Black Book

The capital of the Heaven Dou Empire, Heaven Dou City, Heaven Dou Plaza.

Today was the final match of the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Soul Duel Tournament: Shrek Academy versus Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy.

The enormous Heaven Dou Plaza was packed with people, with not a single seat empty. Hundreds of thousands of spectators eagerly awaited the final match.

Above the imperial city, the emperor and high-ranking officials of the Heaven Dou Empire also intended to use this biennial Soul Duel Tournament to assess the strength of the younger generations from Shrek Academy and the Sun and Moon Empire.

They would then judge from these young contestants' performances whether Shrek Academy was suffering from a lack of successors, and whether the Sun and Moon Empire's soul tool technology had become even more terrifying.

Just as everyone was eagerly awaiting the start of the final match.

Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy's rest area.

A heavy atmosphere shrouded everyone. Every contestant wore a solemn expression, their heads lowered as they pondered how they could defeat Shrek Academy in the final.

The two team leaders, Elder Zhang and Elder Ma, both Eighth-Level Soul Engineers, were also suffering from a terrible headache as they watched this scene.

There was only one reason: among Shrek Academy's contestants this time was a woman named Zhang Lexuan, who was terrifyingly strong and completely in a different league from her peers.

Her cultivation was so high that she was only half a step away from becoming a Soul Sage. She had also mastered an extremely profound Battle Skill and had performed a one-versus-seven sweep more than once in the earlier matches.

Facing such a powerful opponent, the contestants from Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy naturally felt immense pressure.

Elder Zhang and Elder Ma exchanged a glance and nodded, deciding to reduce the contestants' pressure.

After all, pressure was a good thing, but too much pressure would instead affect their performance.

Besides, even if they lost, it would not matter. In any case, Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy had placed second in every tournament for the past several thousand years.

Since that was the case, what harm would one more second-place finish do? As long as they secured the runner-up position, no one would criticize them.

Elder Ma coughed twice, his tone turning stern as he looked at the young contestants whose pressure was about to explode. "All right, the final match is about to begin. Pull yourselves together. What's with all the hanging heads and dejected looks?"

"Yes, Elder Ma." Upon hearing his stern words, the contestants from Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy immediately straightened their backs and sat upright.

Elder Zhang watched the members regain their spirits and encouraged them, "You are all outstanding talents of my Sun and Moon Empire. In today's final against Shrek Academy, you only need to do your best.

"Carefully experience the match and absorb what you learn from the tournament, so that you can go further on the path of soul engineering in the future. I believe that our Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy will defeat Shrek Academy!"

While the team leaders from the Sun and Moon Empire were encouraging their contestants before the battle.

Front-row luxury seating.

A young man in a black robe sat in his seat under the protection of several guards. His hands were clasped together, and his thumb gently rubbed the Sapphire Storage Soul Tool Ring on his index finger as he quietly waited for the final match to begin.

The boy appeared to be under twelve years old and stood 1.68 meters tall. He had short black hair, sword-like brows, and large, bright, jet-black eyes.

His face was still somewhat immature, but his forehead was broad, his brow ridge and cheekbones perfectly proportioned, his nose high and straight, and his jawline distinct.

The proportions of his features were nearly perfect, and his fair skin glowed with vitality. Such outstanding looks drew frequent appreciative glances from the noble girls in the luxury section.

Some of the noble girls from the Sun and Moon Empire recognized the boy's identity. They immediately gathered together and began gossiping in hushed voices.

"I saw him from a distance at a banquet once. He's Wang Chen of the Wang Family from Ying Hou Manor.

"They say Miss Meng Hongchen of the Hongchen Family is quite close to him. His nose is so high, and his skin is so good. Sluuurp, sluurp."

"How strange. The Wang Family is about to hold its clan competition to select the most outstanding young disciples for intensive cultivation. I didn't expect him to have time to come to the Heaven Dou Empire to watch the Soul Duel Tournament instead of preparing properly."

"Maybe he's already given up. The Wang Family has so many members, and there are already three older than him. The strongest among them, Wang Teng, has reached the Three-Ring Soul Elder level and is also a Third-Level Soul Engineer.

"Wang Chen is younger and seems to be only a Soul Grandmaster. He hasn't broken through to the Soul Elder level yet, so how could he possibly defeat Wang Teng?"

"Wow, that's so unfair. Poor Wang Chen. Boo-hoo-hoo, I really want to hold him in my arms and snuggle him."

"Give it a rest. No matter what, he's the great-grandson of a Marquis. Does he need your pity? And as for snuggling him, you couldn't even become his concubine.

"Miss Meng Hongchen is far superior to you. She's beautiful and highly talented. Her grandfather is also a Ninth Level Soul Engineer, the president of Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy, the master of Mingde Hall, and a grand duke."

"Ahhh! You're so mean! You're always putting me down. I'm cutting ties with you!"

"..."

Wang Chen sat in his seat with an unchanged expression, as if the person being watched and discussed by all those women were someone else entirely.

In his previous life, Wang Chen had been a university student on Blue Star. After transmigrating to Douluo Continent, he was born into the Wang Family of Ying Hou Manor in the Sun and Moon Empire.

The Wang Family of Ying Hou Manor was a large clan and was quite famous even in Mingdu.

The head of the Wang Family, Wang Chen's great-grandfather—his grandfather's father—and the current Marquis Ying, Wang Yan, was a powerful expert with a Soul Power cultivation of Level Eighty-Nine.

His status in the Sun and Moon Empire was second only to that of the exceedingly rare Ninth Level Soul Engineers.

