Moonlight Protection

In the spring of the year Yun Jingheng turned nine, he did something that surprised everyone.

He dismantled a low-tier Soul Tool core.

He took it apart completely, spreading the components all over the floor.

When Ya Li pushed the door open, this was the scene that greeted her.

Her son was sitting cross-legged on the floor with a pile of metal fragments spread out before him, holding a small part engraved with soul power circuits and examining it carefully against the light from the window.

"...What are you doing?"

Yun Jingheng looked up, his expression innocent: "Uh... just... looking."

Ya Li was silent for three seconds, then quietly backed out and called Yun Ming over.

Yun Ming entered the room, looked at the pile of fragments, then at his son, his expression somewhat subtle.

"Where did this come from?"

"A storage room."

Yun Jingheng said, "I saw a box full of broken Soul Tools, so I took them out to have a look."

Yun Ming walked over, crouched down, and picked up a fragment.

"Did you figure anything out?"

Yun Jingheng thought for a moment and pointed to the small part in his hand: "This should be part of the soul power guidance circuit."

"Its structure is spiral-shaped; theoretically, it allows soul power to generate rotational acceleration as it passes through."

"But the design is flawed. The angle of the spiral is too steep, causing excessive soul power loss, and it will overheat and collapse after only a few uses."

Yun Ming did not speak.

The look in his eyes as he watched his son became somewhat complex.

"How do you know these things?"

Yun Jingheng froze, realizing he had said too much.

In his past life, he was a physicist who studied gravitational waves, not Soul Tools.

But scientific thinking is universal—when seeing an energy conduction structure, he naturally analyzed it from a physical perspective.

However, people in this world did not think about problems that way.

"...I read it in a book."

He added as a remedy, "Aunt Cai gave me a few books about Soul Tools before."

Yun Ming nodded and did not press further.

But when he left, Ya Li noticed that his expression was somewhat pensive.

From that day on, Yun Jingheng acquired a new hobby.

Reading.

He read all kinds of books on Soul Tools—basic theory, structural design, soul power conduction, core circuits...

In the Shrek library, he flipped through every classic text related to Soul Tools one by one.

If he couldn't understand something, he would chew through it stubbornly.

If he truly couldn't chew through it, he would go ask someone.

Ask whom?

Cai Yue'er.

This Sea God Pavilion Elder was a titan of the Spirit Soul system, but she had also studied Soul Tools in her early years; while not a top-tier expert, she was more than qualified to teach a nine-year-old child.

"How did you actually get interested in these?" Cai Yue'er asked.

Yun Jingheng thought for a moment: "I find it interesting."

"Interesting?"

"Yes." He gestured, "The combination of soul power and metal, the flow of energy through fixed paths, different circuits producing different effects... isn't this just like... well, like a language?"

Cai Yue'er was stunned for a moment, then laughed.

"Fine, if you find it interesting, then learn it."

She found more books for Yun Jingheng and even dug out a pile of truly functional low-tier Soul Tools from the storage room for him to dismantle at will.

"If you break them, it's on me," she said.

"If you understand them, it's on you."

Yun Jingheng nodded and began to dismantle them frantically.

A month later, his room was piled high with all sorts of parts.

Some were complete, some were dismantled, some were dismantled and put back together, and some were put back together only to find a few parts left over.

Ya Li had to take a deep breath every time she walked in, telling herself that this was her son "learning."

Yun Ming would occasionally come to watch, then leave without saying a word.

But one time, he stood at the doorway and watched for a long while.

That day, Yun Jingheng was assembling a simple Soul Power storage core.

The principle behind this thing was similar to a capacitor, capable of storing excess soul power to be released at a critical moment.

He tried three times, and all three failed.

On the fourth attempt, he changed the circuit layout and succeeded.

The core lit up with a faint white glow, steadily storing soul power.

Yun Jingheng looked at it, suddenly reminded of his days adjusting instruments in the laboratory in his past life.

It was the same back then: fail and start over, start over and fail again, until finding that one correct parameter.

He smiled.

Yun Ming fell silent; it wasn't that there were no high-level Soul Masters in Shrek, but it seemed his son leaned more toward Soul Tools than his own cultivation. He had to find a way to steer him back!

That night.

By the shores of Sea God Lake, Yun Jingheng sat cross-legged.

Moonlight spilled down, coating him in a layer of silver frost.

The crescent moon mark on his forehead glowed faintly, echoing the bright moon in the sky.

He had been sitting like this for three hours.

That moon was a few shades brighter than usual, and Xiao Jiu was no longer sleeping, lying in the spiritual sea with its tail swaying gently.

"Do you feel it?" Xiao Jiu asked.

Yun Jingheng nodded.

The edge of a breakthrough.

The threshold he had vaguely touched two or three months ago was exceptionally clear tonight.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

His soul power began to circulate.

It wasn't him actively guiding it, but rather flowing spontaneously, like the tide, like the phases of the moon, like some irresistible law.

