Douluo: The Gate to Heaven

"The first purple spirit ring." Song Qinghan was stunned again. Although Tuoba Wukong's spirit rings did not seem as exaggerated as Tu Nanbupo's, his first spirit ring was a thousand-year spirit ring, which was even more outrageous than Tu Nanbupo's three spirit rings.

Although Tu Nan Bupo has three spirit rings, that's within the range of a normal person. All three spirit rings are within the standard of an ordinary person. At most, Tu Nan Bupo's talent is a little stronger. However, Tuoba Wukong's purple thousand-year spirit ring is a existence that breaks the conventional limit of the first spirit ring.

Tuoba Wukong ignored Song Qinghan's surprise. His first soul ring in a thousand years was indeed surprising, but people got used to it after a while.

Tuoba Wukong continued, "My martial soul is a space-type martial soul, but my first soul skill is the Heavenly Gate, which is more of a support skill. After opening the Heavenly Gate, it can accelerate the recovery speed of a soul master's soul power and can also assist a soul master's cultivation to a certain extent. However, I am born with divine strength, and the Freshman Tournament will not restrict the performance of conventional weapons. Therefore, I have ordered a heavy shield and tentatively set myself as the heavy shield bearer in the team, mainly to protect and restrain the enemy."

This was an idea that Tuoba Wukong had when his second martial soul, the "So-I" martial soul, was first awakened. With the unity of "So-I" and "True Self," his power far surpassed that of ordinary people. Given that his first soul skill was geared towards support, he either had to complete the soul ring attachment for his second martial soul ahead of time, or he could only cultivate a skill to protect himself.

His strength far surpasses that of ordinary people, and can be considered as innate divine strength. Naturally, heavy weapons are most suitable for him. However, Tu Nan Bu Po's Tu Nan Spear is unparalleled in its offensive capabilities and is a weapon for breaking through enemy lines on the battlefield. Continuing to choose weapons such as hammers, heavy halberds, and broadswords would conflict with Tu Nan Bu Po's abilities. In addition, he has a soul tool for ranged attacks. Therefore, in the end, Tuoba Wu Kong chose a heavy shield.

As he spoke, a giant shield as tall as a door appeared in Tuoba Wukong's hand. It was coated with a layer of black metal and made from the trunk of a thousand-year-old plant-type soul beast. Although it was not a soul tool, its design was quite ingenious and had a certain shock absorption effect.

Because it was covered with a layer of metal, the giant shield was astonishingly thick, reaching 20 centimeters, and therefore its weight was also quite astonishing, weighing over 200 kilograms.

The heavy shield also boasts impressive defensive properties.

Tuoba Wukong used this giant shield to hold out against Tu Nan Bupo for more than ten minutes before finally being defeated.

It should be noted that the Tu Nan Spear wielded by Tu Nan Bu Po is renowned throughout the world for its domineering attacks, and Tu Nan Bu Po is also a three-ring powerful offensive type Battle Soul Master.

Song Qinghan was also a Soul Master, and identifying metals was a fundamental skill for Soul Masters. Of course, Song Qinghan could tell that this giant shield was not solid, but the fine iron on the outside was definitely not light. He couldn't even lift the shield.

Tuoba Wukong was already tall, and holding a giant shield made him look like a brute who resembled a small mountain, exuding a sense of oppression.

Finally, Song Qinghan revealed his martial soul, a pure white demonic wolf. The demonic wolf merged with Song Qinghan's body, and Song Qinghan's hair and eyebrows instantly turned ice white, with sharp claws shooting out from his ten fingers.

Song Qinghan said, "My martial soul is the Frost Wolf, an ice-attribute soul beast that is mostly born in the far north and is good at speed and endurance. However, my goal is to become a soul master, so my first soul ring is a skill that amplifies attributes, the Frost Bloodline, which can reduce the activity of my soul power, extend the duration of soul power use, and reduce the cooldown time of a certain soul tool's array."

Song Qinghan spoke with some guilt. His first soul skill, when placed on a soul master, was indeed a divine skill, especially the ability of soul power to reduce the cooldown time of soul tools. This was an ability that all soul masters dreamed of. You must know that some soul tools, while incredibly powerful, would heat up after use and could only be used again after cooling down, otherwise they would explode.

Song Qinghan's skill can greatly reduce the cooldown time of the soul tool, which can not only extend the service life of the soul tool, but also increase the attack frequency of the soul tool. With just this one skill, Song Qinghan can become an excellent soul master.

However, this skill does not significantly improve Song Qinghan's own combat power. He is not born with superhuman strength and cannot rely on external objects to enhance his strength like Tuoba Wukong.

"My soul power is level nineteen, which is a little higher than Tuoba's, but my combat strength is far inferior to that of Tuoba and Tu Nan," Song Qinghan said, lowering his head.

Upon hearing Song Qinghan's soul power, Tuoba Wukong was also taken aback, as level nineteen was not low among freshmen.

