Soul Guidance Department

The following afternoon, Zhou Yi brought Xue Lingyun to the entrance of the Soul Guidance Department Testing Area.

"I mentioned you to Fan Yu," Zhou Yi said. "He wants to meet you. Just say whatever you need to say later. No need to be nervous."

Xue Lingyun nodded.

The doors to the Soul Guidance Department Testing Area were made of heavy metal, engraved with intricate magic array patterns.

Zhou Yi knocked on the door. It opened from within, revealing a burly, dark-skinned man standing in the doorway.

"Teacher Zhou." The big man smiled honestly, his gaze falling on Xue Lingyun. "Is this the junior schoolmate you mentioned?"

"Mm." Zhou Yi stepped aside. "Xue Lingyun, this is He Caitou, an upper-year student from the Soul Guidance Department."

"Hello, Senior He," Xue Lingyun greeted him.

He Caitou scratched his head. "Don't call me Senior. It feels awkward. Come in, Teacher Fan Yu is inside."

The Testing Area was more spacious than Xue Lingyun had imagined, with all kinds of tools and parts arranged neatly.

On a workbench by the wall sat an unfinished Soul Tool. Through its translucent core casing, intricate magic array patterns could be seen.

Fan Yu was standing before the bench, debugging something. Hearing the footsteps, he turned around.

"You're here?" His gaze settled on Xue Lingyun as he looked him over. "Zhou Yi told me about you. I read that piece you wrote. It had some very interesting ideas."

"You flatter me, Teacher Fan Yu," Xue Lingyun said. "I just wrote it casually."

Fan Yu did not respond. Instead, he pointed at the Soul Tool on the workbench. "Do you recognize this?"

Xue Lingyun walked over and examined it.

It was a charging-type Soul Guidance Cannon. Its structure was not overly complex, but the magic array in its core was rather interesting.

Rather than using conventional linear energy transmission, it had a loop structure that allowed the energy to circulate once within the core before being released.

"A Third-Grade Charging Cannon," he said. "The core array uses a loop structure. Its advantage is improved energy efficiency, but the drawback is a longer charging time."

Fan Yu raised an eyebrow.

He Caitou was also stunned. He leaned closer to inspect it. "How could you tell? That loop structure is hidden very deeply."

"I've seen something similar in a book," Xue Lingyun said. "There's a variation of this structure in Basic Variations of Soul Tool Core Array."

Fan Yu did not pursue the matter. His gaze fell upon Xue Lingyun's wrist.

He wore a bracelet there. It had a simple design, but a closer look revealed fine engraved patterns across its surface.

"Who made this bracelet?"

Xue Lingyun raised his wrist and looked at it. "I made it myself."

Fan Yu held out his hand. "May I take a look?"

Xue Lingyun removed the bracelet and handed it over.

Fan Yu accepted it and carefully examined it under the light.

The bracelet was exquisitely crafted. The patterns on its surface were not decorative, but a composite structure made from multiple layers of magic arrays.

There was a Storage Array, a simple Defense Array, and another layer of Suppression Array.

He sent his Soul Power inside to examine it. The three layers of magic arrays were clearly distinct, the Energy Flow was smooth, and there was not the slightest flaw.

"Third-Grade," he muttered. He looked up at Xue Lingyun. "You made this?"

"Mm." Xue Lingyun said, "I made it for practice, and I wear it normally as well."

Fan Yu stared at him for several seconds before returning the bracelet.

"What grade of magic arrays can you engrave?"

"Third-Grade."

He Caitou's expression turned somewhat complicated as he listened from the side.

He recalled how long it had taken him to reliably produce Third-Grade Soul Tools back then, and how old he had been at the time. This kid in front of him was only eleven years old...

"Make one here for me to see," Fan Yu said. "Just a basic First-Grade Energy Circuit. I want to see your technique."

Xue Lingyun nodded, walked over to a nearby workbench, and picked up a Blank Core.

His movements were steady. The engraving knife spun once in his hand, found the right angle, and descended. Its tip swept over the core's surface, leaving behind smooth patterns without the slightest tremor.

The entire process took less than the time it took to drink a cup of tea. A complete First-Grade Energy Circuit had been engraved.

He handed the core to Fan Yu.

Fan Yu accepted it and scanned it with a testing device.

The circuit was unobstructed, its energy transmission stable, without any flaws.

He set down the tester and looked at Xue Lingyun.

"Your talent..." He paused, seemingly searching for the right words. "You're a bit of a monster."

He Caitou silently nodded from the side.

"Did you learn your understanding of Soul Tools on your own?" Fan Yu asked.

"Mostly from books," Xue Lingyun said. "Some of it I figured out myself."

Fan Yu nodded and asked again, "Have you used them in actual combat?"

Xue Lingyun thought for a moment. "I've tried."

"To what extent?"

Xue Lingyun said nothing. He took several testing targets from a nearby rack and arranged them at the far end of the Testing Area.

He raised both hands at once, his palms aimed at targets in two different directions.

Soul Power surged.

Two beams shot from his palms almost simultaneously. One struck the left target's bullseye, while the other struck the right target's bullseye.

There was no interval, no sequence. They struck at the same time.

Fan Yu narrowed his eyes.

Xue Lingyun did not stop.

His hands kept moving, while he continuously adjusted the positions of the targets—sometimes two targets were in the same direction, sometimes one was to the left and one to the right, sometimes one was near and the other far.

Every time he attacked, both hands fired together, and every shot hit with precision.

He Caitou stared wide-eyed. "How did you train your accuracy?"

"I trained it deliberately," Xue Lingyun said. "My First Soul Skill can attack at range. It would be a waste if I didn't train my aim. And there are two directions of attack, while moving targets can be either single or multiple targets, so I usually think about these things when I have nothing else to do."

