“I know that you have yet to use your real strength,” Situ Yu said in a grave tone, “thus, as the captain of the Cloud Luo Academy team, I hope to have a fair match with you. I want to see the real difference between the two of us. If you manage to beat me, then there won’t be a need to fight the remaining matches. As such, I hope that you’ll use your actual strength to win my respect.”
Xu Sans.h.i.+ narrowed his eyes. Even though he was only fifteen years old, the environment he’d grown up in had allowed him to mature much faster than his peers. Even if Situ Yu was older than him, it didn’t mean that he was more experienced.
“As you wish.” Xu Sans.h.i.+ said after pondering for a moment. He then smiled as he had been previously; he wouldn’t let his opponent influence his mood.
The referee stepped forward at this point and said in a grave tone, “Both of you, retreat.”
Situ Yu backed up while gazing carefully at Xu Sans.h.i.+. His eyes became fiercer and fiercer as he retreated. A sharp, threatening aura was now emanating from his body. How could someone that was able to lead Cloud Luo Academy through that terrifying first elimination round, and lead them to this robin-round phase, not be powerful? Situ Yu was both the captain and the core of their group!
Xu Sans.h.i.+ also slowly retreated. More than half of the thin cigar in his mouth had disappeared by this point. However, he still had a lazy expression on his face as he withdrew. It seemed that he didn’t attach too much importance to his opponent.
In the waiting area.
w.a.n.g Yan had a relaxed expression on his face. Since they were quite near the platform, they had heard the conversation between the two of them.
Huo Yuhao, on the other hand, felt a bit depressed. After several attempts, he’d discovered that his Spiritual Detection could indeed get past the protective barrier. Nevertheless, the spiritual power required to do so was enormous; the consumption rate of using the AOE Spiritual Detection through the barrier was the same as when he focused it in a single direction normally. If he were to use it to a.s.sist one of them, his soul power would rapidly deplete. As such, it was impossible for him to keep it active all the time.
However, Xu Sans.h.i.+ didn’t seem to be in trouble. Hence, he decided not to take any action. Even Huo Yuhao had yet to experience Xu Sans.h.i.+’s real power.
Aside from w.a.n.g Yan, Bei Bei was also calm. However, the nearby Jiang Nannan was currently staring at the platform, the scissors in her hand continuously snipping. At this moment, her beautiful face was expressionless, and no one knew what she was thinking.
On the platform, Xu Sans.h.i.+ and Situ Yu had already retreated to their respective sides of the arena.
The referee looked at both of them, then shouted, “Start!”
Situ Yu, who had been standing still a moment ago, suddenly appeared to grow a thousand hands in the blink of an eye, while his body began to emit several loud mechanical sounds. The scene that played out was similar to Huo Yuhao and He Caitou’s first encounter: A large number of metallic pipes emerged from his body. Situ Yu’s body almost doubled in size in just a few breaths’ worth of time.
His stout and powerful legs now had three support-like metal shapes each. These three fingernail-like objects were as thick as a small arm, very sharp, and after popping out, immediately burrowed into the ground to form a very stable base. Afterwards, a large number of a.s.sault-type soul tools began to emerge from his calves.
Huo Yuhao was continuously monitoring the situation on the platform, thus when these soul tools were released, he discovered that six places on Situ Yu’s body had begun emanating different types of lights. Next, a large number of soul tools began to pop up all over his body.
These soul tools hadn’t been installed on his body beforehand, but instead were activated just now.
Three short metallic pipes proceeded to then grow out of Situ Yu’s calves. At the same time, a thick and heavy metallic sh.e.l.l wrapped his body; he now looked like a fortress. Huo Yuhao was able to see at least thirty metallic pipes on his body. The largest number were concentrated on his chest, which were emitting a pale dark-gold light; it was a concentrated soul cannon with more than a 1.5 meter calibre.
Right now, Situ Yu looked even scarier than the fully armed He Caitou that Huo Yuhao had seen. In fact, he looked like a killing machine. Those pipes made of pure metal gave off a cool feeling. Four soul rings, two yellow and two purple, had also appeared beneath his feet. A white light also appeared behind his body, then changed into a huge fan. It almost seemed as if he were carrying the huge fan on his back.
He Caitou moved next to Huo Yuhao, then said in a low voice, “Junior brother, take a good look. That’s the fortress formation: The pinnacle of attack and defense amongst us soul engineers.”
“The fortress formation?” Huo Yuhao asked, somewhat confused.
He Caitou nodded and said, “Yeah, that’s the fortress formation, also known as the soul tool fortress. An armor-type soul tool is currently protecting his body, which sharply increases his defense. Furthermore, several more soul tools are equipped all over his body. Amongst these, there are also some auxiliary soul tools to recover soul power. Considering all of this, both the defense and attack of a soul engineer will skyrocket. They’ll be able to utilize a great deal of power for a short while. Beneath seven rings, a soul master will hardly be a match for someone of the same rank using a soul tool fortress.
