Chapter 102: Answering the First Question

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Twenty minutes later, Xu Lin emerged from within the Golden Ancient Tree, holding a disk with a diameter of about thirty centimetres in his hands. Ancient patterns adorned its surface, embellished with some silvery starlight.

"Star Elder, I've chosen this Soul Device, the Star Disc," Xu Lin exclaimed excitedly. "According to the description, it's an auxiliary Soul Device. As long as it's placed on the ground and infused with soul power, it can attract starlight, aiding Soul Masters who are sensitive to the stars in their cultivation. It also provides some assistance to Soul Kings, with a range of twenty meters in radius."

"Hmm, not bad," Star Elder replied, taking the Star Disc and storing it inside his storage Soul Device, wearing a satisfied expression.

Compared to attack-type Soul Devices, these auxiliary effects were better.

This thing was akin to a mobile simulated environment, a treasure that could increase the speed of cultivation for younger disciples in the sect.

Seeing the benefits gained by the Star Crown Sect, the others couldn't sit still and began their challenges. The final spoils would be distributed based on the contributions of the four factions.

However, the humanoid Soul Mecha was indeed difficult to defeat. Over the past five days, aside from the initial lucky experiment by the Star Crown Sect, which defeated one humanoid Soul Mecha in five attempts, in the following ten days, despite the collaboration of the four teams, they only managed to acquire five Soul Devices in total. Among them, four were storage Soul Devices, with each team getting one, and the storage space was over ten cubic meters per device.

For most Soul Masters, they trusted their own martial souls and soul skills more. Attack-type Soul Devices were far less practical for them compared to storage Soul Devices.

Only that old man from the Star Crown Sect seemed to care a bit.

During these ten days, Tang San hadn't participated in any one-on-one challenges but had been observing the different soul guide pathways constructed by the humanoid Soul Mecha when battling different Soul Masters, summarizing the principles behind their soul skill releases.

Although the fundamental reasons were still unclear, based on external appearances, the operation of these pathways was actually similar, if not identical, to that of daily life Soul Devices, just a tad more complex.

Through these ten days, Tang San had indeed deduced some effects from the different constructions of soul guide pathways.

However, it was only a few, and figuring out how to combine them was a major issue. Tang San felt like his brain was almost not enough.

"It seems that in the future, we need to recruit more people interested in researching Soul Devices," Tang San rubbed his temples, deeply understanding what it meant to be limited by one's own intellect.

However, Tang San noticed that Guang Ling was very interested in the compositions of soul guide pathways he had summarized, even surpassing his research on martial souls.

"Not bad for my disciple," Tang San thought rather self-conceitedly, then proceeded with his first challenge.

As he stepped onto the stage, everyone's attention turned to him, wanting to see how powerful this master of martial soul theory truly was.

But Tang San's actions surprised them all.

"I want to undertake the questionnaire challenge."

As soon as he spoke, golden light emanated from the eyes of the giant Soul Mecha, constructing a virtual image before Tang San, with a futuristic and high-tech feel.

[Questionnaire Challenge Initiated!]

[The rules are as follows:]

[1. During the process of answering questions, participants may seek assistance from external personnel, but the opportunity is limited to three times.]

[2. For every correct answer, you may obtain one Level One Soul Device, or enter the cultivation space for one hour; for every wrong answer, you must accept a one-on-one challenge and cannot surrender.]

[3. There are a total of one hundred questions. Participants can choose to terminate immediately upon answering correctly and claim their reward. If they choose to continue the challenge and answer incorrectly, all rewards will be reset, and they will face punishment.]

[4. Ten Level One Soul Devices can be exchanged for one Level Two Soul Device. There are a total of nine levels of Soul Devices, and so on.]

[5. If all one hundred questions are answered correctly, you will become the inheritor of the Golden Civilization, and all Soul Mechas will obey the inheritor's commands.]

Everyone saw the rules of the questionnaire, especially the fifth one, making everyone breathe rapidly.

To become the inheritor of the Golden Civilization? Command all the Soul Mechas here?

Wouldn't that make them invincible?

These Mechas, while their specific combat capabilities were unknown, when a Soul Saint tried to force his way in before, he was instantly killed. Moreover, the giant Mecha had only slightly raised its head, emitting light from its eyes.

At the very least, it was at the level of a Titled Douluo!

And there were over a thousand of these giant Soul Mechas here!

[Please answer the first question!]

After the rules were announced, Tang San faced a screen displaying twelve perfectly integrated soul guide pathways, connecting from start to finish, resembling different shapes of Möbius strips.

This left everyone else puzzled, unsure of what they were looking at.

"The basic soul guide pathways consist of twelve fundamental elements. All Soul Devices operate based on the combination of these twelve soul guide pathways. Please state what elemental properties each of these twelve basic soul guide pathways represents."

Niu Gang blurted out, "Who could possibly know this?"

Star Elder sneered, "That's why I said, no one can answer it. Even if this Tang San is a master of martial soul theory, he definitely doesn't know what those soul guide pathways represent."

Bai Luo from the Holy Dragon Sect sighed, shaking his head, "If these twelve soul guide pathways had colors, we might be able to make some guesses. After all, different elemental soul power has different colors, but these twelve soul guide pathways are all gray, making it difficult to guess."

Tang San recalled the pathways he had seen when dismantling life Soul Devices before and identified seven of them: light, wind, thunder, water, earth, fire, and ice.

In life Soul Devices, there were soul guide lamps that emitted light, soul guide fans that produced wind, soul guide lighters for igniting fires, soul guide refrigerators, and so on. Tang San could naturally find the corresponding attributes.

For the remaining five, Tang San could only rely on his observations and guesses.

For example, light and darkness were opposing elements. He had already identified the soul guide pathway for light, so the soul guide pathway for darkness should have a similar shape to the light element's soul guide pathway but in reverse.

He wasn't sure if it was true, but Tang San could only make such judgments for now.

Then, based on his previous guesses, Tang San considered the relationship between the pathways of Soul Devices and the flow channels of soul power within soul rings. He found a pathway similar to his Blue Silver Grass martial soul's soul ring, labeling it as the life attribute. Then, based on the appearance of its pathway, he found the corresponding death attribute.

As for the last two soul guide pathways, one was the purest form of a Möbius strip, without any extra shapes, which Tang San labeled as representing the attribute of space. Then, there was the last one, also a Möbius strip but oriented vertically and looking more ethereal than the other eleven.

After some hesitation, Tang San ultimately chose "time" as the answer.

After all, if space existed, then time must also exist, and time only had meaning when attached to space. Moreover, it was even difficult to say whether time truly existed in reality.

[Congratulations, the answer is correct!]

"He actually got it right!"

"How is that possible?"

"He must be cheating!"

Star Elder, Niu Gang, Bai Luo, and others couldn't believe it, but Fire Phoenix turned to Xiao Wu and asked, "Has Tang San studied Soul Devices before?"

"Yes, he's bought quite a few life Soul Devices," Xiao Wu glanced at the Star Crown Sect, the Royal Family, the Holy Dragon Sect, and the civilian Soul Hunting Team, making sure they weren't paying attention before quietly disclosing some insignificant information.

(End of Chapter)