Douluo Continent: Ink Bamboo as a Cauldron to Break Through Ten Thousand Heavens

"Alright, you've done a great job with your self-study these past few days! That's enough for tonight. When you get back, keep up your soul power training. You should know that whether you're a Soul Master or a Soul Instructor, soul power is fundamental." Chen Cheng's eyelids seemed heavy with sleep. He patiently explained all of Huo Yuhao's questions, but he had just finished deep meditation and hadn't had a proper rest. "You should have heard a little about my identity as a 'diviner.' I can see that your talent as a Soul Master is no less than your talent as a Soul Instructor, and it might even show itself very soon..."

"The freshman assessment is in a little over two months, and then those two discover they have a 100% Martial Soul Fusion—isn't that an extraordinary talent? Tianmeng will even take them to see Ice Emperor during the holidays. Judging by the luck of these chosen ones, there shouldn't be any problems. But we can try to help him out then, since he was late in the original story. Of course, that was because the Soul Guidance Department didn't want anyone to join them, which is why they were so tense. If they had released Ice Emperor's Martial Soul on the spot, wouldn't several people be begging him to join their side?"

Huo Yuhao was very grateful. He knew that Chen Cheng had just finished deep meditation and came to guide him, and that he had been introduced to the world by Chen Cheng. Of course, he also knew that Chen Cheng did not have any wealthy family background, and had even heard that he came from a small village and was an orphan like himself. Knowing this, he naturally had great respect for Chen Cheng and regarded him as a role model.

It could be said that after leaving the White Tiger Duke's mansion, Chen Cheng was the first ray of sunshine in Huo Yuhao's dark life. In Huo Yuhao's eyes, even after only one meeting, Chen Cheng was willing to protect him, and later, feeling guilty for not allowing him to absorb a better soul ring, he gave him the invaluable Xuan Shui Pill and helped him improve his talent. Moreover, Chen Cheng was his mentor, always firmly believing in his talent! He helped him in every aspect of life, cultivation, and the path of his cultivation. If it weren't for Tianmeng's constant opposition in his spiritual sea, and the old man who had turned into a gray bead reminding him, he probably would have already revealed all his secrets to Chen Cheng! But this only made him feel more guilty. Chen Cheng had helped and trusted him so much, yet he was constantly on guard against him?

"Brother Chen Cheng, I..."

"Alright, alright, it's getting late. Now that we have the Soul Ascension Pill, let's hurry up and start cultivating! Don't end up not even reaching level 20 and getting kicked out of the academy!"

Chen Cheng pushed Huo Yuhao out and locked the door. He then fell into a deep sleep as soon as he lay down on the table.

"Hmm? Is this compensation for me? I was too tired yesterday and didn't notice?"

Upon waking up, Chen Cheng noticed his rare metal warehouse was a bit messy, assuming Huo Yuhao hadn't tidied it up after using the rare metals recently. But after counting the quantity, he was surprised to find that the amount was a full third more than before!

"I wonder who I owe this to? Oh well, you can never have too many rare metals! This gives me at least five more chances to try and improve. I can incorporate the inspiration I gained this time to enhance the protective capabilities of my invincible shield and defensive soul tools! Besides, I originally planned to spend a lot of time upgrading my equipment before the competition by making a profit from the price difference. Now I just need to sell the first few finished products!"

"I used to think people from the Martial Soul system were stingy, but now I think they're actually pretty nice!"

Chen Cheng glanced at the time with delight; it was already lunchtime! Eating is the most important thing in the world! Chen Cheng immediately rushed to the cafeteria and found that Bei Bei and the others had set up a small table and gathered together again.

"Hey you guys, aren't you afraid of being punished for setting up such an unconventional table?" Chen Cheng unceremoniously took a chair from his storage soul tool, sat down, and put the food he had just bought on the table.

