thefictionvixens Chapter 269 The Meeting Began
Chapter 269 The Meeting Began
In about ten minutes, Backup Longyou skillfully assembled all the parts on the desktop workbench. Using the soul power stored in the baby bottle soul tool, he tried to activate the crossbow-shaped soul tool in his hand. After confirming that there was nothing wrong with it, Backup Longyou finally recovered from his fatigue and headed towards the qualification assessment area.
Stepping out of the small cubicle, Long You could see with a quick glance that there weren't many Soul Masters left in the entire underground arena. This wasn't surprising, considering that the qualifying rounds had been going on for almost four hours since 6 PM. For a level four Soul Tool, that was a long enough production time; otherwise, Long You wouldn't have needed to feign fatigue before leaving.
Upon arriving at the Soul Tool Evaluation Area, Long You keenly sensed a hint of disdain in the eyes of the person in charge from the Ordinary Alliance. If the real Long You had seen this, he might have had the mind to grumble inwardly, but since it was the backup Long You who was witnessing it, the entire Soul Tool inspection process appeared somewhat stiff and quiet.
The leader of the Ordinary Alliance took the soul tool, which had folded into a lightweight arm guard, from Long You's hand and equipped it on his arm. With a surge of soul power, the arm guard rapidly and silently transformed. Moreover, although the leader of the Ordinary Alliance didn't look up, he clearly felt a diagram appear in his mind. Upon closer inspection, it was the complete map of this underground competition area.
Although he hadn't actually activated the soul-guided crossbow yet, the leader of the Ordinary Alliance now had a feeling that, if he wanted to, he could easily hit any point on the map in his mind's eye with this soul-guided crossbow.
Slightly shocked, the leader of the Ordinary Alliance looked up at Long You, whose expression remained calm. He wanted to slap himself a few times. He had been blinded by greed. Long You was a level five Soul Master, after all. Even if he was indeed poor, he still possessed some rare metals. Duan wouldn't really be adding things to his Soul Tool as the rumors suggested. He wondered if Long You had noticed his gaze earlier. He hoped Long You wouldn't have any ulterior motives.
This Mingdu Elite Soul Master Tournament, ostensibly a competition among soul masters gathered in Mingdu, is actually a contest between the three major underground forces of Mingdu. The fifth-level soul master before them is cunning and resourceful; the Ordinary Alliance might need to rely on him to achieve final victory in this tournament. If this person develops a negative impression of the Ordinary Alliance because of his earlier glance, the person in charge can already foresee his fate.
Fortunately, when the person in charge looked up, he found that Long You's expression remained calm, which relieved him slightly. He then changed his demeanor to respectfully and said, "Soul Master, your work has reached the level of a Level 5 Soul Tool. Please keep this qualification badge safe. Once the competition officially begins, you can participate in the competition within the Ordinary Alliance region simply by holding this badge."
Seeing that Long You calmly accepted the badge he was offered, seemingly without any dissatisfaction about participating in the Ordinary Alliance competition, the person in charge smiled and continued, "May I ask how this Soul Master is addressed? Are you willing to sell this Soul Guide Crossbow? Our Ordinary Alliance is willing to pay a high price to acquire it."
If it were the real Long You here, he would undoubtedly have mentally criticized this person for being arrogant at first and then obsequious. However, the Long You in front of him was merely a soul-guided intelligent robot controlled by Bourne, and it didn't have as many thoughts as the real Long You. It simply answered politely, "My name is Shu Yan, please address me by my name. As for this soul-guided crossbow, I have no intention of selling it. It's getting late, and I'm a bit tired today, so please..."
"Yes, yes, it was my oversight. Mr. Shu, please return the item to its rightful owner. We welcome you to participate in the main competition again."
Reaching back at the soul-guided crossbow, which had returned to its original arm guard form, Long You strolled leisurely toward the exit on the ground. This soul-guided crossbow was actually just a very ordinary level four mid-range attack soul-guided device. The reason that the manager of the Ordinary Alliance was able to use map cheats was entirely due to the basic benefits brought by the spatial law inscriptions; it wasn't something Long You had deliberately designed.
Mingyue Hotel, Room 208.
