Douluo Dalu: Lucky Star

Credits: Jose Carrillo

For Yu Xiaogang, traveling naturally required time; with Bibi Dong still in seclusion, Han Li had no intention of waiting idly in Heaven Dou City. After a brief rest, Qian Renxue had to continue her Angel God Trials.

After a conversation with the grandfather and granddaughter, Han Li took his leave.

First, he needed to visit various places to check on others' God Trial progress and see if they required assistance. Second, he hadn't visited his old friend Lou Gao in a long time. After the hidden weapon was crafted, Han Li instructed the legendary master craftsman to spare no expense in enhancing the power of gunpowder. While the new version of gunpowder hadn't yet reached the potency he remembered, it was already sufficient for this world. As long as the yield was high enough, nothing was impossible.

Once his obedient son had fully taken control of the Douluo Planet, Han Li had him excavate the long-buried civilization of soul tools. Though it relied on archaeology, at least for now, Han Li didn't find it embarrassing. Unfortunately, nothing among the findings could serve as a game-changer for him. This time, he planned to release part of the discoveries as a reward for Lou Gao. As for gunpowder production, it was not something to stop. Han Li took all the newly produced stock with him.

The gods of Douluo were not particularly powerful—a conclusion Han Li had drawn from personal experience; he was a living example. That said, immortality was undeniably appealing.

"Is there something you need help with?"

Gu Yue asked as Han Li returned to their recovery space. During his three-day absence, she had taken the opportunity to rest. She noticed that although he had just returned from a journey, his brows were furrowed even tighter than before.

"Nothing. Keep cultivating," Han Li replied, shaking his head. The matters he was pondering weren't relevant right now—at least, not yet. Seeing his reluctance to talk, Gu Yue didn't press further. Instead, she pulled him closer with practiced familiarity. If he didn't want to talk, they could continue their dual cultivation. She felt she was in excellent condition and close to her goal.

In their recovery space, the two resumed their previous cultivation rhythm. However, Gu Yue soon noticed a difference. After his outing, Han Li had picked up a peculiar habit. Between cultivation sessions, he frequently summoned his martial soul and repeatedly unleashed soul skills. Sometimes he was silent; other times, overjoyed. When she asked about it, Han Li merely smiled without answering. Since it didn't interfere with their cultivation, Gu Yue let him be.

To clarify, Han Li wasn't losing his mind. He was simply frustrated with himself for overlooking something so obvious about the absurdity of the Douluo Continent until recently. He wasn't merely cultivating; he was attempting to grasp one of the foundational rules of this world—the Douluo world's most distinctive feature: percentage-based amplification. This insight came to him during a visit to see Xiu'er and Zhu Zhuqing. Watching them spar had triggered this realization.

Han Li's rapid growth had caused him to outgrow many of the foundations he had laid earlier. At this level, battles between gods focused on divine power reserves, soul strength, mastery of laws, and their application. This had misled him into thinking that the rules of combat were fundamentally different. It wasn't until he observed their fight that he realized his mistake.

Before ascending to godhood, combat amplification was calculated based on proximity to the laws in question, which made sense.

But why, after mastering the laws and completing the transformation of divine power, was there still amplification when invoking laws? (In the original story, skill effects weaken after becoming a god.)

Han Li's Ring of Laws limited opponents' divine power consumption. However, at equal levels of mastery, without directly restraining his opponent, his attacks lacked parity. For example, attacks involving the same law and equivalent divine power were stronger for Gu Yue than for him. This discrepancy became his latest area of research. Testing confirmed that post-ascension, the amplification from skills was capped at 100%, unlike the pre-ascension amplifications that could exceed 100%. Still, even this consistent doubling was exciting.

In the Douluo world, even after mastering laws, attacks were still presented in a soul-skill-like manner.

Mystical law battles didn't exist. Thus, this doubling effect became exceptionally critical. Han Li's goal was to stabilize this amplification at 100% consistently. This peculiar behavior, viewed as odd by Gu Yue, stemmed from these experiments. Han Li tried to control the amplification rule but failed. What he termed the Amplification law seemed intricately interwoven into the fabric of the world, even more profound than the Fate law he embodied. It was beyond control, even with the world's consciousness backing him. Hence, he labeled it a fundamental law.

