Douluo Continent: The Book of Witness and Peerless Tang Sect

Chapter 169 The Clash Between the Reserve Team and the Regular Team

As it turns out, the Martial Soul Consciousness's grasp of the Martial Soul's state is quite accurate. Long You did indeed break through the level 50 Soul Power bottleneck on the morning of the first training camp.

Lin Zhengze and Bei Bei, who also have a chance to enter the 50th grade this semester, both expressed their envy of Long You's rapid progress.

On the day of the training camp, Elder Xuan kept his promise and came to provide guidance in person. Elder Xuan praised Long You for taking leave to absorb a soul ring and break through the level 50 soul power bottleneck, and immediately changed the original training plan, giving the remaining six members of the reserve team a lesson on soul power preparation.

Well, actually, it's just that Elder Xuan was slightly biased towards Bei Bei. After all, Bei Bei's soul power level is already level 49. With proper training, Bei Bei might be able to become a Soul King-level Soul Master before heading to Star Luo City to compete in the Shrek Academy team.

In the subsequent training sessions, Long You participated on time for every single one. However, he wasn't entirely satisfied with the content of the training. Shrek Academy was the number one academy on the continent, but that number one ranking was more due to its Martial Soul Department.

Master Xuan was very knowledgeable about the tactics and strategies of Soul Masters, but he was not very good at the tactics and strategies of Soul Instructors, or even what formations would allow Soul Instructors to unleash their strongest combat power in team battles.

After four training sessions, Long You could feel that the teamwork of the seven people on his side had been raised to a new level, and even their control and use of their martial souls had improved significantly. However, they hadn't improved at all in terms of how to coordinate with their soul tools in battle and how to maximize the combat power of their soul tools.

As another training camp ended, Long You said to He Caitou on the way back to the Soul Guidance Department teaching building: "This kind of training camp seems to be trying to fix our weaknesses, but as we fix these weaknesses, our combat mode will be disrupted."

After a whole day of training, I only used my soul tool a handful of times. While it certainly improved my ability to respond to enemies, I now feel like I'm not quite used to it anymore.

"Hmm? It has such a big impact? You know, I am a food-type Soul Master. Elder Xuan's guidance on how and when to use my Martial Soul in battle has indeed benefited me a lot."

"Senior brother, I actually feel the same way. After a semester of adaptation, my combat style had become one that mainly relied on soul tools and secondarily on martial soul combat power. But after four training sessions this month, my current combat style has become a bit scattered."

During today's battle, I had several instances of slow reaction time, didn't I? That's because I got a little confused and didn't know whether to use the soul tool or the martial soul at those moments.

Huo Yuhao's martial soul skills are either support skills or skills that enhance his physical strength, just like He Caitou, and he has benefited a lot from Elder Xuan's training. However, Long You and Song He, who originally had offensive capabilities in their martial souls, lost themselves in Elder Xuan's training that emphasized the timing of martial soul application.

Long You himself was fine. Every night, in addition to practicing the creation of soul tools, Long You would also take time to conduct simulated combat in the Pearl of Imagination. So although he felt uncomfortable after a day of intensive training, it did not really affect his combat rhythm.

But Song and the chubby boy were in trouble. The Panlong Realm was not open at the moment, so the chubby boy usually didn't have a convenient place or opponent for combat training. His combat mode, which had just been adjusted, was now completely messed up.

"Is it that serious? We'll talk to Dean Qian about this when we get back. The combat mode is a problem that we must take seriously. Either Elder Xuan needs to adjust the training mode, or someone from our Soul Guidance Department needs to get involved. The training method can't be a one-size-fits-all approach."

We absolutely cannot allow a situation where, after a period of intensive training, our combat effectiveness actually decreases.

Perhaps due to his repeated roles as organizer within the Soul Guidance Department, He Caitou now possesses a greater sense of responsibility compared to his character in the original story. In the past, He Caitou wouldn't have proactively suggested consulting with the academy's higher-ups at such a time.

