Chapter 549.2. Opening - Phantoms in the Sky

Huo Yuhao was referring to normal soul masters. Graduates from Shrek Academy almost all possessed the ability to use soul tools above their Class, and that was due to their stable and consolidated foundations with their cultivation. But what about the Sun Moon Empire? Most of their soul masters relied on medicine or certain auxiliary soul tools to boost their soul power. But what about their foundations? They probably didn’t have any foundations, and everything was the result of undue haste. Many soul engineers found it difficult to improve further after obtaining three soul rings, not to mention using soul tools above their current Class. Only several three-ringed soul engineers using a single Class 4 soul tool could be successful.

Under such circumstances, if the Imperial Soul Engineering Legion’s soul engineers were all Soul Kings, how could they cross three Classes and use Class 8 soul tools that only Soul Douluo could use?

Even if the Sun Moon Empire had some way to raise their cultivation to six-ringed Soul Emperors, they still couldn’t use Class 8 soul tools. Boosting a soul master’s cultivation beyond Soul Emperor using medicine was futile unless the medicines used were natural treasures. Normal medicine wouldn’t be useful at all. Huo Yuhao didn’t believe that the Sun Moon Empire could forge something like the Qiankun Fortune Pill. If that was possible, Xu Tianran himself would probably have become an Ultimate Douluo a long time ago.

These doubts circled in Huo Yuhao’s mind, and it was clear that he wouldn’t find the answer. Unless he faced the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Legion head-to-head, all he could do for now was speculate.

Facing them head-to-head?

Huo Yuhao laughed bitterly as that phrase occurred to him. How were they going to fight?

Three hundred soul engineers who were at least Class 8 didn’t even need linked soul tools. If they gathered their fire, even the Death God Douluo, Ye Xishui, and the Dragon Emperor Douluo, Long Xiaoyao, would have to run away, not to mention himself. If they used linked soul tools and locked onto their target, that destructive force could probably incinerate and vaporize an entire city in the blink of an eye.

Such ultimate power hadn’t been used on the battlefield yet. It wasn’t hard to imagine the outcome if they appeared on the battlefield.

Compared to this soul engineer legion which was fully equipped with human-shaped soul tools, the equipment of Shrek Academy’s three soul engineer legions was no different from that of a beggar.

Huo Yuhao felt his heart sink when that thought occurred to him. His good mood because his plan was successful and because he had found the Bluesilver Emperor’s whereabouts vanished into thin air.

Huo Yuhao wanted to maintain prolonged flight, so he kept his speed at the speed of sound. This was the only way that he could fly continuously while expending a lot of soul power.

A Class 9 soul tool firing at full power could achieve an incredible speed. Huo Yuhao could see Radiant City far in front of him after a little over the hour.

There were aerial and low-altitude surveillance soul tools in the skies above and around Radiant City. The Sun Moon Empire had become even more wealthy after they conquered more than two-thirds of the Heavenly Soul Empire’s territory. Over the past two years, they had probably used all the wealth and resources that they had obtained from the Heavenly Soul Empire on developing soul tools to reach where they were today.

Huo Yuhao didn’t fly directly into Radiant City. He didn’t fully understand Radiant City’s soul tools, and could even feel a tinge of fear from the bottom of his heart. He didn’t know how advanced the Sun Moon Empire had become with their soul tool technology. That was especially so when he witnessed their successful construction of human-shaped soul tools.

Huo Yuhao descended to the ground when he was about twenty-five kilometers from Radiant City. He used Imitation and hurried along, and he was a much smaller target on the ground. He used Spiritual Detection as far as he could to avoid any surveillance soul tools that could discover his traces.

Radiant City was a city without walls, but that didn’t mean it didn’t have strong defenses. On the contrary, Radiant City possessed high-energy compression array soul tools, and the city’s offensive and defensive capabilities were the absolute best on the continent.

Huo Yuhao found an unassuming bush five kilometers from Radiant City and stopped. He lay down on the ground and replenished what he had consumed from flying at high speeds while attempting to extend his consciousness once more to feel the plants’ spiritual undulations around him.

Huo Yuhao quickly succeeded following his previous experiment. These plants’ situations were similar, especially so because Huo Yuhao directly released benevolent spiritual undulations and quickly attained their approval. Huo Yuhao’s spiritual tentacles swiftly merged with those plants’ spiritual tentacles as he stretched them out into the distance.

This was undoubtedly the safest surveillance method. Huo Yuhao risked being discovered by abilities like spiritual barriers if he used Spiritual Detection for surveillance, but extending his spiritual tentacles through those plants meant there was no way he could be discovered.

