"Can we sit down and talk now?"
After looking up at the sky for a while, Chen Fu lowered his gaze to the terrified Titled Douluo. They were his future materials; he could not let them go to waste like this.
Although Mu En had caught them off guard and turned them into punching bags, that endless power had still left them deeply shaken.
"Youlan."
Bzz!
The third-generation Nuclear Ark within the azure light wheel behind him activated. Soul Power fluctuations at the Douluo level poured continuously into the wheel, activating the Martial Soul body attached within.
When many Soul Masters summoned their Martial Souls, they used a summoning array or a soul incantation to activate the bloodline power within their bodies.
Chen Fu had engraved this summoning array into an external Soul Power data wheel named [Ascension Light Wheel]. The Martial Soul, Technology Throne, would be summoned directly within the wheel and controlled by the [Youlan] system program.
Because the light wheel directly absorbed Soul Power, the physical body did not need to bear the energy load, allowing the Martial Soul to exert the effects corresponding to that energy.
The reason it bore the prefix [Ascension] was that Chen Fu intended to use this one remaining Soul Ring to climb the Path to Godhood.
With only one severed ring left, there was basically no hope of pursuing either the path of a magic cultivator or a Body Cultivator. Therefore, he had to develop new fields from this single ring—such as digitization, stabilization, and programming.
Technology Throne's continuous influence over matter made all this possible.
This system was still under development. For now, it possessed only simple functions, such as Soul Power engravings that could check one's Soul Power Level at any time, and changing the upper limit of skill output as the light wheel rotated.
With Chen Fu's current Level 66 physical body Soul Power capacity, and without any Soul Rings, he had managed to rotate the [Compulsion] skill wheel six times, reaching Level 6 [Compulsion]—sixty-four times the consumption and analysis speed—breaking the limitation that skills could only be upgraded by attaching Soul Rings.
However, since he had been born with this one skill that accelerated fine control over matter, it could not yet serve as a case study. More experiments were still needed for verification.
If any Soul Skill could have its burden shared by the light wheel, thereby increasing its effects proportionally, that would be perfect.
Back to the matter at hand: amid the vast energy generated by the Nuclear Ark through burning mass, Chen Fu floated in the air and lightly raised his right hand toward the earth below under everyone's watchful eyes.
[Creator Mode activated] [Current computation usage: 59.6%]
As the rings on the Azure Light Wheel behind him instantly rotated six times, a massive quantity of soil and dust rose at Chen Fu's gesture. It was then kneaded into a gigantic open-air conference hall and set upon the ground.
"Th-this..." Seeing such Divine Miracle-like control over matter, everyone was once again stunned.
Was this the being capable of creating god-making Soul Tools? He was practically a born god-tier Soul Engineer!
This group, each harboring their own motives, had not even exchanged a single word before being overwhelmed by the other side's supreme martial force and supreme control. They had nearly forgotten why they had come.
"Dean... what should we do?"
Qian Duoduo called softly beside Xuan Zi. He knew that once negotiations began and all the information was brought together, Shrek would be finished.
They had originally thought they could use the "evil Soul Tool that severed Soul Rings" and the shared ruins of the Ascension Soul Tool miracle to bluff a little and make everyone fight at once.
Shrek had even allowed outsiders into their academy to view the outer ruins.
For example: See that Soul Tool miracle? It really can create gods! The creator has run away, so let's hurry up and capture him!
Even if they could not become gods directly, merely getting close to godhood, like the Pavilion Master, was enough to drive people mad. It could also lessen the impact of the Sea God incident.
Regardless of who won or lost, as long as the number of Titled Douluo decreased even slightly, it would benefit Shrek.
Moreover, they still had an even more powerful Pavilion Master! If he could directly eliminate Long Xiaoyao and the other protectors, then capture Chen Fu again, that would be even more perfect.
Rather than let public opinion ferment and slowly tear Shrek apart from within and without, it was better to seize the "Demigod" technology and once again hold the reins over the cultivation of all Soul Masters.
Tell me, would you believe the rumors of Divine Punishment, or the even more advanced "Demigod" technology in my hands?
And if they failed to seize it?
