"So, you were persuaded to drop out?"
The girl, like a fire spirit, stormed out of the dormitory with an indignant expression, ready to settle accounts with someone.
"My Soul Power Level of forty-one was already somewhat below the Inner Court's assessment standard." Chen Fu silently packed his luggage.
Upon hearing that, the girl who had rushed outside immediately ran back and angrily rebuked him:
"I, a level fifty-five Battle Soul King, couldn't even beat you. Their review system must be blind!"
"I only borrowed external power." With a wave of his hand, the messy metal materials in the room flew one by one into other Spatial Soul Tools in an orderly fashion.
Only after the girl had calmed down did Chen Fu continue, "Actually, it's because they truly have nothing left to teach me. Instructor Fan Yu's standard hovered around level seven or eight, and he had already taught me all the techniques he knew. As long as I prepare my auxiliary equipment, I can slowly make conventional level-seven Soul Tools."
"Can your so-called conventional level-seven Soul Tools be activated too?" The girl fixed her orange-red eyes directly on Chen Fu.
"Enough, Xiaotao, stop messing around." Pushing her forehead away, Chen Fu stripped off all the bedding. "Ark Technology hasn't been upgraded yet. With only a Level Four Ark Core, using an Energy Storage Matrix, I could theoretically barely activate twelve of them once."
He piled the removed bedding into a heap, then pointed at it. "Xiaotao, breathe fire."
"I'll breathe fire on your big head!" The girl indignantly punched Chen Fu. "Do you know what this means... Wait!"
The girl suddenly calmed down. "Then why don't you just teach them the Energy Ark technology?"
Four mismatched Soul Rings—yellow, yellow, purple, yellow—pulsed in sequence behind Chen Fu, and the clutter slowly turned to ash.
"This isn't merely a matter of overlapping Soul Tool circuit technology. There are also the supporting design logic, layout logic, optimal material property ratios, macro control variables, and so on. All of those need to be solved."
"I figured these out through my Martial Soul's characteristics. This is a great hands-on project. If I directly gave them the answers, their foundation would be ruined. They wouldn't be able to keep innovating independently."
Chen Fu spread his hands, indicating that the black technology he had handcrafted with his Martial Soul and knowledge could be used as reference, but not copied outright.
"Then what do you plan to do from now on?"
"Build a research institute in Shrek City to make some money, while upgrading Ark Technology along the way. Level Four is a little outdated."
"Oh, right. When the time comes, you can refine metals for me. I'll give you shares."
"Shares, my ass. Who cares about your shares?" The girl, whose family had a long inheritance, spoke disdainfully.
Walking by the lake, Chen Fu watched the girl stomp ahead of him in a huff and smiled for once.
"Don't be angry anymore. I have a gift for you." Chen Fu took a black metal box with a frosted texture from his bracelet.
"What is this?"
The girl turned back, her orange-red hair fluttering in the wind as her golden-orange eyes reflected the youth.
"My true graduation project." With a trace of satisfaction, the youth wore a rare relaxed expression.
The girl accepted the metal box with some hesitation. It wasn't that she doubted him, but she was puzzled by the meaning of "true graduation project."
"You can open it and take a look." Chen Fu gestured with his hand.
When the box opened, there were no dazzling colors or energy fluctuations. A metal ring with black patterns and golden edges lay quietly inside. At the center of its surface was a red inscription engraved with a Phoenix spreading its wings.
"How do I use this?" Looking at the ring in her hand, which was clearly larger than her arm, Ma Xiaotao curiously looked toward Chen Fu.
"Wear it around your neck..." Before he finished speaking, the girl pressed the clasp button and fastened the metal ring around her neck.
"Now, try circulating your Soul Power."
As soon as Ma Xiaotao circulated her Soul Power, she noticed something was wrong. The ring had a strange attraction to Soul Power. Part of her circulating Soul Power was swallowed by the ring, only to be released after a while.
The Soul Power it released seemed purer, more... pristine!
"Don't get excited." Chen Fu raised his hand and deployed an energy barrier, stopping Ma Xiaotao from going berserk before adding:
"It's just a Soul Power purification device. It can support your normal cultivation. Remember to turn it off in battle, or it'll easily burn out."