Radiant City was a city like a forest of metal and steel. But even then, there were quite a few plants within it, and they were evenly distributed throughout the city.

Huo Yuhao’s spiritual power stretched out and quickly entered Radiant City. However, his spiritual power could stretch out with himself at the center when he connected with those plants, though he couldn’t project his spiritual power in a single direction. Therefore, he could only reach twenty-five kilometers in Radiant City’s direction. In addition to the five kilometers between Radiant City and himself, he could only reach twenty kilometers into Radiant City.

Twenty kilometers could cover typical cities several times over, but Radiant City was just too large. Huo Yuhao was twenty kilometers in, but he couldn’t even reach half of Radiant City.

But that was sufficient for now.

Radiant City’s aerial surveillance soul tools were mostly located around the city. But Huo Yuhao would be making a grave mistake if he thought this meant that they had fewer surveillance soul tools inside the city.

The surveillance soul tools inside Radiant City were all on the ground, and they seamlessly covered every single corner.

Radiant City lived up to its reputation after all! Large cities along the southern shores like Heavenly Sea City were a far cry from Radiant City. Huo Yuhao’s first thought after his spiritual power reached its limit was that Radiant City was impregnable.

Yes, Radiant City gave him a feeling that it was impregnable.

That was just incredible. A city as large as that could give him a feeling that it was impregnable? That almost made him feel a little abnormal.

This wasn’t Huo Yuhao’s first time at Radiant City, and every visit gave him different sensations. There was no doubt that Radiant City had changed a lot over the past two years, but one couldn’t observe those changes simply by looking with his or her eyes. Only someone who could investigate and observe every inch of the city could discover the city’s frightening hidden strength.

Perhaps not even the Holy Ghost Church is aware…

The corner of Huo Yuhao’s mouth curved into a mocking smile. If the Death God Douluo, Ye Xishui knew of the strength hidden within Radiant City, who knew how she would feel.

Huo Yuhao couldn’t reach the royal palace from his current position, but he tried his best to stretch his spiritual power ever further. He discovered something that piqued his interest: a high-energy compression array soul tool.

Huo Yuhao was currently on Radiant City’s southern side, and the high-energy compression array soul tool he had discovered was also on Radiant City’s southern side. A patch of buildings and structures encircled this high-energy compression array soul tool, and there was also an enormous soul tool front deployed in the area. A hundred and fifty soul engineers were responsible for guarding it, and Huo Yuhao could tell from this soul tool front’s scale that their offensive and defensive capabilities could probably cover half of Radiant City.

Radiant City’s four corners were probably arranged in similar fashion.

Back when the Body Douluo had launched a hysterical assault which he had paid for with his life, Xu Tianran had relied on the tremendous soul power stored within these high-energy compression array soul tools and unleashed the largest protective barrier in history to protect himself.

Even though those defenses didn’t allow him to completely dispel the Body Douluo’s attack, that was mostly because they were far too scattered. Huo Yuhao had witnessed how frightening high-energy compression array soul tools could be from that episode, and the soul power contained within such soul tools was just too vast. It wasn’t hard to imagine the kind of explosive fighting strength that a single soul tool front could achieve by relying on even one such soul tool.

Four such high-energy compression soul tools were enough to make Radiant City impregnable.

No, not four. There must be more than four!

Huo Yuhao suddenly thought of how Radiant City’s imperial palace suddenly became like a stronghold when it came under attack. That transformation could only be achieved with tremendous power, and it had to be supported by an equally vast power. This also meant that there was likely to be another high-energy compression array soul tool inside the imperial palace.

Impressive, Sun Moon Empire! Radiant City could truly be described as impregnable with defenses like that. That was especially so if the Imperial Soul Engineer Legion was inside Radiant City. This meant that, in this world, only a God would probably have the strength to damage and destroy Radiant City.

Huo Yuhao couldn’t help but think about the God of Emotions, Rong Nianbing. His strength was far from enough. At least, he didn’t have enough strength to unleash the Morning Dew Dagger’s full potential. Otherwise, how the Princess of the Sea force him into such a sorry position in the Ice Sea?

Huo Yuhao circled around Radiant City for about a quarter of its circumference before he laid down in the vegetation and continued his investigation. Radiant City’s circumstances were almost identical to his speculations, and there was a large soul tool front deployed on every side, each of which drew power from a high-energy compression array soul tool, while there were soul engineers operating it from within.

Huo Yuhao discovered after several attempts that if he wanted to use his spiritual power to detect the plants’ spiritual undulations, his body also had to be in contact with plants.

For instance, he would have to lie down in Bluesilver Grass, or in a thicket. He could also lean against a tree trunk. If his body wasn’t touching any plants, there was no way he could sense their spiritual undulations.