The superior suppression of an ultimate attribute, the Steel Machinery Domain and the Dragon Devourer Cannon (4K)

Whoosh-

The Bronze Hellfire Dragon swooped down and landed. A scorching gale blasted outward, bending every ancient tree within dozens of meters backward. Blazing light burned in its draconic eyes as it looked down at the tiny human.

Slowly raising his head, Lin Qing met the dragon's gaze without flinching or retreating. The Bronze Hellfire Dragon belonged to a race noble from birth, yet the human showed no fear. A proud lion lurked within those silver-gray eyes!

"Ten thousand years of cultivation..."

Lin Qing murmured to himself. Like the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear, the Bronze Hellfire Dragon was on his hunting list for his fourth soul ring. This one, which had just crossed the ten-thousand-year threshold, had arrived at precisely the right time!

Molten fire spattered from the tips of its wings. The Bronze Hellfire Dragon beat them and unleashed a deafening roar. It had an obsessive fixation on rare metals, and now it had realized that it had fallen into a trap.

There was no heavenly treasure of ultimate metal here, only a human soul master brimming with murderous intent, waiting for it to deliver itself to his doorstep!

You dared play me for a fool!!!

Its plan to absorb ultimate metal and break through its bloodline limits had fallen apart. That meant its lifelong dream of trampling Di Tian underfoot and marrying Zi JI had died halfway to fruition.

Steam poured from the Bronze Hellfire Dragon's body in its fury. Its chest swelled until it was almost spherical, and a dazzling crimson glow ignited deep in its throat. Lines of fire climbed the jagged bone spurs along its spine before finally becoming a searing pillar of flame within its abyssal maw.

Explosive Flame Dragon Breath!

Intense rage fueled the heat. Holding nothing back, the Bronze Hellfire Dragon aimed its Explosive Flame Dragon Breath straight at Lin Qing. The air along its path warped under the scorching temperature, and the surrounding bushes spontaneously ignited. Crimson torches sprang up throughout the forest, as though setting the atmosphere for a duel between man and dragon in the Life and Death Arena.

Silver light flashed. A silver shield appeared directly in the dragon breath's path, its surface engraved with intricate, exquisite soul tool patterns and gleaming with the naturally cold, hard luster of worked metal.

A peak Class 4 defensive soul tool, the Machinery King Shield.

Boom-

The Explosive Flame Dragon Breath struck the Machinery King Shield head-on, like a towering wave crashing against a stubborn, silent reef. The shield did not budge, protecting its master securely. Its silver-white surface resisted every last tongue of flame, shattering the fire into scattered sparks.

As the firelight faintly faded, the Bronze Hellfire Dragon involuntarily raised its upper body. Its breath had accomplished nothing. This human soul master seemed to be no ordinary person either.

Vast fluctuations of soul power spread from the towering dragon's body, forcefully enveloping the forest. The ground began to change drastically, and everything within sight took on a blue-green hue.

Branches broke through the earth one after another. Soft and damp when they emerged, they began hardening upon exposure to the air. Hundreds upon thousands of blue-green branches wound around one another, weaving together and pressing against each other. Amid grinding sounds, they rose from the ground and grew into imposing giant trees.

A domain, the Bronze Forest.

Whether judged by human standards or those of soul beasts, domain-type soul skills were indisputably powerful.

The Bronze Forest's effect was to turn everything within its range into bronze. The Bronze Hellfire Dragon was utterly confident. It imagined Lin Qing solidifying into a bronze statue, which it would take back to its lair and sit on beneath its noble draconic backside all day long. That was the fate of anyone who made a fool of the great dragon race!

Hum-

The Bronze Hellfire Dragon's smug expression abruptly froze. Its molten-gold vertical pupils contracted to pinpoints as it sensed something abnormal. An unfamiliar power beyond its control had descended upon the Bronze Forest. It was unmistakably another domain!

Luminous silver-white walls rose around them. Layer upon layer of machine element spread outward, enveloping everything that belonged to bronze, inside and out. The blue-green branches broke with anguished groans. Before supreme ultimate metal, the hardened bronze forest collapsed and shattered.

