A chapter of genius minds colliding
Two days later, Huo Yuhao met another of his future teachers.
Lin Jiayi, the academy's director of studies, took him to meet the man. At seven in the morning, he brought Huo Yuhao to the foot of the sixth-year teaching building.
It was less a teaching building than a laboratory building. As Lin Jiayi led Huo Yuhao up floor by floor, Huo Yuhao noticed that only the second floor had classrooms; the rest housed offices or laboratories.
Finally, Lin Jiayi led him to a laboratory door. The director politely knocked three times. "Teacher Xuan, it's Lin Jiayi. I've brought your new student."
"Come in."
At the voice from inside, something in the door lock clicked open.
"Soul Tool access control," Lin Jiayi quietly explained to Huo Yuhao. "This is a Level 6 Soul Tool. It verifies identities and keeps unauthorized people out of important laboratories. It's several times more secure than the locks on your dormitory doors."
Then he pushed the door open and led Huo Yuhao into the laboratory.
As soon as he stepped inside, Huo Yuhao was quietly astonished by its size. Judging by its area alone, it was probably second only to the public laboratory under Jing Hongchen's charge. And despite its size, it wasn't empty; it was fully equipped with all kinds of Soul Tool devices.
A teacher with resources like these must be a major figure here.
Four people were sitting in the office and study area, while someone was working in the laboratory area. The four looked tense, as if they were struggling with some task. Huo Yuhao guessed they were his senior fellow students.
"Ju Zi, go greet them," the man in the laboratory area said without turning around.
At his words, a pretty young woman stood up from among the four. She had looked somewhat annoyed and reluctant, but when she turned around, she did her best to put on a friendly expression.
The moment Huo Yuhao saw Senior Ju Zi's face, he felt the Nameless Seal in his Sea of Consciousness suddenly burn him. The reaction was strong enough to wake Tian Meng and the Ice Empress, and even Electrolux stirred slightly.
"What's going on?" Sky Dream Ice Silkworm asked, at a loss. At present, only Electrolux could make sense of the seal's condition.
"Was it triggered by something Yuhao saw?"
A dim gray light flickered. Gray mist curled around the golden seal, and it gradually quieted down. Strangely, the seal's power was already close to Electrolux's level. With only a fragment of his soul remaining, Elder Yi shouldn't have been able to suppress it. Yet the seal seemed to instinctively revere Elder Yi's power; the moment they touched, it immediately drew in its sharpness.
"Emotions..." Elder Yi sighed. "I sense so many emotions, all mixed together. They're a jumble of feelings. But amid that confusion, there's one warning."
"Elder Yi, what warning?" Huo Yuhao asked in his Sea of Consciousness.
"Don't get too involved with the young woman in front of you."
"But she seems to be my senior fellow student. What should I..."
"I'm only passing it along," Electrolux said. "The seal's feelings about this are so strong that you must have felt them yourself just now... But what you do is up to you. We won't interfere much."
Huo Yuhao nodded, already reaching his own conclusion. Warnings didn't come from nowhere. Caution was still the best course.
"Young man, are you Teacher Xuan's new student?" Ju Zi came over, looking sweet and guileless. Her manner made people instinctively lower their guard. But with the seal's warning in mind, Huo Yuhao remained extremely cautious.
"Greetings, Senior." Huo Yuhao had already composed himself. He bowed slightly to Ju Zi, making sure she couldn't see his expression.
"Mm. You can sit at the far right for your work and studies. There's an empty seat there." Ju Zi pointed to the other students. "From left to right, they're Wang Shaojie, Keke, and Zimu. They're all your senior fellow students."
"Greetings, seniors." Huo Yuhao bowed slightly toward them. Though the three were busy with their work, they all nodded to him.
"This is Teacher Xuan Ziwen's laboratory. Teacher Xuan is Mingde Hall's chief researcher, and this place has the best research resources. You should be thrilled to study here."
Teacher Xuan was actually the chief researcher! Huo Yuhao was delighted and hurriedly said, "I'll definitely study hard under Teacher Xuan."
"Then I'll be going." Lin Jiayi nodded to everyone, then said to Huo Yuhao, "Huo Yuhao, besides your regular classes, you should come here and study diligently. Starting tomorrow, you'll be taking second-year courses."
"Understood, Director Lin."
After giving his instructions, Lin Jiayi left, closing the door behind him. The moment it automatically locked, the man in the laboratory area turned around and pushed a box of metal toward Huo Yuhao.
