First Day Without Internet, Missing Him

Chen Fu hated people with no sense of boundaries.

Though frustrated by the delay in the Soul Ring Self-Derivation Project, Chen Fu quickly pulled himself together and focused on what mattered most right now.

"Slow and steady is fine."

Chen Fu could only console himself like this. His fifth soul ring had abundant soul power—by his estimate, about 86% of Ma Xiaotao's sixth soul ring capacity. That was very close to the Hundred Thousand Year threshold.

"From this, you can see just how much Melting Ring improves a soul master's physique. After less than a year of Melting Ring cultivation, at Rank 50, I'm almost able to withstand a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast's soul ring."

Of course, a Soul King's cultivation speed couldn't be compared to a Soul Adept's. So if someone wanted to forge a body capable of holding a Hundred Thousand Year soul ring starting from the Soul Adept stage, they might—just might—achieve it in a lifetime.

Fortune and disaster were intertwined. Chen Fu always maintained a dialectical view of things.

"This soul ring's power is enough for me to cultivate to Rank 60 in half a year, with some left over. Not bad at all."

Chen Fu tidied up his mood and began issuing commands to [Youlan].

"Full cooperation with the [Ascension] project calculations. Coordinate directly with [Crimson Phoenix] for any support needed."

[Command recorded]

"Next, before [Ascension] begins, let's make [Banished Immortal]."

Chen Fu used his Spiritual Power to evolve a soul power model. A Sword-shaped Soul Tool gradually took shape in his hand.

"Soul Breaking Tear, Soul Shocking Wood, Star Sea Illusion Stone, Dream Pearl... These are a bit tricky, but slowly using samples to blend materials with the same characteristics is still possible. And with this ultra-dense Mysterious Sky Meteorite gifted by Di Tian as the core, grinding it into a sword blank over time—very feasible."

He pulled out various peerless divine materials gifted by Di Tian from his Space Ring. Gripping a fist-sized Metal Sphere wrapped in a Soul Tool casing, he silently calculated in his mind.

This Mysterious Sky Meteorite was only the size of a fingertip but had extreme density. It had to be packaged in a special Soul Tool to prevent direct contact from injuring people.

Logically, such an ultra-dense substance should weigh an enormous amount. But none of Chen Fu's detection methods could measure any weight at all.

Faced with this inexplicable phenomenon, Chen Fu could only make bold guesses. Maybe it wasn't moving? Or maybe it could appear at any point simultaneously?

Unfortunately, this Mysterious Sky Meteorite Iron could be slowly eroded and controlled by [Youlan]. Through small-scale sampling and analysis, they found that this piece of Mysterious Sky Meteorite Iron had extreme density—a fingertip-sized piece weighed nearly five tons. The reason the user couldn't feel the weight was because the material itself had a characteristic of gravitational closure. External gravity couldn't affect it, and its own gravity collapsed inward to cancel out, ultimately presenting this bizarre phenomenon of "extremely heavy yet weightless."

The world was always so wondrous. Every time he discovered something new, Chen Fu would sigh like this.

Sometimes things even overturned his understanding entirely. But that was fine—find the rules, then use them.

This method suited scientific research, and it also suited life.

Time slipped quietly through his fingers. The adoption rate of Battle Soul Instruments in Shrek City was steadily rising. Soul masters returning from outside would periodically come back to Shrek City to update data with the [Youlan] mainframe here.

Soul Tools were actually very cheap—if you removed the research and development costs.

Watching the soul masters coming and going on the streets, most of them wearing various models of Battle Soul Instruments, Chen Fu suddenly felt like he was looking at his own vegetable garden thriving.

The blueprints for the Battle Soul Instrument had been given to Shrek's Soul Tool Academy. After the structure was simplified and modularized, some clever Soul Engineers had differentiated their Battle Soul Instruments by adding accessories.

"I heard there's a divine material rich in life force that has the characteristic of adapting to changes in soul power."

Chen Fu was quite curious about that material. If he could get a physical sample, he could try to further optimize [Nirvana] and [Crimson Phoenix], making them truly capable of self-evolution.

"I asked the Dean and the others. They said a former Evil Soul Master once got his hands on this metal and made it into an engraving knife."

