The Golden Toad Gets Edged, Machine Element Is Still the World's Number One Metal, Hongchen Flying Kick and Machine King Flying Kick (4K)

The final clash between Qing and Xiao, the moment of their peak.

The two prodigies, talents seldom seen in any age, stood at opposite ends of Test Zone Zero, their eyes burning as they stared at each other.

The solemn, silent atmosphere resembled a duel between two peerless masters. Their falcon-sharp eyes never blinked, watching for the tiniest opening the other might inadvertently reveal.

Every teacher and student at the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy instinctively quieted their breathing, afraid of disturbing the pair.

Had this battlefield been moved into a remote mountain forest, a drifting green leaf might have broken the deadlock. In the Soul Fighting Arena, however, battle always began with the sudden rise of Soul Rings!

Yellow, yellow, purple, purple; yellow, purple, purple, black!

There was always a higher mountain!

Undaunted by the difference in their Soul Ring colors, Xiao Hongchen swiftly completed Martial Soul Possession, a leg sprouting from his backside.

The third leg, as though cast from gold, stamped hard against the metal floor. Dazzling golden light spread across the sky, and the phantom of the Three-Legged Golden Toad roared with earthshaking force. Its ancient divine-beast bloodline answered its host's indomitable will!

Having advanced all the way to fifth year, Xiao Hongchen had fought no shortage of Sun Moon students. They immediately exclaimed in amazement.

They had never seen Xiao Hongchen so brimming with fighting spirit. Only Ultimate Metal, a mighty dragon crossing the river into their territory, had forced the divine beast into its strongest form!

"Boom-"

Lin Qing raised his hand and loosely curled his fingers. Machine element swept through heaven and earth in an instant, its chilling, razor-sharp aura spreading unchecked. A cold current struck Xiao Hongchen and the Three-Legged Golden Toad. A chill ran through Xiao Hongchen, making him shudder as every hair on his body stood on end.

In his perception, machine element was everywhere. A silver-white torrent enveloped sky and earth, and Lin Qing seemed to be the world's sole source of light. Worse still, an impersonal, majestic voice seemed to ring out from every direction at once-

Pay homage.

Pay homage to the sovereign of metal!

"Ultimate suppression!"

On the dais, the knowledgeable Sun Moon teachers recognized the truth.

Beneath the ultimate, the hierarchy was absolute!

An ultimate Martial Soul represented the endpoint of its particular path, suppressing every attribute of the same origin along that path.

Machine element was a mutated ultimate gold element, so naturally, it possessed this power.

Soul Tools, however, were ultimately inanimate objects, and Sun Moon Soul Engineers who fought using their Martial Souls were exceedingly rare. Although machine element held an absolute advantage, it could not impose the sort of superior-rank suppression found in a caste system.

Now, facing Xiao Hongchen, Lin Qing could finally bully someone fair and square!

The Three-Legged Golden Toad struggled desperately against its instinct to submit. A divine beast was already extraordinary; ordinary metal could not even straighten its back before this magnificent existence!

The weight upon his shoulders felt like Mount Tai pressing down. Xiao Hongchen's breathing grew labored. He knew that endlessly evading this attribute suppression would leave him trapped without any chance of turning the tables. The Soul Master and his Martial Soul phantom moved in perfect unison, unleashing a shrill cry of defiance against sovereign power!

In his three-legged possessed form, Xiao Hongchen crouched slightly, unwavering resolve filling his blue and green eyes. His back curved like a drawn bow, golden protrusions rising one after another, and he scattered dozens of metal spheres with both hands.

His first and third Soul Rings lit up. Amid a dazzling golden halo, the metal spheres began transforming, continuously stretching and extending to either side until they became thick, fearsome metal cannon barrels!

First Soul Skill, Metal Control!

Third Soul Skill, Gold Condensation!

As the uniquely blessed descendant of a divine beast, the Three-Legged Golden Toad had awakened two innate Martial Soul talents. The first was absorbing metal energy to accelerate cultivation. Although it could not match machine element's terrifying conversion efficiency, it allowed Xiao Hongchen's Soul Power to stay a step ahead of his twin sister's.

