Douluo: I Can Choose My Own Soul Skills

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Ye Lan's Blue Silver Grass, although its first soul ring only granted a passive effect and no active soul skill, still retained the core traits of a tool spirit.

As one of the tool-type martial spirits, Blue Silver Grass could be summoned and used directly without requiring a soul skill. That's a basic feature of all tool spirits.

So, even without an active skill, Ye Lan could summon and utilize his Blue Silver Grass freely—allowing him to test the performance of his not-yet-fully-evolved form: Radiant Spirit Grass.

Since his Blue Silver Grass could use binding abilities directly, Tang San's first soul skill, Blue Silver Bind, seemed somewhat awkward in comparison—as if it wasted a precious skill slot.

Of course, Tang San's Blue Silver Bind wasn't without merit. It could activate directly beneath a target's feet, providing faster release speed and stronger constriction than the basic use of the spirit.

Ye Lan, in contrast, could only release his Blue Silver Grass from his body; he couldn't deploy it under an enemy's feet.

As for its binding strength?

Ye Lan's newly evolved Blue Silver Grass was twice as thick as Tang San's!

Even with Tang San's skill-boosted binding, it couldn't compare to the raw strength of Ye Lan's spirit vines.

...

Snapping back to the present, before Xiao Wu could close in, Ye Lan's body began glowing with a golden light.

Several golden strands of Blue Silver Grass rapidly sprouted from his palms and body.

No—at this point, it could no longer be called "grass" at all. It should now be referred to as Blue Silver Vines.

Six thick vines, each ten centimeters in diameter, spiraled out toward Xiao Wu like golden serpents.

Xiao Wu was startled by the sight of the golden Blue Silver Vines. She didn't recognize this martial spirit—it was clearly much thicker than Tang San's version.

Eyes wide, Xiao Wu dared not attempt her usual leg-lock technique. If she tried to wrap her legs around Ye Lan's neck now, she'd turn into a perfect target for the vines to bind.

But she was still midair, with nothing to push off from.

So she had no choice but to grit her teeth and act. Just before the vines could completely encircle her, she pushed off forcefully with her toes—aiming right at Ye Lan's head.

Ye Lan, who hadn't trained in iron-head techniques, quickly raised both arms to block Xiao Wu's stepping strike.

Xiao Wu's eyes lit up—she used his raised arms as a springboard, flipping backward off him.

With a beautiful backflip, Xiao Wu landed smoothly on the ground.

But her satisfaction was short-lived. When she looked up at Ye Lan—

Several Blue Silver Vines were still creeping toward her, closing in like golden snakes.

Xiao Wu instantly turned and started running in circles around Ye Lan. She was just starting to feel relieved that she had dodged the vines' attack—

When the vines suddenly twisted and bent mid-air, changing direction to continue chasing after her back!

"What kind of freakish martial spirit is this!?" Xiao Wu was stunned by the golden-haired youth's martial spirit. Just looking at it, she knew it wasn't easy to deal with—and now it turned out to be this agile, too?

But Xiao Wu was an agility-type soul master, with top-tier speed among her peers.

As long as she switched directions and pushed her speed to its limit, she could throw off the vines' pursuit.

Sure enough, within moments, she had widened the gap to over ten meters between herself and Ye Lan.

At that point, she realized something—the Blue Silver Vines were stretched tight, like drawn cords. That must be their maximum range.

So that was the limit—this golden-haired youth could only control them within ten meters!

Xiao Wu immediately stuck her tongue out mischievously, pulled down one lower eyelid with her finger, and made a face.

"Heeheehee! Your martial spirit looks impressive, but it's all flash and no substance! Come on, tie me up if you can!"

Ye Lan pressed a hand to his forehead.

"Don't tell me you think I'm a scarecrow—just standing here doing nothing? Let me remind you, I'm not slower than you."

The moment Ye Lan finished speaking, Xiao Wu panicked. She turned and bolted in the opposite direction.

"Don't worry—it won't take long."

