Douluo: My Clone Is Groudon

Xiao Wu shot Gu La a glare, then secretly tugged at his sleeve, awkwardly saying, "You know, I used to be protected by Da Ming and Er Ming, so I could train in the safety of the core area. I don't really know much about this kind of thing."

She lowered her voice, clearly aware that she had been somewhat lazy in her training. Despite being a hundred-thousand-year spirit beast, she had never faced any real challenges throughout her life.

Gu La: "..."

He had forgotten.

Gu La rubbed his temples, suppressing the smile that threatened to creep onto his face.

But Xiao Wu, shorter than him by a head, still noticed he was laughing at her. She kicked him while wearing a stern expression.

Gu La didn't feel any pain but couldn't help but muse internally:

As long as they aren't in danger, even Bone Rabbit and Ice Silkworm can grow into hundred-thousand-year spirit beasts. Spirit beasts and soul masters each have their own advantages.

Tang San came to Xiao Wu's defense: "It doesn't matter if Xiao Wu doesn't understand. We'll study it slowly and figure it out eventually."

Xiao Wu felt utterly embarrassed. With a flick of her scorpion tail whip, she moved to Zhu Zhuqing's side, clinging to her arm and raising her head defiantly.

"Hmph!"

Gu La waved his hand: "You three step back. Let me try practicing the Dragon Transformation Technique."

The three obediently moved aside, retreating to the edge of the garden.

Of course, Gu La didn't have any spirit beast bloodline within him—or, if he did, it would have been extremely weak and long since devoured by his Groudon martial soul.

Therefore, when Gu La attempted to practice the Dragon Transformation Technique, he wasn't activating a bloodline but rather the deeper essence of his martial soul. That said, calling it a "bloodline" wouldn't be entirely wrong—it was just a difference in terminology.

"Thankfully, I exchanged for the Red Orb. The external soul bone evolved, or else my control wouldn't be precise enough for such fine manipulation."

Gu La focused his mind inward, channeling his soul power through his meridians. It flowed to every part of his body, where the essence of Groudon had fused into every corner. As he directed his soul power to activate the Dragon Transformation Technique, he felt his blood boil with surging power.

The Red Orb, already fused with his heart, trembled slightly. Within the heart cavity, a miniature hologram of Groudon began to form.

Suddenly, the hologram expanded to two meters tall, overlapping with Gu La's body.

"Roar!"

A thunderous roar erupted as the essence of his martial soul was awakened.

Gu La's muscles swelled, and starting from his hands, a red rocky shell began to emerge, spreading toward his shoulders. Energy surged from the ground beneath his feet, transforming into soul power.

"It worked."

Gu La slowly opened his eyes, revealing golden irises radiating an overwhelming authority—aloof and detached, as if gazing down upon ants beneath his feet.

"Gu La, are you alright?"

Xiao Wu asked worriedly.

Tang San felt the oppressive aura emanating from Gu La, his entire body tensing up.

His rational mind told him that Gu La wouldn't harm him, but his survival instincts screamed at him to flee immediately.

After a moment, Gu La adjusted his emotions. The divine gleam faded from his eyes, replaced by other emotions. He shook his head forcefully.

"Just some minor side effects of the Dragon Transformation Technique—a trivial matter. It mainly causes one's bestial nature to overpower their humanity. Though the technique doesn't require high spiritual strength, it demands strong willpower. Otherwise, one might be consumed by their bloodline, becoming a half-beast, half-human monster driven mad until death."

Gu La shared his insights: "Now I understand why no one coveted the Dragon Transformation Technique before. With low-tier bloodlines and soul masters lacking in overall capability, they simply couldn't withstand the pressure of dragonization."

"The best-case scenario is backlash from the martial soul. A single slip-up could result in death from self-destruction."

"And this form of True Body, being incomplete, can't last long. Moreover, it places immense strain on the soul master, making it feel inferior to..."

Gu La thought of Mega Evolution from the Pokémon world, which allowed certain Pokémon that had already reached their final evolution stage to temporarily transform into a new form.

The research community generally believed that the forms achieved through Mega Evolution were ancient ancestral forms possessed by Pokémon in the distant past.

However, as times changed and environments shifted, Pokémon abandoned these most difficult forms for the sake of stable reproduction, leading to regressive phenomena.

Or perhaps there were other reasons. In any case, in modern times, Pokémon required a Keystone, a Mega Stone, and a deep bond with their trainer to briefly enter their mega-evolved state.

"The difficulty of dragonization is higher than I anticipated. Even if I simplify the technique, ordinary soul masters will likely struggle to succeed in its cultivation."

Gu La fell into deep thought as his brain automatically retrieved a paper on artificial Mega Stones.

"What if we combine soul-guide tools with Mega Evolution devices? Is it feasible?"

Gu La mentally calculated, estimating a success rate of about twenty to thirty percent. However, due to his lack of familiarity with soul-guided tools and insufficient data, the probability of success remained low.

"The Keystone isn't much of an issue. In the Pokémon world, it links trainers and Pokémon through bonds, creating miracles by awakening dormant genetic information within the Pokémon's bloodline to temporarily return them to an ancient state."

"Soul masters are inherently inseparable from their martial souls, so a Keystone is unnecessary. However, we can simplify the Dragon Transformation Technique to act as a 'Keystone' that strengthens the connection between the soul master and their martial soul."

"As for the key aspect of Mega Evolution, just like how different Pokémon species require unique Mega Stones, soul masters also need individualized methods to stimulate and awaken their bloodlines."

At this point, Gu La hit a mental block.

There were countless martial souls in the world. If he were to create an evolution device for everyone, he'd spend his entire life doing nothing else. Even achieving godhood wouldn't keep up with the pace of soul masters reproducing.

"So... could we categorize soul masters based on attributes, species, and roles, then create modular, detachable, and customizable Mega Evolution devices?"

Gu La considered using technological means to leapfrog ahead. However, constrained by the technological level of the Douluo Continent, he discarded ninety-nine percent of his ideas.

Gu La: "..."

What's left now?

Gu La dispelled his Mega Evolution and rubbed his temples again.

"The attribute module is easy to solve. My Ultimate attributes can serve as energy sources, rivaling the soul power levels of Super Douluos."

"We can also use Celebi's Forest God authority to purify and transform energy attributes. For simplicity, lower-level energy paired with universal high-level vitality works best—it's convenient and hassle-free."

"For the species module, we can roughly divide them into dragon bloodlines, wolves, tigers, leopards, bears, eagles, deer, horses... Hmm, even a rough classification results in over a hundred types, not counting plant and insect spirit beasts."

"Tool-type martial souls... Tsk, troublesome. Can Gigalith Mega Evolve?"

Gu La overtaxed his brain, his forehead feeling like a boiling kettle as sweat began to evaporate.

"Extract representative genes from foreign species and combine them with attribute energy as stimuli, linking them to the martial soul to temporarily blend bloodlines and achieve temporary evolution."

"Hmm… The best carrier is indeed soul bones, preferably unattributed ones for easier elemental infiltration. Oh, right—I still have a piece of left arm bone from a Human-Faced Demon Spider. It's perfect for testing."

"As for the final role-based module, we can divide it into three categories: Offensive, Agility, and Balanced. Adding more types would require finding additional spirit beast templates for each category. Three should suffice."

------------------------------------------------------

40+ Chapters Ahead: patreon.com/EphemeralShadow

There's something for free patrons too! Free Patrons receive 1 chapter in advance :)