Future Competition Chances

The cultivation environment has a significant impact on a person.

If it weren't for Liuxing and Liuying leading the charge in self-improvement, with Xu Tianzhen's personality, having a soul power of level eighteen by now would already be a blessing.

But with Liuxing and the others around, cultivation became the main theme, even evolving into various unconventional training methods, gravity chambers being just one of them.

Xu Tianzhen's progress even caught the attention of Xu Tianran, who personally visited and praised Luan Yu's gravity chamber.

As a token of appreciation, he gifted Liuxing and his friends, including Nana, some presents, demonstrating his meticulous and calculated approach to dealing with people.

Over the course of a year, although Xu Tianran had yet to solidify his position as crown prince, he had managed to win over some ministers and military officials to support him.

However, he refrained from using Xu Tianzhen's connection with Liuxing to establish contact with the Fire Phoenix Douluo.

After all, he was merely the crown prince, not yet the emperor. The guardian hand of the nation was still beyond his reach, his imperial father was still alive.

During this time, Luan Yu sold the patent for the gravity chamber to Illustrious Virtue Hal, exchanging it for a large quantity of rare metals and cultivation resources.

Meng Hongchen and Xiao Hongchen even visited Liuxing's house to inquire about the training effects of the gravity chamber.

When they saw that Ye Guyi and Xu Tianzhen had achieved a millennium-level second soul ring, they were filled with regret, lamenting that if the gravity chamber had existed earlier, it would have benefited them greatly.

However, since they were already at the three-ring Soul Elder, the primary-level gravity chamber was no longer as effective for them.

It was worth noting that both of them were only ten years old.

If they could reach the Soul Ancestor stage by the time they turned twelve and entered the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineering Academy, they might even be at the Soul King level in time for the All-Continent Advanced Soul Master Academy Tournament four years later.

Meng Hongchen and Xiao Hongchen had the fastest soul power growth that Liuxing had ever witnessed.

Without the millennium soul rings, Ye Guyi and Xu Tianzhen's rate of improvement couldn't compare to them.

Of course, Liuxing didn't count himself and Liuying in this comparison. The two of them were on a different level.

The only one who could rival Meng Hongchen and Xiao Hongchen in cultivation speed was Gu Yuena.

Given that she absorbed a millennium-level second soul ring on her own, her innate talent was second only to Liuxing and Liuying.

Last year, when Liuxing and his friends were seven years old, the same year the Sun Moon Empire underwent a major shift in power, the All-Continent Advanced Soul Master Academy Tournament was held in the Heavenly Soul Empire.

As expected, the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineering Academy once again secured the runner-up position, losing to Shrek Academy and continuing their long-standing tradition of being the eternal second place.

The next tournament would be held four years later in the Star Luo Empire, followed by another nine years later in the Sun Moon Empire.

Meng Hongchen, Xiao Hongchen, and Liuxing's group were likely to participate as reserve team members in the next tournament, assuming they joined the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineering Academy and secured a spot through the selection competition.

According to Meng Hongchen, Illustrious Virtue hall master and Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineering Academy's headmaster, Jing Hongchen, didn't hold high hopes of defeating Shrek Academy in the upcoming tournament.

Of course, Xiao Hongchen didn't believe this.

Jing Hongchen had been paying close attention to Liuxing and his companions.

He had pinned his hopes of finally defeating Shrek Academy on their generation, aiming for the tournament that would take place in the Sun Moon Empire nine years later.

This was because the current generation of students at the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineering Academy wasn't particularly outstanding.

The only remarkable one was a boy named Ma Rulong. At fifteen years old, he was already a level-five soul engineer and had joined Mingdetang early on.

Aside from Ma Rulong, the other students, though considered geniuses by outsiders, fell short of Jing Hongchen's expectations. Defeating Shrek Academy would be extremely difficult.

In Liuxing's memories, even the previous protagonist, Tang San, had only broken through to the Soul Elder stage after turning twelve.

Meanwhile, Meng Hongchen and Xiao Hongchen had already done so at just ten years old, highlighting their incredible talent.

Of course, it was possible that they had consumed cultivation-boosting pills, but Jing Hongchen wouldn't be foolish enough to let them take ones that would harm their foundation and potential.

That didn't necessarily mean their talent surpassed Tang San's, though.

The cultivation environment had changed drastically over the past ten thousand years.

Whether it was the concentration of natural energy or the efficiency of resource utilization, the present day far outclassed the past.

After all, in the past ten millennia, humanity had compressed the soul beasts' living space and extracted many resources from areas like the Star Dou Forest, resources that would have been unattainable in ancient times.

After selling the gravity chamber patent to Illustrious Virtue Hall, Luan Yu put aside further research on it and dedicated herself to developing a soul communication device.

Even the Fire Phoenix Douluo occasionally assisted in her research during her free time.

With two level-nine soul engineers working together, the project advanced significantly.

At the very least, they had already identified the medium for transmitting both information and images over long distances, soul power, or in other words, the omnipresent natural energy of the Douluo Continent.

However, utilizing this medium posed a formidable challenge.

"How about we seek out our teacher? He's the closest to becoming a level-ten soul engineer, he might have a solution."

After a moment of thought, Fire Phoenix Douluo proposed the idea.

Luan Yu shot her elder sister a knowing look, fully aware of her hidden agenda.

Fire Phoenix Douluo was a firm supporter of the war faction.

Naturally, she wanted the soul communication device to be used exclusively by the Sun Moon Empire's military.

She had tried to persuade Luan Yu before, but Luan Yu firmly refused.

Fire Phoenix Douluo had no choice but to let it go, she couldn't exactly force her only sister into submission over this matter.

Now, she was suggesting that Luan Yu consult their teacher because she had ulterior motives.

Their teacher was the head of the Royal Worship Hall and had a strong pro-imperial stance.

If he learned about Luan Yu's research, he would likely try to persuade her as well.

Faced with their esteemed mentor, even someone as resolute as Luan Yu might waver.

Luan Yu had indeed considered leveraging the Sun Moon Empire's resources for her research.

If they could first develop a way to block transmissions from the soul communication device, they could hand it over to the imperial family.

With that technology in hand, if the other nations became reliant on the device and then the Sun Moon Empire suddenly cut off their communications, it could catch the other three Douluo nations completely off guard.

With this thought in mind, Luan Yu was tempted.

If she continued researching alone, decades could pass without significant progress.

But if she involved her teacher, he could mobilize all the level-nine soul engineers in the Sun Moon Empire.

That would accelerate their research tremendously.