"Make a Soul Tool. Let me see what you can do."
Huo Yuhao paused. "Teacher Xuan, what level and type of Soul Tool should I make?"
"Do your best." Xuan Ziwen went back to his work, leaving only his voice for Huo Yuhao to hear. "If you can manage it, you can make me a Level 9 Soul Tool."
"Surely you're joking, Teacher Xuan. If I could do that, I wouldn't still be in my second year."
Huo Yuhao immediately crouched beside the box and searched for the metal he needed. With his current Soul Power reserves, the finest Level 2 Soul Tool wouldn't pose a challenge, and he should be able to handle an ordinary Level 3 Soul Tool as well.
What he was thinking about was what kind of Soul Tool Teacher Xuan wanted to see.
On their way here, Lin Jiayi had briefly told him a few things. Among them was that Teacher Xuan valued innovation. Combined with his position as chief researcher, he must be a Soul Engineer active on the front lines of research and development.
With that in mind, Huo Yuhao had already made up his mind. He activated Spiritual Detection, reached into the box, and accurately picked out a piece of metal that looked as beautiful as colored glass.
Xuan Ziwen appeared busy, but he had quietly stopped his work and was watching Huo Yuhao. Huo Yuhao naturally put on a pair of gloves and took a dark-gold carving knife from the workbench. It was one of the best knives in the laboratory.
When Wang Shaojie had first come to the laboratory and been asked to make a Soul Tool, Xuan Ziwen hadn't given him a carving knife. Wang Shaojie had been at a loss and hadn't asked any questions, wasting a lot of time and earning Xuan Ziwen's criticism. He liked students who took initiative.
The metal Huo Yuhao had chosen was of average hardness. He quickly cut it into three pieces, then welded them together using a particular method of connection. After that, he began carving the Core Array. His hand was steady, and his carving rhythm was smooth, showing that he knew exactly what he was doing.
Xuan Ziwen couldn't help setting down the metal casing he had been assembling and walking over behind Huo Yuhao to examine the array the young boy was carving.
Three energy-gathering arrays. What was he making?
With Spiritual Detection active, Huo Yuhao naturally knew that Xuan Ziwen had come up behind him. But he acted as though he hadn't noticed and calmly continued his work. After finishing the arrays, he took several pieces of metal, cut them into hexagons, hollowed them out, rounded them, and drilled holes in them. Then he fitted the Soul Guidance Arrays inside. Finally, he found two scraps of glass in a corner of the laboratory, ground them smooth and round, and set them one in front and one behind inside the cylindrical casing.
"Teacher, I'm done," Huo Yuhao said.
"Explain it," Xuan Ziwen said, looking curious.
"There's no need for me to explain, Teacher Xuan. Finish the Soul Tool you're working on and attach mine to it. Then you'll understand."
Xuan Ziwen was quick to act. He immediately took Huo Yuhao's Soul Tool back to his workbench. But when he reached the final steps, he suddenly realized there was a question: how had Huo Yuhao known what his Soul Tool was for?
In fact, the moment Huo Yuhao activated Spiritual Detection, he had already seen the Soul Tool in his teacher's hands in full.
Xuan Ziwen was making a Soul Ray Gun designed to concentrate energy intensely. Its purpose was to leave a small wound and kill with a single shot. During his examination, Huo Yuhao had already understood the Core Array. Teacher Xuan was indeed brilliant; these Core Arrays formed the best energy-gathering arrangement Huo Yuhao had ever seen. If he hadn't witnessed it today, he would never have thought of combining them in this way.
But he had also quickly spotted a small problem, and the idea for the top-tier Level 2 Soul Tool he had made had come from it: a low-energy targeting device that concentrated energy.
To minimize the enemy's suffering with a single, lethal strike, you had to make sure the shot hit a vital spot. Huo Yuhao's Soul Tool could automatically identify the weakest point of any object in its field of view and lock onto it.
Xuan Ziwen took the Soul Tool to the testing range and fired it several times. Then he turned to Huo Yuhao. "You came up with this after seeing my Soul Tool. How did you see it?"
He couldn't simply pass it off as good eyesight. The targeting device had clearly been designed to work with Xuan Ziwen's Core Array.
Huo Yuhao thought for a moment. "Teacher Xuan, I'll show you something. Please don't resist my spiritual connection."
With that, he activated Spiritual Sharing, merging it with the Spiritual Detection he had already released and sending it toward Xuan Ziwen's Sea of Consciousness.
Before you continue