Level 9 Soul Engineers' Free-For-All Tournament?

"?"

"!"

The moment Jing Hongchen said that, everyone present turned their shocked gazes toward him.

Ye Yulin: "༽◺_◿༼?!"

Damn it, Jing Hongchen! What the hell are you trying to do?! If you can't get him, you don't want me to get him either, is that it? You're an absolute bastard!

Just you wait until this meeting's over. Don't you dare run off—I'm going to challenge you to a duel!

I'll use my brand-new leather shoes to kick that little fatty's ass! (◣_◢)

Though Xu Kun, seated behind the imperial desk, had no idea what Jing Hongchen was thinking, he still put on a receptive expression and gestured for him to continue.

"Hall Master Hongchen, what do you mean...?"

"As I understand it, Unbreakable Douluo Zheng Zhan, Elder Zhang, the dean of Mingdu Soul Engineer Academy, Elder Wang of the Sun Moon Royal Research Institute, the commander of the Fire Phoenix Soul Engineer Regiment, the commander of the Evil Monarch Soul Engineer Regiment... and many other Level 9 Soul Engineers have no personal disciples. Since we're choosing a suitable guide for him, we ought to summon every Level 9 Soul Engineer without a disciple and let them compete fairly."

On the surface, Jing Hongchen wore a solemn, righteous expression, as if he were acting in the Empire's best interests. Deep down, he was already wearing the mysterious smile of someone whose plan had worked perfectly.

That was right: dragging others into the mess and muddying the waters. That was Jing Hongchen's strategy.

Nobody disliked a genius, especially a super-genius whose future achievements were certain to surpass their own.

If he could pull in every Level 9 Soul Engineer who wanted to take on a disciple, then, weighing the pros and cons and trying to placate his powerful ministers—

If the emperor gave him to Ye Yulin, he'd offend the other Level 9 Soul Engineers. If he gave him to Zheng Zhan or someone else, he'd offend Ye Yulin and all the other Level 9 Soul Engineers.

Faced with the possibility of offending an entire crowd of Level 9 Soul Engineers, His Majesty, who was skilled at weighing the pros and cons, would surely choose to set the matter aside and discuss it another time.

But a genius this exceptional couldn't simply be left unattended, wasting his talent!

So, of course, the boy had to go to school!

As luck would have it, besides being the master of Mingde Hall, Jing Hongchen was also the dean of the Sun-Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy, the Sun Moon Empire's foremost institution of learning.

As long as the boy enrolled at the Sun-Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy, Jing Hongchen could turn into a master schemer and show everyone how to pull the rug out from under them.

His method had a name: the dean's gentle, kindly concern for a young student with tremendous potential, combined with the advantage of being close at hand. Quietly, he'd take a huge lead over every other Level 9 Soul Engineer.

By then, the student would have feelings, and the dean would have intentions.

A willing match, things falling naturally into place—he'd win big, and then win even bigger! He'd be absolutely swimming in victory!

Sure enough, just as Jing Hongchen had expected, Xu Kun imagined a crowd of Level 9 Soul Engineer elders—men and women he couldn't afford to offend—gathering in his Wenhua Hall with all sorts of ceremonial objects bestowed by the late emperors.

(Not that disgraced elder brother he'd kicked out of the imperial lineage and stripped of his imperial title. He meant his own father, the super-undead warrior whom he'd forcibly dug out of the imperial mausoleum and granted four extra years of life. The old man had shouted, "The crown prince is unworthy and cannot be entrusted with the throne. My fourth son, Xu Kun, is noble in character and much like me. He can inherit the throne!")

They'd stand around spitting at one another, maybe even use those glittering ceremonial objects to hold a thrilling Level 9 Soul Engineers' free-for-all right before his eyes. Xu Kun felt his brain short-circuit.

He regretted it. He regretted it so much!

Why had he gone and called those two here in the first place?

Was he trying to make life difficult for himself?

But if he thought about it carefully, what Jing Hongchen had said did seem reasonable.

A top-tier genius like this should indeed be taught according to his abilities. But who would be the best person to take him on?

At least half the people Jing Hongchen had just mentioned had to be ruled out.

The first to go were the commanders of the several Hand of the Nation Soul Engineer Regiments.

They might do well enough on the battlefield, but when it came to teaching students, honestly, Xu Kun wasn't sure he could praise their abilities.

Besides, even if their teaching skills were passable, he feared their "if you don't like it, fight me" hotheadedness might get the better of them one day. They could suddenly say something like:

"Hey! The enemy's formation is in disarray. Let's charge over and wipe them out!" Then they'd grab their weapons and lead the youngsters into battle.

