Douluo Continent: The Twin Sons of the Styx River, Shaking the World and Destroying the Heavens

Chapter 210 Competition
To give a simple example, among rare metals, Soul Silver has an extremely high affinity for soul power. It can fuse with any metal, not only enhancing the metal's affinity for the soul master's soul power, but also improving the metal's toughness and hardness. It is an essential material for almost all high-level soul tools.

Today, with the widespread use of battle armor and mechs, Soul-Forging Silver has become indispensable. Even if its forging process is lacking, it can compensate for some of its shortcomings with its own characteristics.

This rare metal is only produced in the Sun Moon Empire, with moderate yields and a mining cost of approximately 500 gold soul coins per kilogram. However, on the market, its price is as high as 1,000 gold soul coins per gram, resulting in a profit of two thousand times! Such astonishing profits are enough to drive countless people mad.

Even with layers of markups in the trading channels, the final profit is still extremely considerable. And among rare metals, the profit margin for Soul Forging Silver isn't even the highest.

Rare metals, such as Tianxing iron, which can be used for forging, are even scarcer and command incredibly high prices.

Faced with such a tempting windfall, the three major underground forces of Mingdu, with their influence that extends almost throughout the country, naturally wouldn't miss the opportunity to get a share of the pie.

Even though the state monopolizes the rare metals industry, classifies them as strategic materials and prohibits their export, the black market trade in rare metals still brings substantial profits to these three powers every year.

The three major underground forces named this competition the Mingdu Soul Master Elite Tournament, echoing the Continental Youth Advanced Soul Master Elite Tournament. The chosen venue was the Xishui Alliance, the strongest of the three underground forces overall, yet secretly restrained by the other two. This arrangement was clearly intended to monitor the Holy Spirit Cult's movements during the tournament.

The preliminary rounds, overseen by the Xishui Alliance, were held at a high-end hotel in the city center—the Qingse Hotel, a place with a rather distinctive name. It was only a little over a kilometer from the Mingyue Hotel and a mere two kilometers from the Sun and Moon Empire's palace, occupying an absolutely prime location. This hotel was owned by the Xishui Alliance, but whether the alliance's headquarters were located there remained unknown.

On the surface, Qingse Hotel is not as large as Mingyue Hotel, with only five floors above ground. However, those familiar with it know that its true strength lies in its underground section.

The sky had completely darkened, and perhaps the daytime competition had exhausted the people, making Mingdu seem rather deserted at night. There were few pedestrians on the streets, and the vast majority of people were already asleep.

At a street corner about 300 meters from the Mingyue Hotel, in a dark corner, the light suddenly distorted, and then four figures appeared.

In front of the hotel's main entrance stood four burly men, each over two meters tall, dressed in tight black outfits. Their cold gazes scrutinized the passing crowd.

Xia Die and the other three disguised themselves, but Xia Die's residence was closer to the Xi Shui Alliance than other places.

Most of them didn't use their real names. It's worth mentioning that, in addition to them, Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen also participated in the competition.

Therefore, Xia Die also signed up, but in terms of the soul guidance level of the three of them, only Wang Dong'er and Jiu Li could be compared with Xia Die. They were all battle maniacs and their research on soul guidance devices was negligible.

They all changed their appearance; Xia Die simply changed her purple hair to white hair.

Wang Dong'er and Jiu Li basically both changed their hair color.

Di Qiu'er, is she? As a supreme god-king, she was infused with the [Law] destiny by Xia Die, and changing her appearance to [Immortality] or [Destruction] is a very simple matter.

The interior of the Qingse Hotel indeed exuded a youthful and unassuming feel, with a very simple layout. It was impossible to tell that this was the headquarters of the Mingdu underground forces or the crucial stronghold of the Xishui Alliance.

The entire hotel exudes a warm and inviting atmosphere, adorned with white porcelain everywhere—white porcelain floors, white porcelain walls, and all colors are based on white and red.

Afterwards, led by staff, they arrived at the underground competition venue. In stark contrast to the simple elegance of the hotel lobby, the opulent grandeur of the hotel's underground world instantly dazzled everyone. Gold was everywhere, even the mirrors, as if this underground world were entirely cast in gold.

The person leading the way was a middle-aged man.

After the middle-aged man led the four people out of the elevator, they first passed through a magnificent circular hall, and then entered a large door directly in front of them.

There were two guards at the gate. Upon seeing the middle-aged man, they immediately opened the gate and welcomed him inside.