The second was the ability to control metal. With the Soul Power of a rank-49 Soul Ancestor, Xiao Hongchen could control a full sixty-four Soul Cannons, half of which were Level-Five Soul Tools. Their number far exceeded what Wang Shaojie, a Level 5 Soul Engineer, could manage.

Unlike conventional Soul Cannons, the sixty-four cannons Xiao Hongchen controlled were actually formed temporarily through his Martial Soul talent in conjunction with his two Soul Skills.

Those metal spheres were individual Soul Tool Core Arrays, engraved with all manner of patterns. Explosive, paralyzing, flashing, penetrating-every kind of effect was represented. Xiao Hongchen carried large quantities of metal powder with him to conveniently construct attack forms around those Core Arrays.

This was also a specialized counterstrategy he had devised after thoroughly analyzing Lin Qing's combat style, racking his brains for more than a dozen nights and sacrificing a considerable amount of hair.

Whether forcibly controlling Nine Radiances or dismantling the Soul Tool Turret strategy, machine element needed to attach itself before it could corrode metal. Although the Three-Legged Golden Toad could not avoid interference, it could at least hold out a little longer.

Controlling sixty-four Soul Cannons alone inevitably consumed enormous amounts of Xiao Hongchen's Soul Power. The few minutes the Three-Legged Golden Toad fought desperately to buy him would be enough to expend all his firepower, unleashing it wildly upon Lin Qing!

"Clack, clack, clack."

Accompanied by metallic clanging, the Soul Cannon muzzles on Xiao Hongchen's back bent forward on their own. Their pitch-black barrels aligned with their target, locking onto the silver-gray figure over a hundred meters away.

Such superb control was astonishing. The Soul Tools seemed like living creatures.

Before Ultimate Metal had appeared out of nowhere, Xiao Hongchen had unquestionably been the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy's number one monster!

An elemental tsunami surged mightily. Under the combined amplification of Zero Generation and Machinery Growth, Bee Swarm greedily drank in the abundant Ultimate Metal energy all around, while Dragon Devourer opened an abyssal maw poised to devour its prey. Twelve Level-Five Soul Tools stood ready to fire!

Three months of study had benefited Lin Qing immensely. Integrating the Sun Moon school's Soul Tool theories, he had successfully become a Level 5 Soul Engineer. His first order of business had been upgrading his frequently used Soul Tools to level five.

The Three-Legged Golden Toad controlled more Soul Tools, but their weakness was that each had only a single Soul Tool Core Array, leaving their individual power somewhat lacking. Lin Qing's carefully crafted Soul Tool weapons were the exact opposite. Every one was intricate and refined, capable of passing multiple rounds of quality inspection!

"Boom, boom, boom!" There was no retreat to speak of. Cannon fire shook heaven and earth as the two prodigies chose a head-on exchange!

The blazing cannon fire dazzled the eyes, and explosions deafened the ears. Spirited dragon cries intertwined with low beastly roars, mixed with the piercing whistle of a bee swarm pouring out of its nest.

The Sun Moon students in the stands craned their necks, while the teachers on the dais leaned forward. Thousands upon thousands of eyes widened like bronze bells, reflecting Test Zone Zero beneath its unbroken barrage.

Even if someone had picked up sulfuric acid and splashed it in their faces, they would not have wanted to close their eyes for a second and miss this battle that came once in a century-guns against guns, cannons against cannons. The alloy floor looked as though an iron plow had churned it over repeatedly. Bullets and shells battered and crushed each other like two primeval beasts locking their fangs together and tearing wildly at one another. Wherever the shock waves reached, the ground was ripped clean up.

Fortunately, the Soul Tool Shield held firm, keeping the shells from harming innocent spectators. The pair, a hundred meters apart, maintained their long-range bombardment, then began moving in perfect tacit agreement, firing metal bullets from every angle!

Qing and Xiao, now fighting seriously, showed everyone exactly why the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy's leadership had spared no effort in hyping this final.

