Soul Tools Are Not Blades

"Xuan Zi, you're fixated."

A faint voice rang in everyone's ears.

"Old Mu!"

"Lord of the Pavilion!"

Everyone immediately rose and bowed respectfully.

"Spare me the formalities."

An amiable old man in a wheelchair quietly appeared before them.

"I've kept an eye on that child. His soul power is strong, its quality high, and his temperament is fairly docile. His ambitions, though, are lofty."

Gazing at the Blazing Sun burning silently in the distance, the old man continued:

"When did our Shrek Academy ever count as an aristocratic force? Though we've trained many nobles, Shrek is first and foremost an academy."

"Xuan Zi, what use would a noble title be to you? And you too, Fan boy. Nobles need Shrek, but Shrek doesn't need nobles."

The old man basked in the warm sunlight, feeling just like the last time he'd met that little fellow...

"Old sir, could you move aside? I need to get a book over there."

An old man dozing in the corridor on the top floor of the library was interrupted by a youth.

"Don't you know to respect your elders?"

"I waited half an hour, and you still hadn't woken up."

"Oh..." Hearing this, the old man shifted his chair. The kid's aura was too weak—he hadn't even noticed him. Next time, he wouldn't sleep in the hallway.

"Say, you're a second-year student, right?" The youth wore a second-year uniform.

The youth pointed at his clothes without answering and went to fetch the book he needed.

"Martial Soul True Body Secret Explanation? Little one, why are you interested in this?"

The youth before him had only just broken through to Soul Grand Master, yet here he was reaching for the stars. It piqued the old man's curiosity.

"Everyone says the Martial Soul True Body is an all-round enhancement. I think that statement is wrong."

"Oh? How so?"

Glancing at the book's author—quite ancient—the old man finally took a good look at the youth.

"In terms of spirit, the Martial Soul True Body can still strengthen the user's mental resistance and perception, but there's one state that doesn't get enhanced."

"What is it?"

The old man smiled, playing along.

"Intelligence."

The youth pointed at his head. "This is a very serious matter. In most people's subconscious, intelligence doesn't count as power."

"Among the strengths that Titled Douluos pride themselves on, intelligence isn't included. That's rather pathetic."

Imagining a bunch of spirited Titled Douluos being a bunch of idiots, the old man couldn't help but chuckle.

"How does a fire-attribute soul master make fire?"

"Ignite it with soul power."

"And besides that?"

The old man was stumped. He didn't answer 'Soul Tool,' because Soul Tools still required soul power.

"How do you make fire without soul power?"

The old man wanted to answer, but after thinking it over, he finally shook his head.

The youth took two stones out of his Space Ring.

Crack!

Sparks flew as the stones struck each other.

"Someone discovered that certain stones could produce sparks when struck, then quickly told others. Soon, everyone knew how to make fire."

"Someone discovered that fire-attribute soul power could make fire, but in the end, only fire-attribute soul masters could do it."

"...What are you getting at?" The old man couldn't help but sink into thought.

"Soul power is a means, not the end, Douluo Lord."

"I quite liked one thing he said: 'Soul Tools aren't swords, spears, clubs, or staves.'"

Old Mu came back to his senses and slowly pushed his wheelchair away.

"He might be able to change this lifeless world. Understand? Learn more techniques. This is an opportunity. Just provide appropriate protection."

Old Xuan and Fan Yu were left staring at each other. That was quite the high praise.

Two months passed without notice. During this time, Chen Fu had been renovating Mo Ling's floor, adding many alloy structures and decorating with the original flowers from Orchid Fragrance Pavilion.

In the meantime, twenty custom Soul Tools had been delivered, all uniformly Level Five. Some people would provide precious metals for customization, and Chen Fu very much welcomed such customers.

Chen Fu crafted Soul Tools at an extremely fast pace, and most custom orders were for small-scale Soul Tool weapons. With his Martial Soul's cooperation, countless invisible tendrils rapidly traced out circuits, allowing a standard Level Five Soul Tool to go from rough blank to finished product within two hours.

