Douluo: My Clone Is Groudon

"All these spirit beasts, upon reaching ten thousand years, possess soul skills that control the earth element."

Tang San paused. "But relying solely on the three of us, we can't possibly hunt down a ten-thousand-year spirit beast. Sleeve arrows are effective against hundred-year spirit beasts, but against stronger thousand-year ones, ordinary arrows can barely break through their defenses, let alone those of a ten-thousand-year spirit beast."

Upon hearing this, Xiao Wu looked conflicted. "Should I go back and ask Da Ming and Er Ming for help?"

Gu La decisively rejected the idea. "It's too much trouble. Just because you're on good terms with us doesn't mean your friends will accept us. Let's first search for a spirit beast. If all else fails, we can settle for a thousand-year one."

Tang San's expression turned regretful. "Headmaster Flender is still at the academy. We should have invited him along. The gap between a thousand-year soul ring and a ten-thousand-year soul ring is enormous."

"For the same elemental control soul skill, there is at least a twofold difference in strength between a nine-thousand-year soul ring and a ten-thousand-year one, not to mention the significant disparity in chances of obtaining higher-tier soul skills."

"It's fine. With some time, we'll find a suitable spirit beast."

Gu La reassured them with an indifferent smile, secretly switching to his Celebi martial soul. His gaze sharpened as he scanned the future, searching for the time frame when they would leave the Star Dou Forest.

Soul power flowed out like water breaking through a dam. A glowing halo swirled in Gu La's eyes as scenes shifted like film reels being rewound.

After viewing up to half a month later, he finally found the interrupted forest scene. Rewinding back half a day, he located the moment he fused with the soul ring.

Below a smoke-filled volcanic crater, everywhere was scorched black from molten lava. A spirit beast controlling magma lay on its side in a muddy area, sinking deeper and deeper until a black soul ring emerged.

Gu La's eyes lit up as he turned to Xiao Wu. "Do you still have those storage soul tools?"

Though it was phrased as a question, Gu La already knew the answer.

"Yeah, do you need them?"

Xiao Wu was puzzled by Gu La's question but reached toward her waist, pulling out other storage soul tools from a specially reinforced one with expanded internal space.

"Yes, help me fill all the storage soul tools with water."

Gu La gave an approving smile, took a few soul tools, and walked to the riverbank, motioning for the other two to follow.

Even Tang San couldn't figure out Gu La's intentions, but thanks to Gu La's consistent "correctness," he had established authority.

Tang San and Xiao Wu suppressed their curiosity, refrained from asking questions, and followed Gu La in filling the storage soul tools with water.

The sizes of the more than thirty storage soul tools varied, holding hundreds of cubic meters of river water.

Gu La then added some riverbed mud, filling the storage soul tools to capacity. Xiao Wu wrinkled her nose in disgust. "It smells terrible! Why are we collecting mud?"

"You'll see soon enough."

Gu La left them hanging, wiped the mud and water off his hands, and asked, "In which direction is the nearest volcano?"

Xiao Wu was already used to Gu La's penchant for being cryptic. She pouted, stopped asking, and simply turned around. "To the west. Follow me."

Gu La followed, while Tang San thought deeply, "A volcano? Using water to deal with spirit beasts? If it's a spirit beast with both fire and earth attributes, it could be a good method."

"But even so, hundreds of cubic meters of water may seem like a lot, but without a soul master controlling it, a thousand-year spirit beast could easily escape. In the end, it would still be futile."

Tang San was filled with questions, pondering endlessly behind them.

After walking for three hours, the trio arrived at a mountain range. Several extinct volcanoes were scattered nearby, providing uniquely blessed conditions for the proliferation of fire-attribute spirit beasts.

Gu La wandered around and found a natural pit, seemingly the cave of some spirit beast, abandoned long ago and now collapsed.

He poured the mud into the pit, spreading it evenly, then added fifty cubic meters of river water. With the mud acting as a buffer, the water seeped into the ground very slowly, taking at least three to five hours to fully soak in.

"Come help dig the soil and knead it like dough. If it's too thick, add water; if too thin, add soil. Let's create an artificial swamp."

Tang San suddenly understood. "Using the swamp's characteristic where the harder you struggle, the deeper you sink, to restrict the spirit beast's strength. But will the spirit beast fall for it?"

"Don't worry, I have my ways."

Gu La smiled mysteriously and urged the two to help.

Thus, under the scorching afternoon sun near the volcano, the three began mixing mud.

By the time the mud had been kneaded into a sticky, gel-like consistency, evening was approaching, and the setting sun bathed the land in fiery red hues.

Gu La added a Grassy Terrain move, covering the "artificial swamp" with a layer of fresh grass. From a distance, aside from the overgrown weeds, there were no other visible flaws.

He clapped his hands. "Mission accomplished. Now, I'll go lure a spirit beast from the volcano. Once it falls into the trap, you release the water at the right moment. Make sure it doesn't manage to evaporate the swamp or struggle free. Don't give it a chance to manipulate the earth element."

Tang San nodded in agreement. Adding water would make it much harder to control, especially for an earth-and-fire attribute spirit beast.

After giving his instructions, Gu La used his psychic powers to fly toward the volcano.

Less than half an hour later, Gu La rushed back from afar, with flames lighting up the sky behind him. A three-meter-tall dark red humanoid figure spewed magma and fire, relentlessly chasing Gu La.

Tang San gasped in shock. "The Flame Lord!"

The Flame Lord was a top-tier fire-and-earth attribute spirit beast. The martial soul of Yan, one of the Golden Generation of the Spirit Hall, was the Flame Lord.

With its extremely high-temperature magma, unmatched fire-attribute attack power, super-strong earth-attribute defense, and partially elemental body, it had almost no weaknesses. Especially near its volcanic territory, where it could control natural magma, it was unmatched by any spirit beast of the same level, earning it the title of "Lord."

Tang San grew serious. The Flame Lord was not to be trifled with. Even outside its territory, it could still convert soul power into magma, creating a domain for long-range bombardment. Moreover, its close-combat abilities were also formidable, with no obvious weaknesses, making it very difficult to kill.

However, the Flame Lord still adhered to the rule of elemental weaknesses.

Water overcomes fire.

Even a ten-thousand-year Flame Lord, without magma to replenish its soul power, couldn't possibly evaporate hundreds of tons of river water.

As if Gu La had eyes on the back of his head, he skillfully dodged the magma fireballs hurled by the Flame Lord. His relatively small wings flapped hard, working in tandem with his psychic powers to reach maximum speed.

He sped straight toward the trap. Gu La naturally flew over it. The Flame Lord wouldn't normally stray far from its territory, so what had Gu La done to provoke it?

Actually, it was quite simple. He had dumped a large amount of spirit beast feces into the volcano where the Flame Lord resided.

Ten-thousand-year spirit beasts, though incapable of speech, possessed intelligence comparable to humans. They understood shame and had preferences. Unless they were plant-type spirit beasts, no creature would enjoy feces.

As expected, the Flame Lord literally exploded, shattering into hundreds of molten rock fragments to rid itself of the filth.

Once reformed, it went berserk and chased Gu La with murderous intent.

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