"Look at my ass!"
Ma Xiaotao laughed and punched Chen Fu. She knew he must have made some major breakthrough again and wanted to share it.
He pulled Ma Xiaotao into the laboratory, then shut the metal door before the Big Hamster could charge inside.
"Come back when you actually have results."
"Asshole!"
The Big Hamster stomped her feet angrily outside the door, then headed back to her experimental field without looking back to read.
Orchid Fragrance Pavilion had ultimately been replaced by Lin Pavilion, but the place covered a large area. Mo Lin had originally opened up a flower garden in the backyard, and she now used it to cultivate plants.
"Look at my Soul Rings."
Chen Fu released his martial soul. An irregular, pale-blue Spirit Body enveloped his body.
"Where are your Soul Rings?!"
Ma Xiaotao grabbed Chen Fu by the collar and shook him hard, but she still could not find any hidden Soul Rings.
"Uh..."
A Level Fifty-Eight Battle Soul King's physique possessed utterly overwhelming strength against a weakling like him.
Even though he had extracted the Soul Power stored within his Soul Rings through Extract Ring and broken through to Level Forty-Seven, he was still a fragile little thing.
"Take a closer look at this."
Chen Fu held a cluster of air before Ma Xiaotao.
"Hm?"
Through Spirit Perception, Ma Xiaotao could sense a transparent ring in Chen Fu's hand.
"Why doesn't it have a color?"
His Soul Rings were usually dazzling and colorful. Why were they being so low-key today?
"My Soul Skills are innate abilities of my martial soul. Soul Rings merely unlock their upper limits, so I removed the residual souls inside the Soul Rings and absorbed their Soul Power. That's what turned them into this."
"???"
He had quietly developed some black technology?
Seeing Ma Xiaotao's baffled expression, Chen Fu immediately explained his findings regarding Soul Rings.
"You've even mastered Explode Ring Melt Ring?!"
"Not Melt Ring—Melting Ring. And I've worked out the theory behind Ring Detonation, but I won't teach you. That technique is far too crude."
"How do we verify Soul Ring Attachment? What other steps are needed?"
"Don't rush. Stop shouting. I need to prepare a Soul Tool first. When you break through to Soul Emperor, call that wheelchair-bound Douluo over, and we'll find a Fierce Beast to try it on."
"???"
A string of question marks surfaced in Ma Xiaotao's mind. The problem was not her—it was that Chen Fu had a problem.
In Chen Fu's perception, the wheelchair-bound Douluo possessed Soul Power as deep and solid as steel. The sense of danger he gave Chen Fu's Spiritual Perception was even stronger than that sloppy Dean's. He was presumably Shrek Academy's ultimate big boss. Convincing a Fierce Beast through physical means should not be a problem for someone like that.
"Storage Ring technology suits you quite well. I can modify you right now."
As he spoke, Chen Fu excitedly prepared to drag Ma Xiaotao into an experiment.
"No, no, no!"
It was not that Ma Xiaotao did not trust Chen Fu. She simply had not recovered from the shock yet, and being dragged into something unknown instinctively made her resist.
"Your Soul Skills provide you with a considerable boost. Removing the residual souls may affect your Soul Ring levels. Your Soul Power Level won't change, but your Soul Rings may temporarily drop by one tier," Chen Fu explained earnestly.
"But! Your Soul Rings will gain the possibility of continuing to improve!"
"Can you let me process this first? It's not like I'm running away."
Ma Xiaotao rolled her eyes at the slightly embarrassed Chen Fu and reorganized her thoughts.
In the end, she decided to trust Chen Fu's judgment. He was obviously using her as an experiment, but if there were truly risks involved, she did not believe Chen Fu would really harm her.
"Ha ha, fine. Wait here first—I'll make another Soul Tool device."
Chen Fu took out a small stool and table, settled Ma Xiaotao there, and gave her snacks to munch on while she waited.
He then pulled out all sorts of hoarded materials from his space ring—Deep Sea Mystery Gold Essence, Earth Deep Core, Moon Meteor Fire Essence, Azure Star Iron, and other materials sufficient to build a Level Nine Soul Tool.
