Feng Tianyu wore an expression of understanding.
"Dean Qian, you're right. The Gatling Heavy Machine Gun and its bullets are far too revolutionary in design. They're cheap to use, powerful, and fire at an incredible rate. Once they're introduced, Soul Masters will lose a great deal of their standing, and Grey Wolf and I will become targets for everyone."
Then Feng Tianyu turned to Grey Wolf.
"Grey Wolf, this kind of firearm design is generations ahead of its time. We'd also been planning to make large-caliber cannons and heavy artillery, but it looks like we'll have to put those on hold, too."
"Let's stop working on revolutionary designs for now and put some effort into Fixed Soul Tools instead. We'll solve the problem of Fixed Soul Cannon Shells having such a hard time hitting enemies."
"I believe that with your peerless wisdom, this won't be a problem at all."
Grey Wolf's eyes crinkled, his smugness written all over his face.
"What a pain. We have to leave a weapon this far ahead of its time unused just because we're worried about how other Soul Masters will react!"
"But since you've acknowledged my peerless wisdom, I'll indulge you a little and solve the problem of Fixed Soul Cannon Shells having such a hard time hitting enemies."
"We just need to give them a homing design. No matter how the enemy dodges, the shells can chase them on their own."
Grey Wolf made it sound easy!
Feng Tianyu didn't see any problem with it, either.
"Then I'll leave it to you!"
Only Qian Duoduo, standing nearby, thought that Feng Tianyu and Grey Wolf were both dreaming.
The difficulty of hitting enemies with Fixed Soul Cannon Shells was a problem that plagued every Soul Engineer.
After all, enemies wouldn't stand there like fools and let you take aim, and Soul Masters could move incredibly fast.
Even if Fixed Soul Cannon Shells were devastatingly powerful, that power meant nothing if they couldn't hit their targets.
Qian Duoduo and the others had been considering whether they should recruit Soul Masters with spiritual-type abilities to become Soul Engineers. They could use their spiritual power to locate enemies and aim, which might improve the accuracy of Fixed Soul Cannon Shells.
However, as he looked at the revolutionary design of the Gatling Heavy Machine Gun, a thought struck Qian Duoduo. Perhaps Feng Tianyu and Grey Wolf really could surprise him.
"Feng Tianyu, Grey Wolf, go ahead and give it a try. If you really can come up with a homing design, you'll solve a huge problem for our Soul Guidance Department."
"Use whatever Soul Guidance Metal you need from my workshop. If you run out, I'll go get more."
Feng Tianyu answered with complete confidence.
"I believe in Grey Wolf!"
"Pack up and head back to the workshop. These shell casings and bullets can all be reused. We can't waste them!"
Then Feng Tianyu and Grey Wolf gathered the 12,000 shell casings from the ground. Qian Duoduo went to the cast-iron wall and pried out the 12,000 bullets embedded in it.
As he worked, he couldn't help praising them.
"What a genius design! They combined the simplest Combustion Array and Explosion Array to create such a terrifying weapon!"
"Grey Wolf, this variant external Martial Soul of yours was born to make Soul Tools!"
Two months later!
They were back in Test Area No. 4!
When Feng Tianyu and Grey Wolf brought Qian Duoduo over, he was stunned.
Feng Tianyu had told him that Grey Wolf had already designed a Homing Fixed Soul Guidance Shell, and now they needed him to help test it.
It had taken only two months! Grey Wolf had solved a problem that others had spent decades failing to crack.
What a tremendous surprise!
Qian Duoduo asked curiously, "What exactly is this Homing Fixed Soul Guidance Shell?"
Feng Tianyu looked as if he could barely hold back a laugh. He took a one-and-a-half-meter-long Fixed Launcher and a Homing Fixed Soul Guidance Shell about as thick as an adult's arm from his Storage Soul Tool.
As Grey Wolf stood there with his forelegs crossed over his chest, looking smug, Feng Tianyu took an ordinary ballpoint pen from his Storage Soul Tool.
