Douluo: In an extraordinary world, with unparallel understanding!

Join my Patreon to be 30 chapters ahead of the webnovel releases:

patreon.com/ZeroMoney

I would appreciate your help if you could join my Patreon and support me because it would keep me motivated. 

******

The Golden Ancient Tree is said to be the very core of the entire Douluo world.

Su Yu was uncertain whether this tree was created by the God King's gathering of Douluo's fate and vital energy, or if it was a tree that already existed and was transplanted to Shrek.

However, one thing was clear: the Golden Ancient Tree was indeed the core of the Douluo world, and that fact was not a lie.

The ability to gather vital energy and enhance cultivation efficiency was just the most basic of its supernatural powers. It was rumored that the Golden Ancient Tree also possessed the ability to help individuals enter deep meditation.

The branch in Jing Hongchen's hand was a detached piece from the main trunk of the Golden Ancient Tree, which Qian Duoduo had taken out when he came to visit his nephew years ago.

In the end, it was just a branch. It had the ability to gather vital energy, but its effect was not strong enough to be useful for too many people.

Moreover, the ability to accelerate cultivation efficiency was nearly unnoticeable for soul masters above the Soul Saint rank.

Therefore, this branch in Jing Hongchen's hands was more of a symbolic object than anything else.

Su Yu requested it, and Jing Hongchen didn't refuse, handing over the branch without hesitation.

After receiving the branch from the Golden Ancient Tree, Su Yu took his leave.

Back at his dorm, Su Yu looked at the Golden Ancient Tree branch in his hand, using his spiritual power to carefully explore every corner of it, feeling its effects.

In his Sea of Spirit, the runes "凝" (Condense) and "聚" (Gather) had been further refined.

From Su Yu's estimation, these two runes had reached the level of a ten-thousand-year soul ring.

The hallmark of this level seemed to be that the runes were finally able to fully manifest externally.

The external manifestation of the runes was not marked by the birth of intelligence but by reaching a certain level. Just like a ten-thousand-year soul ring requires a soul shock, a ten-thousand-year rune also possesses the ability to exist in the world without dissipating.

In fact, Su Yu tried to sever the mental attack on the runes, but their structure showed no signs of collapse.

It was as if these runes had already been fully developed. They were no longer just a combination of energy but had truly become proper runes.

As the two runes continued to improve, Su Yu familiarized himself with their new capabilities and then stored them back into his Sea of Spirit.

"The Golden Ancient Tree's branch no longer serves much of a purpose, but the tree itself represents the foundation of Douluo Star. Since it is a plant-based lifeform, I wonder if the God of Life's abilities can do something to enhance this branch."

Su Yu had taken the branch with the intention of using it to help his Nine Dead Reincarnation Grass undergo its transformation.

Of course, a single branch alone wouldn't suffice, but even extracting a tiny bit of the Golden Ancient Tree's essence from it would be enough to significantly aid the Soul-Reviving Holy Grass, which was on the verge of "reviving."

Moreover, not just that—by using this branch, he could establish a connection with the real Golden Ancient Tree and plan for future actions.

After thoroughly researching the branch, Su Yu stored it in his storage soul tool.

"Everything still depends on whether this Soul-Rebirth Holy Grass can fully revive and complete its first rebirth."

Su Yu had high expectations for the Holy Grass. The term Nine Deaths Reincarnation itself signified nine cycles of death and rebirth.

Each cycle lasted a hundred thousand years.

Currently, under Su Yu's constant nourishment with vast amounts of life energy, the Soul-Rebirth Holy Grass had already grown to around sixty thousand years in age.

With the initial contract established and the All-Encompassing soul skill, Su Yu's cultivation of this Holy Grass was progressing rapidly.

However, the stronger the Soul-Rebirth Holy Grass became, the more difficult and resource-intensive it was to continue enhancing its cultivation.

Each year of growth required exponentially more effort than the last.

Fortunately, Su Yu had the immense life force of the Blade of Vitality to rely on.