The girl beside Chen Fu tugged his hand, pulling him toward the bustling crowd.

"You promised—no thinking about Soul Tools today. You're going shopping with me!"

"Alright, alright, I'll stop."

Chen Fu raised his hands in surrender. Today was the day Shrek Academy recruited new students, and also the busiest time in Shrek City.

"I heard you beat a Soul Douluo into tears at the Sea God Festival?"

A while back, the commotion on Sea God Lake was so loud that Chen Fu could feel it even outside the academy. He'd even used [Youlan] to "watch" the whole process live through the Battle Soul Instruments of inner court students.

"That bastard! If the phoenix flames weren't so destructive, I'd have beaten him into a pulp!"

Remembering this, Ma Xiaotao got angry all over again. Couldn't he just be a good genius teacher? Why did he have to come stir up trouble?

If Senior Sister Zhang Lexuan hadn't asked her to help host the event, she never participated in that kind of thing anyway.

"...Mm."

Chen Fu didn't ask further. He never wasted time on such activities anyway. And during the clash, he had temporarily diverted 30% of [Youlan]'s computing power to remotely connect with [Crimson Phoenix] for combat support, directly tipping the scales.

That Soul Douluo's soul power wasn't much greater than Ma Xiaotao's—who was carrying six external soul sources she'd nurtured for nearly a year, including a Hundred Thousand Year soul ring. And his soul power quality wasn't much higher than Ma Xiaotao's, boosted by the Evil Fire Phoenix and [Nirvana].

As for combat rhythm and details, [Youlan] had recorded tens of thousands of soul masters' battle data in Shrek City over half a year. That was enough to support a soul master regiment in battle—three layers of computing power remotely allocated to the [Crimson Phoenix] terminal.

The enemy Soul Douluo's every moment—soul power recovery, consumption, soul skill power, physical stamina, soul power circulation direction, body output, mental fluctuations—was all monitored in real time by [Youlan] and synced to [Crimson Phoenix], letting Ma Xiaotao counter and win at any moment.

"Oh, speaking of that—isn't [Crimson Phoenix] way too strong?"

Ma Xiaotao touched the [Crimson Phoenix] folded and stored by her ear, her tone suspicious. She'd compared it to the Battle Soul Instruments on the market. For daily life, they were fine, but during high-intensity combat, they couldn't keep up—only useful for recording enemy soul skills and analyzing weaknesses. Nothing like hers, which could instantly parse a Soul Douluo-level battle and crush him from start to finish with combat technique.

"It's a special edition made for you. If it weren't strong, how could I justify it, right?"

Chen Fu smiled and turned his head away. The whole city's network had nearly lagged out back then—of course it was strong.

"Hehe, that's true too (òó)"

The girl suddenly perked up, tugging Chen Fu's hand toward the gates of Shrek Academy.

"Come on, come on! Let's go see this year's new students—see if there are any promising ones!"

Martial souls were like lottery draws—almost everyone was enthusiastic about them.

"Let's go? Why aren't you moving?"

Ma Xiaotao couldn't budge Chen Fu and looked back in confusion.

She saw Chen Fu staring blankly into the distance, where a familiar yet unfamiliar girl's silhouette faded into the crowd.

Dead memories suddenly surged into his mind. A vast sense of emptiness left Chen Fu feeling lost and disoriented. The wooden buildings before his eyes seemed to overlap with steel skyscrapers; past and present lives felt like an upside-down dream.

[The Creator's spirit is experiencing violent fluctuations. No attack detected.]

[Executing First Protocol.]

The invisible net shrouding Shrek City instantly dissolved into specks of starlight, scattering into the cloudy sky.

"Look, there's starlight in the sky!"

"Are you an idiot? In broad daylight—whoa, there really is!"

"Is a Titled Douluo fighting?"

The sudden daytime starlight stirred up a commotion in the city, but it was quickly suppressed by Titled Douluo who rushed over.

Some people pulled out their Battle Soul Instruments, trying to transmit intelligence.

"Huh? Why did my signal, which was full just now, turn into an X?"

Many began to realize their Battle Soul Instruments had become offline devices.

Today, Shrek City had no network.