Douluo Dragon King: I'm creating a golden age behind the scenes!

Zuo Qiulun felt the pressure from the overwhelming Soul Saint-level soul power emanating from Lie Hongchen, each strike feeling like a heavy hammer blow to his body. However, there was no fear in his eyes; instead, a burning fighting spirit ignited within him.

As soon as he finished speaking, a burly figure with a striking resemblance to him appeared behind him, and at the same time, four spirit rings rose from beneath Zuo Qiulun's feet.

"Black! Black! Black! Black!"

Surrounding him were four ancient, black soul rings that had been there for ten thousand years!

"That's it!" Makino, who was watching the game, seemed to sense something and suddenly stood up.

While the black spirit ring was rare and powerful, it was not enough to make this sect master lose his composure. What truly surprised him was the terrifying blood energy that followed!

Suddenly, Zuo Qiulun roared, a sound that seemed to pierce the clouds and shatter the heavens. The blood and qi within his body instantly boiled, surging wildly around him like a raging fire.

Immediately afterwards, a faint red glow began to emanate from his body, a manifestation of the highly concentrated power of his qi and blood.

As his blood and qi surged, a powerful force erupted from his body. This force transformed into a plume of blood-red smoke that shot into the sky, dazzlingly bright under the sunlight. It tumbled and twisted in the air, igniting the air wherever it went, producing a hissing sound.

At the center of the arena, under the pressure of Lie Hongchen's soul power, with overwhelming force, it pressed down on Lie Hongchen, directly squeezing and shattering the soul power aura of his battle armor!

"His body was brimming with powerful energy, like a raging storm! I wasn't mistaken! That was a raging storm of energy!"

Makino took a few steps forward, as if he had seen some rare treasure, and was overjoyed.

"My own martial soul! Plus the Qi and Blood Wolf Smoke! I'm taking this kid in!"

Seeing Mu Ye's sudden change in expression, Li Ziming couldn't help but smile.

[Who was trying to act all high and mighty just now? Now they've really fallen for it?!]

Of course, you can't say these things directly, or you'll easily get beaten up.

Seeing Lie Hongchen's aura collapse, Zuo Qiulun withdrew his qi and blood to his body, then took off his coat, revealing the weighted vest he was wearing. He then pulled out two obviously smelted four-sided steel pillars from the weighted vest, removed them, and threw them to the ground.

Lie Hongchen didn't take it seriously at first, until he heard the solid sound of the weighted vest hitting the ground—"Thump!!!"

The ground of the competition platform shook as well, causing Lie Hongchen to glance over.

"!!!"

However, he quickly realized that he was still in the game, which made Lie Hongchen quickly shift his gaze and try to focus on Zuo Qiulun.

As expected, Zuo Qiulun had disappeared from the spot where he had just stood.

The next second, the soul cannons that Lie Hongchen had previously been hovering in the field began to explode one after another. Lie Hongchen immediately realized that it was Zuo Qiulun who was behind it, but he couldn't find where he was at all. He could only hear a gust of wind and then several soul cannons exploded.

In order not to sit idly by and wait for death, they had no choice but to start the soul-guided cannons to fire indiscriminately, and for a time the field was filled with gunfire.

But it didn't seem to have any effect. You should know that after Lie Hongchen activated his battle armor, his control over metal increased dramatically.

If it weren't for the restrictions of the competition rules, they could have used level six soul cannons to attack. But even so, with the support of the battle armor, the firing rate and power of the soul cannons on the field were already comparable to level six soul tools, yet they still couldn't even touch Zuo Qiulun.

In less than twenty seconds, only forty-odd soul-guided cannons remained out of more than one hundred, and even some of the soul-guided cannons he had left with him were destroyed.

Seeing the pitiful number of weapons, Lie Hongchen realized that he could not disperse his forces any further. In order to guard against Zuo Qiulun's attack at any time, he could only quickly gather all the remaining soul-guided cannons around himself and at the same time deploy a soul-guided shield.

Sure enough, the next instant, the three layers of soul-guided shields that Lie Hongchen had already deployed all shattered, and the last instant-cast protective shield he carried with him also quickly opened, blocking the incoming blow.

As a Soul Master who deals with rare metals all year round, Lie Hongchen recognized the steel pillar in Zuo Qiulun's hand in a second.

"Damn it! Sea Nether Steel!!!" Even Lie Hongchen, who was from a noble family and usually had to pay attention to his public image, couldn't help but swear at this moment.

Sea Nether Steel is a rare metal that is only produced in the deep sea abyss. Its characteristic is that it is extremely hard, so hard that even a fixed soul-guided cannon shell may not be able to blow it apart. In theory, it should be an excellent material for making defensive soul-guided devices and battle armor, but no soul master would add it to their battle armor.