"For the Nine Deaths Reincarnation Grass to fully mature, it must reach at least nine hundred thousand years of cultivation. Even with the life energy stored in Vitality Gold, it likely won't be enough, so I'll need to find another solution."

Moreover, reaching nine hundred thousand years meant enduring nine heavenly tribulations.

The ninth tribulation was bound to be unimaginably terrifying. If Su Yu never transformed the grass into a soul spirit, he would remain stuck at rank eighty at most. Would he have the power to protect the Nine Deaths Reincarnation Grass and help it survive the ordeal?

Yet, if he absorbed the grass as his soul spirit, then there would be no tribulation to undergo in the first place.

The purpose of these tribulations was not refinement but destruction.

By using the destruction of the tribulations to catalyze its rebirth, the Reincarnation Grass would go through the cycle nine times, making it perfectly suited for the role Su Yu had envisioned for his eighth soul ring.

"It's almost ready… With full-force nourishment, it should mature before the Soul Dueling Tournament ends."

If it could both be reborn and reach a hundred-thousand-year cultivation, then Su Yu could consider it his first true act of creation—giving birth to new life.

By that time, he would also have a chance to receive guidance from the God of Life. The Golden Ancient Tree branch was part of his preparation for that moment.

On the third day of the tournament, the Sun Moon Imperial Team had no scheduled matches.

While watching from the resting area, Su Yu observed that Shrek had sent out a new combatant, confirming his previous predictions.

Tang Zhen—Martial Soul: Clear Sky Hammer.

His soul power had already reached rank sixty-three, an undeniable display of strength.

Aside from this, Su Yu used the opportunity to evaluate the overall strength of the teams in the tournament.

In his own group, he carefully selected two teams that would be ideal opponents for Xiao Ping and Zhou Xinghao—intending for them to take on an entire team of seven by themselves.

Observing the battles wasn't Su Yu's primary goal. His main reason for being here was to cultivate Fate Power.

The more people gathered, the livelier the surroundings, the easier it seemed to be to cultivate this power. His insights into fate also became clearer in such an environment.

Su Yu speculated that the intense interweaving of destinies in this place made the energy of fate more active.

By the end of the day, Su Yu's understanding of Fate Power had deepened significantly.

On the fourth day, the Sun Moon Imperial Team had two matches scheduled.

"In the morning, we'll be facing Star Luo Imperial Academy. In the afternoon, we'll go up against Dou Ling Academy."

"Zhou Xinghao, you'll take on Star Luo Imperial Academy. Xiao Ping, you'll handle Dou Ling Academy."

The Star Luo Empire was the fiercest rival of the Sun Moon Empire and the nation that invested the most resources into soul tools.

At Star Luo Royal Academy, soul tools were already highly integrated into combat, with soul cannons being used in tandem with soul masters. This made it extremely difficult for Xiao Ping to secure a victory.

However, Zhou Xinghao, as a long-range artillery specialist, would be able to deal with Star Luo's team regardless of whether they focused on ranged bombardment or close-combat soul master techniques.

However, Su Yu didn't have high expectations for either Zhou Xinghao or Xiao Ping to complete their task in these two battles.

That said, pulling off a one-versus-seven victory wasn't entirely impossible. One way to increase their chances was to manipulate the match format—starting with a team battle or a two-two-three formation before moving on to individual matches.

Alternatively, the team battle and two-two-three format could be used strategically to ensure an even one-to-one win-loss record across the first two rounds, leading to a decisive third round of individual matches.

This approach would significantly weaken the opposing team's overall strength.

However, doing so would also defeat the original purpose of the challenge.

Thus, Su Yu chose not to interfere.

During the draw, he refrained from using Fate Power to influence the results and instead left it entirely to chance.

As it turned out, Zhou Xinghao had fairly good luck—the first match against the Star Luo Royal Academy followed the two-two-three format. But when the referee announced that the second match would be a full team battle, Zhou Xinghao's face stiffened.

He couldn't possibly throw a match just to fulfill the challenge, could he?

As Su Yu focused on watching the battle, an unexpected visitor arrived.

Scorpion-Tail Douluo—Zhang Peng.

"Su Yu?"