Tuoba Wukong also saw Song Qinghan's future potential and said, "It's okay, Lao Song. This time, the two of us will carry you. Your abilities will only be fully displayed after you are equipped with a soul tool. Maybe at that time, you will be the most powerful among all of us, and we will have to rely on you to protect us."

"Although you can't fully utilize your abilities for the time being, we still need to maintain teamwork. After all, you are a beast spirit master who is close to level 20. With your spirit attached, your combat power is no weaker than some ordinary support-type spirit masters. We can familiarize ourselves with each other's abilities and teamwork, and strive to achieve a synergy greater than the sum of its parts during the competition."

In a three-on-three match, while individual strength is important, teamwork is even more crucial.

A well-coordinated and experienced squad may well be able to defeat enemies of a higher level.

Although they were a temporary team, Tuoba Wukong and Tu Nanbupo were roommates who spent a lot of time together and had sparred with each other many times. They knew each other well and their teamwork was much better than that of ordinary mixed teams.

Suddenly, Tu Nan Bu Po looked at Song Qing Han and suggested, "Old Song, although soul tools are not allowed in this competition, crossbows are not included. You can equip yourself with one or two powerful crossbows from the army. They might be able to catch you off guard at crucial moments."

"At that time, the three of us will form a fairly standard military squad, with one attacking, one defending, and one providing ranged support. I can teach you about military teamwork. When we are in a group of three, our combat effectiveness will be much stronger than if we were fighting alone."

"That's right, crossbows! How come I didn't think of that? I'm a Soul Master, and after I can use Soul Tools, I can also use long-range Soul Tools to replace crossbows for long-range attacks. This tactic will not become obsolete in the future." Song Qinghan's eyes lit up when he heard Tu Nan Bupo's suggestion.

The crossbow can be considered a lower-level alternative to the soul tool. Although its power is not as great as the soul tool, it can make up for its lack of combat power to a certain extent.

After using a crossbow, he will not be considered a burden to the team.

Tuoba Wukong was also pleased and said, "Tu Nan, as expected of you, you actually came up with such a good idea. Now our team is fully equipped, with ranged attackers, melee fighters, and defenders. You are good at training troops, so Lao Song and I will hand over command to you from now on."

Specialization is key; professionals should do what they are good at.

Tuoba Wukong understood this principle.

When it comes to teamwork, no profession is more familiar than seasoned soldiers. The Tu Nan family, from which Tu Nan Bu Po comes, is a military family and has always been the spearhead of the Tian Dou Empire's fight against the Xing Luo Empire. Tu Nan Bu Po is the perfect person to train their teamwork.

In the following days, with Tu Nan Bu Po serving as their instructor, the three of them gradually familiarized themselves with some basic military formations. Although they did not experience a qualitative change in their strength like martial soul combination skills or even martial soul fusion skills, after a whole day, the three of them also developed an iron-blooded aura of strict discipline. Their words and actions were far more coordinated than those of those makeshift teams.

The requirement for trainees to form their own groups is actually to take into account that most trainees are not very familiar with each other. In order to avoid situations where trainees have no chemistry, can't stand each other, or even drag each other down, trainees are required to form their own teams.

Even though Zhou Yi forcibly arranged the groups, it was actually the most reasonable combination made after considering the relationships between the trainees.

However, even so, since the dormitory is shared by two people, the most common situation among the freshmen is that Tuoba Wukong and Tu Nanbupo are already familiar with each other. A third person still needs to rely on their own strength and character to persuade them, and it takes time to become proficient.

This is actually a major test for the new students.

The assessment focuses on interpersonal relationships.

Even if someone is very strong, if they have poor interpersonal skills and cannot unite their teammates, they may still be eliminated. Such a person is not what Shrek Academy needs.

Among the many new teams, those that can quickly integrate, become familiar with each other's skills, and develop a certain level of teamwork are extremely rare.

With just this first step, the Shrek Three Fiends team has already taken a step ahead of others.

The following afternoon.

The freshman competition has officially begun.

The competition was held in the assessment area, a vast playground divided into more than fifty zones, each with an area of ​​more than 200 square meters. It wasn't large, but the attack range of low-level Soul Masters' Soul Skills was limited, so more than 200 square meters was barely enough.

With over 300 groups and 50 venues, all the matches can be completed in about three rounds.

Since today is the first day of the assessment, and there is only one afternoon, each group will only have one match to allow the candidates to get used to the pace. On the second day, this number will increase to four matches, two in the morning and two in the afternoon, and on the third day, there will be five matches.

High-intensity matches test each team's endurance and adaptability. This is a benefit and compensation for teams with support and food-type Soul Masters, since food-type and support-type Soul Masters are definitely not as useful as battle-type Soul Masters in low-level direct combat.

By the end of the three days, most of the teams will be eliminated, leaving only 150 teams. The top 64 teams in terms of win rate will advance to the next stage of the knockout rounds.

Tuoba Wukong and his two-person team were assigned to the seventh district for combat. There were five other teams in the same district, and they would not be assigned to other districts until they had finished fighting all five teams.