The Unrivaled Tang Sect

Chapter 444.2: The Dangers of Profit

At this moment, Huo Yuhao used that feature to “kidnap” a bunch of high altitude aerial surveillance soul tools.

Just like what Wang Yiheng was worried about, the research conducted by the Douluo Continent’s three original nations towards surveillance soul tools would be greatly boosted if so many high altitude aerial surveillance soul tools fell into Huo Yuhao’s hands.

Huo Yuhao could already see high altitude aerial surveillance soul tools flying towards him one after another in the distance. However, he could also see beams of light flying out from the Ming Dou Mountain Range one after another at the same time, and they were heading right toward this side.

Huo Yuhao had already predicted this a long time ago – the Sun Moon Empire had just lost contact with so many high altitude aerial surveillance soul tools at the same time; things would really be strange if they didn’t react.

I hope the Titled Douluo or a Class 9 soul engineer doesn’t appear first from the enemy’s party.

Huo Yuhao glanced at the metal box in his hands, and he squinted a little as he activated Spiritual Detection to its highest possible level.

There were self-destructive mechanisms installed in his long-range soul controllers, so he could still destroy those high altitude aerial surveillance soul tools if he couldn’t take them away. However, that was a last resort – his heart would ache if he had to destroy so many precious things! The value of just the rare metals involved in crafting them was already unimaginable.

The first high altitude aerial surveillance soul tool quickly flew before Huo Yuhao. He swiftly went up, and the light on his Starlight Sapphire storage ring flashed once before it swallowed the entire thing.

First one!

Because every single high altitude aerial surveillance soul tool varied in distance from each other, their arrivals were bound to be staggered even if they started flying towards Huo Yuhao at the same time.

Second one!

Third one!

It didn’t take long before Huo Yuhao had pocketed six high altitude aerial surveillance soul tools in his Starlight Sapphire storage ring.

Seems like I’ll return with uncountable rewards and gains!

However, five shadows swiftly bore down on him at this moment. These five shadows didn’t come together, but were separated in the sky.

Huo Yuhao had activated Imitation and his Spiritual Interference Domain, and it was very hard to discover his presence.

Huo Yuhao had already seen them coming a long time ago with Spiritual Detection. Every single one of these five soul engineers carried detectors in their hands, and these detectors were the most advanced oscillation detectors, things that Huo Yuhao wasn’t immune to. Even though they didn’t know Huo Yuhao’s particular location, they could cover a large area of effect if they stretched their detectors in all directions. They would discover Huo Yuhao as long as they figured out his rough location.

These people were currently coming closer to Huo Yuhao’s position.

Huo Yuhao swept his mind towards the sky in the distance with Spiritual Detection, and the other high altitude aerial surveillance soul tools that were still gathering rapidly. The safest decision for Huo Yuhao would be to turn tail and run, before destroying the ones that he couldn’t keep. He would deal severe losses to his opponents and would also return with a decent harvest.

But he couldn’t resign himself to making that decision! He could only use this method once; his enemies wouldn’t be tricked the next time. Even one extra soul tool stolen was another giant pot of wealth gained.

Huo Yuhao contemplated for a moment before he decisively withdrew the metal box in his hands, and then turned around and went straight for lower altitudes.

The high altitude aerial surveillance soul tools that were hurrying over would gather at this location. Huo Yuhao was certain that he didn’t have enough time to gather them all, so he took the initiative to reveal himself so that he could attract his enemies’ attention, so that he could preoccupy them. Perhaps he could even defeat them in battle, so that he could buy time for those super-high surveillance soul tools to fly over before taking everything away after that. That would undoubtedly be the best outcome.

Before he executed this operation, Huo Yuhao had considered asking the White Tiger Duke to deploy soul masters to help him. However, normal soul masters couldn’t even come near this region without being discovered by the aerial surveillance soul tools, so only he could conceal himself while maintaining himself at such a height.

I’ll take this chance! If it doesn’t work, then I’ll run.

Huo Yuhao had become a lot more courageous after the Skydream Iceworm had reminded him of the “benefits” that the Beast God’s reverse scale could bring him.

Huo Yuhao plunged downwards quickly, and immediately changed directions towards the side after he dropped to about two thousand meters. He didn’t remove the effects of Imitation and his Spiritual Interference Domain because that would have been too obvious – his enemies might not be tricked if they were smart.

He flew across their flanks, and the oscillation detector that the Sun Moon Empire’s soul engineer on the leftmost side was holding had a reaction.

“Over here!” He immediately informed his partners with his communication soul tool. A heavy black cannon instantly appeared on his shoulders, and he fired off a shot in Huo Yuhao’s direction according to the location shown to him by his oscillation detector.

A bolt of bluish-purple light fired out. Huo Yuhao’s opponent’s prediction was very accurate – if Huo Yuhao had continued flying forward, he would have very likely collided with this cannon shell.

Class 6 Lightning Cannon – fierce!

The Sun Moon Empire’s soul engineers who were responsible for intelligence and detection were the strongest ones. Previously, Huo Yuhao had discovered that two soul engineers among his five enemies were Class 7 soul engineers who were also Soul Sages, while the other three were Class 6 soul engineers.

There was hardly anybody in the world better than Huo Yuhao at prediction. Huo Yuhao’s frame suddenly halted midair as the cannon shell closed in on him, and the wings behind his back closed up before he began plunging downwards in freefall.

