thefictionvixens Chapter 284 The competition is now in your hands, Lord Soul Saint.
Chapter 284 The competition is now in your hands, Lord Soul Saint.
When Long You regained consciousness during the promotion process, it was during Di Tian's final conversation with Ilex. Having witnessed firsthand the addition of another soul fragment to the auspicious beast's soul, the oppressive atmosphere around Di Tian was palpable. However, having been repeatedly reminded of this matter, Di Tian was already aware of the situation. Seeing that things hadn't escalated to an irreversible point, and with Long You and Liu Jun having also regained consciousness, the appreciative Di Tian maintained his composure.
Time flies. The Tang Sect had no matches scheduled for the second day of the Continental Advanced Soul Master Elite Tournament's round-robin stage. However, this didn't mean the Tang Sect members could rest. Without substitutes, they still needed to prepare for the Mingdu Soul Master Elite Tournament that evening. But by the second round of this underground tournament, most of the Tang Sect's less experienced Soul Masters risked being eliminated.
Having won the competition one after another, the Tang Clan checked into a small suite at the Mingyue Hotel early on. They had their own small conference room. Soon after breakfast, the Tang Clan members gathered in the small conference room, and then Long You was once again in the spotlight.
The night before the start of the Continental Advanced Soul Master Elite Tournament's preliminary rounds, Long You disappeared without a trace after participating in the tournament beneath Mingdu, leaving only a Soul Guidance AI robot as a backup. During the tournament, the backup robot even malfunctioned and lost its ability to function due to excessive strain on Bern's computing power. Out of trust in their comrade, the Tang Sect members wouldn't force Long You to investigate his secrets when he clearly needed solitude, but that didn't mean they weren't curious about his plans. Now that the real Long You has returned after disappearing for a day and a night, it's reasonable for them to discuss some things.
Seeing that he was being stared at by the Tang Clan members, Long You shrugged and asked in his mind: "Liu Jun, do you want to say hello to everyone?"
There was no response from his mind, but Liu Jun's humanoid form had already quietly appeared beside Long You. Thanks to the increasingly sophisticated development of image-recording soul tools, the Tang Sect members were already familiar with Liu Jun's appearance. With Liu Jun appearing, and in the form of a soul spirit, it was no longer difficult to guess what Long You had been doing for the past day and night.
Out of respect for the powerful, the Tang Clan members had a genuine exchange with Liu Jun. Incidentally, the Ice and Snow Maiden—the Snow Empress—who knew something about Liu Jun, also appeared outside and spoke with him about the changes after becoming a Soul Spirit. The specific content of their conversation is unnecessary to elaborate on, but unnoticed by Bei Bei and the others, Huo Yuhao's curious gaze remained fixed on Long You, earning him a meaningful smile in return.
Others might not know, but Huo Yuhao, who had offered up his own sea of consciousness as a backyard garden, knew that after darkness fell last night, Electrolux, who had served as his advisor, teacher, and other guides, unexpectedly left, only to return to the Mingyue Hotel with Long You's true form in the early hours of this morning. This essentially meant that Long You and Electrolux were connected and had some kind of plan, but both were concealing these matters from him.
Since acquiring the mental detection soul skill bestowed upon him by the Heavenly Dream Ice Silkworm, Huo Yuhao has become increasingly accustomed to a life where he can control all situations. Currently, although Huo Yuhao knows that neither his teacher, Electrolux, nor his sworn brother, Long You, would harm him, the feeling of clearly sensing something but ultimately realizing nothing is truly unsettling for him.
However, seeing that Long You had noticed his gaze, and realizing that there were more important things to do at the moment, Huo Yuhao withdrew his gaze and began to listen attentively to Nana, a local of Mingdu, as she introduced the second round of the Mingdu Soul Master Elite Competition.
