However, right at this moment, a faint smile suddenly appeared on Tang Wulin's face as he sat within his mecha's pilot room. Even if anyone could see the smile that was currently on his face, they wouldn't be able to comprehend it.
"This next attack will spell the end for you!" The Tyrant Dragon had already reached Bubble King, yet he remained completely unflustered as the propeller on his mecha's back was activated, abruptly sending it flying upward. It completed an exquisite evasive maneuver up above, and the maneuver had been completed so quickly that the spectators almost lost sight of him for an instant.
Were these maneuvers really possible for a generic mecha to perform? It was undoubtedly the case that this had exceeded the limits of generic mecha. However, if one were to look closely, they'd discover that a rubbery substance of the same color as his bubbles had appeared over all of the joints of his mecha, and that substance had clearly fortified the generic mecha, allowing it to perform maneuvers that would've been far too strenuous to complete otherwise.
The bubble that Bubble King had released expanded even further. At this point, even if Tang Wulin could still somehow withstand his attack, he was still firmly on the back foot and could only passively defend himself.
However, just as the massive bubble was about to be released, Bubble King's mecha suddenly faltered in mid-air. The pause was extremely abrupt, to the extent that even the spectators were momentarily rooted to the spot.
Immediately thereafter, the bubble around him began to turn red.
What was happening? Why was he making the bubble turn red so quickly? Didn't this mean that it was going to explode? At this point, virtually all of the spectators had identified the abilities that the colors of the bubbles corresponded to, but they were completely perplexed about why Bubble King was choosing to detonate his own bubble prior to releasing it!
Before the spectators had a chance to react, a resounding boom had already rung out, and the huge bubble exploded!
What was going on? Had Bubble King just committed suicide?
All of the spectators were completely flabbergasted. Bubble King's mecha had released its protective barrier, but the barrier of a generic mecha was no match for such a devastating explosion, and the mecha was instantly reduced to a ball of fire.
Immediately thereafter, a gigantic tail that was shimmering with dark golden light swept through the air, instantly sending the fireball flying, and as it hurtled through the air a string of loud explosions erupted.
"The victory goes to Number 66!"
He won?
Who would've thought that the match would conclude under such farcical circumstances just as Bubble King had seized an absolute advantage?
It appeared as if Bubble King had committed suicide while his opponent was completely at his mercy...
Tang Wulin's mecha slowly stood up, and the gargantuan Tyrant Dragon stood beside the mecha, looking extremely intimidating. Despite the spectators' confusion, Tang Wulin was well aware of how he had secured that victory.
A faint smile appeared on Tang Wulin's face as he sat within the pilot room. As expected, there was a weakness, after all...
Just as Bubble King was about to unleash his final full-frontal attack, a possibility suddenly occurred to Tang Wulin.
His bubbles may have been impervious to water and fire, and possessed exemplary defensive and offensive prowess, but he still felt the need to hide something. As such, the thing that he was hiding had to be a fatal weakness. As such, a notion occurred to him; it was quite possible that these seemingly impervious bubbles were unable to keep out one type of energy, and that was spiritual power.
That's right, it was spiritual power. Whenever Bubble King released a bubble, lights of different colors would flash within those bubbles, and that was most likely the process of different soul skills being injected into the bubbles.
This meant that the basic bubbles were most likely all the same, and they only attained different abilities after the soul skills were injected into them. In that case, it was very likely that his weakness emerged whenever he was injecting his soul skill into his bubbles, and he was trying to hide this process by concealing himself within a mecha.
There was also another possibility; the bubbles themselves may not be stable enough on their own, and he had to forcibly exert control over them in order to make them truly effective for battle. Under these circumstances, the first thing Tang Wulin thought of was that his opponent could possess a spiritual weakness, which meant that if he were to be disrupted on a spiritual level, something would most likely go wrong.
Not all Soul Masters possessed spiritual offensive abilities, and spirit attribute Soul Masters were extremely rare. However, don't forget that the Tang Sect had the Purple Demon Eyes. Not only was this a great technique for cultivating one's spiritual power, it could also unleash a spiritual attack. The more abundant one's spiritual power was, the more effective the Purple Demon Eyes would be.