The reason is simple: it is simply too heavy. A fist-sized piece of Sea Nether Steel weighs several tons. If it were made into battle armor, even walking would be difficult for a Soul Master. No Soul Master could support it, let alone fight.

Therefore, the Federation usually uses it for fortress defense or as ballast for transport ships.

Ke Lie Hongchen looked at the two steel pillars in Zuo Qiulun's hands. They were more than the size of a fist and were clearly refined sea-dark steel that had been melted down. Their weight would only be heavier than ordinary sea-dark steel, but when Zuo Qiulun swung them, it was as if he was just swinging an ordinary wooden stick.

Seeing Zuo Qiulun about to swing his staff again, Lie Hongchen hurriedly activated his fourth spirit ring.

"Fourth Soul Skill! Sacrifice of Gold!"

The activation of the soul skill directly detonated all the soul tools around him, and flames immediately erupted on the arena. The shockwave from the explosion sent the referee flying off the arena. The soul tool protection array set up by the event organizers was activated, rising and covering the entire spectator area, but it still couldn't stop the explosion, and the protective shield began to show signs of breaking.

The next second, four figures flew out from the VIP seats. Each figure had seven soul rings rotating around them, clearly a seven-ring Soul Saint. The four stood on the four sides of the arena, releasing their soul power to protect the audience seats and thus blocking the attack, preventing the audience from being harmed.

Once the smoke and dust cleared, what the audience saw was just a large crater where the competition stage had once been.

As the audience searched for the contestants, they saw a stream of golden liquid rise from the bottom of the pit to the edge, where it coalesced and reformed into a human figure.

It was Lie Hongchen. It turned out that while detonating the soul tool, he activated the third soul skill of the three-legged golden toad—Golden Affection—transforming into liquid metal and quickly moving away from the center of the explosion.

Even so, he was seriously injured and stood there panting heavily.

[This is my fifth soul skill, activated while I'm wearing battle armor. Even that monster should be severely injured by now.]

As for killing him, Lie Hongchen had no such idea. After all, given his physical strength and speed, which had previously rendered soul-guided cannon fire ineffective, killing him was simply unrealistic.

Are you looking for me?

Suddenly, a mocking voice came from behind Lie Hongchen, causing him to stiffen. He instinctively wanted to react, but feeling the terrifying force from the hand on his shoulder, he had to abandon the idea.

He also realized that he had no chance of winning at this point.

After a moment's thought, Lie Hongchen raised his right hand and uttered a sentence.

"I give up!"

Upon seeing this, the chief referee immediately came from the referee's stand to the two men, separated them, and then turned to announce Zuo Qiulun's victory.

"Lie Hongchen concedes defeat! Therefore, Zuo Qiulun wins and advances to the finals!"

Zuo Qiulun wins the first round of the semifinals!

Facing Lie Hongchen, Zuo Qiulun didn't even unleash his soul skills; he simply charged forward with his physical body and won...

"Hmm... It's finally over."

Zuo Qiulun glanced at Lie Hongchen, then turned to leave.

However, as he turned to leave the stage, he heard Lie Hongchen's words behind him:

"I want to know, did I let you use your full strength?"

Zuo Qiulun ignored him, quickened his pace, and went straight off the stage, disappearing into the crowd.

Lie Hongchen went straight back to his waiting room, where he saw a middle-aged man standing at the door. Upon seeing the young man,

The man looked at the boy, sighed, and said, "I watched the competition. You performed very well. Don't take it too seriously."

Lie Hongchen recalled Zuo Qiulun's body, which was almost unharmed when he left, and couldn't help but think of a sentence his elders had told him.

"Xiao Lie, you have inherited the Three-Legged Golden Toad Martial Soul that your family is so proud of, and your talent in soul tools is also very good. This is good. You have the right to be proud, but never be complacent."

Go out and see the world, because there will always be monsters in this world that are beyond your comprehension. I hope you don't encounter such people, because they will overwhelm you.

But I also hope you can meet them, because living with them for a lifetime, you will never feel like there's no way forward, and you will always have the courage to move forward.

Even now, he still remembers the expression on the elder's face when he said those words. It was an extremely complex expression, a mixture of melancholy and pride, which he has kept in mind ever since.

"Father, I plan to travel around the mainland next."

The middle-aged man, who had his back to Lie Hongchen, paused briefly, then turned around to look at the young man, seemingly wanting to say something.

But seeing the same stubbornness in the boy's eyes that he himself had possessed in his youth, he simply replied with one sentence.

"Um."