Douluo Continent: God Descends

Chapter 52 The Grand Tournament of the Tianhai Alliance

The Tianhai League Grand Tournament is the highest-level and most influential comprehensive event in the East Coast region.

The event was initiated by five first-tier cities and jointly organized by dozens of second- and third-tier cities in the surrounding area.

Held every three years, the event aims to select top talents from various fields for the Tianhai Alliance and solidify the talent foundation for regional development.

The results of the competition not only affect the personal honor of the participants, but also directly impact the allocation of resources in the city over the next three years.

If a city performs exceptionally well in the competition, it will receive significant support from the Tianhai Alliance in core areas such as Soul Guidance Resources, Forging Materials, and Mech R&D Funds.

This has led to the Tianhai League Grand Tournament being hailed by the public as the "Tianhai Rendezvous," becoming a highly anticipated event in the East Coast region.

In terms of event setup, the Tianhai Alliance Grand Competition covers two core tracks: combat and professional, achieving comprehensive coverage of various talents.

The combat track focuses on practical combat skills, featuring three major events: Mech Pilot Competition, Battle Armor Master Competition, and Soul Master Competition, testing participants' core qualities such as combat skills, soul ring combinations, and mech control precision.

The professional track focuses on professional skills, encompassing four major professions: blacksmith, mecha maker, mecha designer, and repairman.

To ensure fairness and relevance of the competition, all events are divided into four age groups: the youth group under 15 years old;

Youth group aged 15 to 20;

Adults aged 20 to 30;

In addition, there are special age groups, exclusively for those over thirty years old.

Among all the competition categories, the overage group is the most special because it belongs to the Battle Armor Masters.

Because forging battle armor requires a lot of effort and resources, those who can become battle armor masters are generally at least thirty years old.

As for Battle Armor Masters under the age of thirty?

Battle Armor Masters of this caliber are generally only found in the central and western regions of the continent. Although the East Sea is rich in resources, it cannot compare with these two regions in terms of the number of geniuses.

The soul-guided taxi smoothly navigated the city streets. Inside, Lu Xingchen swiped his soul-guided phone screen, carefully reviewing the tournament data from previous Tianhai Alliance competitions:

In the junior group of Soul Master battles, the highest Soul Power in previous years was only level 35;

In the youth group blacksmith competition, participants who can reach the level of a fourth-level blacksmith are extremely rare.

"So it seems I do have a chance to win."

Lu Xingchen looked at the information on his soul guide phone, pondering what his chances of winning would be if he participated in the competition.

That's right, he will participate in both the Soul Master battles and the Blacksmith competitions.

In the Douluo Continent, Soul Masters have always been the most popular and watched profession, and ordinary people have a natural enthusiasm for battles between Soul Masters.

Every year, the number of on-site spectators at the Tianhai Alliance Grand Tournament's Soul Master competition exceeds ten thousand, while the number of online Soul Guide live stream viewership is in the tens of millions.

This perfectly aligns with Lu Xingchen's requirements for advancing to the fourth rank: "Manipulator".

The promotion ceremony for the audience sequence four "manipulator" has strict requirements: one must take a magic potion in a specific setting with at least 10,000 people at the moment when the audience's emotions resonate greatly.

Its essence is to awaken the self-awareness of those who are promoted by using the strong emotional fluctuations of the group, so as to prevent their self-awareness from being swallowed up and assimilated by the "sea" of the collective unconscious after taking the magic potion.

Although in his previous life, Lu Xingchen had relied on extreme luck to swallow a Sequence 4 potion without going through a ritual and yet did not lose control.

But he didn't want to take that risk again—to be on the safe side, the Tianhai Alliance Grand Soul Master Tournament with its tens of thousands of attendees was the best option for his advancement.

If participating in the Soul Master Competition was for advancement, then the reason for choosing the Blacksmith Competition was more direct—he was after the prize money, after all, he still owed the Spirit Pagoda ten million Federal Credits.

As for why he didn't ask his master Duan Xuan for help?

Given Duan Xuan's status and strength in the forging industry, resolving a debt of ten million Federal Dollars would be a piece of cake.

If Lu Xingchen were truly willing to do this, he believed Duan Xuan would definitely help, but he had never even considered it.

With the Blacksmiths Association's intelligence network, it wouldn't be difficult to find out about his current financial difficulties; Duan Xuan couldn't possibly be unaware of it.

However, his master never brought up the matter, but instead patiently taught him forging techniques day after day.

With the help of '0-01's' counter-surveillance capabilities, Lu Xingchen could roughly guess the other party's thoughts. It was nothing more than to hone him more and use pressure to promote his growth.

How can a lion cub become a powerful force if it doesn't experience trials and tribulations?

Similarly, an excellent teacher will not always shield their students from all harm, otherwise they are likely to raise "giant babies" who become dependent on others.

In Duan Xuan's eyes, Lu Xingchen's debt was nothing more than a trivial matter. As long as he was willing to help, it could be easily resolved. However, he wanted to see if his disciple was capable of handling it on his own, which is why he had been pretending to be unaware of the situation.

"The Soul Master competition will be a one-on-one event in the junior group. According to the pattern of previous competitions, most of the opponents at this level are between the second and third rings."

Just as Lu Xingchen was pondering, the speed of the soul-guided taxi suddenly slowed down, the roar of the engine gradually weakened, and finally came to a smooth stop at a busy intersection.

The car window slowly rolled down, and a gentle breeze carrying the noise of the street rushed into the car. The driver turned to look out the window and asked softly to the figure waving by the roadside, "Little girl, where do you want to go?"

Outside the car, a girl in a Tianhai College uniform quickly approached. Her voice was sweet and polite as she asked, "Driver, I'd like to go to Tianhai Gymnasium. Is this on your way?"

"On the way!"

The driver readily agreed, his gaze falling on the girl's school uniform, a hint of understanding in his eyes, and he chuckled jokingly:

"Judging from your clothes, young lady, you must be a student at Tianhai Academy, right? Could you be a contestant in this year's Tianhai Alliance Grand Competition? Those who can participate in this competition are all promising talents from our East Coast!"

Upon hearing the word "contestant," the girl's cheeks flushed slightly, and she waved her hand gently, her tone carrying a touch of playful humility:

"I'm not that good~ The senior students who can participate in the competition are the real geniuses. I'm just an ordinary student. I just sneaked out to watch the fun~"

"Oh, I see. That's a real shame." The driver smiled and shook his head, then pressed the door unlock button. "Get in, it's on our way."

"Click—"

The crisp sound of the car door unlocking rang out. Lu Xingchen, who was originally focused on thinking about the game, suddenly felt a slight jolt of his senses. An inexplicable sharp perception made him subconsciously turn his gaze to the opened rear door.