No matter what unforeseen circumstance arose, they believed their stronger Pavilion Master, who had no internal injuries and could slay opponents of the same rank, could suppress every enemy.
But when Shrek led these dozens of Titled Douluo from all corners of the land to capture Chen Fu, they discovered that the gatekeeping boss was their Pavilion Master, who had suddenly vanished!
The Pavilion Master had indeed suppressed every enemy, including themselves.
"...Go down. There is still a chance of survival down there."
A stiff smile tugged at Xuan Zi's face. From the moment the chaotic battle at Sea God Pavilion began, when Mu En grabbed his hand and prevented him from acting, he should have understood long ago that the Pavilion Master who had once led them through countless hardships was gone.
And that final month spent at Shrek Academy—perhaps there had still been a trace of warmth, or perhaps it had merely been a mission.
Perhaps he had been plotting against me ever since he met Xiaotao...
When one possessed a sharp weapon, the urge to kill naturally arose.
It was precisely because they understood that the Pavilion Master had grown ever stronger that greed and evil intentions had sprouted within them.
"Xuan Zi, you are the Pavilion Master."
Mu En's words from several days ago seemed to echo in his ears once more.
Was this your warning?
"Sea God Pavilion? Why build it?"
Because Shrek was about to be finished?
That was why I had to come. Because I was the Pavilion Master, because I was the Dean. Even if I could only watch Shrek be suppressed and dismantled, I still had to face it.
Fortunately, he had made the right choice.
Because the strongest person in the world, even without saying anything, was still their former Pavilion Master.
But why was it Shrek again?
Seated in the place of honor, Chen Fu watched the Titled Douluo from the various factions take their seats one after another and could not help nodding inwardly.
Shrek's power of influence was truly terrifying. Although part of it was because of him, the fact that Shrek could first invite people out of their homes was already an extraordinary feat.
Revealing Mu En outright carried many implications: martial force, status, and results.
As for why it was Shrek?
Simply because this superpower was too close.
It would affect the operation of many things around the Star Dou Great Forest.
How could one allow another to snore beside one's bed?
Moreover, though he had never shown it, from the moment Shrek Academy placed him under house arrest, had it already prepared itself to be dismantled from within and without?
From the moment it demanded that he share his technology, had it prepared itself for the Soul Tool Academy to break away?
If the Nine Treasures Glazed Sect dared to stake everything on following him, then Chen Fu would go receive them and repay them with an even more enticing future.
The most terrifying thing in this world was receiving another's kindness without even realizing it.
Because that allowed the other party to take what he wanted without your knowing.
Giving before taking, taking before giving—regardless of the form, in the end, there had to be a balance between taking and giving.
Had Chen Fu not seen the mottled soul of that Spirit Eye Youth, he would only have communicated with Tian Meng.
Because Tian Meng had karma with Star Dou, and thus indirectly had karma with Chen Fu. The effects of such contact remained within a controllable range.
As for that gray soul, only after Huo Yuhao had voluntarily followed Chen Fu did they have a foundation for communication.
"Gentlemen, let us make a deal."
"For example, selling mature Soul Ring Engraving Soul Tools."
As for whether they would fail to sell? No need to worry. Long Xiaoyao, the Prodigal Son promotional ambassador, would make his move.
A nation was a gathering of power from the bottom up, but a faction did not have to be.
Humans were adaptable creatures, and classes possessing a certain amount of means of production also possessed a capacity for compromise.
Therefore, they would disguise Star Dou as a faction and quietly develop its grassroots.
When the time was right,
gather these Titled Douluo together,
Bang!
Close the doors,
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three gunshots rang out from outside.
Wooo—
A long, distant bugle sounded.
The uprising had begun!
P.S. To avoid padding the word count, I wrote about many of my recent feelings in the author's note.
Thank you to [Book Friend 1747] for the 100 reward, [Black and White, Deep and Shallow] for the 100 reward, [Netherlight Thousand Feathers] for the 500 reward, and [Wordless Scar Trace] for the 1100 reward (σ′▽‵)′▽‵)σ
Thanks to all my good brothers for your votes (σ′▽‵)′▽‵)σ
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