Tang Wulin's spiritual power was already close to the Spirit Domain realm, which was undoubtedly an extremely high level, and even among Titled Douluos, there were very few who could match him in this regard. As such, his Purple Demon Eyes were naturally devastatingly powerful. Thus, he decided to experiment with a spiritual attack right as his opponent was releasing a soul skill, and it turned out that he was right.
The spiritual disruption caused Bubble King to lose control over his bubble for a short time, and that was all that was required for it to explode. As such, Bubble King had essentially fallen on his own sword.
Even so, Tang Wulin still had a lot of admiration for his opponent. Even though he had been defeated, there was no way that he would be piloting a generic mecha in real life, and as long as his mecha in the real world possessed powerful spiritual defensive prowess, then he really would be presenting a near-invincible package.
It was no wonder that he had chosen to become a mecha pilot when it was very likely that he wasn't even a battle armor master; this was the underlying secret.
In any case, this Bubble King would definitely be considered to be one of the most powerful mechas pilots in the real world.
Compared to the frustrating and inexplicable victory he'd secured over Sima Jinchi, this one made a lot more sense as he at least knew how he had won.
However, there was more admiration than excitement in his heart. During this competition, he had witnessed the abilities of many powerful beings, and the experience had shown him that this world was filled with beings with unimaginable powers. He had witnessed so many strange martial souls, soul skills, and battle styles, and this had greatly broadened his horizons. Furthermore, this experience had improved his practical combat experience far more so than in his past cultivation.
As such, Tang Wulin was genuinely grateful toward Blood One for assigning him this mission.
Now, Tang Wulin could say with confidence that he was Blood Nine of the Blood God Battalion. He had made it into the grand final of both the mecha battle and Soul Master battle disciplines, and he knew that his cover had most likely already been blown.
After he unleashed his Golden Dragon Roar, there were surely some keen-eyed spectators who had identified the fact that many of his abilities overlapped with those of Golden Dragon King.
He had made it into the grand final of both disciplines, and it could already be said that he was the true overall champion of the Star Battle Net Inter-federation Competition.
Tang Wulin didn't pay much attention to the spectators' cries of surprise and expressions of befuddlement. He left the Star Cabin, and the first thing that he did was take a hot shower.
Even though the Star Battle Net was only a simulated world, the sticky sensation that Tang Wulin had experienced from Bubble King's bubbles was still very unpleasant, and he felt a lot better after taking a shower.
His semifinal opponents were already this difficult to deal with; what challenges would he face in the grand final?
It had been a very long time since Tang Wulin had looked forward to something as much as he was looking forward to this. He was truly filled with anticipation for the grand final matches!
He wasn't even thinking about whether he would be able to become the final champion. In comparison, being able to fight these powerful opponents brought him even more joy than becoming the champion, and this was a path that he had to take.
He didn't meditate as he had won this battle more so with his own intelligence. In reality, he still had many trump cards he hadn't used, and he only unleashed a small number of his soul skills.
As such, even if he hadn't found Bubble King's fatal weakness, it was still far from certain that he would've lost that match. However, being able to defeat a powerful opponent with his intelligence was still very satisfying to him.
After exiting his dormitory room, he didn't go to the resting area. There were simply far too many people there. Almost everyone in the legion knew of him now, and he could no longer find the peace and quiet that he sought in the cafe.
Thus, Tang Wulin arrived in his forging workshop instead.
It had been quite a few days since he'd last visited his workshop. He had been constantly busying himself with preparing for the finals recently, and as soon as he caught sight of his familiar forging bench, a scorching sensation immediately welled up in his heart.
Following the conclusion of the competition, he was going to be very busy. Firstly, he was going to prepare the metals required for his suit of three-word battle armor, at least to a basic level. On top of that, he had to construct a black mecha that was suitable for himself with the best materials possible.
The mecha battle competition and Ling Wuyue's instructions had made him develop a strong sense of fascination toward mechas, and besides, there was no conflict between being a battle armor master and a mecha pilot! Unfortunately, that wasn't the case in the generic mechas supplied by the Star Battle Net as there wasn't enough space in there after he donned his suit of battle armor.