"Guyi, my dear little sister, wasn't I just worried?"
"I'll definitely be more careful next time!"
Ma Xiaotao merely gave Ning Que an apologetic smile, then took Ye Guyi's hand and prepared to return to the inner court.
"A-Que, I'm going to help her suppress the evil fire first."
Though Ye Guyi was deeply displeased, she still did not refuse Ma Xiaotao's request.
"Come back early!"
Ning Que did not stop them. After all, this was a transaction.
After he and Guyi arrived at Shrek Academy, Dean Yan Shaozhe discovered that Ye Guyi's sacred attribute could suppress the evil fire within Ma Xiaotao and immediately wanted Ye Guyi to help for free.
Naturally, Ning Que would not agree to such unpaid work with no benefits.
As the next sect master of the Nine Treasures Glazed Sect, she was not some ordinary person without backing. How could he allow Shrek to bully her?
After a round of bargaining, Shrek Academy agreed that as long as Ye Guyi helped Ma Xiaotao suppress her evil fire, Ye Guyi could spend an additional month cultivating in the Golden Tree Cave every year.
Watching his fiancée leave with Ma Xiaotao, Ning Que returned directly to the Soul Guidance Department dormitory.
At fifteen, he was not only a level-48 Support System Soul Ancestor, but also a level-five Soul Engineer.
As a support-type Soul Master, he was not as foolish as the people of the Douluo Three Kingdoms, who were fiercely opposed to Soul Tools.
Over the years, the Nine Treasures Glazed Sect's business with the Sun Moon Empire had been booming. They had long become the biggest underground trading powers on the two continents, and he had never lacked advanced Soul Tools or blueprints.
It could be said that his status as a level-five Soul Engineer was the kind recognized by Mingde Hall of the Sun Moon Empire.
And honestly, Soul Tools and the Nine Treasures Glazed Sect were a perfect match.
Not only did they give Support System Soul Masters the power to fight, but more importantly, the Nine Treasures Glazed Sect's martial soul itself possessed the ability to detect gems and the like. This allowed them to discover and search for rare metals more easily than other Soul Masters. On top of that, the sect's disciples had greater spiritual power than Soul Masters of the same level. It was simply a perfect fit.
There were now three level-eight Soul Engineers in the Nine Treasures Glazed Sect alone, while Soul Engineers below level seven were countless. The sect had recently resolved to cultivate a level-nine Soul Engineer.
Because he held the status of a core inner-court disciple in the Soul Guidance Department, he did not need to share a dormitory with others like outer-court disciples or compete with an entire floor for rooms. He had his own private little villa.
After returning home, Ning Que wasted no time and immersed himself in drawing blueprints.
He always felt that this world's Soul Tool development path had gone wrong. Whether it was future mecha or humanoid Soul Tools, they ultimately relied on the Soul Master's personal strength.
The optimal solution was to destroy enemies while keeping the Soul Master safely out of harm's way.
The later spacecraft were the true path.
Now, combining the experience from his previous life, he was drafting blueprints for his own first-generation fighter jet.
He had long since cracked the technology behind sealed Milk Bottles through theories related to storage batteries.
What he lacked now was the construction of the Soul Tool's core formation.
Once he succeeded, he would seize air superiority and completely rewrite warfare across the Douluo Continent.
Research was a maddening endeavor. The moment inspiration struck, Ning Que became completely engrossed in it. For three days and three nights, he constantly drew and revised blueprints.
He did not stop until Ye Guyi appeared.
"Did it work?"
Seeing the joy on Ye Guyi's face, Ning Que knew that the project they had labored over for three full years had finally borne results.
"We've successfully filled two Heaven-Grasping Bottles. Each bottle contains power comparable to a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast."
As she spoke, Ye Guyi took out two bottle-shaped Soul Tools half a person tall.
