Douluo 2: Way of Fake God With Soul Tools

When it was a student's turn, some were eager, while others seemed nervous.

This largely depended on the quality of their soul tools.

Ran Ruobing graded each student's soul tool one by one, and marked the unqualified ones as well.

The soul tool testing didn't take too long, and soon more than half of the freshmen had completed their tests.

Before long, Su Luoheng reached the front of the line.

"What is your name?"

"Su Luoheng."

"Place your soul tool on the platform."

Hearing this, Ran Ruobing looked up and routinely reminded him. However, when she saw Su Luoheng — or more accurately, the Ice Rain Sword in his hand — a glint of curiosity flashed in her eyes. She thought to herself, "What level could this soul tool, forged in just two hours by this young fellow, possibly reach?"

Meanwhile, Su Luoheng had already placed the Ice Rain Sword into the soul tool testing device.

Ran Ruobing operated the device again, and as the light flickered, the data of the soul tool appeared one by one.

- Material Strength: Medium-High

- Core Arrays: Soul Power Array (Perfect), Ice Array (Perfect), Reinforcement Array (Perfect)

- Compatibility: High

- Weapon Trait: Ice (Weak)

- Overall Evaluation: First-Level Soul Tool, High Quality

"Perfect level array inscription?"

A trace of surprise flashed through Ran Ruobing's beautiful eyes. Inscribing a core array qualifies one to be a Soul Engineer, but few can inscribe it perfectly. This requires the Soul Engineer to fully understand the core battle array. Even at the Sun-Moon Royal Soul Engineering Academy, those who could achieve this were at least fifteen or sixteen years old, yet Su Luoheng was just nine!

His talent in soul tool crafting was simply terrifying…

She had to admit, even someone like herself wasn't as accomplished at his age.

She grew more curious about Su Luoheng.

She thought to herself that she must ask her grandfather about him tonight — surely he knew something since he thought so highly of Su Luoheng!

"Close-combat soul tool, qualified."

The surprise in Ran Ruobing's eyes quickly disappeared, and she returned to her usual calm tone as she announced. However, she gave Su Luoheng's soul tool the only perfect score in the grading book.

Soul tool crafting was divided into four grades: General, Good, Excellent, and Perfect.

So far, only Su Luoheng had achieved the "Perfect" grade.

And it was likely that he would remain the only one — perfect-level core array inscriptions were not something just anyone could achieve.

"Alright, next."

"..."

The remaining freshmen continued to test.

Although Ran Ruobing was curious about the soul tool crafted by Su Luoheng, she remained focused and didn't let it affect the assessments of the other students.

As mentioned earlier, the students who went later were not very confident.

If they didn't have faith in what they had created, the actual quality of the soul tools could be imagined.

As expected.

The further back the students were, the higher the probability of their soul tools being unqualified. The success rate essentially flipped compared to those at the front.

About two quarters of an hour later, all the freshmen completed their tests.

In total, thirty-three freshmen participated in the second round of soul tool testing, and after the screening by the soul tool testing device, another fifteen were eliminated.

Their final results were the same as the twelve freshmen from before.

Out of over forty participants, only eighteen managed to produce a qualified first-level soul tool, highlighting a terrifying failure rate, which lived up to its reputation as the second-most difficult freshman upgrade assessment at the Sun-Moon Royal Soul Engineering Academy.

The assessment for moving from first year to second year was much simpler, with an extra hour given just for crafting a soul tool.

Incidentally, the most challenging assessment at the Sun-Moon Royal Soul Engineering Academy: the Mingde Hall Assessment.

According to word of mouth from senior students, the difficulty of this assessment was no less than that of the Level Six Soul Engineer promotion exam, and it could even be called a hell-level assessment!

In some years, there were cases where none of the participants passed, with everyone being eliminated by Illustrious Virtue Hall.

Those who could pass the Illustrious Virtue Hall Assessment were all elites among elites.

The most outstanding Soul Engineers in the entire Sun-Moon Empire were mostly from Illustrious Virtue Hall.

"..."

With the soul tool testing concluded,

The remaining eighteen freshmen looked at each other, their expressions filled with excitement, surprise, and relief. None of them had expected that more than half of the forty participants would be eliminated. They were relieved to be among the remaining ones; although their written test scores were still unknown, there was still hope for success.

"Alright, congratulations to all of you for passing the soul tool test."

As soon as Ran Ruobing finished speaking, the freshmen who passed showed relieved expressions.

However, before they could celebrate for long, her next words caused many of their expressions to change dramatically.

"But..."

After a pause, Ran Ruobing pointed to the arenas behind her.

"Your test is not officially over yet."

"Huh?"

Everyone looked confused and surprised. What did this mean?

Su Luoheng followed the direction of her finger and made a guess: it probably had something to do with these arenas.

After all, the presence of these sudden arenas had to have some purpose.

The other freshmen weren't fools either; they soon realized this point as well.

And soon, their guess was confirmed.

When Ran Ruobing glanced at the freshmen who had made life-assistance soul tools to pass the test, a slight change flickered in her eyes, and a hint of amusement crept into her otherwise calm voice.

"The third assessment is a combat test."

The next moment, the freshmen were stunned, looking at each other in disbelief.

Wasn't it said there were only a written test and a soul tool crafting test? Where did the combat come from?

Just how many assessments were there?

Before the freshmen could regain their composure, Ran Ruobing had already begun explaining the rules.

"The combat test will be one-on-one, with opponents chosen randomly. As with the previous rules, you are not allowed to use your personal soul tools, but you can use the soul tools you created earlier. Additionally, I will distribute a level-two defensive soul tool to each of you. The match will end when one side voluntarily admits defeat or the defensive soul tool is triggered."

"Teacher, didn't you say earlier that there were only two assessments?"

This question was on everyone's minds, and all the freshmen looked at Ran Ruobing, waiting for an explanation.

This was especially important for those who had made life-assistance soul tools; if a combat test was truly required, they would have one less soul tool than the others, putting them at a disadvantage from the start.

"This assessment is an additional one. Outstanding performance can earn you bonus points."

"Any other questions?"

With that, Ran Ruobing calmly looked at everyone.

The combat test was not something she came up with on a whim; it was arranged by the academy for the second-year students, and it had been this way every year. However, the content of the additional assessment changed annually, and it just happened to be a combat test this year.

"No... no more questions."

The responses from the freshmen became somewhat uneven.