Douluo: AFK to Become a God

As the sun began to set, Chu Chengzhou opened his eyes and realized it was already late afternoon.

He glanced at his attribute panel:

Attribute Panel

Host: Chu Chengzhou

Soul Power: Level 13 Soul Master

Martial Soul: True Spirit Flag

Soul Ring: Yellow (652 years)

First Soul Skill: Summon: Sky Blue Tree

Skills: Meditation (Purple), Body Refining (Yellow), Spirit Refining (Yellow)

"652 years, and Level 13 Soul Power?" Chu Chengzhou raised an eyebrow as he looked at the panel.

Normally, a first soul ring of around 400 years would push a soul master to Level 12. In the original story, Tang San reached Level 13 after absorbing his first soul ring because he had spent three months cultivating before doing so. During that time, he had been working on his soul power. However, with Chu Chengzhou's starting point at Level 10, absorbing a 652-year soul ring and advancing to Level 13 seemed perfectly normal.

Moreover, because the Sky Blue Tree's summon ability was tied to the Wood attribute, Chu Chengzhou could now convert his non-attribute soul power into Wood attribute soul power at will.

Unfortunately, this ability didn't seem to have much immediate use.

Realizing that now wasn't the time to explore his "cheat abilities," Chu Chengzhou closed the attribute panel after a brief glance.

"Has it really been half the day already?" He looked up at the setting sun and was momentarily surprised.

He hadn't noticed how quickly time had passed while refining the soul ring.

Suddenly, Chu Chengzhou felt a slight constriction around his body. Looking down, he realized his clothes had become somewhat tight. This wasn't because his clothes had shrunk, but because his physical body had grown taller after absorbing the soul ring and advancing his soul power. Naturally, his clothes no longer fit as well.

This growth was a result of the soul power's influence on the body, which was why many talented young soul masters, despite being young in age, looked much older due to the physical changes triggered by their soul power.

"How do you feel, little Chengzhou?" Su Nan's voice broke the silence.

"Feeling great!" Chu Chengzhou grinned, looking at the deep yellow soul ring that now adorned his body.

"Try releasing your soul skill," Su Nan encouraged.

Chu Chengzhou nodded slightly, and a faint blue glow of soul power surrounded him. His True Spirit Flag martial soul rapidly expanded to human size.

"Huh? There's a new Sky Blue Tree pattern?" Chu Chengzhou noticed for the first time that a dark green tree-like design had appeared on his previously dull True Spirit Flag. It was the symbol of the Sky Blue Tree summon.

It was normal for his martial soul to change after absorbing the soul ring, so Chu Chengzhou wasn't particularly surprised. The addition of the summoning symbol made the flag appear much more refined than before.

With a flick of his wrist, the flag swirled, and the deep yellow soul ring flared as soul power surged. Suddenly, a figure identical to the Sky Blue Tree materialized beside him.

"Wow, little Chengzhou, does the summoned Sky Blue Tree look any different from the original?" Su Nan asked curiously, eyeing the ethereal tree.

"Not really," Chu Chengzhou replied. He then made the Sky Blue Tree release a greenish light toward Su Nan.

Although the True Spirit Flag martial soul allowed the summoned tree to possess some basic intelligence, due to the low age of the soul ring, the Sky Blue Tree was still in its instinctual state and required Chu Chengzhou's direct control.

"It's pretty good. The healing ability is about the level of a second-ring healer," Su Nan praised after feeling the healing power of the summoned tree.

Chu Chengzhou, however, wasn't as pleased. He noticed that using the healing skill drained a portion of his soul power.

As expected, the law of energy conservation applied everywhere.

When he first summoned the Sky Blue Tree, he hadn't noticed any significant soul power consumption, and he had hoped that he could rely on it for future battles without worrying about running out of energy. But now, he realized that the soul power cost was quite significant.

"There's a downside," Chu Chengzhou frowned. "The soul power for the summoned skill comes from me, so once my soul power is depleted, the summoned tree will disappear."

"Well, it's not a big deal for now," Su Nan commented. "You've got a martial soul capable of summoning creatures equal to the soul beast's age, which is already very powerful."

Chu Chengzhou nodded. "Yeah, I suppose."

While having a weakness wasn't ideal, as long as he didn't engage in evenly matched battles, his powerful martial soul should be enough to overpower most opponents. He could rely on his high-quality martial soul and focus on defeating enemies quickly.

As for the quality of his soul power? He decided not to worry about that for now. Once he reached a higher level and figured out how to cultivate multiple soul cores like in the later stages, he could address the quality issue.

"Every martial soul has its flaws. But being able to summon creatures with the same age as the soul beast is already an extraordinary ability," Su Nan said, not overly concerned about the soul power consumption.

Chu Chengzhou nodded again, acknowledging that there were always trade-offs in any system. As long as he used his martial soul wisely, he could make up for its shortcomings.

As evening approached, Chu Chengzhou stored the Sky Blue Tree summon and, along with Su Nan, began heading toward the entrance of the Hunting Soul Forest.

On the way back, Chu Chengzhou reflected on the changes brought by his advancement and the newly unlocked features.

Hmm, not much had changed. His afk system still had two slots, and the efficiency remained unchanged.

As for the new afk feature related to soul rings, it allowed him to increase the age of his soul ring by 10 years per day of auto-play. However, it only increased the soul ring's age and the resulting physical benefits, not his soul power. The feature didn't increase his soul power directly.

The afk system only helped improve the soul ring's age, but it didn't address the consequences of increasing its age.

"Is it my soul power level that's too low, or is this the final version of the system?" Chu Chengzhou thought, feeling frustrated.

If his soul power was insufficient to trigger further changes, that was fine, but if this was the final version of the system, the usefulness of his cheat would drop significantly. After all, it would take over twenty years to upgrade to a divine-grade martial soul, and by then, his advantage would be gone.

Still, Chu Chengzhou leaned toward the second possibility. Since his cheat could upgrade even divine-grade martial souls, it didn't make sense for it to be so weak.