"Dude, are you an idiot?! Buying so much!" Xu Sanshi couldn't help but complain when he saw Chen Cheng had bought six dishes and five portions of rice. You see, Chen Cheng was the most steadfast supporter of the theory that "eating high-grade ingredients helps with cultivation," so the ingredients he bought could be called rare treasures if they were tens of thousands of years old! Especially things like earth dragon scales, heavenly snake meat, and this rice, which was also crystal rice; an ordinary person would feel full after eating half a bowl.

Chen Cheng ignored them and started showing off his food. Theoretically, he hadn't eaten for over a week, and he slept until noon last night without having breakfast. In Chen Cheng's opinion, what he bought now was entirely due to price constraints.

Seeing that Chen Cheng was only eating, everyone knew he was starving, and they resumed their previous conversation. Huo Yuhao was the first to get up and say goodbye; he was now treasuring his time and trying to cultivate whenever he could. Following him, Xiao Xiao and the other girls, including Wang Dong, also left.

  

"Hehehe, Chen Cheng, you're my brother, you're my real brother!" Xu Sanshi grinned and leaned closer. "Nannan is even willing to eat lunch with me now! Although she still doesn't like sitting next to me, this is a big improvement!"

"Get lost, stop blocking my way while I'm eating!" Chen Cheng shoved Xu Sanshi's face away irritably, then took the food that Xu Sanshi had been blocking and started eating. "I haven't eaten for over a week, bro. I don't have time to help you with your love life. Just one sentence: 'Be yourself!'"

"No problem, bro! I'll do whatever you say!" Xu Sanshi pretended to be serious, leaned forward and bowed. His comical and exaggerated movements almost made Chen Cheng spit his food in Xu Sanshi's face.

After another commotion, the three of them finally finished lunch, bickering and joking around.

"Chen Cheng, your soul power only increased by one level during this deep meditation, so what you comprehended must be quite extraordinary, right?" The three were walking side-by-side chatting when Bei Bei suddenly stopped and asked curiously, "How about we go spar again now?"

Chen Cheng waved his hand to refuse, then patted his round belly and said, "Forget it, I'm too full. I shouldn't do any strenuous exercise. Besides, I just had a new inspiration and I'm planning to try it out at the Soul Guidance Department. But the thing I've grasped..."

As he spoke, Chen Cheng summoned his martial spirit and released two pillars. They didn't look particularly thick or tall; they were just something Chen Cheng had casually created.

"You two give this bamboo a couple of rubs and see how it feels."

Beibei struck first, his right hand sweeping horizontally, striking the bamboo with a whooshing sound. Even without using his martial soul or Tang Sect's secret techniques, his strength as a power-attack type beast soul master was extraordinary. However, this powerful blow did not break the seemingly fragile bamboo. After bending and tilting in one direction, it spun in a specific arc and struck Beibei's arm.

"So sneaky! Chen Cheng, are you cheating? You can play with bamboo like this?" Xu Sanshi kept tapping the bamboo with his fingers and couldn't help but ask.

Beibei and Xu Sanshi were both shocked, but while Beibei was staring at the bamboo in thought, Xu Sanshi was making slanderous remarks.

"This is what I've just learned, you could call it a technique. It suits my martial soul quite well. By learning and utilizing the original characteristics of bamboo, I can neutralize attacks and counterattack by deflecting force and using the opponent's force against them. However, it is still just bamboo, so it should still be countered by elemental soul skills."

Upon hearing this, Beibei summoned its martial spirit to release an electric current. Sure enough, it only lasted a little longer than a normal bamboo before being burst by the electric current.

As for Xu Sanshi, he was even less polite. The Xuanming Shield had water and earth attributes, and then this guy immediately used Xuanming Shock on another small bamboo. Even though the small bamboo had a standard force-dissipating action, it still couldn't withstand the pressure and collapsed when faced with the act of using a soul skill without any martial ethics.

"That's a very good insight!" Beibei nodded in approval. "With this understanding, given the right opportunity, you might be able to forge your own path completely."

"Alright, alright, enough said, I'm going to go tinker with the soul tool now, bye-bye!" Chen Cheng finished his demonstration and turned to leave.

