Soul Tool Beginnings

The Dragon Peak Sect, which had ruled Silvia City, the capital of the Silvia Kingdom, for more than a decade, was wiped out overnight. To the entire city, it was undoubtedly a massive earthquake.

Just as people endlessly speculated about the suddenly emerged Nine Stars Hall, the Hall sent people door to door to distribute money and treasures, offering condolences to families that had suffered persecution from the Dragon Peak Sect. They also crippled the Soul Power of dozens of Dragon Peak Sect disciples guilty of heinous crimes and delivered them to the victims' homes for disposal. Another great uproar swept through the populace. Countless commoners voluntarily began spreading the word for Nine Stars Hall, calling them a righteous alliance that eliminated evil for the people and upheld justice on Heaven's behalf.

As for the authorities, they had been unable to suppress even the Dragon Peak Sect, much less Nine Stars Hall, which had so easily destroyed it. Besides, Nine Stars Hall's way of doing things was clearly different from the Dragon Peak Sect's. The Dragon Peak Sect had once run rampant through the city and caused countless disturbances, but now that it had been destroyed, public order had improved considerably. The officials would have had to be insane to pick a fight with Nine Stars Hall.

After Nine Stars Hall occupied the prime feng shui land where the Dragon Peak Sect had once stood, it demolished and rebuilt the sect's gates while successively taking action to wipe out several sects that had incurred tremendous public resentment. It not only began establishing a good reputation within the Soul Master world, but also acquired enormous wealth.

However, this way of making money could not possibly be a long-term solution. For the sect's future, Xiao Yu had to create a steady, inexhaustible source of income.

In the original work, the Tang Sect's greatest source of funding had been the sale of hidden weapons. Even while at Shrek Academy, Tang San had sold five hundred sets of full hidden weapon equipment to the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, earning five million Gold Soul Coins.

However, hidden weapons had been created by Tang San and were not native products of Douluo Continent, so the system shop did not sell methods for making them. Yet Xiao Yu discovered something in the system shop that surpassed hidden weapons—the manufacture of Soul Tools.

Soul Tools were a central theme during the era of Douluo II and the fundamental reason for the decline of Tang Sect hidden weapons. They were a technological system that only became widespread on Douluo Continent after Sun Moon Continent collided with it.

But Soul Tools were not a technology exclusive to Sun Moon Continent. In fact, Douluo Continent should have possessed a Soul Tool inheritance as well. For some reason, however, it had long been lost, with only a small number of Storage Spirit Tools passed down, such as Tang San's Twenty-Four Bridges Moonlight Night.

Fortunately, the Soul Tool inheritance produced by the system was comprehensive. It included not only the crafting of Storage Spirit Tools, but also techniques for creating attack-type Soul Tools with formidable offensive power.

There were quite a few categories of Soul Tools: Close Combat Soul Tools, Ranged Soul Tools, Fixed-Charge Soul Tools, Storage Spirit Tools, Support Soul Tools, Flight Soul Tools, Defense Soul Tools, and more.

In Xiao Yu's understanding, Close Combat Soul Tools were actually somewhat similar to Tang Sect hidden weapons. The difference was that Soul Tools were powered by Soul Power, and their lethality was greater than that of Tang Sect hidden weapons.

Of course, this comparison was only with the most common Tang Sect hidden weapons. When it came to supreme hidden weapons capable of threatening Titled Douluo or even injuring gods—such as Guanyin Tears, Wrath of the Buddha Tang Lotus, and Storm Pear Blossom Needle—hidden weapons still had the advantage.

Xiao Yu suspected that the reason Tang Sect declined so rapidly during Douluo II had much to do with that Tang God King, who was always saying, "You already have a path to death," selfishly withholding these supreme hidden weapon inheritances.

Ranged Soul Tools and Fixed-Charge Soul Tools were likewise offensive Soul Tools. Ranged Soul Tools were Soul Tools that launched long-range attacks through the infusion of Soul Power. Relatively speaking, within a certain range, Close Combat Soul Tools were more powerful.

Fixed-Charge Soul Tools were a new type of Soul Tool developed by Fan Yu during the era of Douluo II, so they were not included in the Soul Tool inheritance available for exchange in the system. Their principle was simple as well: the Soul Tool and the attack weapon were divided into two parts, with the Soul Tool serving only to launch and detonate it. Their power was immense and they consumed very little Soul Power, but they were difficult to aim.

As their name implied, Storage Spirit Tools were Soul Tools that could store items. They were also the Soul Tools still being passed down on Douluo Continent.

The most typical representative of Support Soul Tools was the Milk Bottle, which could be used to restore a Soul Master's Soul Power.

Defense Soul Tools were Soul Tools with defensive capabilities, such as shields, protective gear worn on the body, and light barriers covering tournament arenas. The most common example was the protective barrier from the era of Douluo II.

Flight Soul Tools, meanwhile, could grant the ability to fly once worn and infused with Soul Power.

In Xiao Yu's plan, the sect could begin with Close Combat Soul Tools and Defense Soul Tools as its main products. These two kinds of Soul Tools were practically a blessing for support-system Soul Masters. Once word got out, why would there be any worry about sales? Especially Sect Master Ning Fengzhi, the only one among the Upper Three Sects without offensive power—once he witnessed what Soul Tools could do, Xiao Yu was not afraid he would not come knocking himself.

As for how the Soul Masters of the original Douluo Three Kingdoms were extremely hostile toward Soul Tools in Douluo II, Xiao Yu felt that rather than rejecting Soul Tools, the Soul Masters of Douluo Continent were rejecting Sun Moon Continent. The original work mentioned many times that without Soul Tools, the Soul Masters of the Sun Moon Empire simply could not be mentioned in the same breath as the Soul Masters of Douluo Continent.

Over time, this instead became an obsession for the native Soul Masters of Douluo Continent. The more clearly they understood the role Soul Tools played between the Soul Masters of the two continents, the more they wanted to prove themselves by defeating Soul Engineers of the same rank with cultivation alone, without relying on Soul Tools, thereby suppressing the Sun Moon Empire.

Naturally, the price of this was exceedingly heavy. If not for a certain God King meddling, the Sun Moon Empire would have nearly unified the original Douluo Continent through the technological advantage of Soul Tools.

But in the world of Douluo I, Sun Moon Continent had not yet collided with Douluo Continent, and Xiao Yu's Nine Stars Hall was likewise a native power of Douluo Continent. If they introduced Soul Tool technology, it would certainly not be frantically rejected by Soul Masters as it had been in Douluo II.

Otherwise, before Tang San appeared, Douluo Continent had not even possessed the concept of hidden weapons. At most, Meng Yiran had come up with oversized throwing knives, which were still a hundred thousand miles away from hidden weapons. Why had no one rejected the existence of hidden weapons?

Ning Fengzhi bought hidden weapons from Tang San to equip the disciples of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, while the Heaven Dou Empire established the Tang Family Army centered on hidden weapons. Yet no one had fiercely opposed it.

After gaining a firm foothold in the Silvia Kingdom, Xiao Yu began acting as a hands-off shopkeeper. Once he had arranged the general direction, he shut himself away to study Soul Tools, leaving most sect affairs to Mu and Black Tortoise.

Mu was the disciple of Shion, the Pope of Sanctuary. After Saga's rebellion was quelled, Dohko directed the overall situation remotely from Five Old Peaks, while most of Sanctuary's affairs were handled and controlled by Mu. Black Tortoise, meanwhile, had possessed an excellent grasp of the bigger picture during the Omega Era, delivering outstanding performances in both the Mars Arc and the Pallas Arc. With these two holding down the fort, Xiao Yu was completely at ease.