Douluo Continent, Huo Yuhao who returned from Sekiro

Chapter 178 Doctor Octopus Huo Yuhao (Daily Written Version)

After a pleasant day of rest at the hotel, Huo Yuhao, unusually, did not cultivate but instead enjoyed the hotel's amenities. The hotel had quite a few indoor facilities, including an indoor swimming pool, a bar, song and dance performances, and of course, the ever-present Soul Guidance Testing Area.

If other students came and immediately immersed themselves in these activities, Qian Duoduo might scold them, saying, "I brought you to this academic conference so you could have fun."

However, Qian Duoduo's attitude towards Huo Yuhao was different.

Ning Ge, go ahead. Your junior brother is here for the first time and doesn't know the way. Take him around and let him relax. Whether it's cultivation or learning soul guidance knowledge, it's important to balance work and rest. How can he keep his head down and cultivate all the time?

Even so, Huo Yuhao didn't stay long. After briefly experiencing the hotel's facilities, he went into the public reading room.

Although the collection here is not large, it contains many manuscripts by academic giants in the field of Soul Guidance. Because of this, many junior Soul Guidance Masters gather here to admire the wisdom left behind by these great masters.

Of course, it's quite difficult to actually gain any extraordinary knowledge from here. In any case, Huo Yuhao didn't manage to glean any useful insights from it. This public reading area is mainly used to motivate the junior soul mentors.

However, strictly speaking, this book lending area also serves another purpose: to become a topic of conversation for the young Soul Masters who come here.

Back at school, he casually mentioned attending an academic conference as an assistant to his advisor, then basked in the envious and admiring glances of his classmates. Finally, he nonchalantly stated that he had seen a certain master's manuscript during the conference, displaying a perfectly artful and sophisticated air of pretension.

After wandering around the public lending area, Huo Yuhao then strolled to the soul tool testing area, where he met a student named Situ Yu.

This person was four or five years older than Huo Yuhao, and the technique he was testing was fortress warfare. There was also a middle-aged man standing next to him. It was clear that Situ Yu had most likely come with him.

At a single command, Situ Yu, who had been as composed as a mountain just moments before, suddenly seemed to transform into a thousand-armed being. A series of violent metallic clanking sounds erupted from his body as numerous metal tubes burst forth. In almost the span of a few breaths, Situ Yu appeared to have doubled in size.

Huo Yuhao found it fascinating. He recognized every single soul tool the other party used, but the way they combined so many soul tools was a valuable lesson for him.

"This tactic is called the fortress tactic. Cai Tou also knows it. If you want to learn it, you can ask him when you get back."

Ning Ge looked at Situ Yu in the distance and said.

As the two were talking, three metal supports extended from each of Situ Yu's strong, powerful legs. Each of the three fingernails was as thick as a forearm, with extremely sharp points. Upon extending, they immediately gripped the ground firmly, forming an extremely stable base. Then, starting from his calves, a large number of attack soul tools appeared.

Huo Yuhao had been carefully observing the situation in the testing area. He noticed that when Situ Yu released his soul tools, at least six unusual lights appeared on his body. Then, a large number of soul tools began to attach to him.

These soul tools were clearly not pre-installed on their bodies, but were just activated.

Situ Yu had three metal tubes on each side of his calves, not long, but quite thick. His body was now completely encased in a heavy metal shell, making him look like a solid fortress. From bottom to top, Huo Yuhao could see at least thirty metal tubes on his body, the largest of which was on his chest—a Soul Guidance Cannon with a caliber of more than half a foot, emitting a faint dark gold color.

After a brief analysis, Huo Yuhao understood the advantages and disadvantages of the fortress battle strategy. Using soul-guided armor to protect himself achieved the strongest defensive capabilities, coupled with numerous soul-guided devices covering his entire body, including a healing soul-guided device to aid in soul power recovery, all of this allowed the soul master to reach peak attack and defense. This enabled him to unleash extremely powerful attacks in a short period.

For the vast majority of Soul Masters of the same level, the Fortress Battle Formation is simply an iron turtle that spews fire, and an iron turtle with both attack and defense attributes maxed out.

This thing is just as troublesome as the Netherworld White Tiger that Dai Huabin and Zhu Lu used together back then. In fact, in terms of destructive power alone, the Netherworld White Tiger might not be as lethal as this Iron Turtle.

However, this thing also has a very obvious drawback: it consumes an enormous amount of soul power and sacrifices all mobility. At least in one-on-one soul battles, this thing is not very useful and is easy to kite. But on the battlefield, it is an absolute weapon of mass destruction.

Huo Yuhao had once considered a tactic similar to the fortress battle strategy, but those were based on Ning Ge's research. He planned to attach a set of flexible and retractable mechanical arms to his back and directly transplant the soul guide ray gun to the top of each mechanical arm.

The soul-guided mechanical arms that Huo Yuhao could freely wield or manipulate with precision using his mental power were far lighter than these bulky machines. If possible, Huo Yuhao wouldn't even mind connecting these mechanical arms to his external vertebrae.

Those people rely on a shooting method that allows for an accuracy of 10 meters and a kill range of 30 meters. They make up for a lack of precision by using range, and their soul power is consumed at a rate that is like a blood hemorrhage. Even if they have several healing bottles attached to their bodies, they still can't fill the hole caused by the consumption.

Huo Yuhao's Soul Guidance Ray Gun is different. Seven or eight tentacles extend out, using mental detection to determine the location, and mental control to fine-tune and lock on. A volley of shots hits the enemy's forehead, with a destructive power not much less than the Fortress Battle Tactic, but it consumes far less soul power.

Moreover, the weight of a complete set of soul-guided mechanical tentacles is not too great, at most four or five hundred pounds. Compared to the starting weight of several thousand pounds for a soul-guided fortress, the soul-guided mechanical tentacles that can be carried on the back and run around are simply light.

Perhaps the weight of four or five hundred pounds will indeed reduce Huo Yuhao's movement speed, but don't forget, even if Huo Yuhao's movement speed is reduced a little, so what? As long as Huo Yuhao's aiming speed is faster than the enemy's, that's enough.

The opposing agility-based Soul Master rushed over, intending to instantly kill Huo Yuhao. However, after taking only a few steps, he was locked onto by seven or eight red laser dots on his forehead. Under such circumstances, even if the opponent had the courage of a bear and the guts of a leopard, he would not be able to continue charging forward.

In addition, Huo Yuhao's equipment has a unique advantage over the fortress tactic: its upgrade cost is very low.

After all, those soul tools on the fortress battle formation are not just for show. Remaking and upgrading them once would take at least a year to complete. Unless someone else does it for them, there isn't even enough time to cultivate. They are simply money-devouring beasts.

(End of this chapter)