"Hiss, no wonder the invincible shield and defensive soul tools all look the same. Changing their form and structure is definitely not as simple as I thought." He lay back in his chair with his eyes closed, grabbed the latest draft on the table, crumpled it into a ball, and threw it into the trash can.

"The invincible shield is essentially an energy shield converted from soul power, used to withstand attacks. However, all the invincible shields I've seen so far are spherical. Based on my experience in manufacturing them, it's still very difficult to change the structure and form of energy." He lifted one leg and rested it on the edge of the table, leaning back and tilting the chair back, rocking it repeatedly. "As for defensive soul tools, the forging module of Douluo Continent III hasn't been unlocked yet, so the idea of ​​forging Captain America's shield won't work. And so far, none of the rare metals discovered seem to be like vibranium from the comics, capable of absorbing various kinetic and energetic substances. So, we can only focus on structural design. But my martial soul's resilience and force absorption seem to be inherent properties of bamboo itself. Can this really be used in soul tools?"

Chen Cheng devised a bamboo ball and tossed it back and forth in the air, trying dozens of different methods, but he couldn't even pass the theoretical data test.

"Ugh, this is so annoying. There's no way to pass the time in this damn Douluo Continent. No wonder Emperor Roselle from next door wanted to implement all sorts of reforms after he transmigrated. It's probably not just about digesting the magic potion and becoming the Black Emperor. Maybe relieving boredom is the bigger reason? Yeah, if my roommates who always go to play soccer transmigrated here, wouldn't they be bored to death without soccer to play with? I actually miss the way they were when they stayed up all night watching the World Cup in the dorm, all that energy they had..."

While thinking about it, Chen Cheng simply got up from the chair and then used a bamboo strip to make a soccer ball in his hand.

"Well, I used to be a complete couch potato who hated sports, so this is probably what a soccer ball should look like. But you can't entirely blame me, can you? It's been over a decade, and we haven't even seen a real soccer ball in the world. The fact that we've managed to make one look somewhat decent is pretty impressive!"

Looking at this sphere, which would have been a laughing stock in the park in his previous life and could barely be identified as a soccer ball, Chen Cheng felt a surge of frustration again.

He threw the football to the ground, ready to smash this embarrassing thing with a kick. But unexpectedly, when Chen Cheng stepped on it, he stumbled and almost fell over.

"Hmm? I just used bamboo strips to create a spherical shape, mimicking the form of a soccer ball. But it's not elastic like rubber, nor is it filled with gas in a sealed space to achieve elasticity. How could it react like this?"

As Chen Cheng pondered this, he pulled up a chair and sat down at the table. He restored the crooked object to its original state before it was destroyed, and then applied pressure from all directions. It was indeed able to withstand the pressure through a method similar to force relief.

"We still need to try other materials to rule out the possibility that my martial spirit is causing the problem."

Thinking this, Chen Cheng grabbed a piece of metal that Huo Yuhao had left over from his practice and carved the structure of the sphere from before onto it. Then he exerted force from various angles again and surprisingly got a similar response.

"Then the structure of this football must be stable! Wow, now I understand what Newton meant by 'standing on the shoulders of giants.' It feels great to pick up where others left off!"

Chen Cheng was overjoyed and wanted to apply this discovery to the design of the invincible shield and the defensive soul tool. However, he was both happy and worried. He was happy that the defensive soul tool should be successful, but the invincible shield would most likely be difficult to develop.

Defensive soul tools are physical structures, relying more on specific designs and manufacturing processes to forge rare metals into a protective state. They are then stored in a standby state, activated by injecting soul power when needed. Therefore, altering the final activation structure of a defensive soul tool is entirely feasible. Theoretically, by increasing protective power through structural changes, the amount of rare metal used could be further reduced, making it lighter, faster to activate, and more energy-efficient!

So how do you create an invincible shield? Again, it's in energy form. By triggering an internal core array, soul power is converted into a defensive energy shield. To ultimately release a structured energy shield, I shudder to think about how many core arrays to design, or how complicated the construction would be!