"Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon? Our family's martial soul could reach that level?"
Although the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan was sidelined and used as a stepping stone by the Spirit Hall, their martial soul was undeniably powerful. The further along the series goes, the more exaggerated the reputation of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon becomes. By the time of Douluo Dalu 4, it's hyped to be on par with the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon, Wang Di Tian.
That martial soul was a pureblood true dragon, recognized by the Silver Dragon King herself for its strength, speed, and attributes. Even if it wasn't a "super" martial soul, it stood at the very peak of top-tier martial souls.
Chen Ming genuinely didn't believe that, even theoretically, their martial soul could reach such a level.
Let's put it this way—if they could even reach 70% of that standard, their Chen family would at least produce a Title Douluo in every generation. Maybe, with a bit of luck, they could have even been the first poison-type Title Douluo, a title that wouldn't have gone to Dugu Bo. They wouldn't have been holed up in Biluocheng; even hunkering down in Tian Dou City would've been plausible.
Chen Ming seriously suspected this was just some ancestor's tall tale—or worse, that they'd been outright tricked.
"Cough, cough... Well, that's just in theory. There's always a bit of a gap between theory and reality… Anyway, let me finish explaining," Chen Shijie said, looking completely unfazed. He had, of course, wondered the same thing when he was Chen Ming's age and could easily guess what was going through Chen Ming's head.
"The Jade Phosphor Sevenfold Flower is an incredibly rare plant-type spirit beast. Even when it manages to become a spirit beast, it usually only does so at the ten-thousand-year level. Obviously, for humans, that's far too long a wait, so our ancestor came up with a different strategy."
"Biluocheng was actually built by our ancestors centuries ago, based around their feudal lands. The reason they chose this specific location was because of Biluoxia Gorge."
"You should know very well that Biluocheng is dangerously close to Biluoxia Gorge. Strictly speaking, this isn't even a place where normal humans should be able to live. A few centuries ago, when the city was first built, it was even less hospitable—nothing could grow there. Anything that managed to sprout was usually poisonous."
"The ancestor chose Biluoxia Gorge because, long ago, a hundred-thousand-year poison-type spirit beast had died there. It perished under heavenly tribulation, its body exploded, and the overwhelming poison seeped into the land. By sheer luck, the gorge turned into one of the rare places on the continent where poison-type spirit beasts congregate."
"The city was built to harness the lingering benefits of that spirit beast's death. Near the core area of Biluoxia Gorge, our ancestor constructed a cultivation ground specifically for the Jade Phosphor Sevenfold Flower. Using the unique terrain and a large number of poison-type spirit beasts as nourishment, they tried to cultivate it."
"But even though the place was special, the Jade Phosphor Sevenfold Flower was still extremely hard to cultivate. Before the first true Jade Phosphor Sevenfold Flower spirit beast appeared, our ancestors spent generations training near it. On one hand, they used their soul power to nurture the flower, and on the other hand, they honed their skills through mimicry training."
"But that's where the real curse began…"
"Our ancestor's martial soul was originally a mutation, so its fundamental quality wasn't very high. The lingering energy from the fallen hundred-thousand-year beast, combined with the cultivated Jade Phosphor Sevenfold Flower, started to impact our martial soul. At first, it looked like a good thing—our family's martial soul quality improved. Everyone thought this was great news and doubled down on their training."
"But over time, as generations passed, although the martial soul's quality kept rising, a problem began to emerge: the innate soul power of new generations started to decline."
"At first, the decline was small and seemed like normal variation. But by the time it became a serious problem, no one could figure out the source."
"The idea was simple—bad talent? Just train harder…"
Chen Shijie sighed here, falling silent for a moment before continuing.
"When the first Jade Phosphor Sevenfold Flower spirit beast finally appeared, the problem exploded. The family became polarized. Some people's martial soul quality improved dramatically, while others couldn't awaken any soul power at all. That's when someone in the family finally recognized the problem—but they couldn't solve it."
"In Douluo Dalu, having no strength is a death sentence. Even knowing there was a problem, the clan couldn't give up the massive cultivation benefits the Jade Phosphor Sevenfold Flower provided. So they kept training while searching for a solution."
