Moonlight Protection

In the spring of Yun Jingheng's ninth year, he did something that surprised everyone.

He dismantled a low-grade Soul Tool core.

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

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

Her son sat cross-legged on the floor, a pile of metal fragments spread before him. He held a small component etched with Soul Power circuits, examining it closely against the light from the window.

"...What are you doing?"

Yun Jingheng looked up with an innocent expression. "Uh... just... looking."

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

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

"Where did these 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.

"What did you figure out?"

Yun Jingheng thought for a moment and pointed at the small component in his hand. "This should be part of a Soul Power guidance circuit."

"Its structure is spiral-shaped. In theory, it can cause Soul Power to spin and accelerate as it passes through."

"But the design has a problem. The spiral angle is too steep, causing too much Soul Power loss. It would overheat and collapse after only a few uses."

Yun Ming said nothing.

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

"How did you know that?"

Yun Jingheng froze for a moment, realizing he had said too much.

In his previous life, he had been a physicist studying gravitational waves, not Soul Tools.

But scientific thinking was universal—when he saw an energy transmission structure, he naturally analyzed it from a physicist's perspective.

But people in this world would not think that way.

"...I read it in books."

He hurriedly added, "Aunt Cai gave me some books about Soul Tools before."

Yun Ming nodded and did not press further.

But when he left, Ya Li noticed the thoughtful look on his face.

From that day onward, Yun Jingheng gained a new hobby.

Reading.

He read every kind of book on Soul Tools—basic theory, structural design, Soul Power transmission, core circuits...

In Shrek's library, he went through every text related to Soul Tools one by one.

If he could not understand something, he forced himself to chew through it.

If he truly could not make sense of it, he went to ask someone.

Ask who?

Cai Yue'er.

This Sea God Pavilion elder was a leading figure of the Martial Soul Department, but she had also researched Soul Tools in her early years. Though she was not a top expert, teaching a nine-year-old child was more than enough for her.

"You're actually interested in this stuff?" Cai Yue'er asked.

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

"Interesting?"

"Yeah." He gestured as he spoke. "The combination of Soul Power and metal, energy flowing through fixed paths, different circuits producing different effects... Isn't it like... well, like a language?"

Cai Yue'er paused, then smiled.

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

She found more books for Yun Jingheng and even dug out a pile of usable low-grade Soul Tools from the storage room for him to dismantle as he pleased.

"If you break them, put it on my tab."

She said, "If you understand them, the knowledge is yours."

Yun Jingheng nodded and began dismantling them like mad.

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

Some were intact, some dismantled, some had been taken apart and reassembled, and some had been reassembled only for him to discover several extra parts afterward.

Every time Ya Li entered, she had to take a deep breath and remind herself that her son was "studying."

Yun Ming occasionally came by to look, then left without saying anything.

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

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

Its principle was similar to a capacitor. It could store excess Soul Power and release it at a crucial moment.

He tried three times and failed every time.

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

The core lit up with a faint white glow, steadily storing Soul Power.

As Yun Jingheng looked at it, he suddenly recalled the days when he adjusted instruments in the laboratory in his previous life.

It had been the same then—fail, start over, fail again, until he finally found the correct parameter.

He smiled.

Yun Ming fell silent. Shrek did not lack high-level Soul Engineers, but his son seemed more inclined toward Soul Tools than personal cultivation. He needed to find a way to steer him back!

Night fell.

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

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

The crescent mark between his brows glowed faintly, echoing the bright moon in the sky from afar.

He had already been sitting there for six hours.

The moon was brighter than usual, and Xiao Jiu was no longer sleeping either. It lay within the Sea of Spirit, its tail swaying gently.

"Do you feel it?" Xiao Jiu asked.

Yun Jingheng nodded.

He was at the edge of a breakthrough.

The barrier he had faintly touched two or three months ago was especially clear tonight.

He drew a deep breath and closed his eyes.

Soul Power began to circulate.

He was not guiding it deliberately. It flowed on its own, like tides, like the phases of the moon, like some irresistible law.

One cycle, two cycles, three cycles...

It grew faster and faster.

Within the Sea of Spirit, that moon slowly turned, casting down cold, clear radiance.

