area51novel Chapter 168 A Simple Selection Battle
Chapter 168 A Simple Selection Battle
After exhausting all his efforts to produce a rather crude animated film, the source of motivation that kept Long You conscious disappeared.
After handing the video to Fanyu in a player that wasn't connected to the internet, Longyou simply described his experiences during the assessment and rushed back to his dormitory to rest.
Out of habit, Fan Yu treated the video like a brand-new soul tool design blueprint. However, the more he watched, the more restless he became. In the end, before the video finished playing, Fan Yu paused it and went straight to Dean Qian Duoduo's office.
No one knows what Fan Yu said to Qian Duoduo, but the final result was that all the teachers in the Soul Guidance Department with a level seven or higher authority gathered in the office of Xian Lin'er, the official dean of the Soul Guidance Department.
Perhaps because she wasn't a Soul Master herself, and hadn't had the habit of using Soul Tools for a long time, Xian Lin'er, the official dean of the Soul Tool Department, although she strongly supported the development of Soul Tools and encouraged Soul Masters to use them, didn't have many Soul Tool elements in her office, especially no intelligent Soul Tools.
The teachers, having removed all their smart devices, watched a video produced by Longyou together.
What exactly was shown in Long You's video remained a mystery to the viewers. All outsiders knew was that the Panlong Realm virtual world was temporarily shut down for its first maintenance period after that day. The entire Soul Guidance Department, from students to teachers, was busy for two whole months.
For two months, the students of the Soul Guidance Department basically ate and slept entirely in the department's teaching building. The only time anyone left the building was during the preliminary selection for the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Battle Tournament.
Originally, the academy had planned to hold this selection competition online in the Panlong Realm. However, since the Panlong Realm has entered the maintenance phase, the selection competition can only be held in the assessment area in the traditional way.
This time, the Soul Guidance Department changed its perfunctory attitude from previous years' selection competitions and sent all eligible core disciples to participate.
I don't know if it was because they gained confidence after winning the dual-element battle, or because they had been cooped up in the Soul Guidance Department's teaching building for too long. Throughout the entire selection competition, the Soul Guidance Department played extremely fiercely.
The overwhelming attack of soul tools covered the entire assessment area, and no one, including the students of the soul tool department, was lucky enough to escape the attack.
Under such a dense barrage of attacks, the first priority for every student is to avoid being eliminated by the overwhelming barrage. However, compared to the students from the Soul Guidance Department, and a very few Martial Soul Department students who are protected by Soul Guidance defensive shields and can easily cope with the scattering attacks flying everywhere, the vast majority of Martial Soul Department students can only rely on the effects of their Martial Soul and Soul Skills to barely hold on under this density of attacks.
Soon, some core disciples of the Martial Soul system who did not possess defensive Martial Souls reached their limit in terms of the attacks they could withstand. They were rescued from the field by Elder Xuan, who was watching from the sidelines, and lost their eligibility to continue participating in the selection.
The few remaining defensive-type Soul Masters on the field, braving the barrage of attacks, struggled to move towards the Soul Guidance type. At this point, these core disciples of the Martial Soul type realized they had no chance of winning this selection competition; now, they only wanted to take a few down with them.
However, before they could even struggle to get close to the Soul Guidance Department, some of the lower-grade Soul Guidance Department students couldn't hold on any longer. Their Soul Guidance Defense Shield was breached, and they immediately raised the white flag and surrendered.
We have no choice but to surrender! As a Soul Master, even though I am a Soul Master at Shrek Academy, the Soul Skills of these students are still for the purpose of better using Soul Tools, rather than for strengthening themselves like Soul Masters.
With the defenses of the soul-guided device breached and his own soul power nearly exhausted (these lower-grade students also contributed to the overwhelming attacks), if he didn't quickly surrender and let Elder Xuan rescue him, he would be carried out on his back in a while.
To be honest, if these lower-year students from the Soul Guidance Department hadn't immediately engaged in direct combat, but instead balanced defense and attack, they could have lasted much longer. However, these lower-year students weren't even here expecting to pass the assessment; they were just feeling incredibly stifled inside the Soul Guidance Department's teaching building and wanted to vent their frustrations.