This is one of the rooms arranged by the Mingdu Tournament organizers for the Tang Sect participants; it's the room where Bei Bei and Tang Ya share. Currently, all the Tang Sect participants except Long You are gathered in this room. The Continental Elite Youth Soul Master Tournament is about to officially begin, and the Tang Sect members have been in Mingdu for two days. Today, Long You and He Caitou, the two "dragging their feet," have also arrived. It's time to recount what's happened over the past two days and discuss the competition.
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"Why hasn't Xiao You come back yet? Cai Tou, is that qualifying round difficult?"
As it grew later and more than half an hour had passed since He Caitou returned, Beibei began to worry about Long You's delayed return.
"There is a time limit, of course, but it ends at 10 p.m. Xiao You is participating in the Mingdu Soul Master Elite Competition this time not only for the rare metal reward, but also for other reasons, so it's fine if it takes a little longer."
Although Beibei was somewhat anxious, He Caitou remained calm. In terms of the length of time they had known each other, Beibei had definitely known Long You longer, but in terms of understanding Long You now, He Caitou certainly knew him better. While He Caitou didn't know exactly how many ways Long You could save his life, he was certain that for a qualifying match of this level to trap Long You, there was only one possibility: Long You himself wanted to trap him.
Even if Long You himself wanted to get involved, it's impossible for him to remain completely silent like this. All things considered, while Long You's absence is unusual, there's no need to worry excessively.
"Alright, since it's not time yet, let's ignore it for now. Cai Tou, why don't you introduce this competition? We did come here to buy rare metals, but after trying for the past two days, it's not very reliable to just buy them with gold soul coins on the black market. Luckily, we have Senior Brother Lin, Junior Brother Xiao, and Junior Brother Songhe here, all of whom are reliable soul masters. If the opportunity is right, we should join in the fun."
Bei Bei's words made a lot of sense. After failing to acquire enough rare metals once again and only managing to reach a series of soul tool sales contracts with the Star Luo Empire, the group, feeling both happy and worried, realized the opportunity when they heard He Caitou, who was returning late, mention the Mingdu Elite Soul Master Competition. However, at that time, everyone was still in a "naive" competitive phase. Although Huo Yuhao and the other two soul masters were quite curious about the competition, they had to suppress their curiosity because they didn't want to be the first to back down.
At present, Bei Bei, who has taken on the role of group leader in the group competition, took the lead in raising this question. Although it meant that the "group competition" had failed, it did satisfy the curiosity of Huo Yuhao and the other two Soul Masters.
Having only participated in a qualifying round, He Caitou's understanding of this year's Mingdu Soul Mentor Elite Competition hadn't improved much. The information he could share was basically all that Long You had told him before, with the addition of some information about the organizers of the Aodu Chamber of Commerce competition area. The key point was the introduction to the types of rare metals that the Aodu Chamber of Commerce provided to the participants.
"Besides that, I also found a girl in the Aodu Chamber of Commerce competition area whose strength may not be inferior to mine. I can't determine her Soul Master level right now, but her Soul Master level must be above level 60. Moreover, I found that the aura on her body is very similar to the Light Judgment (from flawless light) mark on the back of Bei Bei and Xiao You's hands. That kind of light seems to have an innate noble quality, with a fierceness that drives away all darkness."
Unexpectedly, yet somehow inevitable, He Caitou encountered Ye Guyi, the headstrong girl with the Bright Angel Martial Soul, during the qualifying rounds. She was a teammate dedicated to fighting evil soul masters, but also a girl who could bring endless trouble. To avoid having to confront those troubles head-on, Long You chose to avoid her. However, He Caitou's current state didn't exactly mean he bumped into her; he merely noticed Ye Guyi's presence.
After listening to He Caitou's introduction and remaining silent for a moment, Huo Yuhao continued, "Senior Brother He, according to your introduction, the Xi Shui Alliance seems to be the most dangerous choice, but also the one that will maximize our interests. So, Senior Brother He, do you have any suggestions on which region the three of us should participate in?"
"As for you, go to the Xishui Alliance to participate in the competition. Although your strength is not as good as Xiaoyou's, there is not much difference between you and me. Whether you are in the same competition area as me or Xiaoyou, it may cause unnecessary internal friction. So, opening your own competition area is the best choice."
