Chapter Seven: The Secret of the Martial Soul and the Seven Exquisite Phosphorescent Flowers (Part Two)

“Blue Thunder Tyrannosaurus? Could our family’s martial soul really be of such high quality?”

Although the Blue Thunder Tyrannosaurus sect was treated as a mere backdrop by the Martial Soul Hall, their martial soul was undeniably formidable. The more time passed, the more the Blue Thunder Tyrannosaurus was glorified. By the time one reached the fourth Douluo level, it was praised to a level comparable to the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon, King Emperor Tian.

This martial soul was a pure-blooded true dragon, possessing strength, speed, and attributes recognized by the Silver Dragon King. Even if it wasn't a super martial soul, it was still top-tier among the elite.

Chen Ming truly found it hard to believe that, in theory, it could reach such a level.

To put it this way: if it could achieve even seventy percent of that standard, the Chen family would at least produce a Soul Douluo in every generation. With a bit of luck, the first poison-type title Douluo on the continent wouldn’t have been overtaken by Dugu Bo. Not to mention being confined in Biluo City; even residing in Tiandou City would have been feasible.

Chen Ming seriously suspected that their ancestors had been boasting—or perhaps they had simply been deceived.

“Ahem, as for theory, there’s always a slight gap from reality… Anyway, let me finish,” Chen Shijie explained without changing his expression or racing pulse. In truth, when he was Chen Ming’s age, he had pondered this question as well and was fully aware of Chen Ming’s doubts.

“The Bilin Seven Absolute Flowers are a type of plant difficult to become soul beasts. Usually, it takes tens of thousands of years for a plant to evolve into a soul beast, but obviously, that timespan is far too long for humans. So our ancestors devised a method.”

“Biluo City was built several hundred years ago by our ancestors, relying on their fiefdom. The reason they chose this location as their fief was specifically because of the Biluo Gorge outside the city.”

“You must know well that Biluo City is too close to Biluo Gorge. Strictly speaking, it’s not a place suitable for ordinary humans to live. Centuries ago, when Jiankang City was established, Biluo City was even less habitable than it is now; the land couldn’t even be cultivated, and anything that grew there was often poisonous.”

“The reason our ancestors chose Biluo Gorge was because it once produced a ten-thousand-year-old poison-type soul beast. This ancient soul beast ultimately perished under a heavenly tribulation, its body exploded, and its deadly poison contaminated the land. By a stroke of luck, this made Biluo Gorge one of the continent’s rare poison-type soul beast gathering sites.”

“Our ancestors built the city near the core region of Biluo Gorge to harness the legacy of that ten-thousand-year-old poison-type soul beast. They established a cultivation ground for the Bilin Seven Absolute Flowers, relying on the unique terrain and a large number of poisonous soul beasts as nourishment to cultivate these flowers.”

“Though this place was special, the Bilin Seven Absolute Flowers were not easy to cultivate. Before the first Bilin Seven Absolute Flower soul beast appeared, our ancestors trained near the flowers, partly using soul power to nurture them, and partly practicing mimicry techniques.”

“But the hidden disaster lay precisely here…”

“Our ancestors’ martial souls originally came from mutations and were not of high quality. The power left behind by the ten-thousand-year-old soul beast in Biluo Gorge, combined with the cultivation of the Bilin Seven Absolute Flowers, affected our martial souls in this area.”

“At first, the quality of our hereditary martial souls began to improve, and everyone thought this was a good thing, so they increased their training. Over generations, the quality of the family’s martial souls gradually rose, but the awakened soul power started to exhibit problems.”

“At first, the decline wasn’t severe, just normal fluctuations. But as the problem grew serious, no one could find its source.”

“If talent is lacking, then train harder...” Chen Shijie said this somewhat helplessly, falling silent for a moment before continuing.

“When the first Bilin Seven Absolute Flower soul beast appeared, the problem erupted. The family split into two extremes: either the martial soul quality greatly improved, or some members couldn’t awaken any soul power at all. At that time, some recognized the problem but couldn’t solve it.”

“In Douluo Continent, lacking power is a grave issue. Even knowing the problem, no one could resist the powerful cultivation benefits brought by the Bilin Seven Absolute Flowers. So the family continued training while searching for a solution.”

