Douluo: The Gate to Heaven

"I'm missing a weapon!?" Huang Chutian's eyes lit up when he heard Tuoba Wukong's words.

After losing to Tuoba Wukong last time, he wondered what exactly he had done wrong.

He had this idea in mind during this battle, but he always felt there was a veil between them and couldn't quite understand it.

With a word of guidance from Tuoba Wukong, he suddenly realized that he was indeed lacking a powerful weapon.

Tuoba Wukong was born with superhuman strength, but his strength was not necessarily much stronger than that of the man with the Great Ape Martial Soul. However, all of his attacks could not break through Tuoba Wukong's defense because of the heavy shield in Tuoba Wukong's hand.

If he also had a weapon of the same weight, even if he still might not be able to break through Tuoba Wukong's defense, his destructive power and lethality would definitely increase greatly when facing other Soul Masters of the same level.

Originally, Huang Chutian held the deeply ingrained belief that soul tools and weapons were merely external objects. However, after being defeated twice by Tuoba Wukong, Huang Chutian had no choice but to re-evaluate the power of soul tools.

A virtuous person is not born different, but is good at making use of things.

Perhaps, soul tools are not without their merits.

Seeing Huang Chutian's look of sudden realization, Tuoba Wukong smiled, turned around and walked off the stage. He had only given a casual reminder, and whether Huang Chutian took it to heart was his own business.

The battle lasted less than twenty minutes, and the entire morning's assessment had only been going on for less than an hour, with the afternoon still a long way off.

Tuoba Wukong is a man of action. Once he decided to forge a soul tool shield, he didn't delay and went straight to the Shrek Academy library.

Shrek Academy Library is shared by both the Martial Soul Department and the Soul Guidance Department. It not only contains various books on Martial Souls and Soul Beasts, as well as records of the customs, traditions, and strange events of the Douluo Continent, but also a considerable amount of theory on Soul Guidance technology.

The so-called soul tools in this world are nothing more than two things: the tool embryo and the soul guidance array pattern. Once you master the inscription of the soul guidance array pattern, the tool embryos of most soul tools are more or less the same.

For shield-type soul tools, the array patterns that need to be inscribed should mainly focus on sturdiness, shock absorption, and elemental immunity. In order to deal with mental soul masters, a mental immunity type array pattern can also be added. In addition, a gravity array pattern to increase weight can also be added.

Tuoba Wukong was unwilling to be just a tortoise shell to be manipulated. The shield, with its astonishing weight, could also become a weapon, using its massive force to directly ram and crush the opponent.

With this in mind, Tuoba Wukong retrieved one magic array after another from the Shrek Academy's books, took out sheets of draft paper from his spatial ring, and quickly began sketching and drawing.

Finding suitable soul-guiding arrays is only the foundation; the more important thing is how to combine them, inscribe them on the shield, and prevent these arrays from conflicting.

What Tuoba Wukong needs to do is almost entirely design a brand new close-range defensive soul tool.

The amount of work required is nearly ten times that of crafting an ordinary soul tool, and it cannot be completed overnight.

Moreover, a level-two soul tool was not what Tuoba Wukong wanted.

Tuoba Wukong's goal is to forge a level three heavy shield soul tool on his own before the end of his first year of study.

By the end of his first year, his dual-body soul power should have both broken through to level 20. The fused soul power would be in no way inferior to a Soul Master of level 30 or above, and he would have no problem using a level 3 soul tool.

With the combined soul power of his two bodies, Tuoba Wukong's soul power is twice that of an ordinary soul master. As a soul master, his talent is also unparalleled. Not only does he have twice the firepower output of ordinary people, but he can also use and refine some higher-level soul tools beyond his own level.

The classification of soul tools is not only based on power and defense, but also on the consumption of soul power. For example, a second-ring Great Soul Master cannot use a regular third-level soul tool, or can only use it with difficulty. Neither the power nor the number of uses will reach the level that a third-level soul tool should have.

Of course, there are some soul tools that can be used regardless of level, but without exception, these soul tools are the best of the best, each one is priceless, far beyond what Tuoba Wukong can currently afford.

Moreover, the metals needed to refine a level-three soul tool are also quite valuable.

After enrolling in school and incurring various miscellaneous expenses, Tuoba Wukong had about a few hundred gold coins left. This number was not small, and for ordinary people it would be an astronomical figure, but for a Soul Master it was nothing. Sometimes a piece of ordinary rare metal could cost tens of thousands of gold coins.

Crafting a level 3 soul tool, especially a large close-range heavy shield soul tool, would require thousands of gold coins in material costs, not even counting the losses from failures.

Moreover, muskets also need to be updated and iterated.

From the moment he entered this world, the musket was Tuoba Wukong's greatest asset. Without the musket, Tuoba Wukong would have become the thousand-year-old purple sable's food the moment he encountered it, not to mention the various opportunities that followed.