Chen Fu, once known as the "boss guarding the final stage of the academy library," naturally understood the issue with Ma Xiaotao's Martial Soul.
Though it couldn't treat the root cause, it could continuously treat the symptoms.
"Thank you!"
Feeling the "warmth" in his arms, Chen Fu suddenly didn't know what to do.
In the end, he merely patted the girl's back in comfort.
"How long had you been preparing it?" The girl's voice was slightly hoarse.
"Since our second-year class placement, I think." That was when he had initially perfected Energy Ark technology, rather than merely having the demonstration version for Instructor Fan Yu.
"The technical design took nearly two years, and the final execution took another year." Chen Fu's Martial Soul had a natural advantage in microscopic material manipulation. The Soul Tool rifle he had tossed into storage was merely an experimental product made on a whim. Most of his true free time had been spent making this "gift."
"Then doesn't that make it... very precious?"
"It does. So please take good care of it. Making another one would be troublesome."
It would take several days of rushed work, after all.
The metal used for the ring had been nurtured by the Martial Soul called Technology Throne into a brand-new superalloy. The Soul Power circuits on it used chip-like integrated circuits, painstakingly carved out bit by bit with his Martial Soul.
"Mm, I'll take good care of it. Does it have a name?"
"A rankless auxiliary Soul Tool, an extension of Ark Technology. You can call it [Nirvana]."
Judging purely by its technical level, it would be enough to leave Fan Yu baffled for twenty years.
"Are you satisfied with this sixteenth birthday gift?"
"Chen Fu..."
The girl in his arms had quite a strong grip, leaving Chen Fu somewhat helpless.
"Mm, I'm here."
"I'll avenge you in the future."
Silly child, always saying things that killed the mood.
After finally sending off the girl who had gotten a new toy, Chen Fu slung his small backpack over his shoulder and headed toward the academy gates.
Along the way, he said goodbye to several friends who had come to see him off. Some were from the Inner Court, but even more were from the Outer Court.
Chen Fu's Soul Power cultivation was relatively weak among this academy of prodigies. At sixteen years old, his Soul Power Level of forty-one had always made him the one pulling down the average.
For example, in his and Ma Xiaotao's class, the average Soul Power Level was forty-eight. He was the one dragging the class down the most.
At the academy gate, a little boy with resolute features but a childish face stood there with a little girl, as though they were waiting for someone.
Upon seeing them, Chen Fu suddenly remembered that the new coal-ball apprentice his instructor had taken in seemed to be one of this year's New Life students.
"I remember you. This year's top New Life student, Beibei, right? What is it?"
Ma Xiaotao had dragged him to watch during the first-year assessment.
"Hello, Senior Brother Chen!" The little boy respectfully greeted him, then tugged at the little girl behind him.
"We wanted to ask whether Senior Brother Chen had anywhere to go after graduating. If not, our Tang Sect is willing to hire Senior Brother as a Guest Elder."
"And we can teach you a secret manual that can improve Senior Brother's slow cultivation," the little girl behind him added.
"Then that's quite unfortunate. I already have somewhere to go."
Given the relationship between the Tang Sect and Shrek, it truly wasn't a bad place to go. The academy was unlikely to interfere, and this Tang Sect was exceptionally weak.
Unfortunately, Chen wasn't fond of bullying children.
He rubbed the little girl's head, then left amid her disappointed gaze.
After walking some distance, he took a pair of glasses from his bracelet and put them on. With a wave of his hand, he drew through the air, and a panel appeared before Chen Fu.
Name: Chen Fu Level: 41 Martial Soul: Technology Throne/Spirit Body (an irregular mass of pale-blue Spirit Body born from Chen Fu's stress response to a certain thing) Martial Soul Passive: Material Control (Microscopic) Soul Skill: Compulsion ×4 (accelerates the degree and speed of Material Control)
"Right now, it still feels rather crude. I can keep optimizing it. Add a Task Bar too. The Battle Soul Instrument can serve as the research institute's early product. Mm, that works. Make a note of it."
[Task Bar updated]
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