Mu En, Please Be on Your Way

"Look! Such a powerful soul power fluctuation inside Shrek City!"

The people outside the city were instantly shaken by that immense soul power fluctuation. From their perspective, they first sensed a sudden burst of spiritual power erupting within the city, followed by dark clouds gathering densely.

Then, just as everyone was stunned with doubt, a massive blue net resembling starlight appeared high in the sky, descending from above to cover the area. Instantly, the sky returned to clarity from the abrupt black clouds pressing down.

Before they could recover, a soul power fluctuation so powerful it was almost unbearable to look at erupted from within Shrek City.

"That... that's not the kind of pressure a Level Nine Soul Tool can produce!"

The white-haired intellectual man, whose entire body was equipped with various aura-concealing devices, was now full of disbelief. He had only felt such fluctuations from top-secret soul tools still in the experimental stage, and the energy fluctuation from the soul tool before him was even stronger!

"Impossible! No logic! Absolutely no logic, he's only eighteen!"

The white-haired man, who had originally only come to quietly scout for information, now seemed to fall into a trance. But then a faint flash of light flickered from a plain jade on his chest, and he immediately snapped back to his senses.

Yet the shock in his heart lingered for a long time. He would rather hope that Shrek Academy would suddenly produce a Level Nine Soul Engineer right now than believe that the activation of this super soul tool was orchestrated by that young man.

In his personal laboratory at Mingde Hall, there was a room dedicated to displaying all of that young man's works, including various soul tools he had personally crafted in the past and the later Battle Soul Instruments. Every time he passed by, he couldn't help but handle them for a long time.

That kind of streamlined, orderly mechanical beauty and extremely subtle soul tool design deeply fascinated him.

He had once led Mingde Hall to demand that the empire must capture this person alive, bring him to the Sun Moon Empire—alive!

If this person died, it would be a loss to the entire soul tool world.

But no matter what the Sun Moon Emperor thought at the time, that young man named Chen Fu never left the city, and the empire's spies sent to Lin Pavilion always disappeared without a trace.

Now, however, Jing Hongchen understood. The two undisguised Peerless Douluo auras within Shrek City seemed to mock him blatantly: Go ahead, keep sending them if you dare!

Watching the blue fluorescence from Shrek City grow brighter, Jing Hongchen's heart was conflicted. On one hand, he hoped the young man would be careless and fail; on the other, he desperately wanted him to succeed.

Forging a divine artifact with mortal power—this was what Mingde Hall had been tirelessly pursuing. If this young man succeeded, it would prove that this path was entirely viable.

Compared to the tangled feelings of the Sun Moon Empire Royal Soul Tool Academy's dean, the Douluo Pavilion Elders gathered along the shore of Sea God Lake were excited! As the ceremony proceeded according to the blueprint, the possibility of advancing their cultivation was beckoning them.

While the Titled Douluo elders were thrilled, the hundred or so people from the Soul Tool Academy were in a state of utter frenzy.

Chen Fu only had two modes when communicating with others: either he said nothing, or he spoke the truth. Although Chen Fu hadn't directly stated that the core goal of this soul tool was "Ascension," he had more or less hinted to them that such a possibility might exist in the future.

Worried about leaks? Sorry, not only had the [Azure Blue] put the entire city under martial law, but the fact that the Douluo elders were taking turns guarding the frontline soul engineer personnel already made people realize the gravity of the situation.

For the teachers and students of the Soul Tool Academy, the most precious time was the two months they worked alongside Chen Fu. With the assistance of the Second Generation Battle Soul Instrument for communication, Chen Fu could basically answer everyone's questions simultaneously.

And to ensure they worked well for him, Chen Fu imparted many of his core concepts to them, such as not blindly trusting authority, not following trends without thought, researching things meaningful to the world, the importance of energy, and cultivating the idea of "nurturing people with tools."

Aside from lacking actual technical details, Chen Fu thoroughly taught them the basic qualities of a researcher—bravely exploring the unknown and actively taking on social responsibility.

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. Teaching methods was always better than directly handing over technology, and Chen Fu also hoped they would walk paths different from his own, allowing for mutual verification.

"Yuhao, did you see that? That net is a byproduct of the Battle Soul Instrument."