Their combat strength far exceeded their Soul Power cultivation. Ordinary students could no longer make out where either of them appeared,

or the precise angles from which they fired their Soul Cannons. They could only listen to the thunderous shell explosions, dread rising in their hearts.

The clash between an Ultimate Martial Soul and a divine-beast bloodline was spectacular beyond compare. Even the two fiercely opposed fan groups forgot to cheer for their beloved boys.

Ye Guyi and Meng Hongchen stared unblinkingly at the two afterimages darting through the thick clouds of smoke.

Little Meng was astonished. Her brother had actually risen to the occasion, squeezing out every last bit of his potential within those limited few minutes instead of pretending to be a punching bag and rolling all over the place!

The Mingde Hall disciples wore much the same expressions. The terrifying firepower and destructive force the pair displayed stunned everyone present.

The Sun Moon starting team members exchanged glances, cold sweat soaking their backs. These two monsters, not even fifteen years old, were shockingly formidable. They could easily kick out some of the weaklings among them and claim secure places on the starting roster!

The battle reached a fever pitch. Both figures kept changing position, and Xiao Hongchen gritted his teeth, struggling to keep up with Lin Qing's light, flowing footwork.

He knew his own situation best. On the surface, the Three-Legged Golden Toad appeared to be weathering machine element's relentless bombardment, occasionally finding time to strike back. Xiao Hongchen himself, however, suffered in ways he could not voice.

Every position Lin Qing appeared in was certain to make it difficult for the Three-Legged Golden Toad to fire, as though he had calculated everything in advance.

The metal cannon barrels covering his body gradually grew heavier, and the unwillingness in Xiao Hongchen's eyes deepened.

His direction as a Soul Engineer had long been clear: inherit the Hongchen Family tradition and become a long-range bombardment specialist, focusing on researching all kinds of Soul Cannons.

Lin Qing, by contrast, had yet to decide his future cultivation path. At this moment, he had effectively drawn the long-range bombardment card from his many abilities and was effortlessly keeping the Three-Legged Golden Toad in hand.

Xiao Hongchen's original plan had been a quick victory. Before Lin Qing immediately deployed the Steel Machinery Domain to take command of the battlefield, he would use the Three-Legged Golden Toad's proud firepower advantage to blast him out of the arena in one stroke!

Heaven refused to grant his wishes. Xiao Hongchen had still underestimated the sheer numerical appeal of Ultimate Metal.

The simultaneous burst from sixty-four Soul Cannons accomplished very little, leaving Brother Xiao in an exceptionally passive position. Not only did he have to withstand Bee Swarm attacking from every direction, he also had to watch out for Lin Qing activating his innate domain. That would be machine element with all its restraints removed!

My Soul Power is almost gone-

The Three-Legged Golden Toad's poor endurance gradually revealed itself. Unwilling to die in frustration, Xiao Hongchen decided to stake everything on one final attempt. His Second Soul Ring shone!

Gold Boiling greatly enhanced Soul Power activity and doubled the Three-Legged Golden Toad's metal control, activating the free gold element nearby and drawing it into his body for the toad's use.

Naturally, Xiao Hongchen's Soul Rings had been painstakingly selected by his grandfather, Jing Hongchen. His first and third Soul Skills strengthened his Martial Soul talents, while his second Soul Skill, Gold Boiling, replenished his expenditure and returned him to peak fighting strength!

Countless golden points of light appeared in the sky, surging toward Xiao Hongchen like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea. The Three-Legged Golden Toad opened its mouth to receive the gold element.

As gold element continuously flowed in, the flagging Three-Legged Golden Toad regained its vigor. Its sixty-four metal cannon barrels shone with dazzling brilliance, frantically gathering the vast energy needed for a second round of bombardment to scour the ground.

His blue and green eyes sparkled, and a smug smile tugged at Xiao Hongchen's lips. The next second, Brother Xiao saw Lin Qing open his hand in the distance.

A silver-white tide as vast as mountains and seas swept across, carrying away the gold element activated by Gold Boiling. Only the Three-Legged Golden Toad remained, stranded halfway, desperately stretching out its tongue to snatch back enough gold element to fill its belly!

Edged-an agony that cut straight to the heart!