Huo Yuhao and Song He, who were truly interested in this selection competition, had already sided with Long You, He Caitou, and others, doing their best to support the soul-guided defensive shield.
About ten minutes later, Bei Bei, Tang Ya, and Xu Sanshi became the only three martial spirit system students in the entire venue. All the others were core disciples of the soul guidance system, ranging from third year to fifth year.
"whoosh"
A bright, vivid signal flare shot into the sky, and everyone on the field stopped at that moment in perfect unison.
During the recent battle, Bei Bei, He Caitou, Xu Sanshi, Tang Ya, Long You, Huo Yuhao, and Song He had already adjusted their battle formation to 2-3-2 with the help of the million-year-old magical soul skill, Spiritual Detection Sharing.
Now they need to combine the strength of seven people to eliminate the remaining eleven core disciples of the Soul Guidance System in the arena.
"Caitou, Xiaoyou, are you sure? You want them as your teammates?"
Although they lacked the assistance of shared soul skills for mental detection, the other students in the Soul Guidance Department were also well-trained. Less than half a minute after the ceasefire, the battle formation of these eleven students was also formed.
Perhaps due to their combat habits, the leading student immediately resorted to a psychological warfare tactic of sowing discord.
However, this casual provocation had absolutely no effect on Long You. With a slight smile, Long You completed the fusion process with his soul-guided power mecha while replying via amplification:
"This is the first time our Soul Guidance Department has fully participated in this kind of selection competition. If we kick out all the people from the Martial Soul Department in one go, it won't look good on us."
"Don't let people think that Shrek Academy has completely sided with the Sun Moon Empire, and that Soul Masters have officially begun to replace Soul Masters!"
Pre-battle speeches, though more formal than meaningful, still need to be reciprocated. However, even though the speeches were meaningless, Long You didn't want to target the Soul Guidance Department with his mockery, so he changed the subject and directly mocked the Martial Soul Department students who had already been eliminated.
Upon hearing Long You's shout, Bei Bei and Xu Sanshi, who were standing in the middle of the formation, immediately showed helpless expressions, while the martial spirit students watching from the sidelines glared at Long You with hostility.
Long You's taunts drew a lot of hatred from the Martial Soul Department. Even through the Soul Guidance Mech, Long You could feel the burning gaze.
Relying on the fact that he was in the cockpit of the Soul Guidance Powered Mech, and that the Martial Soul Department students couldn't see his gaze, Long You looked back in the direction of the strongest gaze he sensed.
[Tsk tsk, Wang Dong'er, did I accidentally stir up hatred even in the divine realm? Although King Tang used his daughter, when it comes to protecting his own, he's not bad at it either.]
Perhaps because Wang Dong'er occupies a large portion of the original work, Long You always finds himself thinking about many things when he sees her.
However, they are still in a state of battle, and Long You paid the price for his lapse in concentration.
Compared to the height of a normal person, the soul-guided power mechs were simply too tall. The moment they opened fire, Long You and He Caitou's soul-guided power mechs became the targets of concentrated fire.
The difference was that while He Caitou was fully focused on preparing, the moment the eleven soul guidance students on the other side opened fire, He Caitou not only made defensive preparations but also launched a timely counterattack.
However, Long You was distracted, and although the triggered soul-guided defense shield had indeed been activated, the counterattack failed to follow.
Although Long You activated the various attack soul tools installed on his soul-guided power mech in the next moment, he ultimately missed the opportunity to join forces with He Caitou to attack the opponent. As a result, the eleven soul-guided students on the other side immediately dispersed after launching their first concentrated attack.
Fortunately, the firepower of the soul-guided power mech still holds an absolute advantage. With Huo Yuhao's mental detection soul skill, whether it is a single attack or a burst of attacks, all can hit accurately.
The arena was engulfed in a battle of communication using remote soul tools, with everyone, including Bei Bei and the others, engaging in combat using their soul tools.
There's no way around it; given the current situation, close combat is impossible!
