The Door Opened

"Kid." Fan Yu looked at Huo Yuhao, pointing to the scattered parts on the workbench. "Use your Spirit Eye to scan this thing and tell me the position, shape, and material density of every single part."

Huo Yuhao did not answer immediately. He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, his pupils had turned a pale gold.

The Spirit Eye silently unfurled, enveloping the entire workbench.

"There are forty-seven individual parts on the table." He began, his pace steady, every word certain. Huo Yuhao precisely described every detail of every part on the workbench, without a single error.

The room went silent for three seconds, and then Fan Yu smiled.

It was the smile of a true expert discovering a piece of raw jade, filled with undisguised astonishment and appreciation.

He stood up, walked over to Huo Yuhao, and looked him up and down.

"Level fourteen?" Fan Yu asked.

"Yes."

"Spirit Eye martial soul?"

"Yes."

"With this kind of talent, those old stubborn fools in the Martial Soul Department didn't recruit you?"

Huo Yuhao fell silent for a moment. "Dean Yan said my martial soul has a low ceiling."

Fan Yu scoffed, his eyes filled with disdain.

He patted Huo Yuhao on the shoulder. "The Martial Soul Department doesn't know a damn thing about detection. Kid, if you use this Spirit Eye to assist in operating a Soul Tool, you are a natural-born Soul Guidance Master. Come to the Soul Guidance Experimental Building; I'll take you in."

It was that simple.

No assessment, no trial, no complex procedures or approvals.

Fan Yu had only watched Huo Yuhao use his Spirit Eye once before making his decision.

In the Soul Guidance Experimental Building, strength and talent spoke for themselves; there were no convoluted rules.

Huo Yuhao turned his head to look at Mu Chen. His lips moved as if to say something, but his throat felt blocked, and nothing came out.

From the day they met outside the Star Dou Great Forest, Mu Chen had been helping him.

Helping him hunt for soul rings, helping him finish two hundred laps, helping him sell grilled fish, helping him absorb the Mysterious Water Pill, helping him stand out in the arena, and now, helping him find this path in the Soul Guidance Experimental Building.

It wasn't that Huo Yuhao lacked gratitude; he just didn't know how to express it. That gratitude piled up in his heart, stuck in his throat, and in the end, could only manifest as a solemn nod.

Mu Chen patted his shoulder, a gentle smile in his blue eyes. "Study hard. The Tang Sect needs Soul Tools."

The words were light, but Huo Yuhao understood their weight. Mu Chen didn't say, "Study hard and you'll have a bright future," but rather, "The Tang Sect needs you." The former was an elder's encouragement to a junior; the latter was a comrade's entrustment to a comrade.

"I will," Huo Yuhao said. Two words, but heavier than any grand declaration.

Fan Yu watched this scene from the side, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

His gaze lingered on Mu Chen for a moment longer before he said, "Kid, if you're also interested in Soul Tools, you can come find me anytime. A level forty-five Soul Ancestor with such strong spiritual power—if you studied Soul Tools, you wouldn't be any worse than this boy."

Mu Chen shook his head. "My path lies elsewhere. Thank you, Teacher Fan Yu."

Fan Yu didn't force the issue, waving his hand to show he understood. Geniuses all had their own paths; a forced melon is never sweet. He understood that principle.

When they walked out of the Soul Guidance Experimental Building, the sky was already darkening.

Wang Dong and Mu Chen walked side by side through the Maple Forest, neither of them speaking.

Just as they were about to leave the forest, Wang Dong suddenly stopped.

"Big Brother."

Mu Chen turned back.

"What you did today... I'm very moved."

"What did I do?"

"Helping Yuhao." Wang Dong lowered her head, nudging the fallen leaves with the toe of her boot. "You could have just ignored it. Old Yan had already spoken; no one cares if a one-ring soul master can become a core disciple. But you cared. You spoke up for him in front of everyone and personally took him to see Teacher Fan Yu. You're the type of person who seems not to care about anything, yet when it comes to the people around you, you always quietly pave the way."

Her voice grew quieter as she spoke, the final words nearly dissolving into the evening breeze.

Mu Chen stood there, watching her. Wang Dong's pink-blue short hair fluttered gently in the wind, a few strands clinging to her cheeks, and her ears were beginning to turn red again.

"Yuhao is a teammate," Mu Chen said. "Between teammates, it's only natural."

"Then what am I to you?"

The question rushed out, so fast that even Wang Dong didn't react in time. Once she realized what she had said, she jumped back like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, waving her hands frantically. "No, no, no! That's not what I meant! I mean, I mean you..."

She explained incoherently, her face growing redder by the second. Finally, she simply turned her back to Mu Chen, buried her face in her hands, and let out a muffled groan.

Mu Chen watched her back, the curve of his lips slightly more pronounced than usual. He didn't expose her embarrassment, simply walking over to pat her slightly trembling shoulder.

"You are Wang Dong," he said. "Let's go, back to the dormitory to cultivate."

Wang Dong didn't look back, but her footsteps were quick as she followed.

Back in the dormitory, the two sat cross-legged facing each other as usual, palms pressed together, and their soul power began to circulate in a loop between them.

After three months of fusion cultivation, this process had become so familiar that it required no thought at all.

Wang Dong's soul power entered Mu Chen's meridians through his left palm, and Mu Chen's soul power returned to Wang Dong's body through his right palm, the two forces forming a closed loop between them.

The warmth of the Radiant Goddess Butterfly and the crisp chill of the Ocean Martial Soul intertwined in a cycle, like a spring stream merging into a deep autumn sea.

But tonight was different.

It had been different from the very start.

The soul power cycle had barely completed three revolutions when Mu Chen sensed something abnormal.

That fused soul power was no longer a slowly flowing stream, but a surging tide, moving faster and more violently through his meridians.

Wang Dong clearly felt it too; his breathing grew rapid, and the temperature in his palms rose sharply.

"Big brother..." his voice trembled, "that door!"

Mu Chen felt it as well.

The door that had existed at the intersection of their soul power for three months was now vibrating violently.

The light leaking through the crack was no longer a sliver, but a beam, then a sheet—a golden, warm radiance, like the moment the morning sun leaps from the horizon.

The door opened.

It wasn't smashed open, nor was it pushed; it opened naturally once their soul power reached a critical point.

Three months of fusion cultivation, day after day of repeating cycles, combined with the tacit understanding forged while fighting side-by-side in the arena—all conditions were met at this very moment.

The two distinct streams of soul power completed their final fusion the instant the door opened.

In Mu Chen's dantian, the azure pool of soul power representing the Ocean Martial Soul stirred up monstrous waves.

At the same time, a warm and bright force poured into the pool—the soul power of the Radiant Goddess Butterfly, carrying the temperature of sunlight and the lightness of a butterfly's wings.