Xiao Jiu rose to its feet, its nine tails unfurling as frost flowers gathered at their tips into fine ice crystals.

"It's coming," it said.

Yun Jingheng focused his mind.

The next moment, a vast force surged from deep within his body, like a water-filled dam finally bursting.

Soul Power rushed through his meridians, crashing against every barrier.

The nodes that normally required deliberate guidance to pass through were forcibly blasted open by this power.

Time slowly passed.

No one knew how long it took before that surging power finally began to settle.

Yun Jingheng opened his eyes.

Beneath his feet, two Soul Rings slowly revolved.

The first ring was deep yellow: Crescent Slash.

The second was pale purple, hanging quietly there and emanating an aura unlike any Soul Ring he had seen before.

It was not sharp, not heavy, not blazing.

Instead, it carried a feeling of... protection.

Like gauze woven from moonlight, gently enveloping him.

Yun Jingheng froze for a moment.

What was his second Soul Skill?

He had been too focused on breaking through to spare any thought for Soul Skills.

Now that he had broken through, the Soul Skill had naturally formed, yet he still did not know its effect.

He closed his eyes and sensed the newly formed Soul Ring.

A stream of information slowly entered his mind.

Second Soul Skill: Moonlight Protection.

When actively released, it generated a Moonlight Barrier centered on the user, drawing enemies within ten meters toward the user by force while applying a Moonlight Mark.

While the skill lasted, the user's movement speed increased by thirty percent.

During the barrier's duration, the user gained a shield capable of absorbing damage. The shield's strength depended on the intensity of Soul Power.

If the shield was broken before its duration ended—

At the moment of shattering, it triggered an area explosion.

The explosion had four effects:

Moonlight Frost, slowing enemies for three seconds;

A mental shock, interrupting all Soul Skills currently being cast;

True damage equal to five percent of the user's maximum health;

And—

0.5 seconds of invincibility.

For 0.5 seconds after the shield shattered, the user was immune to all damage and control effects.

After reading it, Yun Jingheng remained silent for a long time.

Within the Sea of Spirit, Xiao Jiu was silent as well.

After a long while, it finally spoke. "This Soul Skill... is something else."

Yun Jingheng's expression was a little strange. "Shouldn't this be your Soul Skill?"

"...It is, but not entirely. I do have a similar one. Its effect is to create a frost shield."

...The gap was that huge?

This was far more than merely something else.

This was a god-tier survival skill.

It pulled in enemies, increased movement speed, generated a shield, let him counterattack after the shield broke, and even gave him 0.5 seconds of invincibility at the end...

When he played games in his previous life, he hated skills like this most—skills with shields, crowd control, mobility, 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 outward from beneath his feet, forming a circular area ten meters in diameter.

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

Everything inside the area—the blades of grass, shattered stones, droplets splashed from the lake—paused slightly in that instant.

Then, those things began moving toward the center.

They were not blown by the wind, nor were they being drawn in. Rather... they were being "pulled" 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 light as a swallow.

A faint silver glow enveloped him. That was the shield, gentle yet resilient.

He tried taking a step forward.

The shield swayed lightly but did not break.

He took several more steps.

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

The stone struck the shield with a dull thud, then bounced away.

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

Yun Jingheng nodded in satisfaction.

Then he did something.

He deliberately dispersed the shield.

Bang—

A low, muffled boom sounded.

Silver-white light burst from where the shield shattered, sweeping across a radius of five meters.

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

An invisible ripple faintly swept through the air—it was a mental shock.

The lake surface caught in its wake burst into rings of ripples.

Yun Jingheng stood where he was, experiencing that 0.5-second invincible state.

The feeling was wondrous.

It was as though he were being held aloft by moonlight, beyond the reach of any attack.

0.5 seconds was very short, so short that it was almost impossible to do anything.

But in battle, 0.5 seconds was enough to evade a fatal attack, enough to turn the tables and kill his opponent.

He dismissed his soul skill and stood there, looking at the two soul rings.

"Two rings now," Xiao Jiu said.

"What next?"

Yun Jingheng thought for a moment, then raised his head to look at the moon in the sky.

"Keep training."

That was what he said.