He looked at the human-shaped target a hundred meters away, then used the pen to draw its shape on the Homing Fixed Soul Guidance Shell.
Once he had finished, he loaded the shell into the Fixed Launcher.
Then he raised the launcher, now loaded with the Homing Fixed Soul Guidance Shell, in front of Qian Duoduo.
"Dean Qian, this is a Level 4 Fixed Soul Cannon Shell. I'm only at Level 17 Soul Power. Even if I used up all my Soul Power, I still couldn't fire it, so I'll have to ask you to do it."
"You don't need to aim at the human-shaped target. You can fire it into the sky or at the ground. You don't need to aim at all—the shell will fly toward the target on its own."
Traditional Fixed Launchers were absolutely terrible!
They were a textbook example of using brute force to get the job done: compress a large amount of Soul Power, then use it to propel a Fixed Soul Cannon Shell.
Even with the launcher and shell separated, you still needed at least Soul Elder-level cultivation to use a Level 4 Soul Tool.
After three months of cultivation, Feng Tianyu and Grey Wolf had only gained two levels of Soul Power, rising from Level 15 to Level 17. They couldn't use a Level 4 Fixed Soul Tool at all.
No wonder that in the original story, Huo Yuhao had added the mechanism of the Godly Zhuge Crossbow to a Fixed Launcher, greatly lowering the requirements for using it. It had made Jing Hongchen, the master of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy's Illustrious Virtue Hall, so eager to get his hands on the design that he spent a great deal of resources to obtain a draft.
On the Douluo Continent, whenever people wanted a Soul Tool to have a particular function, they used all kinds of Soul Guidance Arrays to force that function into it.
They put no effort into the design itself. This troubled Feng Tianyu greatly, and he planned to have Grey Wolf solve this problem next.
Grey Wolf had handled everything from the design to the construction of this Level 4 Homing Fixed Soul Guidance Shell.
Grey Wolf could be considered a Level 4 Soul Engineer!
But Feng Tianyu's Soul Power was too weak. A mere Level 17 Soul Master couldn't use a Level 4 Fixed Soul Tool at all, making him a burden on Grey Wolf's path to becoming a Soul Engineer!
After hearing Feng Tianyu out, Qian Duoduo picked up the Level 4 Soul Tool and gave him a look that said, "Are you messing with me?"
This so-called Homing Fixed Soul Guidance Shell was just a shell with the target's shape drawn on it. If that was enough to make it home in on a target, Qian Duoduo was willing to eat the Level 4 Fixed Soul Tool.
He didn't believe it would work!
But Feng Tianyu and Grey Wolf were both watching him. With a sigh, he decided he might as well try. He raised the Level 4 Fixed Soul Tool to his shoulder and began slowly channeling Soul Power into it.
He didn't follow Feng Tianyu's instructions to aim into the sky or at the ground. First he aimed at the human-shaped target a hundred meters away, but then he turned the launcher 45 degrees to the left.
Once the Soul Power had finished charging, the shell shot forward with a boom.
In the next instant, Qian Duoduo's jaw nearly hit the floor. The Soul Guidance Shell that had already been fired seemed to have a mind of its own. It realized it had missed the target, traced an arcing path through the air, and slammed into the human-shaped target.
With a thunderous explosion, the Level 4 Soul Guidance Shell's power blew the target to pieces. Waves of heat rolled outward and flames scattered in every direction, kicking up a fierce gale around the target.
Qian Duoduo's mouth fell open. He looked utterly incredulous, as if he'd seen a ghost!
It really could home in on its target!
And this was only a Level 4 Soul Guidance Shell. If they used a Level 8 Soul Guidance Shell and drew Yan Shaozhe's likeness on it, then fired eight or ten shells at once, wouldn't they chase Yan Shaozhe all over the place? If one of those Level 8 shells hit him, even as a Level 95 Super Douluo, he'd probably end up seriously injured.
At the thought, Qian Duoduo couldn't help laughing out loud. But then he looked down at the Fixed Launcher in his hands.
If he ate this thing, would he end up with indigestion?
Before you continue