One cycle, two cycles, three cycles...

The speed grew faster and faster.

In his spiritual sea, that moon rotated slowly, casting down a cold, clear radiance.

Xiao Jiu stood up, its nine tails unfurling, the frost at the tips of its tails condensing into fine ice crystals.

"It's coming," it said.

Yun Jingheng focused his mind.

The next moment, a surging power erupted from deep within his body, like a dam full of water finally bursting.

Soul power rushed through his meridians, battering against every barrier.

The nodes that usually required deliberate guidance to pass were now being forced open by this power.

Time flowed slowly by.

He did not know how long had passed, but the surging power finally began to calm.

Yun Jingheng opened his eyes.

Beneath his feet, two soul rings rotated slowly.

The first ring, deep yellow, Crescent Slash.

The second ring was pale purple, hanging there quietly, exuding an aura unlike any soul ring he had ever seen before.

It was not sharp, not heavy, not scorching.

It was a feeling of... protection.

Like a veil woven from moonlight, gently enveloping him.

Yun Jingheng was stunned for a moment.

What was his second soul skill?

He had been so focused on the breakthrough just now that he hadn't had the heart to think about the soul skill.

Now that he had broken through, the soul skill had naturally formed, but he still did not know its effect.

He closed his eyes to perceive that newly born soul ring.

A stream of information slowly flowed into his mind.

Second Soul Skill: Moonlight Protection.

When actively released, it generates a moonlight barrier centered on the user, pulling enemies within a ten-meter radius toward the user while simultaneously applying a Moonlight Mark.

During the skill's duration, the user's movement speed increases by thirty percent.

While the barrier is active, the user gains a shield capable of absorbing damage, with the shield's value determined by the intensity of their soul power.

If the shield is shattered while still active—

At the moment of shattering, it triggers an area-of-effect explosion.

The explosion has four effects:

Moonlight Frost, slowing enemies for three seconds;

Mental Shock, interrupting any soul skills currently being cast;

True Damage, dealing five percent of the user's maximum health;

And—

0.5 seconds of invincibility.

Within 0.5 seconds after the shield shatters, the user is immune to all damage and crowd control.

Yun Jingheng remained silent for a long time after reading it.

Inside the sea of consciousness, Xiao Jiu was also silent.

After a long while, it spoke: "This soul skill... is quite something."

The expression on Yun Jingheng's face was somewhat strange. "Shouldn't this be your soul skill?"

"...Yes and no. I do have something similar, but its effect is just to generate a frost shield."

...The gap is that big?

This is more than just "quite something."

This is a god-tier life-saving skill.

Pulling enemies, increasing movement speed, generating a shield, counter-attacking when the shield breaks, and finally, 0.5 seconds of invincibility...

When he played games in his past life, the things he hated most were skills that had shields, crowd control, displacement, and invincibility.

Now, he had one himself.

"Want to try it?" Xiao Jiu asked.

Yun Jingheng nodded and stood up.

With a thought, his second soul ring suddenly lit up.

A silver-white radiance spread out from beneath his feet, forming a circular area with a diameter of ten meters.

At the edge of the area, moonlight condensed into a faint barrier, like an inverted bowl.

Everything within the area—blades of grass, gravel, droplets of lake water—paused for a brief moment.

Then, those things began to move toward the center.

It wasn't being blown by the wind, nor was it being pulled; it was... being "dragged" over.

It was as if the space itself were contracting.

Yun Jingheng felt the changes in his body.

His speed had indeed increased; he felt as light as a swallow.

A layer of faint silver light enveloped him; that was the shield, soft yet resilient.

He tried taking a step forward.

The shield swayed gently but did not break.

He walked a few more steps.

After thinking for a moment, he picked up a stone from the ground and threw it at himself.

The stone struck the shield with a dull thud and then bounced off.

A thin crack appeared on the shield, but it healed quickly.

Yun Jingheng nodded in satisfaction.

Then, he did one thing.

He voluntarily dispersed the shield.

"Bang—"

A low, muffled sound echoed.

The silver-white light exploded from where the shield had shattered, sweeping across a five-meter radius.

On the ground, the blades of grass instantly froze, covered in a layer of white frost.

An invisible ripple swept through the air; it was a mental shockwave.

The surface of the lake, caught in the wake, erupted in a circle of ripples.

Yun Jingheng stood where he was, feeling the 0.5 seconds of invincibility.

The sensation was quite marvelous.

It felt as though he were being cradled by moonlight, rendering him untouchable to all attacks.

0.5 seconds was very short, so short that one could barely do anything.

Yet in the heat of battle, 0.5 seconds was enough to dodge a fatal blow, enough to execute a counter-kill.

He dispersed his soul skill and stood in place, looking at the two soul rings.

"You're at two rings now," Xiao Jiu said.

"What's next?"

Yun Jingheng thought for a moment, then looked up at the moon in the sky.

"Keep practicing, I suppose."

He said.