Ye Lan retracted the extended Blue Silver Vines, allowing them to float and coil within a two-meter radius around him.

Then—he poured one hundred percent of his soul power into his legs.

And took a step forward.

With a snap of his fingers, Ye Lan instantly closed the gap between him and Xiao Wu by several meters.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Footprints were left stamped into the marble-paved path of Nuoding Academy as Ye Lan charged forward.

Xiao Wu continued trying to change direction again and again, attempting to shake him off. The two looked like an eagle chasing a rabbit.

"Gotcha!"

Just as Ye Lan narrowed the distance to within two body lengths of Xiao Wu, the Blue Silver Grass around him suddenly surged out and wrapped tightly around her.

The vines crept up from her back, coiling all over her body, locking up every major joint.

Xiao Wu was lifted into the air by several vines, her legs kicking furiously in place as she struggled to escape their hold.

"Don't waste your energy," Ye Lan said with a smirk. "You'll only tire yourself out."

He hadn't expected the Blue Silver Grass to subdue Xiao Wu so quickly. Even he was impressed by how much stronger it had become.

No numbers—pure technique!

Ye Lan skillfully controlled each vine, manipulating Xiao Wu into various awkward poses.

He was gradually learning the full capabilities of the Blue Silver Grass. Even without the Blue Silver Bind soul skill, its natural binding ability alone was enough to render Xiao Wu completely helpless.

Earlier, when chasing her, he had already determined that the vines' maximum control range was around ten meters.

Ye Lan activated his soul power again, and two more Blue Silver Vines emerged from the surface of his body.

Added to the previous six, his soul power could now sustain a total of eight vines simultaneously.

He then tested issuing different mental commands to each vine. What he found was that he couldn't control all eight to do separate tasks at once.

He could easily make all eight vines perform the same command—like restraining an enemy.

But to make them each do different things, he had to manually control them using focused intent.

That meant issuing individual commands to each vine, switching between them rapidly, like a single-threaded processor multitasking through sheer willpower.

Just as Ye Lan was immersed in testing synchronized commands, Xiao Wu, her face flushed bright red, suddenly shouted:

"What the heck do you think you're doing?! Let me down right now!"

"Ye Lan, I hate you!!!"

Ye Lan snapped back to reality at her yelling and blinked.

"Wait… how did you know it was me?"

"Do you think I'm stupid?" Xiao Wu fumed. "I didn't recognize you at first, sure, but your voice hasn't changed at all! And you're still just as sharp-tongued as ever!"

She flailed her arms and legs in frustration, trying in vain to break free.

"Sharp-tongued? Depends who I'm talking to." Ye Lan sighed, a vein twitching on his forehead.

"Why has your martial spirit changed so much? It looks way cooler than San-ge's Blue Silver Grass. Now hurry up and let me go—this is seriously uncomfortable!"

She was clearly stunned by the transformation of Ye Lan's martial spirit.

"Well," Ye Lan replied, stroking his chin, "I got lucky and absorbed a soul ring that's highly compatible with the Blue Silver Grass."

"Even so, you're still no match for my San-ge! You trained for years and only now got your first soul ring!" Xiao Wu jabbed.

"Hey, hey, hey! Did you already forget? I won my duel with Tang San!" Ye Lan said smugly.

"Hmph! San-ge told me that was just an accident! Once he becomes a Soul Master, I'd like to see you beat him again!"

Xiao Wu clearly didn't believe Ye Lan could keep up with Tang San's insane training speed. Tang San was even faster than her—definitely a little monster in the making.

"Tsk tsk tsk. A loser once is a loser for life. My defeated opponent will always be one."

"Anyway, you can hang there for now. If I let you go, you're definitely going to attack me again. I'm heading off. The vines will disappear on their own in about a minute."

"Ye Lan, you coward! Come back here! Let me down—we're not done! Let's fight again!" Xiao Wu shouted at the top of her lungs, still flailing as the vines suspended her helplessly in the air.

(End of Chapter)