Inside the Shrek Team's meeting room, Wang Yan, upon learning of the pleasant surprise that Bei Bei and Xu Sanshi had been chosen as the next generation of Shrek Seven Devils, felt even more confident about the upcoming competition.
However, there was still one more thing he hadn't mentioned, so the meeting was not yet over.
He said, "Although you haven't seen the matches of the other academies, I must tell everyone that this year's Soul Master Competition is very different from previous ones. The difference lies in the fact that there are now very few pure Spirit Master academies; all academies are developing in the direction of integrating Soul Engineers and Spirit Masters."
"The integration of Spirit Masters and Soul Engineers?" Ma Xiaotao frowned upon hearing this and asked, "Is that really necessary?"
"Yes! It's very necessary!" Wang Yan's tone was decisive as he said, "If you all had a defensive spirit tool during that explosion earlier, we certainly wouldn't be in our current situation!"
"Hmm?" Ma Xiaotao's frown deepened. Her attitude towards spirit tools was the same as her teacher Yan Shaozhe's; she believed spirit tools were a minor path, not as bright and pure as the grand path of a pure Spirit Master. So, upon hearing Wang Yan's words, dissatisfaction immediately arose in her heart.
For Wang Yan, a teacher from the Martial Soul Department, to so highly praise the Soul Tool Department, was, in Ma Xiaotao's eyes, a complete act of betrayal!
"Perhaps some of you find my words unpleasant, but this is an undeniable fact," Wang Yan said in a deep voice. "The integration of Spirit Masters and Soul Engineers is a major trend, an irreversible trend that began to emerge fifty years ago and has finally been fully exposed in this competition.
According to my observations in the first stage, nearly 80%, over a hundred of the 133 academies, have already started using spirit tools. Among these academies, excluding a small number of Soul Engineer academies, all the others are Spirit Master academies! Their students have almost all started using spirit tools; truly pure Spirit Masters are now very rare."
"They have forgotten the glory of Spirit Masters! Shouldn't the battles of us Spirit Masters be pure? Only abilities cultivated by oneself are the most reliable and trustworthy. spirit tools are, after all, external objects," Xu Sanshi said, deep in thought. He came from the Dark Tortoise Sect, a typical reclusive Sect, and reclusive Sects are the forces most resistant to spirit tools.
Wang Yan heard this and said, "Of course, what you said is not wrong, and I can tell you with certainty that Sanshi's idea is almost the idea of the vast majority of our academy's high-ranking officials. It is precisely because of this that the development of the academy's Soul Tool Department has been constrained. However, through observing this competition, I must say that this crucial point has reached a time when it can no longer be ignored, and it is urgent.
The general trend of the world is that those who follow it survive, and those who go against it perish!
After the competition ends, I will immediately propose this view to the academy upon our return."
"So, what is the purpose of telling us all this?" Ma Xiaotao was already a bit impatient, her tone quite sharp, as she spoke.
"Uh~" Wang Yan choked a bit, paused for a moment, and then said with a helpless expression, "I want to ask, among us, besides Yu Hao and Cai Tou, who else has combat-type spirit tools on them?"
"I have a seventh-grade spirit tool shield on me," Zhu Ziyang said.
"I have a third-grade flash spirit tool cannon on me," Tang Ya said.
"Oh?!" Wang Yan was very surprised. He hadn't expected that besides Huo Yuhao and He Caitou, the two Soul Engineers, there would actually be others who carried spirit tools. He asked, "Ziyang, Xiaoya, you don't reject spirit tools?"
"To me, Spirit Master and Soul Engineer are just cultivation paths. If a spirit tool can enhance my strength, I naturally won't refuse to use it," Zhu Ziyang said with a calm expression.
"Ziyang, you surprise me greatly!" Wang Yan said, astonished. "I thought someone with such powerful Spirit Master talent like you would reject spirit tools, but I didn't expect your attitude towards spirit tools to be so similar to the most cutting-edge dual-spirit fusion style on the continent! Truly worthy of being..."
Wang Yan didn't continue speaking, but instead looked at Tang Ya and asked, "Tang Ya, what about you?"
"Hehe, how should I put it? I originally disliked spirit tools very much. As you know, the decline of our Tang Sect has a lot to do with spirit tools," Tang Ya said. "However, if I want to revitalize the Tang Sect, I must understand why spirit tools were able to defeat Tang Sect Hidden Weapons, so I took the initiative to learn about spirit tools."
