Chapter 1128: Heavy Ion Laser

A wry smile appeared on Tang Wulin's face. "I don't know what happened, either, but it appears that your martial soul really is quite closely related to my bloodline."

Sima Jinchi nodded in response. "I could sense during our last battle in the Star Battle Net that I had made a breakthrough to become a Titled Douluo, but I returned to normal after logging out. I came to find you in the hope of sparring with you to see if I can make this breakthrough in real life, but I didn't think that I'd encounter all of this. What happened back there? Did you actively exert control over me?"

Tang Wulin shook his head. "I'm not sure what happened, either. When your Dragonslaying Saber evolved, I was struck by an instinctive feeling that I should adopt my martial soul true body form, and at the time, it felt as if your Dragonslaying Saber had become a part of my body. After that, I used it to attack before I really even knew what I was doing."

Sima Jinchi's lips twitched upon hearing this. It didn't take a genius to realize what had happened. He had always thought that his Dragonslaying Saber martial soul stood at the pinnacle of this world, but not only was it closely related to Tang Wulin's bloodline, it was clearly a subsidiary entity to his Golden Dragon King bloodline! With his pride and ego, this was quite a bitter pill to swallow. However, he had to admit that just being with Tang Wulin was clearly taking him closer to making that elusive breakthrough.

Tang Wulin shrugged in a resigned manner at the sight of Sima Jinchi's dark expression. "This isn't necessarily a bad thing; we're friends, after all."

Sima Jinchi opened his mouth, and he really wanted to deny any friendly affiliation with Tang Wulin, but he couldn't bring himself to do so. After all, Tang Wulin had saved his life not long ago, and saying something like that would be far too hurtful.

A'Ruheng chuckled, "You should just resign yourself to your fate; it's not necessarily a bad thing to act as a weapon for my junior disciple brother! Besides, it's not like you can change anything anyway."

Sima Jinchi turned to A'Ruheng with a vicious look on his face. "I'd advise you not to run your mouth! I haven't even exacted my revenge on you yet; you better be on your guard in case I chop you into pieces!"

"Come at me!" A'Ruheng raised his eyebrows in a provocative manner.

"Yuxue, what's that gun that's equipped to your mecha?" Tang Wulin pretended not to be able to hear the quarrel taking place as he turned to Long Yuxue, who was resting nearby.

She had already emerged from her black mecha at Tang Wulin's request, and his question instantly drew A'Ruheng and Sima Jinchi's attention, both of whom also turned to appraise Long Yuxue.

Even Bear Lord hadn't been able to ward off an attack from her giant gun, and no matter how conceited they were, they weren't delusional enough to think that they could fare any better. As such, both of them were quite curious to hear Long Yuxue's response. Had modern technology really already developed to such an extraordinary extent? If even Limit Douluos could be killed so easily with modern weaponry, then what was the point in cultivating for Soul Masters like them?

Long Yuxue remained completely expressionless as she replied, "This is the newest technology developed by our legion's research facility; it's called heavy ion laser."

"Heavy ion laser?" This was the first time that they had heard of such a thing.

Long Yuxue took an indifferent glance at A'Ruheng and Sima Jinchi. "This is confidential military information that can't be disclosed to outsiders."

Sima Jinchi and A'Ruheng's expressions stiffened in unison upon hearing this.

Tang Wulin glanced at them before turning back to Long Yuexue. "They're a part of our Blood Dragon Squad, so they should count as members of our legion; if it's not a strictly confidential matter, can you make an exception for them?"

"Yes yes! Please tell us," A'Ruheng urged as he nodded in an eager manner.

Sima Jinchi was working hard to put on an aloof display, but he was unable to disguise the burning curiosity in his eyes. No one wanted to face such terrifying indefensible attacks in the future!

Long Yuxue paused momentarily before complying. "Alright, you don't need to know exactly how these weapons work anyway. The red lasers that everyone else used are proton lasers. Proton lasers are very special in that they possess extremely potent penetrative properties, allowing them to be able to pierce through virtually all energy and physical defenses. However, proton lasers aren't very powerful, and they're like normal beams of light that aren't harmful to the human body. However, after research and development, we've been able to use these proton lasers as bridges over certain distances. When these lasers reach a certain depth into one's body, we can ignite these lasers through these bridges in order to damage a target's body from the inside, thereby resulting in direct damage to one's internal organs. This technology is already quite mature in our legion, but due to its extreme destructive power, it's something that's currently only available to our legion. As for the heavy ion laser that I used, that's still in its experimental phase, but to explain it in simple terms, it's a more powerful version of proton lasers.