"The Soul Master Competition has reached its second round, which is similar to the round-robin stage of the Continental Advanced Soul Master Elite Competition. Those Soul Masters who were just participating have basically been eliminated. According to the information I've gathered, the Soul Masters who are still competing should all be at least Level 4. The competition will start tonight when the Soul Guidance Streetlights turn on and will end tomorrow morning, to be precise, it will last for five hours."
During these five hours, each participating Soul Master needs to create an offensive Soul Tool of level four or higher. Specifically, creating an offensive Soul Tool of level five or higher will grant direct advancement; creating a level four offensive Soul Tool will require passing a Soul Tool comparison round.
Each Soul Master will conduct attack tests in a designated testing area using their self-made Soul Tool. Data from each attack will be recorded, and the five with the weakest attacks will be eliminated. Of course, participants who cannot even create a level four attack Soul Tool within the allotted time will also be eliminated.
Nana, a somewhat pitiful yet fortunate little girl who was rescued. Although neither Huo Yuhao nor the Tang Clan members intended to treat her as a servant, Nana always considered herself a maid of the Tang Clan out of gratitude. Now that the Tang Clan needs her help, Nana is extremely attentive. Originally, Long You was thinking he might have to give spoilers again, but then he realized that his friends already had another source of information.
"Hmm, it seems the elimination rate for this round won't be too high, perhaps even lower than the first round of the official competition. However, the level of brutality has increased considerably. Excluding overwhelmingly powerful contenders like Cai Tou, Xiao You, and Junior Brother, the remaining participants are all only at the level of fourth-level Soul Masters. No one can claim that their crafted Soul Tool is necessarily the most powerful among its peers. To advance to the next round and gain more benefits, they'll probably have to pull out all the stops."
However, this suits you just as well, Xiao You. If nothing unexpected happens, you probably won't gain much from the first two rounds.
As the team leader, Bei Bei was used to being the one to give the summary, and as Bei Bei's childhood companion, Long You had long been used to this jerk stabbing him from time to time.
"No need for your concern, Bei Bei. You should be thinking about how to pass the test. Every person who advances means less income for the Tang Sect. As the senior disciple of the Tang Sect, Bei Bei, you're not going to be the one who holds us back, are you?"
A slight twitch at the corner of his mouth revealed that Bei Bei had already begun to regret his habitual banter. However, Long You's swift and sharp counterattack still left the Tang Sect's senior disciple seething with anger. While Bei Bei could certainly create a level four soul tool thanks to his superior soul power, he himself didn't believe that what he made would be a masterpiece among level four soul tools.
She exchanged a knowing glance with the other group of laymen in the meeting room who had no talent for soul tools and hadn't invested much effort in them either. Beibei gestured for Nana to continue explaining the betting methods for this round of the competition, wisely deciding not to try and liven up the atmosphere in the meeting room any longer.
"The betting rules for this round are simple: bet on the fastest time to finish the game..."
Nana was still explaining the rules and regulations for tonight's competition, but Long You, who already knew these things, shifted his attention elsewhere. During the first round of the official competition, Long You had already begun preparing to create a true spatial concealment soul tool. However, he had been preoccupied with other matters lately, and this project hadn't officially started. Now, with the second round requiring the creation of an offensive soul tool, Long You felt he could begin working on some of the components for the spatial concealment soul tool.
[My dearest self, my suggestion is that you simply craft a level 5 attack soul tool during this round of the competition to advance.]
Long You, lost in his own world, clearly hadn't shielded his consciousness, so the inhabitants within it naturally received his "distractions." However, considering that the Pearl of Imagination never responds, and that Liu Jun was currently exchanging experiences on being a spirit with a room full of souls in Huo Yuhao's consciousness, the only one responding to Long You now could only be his own martial spirit consciousness, Xiao Yan.
[I am well aware that time is limited, and the stealth soul tool you intend to create this time is merely an experimental prototype used as a transition. Aside from emphasizing stealth quality, other qualities are not prioritized. However, I do not believe you can currently complete the design blueprints I have derived, even a low-end version.]