Some of these materials had been skimmed from his mentor, Fan Yu. More had been skimmed from the unlucky people who came to him carrying metal for custom work.
Those people only demanded results. Chen Fu adjusted the parameters of certain alloys with his martial soul to produce the same effects, then pocketed the materials.
In Chen Fu's hands, these precious materials could bring out one hundred and twenty percent of their material potential!
"Project initiated. Temporary designation: [Divine Ring] Project."
[Mission tracking initiated]
This was Ma Xiaotao's first time watching Chen Fu create a Soul Tool from such close range. All kinds of materials melted away in his hands at a visible speed, then turned into finished components.
A two-meter-wide energy matrix composed of Level Four [Ark] cores floated behind him, ensuring that Chen Fu could continuously use Soul Power to accelerate the reconstruction of the materials before him into the forms he wanted.
The reason Ma Xiaotao could not defeat Chen Fu in unrestricted soul battles was the Ark Matrix behind him.
Although Chen Fu needed to expend a month's worth of Soul Power reserves every time he defeated her—if she fought him twice in a row within a month, she could beat him until he cursed his mother—it still left Ma Xiaotao feeling stifled.
But that was already in the past. According to the theory, she would be able to enjoy the thrill of unlimited firepower in the future as well.
Before she knew it, two hours had passed. Chen Fu finished polishing the first batch of materials and began preparing to inscribe them with Soul Power.
The blueprint was an upgraded version of Chen Fu's original Spirit Impact device. It improved operational precision, expanded the range of adjustable parameters, added adaptability functions, and, most importantly, enabled fine spiritual manipulation.
Lines automatically formed from points into planes across the functional module in his hand. The Energy-Conducting Engraving Knife danced along those lines, and after it passed, the energy-conducting grooves received further fine adjustments. Once the knife had completely traced the circuit once, the seamless circuit diagram on the module was complete.
"This is practically cheating!" Ma Xiaotao muttered. She had seen Teacher Fan Yu make Soul Tools before. Everyone else had to make every cut and stroke with extreme care, terrified of making a mistake, while Chen Fu simply drew out the energy-conducting direction with one stroke and used Spiritual Power to fine-tune the rest.
After completing one module, Chen Fu immediately began making the next.
Without realizing it, night had fallen. After ten hours, from noon until late at night, Chen Fu finally completed his [Divine Ring] Soul Tool.
Compared to [Nirvana] and [Emerald], which required extensive microfabrication and fragmented stretches of processing time, [Divine Ring] was made in one continuous effort. Aside from its core components requiring microfabrication, most modules could be completed with a single cut.
"Xiaotao..."
After assembling the final module, a Soul Tool resembling a hibernation chamber appeared before Chen Fu.
He turned, about to call Ma Xiaotao over to try it, only to find that she had already fallen asleep on the little table.
He took out a Soul Tool clock and saw that it was already late at night.
He pulled a blanket from his space ring and draped it over Ma Xiaotao, then carried her in his arms to the adjacent lounge.
The girl pulled the blanket tighter around herself as hazy lamplight climbed over her beautiful eyelashes.
Chen Fu smiled silently, then rose and walked outside, leaning against the wall beside the lounge door.
He was waiting for someone—an old man.
Not long after, the Spirit Perception Inscription on the laboratory wall lit up. A heavy presence was approaching outside the metal door.
To avoid having the laboratory he had built destroyed by a brute, Chen Fu opened the door himself.
"What wind blew the Dean over here?"
"Xiaotao is here with you?"
The old man glared, his beard bristling.
"I originally planned to have Xiaotao participate in an experiment, but it took too long. She got tired waiting and fell asleep."
The old man scrutinized Chen Fu from head to toe, then snorted coldly and vanished in an instant.
"I just wonder whether you'll come tear this place apart when you see Xiaotao's Soul Rings change color."
Chen Fu felt rather helpless. Fortunately, although this old man had a somewhat foul temper, he was still somewhat reasonable.
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