“Why didn’t teacher tell me about this?” Huo Yuhao asked, surprised.
He Caitou laughed and said, “The soul tool fortress consumes a large quant.i.ty of soul power; only after obtaining your third ring will you be able to completely display its power. Your current level of soul power is too low; you can’t use it quite yet. Furthermore, our teacher doesn’t like this sort of thing very much.”
Huo Yuhao eyes widened and he asked, “Why?”
He Caitou replied, “Junior brother, just think about it. Aside from the great offensive and defensive power, what other feelings do you gain from this fortress?”
Huo Yuhao thought for a bit, then said, “It’s reliable and stable.”
“But it lacks mobility,” He Caitou continued, “a soul tool fortress has to display a lot of soul tools, including the formations to recover one’s soul power. As such, the weight and volume of your equipment will greatly increase. Thus, if you want to equip the soul tool fortress and display its full power, you’ll have to sacrifice your mobility. In times of war, it is indeed extremely useful, but if you lose your mobility in a 1v1 fight, you’ll just be pa.s.sively beaten. However, it’s not too bad here, as the contestants can only act within the bounds of the platform. The Ultimate Soldier Plan, developed by our Soul Tool Department, will not make use of this kind of approach; after all, it isn’t something that can last for very long. The radiance you see emanating from his arms, legs, neck, and chest belong to his stored up soul tools. However, it’s very difficult for soul engineers specialized in this fighting style to advance. Just think about it; if you want to upgrade so many soul tools, it would take you at least one year’s worth of time. How would they even have the time to increase their soul power? Furthermore, that large fan on Situ Yu’s back should be his martial soul. I’m sure that it doesn’t have any particular skill. All soul engineers specialized in this sort of style all hope that their soul skills will have the ability to increase their soul power and let them display the complete strength of the soul tool fortress.”
Huo Yuhao was able to comprehend many things after He Caitou’s explanation, and was enlightened. This time, a huge pressure was weighing down on their shoulders, but they were constantly learning new things from these real battles. After seeing Situ Yu stand on the platform equipped with a soul tool fortress, Huo Yuhao became lost in his thoughts. The world of soul tools was full of mysteries!
While these two were talking, the battle on the platform had also begun.
Compared to Situ Yu, Xu Sans.h.i.+ seemed extremely frail. He was merely holding the s.h.i.+eld of the Xuanwu Turtle in his hand and was lazily standing still. He hadn’t even released any of his soul skills when the referee had announced the start of the match. He advanced with large strides while still holding the thin cigar in his mouth and quickly reduced the distance between him and Situ Yu.
Situ Yu raised both his arms, then pressed his elbows against his ribs. The metal junctions began to combine when he did so. Once they’d connected, the six metal pipes on each of his arms began to emit a strong white light. At the same time, his four soul rings began to glitter in an alternating pattern. The huge fan on his back also released several layers of white light at the same time.
Countless b.a.l.l.s of white light instantly shot outwards from him. Each ball of light was big enough to be a threat. In the next instant, all of them madly charged toward Xu Sans.h.i.+.
It was the six-barrelled miniature soul cannon. This gadget was extremely powerful amongst soul tools of the fourth rank, and was excellent at laying down suppressing fire. It was one of the preferred soul tools of armies, as even if there were only ten Cla.s.s 4 soul engineers equipped with a six-barrelled miniature soul cannon, they would still be able to suppress several thousands of soldiers in a certain area.
However, the strong and weak points of this gadget were very clear. The strong points lay in explosive strength, wide coverage, and high attack power. However, there was only one notable flaw, which was a critical one: it consumed a large amount of soul power.
A Cla.s.s 4 soul engineer could use a six-barrelled miniature soul cannon for five minutes at most before they had to stop to recover their soul power.
Facing this attack, Xu Sans.h.i.+ used the most simple way to deal with it. Facing an all-out attack from a six-barrelled miniature soul cannon, the only way out for most Soul Ancestors was to run as far away as fast as possible. The soul cannon couldn’t attack from too far away; its attack range was more or less only about a hundred meters. Therefore, if there was a certain distance between you and them, you wouldn’t be in great danger. However, right now, they were on a platform, and there weren’t really any places to hide. Furthermore, even if he started running, Xu Sans.h.i.+ wouldn’t be able to outrun artillery sh.e.l.ls made of soul power.
He simply raised his s.h.i.+eld of the Xuanwu Turtle and placed it in front of his body. Afterwards, he squatted down and shrank behind it, completely hiding himself behind his s.h.i.+eld.
Powerful explosions continuously struck the s.h.i.+eld of the Xuanwu Turtle; at the same time, a black halo spread out from it. Xu Sans.h.i.+ seemed to have fallen into a pa.s.sive state; he didn’t budge from his original position. However, the s.h.i.+eld of the Xuanwu Turtle looked like an impregnable fortress; there wasn’t even a scratch on it.