MAN!

After taking the blueprint from You Jie, Qian Duoduo immediately began studying it with great care.

The practicality of the Milk Bottle Soul Tool was beyond question. What Soul Master could turn down a reserve of Soul Power they could carry with them?

Aside from Tang San's Curse, an incomprehensible, nonsensical thing born from a mind no one could understand, even the Body Sect's old fossils—so stubborn and hidebound in the early days—were willing to accept Milk Bottles.

But the Milk Bottle had an obvious flaw, too: it leaked badly. The Soul Power stored inside easily dissipated. In as little as ten days or half a month, or at most within a month, a Milk Bottle that had started out full of Soul Power would be completely empty.

That made the Milk Bottle somewhat less practical. At the very least, it couldn't easily be used to supply Soul Power to other Soul Tools.

On top of that, among Soul Tools of the same rank, Milk Bottles were technically very difficult to make, and the materials they required were quite expensive.

As a result, Milk Bottles weren't very widespread.

Of course, plenty of people were also researching how to solve the leakage problem. Xuan Ziwen in the original story had even come up with an airtight Milk Bottle that absolutely never lost any Soul Power—a feat that defied the heavens.

But to You Jie, that sounded like a tall tale.

Unless the Milk Bottle completely changed how it stored Soul Power and turned it entirely solid, given how active Soul Power was, You Jie could hardly imagine what sort of sealing technique could isolate it completely.

However, ever since he had personally confirmed that Thousand-Refinement metal underwent certain changes in its properties, You Jie had changed his mind.

If even metal could change its properties, and if the Sun Moon Empire likely had Core Arrays unknown to the three nations of Douluo Continent, then it wasn't impossible that Xuan Ziwen could develop a sealed Milk Bottle.

You Jie currently had two approaches. The one he handed to Qian Duoduo involved engraving specific Core Arrays based on the changed properties of Thousand-Refinement metal, allowing the Soul Power to be reabsorbed and greatly reducing the rate at which it dissipated.

The other approach was to use a Core Array to turn Soul Power into a stable solid substance. That substance could only be converted through a specific Core Array, much like the plastic explosives that often appeared in modern novels.

The problem was that solidifying Soul Power was extremely difficult. You Jie had tried, but had never figured out how to do it, and it was dangerous, too.

After Rainbow Life had been triggered by accident once, and he had seen his restored Soul Power and vitality, You Jie had given up on the attempt.

He had gained a profound understanding of why no explosives factory had ever gone without an explosion, and why Nobel's family had been "loyal to the cause to the very last."

"All right. I'll make time to try it out right away.

"By the way, You Jie, if you're free this afternoon, help train Yu Hao and Caitou.

"The selection for next year's new tournament reserve team is coming up. The main team will most likely have nothing to do with our Soul Tool Department, so we can't afford to fall behind when it comes to the reserve team."

Qian Duoduo carefully put away the blueprints, then gave You Jie his instructions.

Ma Xiaotao could train again now. Given the temperaments of Yan Shaozhe and Xuan Zi, she would definitely return to this generation's Shrek Seven Devils next year and kick that inner-court disciple from the Soul Tool Department right out.

Qian Duoduo had already discussed it with Xian Lin'er. They would keep trying to secure places on the main team, but their chances were clearly better with the reserve team.

He Caitou was already close to the fourth ring. By the time they selected reserve members next year, he would be one of the few Soul Ancestors among the eligible core disciples in the outer court. Unless his luck was terrible, he would most likely make the cut.

Huo Yuhao's Soul Power was weak, but his first Soul Skill was practically made for team battles, and it could grow stronger, too. On top of that, he was quite hardworking. With the Soul Tool Department pouring resources into him, reaching level twenty by the end of the school year wouldn't be a problem.

Though the idea of a two-ring Soul Master making the reserve team sounded like a pipe dream, Qian Duoduo still intended to give it a shot, considering how useful Huo Yuhao's Soul Skill was.

As a first-year Soul Ancestor and Mu En's great-grandson, You Jie had already secured the position of leader of Shrek's younger generation in advance—and his status might even surpass Bei Bei's.

You Jie was three years younger than Bei Bei, but their cultivation levels were already close. As for actual combat ability, You Jie could punch Bei Bei and Xu Sanshi together hard enough to make them both go cross-eyed.

And though You Jie wasn't yet a proper Soul Engineer, his grasp of Soul Tools and his ability to use them were remarkably strong.

For Qian Duoduo, whether for public or private reasons, befriending You Jie would benefit Shrek above and himself below.

"All right. But at most, I'll have them join me when I work on physical conditioning and help them sharpen their teamwork in actual combat. They've both got their own training to do, too."

You Jie agreed readily.

He also wanted to use this opportunity to get to know Huo Yuhao and He Caitou better and see whether they were suitable teammates.

After all, both of them had been hard to stomach in the original story. No need to say much about Prisoner Huo; as the protagonist, he'd been torn to shreds by countless people.

He Caitou was no better. His various actions were infuriating to watch.

Still, You Jie decided to observe them for himself, especially Huo Yuhao, whose fate he had already steered onto another path. He wanted to see whether he would still turn into "Prisoner."

Without the Tang family's dog leash around his neck and without the crushing pressure of Shrek Academy, You Jie really wanted to see what kind of person Huo Yuhao would become.

As for He Caitou...

If his nature really was that dark and twisted, then You Jie had no reason to go to extraordinary lengths to correct him.

You Jie would just do what he had to. If He Caitou still went down such an extreme path, then You Jie could only let him experience the Meteor Dragon Five-Hit Combo.

Before long, He Caitou was brought over, too.

And when You Jie met He Caitou for the first time, his only reaction was three letters:

MAN!

You Jie had originally thought He Caitou would have a build closer to Shaquille O'Neal's, or Superalloy Darkshine from One-Punch Man. But after meeting him, he realized He Caitou wasn't that huge.

In terms of size, even if you scaled Xu Sanshi up proportionally, he'd be bigger than He Caitou.

But He Caitou's muscles were indeed incredibly solid. Add in his skin tone and hairstyle, and You Jie immediately thought of Lao Da.

Well, his first impression was pretty good. He just didn't know how badly the darkness deep inside He Caitou had festered by now.

A prince seeking revenge was nothing unusual, but a prince who wanted to wipe out an entire country was too extreme.

Even Xing Wuji, that lunatic, had only spent three days and three nights killing ordinary people after going berserk. He hadn't tried to destroy an entire country.

Perhaps He Caitou's experiences deserved sympathy, but compared with Xing Wuji, they were still a far cry from it.