Chapter 348.1 - Entering the Finals
Ye Yulin looked at He Caitou and the representative from the Alto Chamber of Commerce and said, “Both parties, please report your names. Let me reiterate – this match will only end when one party concedes defeat or loses his fighting strength. If you think you can’t beat your opponent, please say so so you don’t make a grave mistake.”
“Tang Si!” He Caitou shouted his name in a concise yet assertive manner.
“Alto Chamber of Commerce, Zhao Shouze.”
“Begin.” Ye Yulin suddenly rose into the sky and announced the beginning of the first match.
This wasn’t a fight like the Continental Elite Youth Soul Master Tournament. It was a real life-and-death fight. This was an underground tournament – there weren’t that many rules to protect the competitors.
Zhao Shouze pointed his toes to the ground before he charged towards He Caitou. His body shone with three yellow and three purple soul rings. Evidently, he was a six-ringed Soul Emperor. He waved his warblade, and it lit up with a blinding, golden-red spark.
The surprising thing was that He Caitou didn’t fire his cannon. He even set it down. It might be because he couldn’t do so in time, or he just didn’t want to fire it. It was as if the cannon was too heavy, and He Caitou couldn’t lift it anymore.
However, his soul rings rose too.
Two yellow, two purple, and two black soul rings.
There was a huge commotion beneath the stage when everyone saw that his six soul rings were of the optimal combination.
It was very rare for even a soul master to have the best combination of soul rings, much less a soul engineer.
The members of the Duskwater Alliance were naturally greeted with a delightful surprise. However, the members of the Alto Chamber of Commerce and Common Alliance turned grim.
Zhao Shouze naturally saw He Caitou’s soul rings. As he looked at his opponent’s soul rings before looking at the colors of his own soul rings, he realized that he was in trouble! His unstoppable momentum earlier suddenly met with an obstacle.
But even though his aura was slightly suppressed by He Caitou’s soul rings, he didn’t slow down. He quickly charged across the center line. As he waved his warblade, he slashed it towards He Caitou.
Suddenly, this golden-red blade formed a long arc that advanced more than forty meters before it slashed towards He Caitou’s head. Its majestic aura was about to slash the stage in two.
The air suddenly became hotter. Zhao Shouze’s warblade was very exquisite. While it was a close-combat soul tool, there were nine formation arrays in it. As it was strengthened, it was almost as strong as a Class 7 close-combat soul tool. Furthermore, it could cover a longer distance than most ordinary close-combat soul tools. It was a soul energy weapon.
However, He Caitou wasn’t anxious at all. His legs moved swiftly, and he dragged his rapidfire cannon along with him. As he shifted, he avoided the slash.
A long trench was immediately slashed open as the energy from the warblade struck the ground. The two sides of the trench had turned completely red, and they were even melting quickly. This showed how frightening the elevated temperature of this warblade was.
However, the spectators couldn’t be bothered about the strength of this warblade right now. This was because they were stunned as they were looking at He Caitou. He Caitou lifted his cannon and charged towards Zhao Shouze.
A long-range, offensive-type soul engineer was running straight toward a close-combat soul engineer. What was going on?
Beneath the stage, Huo Yuhao’s eyes had already opened wide. As he watched the situation on the stage, he revealed a slight smile on his face behind his human-shaped soul tool. The real fool is the one who thinks second senior is a fool. In terms of fighting strategies, second senior is not inferior to anyone! He’s trying to catch him off-guard.
Zhao Shouze also didn’t expect He Caitou to charge towards him. In addition, He Caitou was extremely fast. It was very shocking. Even while he was carrying a rapidfire cannon, Zhao Shouze felt as if he were illusory as he burst over.
Bei Bei and Huo Yuhao weren’t the only ones who knew the Tang Sect’s Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track! He Caitou had been in the Tang Sect for a long time. The two main Tang Sect Secret Techniques that he cultivated were the Purple Demon Eyes and Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track. Even while he had a cannon on his shoulder, he still performed his Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track perfectly. Not only this, but the barrel of his cannon also started to light up.
Zhao Shouze was also only stunned for an instant. In the next moment, he swept his warblade and slashed it towards He Caitou’s waist.
At this point, He Caitou was still around fifteen meters away from him. He was confident of killing his opponent through a series of quick attacks. Zhao Shouze also didn’t believe that He Caitou could fire his rapidfire cannon under such a situation.
However, he also discovered that there was an additional cigar in He Caitou’s mouth just as he swept his warblade. It was a dim golden cigar. He Caitou was expelling smoke from his mouth, and a layer of golden light also shone from his body at the same time.