However, this is indeed a matter that deserves attention. After the group of four returned to the Soul Guidance Department's teaching building, they immediately went upstairs to find Dean Qian Duoduo.

Although the selection competition within Shrek Academy started relatively early this year, a month has passed, and it's indeed close to the time to depart for Star City.

During the last two training camps, the outer academy's reserve team had already trained together with the inner academy's regular team. If Long You and the others didn't act quickly, the little fat boy's fighting mode might completely collapse before they set off.

Out of concern for the students, Qian Duoduo immediately activated the dormant Panlong Realm after learning of the situation. All the students in the entire Soul Guidance Department who were currently in the teaching building went to the newly opened battle space in the Panlong Realm to take turns feeding Song He their moves, and incidentally, to suffer some of Long You's torment.

Previously it was uncertain, but now the academy has contacted Xingluo City, and Long You and He Caitou's soul-guided power mechs can be used normally in the competition. So although they can no longer use the level 8 milk bottle as the power source for the soul-guided power mechs, Long You's only reduction is in sustained combat power, not firepower intensity.

Throughout the night, Song, who was thoroughly humiliated, managed to avoid the tragedy of his battle mode collapsing, but he was completely devastated. To be fair, this chubby kid's combat strength was quite good among the lower-year students in the Soul Guidance Department; however, many of the Soul Guidance Department students who fought him last night were upper-year students who had been cooped up in the teaching building for a month.

Although these senior students weren't particularly keen on participating in the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Battle Tournament, they had been cooped up in the teaching building for a month, so they figured they might as well make the most of any opportunity to crush others.

If you don't find some sense of superiority with the chubby guy, you'll get crushed when you fight Long You.

A week later, Qian Duoduo appeared with Elder Xuan at the reopened training camp. Clearly, this reflected the problem and had an effect; although Elder Xuan wasn't as supportive of the development of soul tools as Elder Mu, he wasn't a stubborn or self-willed person.

At the start of this training camp, neither Elder Xuan nor Qian Duoduo made any adjustments right away. Instead, they directly arranged for the inner court's regular team to have a match against the outer court's reserve team.

In order to make the battle more intense, Elder Xuan gave the outer court reserve team time for tactical discussions, while the inner court's regular teams had to stand apart during this time.

"Tell me your tactics. Although the chances of winning this match are slim, surrendering is definitely not an option. Our minimum goal in this match is to unleash our full potential."

"In this battle, close combat is unavoidable, so my senior brother Cai Tou and I cannot place our soul-guided power mechs in front. Our mechs are too large targets, and we definitely cannot withstand close combat with the elite soul masters of the inner court."

Unless Senior Yao Haoxuan charges in directly, the main fighters when others get close will be Senior Brother Beibei and the other two.

"What about the rest? A direct confrontation?"

"Actually, we can only fight head-on. This kind of venue doesn't allow for the use of tactics. And given the strength of these senior students, even if we create a situation where we have more people than others, it will be difficult to achieve the goal of reducing the opponent's numbers through explosive attacks."

If we fail to eliminate the opponent the instant a situation of many against few is created, then any flaws we reveal in our efforts to create a situation of many against one will be exploited.

We don't have the skills of our seniors; it wouldn't be good if a few of us got wiped out instantly.

"That means we'll just have to suppress them with sheer firepower."

"Yes, that's it. Suppressive firepower. In the first three minutes, try to prevent the senior students from getting close. After three minutes, if it's not Ma Xiaotao or Dai Yueheng who breaks through, then we'll try to see if we can severely injure or even eliminate one of them by using both control and attack methods simultaneously."

If it's Ma Xiaotao or Dai Yueheng, we'll maintain our pressure and retreat to outflank them. Our goal is to avoid any casualties before our soul power is completely depleted.

"Yuhao and Songhe, you two are at level 26 and 29 respectively, your soul power levels are too low."

"Once the fighting begins, you must immediately use the anti-gravity soul-guided skateboards to establish a combined soul-guided artillery platform. Do not act alone."