Those bronze fragments did not simply vanish. They were reclaimed, smelted, and reshaped by the machine element. In an instant, the domain changed hands.

An innate domain, the Steel Machinery Domain.

The concentration of machine element rose, instantly rewriting the surroundings into a world of iron walls best suited to Lin Qing's combat.

Within the Steel Machinery Domain, Lin Qing's soul power consumption dropped by fifty percent, while the power of his own soul skills and soul tools enhanced by machine element increased dramatically!

The contest between the two domains was decided in the blink of an eye. Under the dominion of the emperor of metal attributes, even burning bronze would solidify.

Never underestimate the caste-like suppression exerted from above by an ultimate attribute. A two-ring Huo Yuhao could handle a five-ring Ling Luochеn with ease. Against machine element, a pure Purgatory Wyvern would actually have been less constrained. The bronze power its ancestors had traded their lives to obtain had instead become the Bronze Hellfire Dragon's Achilles' heel!

The thousand-year soul ring in the second position shone brilliantly. Machine element condensed into long silver chains resembling vines, extending toward the Bronze Hellfire Dragon's mighty body. They nimbly slipped into the gaps between its scales, locking down its room to move.

Second soul skill, Machinery Growth.

The Thousand-Year Azure Gold Vine, a plant-type soul beast with both life and metal attributes, had bestowed extraordinary vitality upon the machine element.

At the same time, Lin Qing turned his hands over and gripped two different soul tools.

His left hand still held the finger gun, Bee Swarm. As its five barrels emerged, bullets surged out, scrambling forward like a swarm of frenzied bees. Countless silver streaks hammered the Bronze Hellfire Dragon's body with an endless succession of crisp metallic pings.

The soul tool in his right hand was called the Snake-Guide Bullet. Shaped like a large snake coiled around his forearm, its mouth opened nearly one hundred and eighty degrees and fired rounds trailing slender tails of flame.

After striking the dragon's body, the Snake-Guide Bullets did not explode. They transformed into agile snakes that coiled tightly around it, joining the silver vines of Machinery Growth.

Boom, boom, boom, boom-

Bee Swarm's assault seemed endless. The blue-black scales could no longer withstand the strain, exposing the bright red flesh beneath.

Machinery Growth helped the Snake-Guide Bullets gather the seemingly limitless machine element within the Steel Machinery Domain, piling on layer after layer of restraints. Scales were pried up one by one. Like a moth caught in a spiderweb, the Bronze Hellfire Dragon could only beat its wings in vain.

Roar-

Lin Qing's actions thoroughly provoked the soul beast's ferocity. The Bronze Hellfire Dragon's aura changed drastically. Its bronze was suppressed by machine element, but it still had the flames of a Purgatory Wyvern.

Its entire body heated rapidly. Its flames shifted from deep crimson to incandescent white, and the Snake-Guide Bullets' tight restraints began to loosen.

The Bronze Hellfire Dragon raised its head and roared in fury, spewing all its rage at once. Raging flames poured from its mouth, scales, nostrils, and eye sockets, indiscriminately attacking everything around it!

"We're done for, Bei Bei! My Blue Silver Grass can't withstand dragon fire!" Tang Ya yelped, tearfully displaying the withered, ashen Blue Silver Grass in her palm.

Please give me the same noble fire immunity Ancestor Tang San had!

"Protect Yuhao."

Bei Bei helplessly glared at his scatterbrained girlfriend. His first, second, and third soul rings blazed at full power, and he immediately activated his Radiant Sacred Dragon awakening, standing in front to mitigate the Bronze Hellfire Dragon's explosive firepower.

The three members of the Tang Sect had stayed to watch out of curiosity, only to suffer an entirely unprovoked disaster.

Cold sweat dripped from the three spectators' temples. It was as though they had inexplicably been skewered over a barbecue grill, three charcoal-roasted ribs destined to become mildly spicy or blazing hot according to Lin Qing's and the Bronze Hellfire Dragon's tastes.