He Caitou lifted his rapidfire cannon and used his body to bear the attack of the warblade.
“Dang!” He Caitou was still advancing forward as a loud and clear sound resonated. The warblade brushed past his body, but was blocked by a golden barrier.
Invincible Barrier?
He has flouted the rules! This was what Zhao Shouze thought at first. However, Ye Yulin had no intention of ending their fight. At this point, He Caitou had already closed up the gap. He Caitou flung his cannon forward towards Zhao Shouze.
Zhao Shouze was shocked. He quickly used his warblade to block the attack. After all, he was a close-combat soul engineer, and he was very confident in his physical strength.
However, he didn’t know one thing – there were gifted people in this world.
He Caitou was one of them. Although he wasn’t as strong as Wang Qiu’er, he was still superior to most ordinary soul masters.
“Bang!” Zhao Shouze reeled back. He felt a huge force exerted towards him before the hilt of his warblade struck his own chest. He quickly activated the second state of his warblade; his entire warblade turned a piercing, golden red. Although he couldn’t effect a long-range attack after his warblade changed to this second state, the close-range destructiveness of his warblade was greatly increased.
However, he immediately saw He Caitou’s cannon barreling towards his chest.
Zhao Shouze lifted his warblade straight without any hesitation before he used his scorching blade to strike He Caitou’s cannon.
However, he was petrified at the next moment. That was because the light in the barrel of the cannon had suddenly gone off.
Rapidfire cannons derived their name from their ability to fire rapidly. On a battlefield, rapidfire cannons were used to contain enemies through their firepower. A single strike of a rapidfire cannon wasn’t too strong. For example, a cannon shell fired from He Caitou’s Class 7 rapidfire cannon was as powerful as a Class 6 explosive cannon shell.
Of course, He Caitou’s rapidfire cannon was different from other rapidfire cannons in terms of its size.
If a cannon was too large, it would be too bulky. However, there was a correlation between strength and size. The cannon shell of this rapidfire cannon was at least three times the size of a normal cannon shell. Naturally, it was of greater strength.
After he struck his opponent with the barrel of his cannon and forced him back, He Caitou immediately pointed the barrel of his cannon toward his opponent.
It was a cannon! It wasn’t a close-combat soul tool, but a cannon that could be fired. However, Zhao Shouze seemed to have forgotten this point after he was forced backward.
Under normal circumstances, his golden-red blade could slash a rapidfire cannon in half as if it were a block of butter.
However, He Caitou placed his rapidfire cannon right in front of him! No matter what, it was still a cannon!
“Boom!”
Everyone could clearly see a very bright ball of light shining between He Caitou and Zhao Shouze. The tremendous explosive force and recoil caused He Caitou to be flung back along with his cannon.
Zhao Shouze’s warblade was indeed very strong, and was worthy of being a close-combat soul tool that was almost Class 7. His golden-red blade was still pointed straight up, and the cannon shell that was fired towards him had been slashed in two. However, the two halves of the cannon shell still struck him!
This tournament was different from any ordinary fight between soul engineers. The soul engineers could only use the soul tools they created. This meant that Zhao Shouze didn’t have an automatic protective soul barrier with him. While the cannon shell was slashed in two, it was still a cannon shell. The pieces would still hurt when they struck his body….
Zhao Shouze was also flung backward. However, it wasn’t his body that flew back. It was scraps of his flesh.
His entire upper body had disappeared. Only his legs were left standing on the ground. His warblade swayed for a few times before it fell to one side. The light from his blade also slowly faded away. As his golden-red blade hit the ground, it melted.
The entire venue went silent.
Even though everyone knew that there were no rules in this underground tournament, they still found it uncomfortable when they saw such a bloody scene in front of them – a living person’s upper body had been directly blown apart by a soul cannon.
At this moment, dry coughs could be heard all around the stage.
Apart from the vice-leader, the rest of the members of the Duskwater Alliance stood up at this point. Even the Number 98 competitor who hated Huo Yuhao and He Caitou couldn’t help but cheer at this point.
A long-range soul tool could be used in this manner? Fired straight in front of one’s opponent? It was too much.
He Caitou flew back due to the backblast generated. Right now, he had already landed steadily on the stage. He didn’t even look at Zhao Shouze’s remains. He lifted his cannon, turned around and walked towards the people from the Duskwater Alliance.
“The first match has ended. Tang Si is the winner.”