Douluo Continent: The Book of Witness and Peerless Tang Sect

Chapter 290

With considerable pain, Long You poked his head out of the tortoise shell. In order to avoid going through so many twists and turns only to end up with nothing, he could only wail as he took out his forging hammer again and began the forging and spirit forging work.

The pseudo-dimensional blade's body was simple to form, but the core magic array made with the space crystal as a carrier was too powerful. Materials that had not undergone spirit forging were completely unable to bear the power of the space's fundamental laws and would shatter directly.

In other words, if Long You fails to complete the spirit forging within the final time, his soul tool creation will fail. Not only will he be eliminated, but all the rare metals he used in the competition will also be confiscated.

"Jingle bells, jingle bells"

The sound of blacksmithing, which was not common, echoed again in the underground space. Even though there were screens around him, Long You could feel the constant scornful glances directed at him.

Unfortunately, this round of the competition is already nearing its end. Even if the soul tool being crafted isn't completely finished, it should be in the final repair stage, not still under construction. A soul tool still being made at this point, under normal circumstances, only indicates that the soul tool maker's abilities are lacking.

A Soul Master confined to a "single room" who lacks proficiency in time management and equipment usage—what else could that be but a lack of ability? It's perfectly normal to be looked down upon.

A slight twitch at the corner of his mouth, Long You ignored the overly obvious stares and swung the forging hammer in his hand with all his might. If he ultimately failed to complete the creation of the pseudo-dimensional blade, he wouldn't forgive himself, not even for the contempt of these people outside.

"Tap Tap"

The sound of tapping on a table echoed in the spacious underground space, indicating that only one minute remained in the two-hour competition time limit.

In Longyou's small private room, trembling hands embedded the exquisite spatial crystal core array into the blade's edge, and magical spatial fluctuations instantly flowed through the pseudo-dimensional blade in the form of Tang Hengdao.

Picking up the completed soul tool, Long You sensed the unique spiritual fluctuations of the spirit-forged metal. Gently activating his soul power, a smooth blade light quietly covered the edge.

With tears welling in his eyes, Long You held the Tang Dynasty horizontal sword in front of him like a precious treasure. "It's finished! It's finally finished! I'll never do this kind of timed challenge again when making new soul tools..."

Slumped in his work chair, Long You waited unresponsively for the staff to examine his soul tool. If the verification proved that his pseudo-dimensional blade had indeed been freshly forged within the last two hours, he could proceed to the next stage of the competition.

In a private room not far from the single-player competition area, a middle-aged man with a plump figure, resembling the Maitreya Buddha, sat smiling on a large sofa. From his posture and movements, it was easy to see that he was in a state of smug satisfaction, as if everything was under his control.

Sitting opposite this Buddha-like figure was none other than Steward Zhuang. Steward Zhuang was pale at this moment, and although he was still trying to remain calm, it was clear from various subtle details that he was not far from his final collapse.

There was no communication, but every movement of the Buddha-like figure, even a fleeting glance, made Manager Zhuang tremble involuntarily.

Manager Zhuang was truly frightened. The smiling, pot-bellied middle-aged man in front of him was surnamed Wei, but Manager Zhuang didn't know his real name. He only knew that not many people in the entire Ordinary Alliance knew his real name, and most people could only call him "Buddha Wei" when they met him.

Manager Zhuang was now filled with regret, regretting that he hadn't readily relinquished his power the moment Wei Foye appeared, instead choosing to challenge him.

"They're both mid-level Soul Masters, so why is there such a huge difference between them!"

The tragic fates of the two Soul Masters who had previously signed contracts with him during their duels echoed in his mind. Even after the waiter at the door announced that the last Soul Master in his camp had finally finished the match just before the time limit, Manager Zhuang was still unable to shake off the memory of his future misfortune.

The scene shifts back to the soul tool manufacturing area. While the organizing committee members were inspecting the pseudo-Dimensional Blade, Long You quickly pulled out a milk bottle to replenish his depleted soul power. He'd made quite a commotion this time, and couldn't find an opportunity to unleash his intelligent soul tool robot; he'd have to fight alone in the upcoming match.

