Just as Dai Mubai had said, Flender did not refuse Dai Mubai's request for "a Soul Tool with any function at all." He readily picked out a spherical Soul Tool as large as a human head from his collection and gave it to Dai Mubai.
Ten minutes later, the spherical Soul Tool changed hands once again.
"Boss Dai, look at this Soul Tool. It's spherical, but it's all bumpy and rough. It's not smooth or round at all."
Le Bai used Soul Power to suspend the spherical Soul Tool before him, his hands moving rapidly. "Watch me polish it into a perfect sphere!"
Dai Mubai watched Le Bai waste Soul Power and stamina for no reason, utterly speechless.
Le Bai spent a full minute polishing the spherical Soul Tool before finally stopping.
"Ahem, sorry. I've wanted a Soul Tool for so many years, and now that I finally have one, I got a little excited. Sorry you had to see that."
Le Bai calmed down.
"It's fine."
Dai Mubai nodded with an understanding expression. "If you can, could you tell me why you want to disassemble a Soul Tool so badly?"
"Of course, but let's talk somewhere else."
Le Bai pointed toward the Wooden House where he lived outside the Academy. "I might need you to help provide some materials later on."
"You really don't stand on ceremony at all!"
Dai Mubai smiled. "Fine! Whatever materials you need, as long as I can provide them, they're yours. But you have to tell me what you're planning to do first."
"Boss Dai, I'm so touched that you trust me this much."
Le Bai said it with a smile, but he truly meant it. "To put it simply, I'm almost able to reconstruct the lost method of Soul Guidance Device Crafting."
Dai Mubai's smile vanished at once. He looked around with a grave expression, then quickened his pace toward Le Bai's Wooden House outside the academy.
After entering and shutting the door, Dai Mubai's tense expression finally eased. "Whew..."
"Why are you so nervous, Boss Dai?"
Le Bai almost laughed. "I said I'm 'almost able to,' not that I 'already can.' Besides, Soul Tools aren't exactly something people value highly."
"That's because you don't know."
Dai Mubai found a chair and sat down. "I once read in some books at home that Soul Tools from long ago were nothing like these useless things today. Although many Soul Tools have now been damaged and their crafting methods lost, some of their design blueprints have been passed down. If you truly reconstruct the method of Soul Guidance Device Crafting, then those blueprints..."
"That does sound a little frightening."
Le Bai calmly offered his opinion. "But Boss Dai, aside from me, you're the only person in this world who knows I've studied Soul Tools. So don't worry. I'm very safe."
Dai Mubai froze, then smiled. "You should've said that sooner!"
Le Bai placed the spherical Soul Tool he had been holding on the table and spread his hands innocently. "You didn't give me a chance to say it!"
The two exchanged glances, then burst out laughing like a pair of fools.
Once they had laughed enough, it was time to get serious.
"My knowledge of Soul Tools came from a book in the Academy Library."
Le Bai began recounting his experiences from the past two years. "If we look for it now, we should still be able to find that book, but I can't guarantee you'll gain anything after reading it. This may sound arrogant, but even if someone else studied that book carefully, at most they would learn the process of crafting Soul Tools. It would be highly unlikely for them to reconstruct the crafting method from the information in the book—unless they had cheats."
"Uh, then how did you reconstruct the method of Soul Guidance Device Crafting from that book?"
Dai Mubai instinctively ignored the unfamiliar word "cheats" and asked, "If the book didn't mention any specific method for crafting Soul Tools and only described the process, why are you sure the method you've grasped can produce a finished product?"
"That's not an easy question to answer. Hmm... let's put it this way: I have a special ability, or perhaps you could call it a talent."
Le Bai explained, half truthfully and half falsely, "As long as it's an ability I've already mastered, if I imagine using that ability to do something, I can judge rather accurately whether the idea is feasible or whether I can ultimately accomplish it, without needing to test it through actual action."
"You actually have such a convenient talent?!"
Dai Mubai looked envious, then suddenly understood. "I get it! You use this talent to help us make training plans, right? Yes, that must be it! Otherwise, how could they be so precise every single time?"
"Boss Dai, you trust me so much that I don't know whether I should be happy or worried."
The corners of Le Bai's lips curled upward while his eyes and brows drooped. "But you're right. I really do rely on this ability to make training plans. Whether it's for you all or for myself, every training plan is the product of this 'talent.'"
"Of course you should be happy! I'm not someone who trusts others easily. I trust you because you're Le Bai!"
Dai Mubai said with a smile, pointing at the spherical Soul Tool on the table. "Shouldn't you start disassembling it? Or are you planning to spend the entire day on this?"
"That wouldn't be impossible."
Le Bai answered casually and went into his room to retrieve the full set of tools he had prepared long ago. "Considering the convenience that mastering Soul Guidance Device Crafting could bring, sacrificing some training time for it is worthwhile."
"That really surprises me."
Dai Mubai looked at Le Bai. "I never thought a training maniac like you would say something like that."
"Of course I would. Training maniacs are people too."
Le Bai also felt that his behavior over the years fit those four words quite well. "Besides, if we can make suitable Soul Tools, we can greatly expand the ways we train. Take the weights I use now, for instance. They're ineffective, bulky, and extremely inconvenient to use. If we could use Soul Tools to increase body weight or apply pressure to the body, we could achieve the same training results much more easily."
"See? It's still all for training!"
Dai Mubai looked speechless, then remembered something. "Right, after talking for so long, you still haven't explained why you absolutely need to disassemble a Soul Tool."
"That starts with the structure of a Soul Tool."
As Le Bai spoke, he began using his tools to disassemble the spherical Soul Tool. "Although different Soul Tools vary greatly in structure, size, and function, generally speaking, every complete Soul Tool can be divided into two parts—the Core Array and the outer shell that works with the Core Array's effect."
"Seriously...?"
Dai Mubai wanted to believe it, but found it difficult. "There are so many Soul Tools, and they don't look alike at all. Yet their structures only need to be divided into two parts?"
"That's why I said 'generally speaking.' If we classify them in detail, then depending on the type of Core Array, the variations in the outer shell's construction, and their specific functions, there could be hundreds or thousands of categories."
As Le Bai spoke, he had already disassembled half of the spherical Soul Tool, revealing its internal structure. It was basically identical to the structure he had detected earlier with Soul Power while polishing it.
Le Bai pointed at a flat metal plate fixed at the center of the sphere. "Boss Dai, can you see that metal plate? The one engraved with patterns and writing."
"Move your hand aside a little. Let me see."
Dai Mubai leaned closer to inspect it. "Mm, there really is a metal plate with something engraved on it."
Before you continue