Leaving the VIP room, Soul Engineer Number 98 came to Soul Engineer Number 96 and subconsciously looked back, whispering: "Big brother, that kid sitting in the wheelchair gives me a feeling of apprehension."
Number 96 nodded and said: "The people around him are probably not weak. He is likely a disciple of some big family. From now on, no one is allowed to cause trouble. Don't forget our task. Let's go." The last sentence was naturally said to his guards.
The Hongchen siblings entered the golden hall. Huo Yuhao was pushed by Nana to watch the battle. Under Chen An's special arrangement, several people were guided by the staff along the side to a dark corner at one end of the competition stage.
Although there were no seats here, they could actually see everything on the competition stage more closely. This arrangement by Chen An was obviously quite thoughtful.
On the competition stage again, the Hongchen siblings were arranged in the corner. With Huo Yuhao's instructions to advance gradually to win the final championship, this time they planned to hide their clumsiness and put away their dazzling brilliance.
"Half an hour to an hour, we bet ten thousand gold soul coins, odds three to one." Huo Yuhao instructed Nana in a low voice.
Nana nodded to Huo Yuhao and went out. Huo Yuhao communicated briefly with Bibi Dong and began to focus his attention on the soul tool production table.
Soul Engineers Number 96 and Number 98 were both dressed in black soul engineer robes. With ordinary looks, they were not easy to attract too much attention.
Soon, Chen An's voice rang out in the whole venue.
"Ladies and gentlemen! Very happy, the second round of our competition's main event is about to begin! Please keep quiet and give our powerful soul engineers a quiet environment for soul tool production. Since the number of people is still relatively large in this round, there are still soul engineers completing production below the stage. Therefore, the whole process is still silent. Those who make noise will be cleared out. Okay, now I announce the rules of this round..."
Listening to Chen An announcing the rules, the Hongchen siblings had carefully browsed the materials prepared on the competition stage.
Compared with the previous round, the materials in this round were undoubtedly much richer.
There were as many as ten kinds of rare metals and more than twenty kinds of ordinary metals.
The only problem was that the weight of each metal did not exceed two kilograms. In other words, no matter what Level 4 soul tool was chosen to be made, unless bringing one's own materials, it was impossible to make large soul tools.
Moreover, Chen An added in the last sentence of announcing the rules that for the fairness of the competition, every soul engineer could only use these metals prepared by the organizer for production. After the soul tool was made, it would be weighed immediately to ensure no cheating behavior.
For this practice of the three major underground forces, Huo Yuhao still appreciated it quite a bit. Don't look at them as disgraceful usually, but this principle of fairness was maintained quite well.
"Okay, soul engineers, please prepare! Competition, start now, timing starts. Timing supervisors in place—"
Because it involved gambling, timing appeared very important. There were actually as many as ten people responsible for timing.
Including civilian representatives, nobles, soul masters, soul engineers, and some representative figures from other industries. Ensuring no one cheated as much as possible.
Huo Yuhao watched leisurely as the siblings each took a piece of familiar metal and put it into the shaping soul tool. He also paid attention to Number 96 and Number 98 at the same time. Now he didn't need to use his eyes to clearly grasp every movement of theirs.
The movements of Soul Engineers Number 96 and Number 98 were both very fast. Each took a piece of metal and started production. Their proficiency made Huo Yuhao ashamed. Mmhmm, better than him.
They not only moved skillfully but also had a great sense of rhythm. Fragments were not messy. Not only looked calm, but their hands were terrifyingly stable. Every movement was very precise. Most importantly, they didn't use the auxiliary tools on the soul tool production table, but each took out a carving knife and started carving directly.
Kong Deming once said that truly powerful soul engineers didn't trust tool assistance much. They were more willing to complete everything by themselves.
Huo Yuhao was attracted by the carving knives in the hands of these two soul engineers at this time.
In the hand of the relatively steady Soul Engineer Number 96, he held that dark red Ranked Carving Knife. The carving knife itself didn't look made of metal. Because the closer to the sharp edge, the thinner the carving knife became. So, this carving knife gave a sense of gradation from dark red to fire red, then to light red and even transparent, very peculiar.
Its main body was like carved from some kind of jade. On one side of the carving knife, there were patches of cloud patterns extending downwards. During the carving process, these cloud patterns seemed to come alive under the injection of soul power, making the sharp edge of the carving knife faintly emit a layer of faint blade light.
