Chapter 43: Silver Moon Divine Light Shield

"Is this the Silver Moon Divine Light Shield?"

Inside the principal's office, Xu Zhao sat across from the desk, looking at the orb before him with an expression of astonishment on his face.

"A historically renowned tier-ten soul tool; I heard my private tutor mention it when I was three years old, but I never imagined that the true Silver Moon Divine Light Shield would be merely such a small orb."

Principal Kong Yunhua was quite pleased with these words. He looked at Xu Zhao and said with a smile,

"Do not let its small size fool you. Ten thousand years ago, this orb was already the pinnacle crystallization of the Sun Moon Empire's soul guidance technology, and the only true tier-ten soul tool of that era."

"Throughout these ten thousand years, through the continuous improvements and upgrades made by successive ancestors of my Kong family, the Silver Moon Divine Light Shield has not only maintained its tier-ten status but has also reached the absolute zenith of this grade."

"If a Limit Douluo proficient in spatial power were to use the Silver Moon Divine Light Shield, among the Federation's three tier-twelve stationary soul guidance shells, aside from the Eternal Heaven, blocking the world-destroying and heaven-swallowing attacks of the remaining two should pose no problem at all."

"A tier-twelve stationary soul guidance shell? What sort of thing is that?" Xu Zhao feigned an expression of puzzlement.

Although he was aware that the Douluo Federation possessed such a weapon, outwardly he was still merely a six-year-old child. Even as the heir of the Xu family, at his current age, he ought not to know of such matters.

"Ahem, I have strayed from the point." Hearing this, Kong Yunhua gave two feigned coughs.

"These things are still far too distant for you at present. However, given your identity, as you grow older, you will naturally come to know of them."

He steered the conversation back to the Silver Moon Divine Light Shield, cradling the orb in his palm as he introduced it:

"The Silver Moon Divine Light Shield is an all-around tier-ten soul tool that combines offense, defense, and control into one."

"It possesses three core abilities: Absolute Defense, Energy Conversion, and Spatial Sealing."

"Absolute Defense is used to ward off attacks; Energy Conversion absorbs the attack's energy and transforms it into the 'Silver Moon Divine Light Wave' for counterattacks; Spatial Sealing forms a silver moon barrier to seal the space within an area and restrict enemy movements."

"Among these, Absolute Defense and Spatial Sealing are essentially applications of spatial power. Although soul masters gradually come into contact with spatial power after stepping into the Super Douluo realm, utilizing the Silver Moon Divine Light Shield allows a soul master to push spatial power to the level of a Limit Douluo, or even surpass the Limit Douluo realm."

"As for Energy Conversion, spatial power merely plays an auxiliary role; its true core lies within the crystallization of soul guidance technology condensed inside the Silver Moon Divine Light Shield."

Having spoken, he handed the luminous pearl into Xu Zhao's hands and said,

"Because this item was the natal soul tool of my Kong family's ancestor, Kong Deming, fully unleashing the power of the Silver Moon Divine Light Shield requires fusing it with a Moon martial soul; otherwise, less than seventy percent of its power can be exerted."

"However, this old man believes that your martial soul encompasses the power of the moon. Even if you cannot unleash the full might of the Silver Moon Divine Light Shield, you should still be able to draw upon ninety percent or more."

Xu Zhao held the glowing pearl in his hand, watching its waxing and waning phases akin to the moon, and asked thoughtfully,

"Grandpa Principal, clearly this was supposed to be the academy's mysterious grand gift package, so why is the item given your family's heirloom?"

"Do not tell me that the academy never prepared any mysterious grand gift package from the very beginning."

"You only took out this Silver Moon Divine Light Shield as an expedient measure to save the situation."

At this, Kong Yunhua smiled without concealment, entirely devoid of the dignity expected of an academy principal, appearing instead like an ordinary, benevolent old man.

"As expected of the peerless genius of our Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy; at such a tender age, you see through matters so thoroughly."

"Just as you said, when the academy constructed the Ancestral Soul Hall back then, it indeed did not prepare any mysterious grand gift package, and this Silver Moon Divine Light Shield was indeed brought out by this old man as a temporary measure."

"A tier-one blacksmith at six years old—no, you should be a tier-two blacksmith by now. With such talent, you are undoubtedly a future divine craftsman. Naturally, the academy wishes to bind you to our ship."

"You are still young and perhaps do not yet understand how immense the weight of a divine craftsman capable of Heavenly Forging is within the Federation."

"Let me put it this way: despite the transcendent status of Shrek and its immunity to the Federation's jurisdiction, if a divine craftsman were willing to offer a sufficient quantity of Heavenly Forged metals, the Federation would spare no cost to wipe Shrek off the face of the earth."

All of this was understood by Xu Zhao.

Soul guidance technology was the foundational pillar of the Federation's rule over the Douluo Continent.

The more advanced the soul guidance technology, the more inseparable it was from high-grade alloy metals.

Without alloy metals of the corresponding grade, even with a design blueprint in hand, no matter how brilliant the technical personnel might be, they could not manufacture what was designed within the blueprint.

Consequently, a divine craftsman capable of forging Heavenly Forged metals held a status in the Federation second only to the Emperor Emeritus.

As long as one did not publicly shit upon the face of the Federation's emperor, one could act almost lawlessly in all other matters, doing precisely as one pleased!

As for Shrek, it had always been a thorn in the Federation's side.

Leaving aside the numerous other instances of defying Federation laws, Shrek City alone—boasting itself as a "country within a country"—was the ultimate humiliation to any ruler.

How could one tolerate another sleeping soundly beside one's couch?

Had the cost of leveling Shrek not been too exorbitant, and had the Federation's upper echelons failed to reach a unified consensus, it would never have come to the Spirit Pagoda stealing the world-destroying and heaven-swallowing shells among the three tier-twelve stationary soul guidance shells, ultimately blowing up Shrek Academy and the Tang Sect headquarters.

Furthermore, the reason the Spirit Pagoda in the book was able to steal the world-destroying and heaven-swallowing shells so smoothly undoubtedly involved the covert connivance and facilitation of the Federation's upper echelons.

As a country within a country, Shrek City's entry inspections were no less rigorous than Ming City's, and perhaps even stricter.

Without the Spirit Pagoda—one of Shrek City's three giants—acting as an inside helper, it would have been utterly impossible to transport the world-destroying and heaven-swallowing shells safely into Shrek City's inner city without being detected, let alone detonate and launch them.

This further validates the profound truth of this maxim:

The most impregnable fortresses in this world are invariably breached from within.

For instance, had Bibi Dong never existed, the Spirit Hall would not have perished.

(Qian Xunji was already a Titled Douluo at the time and lacked no soul rings; the arrogance of his Six-Winged Angel martial soul would not have allowed him to absorb soul bones other than the Angelic Divine Set. His pursuit of Tang Hao and his wife was to procure a hundred-thousand-year soul ring and soul bone for Bibi Dong.

Without Qian Xunji's pursuit, Tang San, possessing twin martial souls, would have been the young master of the Clear Sky Clan, sharing no feud of matricide with the Spirit Hall, never encountering Xiao Wu, and bearing no grievance of wife-slaying.

Without Qian Xuesue's coup in the Heaven Dou Palace, Tang San could not have obtained the Vast Sea Cosmos Shroud, and thus could not have awakened Tang Chen of the Slaughter City, ultimately remaining merely a ninety-ninth-rank Titled Douluo peacefully developing the Tang Sect on the mainland.)