"Teacher Xiao Ya, are those metal lumps in Lin Qing's hands his martial soul?" Huo Yuhao asked blankly.

The thunder of gunfire booming so close by shook him as though it might tear his eardrums apart. Huo Yuhao suddenly felt a little envious. They were clearly about the same age, yet he could only tremble at the sight of the Bronze Hellfire Dragon, while Lin Qing pulled out his gun barrels and ruthlessly emptied his magazines into its head!

"No. Lin Qing's martial soul should be Gold Element. The weapons he uses are called soul tools," Tang Ya explained to her young disciple. "Soul tools... especially ranged soul tools, are one of the root causes of the Tang Sect's decline. They completely replaced the hidden weapons we depended on for our livelihood.

"Of course, there's probably something special about Lin Qing himself, too. Otherwise, their power couldn't be this absurd."

"Soul masters and soul engineers naturally follow opposing paths. Using soul tools disgraces soul masters. That is a principle Shrek Academy has always upheld," Bei Bei added.

"But as disciples of the Tang Sect, since we've taken its revival upon ourselves, we must learn from others' strengths to make up for our shortcomings, studying soul tools to compensate for the weaknesses of hidden weapons.

"Unfortunately, neither Xiao Ya nor I has any talent as a soul engineer. Yuhao, if you're willing, I hope you'll choose to study soul tools. After all, your Spirit Eyes martial soul has a mental attribute. Much like Lin Qing's Gold Element, it gives you an innate advantage in researching soul tools.

"Lin Qing is the most gifted person I've ever seen at seamlessly combining his martial soul with soul tools. No one in Shrek Academy's entire Soul Tool Department can surpass him..."

As his words faded, a flicker of worry crossed Bei Bei's face. Earlier, he had not disclosed Lin Lan's circumstances because he could not bear to.

Yet Lin Qing's destination was Shrek Academy. He would learn the truth eventually. If a monster of this caliber ended up opposing Shrek Academy, then once he grew into a Titled Douluo, a Super Douluo... a Level 10 Soul Engineer armed with numerous soul tools could reduce all of Shrek City to a vast expanse of scorched earth!

"Little Yuhao, your eldest senior brother missed something. Lin Qing doesn't have an ordinary Gold Element martial soul. That's a mutated form of ultimate gold."

As Huo Yuhao sank into thought, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's lazy voice suddenly sounded in his heart.

"Ultimate metal? What's that?"

"You can simply think of it as the endpoint of an attribute," the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm explained leisurely. "Ultimate martial souls are exceedingly rare, and elemental martial souls aren't soul beasts that exist in the real world. Bei Bei is only in his teens, so you can hardly blame him for failing to recognize it.

"But Brother Sky Dream has lived for a million years, after all. I've seen more than one ultimate soul beast. I could tell at a glance that it was ultimate metal.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. What uniquely blessed talent... Have you heard of the King of the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bears, ranked sixth among the continent's ten great ferocious beasts? Even that bear among all bears doesn't possess ultimate metal. You can imagine how terrifying genuine ultimate metal is. Compared to it, the Bronze Hellfire Dragon's bronze power is practically a joke."

Having missed his chance at ultimate metal, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm bitterly regretted not being the Sky Dream Gold Silkworm. Then he could have fused with Lin Qing. A fine horse deserved a fine saddle!

"What are the ten great ferocious beasts? The ten strongest soul beasts? Brother Sky Dream, you have a million years of cultivation, so where do you rank?" Huo Yuhao asked innocently.

"...Shut that little mouth!"

On the battlefield between man and dragon, the Bronze Hellfire Dragon broke free of the combined restraints of the Snake-Guide Bullets and Machinery Growth. It spread its wings and soared again, gathering all its strength to bring this battle to a victorious conclusion. The frenzy of flame and the clangor of bronze filled the sky.

A ring of fire formed above the Bronze Hellfire Dragon's head, blue-green in color and patterned with blazing flame-cloud motifs. As though alive, it climbed toward the clouds layer by layer. Five blue-green rings of fire hovered overhead, their flames flowing back into them in an endless cycle.