"So that's how it is!" Wang Yan understood, and then, without further questions, he directly addressed everyone, saying, "I know some of you are very averse to spirit tools, but I still hope that each of you can possess a spirit tool, even a defensive one is fine!
After all, if everyone else is using spirit tools and we aren't, then we will be a few points weaker than other teams, especially in the current situation!
Therefore, there will be an auction tonight, and I will take you to purchase spirit tools! I won't force Xiaotao and Nannan, but you, the seven members of the preliminary team, must go!"
"Yes!" Bei Bei, Xu Sanshi, and the others all responded, regardless of their inner attitudes.
Ma Xiaotao, however, looked gloomy, while Jiang Nannan looked at Zhu Ziyang and quietly asked, "Brother, are we going?"
"Of course, why wouldn't we go?" Zhu Ziyang said.
That evening, Wang Yan led the Shrek group to the entrance of an auction house.
A group of nine people—that's right, only nine. Ma Xiaotao ultimately chose to refuse, and the other person who didn't come was actually Wang Dong! This truly surprised Zhu Ziyang.
From his observations and various behaviors these past few days, he could basically conclude that this Wang Dong was Huo Yuhao's fated partner. But what Zhu Ziyang hadn't expected was that, as the fated partner of Huo Yuhao, the Child of Fortune, Wang Dong was actually someone who rejected spirit tools! This was truly a great irony; as a Soul Engineer, and potentially a monumental figure in the history of spirit tool technology in the future, his partner actually rejected spirit tools!
So, does that mean the so-called like-minded, harmonious, and virtuous assistant is fake then?
"Yu Hao, why didn't Wang Dong come?" Tang Ya asked.
"Sigh, Wang Dong said he has an inexplicable aversion and rejection towards spirit tools. He doesn't know where this aversion and rejection comes from, but he just doesn't like it deep down," Huo Yuhao said, feeling helpless.
"That's normal. After all, Wang Dong is from the Clear Sky Sect, and the Clear Sky Sect is the strongest existence among the reclusive Sects, so their sense of rejection towards spirit tools is naturally the most profound," Bei Bei tried to explain, using Xu Sanshi as an example, "Look, isn't there a ready-made example right here?"
Xu Sanshi's face was full of reluctance at this moment. Seeing Bei Bei still teasing him, he immediately became annoyed and said, "Bah! I'm definitely buying ten or eight spirit tools today, and then I'll slap your face, you 'kicking-someone-when-they're-down-Bei'!"
"Kicking-someone-when-they're-down-Bei?!" Bei Bei's face immediately turned ugly, and he retorted, "I'll be waiting to see, you 'two-faced-Shi'!"
Their bickering filled the team's atmosphere with joy.
Everyone entered the auction house. The building, which looked small from the outside, had a surprisingly spacious interior. According to Wang Yan's introduction, this auction house was actually the largest in Star Luo City.
Wang Yan led everyone directly to their destination for the day, Auction Hall No. 12, which was the spirit tool special session today. All the auctioned items were spirit tools below the sixth-grade, suitable for Spirit Masters and Soul Engineers of the Spirit King rank and below to equip and use.
After the auction began, various spirit tools appeared one after another. Wang Yan made continuous bids, buying more than a dozen spirit tools without even blinking, making everyone exclaim at his wealth.
Among all the spirit tools, what interested Zhu Ziyang the most was the last item, a fourth-grade spirit tool called a "milk bottle," a functional spirit tool that could store spirit power and accelerate spirit power recovery. It was very helpful for sustained combat endurance. Although Zhu Ziyang already had a spirit core, who would complain about a faster mana recovery rate?
Unfortunately, there was only one such milk bottle, and it was a shared item for the team, so Zhu Ziyang couldn't have it exclusively.
As the auction neared its end, a small incident occurred after the last item was brought onto the stage: Huo Yuhao suffered a backlash when he used his mental detection to observe that last item. Fortunately, he retracted his mental force in time, otherwise, he would have suffered a great loss.
When the last item was revealed, He Caitou and Wang Yan immediately understood why Huo Yuhao had received a mental force backlash, because it was actually a listed engraving knife, and it was the infamous Spirit Devouring Engraving Knife!
Wang Yan immediately wilted, instantly losing his desire to bid on it.
This made Zhu Ziyang and others who didn't understand this engraving knife very confused. After He Caitou's explanation, they finally understood that this Spirit Devouring Engraving Knife was actually a vicious knife that devoured its wielder!
No wonder, no wonder Wang Yan chose to give up; this Spirit Devouring Engraving Knife undoubtedly went unsold.
The auction ended, and everyone returned to the hotel.