"If proton lasers are ignited within a target's body, then striking a target with a heavy ion laser would be like detonating a soul bomb directly within their body. The main flaw of heavy ion lasers and proton lasers is that they have a relatively short effective range, and with current technology, they're only effective within 300 meters. Any further than that, and we won't be able to accurately detonate the lasers within the target's body.

Long Yuxue's explanation was a little complex, and it left both A'Ruheng and Sima Jinchi slightly befuddled. Thankfully, Tang Wulin was able to provide a simpler summarized explanation. "So what you're saying is that these long-range weapons can disregard the target's defenses and shoot lasers that can be detonated within the target's body?"

Long Yuxue nodded in response. "That's the general gist of these weapons. In practice, it's a lot more complex to explain, but you can interpret it like that."

Disregard defenses...

That was way too insane!

Sima Jinchi couldn't help but ask, "Even battle armor and mechas can't keep out these lasers?"

Long Yuxue replied, "Suits of battle armor at or above the three-word level and red mechas can keep proton lasers at bay, but there's still a chance for these lasers to break through following sustained periods of striking their target. As for heavy ion lasers, only suits of four-word battle armor have been established to be a complete counter. Of course, battle armor of lower calibers can also weaken the effects of these lasers, but that guy from before didn't have any defensive equipment, so the laser was able to detonate directly inside his body. However, his internal constitution must also be extremely powerful. Otherwise, that heavy ion laser beam should've been able to detonate his internal organs."

"Gulp!" A'Ruheng gulped nervously as a chill ran down his spine.

His greatest weapon was none other than his body! He was the future heir of the Body Sect, and he normally didn't even like to use his suit of battle armor during battle. However, these proton lasers and heavy ion lasers seemed as if they had been tailor-made to target him! He had thought that his body was completely impervious after successfully cultivating the Body Sect's congenital secret method, but it appeared that his confidence was completely blind and unfounded!

Tang Wulin couldn't help but heave a faint sigh. "Modern technology really is advancing far too quickly. Were these proton and heavy ion laser weapons created to target the abyssal plane?"

Long Yuxue nodded in response. "Proton laser technology is already mature, and if those abyssal creatures had managed to break through our defensive line that day, the proton lasers would've been used on them. Shooting proton lasers requires a huge amount of energy expenditure, but it's extremely effective against living beings without metallic suits of armor, so it had always been designed to target abyssal creatures. In contrast, they won't be very effective against mechas unless one can target the vital regions of the pilot controlling the mecha. Only after heavy ion lasers were invented was this problem rectified. However, heavy ion weaponry is still in the infancy stages of its development, and the one I'm using is currently the smallest one that can be used in a stable manner."

Tang Wulin, A'Ruheng, and Sima Jinchi were finally feeling a little more reassured after hearing her explanation.

However, regardless of what the situation was like now, the fact of the matter was that humans had already invented such weapons, so they would end up in the hands of the military sooner or later. It appeared that the Soul Masters of future generations would have no choice but to learn to better use this modern equipment.

Was this a good thing or a bad thing?

After developing a deeper understanding of everyone's abilities, Tang Wulin was feeling a lot more assured. Even though the situation from earlier had been very dangerous, they had still managed to force away a powerful being, who was essentially equivalent in power to a Limit Douluo that wasn't wearing any battle armor. This indicated that they had the power to oppose some of the most powerful beings in this world.

"Where do we go next?" A'Ruheng asked.

Tang Wulin opened his electronic map and used the GPS to ascertain their current location, then pointed toward a certain direction. "We'll go to Bright City first, then take a soul train further into the continent."

They were indeed part of the military, but the Blood God Legion had been established in the Skyend Mountain Ranges to defend against the abyssal plane, and if so many of the legion's black mechas were to fly into a city at once, they would definitely be discovered by radars, which would lead to a lot of unnecessary problems.

Of course, Tang Wulin was still rather apprehensive as he mentioned the words "soul train". He had already lost count of the number of accidents he'd encountered while traveling by soul train, and it seemed that he and high-speed soul trains simply weren't meant to be. ...... 

Bright City, the capital city of the Douluo Federation. Following the demolition of Shrek City, Bright City had become the largest city on the entire continent. It was situated in the western region of the continent, and resembled a forest of iron and steel.