That didn't matter. If it couldn't be controlled, it could still be utilized. The Amplification law wasn't without traces—it existed in most soul rings as a specific energy operation pattern, manifesting in the form of formations. Coincidentally, Han Li had long experimented with formations using various soul bones and energy crystals. Back then, he was merely imitating. Now, the process was the same—he just needed to find the optimal solution.

Han Li planned to inscribe a formation capable of maintaining a 100% amplification directly onto his god core. With such a setup, he wouldn't fall behind. Every attack, regardless of type, would have double the power.

With that, what could stand in his way?

He didn't believe he was the only one capable of discovering this. The gods of the Divine Realm weren't fools. However, he was confident that in a world where most people and gods were essentially illiterate, they were merely relying on experience to improve their skills and increase their combat power. They wouldn't be able to quantify and lock it into a fixed maximum threshold. This was his key to victory.

Recently, Han Li and his obedient son had been optimizing the formation using the skills of humans and soul beasts across the continent as references, including his own, pushing their computational abilities to the limit. As of today, the formation's stable amplification has been controlled to a 90% level, a promising development for the future.

How could Han Li not be thrilled?

...

A month passed in the blink of an eye.

After achieving the 90% threshold in just half a month, the following two weeks only saw the formation's optimization improve to 94%, despite having a large number of soul skills as references. Progress slowed to a crawl once again. Even so, Han Li was satisfied. He was confident that if he went all out now and his opponent didn't flee, he could use only the Ice and Fire Laws to bombard Gu Yue and defeat her in three minutes.

This thought didn't escape Gu Yue, who had been dual cultivating with him. After withdrawing from their fused state, Gu Yue looked at him with a displeased expression. While she was pleased with his improvement, she wasn't happy that he repeatedly used her as a benchmark for his combat projections. Han Li chuckled awkwardly. It was indeed embarrassing, but there was no way around it. Among the top-tier combatants he had access to, he was most familiar with Gu Yue's abilities.

Just as he was about to explain, he received a message from his obedient son in his mental space.

"Take your time recovering. I'll step out for a bit."

Leaving behind a bewildered Gu Yue, Han Li traversed space and appeared at a mansion in Heaven Dou City. Qian Daoliu and Qian Renxue were already waiting for him. Today, according to their usual patterns, was when Bibi Dong was likely to appear. Han Li had rushed over after receiving this news.

Yu Xiaogang had arrived in Wuhun City more than two weeks ago. After spending a considerable amount of gold soul coins, he temporarily settled down without causing any disturbances—because Bibi Dong was in seclusion. Of course, this information was intentionally leaked by Han Li and the others after some deliberation.

Otherwise, how could the outer guards know such a thing?

Even if they did, who would dare to leak information about the Pope?

Yu Xiaogang's gold soul coins were a windfall for them. While none of them cared about such a trivial amount of money, free gains were always welcome.

Han Li glanced at Qian Renxue. Her mental state wasn't great. The once-radiant face now bore dark circles, and her exhaustion was visible.

"How many attempts?"

Han Li raised an eyebrow. It seemed her dark counterpart had been giving her a hard time, and the Holy Sword was still unclaimed.

"Once a day," Qian Renxue replied simply and fell silent again. Facing her dark side wasn't as easy as she had imagined. Ever since starting the seventh trial, she had been tormented. Her parents' issues had become an insurmountable obstacle for her. Resisting the dark side's mental attacks using this leverage was already overwhelming, let alone retaliating.

Other matters, however, weren't as difficult for her, thanks to the influence of Han Li's way of handling things over the years. Ironically, it affirmed his oft-repeated phrase: "Even the wisest judge cannot resolve family disputes."

Qian Daoliu cast a glance at his granddaughter and fell silent. Even he couldn't help Xiaoxue with this. Sometimes, he wondered if the top-tier eighth trial would have been stalled by his late rebellious son's influence had he not completed it long ago.

"Let's first observe the situation over there. Perhaps it won't be as hard to accept after it's over," Han Li said. With a wave of his hand, an image of Wuhun City split into two screens, appearing before them. The protagonists on the screens were Bibi Dong and Yu Xiaogang. Han Li sighed inwardly. This scene wasn't favorable for Qian Renxue. It was essentially using the destruction of her mother's image to help her pass the god trial. That said, Bibi Dong had never fulfilled her duties as a mother. Given her experiences, Qian Renxue's very birth was a mistake. In the end, prolonged pain was worse than short-term suffering. Qian Renxue was the most innocent party here, but this was her own choice.