This Soul Guide Competition, hosted by the three strongest black market forces in Mingdu, is fundamentally aimed at seeking profits.
No one would do anything that doesn't bring any benefit.
This Soul Guide Competition is exactly such a case.
The three black market forces want to leverage the popularity of the Soul Fighting Competition to gather a large amount of rare metals. Since betting is forbidden in the Soul Fighting Competition itself, they naturally thought of holding this Soul Guide Competition.
Competing in crafting Soul-guiding Devices, and differentiating it from the Soul Fighting Competition as much as possible to provide a distinct spectacle.
Firstly, it attracts those audiences who want to see some fresh competitions after watching the Soul Fighting Competition, and secondly, it draws in the geniuses from various Soul Guide Academies, gathering popularity.
Even though the Douluo Three Kingdoms may be behind in terms of Soul-guiding Device standards, there are still "geniuses" who reach Level 4 or Level 5 Soul Guide by the age of twenty. How could they not be prideful?
Not everyone can accurately recognize the real disparities between Soul-guiding Devices.
After all, even at the Soul Fighting Competition, both sides' Soul Guides cannot exhibit the differences in their application of Soul-guiding Devices.
The Sun and Moon Empire's Soul Guides generally hold the advantage, but in the eyes of the Douluo Three Kingdoms, it's merely a gap caused by the Sun and Moon Empire's abundant resources.
They cannot even access many of the rare metals necessary for crafting Soul-guiding Devices, thus naturally falling behind in terms of the quality of Soul-guiding Devices.
This reflects the thoughts of most Soul Guide "geniuses" within the Douluo Three Kingdoms.
After all, for technologies excluding the Seventh-level, those at Level 6 and below, even if behind, the Douluo Three Kingdoms can gradually make up for and improve over time.
At least, after studying these difficult theories, the geniuses here wouldn't think their Soul-guiding Device technology is inferior to the talents of the Sun and Moon Empire.
Little do they know, all cultivation ultimately comes down to a process of simplifying complexity, and after simplifying complexity, it's another process of complicating simplicity, repeated over and over.
And these geniuses in the Douluo Three Kingdoms clearly have not developed their Soul-guiding Devices to the most intricate level, unaware of the role simplification plays.
Nor have they realized the impact of simplicity.
In conclusion, this Soul Guide Competition serves as an exploitation of the Douluo Three Kingdoms.
Of course, some large forces from the Sun and Moon Empire, as well as wealthy sect families, are also their targets for profit.
However, the massive tourists from the Douluo Three Kingdoms, including the geniuses from various Academy sects, are indeed their baseline for not losing money.
"This time, the three black market forces have spared no expense, inviting the royal tributor, Ninth-level Soul Guide Ye Yulin, as the chief judge. The Ninth-level Soul-guiding Device reward for this competition is Ye Yulin's renowned Soul-guiding Device, the Sun Divine Needle!"
"Master Ye Yulin!" Huo Yuhao exclaimed upon listening to Su Yu's introduction of the Soul Guide Competition.
Huo Yuhao is not very clear on how many Ninth-level Soul Guides the Sun and Moon Empire has, because Ninth-level Soul Guides are basically cultivated either in the Mingde Hall or in the military, and regardless of where they originated from, they ultimately contribute to the Empire, adding to its research.
Of course, there are still many well-known Ninth-level Soul Guides.
Among the three most renowned figures is this Ye Yulin, alongside the Mingde Hall's Hall Master, Mirror Hongchen—Huo Yuhao's teacher, one of the three leading Ninth-level Soul Guides.
Ye Yulin's Sun Divine Needle was even used by Kong Deming in conjunction with his own Sun Martial Soul, tremendously powerful. In the return journey of the previous Soul Fighting Competition, he severely injured Poison Undying and Xian Lin'er with the stored power of the Sun Divine Needle.
Su Yu knew this Ye Yulin's Sun Divine Needle had seemingly been upgraded later; the reward this time, the Sun and Moon Divine Needle, is an upgraded version of the Sun Divine Needle, overcoming the limitation of maximal power only during daytime.
It must be said, whether it's the Sun Divine Needle or the Sun and Moon Divine Needle, they are too suited for Kong Deming...
However, Ye Yulin's Martial Soul is the starry sky, inherently more abstract, so choosing to craft Soul-guiding Devices based on the Sun and Moon, two representative stars found in the starry sky, is indeed reasonable.
Even encompassing the ability to integrate the name of the Sun and Moon Empire within, further enhancing his own fame.
Or perhaps, as Ye Yulin improved the Sun Divine Needle and Sun and Moon Divine Needle, did Kong Deming assist him?
After all, Kong Deming's mastery in the Soul-guiding Device realm is unparalleled; he's considered a unique existence, a half-step Tenth-level Soul Guide, not included among the three top Ninth-level Soul Guides.
"Both the Sun Divine Needle and Sun and Moon Divine Needle are so small, that crafting them is definitely not easy; designing and constructing the core array in them must be exceedingly challenging."
But, those are insignificant details.
Su Yu looked towards the eager Huo Yuhao, not dimming his excitement.
"And to attract outstanding Soul Guides to participate, the competition will be held in many rounds, each round an elimination match with rare metal rewards."
As long as one passes a round of testing, there will be a reward of rare metals.
And passing the second round will bring an extra reward of the second round.
The higher the final level reached, the richer the reward.
...
Each of the three black market forces has its arena, and the final champions from each will undergo additional competition, with only the ultimate victor entitled to the Ninth-level Soul-guiding Device reward.
Su Yu reviewed the reward list, full of emotions.