"Extraordinary… truly extraordinary."
Chen Ming gave Tang Chen's notes an exceptionally high evaluation, but Golden Crocodile Douluo looked somewhat puzzled.
"Didn't Tang Chen's notes only record combat methods, without any discussion of cultivation?" Golden Crocodile Douluo flipped through it again, frowning. To him, it looked exactly like what he remembered.
"This is cultivation insight," Chen Ming replied calmly. "What Tang Chen left behind is a way of thinking—uniting essence, energy, and spirit into one, using the mind and will to guide blood essence while coordinating it with Spirit Power. If one can achieve that, it's not just combat strength that improves; even one's cultivation realm will rise."
"Each of the three—essence, energy, and spirit—is powerful on its own. Any two combined will amplify each other exponentially. But when all three are fused together, it creates a qualitative transformation. And the more proficient one becomes with this method, the higher their realm naturally grows."
"It's like how I can't fully explain why I was born with powerful spiritual power, capable of multi-threaded thinking, or why my comprehension surpasses that of ordinary people. In the same way, Tang Chen probably couldn't explain why he had such a natural affinity in this area."
"In fact, from our perspective, it's ordinary people who seem abnormal. Tang Chen genuinely left something behind—but if your line of thinking doesn't align with his, you simply won't understand what he meant."
"What matters most is the approach—the idea of stacking."
"Stacking… stacking?" Golden Crocodile Douluo repeated, confusion thick in his voice. "How do you even stack it? Blood Essence? Spiritual power? Soul power?"
The era of Douluo I was still in a primitive stage of cultivation. Techniques were crude, classifications of different power systems were unclear, and everything depended on raw talent and luck—wild, unrefined growth.
By Douluo II, with the emergence of the Body Sect, blood essence power and combat techniques became widely recognized at the highest levels. Even non-body-type Spirit Masters began attempting various forms of stacking—willpower with Spirit Power, or soul power with blood essence.
Spirit Cores allowed otherwise average cultivators to attempt breakthroughs to higher realms. Soul tools shattered the limitations of traditional Spirit Abilities, enabling technological spread and liberation of productivity.
In Douluo III, with the rise of Spirit Souls, Spiritual Power became quantified and widely recognized. The rigid constraints of the Spirit Ring system were loosened, and Battle Armor systems further enhanced combat capability.
By Douluo IV, Spiritual Power had finally become a cultivation system on par with Spirit Power itself.
With each passing era, as more details were uncovered and more methods of strengthening different attributes were systematized, the number of top-tier experts steadily increased. It was not that later generations were inherently more talented than those of Douluo I—it was simply that their era was far more suitable for talent to flourish.
Even though Golden Crocodile Douluo had reached Level 98, his understanding was still constrained by his era and vision. He could not grasp these more advanced concepts.
He had grown purely through talent and brute accumulation. If he had been born in the later eras, his achievements would have far exceeded Level 98.
Chen Ming did not answer immediately, because even he only had a preliminary hypothesis. He still needed more experiments and verification to confirm whether his reasoning was correct.
He turned the pages of the various cultivation notes left behind by Body-type Spirit Masters in the Spirit Hall, rapidly recording and cross-referencing their contents. One hand flipped through the books, while the other scribbled furiously across blank sheets like it was seizing fire.
Several hours later, when he finally stopped, more than a dozen pages of densely written drafts were piled beside him.
In truth, if it was only for his own understanding, with his AI-like cognitive processing ability, Chen Ming didn't even need to write any of it down at all.
But Chen Ming had to record part of his deductions on paper in order to test them with real experiments and verify whether his assumptions were correct—and, more importantly, whether they were efficient enough to be worth pursuing.
As Golden Crocodile Douluo flipped through Chen Ming's annotations and excerpts, his expression shifted more and more with each page he read.
Within the notes of several different Spirit Masters—each with different Martial Souls, different cultivation paths, and different levels of strength—there were vague or even puzzled references to a "force originating from within the body, distinct from Spirit Power itself." Although they could not directly utilize it, many of them had instinctively tried to borrow or indirectly harness this force to enhance their combat ability.
And with Chen Ming's explanations added beside them, Golden Crocodile Douluo finally understood what that "force" truly was.
It was the power of one's own body—blood and flesh itself—the life force known as blood essence.
"Blood Essence… blood essence… so that's what it is…" Golden Crocodile Douluo muttered, his eyes growing brighter by the second, yet at the same time, a faint sense of frustration crept in, deepening with every passing thought.
For Beast-type Spirit Masters, this method of directly mobilizing one's blood essence to strengthen the body was a tremendous boost in combat power.
If he had possessed such a concept back then—even if the initial threshold had been difficult—after decades of exploration, he might have long since reached the level of a Limit Douluo.
But now, he was nearly two hundred years old. His blood essence had already withered to its lowest point. Let alone using it to strengthen himself—he could barely sustain his life for much longer. Even attempting to grasp such a method was practically impossible for him.
Golden Crocodile Douluo shook his head slowly and sat down nearby, watching as Chen Ming continued flipping through books and taking notes without pause. For a moment, he fell silent, his thoughts drifting back through the long years of his life.
Then, almost unconsciously, he was influenced by Chen Ming's intensity. He picked up a blank sheet of paper and a pen as well, beginning to slowly record his own life experiences and cultivation insights, stroke by stroke.
Time passed. Several hours went by, and outside, the sun set and rose again.
Just as Chen Ming was still fully absorbed in writing down his evolving theories, a figure arrived at the entrance of the Spirit Hall and found Chrysanthemum Douluo.
"Hey, Old Chrysanthemum, where did you take Xiao Ming?" Dugu Bo blocked Chrysanthemum Douluo's path, his tone unfriendly and sharp.
"Relax, my Spirit Hall is vast and wealthy—do you really think we'd make things difficult for a young genius?" Chrysanthemum Douluo replied lazily, in a surprisingly good mood thanks to obtaining the seed of the Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum.
"He is your friend and junior, but is he not also my friend and junior? Dugu Bo, you are truly being too suspicious."
Seeing Dugu Bo's anger, Chrysanthemum Douluo rolled his eyes slightly.
"Fine, I still have matters to attend to. I'll just tell you where Xiao Ming is—you can go find him yourself. Don't tell me a Titled Douluo like you needs me to escort you?"
"Hmph. I'd dare to venture into a dragon's pool or a tiger's den. You think I'm afraid of you?" Dugu Bo replied coldly, though a trace of unease flickered in his heart. Still, unable to back down, he allowed Chrysanthemum Douluo to lead him toward a certain direction.
And then—
When he finally saw the building before him, the previously arrogant and unrestrained Dugu Bo froze completely.
"You're telling me… Xiao Ming is in the Consecration Hall?"
He rubbed his eyes, double-checked the building, then turned stiffly toward Chrysanthemum Douluo.
At that moment, Chrysanthemum Douluo didn't even bother answering. Instead, he directly channeled his Spirit Power and transmitted his voice into the hall:
"Reporting to the Worship Elders—Poison Douluo Dugu Bo requests an audience with the Grand Worship Elder."
A few seconds later, a gentle wave of Spirit Power pushed open the doors of the Consecration Hall.
"Enter," came Qian Daoliu's voice—slightly puzzled, but still courteous.
Looking at the open doors ahead, Dugu Bo swallowed hard.
A thought surfaced in his mind:
Am I going to win today?
No… that's not right.
The real question is… am I even going to survive today?
As long as I walk out of here alive… does that count as a victory?
...
Drop some POWERSTONES to push the story forward!
PS: Read Advance Chapters at https://www.patreon.com/c/ReadJin