Although the Sunset Alliance is Holy Spirit Cult territory, this competition is for a share of rare metals, so as long as you disguise yourself well, it's unlikely you'll encounter any unexpected dangers. Besides, you're different from us. The rest of us don't need to expend too much energy on the Continental Elite Youth Soul Master Tournament, and we don't have to worry too much about recovery when our competitions overlap. But you're different; you're definitely a key player in the official tournaments, and going too far away wouldn't be good for your recovery.”
"That makes sense, considering things with my senior brother... Who is he?!"
The previously normal conversation took a sharp turn for the worse. Although it wasn't intentionally initiated, Huo Yuhao noticed something amiss when Long You approached the Tang Clan's accommodation area. While outwardly normal, it was, after all, an intelligent soul-guided robot, not a true living being, and therefore completely unable to withstand the deep probing of mental detection.
"Yuhao, what happened?"
"Senior Brother Longyou is back, but the Senior Brother Longyou who has returned is a soul-guided intelligent robot with Senior Brother Longyou's face."
The explanation was a bit convoluted, and the tone was quite serious, but the expression remained relatively calm. Simply put, Huo Yuhao was nervous, but not completely so. Theoretically, this didn't make sense, since the current situation, superficially speaking, involved his teammate being replaced, which would normally cause considerable tension.
However, before Bei Bei could ask for details, Huo Yuhao had already shared the mental detection footage with everyone's sea of consciousness (theoretically, it should be the sea of consciousness, right? If it were right in front of them, wouldn't it be very obstructive to their vision?).
Upon seeing the images Huo Yuhao had detected, everyone else frowned deeply. However, even the most impulsive Little Fatty and Xu Sanshi calmed down as they got up to prepare for battle.
Outside the door, the backup Long You, who had rushed back from the Ordinary Alliance sub-region competition, had already switched into the backup soul-guided intelligent robot in Long You's original appearance during the return journey. Bourne, who was controlling the backup soul-guided intelligent robot, knew very well that such an obviously abnormal situation was unlikely to escape Huo Yuhao's 24/7 monitoring. To avoid causing a misunderstanding, after calculation, Bourne chose to stop directly within the Tang Sect's accommodation area. He neither tried to open the door to Long You and He Caitou's room, nor used the detection soul-guided device to determine the current location of the Tang Sect members.
In Bourne's calculations, as long as the backup Long You didn't take any other actions, even if Huo Yuhao noticed the anomaly and became more vigilant, he wouldn't be able to act directly. As long as no one took action, the matter could be explained away, and naturally, there would be no false alarm.
As for why Bourne didn't send a message to the Tang Clan members in advance? Have you ever heard of telecom fraud? Not long ago, Long You gave the Tang Clan members a lesson in telecom fraud. Without seeing the real person, or seeing a real person who seemed off, Bourne's practice of sending a message in advance might have caused a bigger reaction.
Inside the room, the Tang Clan members, including Huo Yuhao, were unaware of Bourne's calculations. However, just as Bourne had predicted, as long as the backup Long You did not take any further action, they would not act hastily but would instead ponder why.
After about three breaths, Huo Yuhao's mental detection confirmed that the intelligent soul-guided robot Long You outside the door indeed had no intention of taking any further action. Bei Bei spoke up: "Yuhao, you studied at Mingde Hall. Do you think it's possible for the Sun Moon Empire to create such a realistic intelligent soul-guided robot with its current technological level?"
"Absolutely impossible. If it's about the basics of soul tools, we might only be able to barely hold our own against the Sun Moon Empire. But when it comes to the intelligence of soul tools, the Sun Moon Empire is at least a decade behind us. Mingde Hall is indeed researching humanoid soul tools, but Mingde Hall cannot produce such a miniaturized, sophisticated, and intelligent humanoid soul tool at present."
"In that case, junior brother, why don't you open the door and let Xiao You in? Let's see what interesting things Xiao You has encountered on this trip."
Since the Sun Moon Empire cannot yet manufacture such an intelligent soul-guided robot, it can only be the work of Long You. Therefore, regardless of who is currently controlling this intelligent soul-guided robot, or whether Long You is in danger, Bei Bei believes that Long You will definitely leave clues on the robot to prevent them from being attacked without any means of resistance.