“As the number of blooming Bilin Seven Absolute Flowers increased, the problem worsened. Eventually, by chance, one ancestor met a descendant of the Qian family—who at the time concealed his identity and wandered the continent—later known as the invincible Qian Daoliu. With the Qian family’s help, they uncovered the true problem and its solution.”

“Our martial souls were corrupted by the Bilin Seven Absolute Flowers and the remnants of the ten-thousand-year-old soul beast, forcing the quality artificially higher. But the origin of our family’s martial souls was not strong. This forced enhancement drained our innate soul power as nourishment. The low innate soul power caused a certain degree of martial soul regression and impaired the talent of future generations.”

“To describe it more vividly: it’s like a fire forcibly ignited by our innate soul power to obtain higher-quality martial souls. However, as the firewood diminishes, the flame eventually weakens and even goes out.”

“If other martial soul inheritances are like buckets of roughly the same size, then our Chen family’s bucket grows larger with each generation, but the water inside decreases, and each bucket has a hole at the bottom.”

“This evolution cannot be interrupted by external forces unless a deity intervenes. Even ordinary external forces cannot break it. Because of our heavy reliance on the Bilin Seven Absolute Flowers, once separated, our descendants may not even awaken soul power. Our family’s Jade Scorpion has essentially become a subspecies reliant on these flowers for survival.”

“Originally, the innate soul power at level ten would be drained down to nine, then eight, seven, and even lower... There even appeared the impossible theoretical phenomenon where higher martial soul quality correlated with lower soul power levels.”

“Innate soul power below level five means no awakening is possible in our branch of the Chen family, because the soul power is consumed during martial soul formation. Without soul power, the martial soul that should improve in quality instead deteriorates.”

“Our branch is the last martial soul lineage of the Chen family. Theoretically, innate soul power levels are cut by half or even more.”

“My innate soul power is level four, but theoretically, even without reaching full innate soul power, it should be above level nine. Your father’s innate soul power was two and a half, also dragged down by the martial soul. Otherwise, with a typical Jade Scorpion martial soul, he would have possessed innate talent above level seven.”

“I originally thought your second uncle’s innate soul power at three and a half was the lowest possible in our family, but unexpectedly, your soul power level is even higher than mine...”

“Ah?! Not possible?!”

At first, upon hearing about a treasure, Chen Ming thought he had stumbled upon something good. But what followed was a rather grim revelation, which nonetheless cleared up his previous confusion.

By all rights, with his training, he shouldn’t have been stuck at innate level five. It turned out the evolution of the martial soul was forcibly consuming that power.

“Don’t worry, theoretically, there’s still a chance to solve this…”

“The Qian family told us of three ways to resolve the issue. One: the family produces a title Douluo or high-level Soul Douluo to improve the bloodline and forcibly reverse the situation. Two: the divine angel manifests, using divine power to restore our martial soul’s origin. Three…”

“Our family’s problem arose because of the Bilin Seven Absolute Flowers, and only those very flowers can cure it.”

“As long as someone can evolve their martial soul before the third ring by absorbing the soul rings of the Bilin Seven Absolute Flowers and high-quality Jade Scorpions, their martial soul will undergo a tremendous transformation. Because our martial souls have been altered by the Bilin Seven Absolute Flowers, their adaptability to these flowers is extremely high. After evolution, the martial soul could reach or even surpass the level of the Blue Thunder Tyrannosaurus, and the bloodline of future generations will also improve.”

“But the biggest problem is… since learning the solution, our family has had very few opportunities to solve the issue.”

“High-quality Jade Scorpions are rare but still obtainable. The Bilin Seven Absolute Flowers, however, are exceedingly difficult.”

“The number of Bilin Seven Absolute Flowers that become soul beasts is scarce, and our family is not large. Several well-talented ancestors directly perished in the process of attempting this, unable to withstand the flowers’ deadly poison, leaving no remains.”

“Forget about absorbing a century-old flower soul ring at the first or second ring, even the third ring is impossible.”

“My uncle, with talent level four, tried absorbing a flower just over a hundred years old at the fourth soul ring for an experiment. He barely survived and managed to absorb it, partially evolving his martial soul and significantly increasing his strength. However, the absorption damaged his origin, and he passed away a few years later.”