If anything happened along the way, he wouldn't even know where to go to cry about it.

The second group to be ruled out were the Level 9 Soul Engineers with special posts. The reasons were more or less the same as for the previous group. But, more importantly, these few weren't considered exceptional among Level 9 Soul Engineers. That might make the others think:

That old geezer's not even as good as I am. Why should he get so lucky and end up with such a fine student?

How irritating! No, I have to put a bug in the old emperor's ear. The consequences of that sort of thinking could be terrifying.

Who else could Xu Kun entrust with the son-in-law who had only just begun to look promising?

Xu Kun lowered his eyelids and began mentally going through all the Sun Moon Empire's Titled Douluo and higher-ranked figures, one by one.

Xu Guozhong?

A royal prince and a Level 9 Soul Engineer.

No way. That fellow had followed Xu Kun's elder brother back in the day and was closely connected to Xu Kun's own branch of the family. If Xu Kun handed Qian Yuhan over to him, Xu Guozhong might grow ambitious one day, figure that the Empire's strongest Guardian Douluo was his disciple, and decide that victory was already in his hands. Then he'd retrace Xu Kun's own path and try to take the throne.

What about Xu Zhen, Xu Yan's elder brother? A branch of the imperial clan and a Level 9 Soul Engineer.

No. Xu Zhen had always obeyed orders but not summons. If Xu Kun sent Qian Yuhan to him, he might never get him back. And Xu Zhen would evolve from the little Prince of the South into the full-fledged Prince of the South.

Kong Deming? Elder Kong!

He really would be a good choice, but he was the Sun Moon Empire's foremost Soul Engineer, and his specialty was Soul Tools.

If Xu Kun ignored the nature of Twin Martial Souls, then Elder Kong's abilities as a Soul Master were about on par with the two men sitting before him—a pair of brothers, one no better than the other.

A four-ring Soul Master at eleven. If he gave up on the Soul Master path and became the most traditional kind of Soul Engineer in the Sun Moon Empire, his ancestors in heaven would probably be so furious they'd strike down this unfilial descendant with a bolt of lightning.

Did the Sun Moon Empire have any top figures in the Soul Master World, then?

Ah!

It did, brother. It sure did.

The Holy Spirit Cult had a very systematic and comprehensive training process for traditional Soul Masters—the Evil Soul Master kind. Its Supreme Cult Leader, Ye Xishui, had also gone a long way down both the Soul Engineer and Soul Master paths.

Any Soul Master who could match Ye Xishui in combat would certainly be inferior to her with Soul Tools.

Any Soul Engineer who could match Ye Xishui with Soul Tools would be utterly outclassed by her in combat.

Looking at it that way, Ye Xishui seemed like the perfect person to train a genius.

But the problem was that Qian Yuhan's attributes countered Evil Soul Masters!

Handing an attribute specifically designed to counter evil over to Evil Soul Masters!

That would be like breaking the sheath of a dagger made to restrain an enemy, then offering your own neck to its blade.

If Xu Kun actually did something so mind-numbingly stupid, his father and grandfather would really climb out of their imperial tombs and beat him to death.

Damn it, what kind of mess was this?!

Damn!

At last, increasingly frustrated, Xu Kun raised his head and met the gazes of Ye Yulin and Jing Hongchen.

The three of them looked at one another. None of them was willing to speak first.

After who knew how long, Xu Kun seemed to accept reality. He abruptly leaned back and slammed his back against the chair.

"How about we each take a step back? I won't summon the other Level 9 Soul Engineers to compete with you. In return, you'll both take a step back and let me decide."

"Works for me. I'll follow Your Majesty's decision." Ye Yulin nodded furiously like a pecking chicken, clearly accepting the emperor's suggestion. Jing Hongchen wasn't very pleased, but he gave His Majesty his due and nodded to show his agreement.

"I've decided. I'll have someone bring him here, then let him choose which of you two he wants as his Soul Engineer mentor. What do you think of that proposal?"

On the surface, Xu Kun's words seemed to be asking Ye Yulin and Jing Hongchen for their opinions.

But in reality, he'd already settled the matter once and for all.

You two can argue that you're both right, and I think you both have a point.

So, I'll use a compromise to resolve the problem.

"Your Majesty is wise."

Ye Yulin had already started wondering which of his possessions he could offer as a gift to win the young man over—no, to earn his goodwill.

"Minister Jing Hongchen obeys."

While Ye Yulin secretly rummaged through his storage ring, planning to pick out a gift from his collection, Jing Hongchen was much more subtle.

