Chapter 4: Auction, a Predictable Tournament
After setting his future plans, Lin Qinghan maintained a consistent training schedule every day. Just like that, time passed day by day.
One year later, at the family training ground
"Qinghan, cousin, you're amazing! Even though I'm level 36, I'm still no match for you," said a boy around 14 or 15 on the platform.
The boy looked rather disheveled—his clothes had several holes, and his hair stood up as if electrocuted. He bitterly thought to himself that he hadn't held back at all, yet as a level 36, he had still lost to a 7-year-old level 25.
That's right—one year had passed, and Lin Qinghan had gone from level 16 to level 25. Gaining two levels every three months on average was nothing short of astonishing.
"Haha, thanks, Brother Lin Hai," Lin Qinghan replied with a smile. He was seven years younger than Lin Hai and had already beaten him—there was no need to rub it in.
Over the past year, as Lin Qinghan further developed his soul skills and martial spirits, enemies at the same level—or even one level higher—couldn't touch him before he ran out of soul power. And this was only using his bioelectric martial spirit.
After chatting briefly with his peers who were resting nearby, Lin Qinghan left the training ground.
The Soul Master Tournament was just a few days away. He had already booked his ticket and planned to leave the next day.
For a noble clan with sect-like characteristics like his, the All-Continent Youth Soul Master Tournament—which only allowed academy students to participate—wasn't that important. His parents were too busy to accompany him.
However, as the future heir of the family, this wasn't a problem. A Soul Sage-level guardian was assigned to accompany him.
Lin Qinghan understood. After all, he was crucial to the Lin family's rise. Still, it made him feel a bit restricted—at just seven years old, many things were out of his control.
He felt a bit regretful about Electrolux—if he had him, there would be so much more he could do.
Shaking off the thought, Lin Qinghan got into the carriage and set off.
The two-day journey passed uneventfully as Lin Qinghan spent the entire time cultivating.
This year's tournament was held in the Heavenly Soul Empire, so it wasn't too far. Even by carriage, he had arrived by now.
The hotel Lin Qinghan stayed at had five floors, with the higher floors being more luxurious. Lin Qinghan stayed on the third floor—not because he couldn't afford higher floors, but because the fourth and fifth floors were reserved for the participating teams.
As expected, Shrek Academy, which had dominated the tournament for ten thousand years, occupied the top floor.
Since Lin Qinghan was there just as a spectator, it wouldn't be appropriate to approach them directly—but that wasn't his goal anyway.
He was here for the auction house that had recently opened, hoping to try his luck in finding the Soul-Eater Engraving Knife—a rare item that had failed to sell multiple times in the original story.
Even without Electrolux, Lin Qinghan was confident that his bioelectric and brainwave martial spirits could neutralize its evil will.
He had discovered half a year ago that the combination of his two martial spirits had a suppressive effect on soul masters corrupted by spiritual pollution.
His second soul ring came from a 4,000-year-old soul beast with both life and lightning attributes—a lightning lizard.
The second soul skill allowed Lin Qinghan to emit healing lightning, greatly enhancing the self-healing power of the bioelectric martial spirit. It could now heal not only himself but others too.
The healing effects were already strong. If he could obtain the Essence Gold of Living Beings (a key material in the knife), he speculated he might even achieve limb regeneration.
The tournament commenced on schedule and was intense from the start.
Just as Lin Qinghan expected, Shrek's main team consisted of prominent characters from the original story—the dual generations of the Shrek Seven Devils.
Among them, Han Ruoruo and Wu Ming were both Soul Emperors, while Zhang Lexuan had even reached the Soul Saint level. With such a lineup, the tournament outcome was as predictable as ever.
Only three other teams had Soul Emperors, and even then, each only had one.
Lin Qinghan watched like any ordinary spectator. As he expected, Shrek remained undefeated into the tournament's midpoint.
What surprised him, though, was when Shrek fielded its reserve team against an unknown academy that only had two Soul Ancestors—and even a Grand Soul Master.
Meanwhile, Shrek's reserve team had three Soul Ancestors.
Despite their superior strength, the reserve team showed no tactical coordination. They simply charged in headfirst—especially Ma Xiaotao.
Lin Qinghan noted the dark hue in her flames when she went all out—it looked like signs of future loss of control. The team was chaotic and undisciplined. It seemed the major incident involving the Evil Soul Masters five years later wouldn't just be a fluke.
After the match, Lin Qinghan looked at the arrogantly smug faces of the reserve team and thought to himself: a team this conceited is bound for disaster.
At that moment, the auction notification arrived. Lin Qinghan eagerly looked forward to seeing if the Soul-Eater Engraving Knife would be up for bid.
This auction had only one session. At this point in time, the three nations of the Douluo Continent hadn't realized that Soul Tools could give regular soul masters overwhelming advantages in war.
As such, they hadn't prepared high-level soul bones as bait to provoke the Sun Moon Empire into revealing advanced Soul Tools. For them, this was just another moneymaking event.
The auction was nearly over, and Lin Qinghan was about to leave when a surprise announcement was made.
"Dear guests, next we have a soul engraving knife comparable to a Ranked Engraving Knife. As all soul engineers know, such an item is of immense value."
"In the spirit of honesty, I will present both the pros and cons of this knife." A platform rose up, revealing the Soul-Eater Engraving Knife that Lin Qinghan longed for.
"This knife's performance is undisputed. However, centuries ago, it was infused with evil thoughts by a dying Evil Soul Master Douluo. Since then, all subsequent owners have died tragically."
"It has failed to sell multiple times, so the starting price is 250,000 gold soul coins. Each raise must be no less than 5,000."
The once lively auction hall fell silent—no one wanted a cursed knife, no matter how cost-effective it was.
"250,000 gold soul coins." Lin Qinghan made the opening bid. Although the price was higher than he expected, he was determined to win this item.
After all, this chunk of Essence Gold of Living Beings alone was worth far more than hundreds of millions of gold soul coins.
"250,000 going once, twice, three times—sold! Congratulations to our buyer!" the auctioneer announced joyfully. Finally, the item had sold.
The auction ended normally, and Lin Qinghan received the Soul-Eater Engraving Knife he had longed for.
Because the knife could corrode storage soul tools, the auction house didn't provide the complimentary storage item usually given with purchases over 100,000 gold soul coins. Instead, it was sealed in a special metal box and delivered to him.
Lin Qinghan didn't mind. He carefully stored it away.
As soon as he returned to the hotel, he would begin the purification process.
(End of Chapter)
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