Xiao Yan's voice continued to echo in Long You's mind. Gently tapping his head, Long You brought his scattered thoughts back.
【My dear Xiaoyan, you're becoming more and more like my second personality. Is this really okay? Well, that's not important. I need to thank you for your advice. I was a bit too hasty. The laws of space are vast and profound. Even if I've crossed the threshold of understanding the laws by chance, I still have a long way to go before I can skillfully utilize the power of the laws of space.】
What I should be doing now is continuing to improve my understanding of the laws of space, rather than rushing to attach my half-baked knowledge of spatial laws to various soul tools in pursuit of a superficial increase in strength.
From a timeline perspective, it has been less than a week since Long You, through his reckless spirit, luckily crossed the threshold of mastering the laws of space. Although during this period, Long You repeatedly drew the secret runes of the laws of space that he had now mastered in order to cause trouble, he did not make any progress in his understanding of the laws of space.
If this were the Swallowed Star world, Long You, having just stepped into the threshold of spatial laws, would possess the foundation to unleash the first level of the "Myriad Threads Flow" secret technique. At best, he would have evolved from being able to create one clone to being able to create two or three clones, still a considerable distance from unleashing the second level of the technique. In the Douluo Continent world, this difference manifests as Long You's inability to inscribe complete spatial law secret technique runes onto his soul tool.
The Soul Guidance Device's various wondrous abilities are largely attributed to the Soul Guidance Array inscribed on its core magic circle. This array's runes are, in a sense, equivalent to the runes inscribed on Force or psychic weapons in the Swallowed Star world—a concrete manifestation of secret techniques. Xiao Yan, whose power has greatly increased, has completed the blueprint design for the Soul Guidance Device envisioned by Long You. This means that the spatial law secret technique and its corresponding runes are now complete. However, Long You, lacking sufficient comprehension of the laws, might be able to barely unleash a portion of the secret technique's power, but he cannot inscribe runes with the full power of the secret technique.
Long You compared the array patterns and law runes that Xiao Yan had deduced in the Book of Witness, reviewed his work from the previous day, and realized with dismay that he was no longer capable of perfectly disguising the basement even after it was activated.
To use the analogy of a stone and a stream, Long You, having crossed the threshold of the laws of space, can make a stone remain submerged underwater without disturbing the flow, so that an observer cannot directly see the stone without diving in. However, Long You cannot maintain this level of disguise even when the stone moves on its own. In other words, Long You can conceal the changes the stone itself causes to the water flow, but if the stone begins to move, Long You cannot smooth out the water flow disrupted by the stone's movement, nor can he bring the stone and the water into a relatively still state.
Long You wanted to create a more effective stealth soul tool to silently traverse the encirclement surrounding Mingdu, not to lie in wait. If the stone couldn't move invisibly through the flowing stream, Long You's plan might fail completely, a possibility he couldn't accept.
Okay, okay, things have become more difficult than I imagined. To allow myself time to comprehend the laws of space, I'd better get through tonight's match quickly.
"Xiao You, Xiao You... Long You!"
"To!"
Long You, who was caught daydreaming in class by his homeroom teacher, trembled all over and subconsciously stood up to answer the call of attendance.
"Respected Soul Saint of Longyou, perhaps your years of island life have caused some deviation in your understanding of team activities. However, I personally believe that even if you are a respected Soul Saint, you still need to maintain basic respect for your close partners. What do you think?"
He opened his mouth, but faced with Bei Bei's earnest lecture, Long You couldn't come up with an effective excuse—no, a defense. Although he had indeed tried to correct his solitary lifestyle after returning from the New World, it was unlikely that five years of such habits would leave no trace for a young man not yet twenty.
"Alright, alright, I was wrong. Thank you very much for the reminder, Captain. What were we talking about? Is there anything I can do for you?"
"It's nothing. In order not to hold the team back, we've decided to go all out in tonight's match. This will probably cause a lot of our energy to be depleted, so we're leaving tomorrow's match in your hands, esteemed Soul Saint."