Although Long You spent as much money as possible during the entire creation process of the pseudo-Dimensional Blade to minimize his own consumption, he still felt a sense of emptiness after replenishing his mana once during the creation process. Not only was his head numb, as if he hadn't slept for days and nights, but even his Soul Saint-level Soul Power reserves were completely depleted.

Even so, the current pseudo-dimensional blade is only a half-finished product. Not to mention that the spirit-forged soul tool itself has not been upgraded to soul forging, the size is also unsuitable.

This thing is a mecha weapon designed by Long You, how could it be this size? After the competition ends and he rests, Long You plans to turn this dimensional blade into a core magic array, then add a larger soul tool shell, or even make it into a lightsaber.

Just thinking about the effort required to achieve lossless energy transmission, and considering how many things he still hadn't created, Long You shuddered slightly. He also began to consider whether upgrading the Dimensional Blade should wait until he returned to Shrek Academy.

After rambling on about a bunch of unrelated things, Long You felt that the dullness in his mind had lessened considerably. Just then, the organizing committee's inspection on the other side was also finished, and it was time to proceed with the final stage of this round of competition.

As the number of participants advancing decreased round by round, the underground space of the Yafi Auction House, which was originally packed full, actually had quite a few empty spaces.

In previous rounds, the empty seats were arranged as spectator seats, but tonight, these empty seats were completely covered up, which is obviously the fighting venue temporarily set up by the Ordinary Alliance competition area.

Because the deadline for creating the final soul tools had passed, a considerable number of participating soul masters had gathered at the arena to await their duels. However, since Long You's duel involved a power struggle between Master Wei and Steward Zhuang, queuing was naturally unnecessary.

Upon entering the quarantine area, Long You couldn't help but marvel at the convenience of the Soul Guidance Technology. Although it was a temporary competition venue, all the necessary protective measures were in place.

Before Long You could continue observing the fighting arena, a slightly disdainful voice suddenly rang in his ears:

"So you're Zhuang's last straw for survival? Not so great, you've even disregarded time management in order to get more materials that you don't usually see."

The voice was unremarkable, but the contempt in his tone made Long You easily certain that this was the opponent that Manager Zhuang had mentioned to him before the competition, the one who was specifically there to snipe him.

Long You had absolutely no interest in arguing with an opponent of this caliber. He smiled slightly without turning around, merely feigning trembling fear.

Although he was absolutely confident of winning the game, Long You wouldn't mind playing the coward if he could win more easily.

The fight began, and the guy opposite Long You was just like his voice suggested—unremarkable and easily blending into the crowd.

"Is he in disguise? This guy is supposed to be one of our own from the Ordinary Alliance, he shouldn't be this cautious."

During the boring etiquette session, Long You, who didn't want to follow the rules, started rambling on and on, engaging in a pointless and heated "argument" with Xiao Yan and Bourne about whether the self-satisfied, generic-looking person opposite them was actually in disguise.

It wasn't that Long You didn't take the potentially deadly battle seriously; rather, he was afraid he'd fall asleep if he didn't do it this way. Although soul power could be replenished with a baby bottle, the depleted mental energy couldn't be replenished, and Long You couldn't possibly drink that painful potion again at this moment.

The duel began, and the generic-looking Soul Master swiftly activated the Soul Tool he had just crafted. From Long You's own perspective, this generic-looking Soul Master was indeed quite skilled.

The soul tool made by the generic-faced character this time is at least a high-level sixth-grade soul tool. Moreover, judging from the soul energy shield that the generic-faced soul tool master has on his arm, it is a soul tool that has both offensive and defensive functions.

"As expected, this guy's attack method should be the most common soul-guided ray."

Long You twirled the pseudo-Dimensional Blade in his hand, drawing upon his understanding of the fundamental laws of space to warm it up. This soul-guided weapon, in a sense, could already be considered a graded Force weapon within the Swallowed Star world.

The difference in their systems prevented Long You from fully utilizing the pseudo-dimensional blade before he was familiar with it. Therefore, although it wasn't his intention, Long You needed to start this duel with a defensive counter-attack.