He tried again, this time speeding up.

His hands seemed to tremble as they fired in rapid succession. The targets were struck more than a dozen times with a series of muffled pops.

Xue Lingyun knew clearly that this sort of rapid fire looked impressive, but its attack frequency depended on two things—hand speed and the speed at which energy could be mobilized.

He could train his hand speed, but the speed of energy mobilization was limited by the efficiency of Soul Power circulation.

At his current stage, if he fired continuously at maximum speed, each strike would receive less Soul Power, and the attachment effect of his First Soul Skill would be discounted.

If he wanted every strike to retain full power, he had to slow the pace.

Therefore, his approach in battle was clear: when facing a sufficiently powerful enemy, he would prioritize the power of each strike, reducing his attack frequency to improve the attachment effect of his Soul Skill.

But once his cultivation method broke through in the future and his Soul Power recovery speed and circulation capacity improved, high-speed fire combined with full-power attachment would become true Suppressive Firepower.

As for accuracy, he had trained even more ruthlessly.

Two hands meant two points of attack. Against a single moving target, he had to predict its trajectory; against multiple targets, he had to account for different directions simultaneously.

He had specifically trained these things. Whether it was one target or many, whether they were in the same direction or different ones, every shot had to hit. An attack that missed was useless no matter how fast it was.

Fan Yu fell silent for a while before suddenly asking, "Would you be willing to join the Soul Guidance Department?"

Xue Lingyun did not answer immediately.

He knew this was an opportunity. The Soul Guidance Department's resources, equipment, and instruction were far better than studying books and figuring things out by himself.

But he also knew Fan Yu was not asking whether he wanted to learn, but whether he wanted to transfer departments.

"I really like Soul Tools," he said seriously. "I want to learn the Soul Guidance Department's knowledge, use its equipment, and study under its teachers. But I don't want to transfer departments."

Fan Yu said nothing, waiting for him to continue.

"A Soul Master's foundation is still themselves," Xue Lingyun said. "No matter how powerful a Soul Tool is, it is still a tool. If one does not have sufficient strength to withstand even the recoil of a Fixed Soul Tool Cannon, then there is no point in making a better cannon."

He paused and looked at Fan Yu. "I can't give up my cultivation in the Martial Soul Department, but I also want to learn the Soul Guidance Department's knowledge. I know that may mean I cannot do my best in either field, but I want to try."

Fan Yu stared at him for several seconds, then suddenly smiled.

"You kid, you certainly know how to speak without leaving any openings." He thought for a moment. "You don't want to transfer departments? Fine. Come practice whenever you want. I'll grant you access to the Testing Area."

He took a metal plaque from a drawer. It bore the emblem of the Soul Guidance Department, and he handed it to Xue Lingyun.

"Take this. The guards will let you through. Come whenever you want to make something. If there's anything you don't understand, ask He Caitou. You can ask me too."

Xue Lingyun accepted the plaque and sincerely thanked him.

As he was leaving the Testing Area, Xue Lingyun's footsteps paused.

His gaze swept toward a corner. A pile of miscellaneous objects was stacked there, and nothing about it seemed unusual.

Yet when he had entered earlier, he had sensed an exceptionally bright mass of fortune there—not a blinding sort of brightness, but one that was weighty, solid, and faintly concealed.

A fate like that, in this place, at this age...

He had a rough idea.

He did not look any longer. Retracting his gaze, he pushed open the door and left.

Not long after Xue Lingyun departed, the door on the other side of the Testing Area opened.

Qian Duoduo entered with his hands behind his back, a smile on his face.

Fan Yu's expression turned serious, and he straightened up from beside the workbench. "Vice Dean."

Qian Duoduo waved a hand to indicate that there was no need for formalities, then walked to the bench and picked up the testing core for a look.

"This child is quite interesting." His tone was casual, though his eyes remained on the core.

Fan Yu stood beside him without rushing to respond.

Qian Duoduo set down the core and turned toward He Caitou. "What do you think?"

He Caitou grew a little nervous at being asked. Scratching his head, he said, "He's very impressive. Much more impressive than I am."

Qian Duoduo smiled, then turned back to Fan Yu. "Yan Shaozhe gave me a heads-up two days ago. He said the Martial Soul Department had produced a treasure and told me to keep an eye out if I got the chance. Zhou Yi happened to bring him over today, so I listened in from next door."

Fan Yu nodded, his expression serious. "What does the Vice Dean mean?"

"If all he could do was talk big, there would have been no point in me coming out," Qian Duoduo said. "But what he said just now was quite grounded. He wants to pursue both paths, knows where his foundation lies, and isn't getting carried away."

He paused and placed the core back on the table. "You were right to give him that Access Pass. It will be beneficial for someone like him to spend more time around the Soul Guidance Department. He doesn't necessarily need to transfer over."

Fan Yu replied, "You've considered it thoroughly."

Qian Duoduo waved his hand. "It's not that I've considered it thoroughly. That old fox Yan Shaozhe calculated it well. The kid belongs to his Martial Soul Department, but he also wants to learn Soul Guidance knowledge, so in the end both sides benefit. But if I provide some equipment and a place to work in exchange for a future top-tier Soul Engineer, it's not a loss."

After saying that, he glanced once more toward the door, smiled and shook his head, then walked out with his hands behind his back.

Fan Yu gave a slight bow. "Take care, Vice Dean."

Qian Duoduo did not turn back, merely waving his hand as his figure disappeared through the door.

He Caitou stood to the side, scratching his head as he asked quietly, "Teacher Fan Yu, the Vice Dean... has taken a liking to him?"

Fan Yu did not answer. He only looked toward the doorway, the corner of his mouth moving slightly. It was impossible to tell whether he was smiling or feeling something else.