Douluo: My Clone Is Groudon

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Play Rough!

A Fairy-type powerful move, attacking through playful actions with a 10% chance to reduce the enemy's attack power by 33%.

Xiao Wu felt information flood her mind as her soul power unconsciously began to circulate. Since the Play Rough technique could be initiated from various parts of the body, its soul power pathways were extremely complex.

Although Xiao Wu had transformed into a human form, she couldn't perfectly replicate humanity. She needed to reach Level 70 for a complete metamorphosis. However, with the new meridians opened by practicing Play Rough, Xiao Wu sensed that she could fully complete her transformation at Level 60.

With this advancement, all three of her remaining soul rings would need to come from hunting spirit beasts. But having one less conversion of essence into a soul ring allowed her more flexibility in choosing higher-year soul rings earlier on.

After about ten minutes, Xiao Wu adapted to the new soul power pathways. Her control over her pink soul power greatly improved, and an unusual charm radiated from her entire being.

"Is 'Fairy' referring to spirit beasts transforming into humans?"

Xiao Wu murmured softly, feeling as though she had leveled up. She asked, "What was that just now? Why could I learn a soul skill just by touching it lightly, and without occupying a soul ring slot?"

Biting her red lips gently, her eyes shimmered with moisture. "Is it really okay for me to use such a precious treasure?"

Gu La smiled. "There's nothing wrong with it. You can think of it as a self-created inheritable soul skill. Due to compatibility issues, neither Tang San nor I can learn it, so I gave it to you."

Though Gu La spoke casually, Xiao Wu clearly understood the immense value of the Play Rough technique—a pure damage-dealing soul skill with a weakening effect. The 10% chance might seem low, but it was guaranteed to trigger at least once during a battle.

It suited her better than her Eight-Stage Drop. It could grow alongside her, even reaching a level where it rivaled hundred-thousand-year soul skills when she became a Title Douluo.

"You cunning guy."

Xiao Wu felt a bit frustrated. She had originally planned to subdue Gu La as her little brother, but once again, she found herself swayed by his gifts.

"Hmph, no matter how nice you are to me, I'm still the big sister!"

Xiao Wu put on a brave front, tossing Gu La a storage soul tool containing all the soul bones and herbs.

"All of this is yours. I'm going to train—don't disturb me."

Xiao Wu's emotions were mixed. She had forgotten her original plan to use soul bones to subdue Gu La and needed some time alone to calm down.

Gu La watched her leave. He nurtured Xiao Wu because he wanted to maintain the original Shrek team lineup and hopefully ascend to godhood along the way.

But if Xiao Wu failed to rise to the occasion, he wouldn't hesitate to shift his focus elsewhere.

He directed his mental energy into the storage soul tool, only to be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of herbs inside.

"Ten-thousand-year Illusory Flowers, ten-thousand-year Ginseng Kings, Snow Spirit Grass, Purple Iris Grass… what a waste! These herbs were handled so carelessly that much of their potency has been lost."

Gu La sighed deeply, too distraught to continue training. He hurried to an open space to process the herbs.

As seasons passed, a year flew by in the blink of an eye.

On a lush grassy field, Gu La and Tang San sat cross-legged five meters apart, meditating amidst the Blue Silver Grass. After a brief fluctuation of soul power around them, their energies stabilized.

"One year, eight levels—breaking through a level every month and a half on average."

Gu La clenched his fists. His growth rate was almost akin to that of a divine beast. A single punch from him could now easily take down an ordinary thousand-year spirit beast—it truly lived up to the saying, "a punch strong enough to kill a bull."

At the same time, his Ultimate Earth attribute made his soul power incredibly pure, imbued with the heaviness of the earth and the explosive force of magma, yet also containing latent vitality.

This caused him to experience the downside of cultivating an extreme attribute even before reaching the rank of Soul Elder—slower progress.

The only silver lining was that by drawing energy from the earth, Gu La's cultivation speed wasn't too sluggish. Moreover, the high-quality nutrition and energy provided by energy cubes helped immensely.

A flash of violet brilliance flickered in Tang San's eyes as he nodded. "While strengthening our bodies with Bone-Fortifying Ointment, some of the ambient spiritual energy seems to be instinctively absorbed by our bodies and converted into soul power."

"Thankfully, last year, the major factions planted plenty of medicinal herbs. This year, the prices of ingredients for Bone-Fortifying Ointment have dropped by 30%. Otherwise, once our supply runs out, buying more would be a huge loss."

Over the past year, Gu La hadn't disclosed the full recipe for Bone-Fortifying Ointment. If he had, anyone would have guessed he was deliberately holding back, tainting feelings of gratitude and admiration with suspicion.

Instead, he casually wrote a few papers on peripheral theories related to martial soul evolution, laying the groundwork for eventually revealing the complete theory.

"Mm, Xiao Wu broke through half a month earlier than us. I've been stopping her from hunting for soul rings alone. This time, the three of us will go to the Spirit Beast Forest together to hunt for your second millennium-level soul rings."

Gu La's interference with Xiao Wu stemmed from his desire to prevent her from acquiring the laughably ineffective soul skills from the original story.

"Hmph! Nosy busybody."

Xiao Wu, basking in the sun nearby, let out a soft snort. She had initially planned to sneak away and form her soul ring, but Gu La had marked her with his psychic abilities, ensuring she couldn't escape far without being found.

Gu La stood up and stretched lazily. "Stopping you from hunting soul rings is for your own good."

"You said you wanted to acquire a Charm-type soul skill. The Soft Boned Rabbit is also known as the Soft Boned Charm Rabbit precisely because of its Charm-type skills, which are most effective in the hundred- to thousand-year stages. It can momentarily distract predators, increasing the rabbit's chances of escape."

"But have you considered that Soft Boned Rabbits aren't Spirit-type martial souls? They don't have an advantage in spiritual growth."

"When you become a Title Douluo and the gap in spiritual strength widens, your Charm-type soul skill will only work against targets with weaker spiritual power than yours."

"But you're already a Power Attack-type soul master, and you refuse to switch to an Agility Attack-type. Can't you handle weaker soul masters anyway?"

"Always so talkative—it's so annoying."

Xiao Wu grumbled as she rolled back and forth on the grass, utterly lacking the poise expected of a young lady, behaving more like a wild child.

"You didn't think of this earlier, always lecturing me. I'm supposed to be the leader of Dorm Seven, yet you keep nagging me all day long."

Though she complained, Xiao Wu secretly enjoyed the feeling of being cared for.

She suddenly jumped up. "You've both broken through—let's hurry up and get going! I can't wait to become a Soul Grandmaster!"

Tang San agreed. "Xiao Wu's right, Gu La. What spirit beasts did you choose as our targets? I have a few ideas—do you want to hear them?"

Gu La smiled faintly. "Of course. I'd like to see what you've learned from Master Yu."

"But before that, there's one more thing to do."

Gu La took out two pieces of ten-thousand-year whale jelly and explained their effects. "Before, your physical conditioning wasn't sufficient to withstand the side effects of consuming whale jelly."

"But after a year of training, with my Aromatherapy soul skill, I should be able to help you endure the side effects, enhance your physical fitness, broaden your meridians, and cleanse your body."

Tang San's eyes gleamed with excitement, and Xiao Wu stared intently at the ten-thousand-year whale jelly.

They had long since learned the true effects of whale jelly from Gu La. To meet the minimum requirements for consuming it, they had trained with all their might over the past year, eagerly anticipating the day they could finally ingest it.

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