The blade light was not strong and had to be looked at carefully to see. But just because of this inconspicuous blade light, the carving knife itself became extremely sharp. Hard metal under its carving was simply as easy as carving tofu.
On the other side, the carving knife in the hand of Soul Engineer Number 98 was also very unusual. The dark green carving knife was obviously a size larger than ordinary carving knives. There seemed to be rust stains faintly on it, but not like real rust stains, instead appearing very simple and magnificent. There was a dragon-shaped relief on each side. When the carving knife operated, a slight dragon roar even came from the blade edge.
With every cut he made, the metal surface carved by it would have an extra layer of cyan, then disappear quickly. Vaguely, there seemed to be wind attribute fluctuations.
Carving Knife Ranking List was a list that all soul engineers paid most attention to. Over the years, it gradually formed a scale.
Huo Yuhao remembered that there were a total of one hundred Ranked Carving Knives, composed of the best carving knives on the whole continent.
They also had ranking orders, but more were abilities with little difference and unique characteristics. Like the carving knife once named Spirit Devourer in Huo Yuhao's hand was one of them.
Only the one in his hand, after being baptized by Electrolux's necromancy, never competed for ranking in the Ranked Carving Knives again.
Ranked Carving Knives were evaluated once every ten years. Carving knives appearing on the continent within ten years would be compared with the records of the one hundred carving knives of the previous session. Winners would be listed among them.
Moreover, the Carving Knife Ranking List was very authoritative, jointly evaluated by nine big shots in the soul engineer world. Among them, the other three countries each had one Level 8 Soul Engineer selected, and the remaining six were all Level 9 Soul Engineers from the Sun Moon Empire.
Thus, it could be seen how powerful the Sun Moon Empire was in the world of soul engineers. More than seventy Ranked Carving Knives were in the Sun Moon Empire. Ranked Carving Knives were priceless treasures. Everyone was proud to obtain a Ranked Carving Knife.
Kong Deming mentioned to Huo Yuhao that the most powerful thing about Ranked Carving Knives was that they all had their own characteristics, even spirituality. When making soul tools, especially making core arrays, they could make the produced soul tools attached with characteristics belonging to the carving knife itself, thereby producing abilities surpassing the level of the soul tool itself.
Some Ranked Carving Knives could make soul tool production easy, possessing powerful metal cutting ability. Some Ranked Carving Knives could add attributes to soul tools.
Under various circumstances, how obvious was the advantage of soul engineers possessing carving knives in soul tool production!
Of course, the more powerful the Ranked Carving Knife, the rarer the manufacturing process and materials.
More than one-third of the Ranked Carving Knives on the continent were already irreproducible. Another one-third theoretically had the possibility of reproduction, but actually almost impossible.
For more than a quarter, the manufacturing methods were lost. Thus, it could be seen how high the value of a Ranked Carving Knife was.
Now even at the highest level auctions on the continent, Ranked Carving Knives were rarely seen. Once appearing, it would immediately cause a scramble.
Just past half of the half an hour, Number 96 and Number 98 put away their Ranked Carving Knives successively, and each handed in a soul tool.
Next, as long as they advanced in the soul tool power test, then this earliest completion time would be fixed.
Closely following were the Hongchen siblings, who handed in their works successively along with the vast majority of soul engineers.
Number 96 and Number 98 who handed in works first had already left. Their soul tool power had been tested. Far higher than the average value of ordinary Level 4 soul tools, advancing was a sure thing.
Although the Hongchen siblings advanced, they were unremarkable.
Huo Yuhao also completed the purpose of this trip. He didn't just watch the competition under the stage. His spiritual link also unknowingly invaded the consciousness of many spectators under the stage and applied some means.
Of course, the appearance of the holders of those two Ranked Carving Knives was still a considerable gain for Huo Yuhao. As long as it was confirmed that they would still participate in this timeline, Huo Yuhao naturally had ten thousand ways to get the carving knives in their hands.
Before leaving the Green unripe Hotel, Chen An sent someone to deliver a message to Huo Yuhao, telling him that starting from the next round, the competition would become fierce. Soul engineers would have one-on-one competitions. There would be confrontation. Moreover, in the next round of competition, he would no longer be the chief referee. Higher level soul engineers would be sent from above to guard.
