The next day.
Li Ziming got up early in the morning, only to be summoned by Mu Ye to gather downstairs. Once the guards Zhenhua had arranged for him had assembled, he followed Mu Ye to the competition venue.
Although Li Ziming knew that after revealing his Eight-Star forging skill at the Skysea Grand Tournament yesterday, the major factions would certainly send higher-ups to probe and recruit him, he had still underestimated the twists and turns in those old foxes' minds. He had not expected them to be so difficult to deal with, leaving him without even the time to recover from the strain of forging.
Thus, on the way to the Skysea Grand Tournament, Li Ziming could not help but yawn.
Seeing this, Mu Ye teased him. "What, did our Eight-Star Saint Craftsman not rest well?"
"Uncle Mu, stop teasing me. Who knew those old foxes would be so troublesome? They kept going in circles and even said they wanted to introduce me to potential matches. If you hadn't arrived in time, I probably still wouldn't have been able to get away."
"Hahaha, young man, you have to endure the trouble you caused yourself, even if you have to cry through it. Still, I thought those girls they introduced to you were pretty good. Aren't you going to consider it?"
"Forget it. Everyone knows what they're after. Their abacus beads were practically flying into my face. I'm not that foolish." Li Ziming curled his lip.
Mu Ye nodded approvingly. "Mm, not bad, kid. You haven't gotten carried away."
"Enough about that. Uncle Mu, weren't you planning to take on a disciple? Why haven't you gone looking for Zuo Qiu Lun? Don't let someone else snatch him away in the end."
"Don't worry. I've arranged for disciples to keep an eye on him. No matter how anxious I am, I still need to see that child's strength and background first.
"Besides, I'm the dignified sect master of the Body Sect, a peerless expert who can sit at the same table as the master of War God Hall. Am I supposed to rush over and beg to take him as a disciple? How undignified!
"Once that kid finishes his match, I'll show him what I can do. Then he'll bow his head and beg to become my disciple. Wouldn't that make for a fine tale? Hahahaha!" As Mu Ye spoke, he broke into hearty laughter.
"Fine. As long as you're happy."
Before long, the group arrived at the competition venue.
Today was the semifinal round of the Skysea Grand Tournament's individual competition. Thanks to Li Ziming's star appeal, the tournament's popularity had risen once again. Teachers and students from the various academies, along with the spectators filling the stadium, all waited eagerly for the first finalist to emerge.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Skysea Grand Tournament! After several days of fierce competition, the individual event is nearing its end. The four contestants who have advanced to the final stage are,
"the peerless genius contestant Zhou Mingyu from the Tianhai Spirit Pagoda;
"the contestant Zuo Qiu Lun, whose origins remain a mystery and whose combat strength is extraordinary;
"as well as contestant Lie Hongchen from the Sun-Moon Royal Soul Master Academy, and contestant Qian Gu Fengjin from the Qian Gu Family, both young Spirit Kings."
The match was about to begin. Zuo Qiu Lun had been assigned to the first round and would be the first of the four individual-event contestants to take the stage.
His opponent was Lie Hongchen, a five-ring Spirit King with the Three-Legged Golden Toad Martial Soul. It was said that he was also a Level-Five Soul Engineer.
"Kid, do you think he can win this one?" Mu Ye asked Li Ziming beside him as he watched the two onstage.
"Don't worry. He'll definitely win."
As he looked at the silent Zuo Qiu Lun standing on the stage, Li Ziming could not help recalling how much effort they had spent on creating Zuo Qiu Lun, this avatar.
When Liu Tianran had been constructing his fourth avatar, Zuo Qiu Lun, there was one issue he had pondered for a long time: what kind of Martial Soul should he give him?
He had considered simply giving him an attribute-focused weapon Martial Soul like the previous few, but he had always felt that doing so would waste this opportunity.
After all, he already had Li Ziming and Zhou Mingyu, two combat-oriented avatars with top-tier elemental weapon Martial Souls, as well as Xie Jiayun (Healing), a healing Soul Master with the top-tier life-attribute Martial Soul, the Tree of Life.
