Li Chang'an, at this stage, there was no need to pursue advanced sword techniques. He just needed to make sure his sword was faster and sharper than the enemy's.

If his sword could be faster than the opponent could react, no matter how intricate their sword moves, they would be rendered meaningless. He could easily slice their throat or pierce their defense—everything else was secondary.

In martial arts, speed is key.

When his sword becomes fast enough for the opponent to react too late, it won't matter how refined their techniques are—they'll be helpless.

Strength over technique—that's the principle.

Moreover, in this world, everyone relies on soul skills, so there's no need for the kind of complex sword techniques seen in martial arts or fantasy novels. Even Sword Douluo, whose title is based on the sword, relies on his Seven Killing Sword and soul skills.

Soul masters in this world don't focus on technique, but on soul skills, so there are no intricate or dazzling sword techniques. Soul skills are sufficient to make up for any shortcomings.

Take for example the martial skills of Tang San in the original story, such as "Control the Crane and Capture the Dragon" or "Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track." These may seem impressive, but they are mostly useful in the early stages. Later on, when facing truly powerful experts, their effectiveness is minimal.

For example, "Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track" may help evade attacks, but an opponent can just use a soul skill to lock onto the target, making evasion useless.

As for "Control the Crane and Capture the Dragon," it can move the attack, but the enemy can simply release a poisonous mist, rendering the technique useless.

The only advantage of martial skills is that anyone can learn them, but they are not truly formidable. The effectiveness of any martial skill depends on the user's strength.

A Title Douluo level soul master could easily destroy a boulder with a simple release of soul power. In contrast, even if a low-level soul master were given a hundred-thousand-year soul skill, their ability to cause destruction would be pitifully weak.

Everything depends on the level, and only strength matters in the end.

Understanding all of this, Li Chang'an knew that he didn't need to waste time researching self-created soul skills or coveting the Tang Sect's legendary techniques. He simply needed to level up quickly and acquire strong soul skills to crush his peers.

Could a Soul King at level 50 lose to a Soul Sovereign at level 30? This is what level suppression means!

Of course, this doesn't mean that technique is unimportant. However, when comparing it to power, it's better to focus on leveling up and acquiring strong soul skills first. Without strength, everything else is meaningless.

(End of Chapter)