"You robber, not again!"

Xiao Hongchen was overcome with grief and indignation, scenes from that night in the Metal World resurfacing in his mind.

Young Master Xiao, who considered himself invincible among his peers, had refused to believe it. Thus Qing and Xiao had competed at absorbing metal, only for machine element to pry open the Three-Legged Golden Toad's mouth and scoop the metal energy straight out of its throat!

This moment was exactly like that moment!

"The farce is over, Xiao."

Clearly, machine element was still the world's number one metal.

"Fourth Soul Skill, Machine Combustion."

The ink-black Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring suddenly flashed. In the blink of an eye, all the gold element the Three-Legged Golden Toad had painstakingly activated sublimated into Ultimate Metal!

Brilliant molten gold covered its original silver-gray hue. The radiance blooming in Lin Qing's eyes shone brighter than the blazing sun overhead. Machine element swept freely across the battlefield, and every bit of gold element above and below Test Zone Zero burned itself away, lighting the path ahead for the sovereign of metal!

Xiao Hongchen's eyes quivered as he watched helplessly while the Giant Spear Dragon Devourers merged. One, two, three, four-

Four Level-Five Soul Tools joined into one, like a cluster of coiling dragons. Sunlight descended from the sky, accentuating the molten-gold dragon head's supreme majesty.

A burning molten-gold dragon burst from the muzzle, trailing a blazing, comet-like tail as it charged straight at Xiao Hongchen without hesitation!

Dragon Devourer Cannon, Dragon Explosion!

"Gold Sacrifice!"

Facing the Dragon Devourer Cannon with its bared fangs and claws, Xiao Hongchen revealed his final trump card: the Three-Legged Golden Toad's fourth Soul Skill, Gold Sacrifice!

Gold Sacrifice and Gold Boiling were originally combination skills. By sacrificing the gold element activated by Gold Boiling, he could replenish the Soul Power expended firing his sixty-four Soul Cannons, or raise their power to even greater heights.

Under Ximen Qing's will, however, machine element had imperiously plundered the metal energy summoned by Gold Boiling. Even the cleverest cook could not make a meal without rice; the Three-Legged Golden Toad was forced to sacrifice the sixty-four Soul Cannons themselves in exchange for an all-out strike!

Trapped in a desperate situation with no escape, Xiao Hongchen could only fight with his back to the river.

He retained one level-five high-explosive Soul Cannon, while the other sixty-three cannons rapidly melted. Liquid metal poured into its muzzle. His handsome face flushed blood-red, and all three legs worked together to keep his body balanced!

The Three-Legged Golden Toad phantom shattered. Specks of golden light wrapped around the level-five high-explosive Soul Cannon, which fired a distorted mass of crimson-gold light!

"Boom!"

Black clouds threatened to crush the sky. Almost no part of Test Zone Zero remained intact, as though a savage storm had swept through. The dragon lurking at its center thrashed in fury. Cracks covering the devastated ground told of the perpetrator's ferocity, and the scorched black soil beneath the alloy floor was clearly visible!

Amid the shattered ruins, two figures faintly appeared.

A metal pillar pierced the black clouds and thrust into the heavens, supporting Lin Qing, whose clothes were only slightly dirtied at the edges. Inside the enormous circular crater, Xiao Hongchen rose, covered in dust and grime. A trickle of blood ran down his cheek to his jaw. He wiped it away with a finger and looked up at his unscathed opponent.

Machine Combustion ended. Those silver-gray eyes remained calm and unruffled, as though offering a silent warning: the gap between them could not be crossed.

"Hah-my Soul Power is drained, and all sixty-four Soul Cannons are destroyed. But as long as this body remains standing, I haven't lost!

Hyaa!!!"

For his final dance, Brother Xiao donned a Soul Tool Thruster, which roared out two trails of white smoke.

A long-range Soul Engineer bravely chose close combat for his last, stubborn stand. His golden third leg swept upward, unleashing Hongchen Flying Kick!

An unyielding opponent always commanded respect. Machine element condensed around Lin Qing's leg as he leaped into the air and plunged down from above-Machine King Flying Kick!