Fire illuminated the earth. The forest floor, dry as though in a severe drought, cracked into veinlike patterns. A shockingly dense mass of bronze fire meteors hung suspended between the five rings. Each was wrapped in blue-green flames, like hundreds upon thousands of lit bronze lamps, turning the evening sky a brilliant blue-green.

The Bronze Hellfire Dragon's strongest soul skill, Bronze Purgatory!

Bronze stained with flame beneath a sky without night-those words captured this magnificent sight.

The dragon folded its wings. All five rings of fire trembled at once, and a thousand bronze meteors came howling down from the sky toward the silver-gray figure.

Whoosh-

Silver light dispersed the fierce pressure of Bronze Purgatory. Lin Qing firmly gripped two identical massive guns, their bodies long and their designs extravagant, their muzzles sculpted in the shape of roaring dragons.

The massive guns, Dragon Devourer.

All fear stemmed from insufficient firepower!

Bee Swarm had been designed to wipe out lesser enemies, while Dragon Devourer specialized in pinpoint destruction, pursuing a kill in a single strike.

The Bronze Hellfire Dragon could not help shuddering. From those two pitch-black muzzles, it sensed a lethal threat that could pierce its heart. Yet the appearance of the two Dragon Devourers was only the first step.

His first and second soul rings erupted with light. His first soul skill, Zero Generation, and his second, Machinery Growth, attached themselves to the two Dragon Devourers. The soul tool patterns engraved on their bodies extended continuously toward one another, serving as a bridge between the guns.

The boundary between the two gun bodies blurred. Machine element threaded between them, forcibly stitching the massive weapons together. Their dragon-head muzzles finished merging into a deep, dark opening.

Twin guns, modified: Dragon Devourer Cannon!

Lin Qing pulled the trigger, and a raging dragon burst from its cage.

A pillar of silver light erupted from the merged muzzle. The Dragon Devourer Cannon fired a complete silver flame dragon, every scale and feather rendered in exquisite detail. Amid dazzling silver radiance, it devoured energy from the Steel Machinery Domain. The silver dragon surged against the current, charging toward the bronze meteors falling to earth.

Boom-

The Dragon Devourer Cannon rampaged through Bronze Purgatory. With several sweeps of its silver tail, meteors burst like smashed eggs. Blue-green sparks fluttered through the air, and the residual force blasted a sea of interwoven silver and blue-green flames across the clouds.

The Bronze Hellfire Dragon desperately flew higher. It knew the Dragon Devourer Cannon's power surpassed Bronze Purgatory. Silver flames were tearing the meteors apart one by one, and it needed altitude and time to gather its power again.

As it fled, the Bronze Hellfire Dragon kept its eyes fixed on the rings of fire below and keenly spotted a figure ascending at tremendous speed.

Impossible.

The dragon shook its head in disbelief. Even its thick, bronzified scales could not endure the explosions produced by the collision of those two skills. If a soul beast's battle-tempered body dared not withstand them, how could a human's fragile flesh possibly do so?

Reality defied the Bronze Hellfire Dragon's understanding. A silver shadow shot through the blue-green rings of fire, its third soul ring shining in every direction. Machine element carried Lin Qing soaring upward. Like a silent, illusory ghost, he passed through the endlessly falling bronze fragments, pursuing the dragon at an even greater speed.

Third soul skill, Elemental Transformation.

A support soul skill that granted temporary immunity to physical attacks and reduced energy attacks by eighty percent.

It had come from an exceedingly rare Gold Element soul beast. In Lin Qing's memories, the Light-Destroying Soul Bone that Dragon God Douluo Mu En had given Wang Dong had also been obtained from a similar light-element soul beast.

Human and dragon met each other's eyes for the second time. Their positions had completely reversed, and a crisp, cool smile lifted the corners of Lin Qing's mouth.

If you couldn't smile when you wanted to win, bro's dominance simply wasn't strong enough!

When losing was impossible, there was no hiding that smile!