Chapter 167

Perhaps because yesterday Di Ao Academy lost in a truly ugly way, this time they first sent out their Soul Emperor‑level captain.

As for the Ri Yue Royal Soul Engineer Academy side, the one who went up was a tall and slender youth.

Inside the spectator area, Wang Yan earnestly repeated the information about these two competing team members once more for Tang Wulin and his two companions.

"Di Ao Academy captain Jiang Peng, a Soul Emperor‑level expert, has soul power roughly around rank sixty‑one to sixty‑two. He is the first student in Di Ao Academy's history to break through to Soul Emperor cultivation before the age of twenty, and thus his personality is arrogant. His martial soul is the Heaven‑Shaking Axe, an extremely formidable tool‑type martial soul. Purely judging by the martial soul, among assault‑type tool martial souls, the only one I know that can barely suppress it is the former number‑one tool martial soul, the Haotian Hammer."

"The Ri Yue Royal Soul Engineer Academy fielded one of their starting members, named Mika, a five‑rank Soul Engineer. His tactics are versatile; I cannot evaluate him. In previous matches he has almost always played, and this student has a steady temperament, never making a mistake in competition."

Wang Yan's comment that he had never made a mistake was already high praise, and just as he was giving his introduction, the battle on the stage had already begun.

At the moment the referee shouted 'start', the Ri Yue team's Mika burst forth with a series of metallic clanging sounds from his body.

Bright‑blue metal swiftly flipped up from behind him, then enveloped his entire upper body like a suit of armor, with the same metal also flipping up at his waist and legs.

When all that bright‑blue metal had covered his body, the Di Ao Academy captain Jiang Peng had already charged past the halfway point.

Mika's soul‑tool armor could absolutely be described as heavy armor; once donned, his whole body expanded by at least three times, the bright‑blue metal gleamed, and two clusters of white light flickered at his chest and abdomen—clearly the core formation of his soul‑tool armor.

In the spectator seats, Huo Yutong widened her eyes in surprise.

Full‑body soul‑tool armor? Is this a humanoid soul tool? Has the Ri Yue Di Guo already invented the humanoid soul tool?

Others may not know how terrifying this is, but how could she not know?

As a semi‑direct disciple of Xian Lin'er and Qian Duoduo, she naturally had long heard the fame of the humanoid soul tool.

The composition of a humanoid soul tool is highly special: it is both a complete soul tool and a collection of several powerful soul tools, and the manufacturing difficulty of each of its components is no less than that of the strongest soul tool of the same rank.

If that were all, it would be fine enough, but the hardest part currently is linking all the body's parts into a single whole; according to her knowledge, even with the Ri Yue Di Guo's powerful soul‑tool manufacturing technology, it should not yet have been invented.

According to Xian Lin'er, if they could be the first to develop the humanoid soul tool and mass‑produce it, they could even erase in one fell swoop the millennia‑long soul‑tool technology gap between them and the Ri Yue Di Guo.

This is certainly an exaggeration, but it also shows how terrifying the boost from a humanoid soul tool can be.

If Mi Jia's released soul tool armor is truly a humanoid soul tool, then this match could be said to have no need to be fought, as a humanoid soul tool could raise Mi Jia's strength to a level not inferior to that of a Soul Emperor.

The result was both unexpected and yet reasonable; Mi Jia lost, although he forced Jiang Peng to reveal his hidden soul skill, he failed to significantly drain Jiang Peng's soul power.

Obviously, he was not equipped with a true humanoid soul tool; otherwise he would not have lost so embarrassingly.

However, in this match, the abilities Mi Jia displayed were already enough to leave Shrek's three main team members silent.

During the match, when facing the approaching Jiang Peng, Mi Jia used the greatsword in his hand to block the opponent's axe without losing ground.

According to Wang Yan's explanation at the time, Mi Jia had never displayed his close-combat ability in previous matches, always relying on long-range attacks; even so, the strength he showed was already greater than that of most ordinary Soul Kings. His long-range attack surpassed most ordinary Soul Kings, his close-combat strength was not much weaker than that of an assault-type Soul Emperor, and the might of the Ri Yue Royal Soul Engineer Academy's soul tool technology exceeded everyone's expectations.

Especially Huo Yutong, who now seriously suspects that the Ri Yue Di Guo has already achieved initial success in the humanoid soul tool field; give them a few more years, and they might truly be able to develop humanoid soul tools.

Once that time comes, the last advantage traditional soul masters have over soul engineers will vanish completely, and the Ri Yue Di Guo's strength will utterly surpass the three original countries of the Douluo Continent.

After defeating Mi Jia, Jiang Peng coldly and arrogantly glanced at the Ri Yue Royal Soul Engineer Academy's player bench, provocatively curling his finger.

Xiao Hongchen sprang to his feet, preparing to go on stage and give that overconfident fool a good lesson.

Ma Rulong hurriedly grabbed him, gave him a look, and whispered:

"Aren't you supposed to give Shrek's people a surprise? If you reveal yourself now, everything will be wasted; I'll handle it."

Hearing that, Xiao Hongchen, though somewhat unwilling, sat back down, his eyes somewhat gloomy.

However, this scene had already been seen by Shrek and the others; they quietly exchanged glances, confirming their suspicion.

Mi Jia had already proven the opponent's strength with his own defeat, yet facing Jiang Peng's provocation, Xiao Hongchen still impulsively wanted to get up and go on stage, indicating that he must have some confidence in his chances—at least he believes so himself.

Moreover, regarding his impulsiveness, Ma Rulong's attitude clearly did not stem from thinking he couldn't win, but from believing there was no need for him to go on stage to resolve the situation.

It seems that the captain of the reserve team named Xiao Hongchen indeed has a problem; at this moment, several people simultaneously confirmed this in their minds, raising their vigilance against Xiao Hongchen to the highest level.

On the other side, Ma Rulong also stepped onto the competition stage.

He originally sent out Mi Jia not expecting to defeat Jiang Peng, merely hoping to weaken the opponent as much as possible, but he didn't expect Jiang Peng to win so easily, sending Mi Jia off the stage without consuming much soul power.

If this continues, not to mention draining Jiang Peng's soul power, they might instead be forced into a desperate situation by Jiang Peng.

So Ma Rulong decided to go on stage himself, quickly sending this toughest opponent off the field.

Seeing Ma Rulong, Jiang Peng's eyes turned icy.

Originally, the Imperial Academy had sent him out first merely to eliminate as many opponents as possible and ease the pressure on his teammates later; they never expected to so easily force out the opponent's trump card.

For the Imperial Academy, Ma Rulong is undoubtedly the toughest opponent; in the previous match, it was precisely his reliance on two powerful seventh-level soul tools that suppressed the entire Imperial Academy, leading to their embarrassing defeat.

As the strongest of both academies, their battle will undoubtedly be the most crucial, directly determining the outcome of this individual elimination round.

By the way, I don't know if Tang Fozu has finalized the design for the humanoid soul tool yet; anyway, seeing that Mi Jia actually has a soul tool armor-type soul tool almost made me spit out my drink.

(End of chapter)