At the same time, Chen Fu was slowly clearing out his inventory, tossing waste materials and practice pieces from his Space Bracelet into the Lin Pavilion exhibition hall for sale.

After deducting costs, his monthly profit was around one hundred thousand.

Generally speaking, a Level Five Soul Tool cost just over five thousand, with custom orders being much more expensive.

After completing the final sealing process on the bracelet-shaped Soul Tool in his hand and leaving his own [Lin] mark, Chen Fu couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

"Finally finished. Hand-cranking integrated circuits is such a hassle."

Compared to the endless trial-and-error of making [Nirvana] and the more complex spirit-involved purification techniques, this filter device targeting only Soul Power was undoubtedly much easier. He had worked on it in his spare time over these two months and got it done.

"Using the Jade Phosphor Serpent's mimicry technique, and alloy mixed with quite a few scales, I'll call it [Emerald]."

The bracelet was platinum-white overall, with emerald green serpent patterns running through the middle. Once it officially started operating, as snake venom accumulated, the serpent patterns would become even more vividly green.

When the venom built up to a certain level, it would trigger the processing program at the core, driving the specially formulated Jade Phosphor alloy to devour it.

If given enough time, [Emerald] would eventually condense the venom of a Jade Phosphor Serpent Emperor.

Of course, Chen Fu calculated Mo Ling's venom accumulation speed. It would take fifty years to condense a single drop, even if she trained diligently.

Going downstairs to call Mo Ling, who was currently selling flowers to a customer, Chen Fu had received quite a few complaints over these two months—complaints about a woman constantly disturbing customers while they were picking out Soul Tools. Chen Fu found this somewhat helpless.

Maybe he could suggest she consider expanding into plant cultivation techniques? Chen Fu thought to himself.

"Here's what you asked for. Try it on." Handing Mo Ling the box containing [Emerald], Chen Fu looked forward to the results.

As the serpent patterns on [Emerald] rippled, seeing the delighted surprise on Mo Ling's face, Chen Fu knew his wish had been fulfilled.

"Take a look at these books when you have time. They're my ideas on plant cultivation. You can use them as reference."

Tossing a Space Ring to the Big Hamster who was about to start bouncing around, Chen Fu headed back upstairs.

As for the Space Ring, Chen Fu had achieved maximum utilization of local space, maintaining a one-cubic-meter storage capacity in the form of a ring—very convenient.

Chen Fu planned to optimize it further as next month's standard Soul Tool.

As for differentiated designs for the rings, that would require a dedicated apprentice. Chen Fu guessed that person should be arriving soon.

As for Soul Power, it was pretty great. Chen Fu had gone up one level in two months, reaching level forty-two. The cultivation maniac in the inner courtyard next door had apparently gone up two levels, and word had it she wasn't far from level fifty-eight.

Wasn't it supposed to get slower the higher the level? Why aren't you following the script?

Also Don't Know What Is It that had spurred her on, but she'd buried herself in training these two months and hadn't come to bother him. That was, well, pretty great.

Chen Fu was happy for the peace and quiet, and just happened to have time to study his own Soul Ring configuration. The yellow-yellow-purple-yellow mismatch always felt off to him.

Yellow-yellow-purple was an exploration of his Martial Soul's Soul Skills. In the end, he discovered that his Martial Soul, like the Nine Heart Begonia, only had one Soul Skill no matter how he attached Soul Rings. The final yellow was an exploration born of giving up, only to find that the Soul Skill's intensity hadn't decreased.

However, compared to the Nine Heart Begonia's "no Soul Skill," Chen Fu's Technology Throne had a bit more involvement. The [Compulsion] skill amplified intensity exponentially, and Chen Fu could increase or decrease the amplification multiplier based on how many Soul Rings he activated.

Under normal conditions, Chen Fu's material analysis speed was 1. With one ring, it was 2; with two rings, 4; three rings, 8; four rings, 16. Of course, the consumption also rose exponentially.

"Begin Record Panel."

Record Panel is now open