"Understood. We will mainly use our soul power for movement and defense. When the time is right, we will use the supergravity generating soul tool and the electromagnetic binding soul tool."

"That's fine. With Yuhao's soul skill, I believe you can seize the opportunity. This isn't the first time you've trained together with the inner court's regular team. Everyone knows the strength and reaction speed of the senior students, so don't be reckless."

In about five minutes, the general tactics were finalized, but Tang Ya, who hadn't spoken until now, finally spoke up:

"I have a suggestion: let me, Yuhao, and Songhe form a three-person joint soul-guided artillery platform."

Even if Yuhao and Songhe joined forces, the power they could wield with their soul tools would be very limited. If there really was an opportunity, the combined attack power of Xiaoyou and Caitou would likely be insufficient.

"Wouldn't doing that slow down our movement too much? Everyone has seen how fast Senior Sister Xixi is, will we have time to dodge?"

Tang Ya's suggestion was not something that Bei Bei, Long You, and Cai Tou hadn't considered before, but considering the opponent's explosive attack power and speed advantage, they really didn't dare to reduce their own mobility too much.

"It's alright. Although Senior Sister Xixi is fast, with Yuhao's mental detection soul skill, we won't be ambushed. With the anti-gravity soul-guided skateboard, our movement speed and agility won't decrease too much. The key is teamwork. Because we haven't built a special three-person soul-guided turret base, we might have some problems with synchronization."

However, as I said before, with Yuhao's shared spirit detection skill, as long as we're careful, there shouldn't be any problems.

"Alright, let's do it this way. Sister Xiaoya has given us a heads-up. Before the All-Continent Advanced Soul Master Academy Battle Tournament begins, we need to build an integrated, interconnected soul-guided turret base."

After discussing for a little over ten minutes, mainly clarifying the goals and minimum objectives, Long You and the other members of the Foreign Languages ​​Academy's reserve team got into position and signaled that they could begin.

Whether the other side intended to give the outer academy's reserve team a hard time or not, the moment Elder Xuan signaled the start of the battle, a strong surge of soul power swept over them, bringing with it a powerful pressure.

However, it is clearly unlikely that such a small trick would be enough to interfere with Long You and the others.

Since the main team has chosen to intimidate first due to their advantage in soul power level, the reserve team doesn't need to hold back and can just bombard them with artillery fire.

The entire battlefield was within the range of Huo Yuhao's shared spirit detection skill. Even Bei Bei, Xu Sanshi, and Tang Ya, who were temporarily acting as spirit mentors, could accurately hit their predetermined targets with attacks launched from their spirit tools.

After a round of attacks, the main team, which had chosen to give up the initiative, was indeed frozen in place, each using their own methods to block the attacks that instantly crossed the distance of the arena and arrived in front of them.

While the main team members were busy, Tang Ya, Huo Yuhao, and Song He, who had already taken their positions, quickly entered the Soul Guidance Cannon mode.

In an instant, the reserve team's firepower, which had weakened slightly, increased again.

However, the enhancement was useless, as the main team still had an absolute advantage in soul power. The phoenix cry and the tiger roar rang out at the same time. It was not the main team's style to only defend and not counterattack. The white tiger meteor shower and the phoenix meteor shower flew towards the reserve team at the same time.

As the energy meteors flew through the air, they collided with and annihilated many of the energy rays and energy projectiles launched by the reserve team.

The reserve team remained completely calm in the face of this situation. Huo Yuhao's mental detection and sharing soul skill, which covered the entire field, was perfectly capable of locking onto every energy meteor.

Without Long You and He Caitou needing to intervene, and seeing that the main team couldn't break through for the time being, Bei Bei and Xu Sanshi changed the target of their soul tools and directly destroyed all the energy meteors in flight.

In a contest of ranged attacks, unless there is an overwhelming advantage in strength, Soul Masters will always have the upper hand over Soul Mages.

The energy meteor's offensive was blocked, and the reserve team continued to use strong firepower to suppress the main team, but the main team had begun to approach the reserve team.

Although only a short time has passed, the main team has already begun to get used to this level of firepower.