At first, Tuoba Wukong entered this world only to pursue the path of a Soul Master. The musket was simply a replica, which was good because it was simple and sufficient. Its power was not outstanding, and its convenience was not good either. There were many areas that could be improved.

For example, an acceleration array could be inscribed inside the gun barrel, and the ignition device could use soul power to ignite the gun...

"All of this requires money. My savings are simply not enough. It seems I'll need to work to earn money for the next while," Tuoba Wukong muttered to himself.

Soul tools can make money quickly, but thousands of gold coins are not a small amount. If you want to improve yourself, you can't do without the support of money.

"Maybe I can squeeze some money out of the Shrek Academy's Soul Guidance Department," Tuoba Wukong thought. Perhaps because Tuoba Wukong refused to sign the Shrek Academy's Soul Guidance Department training contract, even though he was a special student in the Soul Guidance Department, he didn't even know where the door to the Soul Guidance Department was, and had never stepped into the Soul Guidance Department.

The morning passed quickly, and the concept of the heavy shield soul tool was still only scratching the surface. Tuoba Wukong had to clear his mind, have lunch in the cafeteria, do some light exercise, and wait for the draw for the afternoon's competition.

After a morning of eliminations, only eight teams remained in the knockout stage.

There were very few teams left participating in the lottery, and many of them were acquaintances of Tuoba Wukong and his group.

Huo Yuhao's team, Xie Huanyue's team, and Ning Tian's team are all included, along with Dai Huabin's team and three other teams composed of Great Soul Masters, making a total of eight teams.

Half of these eight teams have Soul Masters.

It's hard to say whether Tuoba Wukong was lucky or unlucky, but he encountered another old rival, the Evil Illusion Moon Squad.

This is actually quite normal. Due to the deliberate targeting by certain individuals, most of the ten teams that Tuoba Wukong and his team encountered in the qualifying rounds were capable of advancing to the knockout stage.

As the knockout stage has progressed to this point, these teams have basically all persevered, so it's normal to encounter them one after another.

Stepping onto the arena, Xie Huanyue looked at Tu Nanbupo with deep apprehension. It was Tu Nanbupo's terrifying Tu Nan Spear attack that almost prevented his team, led by a dignified three-ring Soul Master, from even making it into the knockout stage.

Although Xie Huanyue easily defeated his opponents in all three knockout matches, regaining some confidence, when he faced Tu Nanbupo again, the fear he had felt at the hands of "fighting spirit" quickly took root and sprouted like a seed.

The evil moon transformed into a sphere and soared into the sky, hovering in the air like an inflatable ball.

This time, he was no longer as fearless as before. He unleashed his second soul skill, quickly extending his arms to grab the belts of the Luo Tianlong and Luo Tianba brothers. He then swung the brothers up, using the elasticity of his rubber arms to propel Luo Tianlong and Luo Tianba's bodies towards Tuoba Wukong, who was swinging a giant shield.

Luo Tianlong and Luo Tianba unleashed their soul skills, causing a pair of incredibly sharp mantis guillotines to grow from their hands. A cyan light swirled around the mantis guillotines, giving them astonishing cutting and destructive power.

Unfortunately, they encountered Tuoba Wukong.

Agility-based Soul Masters are effective against Control-based and Support-based Soul Masters, but they are also countered by Power-based and Defense-based Soul Masters. In fact, to a certain extent, Agility-based Soul Masters, who pursue burst damage for a one-hit kill, are almost completely countered when facing Defense-based Soul Masters.

Although Tuoba Wukong is a Soul Master, his current battle tactics are typical of a defensive Soul Master, with his giant shield proving indestructible.

Xie Huanyue's second soul skill allows his limbs to be as long and short as clay, and as hard and soft as clay. Like a vine connecting Luo Tianba and Luo Tianlong, he can control them to launch attacks from all sorts of incredible directions and angles, while he sits in the center.

It must be said that after abandoning the powerful defensive capabilities of the traditional Elephant Martial Soul, Xie Huanyue has indeed gained a more flexible and versatile fighting style, which is closer to the fighting style of a control-type Soul Master.

Unfortunately, it's still the same old story.

This tactic might indeed be very effective against ordinary teams, but they were facing a combination of Tuoba Wukong and Tu Nan Bupo.

The giant shield in Tuoba Wukong's hand was omnipresent. No matter how tricky the Luo Tianlong and Luo Tianba brothers' attack angles were, they could never cross the line and hurt Song Qinghan and Tu Nanbupo behind Tuoba Wukong.

When Luo Tianba and Luo Tianlong were almost in despair facing Tuoba Wukong's impenetrable defenses, the soaring Tu Nan Bupo completely ignited the seed of fear buried in their hearts...

Bang, bang, bang—

Three consecutive impacts rang out, and Xie Huanyue and the other two were blasted off the stage.

Tuoba Wukong's squad has won.