However, Wang Yan had been quite a womanizer in his youth. He might not have had wives and concubines by the dozens, but he had certainly kept women on both arms. He had no fewer than seven sons alone.

Then those seven sons continued to expand the family, and Wang Yan also had several male cousins. Generation after generation, by Wang Chen's generation, their numbers had reached an astonishing three digits.

With so many descendants, even though Ying Hou Manor possessed great wealth and influence, it was impossible to cultivate every one of them.

They could only select the clan members with good talents for focused cultivation. As for the other family disciples with ordinary talents, they could receive only standardized training.

There was no other way. Good resources were limited. They could not possibly give the best resources to mediocre people. How else could the family develop and grow stronger?

As a result, competition among the younger generation of Ying Hou Manor was extremely fierce.

Born into Ying Hou Manor, Wang Chen naturally could not avoid that competition. Fortunately, his talent was excellent.

When he awakened his Martial Soul at the age of six, he awakened an Artifact Spirit Martial Soul. Furthermore, Wang Chen possessed an Innate Soul Power Level Nine.

The Artifact Spirit Martial Soul was quite miraculous because it could amplify Soul Tools and make them even more powerful.

The might of Soul Tools was already astonishing to begin with. After being amplified by an Artifact Spirit Martial Soul, their power became even more terrifying, like a tiger that had grown wings.

Moreover, this Martial Soul could amplify not only its owner's Soul Tools, but other people's Soul Tools as well!

It could even amplify ordinary objects such as stones and iron knives. However, those things were too weak. Even after being amplified, they were of little use.

Therefore, no soul master with an Artifact Spirit Martial Soul would waste their Soul Power amplifying such useless little objects.

It could be said that the Artifact Spirit Martial Soul was one of the Martial Souls best suited for soul engineers, no less suitable than Martial Souls with spiritual attributes.

With an Artifact Spirit Martial Soul and Innate Soul Power Level Nine, Wang Chen's talent was among the very best in the younger generation of Ying Hou Manor. Only one or two people could match him.

Wang Chen was only eleven years old, yet his Soul Power had already reached Level Twenty-Eight. Before turning twelve, he would certainly break through to Level Thirty and become a Soul Elder.

As for geniuses with Innate Full Soul Power? In all these years, no one in the entire Ying Hou Manor had ever awakened Innate Full Soul Power.

Innate Full Soul Power placed extremely high demands on the quality of a Martial Soul. Although the Wang Family's inherited Martial Soul was fairly good, it was still some distance away from being a top-tier Martial Soul.

If a family disciple with Innate Full Soul Power truly appeared...

Then either their Martial Soul had mutated, or their Martial Soul had turned green.

Other than that, there was no third possibility.

Wang Chen had traveled thousands of kilometers from the capital of the Sun and Moon Empire to Heaven Dou City to watch the Soul Duel Tournament for a specific purpose.

Wang Chen rubbed the Sapphire Soul Tool Ring that his little rich-girl junior, Meng Hongchen, had given him.

*According to the original story, Zhang Lexuan will sweep through her opponents like autumn leaves in this Soul Duel Tournament.

*However, I hope the members of Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy can put up a better fight and force Zhang Lexuan to use her Battle Skill and secret techniques.

Otherwise, if Zhang Lexuan doesn't use her Battle Skill and secret techniques, I won't be able to record those unseen skills in the Black Book and learn them.

As Wang Chen's thoughts flickered, a dilapidated black book slowly opened in the depths of his soul...

This black book was the cheat ability that had brought Wang Chen to Douluo Continent. However, it had suffered severe damage during the transmigration and had become tattered, leaving many of its functions unusable.

Only its most basic ability remained: recording. Any skill Wang Chen had seen would be recorded.

As long as a skill was recorded in the Black Book, Wang Chen could quickly learn it.

Of course, after learning it, whether he could use it depended on whether he met the conditions for releasing the skill.

For example, if Wang Chen saw a soul master use a Soul Bone skill and recorded it with the Black Book, but Wang Chen himself did not possess that Soul Bone, then no matter how much he studied, he would never be able to use the Soul Bone skill.

After all, without the basic hardware, it did not matter how thoroughly he memorized the code. Even the cleverest housewife could not cook without rice.

At least the damaged Black Book could not create something from nothing and turn the impossible into reality...

It was precisely because he possessed the cheat ability of the Black Book, which could record other people's skills, that Wang Chen had traveled thousands of kilometers from the Sun and Moon Empire to watch the Soul Duel Tournament.

Time flew by amid the girls' discussions, and the final match of the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Soul Duel Tournament began!

On the competition stage.

Zhang Lexuan wore Shrek Academy's dark green battle uniform. With exquisite features and a graceful figure, she stood proudly upright.

Opposite Zhang Lexuan stood a plainly featured but exceptionally tall man named Li Li, who wore Soul Tool Armor.

The Soul Tool Armor on Li Li's body was extremely powerful. It could consume Soul Power to amplify its user's offensive and defensive abilities.

With this Soul Tool Armor, Li Li's combat power had increased by at least fifty percent. To a soul engineer, Soul Power was ammunition, while Soul Tools were equipment. The quality of one's equipment had an enormous impact on one's strength.

At that moment, in the stands of Heaven Dou Plaza, the spectators belonging to the three empires of Douluo Continent looked at Zhang Lexuan and shouted at the tops of their voices in unison, "Zhang Lexuan! Zhang Lexuan!"

"She must win!"

"Shrek is invincible!"

"Defeat Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy!"

The cheers and roars of hundreds of thousands of spectators formed wave after wave of sound, which converged into a tsunami of noise that surged magnificently.

The setting of this book follows the original novel.