"Yuhao, do we have to pretend to be pigs to eat tigers again?" Out of the Green unripe Hotel, Meng Hongchen muttered dissatisfiedly.
"Money, rare metals, are all things we urgently need." Huo Yuhao chuckled: "Although I can rob openly, that will surely cause turmoil. It wouldn't be good if noticed by that Buddha." Saying that, he pointed to the sky with his finger.
Xiao Hongchen already understood what kind of existence the opponents Huo Yuhao faced all the way were. He patted his sister's shoulder with a solemn face, giving silent comfort.
"Sorry..." Meng Hongchen looked at Huo Yuhao's pale face, thought of what Huo Yuhao had been doing during this time, and had to apologize.
Huo Yuhao waved his hand. They were at the age of youthful vigor, normal to have flamboyant personalities. Then he turned to look at Nana: "Our loss in betting should have been noticed by some people, right?"
Nana nodded: "Master, I deliberately let them see it. They now think we are a very promising fat sheep."
"Fat sheep?" Huo Yuhao chuckled, but the corner of his mouth involuntarily curled up a strange arc.
This time, he wanted to make everyone bet on his opposite side...
—
The group returned to the hotel. Huo Yuhao saw Zhang Lexuan and others who had returned. Seeing they seemed to have something to say, he immediately asked Bibi Dong to push him to the bed, then drew the curtains.
"What happened?" Huo Yuhao couldn't help asking.
He was still assured of the strength of Zhongli Yu and the others. Unless an Ultimate Douluo appeared, probably no one on the continent could defeat Zhongli Yu head-on. Besides, Ultimate Douluos had all been slaughtered by him and his partners.
"It happened like this..." Seeing Huo Yuhao, Zhang Lexuan obviously seemed to breathe a huge sigh of relief. Then she recounted the matter of the Earth Dragon Gate battle team being noticed by the Sun Moon royal family in the competition and that Hongmen Banquet today.
"Tsk tsk, this courting death thing. Which of my wives did he target this time?" Huo Yuhao sneered. This Prince Tianhe planned to do something with Juzi in the original timeline, but unfortunately, he had no brains. This time he actually targeted Nan Shuishui, Die Qiu and others again.
Mmhmm, when things in Mingdu are done, this guy can't be kept.
"Speaking of which, you may not believe it. This Xu Tianhe, he is the Star Luo Empire Emperor, Xu Jiawei." Zhang Lexuan weighed her words and said astonishingly.
"Xu Tianhe is Xu Jiawei? What the hell?" This time it was Huo Yuhao's turn to be stunned. Is there a relationship between the two?
"I think this should be related to you. It's like this..." Die Qiu had shared Huo Yuhao's memory and knew everything that happened in the original timeline. At first, she also couldn't believe the two would be the same person, but after going around, it boiled down to Huo Yuhao's behavior.
Many years ago, after Huo Yuhao bombed the Duke's Mansion flat, the then Star Luo Crown Prince Xu Jiawei received the decree of the old Star Luo Emperor and personally brought people to offer condolences to the imperial sister.
At that time, the Holy Spirit Cult planned to send people to poison the Duchess, which was why they coincidentally took away the ten-year-old Huo Yuhao. At the same time, they also received the news that Crown Prince Xu Jiawei personally came to the former site of the Duke's Mansion.
This was an excellent opportunity for both the Holy Spirit Cult and Crown Prince Xu Tianran who held great power at that time. So, he let the Holy Spirit Cult people snipe Xu Jiawei's troops, and even Zhongli Wu was mobilized.
And that clan brother with little presence, Prince Tianhe, once again became Xu Tianran's pawn, playing a trick of substituting a raccoon for a prince on the Star Luo Empire at that time.
The old emperor passed away shortly after. Xu Tianhe, disguised as Xu Jiawei, logically became the Star Luo Emperor, holding the power of life and death over the Star Luo Empire.
It could only be said that things that didn't happen in the original timeline underwent earth-shaking changes due to Huo Yuhao's initial move.
Huo Yuhao fell silent. Perhaps this was causality. He had tried his best to control his steps before, completing all arrangements without too many variables in the timeline.
However, from the moment he lit the fuse, the gears of fate began to turn—
Controlling two empires alone, this Xu Tianhe had some skills. If keeping this guy was useful...
Huo Yuhao frowned thinking, but in the next moment, the scene before his eyes spun. Amidst the exclamations of everyone, he fell backwards with a crash.