He had carefully reviewed the file several times. If the photograph in the upper-left corner had been taken recently, then even he had to admit the boy had a face that drew admirers like bees to flowers—and the sort that would leave his own looks-obsessed granddaughter staring, wide-eyed.

A son-in-law was half a son, and a granddaughter's husband was half a grandson. If he could add another layer of closeness on top of their teacher-student relationship—

That would truly be a rare and wonderful thing!

If Qian Yuhan, currently being dragged around the snack street by Xu Tianzhen three blocks away, knew that at this very moment, in the towering Sun-Moon Imperial City nearby, the Sun Moon Empire's emperor was racking his brains to find someone reliable to teach a former titan of the Soul Master world about Soul Masters, while two renowned Level 9 Soul Engineers were both plotting—one over what sort of welcoming gift to prepare, the other over whether to take him as a live-in grandson-in-law—

All he could do was let out a startled "Whoa!" under the Rakshasa Phantom's mocking, yin-yang chuckles.

And so, at the wise and mighty emperor's signal, Xu Yan—the tool of a man already branded "a super-useful serf workhorse, too good not to use"—was summoned to Wenhua Hall by the imperial attendants once again, just like a contracted beast.

Heaven only knew how frightened Xu Yan was when he sighed his way into Wenhua Hall, looked up, and saw those two old fellows, Jing Hongchen and Ye Yulin, staring at him with expressions so complicated and "fiery."

Holy crap! What was with those looks? They looked like they wanted to "eat him alive." Could it be... those bizarre rumors were true?! Did these two old fellows really have that sort of... preference?

Kids—no, Emperor Uncle had tricked him into coming here. He was definitely going to hand this handsome older man over to those two wicked old monsters and turn him into their ☆(...)!

At the thought of those unseemly, tragic scenes, a flicker of despair rose in Xu Yan's heart. He even began to wonder whether he should smash his head against the nearby pillar and die before they could disgrace him.

That way, he could at least preserve his innocence.

"Marquis of Xiyang?!"

Seeing Xu Yan's gloomy, private-equity face, as if someone had dug up his family's ancestral graves, Ye Yulin suppressed his displeasure and struggled to squeeze out a smile. In as gentle a voice as he could manage, he asked, "Were you listening to what we were saying?"

Xu Yan had been lost in his own thoughts and hadn't noticed anyone speaking to him. He blankly raised his head, looked at Ye Yulin, and answered instinctively, "Huh?!"

"What do you mean, 'huh'?" Jing Hongchen calmly set down his teacup and furrowed his brow. "His Majesty asked if you could go bring that young friend back."

Young friend? Which young friend?

Oh! You mean Qian Yuhan!

I knew you two old monsters were no good. You're both so old, and you're still trying to take a child—

Wait, I remember now. That precious child was being kept by Emperor Uncle to become a future consort. There's no way he'd let you two old monsters mess with him. So I was overthinking it. You two old monsters aren't perverts!

Ha! I knew it!

You're both respected Soul Engineer luminaries. How could you possibly be the super-perverts of those street rumors?

Realizing he might have overreacted and imagined all sorts of strange things, Xu Yan suddenly felt embarrassed. To cover up his guilty conscience, he hurriedly stood up, thumped his chest, and solemnly promised the other three in the hall:

"Give me half an hour at most, and I'll bring him to Wenhua Hall."

"Minister Yan is loyal to the Empire. It warms my heart. Go on, then. Don't keep me and Hall Master Hongchen waiting."

As he spoke, Xu Kun cast Xu Yan a sidelong glance, smiling faintly.

Beneath the imperial desk piled high with memorials, concealed inside his wide sleeve, Xu Kun clutched a finely made Communication Soul Tool with a cute design—the sort any little girl would adore at first sight.

Hmph (`3´)!

If that forgetful girl Tianzhen hadn't left her Communication Soul Tool here again when she went to the drawer for a snack just now, would he need to send you to fetch someone for him?

He could just contact Tianzhen and have her bring him here, couldn't he?

That was what Xu Kun thought, having himself forgotten to ask Qian Yuhan for his personal Communication Soul Tool code because he'd been too busy brooding over someone putting a hand on his cabbage.

Little did he know, Qian Yuhan didn't have the kind of "Soul Tool high-tech" Xu Kun was talking about—one that could make calls.

"Your servant takes his leave."

With an awkward grin, Xu Yan left Wenhua Hall and hurried along the corridor. He casually pulled out his Communication Soul Tool, entered Xu Tianzhen's code, and tried to ask if she knew where Qian Yuhan was. But no matter how he tried to contact her, his calls to Xu Tianzhen were like a cow disappearing into the sea—there wasn't the slightest response.