Perhaps it was because the impression Long You had given during their previous conversation was too strong, or perhaps this generic-looking man simply didn't think much of the Soul Guide Masters signed by Manager Zhuang. In any case, once the Soul Guide Energy Shield was up, this generic-looking man's attack arrived very quickly.

There was no sound, no smoke, only the soul-guided rays that appeared in the blink of an eye. Feeling that the dimensional blade in his hand was not yet fully warmed up, Long You could only grin and rely on his soul master abilities to begin dodging.

However, as he began to dodge, Long You's already wide smile turned even more downwards. This generic-looking Soul Master's abilities were indeed not to be underestimated. Although he had integrated a Soul Guidance Energy Shield into the Soul Guidance Ray, consuming a large amount of flowing energy in the energy circuit, this generic-looking man had still managed to turn the Soul Guidance Ray, which was his main attack, into a high-speed ray.

Long You, who has never been particularly good at close combat, has no problem dodging the speed of crossbow bolts, but he feels that trying to dodge the speed of semi-automatic rifles is too much for him.

Having stopped, Long You had given up on dodging. His carefully honed swordsmanship came into play, and the Dimensional Blade, which had been warmed up for a short while, was now covered with a space-disrupting power.

The blades flashed like snowflakes, flying up and down, and all the soul-guided rays heading towards Longyou were annihilated in the orderly spatial energy at this moment.

"Humph!"

Seeing that the attack had not caused any damage to Long You, the generic-looking man who had not taken Long You seriously at all felt extremely angry.

After letting out a cold snort, not believing that Long You, who was wielding a melee soul tool, could harm him at all, the generic-faced man simply deactivated his soul energy shield and used all his limited soul power to increase his attack speed.

However, the generic character overlooked one problem: the switching of the soul tool's usage mode (the operation of canceling the soul tool energy shield and increasing the attack speed of the soul tool ray) will eventually cause lag, no matter how skilled the soul tool operator is. This means that Long You, who was suppressed because he lost the initiative, can now take a breather.

"buzz"

Concentrating all his efforts on mobilizing the fundamental laws of space, Long You finally fully activated the spatial fundamental law runes inscribed on the Dimensional Blade. The dark blue energy that was originally just covering the surface of the Dimensional Blade suddenly expanded. With a gentle flick of Long You's hand, this energy blade, following the magical spatial fluctuations, swiftly sliced ​​through the body of the Common Face Soul Master at a speed far exceeding the speed of light.

With a light flick of his wrist, Long You sheathed the Dimensional Blade behind his back, while the generic Soul Master on the other side of the arena wore a bewildered expression.

He wasn't quite sure why his normally effortless soul power was no longer under his control, nor why the soul-guided rays that should have been unleashed at a much higher density hadn't been activated. Without feeling pain, the remaining consciousness in the generic-faced man's brain only sensed boundless loneliness and coldness before the eternal darkness engulfed him in the next instant.

On the field, the body of the generic Soul Master was smoothly split in two along a line from his right shoulder to his left hip. Undoubtedly, this general under Master Wei had lost all life. But strangely, there was no blood.

The blood that should have been spraying and flowing everywhere on the arena was now completely gone. Considering that there wasn't a trace of color left on the generic-looking man's face, it was as if, at the moment of his death, all the blood in his body had been taken away by an unknown entity.

silence

When a scene beyond our comprehension occurs, regardless of time or space, a moment of silence is always inevitable.

However, the entire underground space was soon filled with all sorts of noise. No one paid attention to the generic face that had been split in two; everyone's eyes were focused on Long You, or more accurately, on the pseudo-Dimensional Blade.

Without a word, the staff of the Ordinary Alliance swiftly took Long You's spoils. Ignoring the ingratiating smiles on the staff's faces, Long You swept away all the spoils with a wave of his sleeve, and in a flash, he had already entered the passage leading to the ground.

The absurd speed not only surprised the staff who presented the spoils, but also successfully fooled the "big shots" who were trying to curry favor with them.