Nor did he plan to create an Auxiliary System Soul Master avatar at this time. As an Auxiliary System Soul Master himself, he knew that within those major factions, even highly gifted Auxiliary System Soul Masters found it difficult to gain the attention and wholehearted cultivation of the upper ranks during their early growth period.
After all, most faction leaders sought successors whose combat power could shoulder the faction's future. No matter how outstanding an Auxiliary System Soul Master was, even if they received training and attention, they would at most be placed beside the faction heir to "study alongside the crown prince" and be cultivated as a second-in-command.
Soul Master factions like the Nine Treasures Glazed Sect, where Auxiliary System Soul Masters held the reins, were anomalies among anomalies.
Rather than calling it a sect, it would be more accurate to call it an alliance of multiple families centered around the Ning Family.
It had endured until today thanks to the powerful amplification of the Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda Martial Soul, the formidable sect retainers recruited by its sect masters over the past ten thousand years, and the lingering prestige of Ning Rongrong and her husband becoming gods twenty thousand years ago.
However, with the disappearance of the God Realm and the emergence of Battle Armor in recent years,
the Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda Soul Masters were limited to only seven rings. Compared to the exceptional amplification effects of other auxiliary Martial Soul Soul Masters wearing Four-Word Battle Armor, their status and prestige had fallen severely.
Moreover, for a family-based faction, outsiders found it difficult to reach the core upper ranks. Thus, Liu Tianran abandoned this idea, at least for the time being.
But if he arranged another avatar with the same role as the others, it would not be worth the cost for Liu Tianran, whose resource reserves had only just begun to take shape.
In the end, to solve this problem, Liu Tianran could only begin searching through biographies and records of Douluo Continent's experts, hoping to find a suitable Martial Soul choice for his fourth avatar.
However, during his research, Liu Tianran noticed a phenomenon. During the eras of Douluo One and Douluo Two, most continental powerhouses had beast Martial Souls. But beginning ten thousand years ago, the appearance of Spirit Souls increased Soul Masters' demand for spiritual power. As Soul Masters' research deepened, the proportion of weapon Martial Soul experts began rising rapidly.
Benefiting from the development of spiritual power cultivation methods, experts who followed the path of spiritual artistic conception began to emerge. Weapon Martial Soul experts also developed their own weapon-soul artistic conceptions and domains, increasing their combat power and raising the proportion of weapon Martial Soul users among the strong.
Over the past few thousand years, the boosts Battle Armor brought to Soul Masters had further compensated for the physical frailty of weapon Martial Soul users, causing their share among the powerful to explode.
Yet throughout this evolution, one type of Martial Soul Soul Master had remained particularly special: Body Martial Soul users. Long before Spirit Souls appeared, the Body Sect had already begun researching the use of the body and spiritual power. Even Huo Yuhao's foundation in spiritual power research had been built at least half upon the Body Sect's achievements.
This allowed Body Martial Souls to adapt extremely well to the benefits brought by the changing times. Furthermore, their use of Blood Qi, spiritual power, and the physical body was among the most professional of all. That was precisely what Liu Tianran needed. His avatars did not lack Blood Qi; what they lacked was a way to fully bring that advantage into play.
However, the Body Sect had been badly injured and gone into seclusion in the previous era, and Body Martial Souls were difficult to inherit, leaving them somewhat diminished. Even so, they remained terrifyingly powerful.
In this era, they would not suffer suppression from the Dragon King Bloodline either. While they could not be considered top-tier, they had never fallen out of the first tier.
Flowing water did not compete to be first; what mattered was its endless surge.
The only thing limiting Body Soul Masters was whether their own Blood Qi and spiritual power met the required standards. Mu Ye was an example. Because he had immersed himself in mecha and spiritual power, he had long been unable to break through to Super Douluo, yet his combat strength could still reach the level of a Limit Douluo.
But for Liu Tianran, that was the simplest thing.
Thus, Liu Tianran directly raised the Blood Qi and spiritual power of Zuo Qiu Lun, this four-ring Soul Ancestor, to an extraordinary level. He also fused a piece of Heavenly Refinement metal into his body, determined to create a Body Martial Soul Soul Master without any weaknesses and let the world witness whether raw strength had ever declined.
Before you continue