Stepping through the gate, they felt as if they had entered another world. The light here was much softer than outside. It was a circular, domed hall, the ceiling seemingly outlined by countless orderly golden lines, the massive dome providing ample light to the entire hall. Rows of seats extended downwards in neat rows, surrounded by a ring of sloping escalators. At the end of each escalator was a suspended circular room, its levitation impossible to discern with the naked eye.

There are eighteen such suspended rooms and soul-guided escalators, subtly forming a circle. In the very center of the hall is a circular platform with a diameter exceeding thirty meters. While far less spacious than the arena of the Continental Youth Advanced Soul Master Elite Tournament, it is still quite astonishing—and this is, after all, the underground world.

At this moment, dozens of metal tables were set up on the competition stage, with the light of soul tools flashing intermittently. There were also some metal tables around the round platform, totaling more than one hundred, some of which were already empty.

The outer ring of sapphire blue velvet chairs was filled with people, all quietly and intently watching those working around the metal tables in the center. A conservative estimate puts the number of spectators at over two thousand.

Judging from their attire, everyone present was either wealthy or of high status. Those who could attend in person were all big bettors, having wagered at least ten thousand gold soul coins; ordinary people who wanted to place bets could only do so through the peripheral betting points of these underground forces.

The fact that just one sub-region attracted hundreds of Soul Masters under the age of thirty to participate shows just how attractive this underground black market competition is!

"Excuse me, how many people are there from the Xishui Alliance in this competition?" Xia Die leaned forward slightly, her gaze falling on the face of the middle-aged man who was leading the way, her tone calm yet carrying a hint of inquiry.

Upon hearing this, the middle-aged man immediately stopped and bowed slightly, his posture extremely respectful: "In response to your question, our Xishui Alliance has a total of 264 Soul Masters who have registered for the competition this time. Including you two who just joined, that makes 266." He paused, then pointed to several clean metal tables not far away, "Actually, quite a few Soul Masters have already completed their creations and are waiting for the qualification review results."

"Today's match is a qualifying round. The rules aren't too complicated. As long as you can make a level-three soul tool within the allotted time, you'll pass the qualification review." The middle-aged man said, then gestured to the soul masters' workbenches. "Please look, each of you has a specially made hourglass on the upper right corner of your desk. The sand flows at a uniform speed, making it perfect for timing."

He glanced up at the golden dome at the top of the hall, as if estimating the time, and then added: "However, there is something I need to make clear to you two. There is only half an hourglass left before the last batch of Soul Masters are finished being produced—which is about half an hour in our usual timekeeping."

"You two have just arrived. I wonder if you should make some preparations first? The time is neither too tight nor too loose, and I'm afraid it might delay your business." After saying this, he stood aside with his hands at his sides, waiting for their response, his eyes filled with concern.

"No need for preparations, let's begin."

Xia Die and Wang Dong'er acted quickly, winning the championship in less than a few minutes.

The first round of qualifying was won easily. The qualifying rounds would last for three days. By the time the qualifying rounds were halfway through, the second round of the All-Continent Youth Advanced Soul Master Elite Tournament had also ended, and forty-two teams entered the third round.

The second round of the All-Continent Youth Advanced Soul Master Elite Tournament has concluded, with forty-two teams successfully advancing to the third round. Compared to the first two rounds, the overall pace of this round was considerably more relaxed.

After all, even if a team is unfortunately defeated in this round, as long as the accumulated points are high enough, they can still strive to enter the round-robin stage in the loser's bracket.

After the trials and tribulations of the first two rounds, teams whose overall strength was not particularly outstanding are now showing signs of fatigue and decline. Issues such as player injuries during intense matches, or even player losses due to serious injuries preventing them from continuing to compete, have become thorny problems plaguing them and have a significant impact on subsequent matches.

The third round is a round-robin tournament, and compared to the previous knockout stage, the results are obviously not as straightforward. The thirty-two teams that successfully advanced to the round-robin stage will be divided into four groups of eight teams each to compete in a single round-robin format.

This means that each team will have to compete against the other seven teams in the same group, one match per team.

After entering the round-robin stage, the competition is arranged so that each of the two groups of teams plays four matches every day. On the second day, the other two groups will play four matches each in the morning and afternoon.

The entire round-robin tournament will take approximately fourteen days to complete. The draw results for the first match of the third round were quickly announced.

However, for the Tang Clan, this draw result was somewhat ambiguous.

The first match of the third round of the tournament will be between St. Freya Academy and Tang Sect.

The reason why this draw seems so subtle is that Tang Sect really has to directly confront St. Freya Academy in this round of the tournament and decide the winner.

There are still qualifying matches to play, so deciding the outcome in this round is hardly a wise choice.

(End of this chapter)