"As more Jade Phosphor Sevenfold Flowers bloomed, the issue worsened. By pure chance, one of our ancestors met an incognito descendant of the Qian family—the same Qian Daoliu who would later be known as 'Sky Invincible.' With their help, we finally learned the real problem and its solution."
"Our martial soul was being corrupted by the Jade Phosphor Sevenfold Flower and the residual energy of the hundred-thousand-year spirit beast. This forced upgrade of quality was draining our innate soul power like fuel. Low innate soul power then caused further degradation of the martial soul over time—and it also messed with the talent of future generations…"
"To put it simply, it's like a fire: this fire forcefully burns through our innate soul power to create a stronger martial soul. But as the fuel runs out, the fire dims and eventually dies."
"If other martial soul lineages are like buckets of roughly the same size, our Chen family's buckets get bigger and bigger each generation—but there's less and less water inside, and every bucket has a hole in the bottom."
"This kind of evolution can't be interrupted by external forces—unless a god intervenes, there's no way to stop it. And because we've become so dependent on the Jade Phosphor Sevenfold Flower, our descendants can't even awaken soul power without it. Our Emerald Scorpion martial soul has basically become a subspecies that relies on the Jade Phosphor Sevenfold Flower to survive."
"Originally, a level-10 full innate soul power would get drained to 9, then 8, then 7, and so on… We even started seeing the absurd situation where higher-quality martial souls came with lower soul power levels—a problem that shouldn't even exist in theory."
"In our lineage, anyone with innate soul power below level 5 simply can't awaken it at all. The soul power gets consumed during the martial soul's formation, and without any soul power, even a supposedly high-quality martial soul ends up weaker than before."
"Our branch is the last of the Chen family's martial soul line. In theory, our innate soul power gets slashed by more than half."
"My innate soul power was level 4. In theory, it should've been at least level 9 without the martial soul drag. Your father had innate soul power of about 2.5—again, dragged down by the martial soul. Otherwise, even with a regular Emerald Scorpion, he'd have been at least level 7."
"I thought your second uncle's level 3.5 was the family's last hope. But now, you've surpassed even me…"
"What? No way!"
At first, when Chen Ming heard there was some treasure involved, he thought it was good news. But now it seemed more like a curse. Still, it explained a lot of the doubts he'd had before.
Logically, with how hard he trained, he should have had more than innate level 5 soul power—but it had been forcibly drained by the martial soul's evolution.
"Don't worry—we still theoretically have a shot at solving this…"
"The Qian family told us there are three ways to break the curse. First, if someone in the family becomes a Title Douluo or a high-level Soul Douluo, they could improve the bloodline and forcibly reverse the situation. Second, if the Angel God manifests and uses divine power to enhance our martial soul's core."
"And the third…"
"Our problem was created by the Jade Phosphor Sevenfold Flower—and only the Jade Phosphor Sevenfold Flower can fix it."
"If someone can complete their martial soul evolution by absorbing both a Jade Phosphor Sevenfold Flower and a high-quality Emerald Scorpion spirit ring before their third ring, that person's martial soul will undergo a massive transformation. And because of how much our martial soul has already adapted to the Jade Phosphor Sevenfold Flower, the evolved martial soul could reach—or even surpass—the level of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon. Plus, the bloodline of future generations would also improve."
"But the biggest problem is… by the time we figured all this out, our family had almost no opportunities left to solve it."
"High-quality Emerald Scorpions are rare but still obtainable. The Jade Phosphor Sevenfold Flower, though… is a nightmare."
"There are very few Jade Phosphor Sevenfold Flowers that have become spirit beasts. Our family is small. The ancestors with decent talent who tried… ended up dead, their bodies completely dissolved by the Jade Phosphor Sevenfold Flower's poison."
"Forget the first or second ring—even the third ring can't absorb a hundred-year Jade Phosphor Sevenfold Flower spirit ring."
"My uncle, who had innate soul power of level 4, tried to absorb a just-over-hundred-year Jade Phosphor Sevenfold Flower as his fourth ring. He barely survived and succeeded, his martial soul partially evolved, and his strength skyrocketed. But the absorption process damaged his core. He died just a few years later."
(End of Chapter)