Tian Meng's voice startled Huo Yuhao, who had been staring blankly at the sky. Using the Battle Soul Instrument too frequently deepened fatigue—this seemed to have become common knowledge.

"I saw it... The database Teacher Ning Tian gave me has relevant records. The Soul Core consumes a Soul Master's Spiritual Power to exchange knowledge from the knowledge base. It's a willing trade, but I never expected Teacher Chen Fu to take it this far..." The allure of soul tools fascinated Huo Yuhao.

[Ascension: All modules operating normally, now 100% activated. Auxiliary modules on standby.]

The high-precision guide tubes buried in the earth and water, as the Ark energy core inside them was activated, began to flow with surging high-concentration soul power attempting to run through the tracks. The Siphon Effect caused by the density difference made the thin soul power mist in the air flow slowly along the guide tubes, sketching a sci-fi scene on Sea God Lake—a multi-layered ring inlay pattern with arcs of varying lengths shifting rhythmically.

Watching the [Banished Immortal] in Chen Fu's hand, which had fully activated into a spiritual fluid acting as the key, Mu En had nothing left to say.

From the moment he met this young man until now, Mu En could already summarize: He was petty-minded. Why bother with anything else when he was obsessed with locking things up every day?

Whenever you thought you had him cornered, he would pull out a trump card to escape, leaving you with a mess you could only stare at helplessly.

In fact, Mu En had even started to reflect: Was Shrek Academy's imitation of [Blazing Sun] using traditional soul tool craftsmanship actually reverse-proof that the so-called "unlocked" first-generation [Ark], which used micro-craftsmanship and wire overlap technology, was itself a kind of lock?

How could this guy's heart be so dirty?

"Old Mu, you are now the executor of [Ascension]. Please try not to let your mind wander."

After [Azure Blue] used the Golden Giant Tree as a medium to take over the control system of [Ascension], the four third-generation energy core prototypes—Nuclear Arks—placed by Chen Fu in the center of the Azure Blue Divine Ring began to burn in sequence. Vast soul power poured endlessly into [Azure Blue], and [Compulsion], which never liked to show off, was now operating at Maximum Power, further enhancing [Azure Blue]'s influence over the present world.

The Nuclear Ark, which could only burn for one minute, couldn't afford delays.

"Understood."

According to the plan, Mu En sat cross-legged on a wide metal soul tool platform specially built at the original location of the Sea God Pavilion. This position was at the center of the arc tracks, ensuring that the high-energy particles on each arc could hit the target simultaneously.

As for the original Sea God Pavilion building, everything made way for Ascension. Without even waiting for Mu En to express his opinion, Taotie Douluo led Ming Feng Douluo and the others to move it away overnight.

As Xuan Zi put it: "I've already thrown in so much. Even if it means moving the Sea God Pavilion or draining Sea God Lake, we'll do it."

Mu En responded with silence. The sunk cost was way too damn high...

The temptation of the [Ascension] plan had driven nearly every Titled Douluo who knew about it to the brink of madness.

For tens of thousands of years, no one had become a god again... They had already chosen to silently endure the darkness, so why did he have to bring them hope?

Don't let people down, youth.

I never let people down.

Hum!

The massive soul power began to rotate around Sea God Lake.

In a flash of white light, Mu En took one last look at that young man. In his eyes, there always seemed to be the same unwavering confidence and calm.

Just as back then, even in death I would overclock my brain to calculate the Cold Nuclear Equation formula.

[Soul Power Particle Accelerating]

Even if the computer was completely unusable.

[High-Energy Soul Power Particles Beginning to Escape]

Even if all experimental data was rendered void.

[High-Energy Particle Properties Beginning Induced Transformation]

I would still succeed.

[High-Activity Soul Spirit Particle Captured]

Because I had lost everything, [Collision Standby]

Therefore I would gain what I deserved.

[Beginning the Climb on the Path to Godhood]

Thanks to Moonlight Mist Dyeing Dusk Yellow, Guard Oneself and Behave, and Book Friend 2137 for the monthly tickets (σ′▽‵)′▽‵)σ

Thanks to all my good brothers for the recommendation tickets (σ′▽‵)′▽‵)σ