The shell of these Soul Tools was made from Spirit Forging-grade Deep Sea Sunken Silver and Gold of Life foil. Their lining was a combination of crystal silver and soft jade marrow, while stardust served as the inscription medium. Inside were formations for time acceleration and spatial confinement. The entrance bore an elemental stripping Soul Tool formation, embedded with void silver crystals to conduct and amplify the formations' operation while reducing Soul Power consumption...
Limited by technology, it was only a level-eight Soul Tool, yet the resources consumed by each one far exceeded the manpower and materials required to craft a level-nine Soul Tool.
Ning Que had proposed the idea, and the Nine Treasures Glazed Sect's high-level Soul Engineers had poured all their efforts into creating them.
It was named the Heaven-Grasping Bottle because it could constantly absorb elemental spiritual energy from the outside world. Through its elemental stripping core formation, it drew the required energy into the bottle, then used the internal time acceleration and spatial confinement formations to nurture the ten-thousand-year spiritual herbs at its bottom at five to ten times the normal rate.
Even so, nurturing the herbs they needed would still take more than a hundred years.
For that reason, Ning Que chose to fleece the Golden Tree.
As the core of the entire Douluo Plane, the Golden Tree not only possessed the attributes of light and life, but also divine attributes. The natural essence of heaven and earth it contained could make plants grow rapidly.
Combined with the Heaven-Grasping Bottle and the environment at its base, which simulated the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well, it could stimulate the growth of the spiritual herbs he needed to the greatest extent.
For the past three years, the Heaven-Grasping Bottles had remained activated without pause, constantly absorbing elemental spiritual energy from heaven and earth. After filtering it, they retained only the Golden Tree's power of life and light.
This was also the main reason Ning Que had agreed to let Guyi help Ma Xiaotao suppress her evil fire.
Inside the Golden Tree Cave, the power absorbed in one day exceeded what could be absorbed outside in an entire year.
And within these Heaven-Grasping Bottles were two ten-thousand-year spiritual herbs that the Nine Treasures Glazed Sect had purchased at a tremendous price.
One was an Eternal Glazed Stamen, and the other was a Divine Dawn Light Grass.
Ning Que intended to force them to evolve into immortal herbs!
Over the years, it was not as if he had never considered making plans for the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well, but he had never found a way to do so.
The sect's Title Douluo had also investigated Sunset Forest, yet they had never been able to find it.
However, they had still discovered a few clues. The space there faintly bore traces of folding.
In other words, unless one was a child of destiny or someone chosen by Tang San, one simply could not enter and find the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well.
Thus, he could only seek another path.
Even if he could not cultivate true immortal-grade herbs, reaching the semi-immortal grade would still allow them to advance further. After all, the phantom of an eighth level had already appeared on his Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda.
And Ye Guyi's martial soul was already a half-step away from an ultimate attribute.
"Keep helping Ma Xiaotao purge her evil fire when necessary. We still have three ten-thousand-year medicinal herbs that need to gather energy for accelerated growth."
"But remember one thing: don't rush. Steadiness is all that matters. None of this is more important than your safety."
Ning Que looked at his fiancée before him. Over the years, she had truly been burdened with running around for this matter.
He knew that Mu En was connected to the Golden Tree. If he were discovered even once, then given Shrek's temperament, perhaps sacrificing more than half the Nine Treasures Glazed Sect still would not satisfy them.
That was why they had been so cautious, stealing only a few thousand years' worth each time. To the enormous Golden Tree, compared with the energy possessed by a thousand-year Soul Beast, the loss had less impact than a fallen dead branch. That was why they had not been discovered.
"Don't worry. I'll handle it carefully. You should rest properly and get some sleep."
Seeing Ning Que's exhaustion, Ye Guyi insisted on making him rest.
Just as Ning Que was about to obediently go to sleep, his communication Soul Tool lit up.
"Rest? Only those useless to the Soul Master world rest. Evil Soul Masters surround us, and the continent is in peril. This is precisely the time for ambitious people like us to shine. How can we rest?"
Ning Que rubbed his face, putting on a fervent and impassioned expression.
The moment his communication Soul Tool lit up, he knew it was time to carry out the interception plan.
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