"Buzzing—boom—"
Having wasted the opportunity to concentrate the attack due to his previous distraction, Long You seized the moment and used the Soul Guidance Cannon that had been charging up for half a day. With one shot, he destroyed one of the strongest firepower points on the other side, instantly shattering the firepower network of the Soul Guidance Department students on the other side.
That's good. The enemy has lost a strong firepower point, so Longyou doesn't need to commit so much firepower to counterattack.
The task of suppressing firepower was now entirely entrusted to Long You and He Caitou's soul-guided powered mechs. Bei Bei and the others began using single-shot, high-powered weapons such as energy-focused soul-guided cannons and high-precision energy-focused soul-guided rays to target the opposing soul-guided students.
After Longyou destroyed the enemy's main firing point with a single shot, the balance of the battle quickly shifted.
One side has cover, reliable suppressive fire, reliable strike fire, and accurate battlefield situation information; the other side, although trying its best to dodge, still needs to rely on its own defensive capabilities to resist attacks most of the time, and is unable to spare any hands to carry out high-powered precision strikes.
In this comparison, Longyou became the side more favored by the scales of victory.
The situation on the battlefield became increasingly clear, but this time, the Soul Guidance Department students opposite Longyou had no intention of raising the white flag.
Long You and He Caitou were actually quite popular within the Soul Guidance Department. However, perhaps because they were always the first or second in the entire department to complete the upgrades of their Soul Guidance devices, and consistently maintained an advantage in overall strength, their popularity was quite high.
The competitive spirit of adolescence prevents these students of the Soul Guidance Department from easily admitting defeat when facing opponents who consistently outperform them in every exam.
Even if they are not truly opponents, even if there is no deep-seated hatred between them, they must have a good contest if given the chance.
A flash of white light appeared, and besides the seven members of Longyou's group, the last remaining Soul Guidance Department student was rescued by Elder Xuan while facing concentrated fire from two Soul Guidance Powered Mechs.
After thirty-six minutes, the selection process for the teams participating in the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Battle Tournament came to an end. Long You successfully obtained the opportunity to participate in this grand event for young soul masters and soul instructors across the continent, and also had the chance to observe and get to know the elite young soul instructors of the Sun Moon Empire up close.
Elder Xuan dispersed the still unconvinced Martial Soul Department students, and the eliminated Soul Guidance Department students also left at this time. In the empty assessment area, only Long You and his seven companions, along with Elder Xuan and other academy leaders, remained.
As expected, Elder Xuan explained the purpose of the selection competition to the seven members of Longyou and also informed them about the monthly training sessions.
Perhaps because Long You's prior spoiler had prepared Bei Bei and the others, after Elder Xuan and the other academy leaders left, there was not much excitement left on their faces.
"I never expected that the selection battle for the teams participating in the All-Continent Advanced Soul Master Academy Battle Tournament would be such a childish and chaotic brawl."
When will the Panlong Realm be restored? How much longer will you Soul Guidance Department students be confined to the teaching building?
Originally expecting a selection battle like the dual-department battle last semester, Xu Sanshi was somewhat unsatisfied that it turned out to be such a simple (and it really was simple! The entire output relied on soul tools, so the technical content was not high) selection battle.
"The Panlong Realm is now actually open to the public, and the issues with Panlong Intelligence have been resolved. However, many of the previous intelligent devices may still have some issues that need improvement, and we are currently busy with these matters."
Of course, our seclusion won't end anytime soon. With the Panlong Intelligence undergoing its upgrade, the Panlong Realm also needs an upgrade. Next month, the lower-grade Soul Guidance Department students should be free, but all Soul Guidance Department students capable of creating Level 5 Soul Guidance Devices will need to continue participating in the Panlong Realm's upgrade.
"What about the training camp? Elder Xuan said that we will have a training camp every week. If you and Cai Tou continue your seclusion, will you be able to come out?"
"Yes, definitely. Even when you're in seclusion inside the teaching building, there are rest periods. It's just that we're reluctant to come out because we're afraid of the hassle."
However, I might not be able to make it to the first training camp next week. If Xiao Yan's intuition is correct, I should be able to break through to level 50 next week.