Huo Yuhao had used this move very often, and its effectiveness was time-tested. Normal soul masters didn’t dare to behave like him – dropping down was easy, but stopping the freefall would create such a heavy load that their bodies couldn’t take the pressure even if they had enough soul power.

“Boom –” An intense explosion cracked open above his head, and large swathes of lightning bolts covered several hundred square meters around him. If Huo Yuhao’s reaction had been a little slower, he would have immediately been struck by those lightning bolts.

The other soul engineers had reacted by then, and they were swiftly moving to outflank him.

Of course, Huo Yuhao wouldn’t just defend passively. He wasn’t just a soul master – he was also a soul engineer!

A sphere of brilliant blue light surged from his chest as he fell. One could tell upon closer inspection that there was a necklace hanging around his neck, and the pendant was what was shining with blue light.

This pendant seemed as large as a pigeon’s egg. It could only be seen through his clothes, but one could still see the radiant and brilliant blue light that was apparently from a soul tool crafted with Starlight Sapphire as its main body.

Light flashed again and again as blue light swiftly covered Huo Yuhao’s entire body, including his head. It didn’t take long before his entire body was covered in dark blue armor.

This dark blue armor was filled with a kind of streamlined elegance, and it covered every single part of Huo Yuhao’s body. The flying-type soul tool behind Huo Yuhao’s back had come off because of that, and Huo Yuhao withdrew it into his storage ring.

Three pairs of dark blue wings quickly stretched out behind his back, and fired out blue light to stabilize his body. His helmet was like a dome that covered his head, and even his face was covered. There was an opening on his forehead, and there was a pale blue jewel in that opening.

Yes, this was the human-shaped soul tool that Xuan Ziwen had tailor-made for Huo Yuhao.

The Sun Moon Empire had spent the longest time researching human-type soul tools. Back then, Huo Yuhao had stolen that giant human-type soul tool.

That item ended up in Xuan Ziwen’s hands, and it was ultimately torn to pieces.

The Illustrious Virtue Hall and the Sun Moon Empire’s world of soul engineers had always been going in two directions with their research into human-shaped soul tools. One direction was towards a giant human-shaped soul tool that was represented by the Hallmaster of the Illustrious Virtue Hall, Jing Hongchen. Jing Hongchen and many soul engineers believed that soul tools could only store more soul power when they had enough volume, and only then could they possess even stronger fighting strength to affect a battle.

On the other hand, Xuan Ziwen and several other soul engineers led a second direction – they wanted to minimize human-shaped soul tools.

Xuan Ziwen believed that even though giant human-shaped soul tools could have stronger and more forceful soul tools installed on them, and more Milk Bottles to store soul power could also be attached, that large volume would become clumsy, and a source of extreme inconvenience. The giant human-shaped soul tool would become very difficult to control, and they were more easily targeted and attacked by enemies. They would consume enormous amounts of soul power at the same time, and the pros didn’t outweigh the cons.

These two different schools couldn’t do anything do convince the other side, so they immersed themselves in their respective research directions.

There were more soul engineers who subscribed to the giant human-shaped soul tool, therefore this direction was the mainstream in the Illustrious Virtue Hall back then. Even though Xuan Ziwen didn’t approve of that research direction, he had had no choice but to conduct research in the same direction. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have had any chances to be involved with the newest technological findings in this area.

Huo Yuhao had given the giant human-shaped soul tool to Xuan Ziwen, and it was extremely important for Xuan Ziwen’s research in soul tools. He summarized the giant human-shaped soul tool’s pros and cons, and then acted according to his own principles and combined that with the human-shaped soul tool that Huo Yuhao had crafted back then with the Tang Sect’s mechanical techniques, and thus created his own school.

Xuan Ziwen had conducted countless experiments before he finally presented this final product to Huo Yuhao.

Xuan Ziwen had called the human-shaped soul tool that Huo Yuhao was wearing a Class 7 soul tool. Even though it was Class 7, Xuan Ziwen was most satisfied with this creation amongst his many others. This product combined his own research, the Illustrious Virtue Hall’s research findings, and the Tang Sect’s mechanical techniques.

Back then, when research in human-shaped soul tools reached a certain standard, the most important point that puzzled soul engineers was how to control these soul tools.

From their perspective, soul tools could never be as agile or flexible as soul masters no matter how inherently flexible they were. This was one of the most important reasons why smaller human-shaped soul tools weren’t recognized or approved of.

Since they couldn’t be flexible or agile enough, these soul tools could only rely on force to fix their problems. Therefore, giant human-shaped soul tools were recognized.

However, once research in giant human-shaped soul tools reached a certain standard, the Sun Moon Empire’s soul engineers discovered that controlling such an item wasn’t something that a single soul master could achieve by himself. Even if those soul tools could be controlled through some complex formation arrays, the human-shaped soul tool would become extremely clumsy and bulky. Moving them around on the battlefield was difficult, and they could only be used as soul tool forts. That meant the entire motivation for creating human-shaped soul would be lost.

Under such circumstances, the Sun Moon Empire’s soul engineers thought of something to resolve this – to control large amounts of complex formation arrays so that giant human-shaped soul tools could become agile, they could only rely on an individual’s thoughts and consciousness to control those soul tools rather than one’s hands using all kinds of remotes.