Xiao Hongchen looked just like an utterly useless brother-in-law at that moment.
Heh heh heh...
Melancholy Xiao ignored his sister's gaze, which was like she was looking at an endangered Soul Beast, and walked through the huge hole on his own.
He let the moonlight spill over him without restraint. The desolate wind seemed to become the person who understood him best in that moment.
It lifted the hem of Xiao Hongchen's clothes and swept back his bangs.
The streak of black Xu Qing had dyed into his white hair added a surprisingly distinctive touch.
No one understands my melancholy...
As he thought this, he spread his fingers and ran them through his hair, leaning back slightly as he shot a cool glance at the two behind him.
Golden light flashed around him. He was halfway into Martial Soul Possession!
His First Soul Ring and Third Soul Ring lit up one after the other: Metal Control and Gold Shaping.
Then he flicked his hand. Several golden spheres appeared, meeting in midair as they melted and took shape.
In the blink of an eye, they became a pair of enormous wings.
Click, click...
"That Level 6 hand Soul Tool can still be improved. To be honest, though, this young master has already burned through everything and reached the absolute limit of his potential."
"And yet I can only do this much... Sigh, I'm still trash."
"But it should serve you for a while. There are only two Soul Guidance Arrays engraved on it."
"One is an auxiliary array that makes it fit snugly against your skin, so it won't slip off during intense combat. The other is the gravity array you asked for. The amount of Soul Power you pour into it determines the force of the Soul Tool's output."
Whenever Melancholy Xiao got onto a subject he loved and excelled at, he became unstoppable.
"I didn't make any unnecessary changes, such as optimizing the Soul Power transmission array, adding miniature Soul Power sensors, or including any other miscellaneous functions."
"And another thing..."
Xu Qing saw that Xiao Hongchen wanted to keep talking, but it was already getting late.
He simply tossed the glove to Xiao Meng, whose eyes were practically popping out of her head, then grabbed the little girl by the back of her collar and appeared in front of Xiao Hongchen in an instant.
He kicked him into the air—gently, of course—then leaped up and caught him by the ankle with one hand.
"Let's fly, Hongchen-class. Hall Master Jing must be getting impatient."
"Woo-hoo~~"
Xiao Meng wasn't scared at all. Her face was alight with excitement, and her clear voice rang out.
"Go, big brother!!"
Legend had it that every Body Sect Master was a master chef.
But your Uncle Xu Qing scoffed at that.
"Old geezer! If you're going to give me something, at least make it properly!!"
"Heh heh heh..."
Hall Master Jing pushed up his tiny gold-rimmed glasses and glanced at the medicinal meal set aside exclusively for Xu Qing. After chuckling a few times, he said:
"Poison Sect Master really does care about Little Xu... especially when it comes to his meals."
The medicinal meal glowed green all over. It was nothing but a heap of poisonous fruit, along with the old man's carefully measured Body Sect poison (Soul Power).
It had no smell, tasted like chewing wax, went down sticky, and turned you into a mutant the moment it reached your stomach.
Du Busi didn't care about the process. He wanted results!!
He was determined to train Xu Qing until he gained the same lofty attribute immunity as the Sea God—toxicity immunity!
"Aotian wants it, but I still wouldn't give it to him! And here you are, nitpicking."
Du Busi grumbled.
This kid really was as dense as a log! Couldn't he see why I kept making medicinal meals for him, day after day?
That darling of Mingde Hall was a heaven-blessed prodigy of the Sun Moon Empire's younger generation.
Meng Hongchen's Vermilion Clear Ice Toad Martial Soul wasn't just a lower-ranked ice attribute like yours. It also had terrifying poison!
If you don't build up your resistance now, what are you going to do later?
The old man was deeply concerned about the children's romantic entanglements.
Ever since the Body Sect and Mingde Hall had begun secretly exchanging medicines three years ago,
the core disciples of both sides had inevitably started butting heads.
It mainly came down to Soul Tools and the question of pure-blooded Soul Masters.
The conflict was most serious between Aotian and Wei Na. Wei Na's status was complicated: she was royalty of the Heaven Dou Empire, as well as Aotian's fiancée.
Sigh... If that boy Xu Qing hadn't stepped in to mediate back then, relations between the two sides wouldn't be so good today.
Thank goodness, thank goodness. Wei Na had gone with Aotian to hunt for his Fourth Soul Ring, so she wasn't at the sect.
"Hah, that savage?"
Freshly bathed and looking handsome and neat, Xiao Hongchen was back. He plopped down beside Xu Qing.
"Move over, big brother!"
Xiao Meng had arrived too. She secretly put her hands to work and shoved him aside.
Then she settled down beside Xu Qing, looking quite pleased with herself.
"What savage? You mean Aotian?"
What a pair of rivals these two were.
Xu Qing glanced at Xiao Meng, who was wearing the Level 6 Soul Tool glove and dutifully peeling shrimp for him. He raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
"Soul Tools are the field Soul Masters will have to focus on learning and using in the future!"
His adorable little sister had claimed the seat he'd wanted, so Xiao Hongchen could only turn to his grandfather for comfort.
"Even if that savage has incredible talent as a Soul Master, he still wouldn't stand a chance against a Soul Engineer of the same rank!"
"Even if he's a once-in-a-generation genius with combat instincts that border on the divine, could he face the one hundred and twenty-eight Soul Cannons my Martial Soul can deploy?!"
"Even if his skin is as hard as a hundred-thousand-year-old turtle shell, he still couldn't withstand my relentless bombardment!"
Xiao Hongchen was confident, and the facts backed him up.
"Human strength always has its limits. You're not wrong."
Xu Qing ate the fragrant shrimp Xiao Meng had peeled and made the basic Mystic Ice Marrow Popsicle she'd long been dreaming of for the little girl, who was staring at him with her mouth practically watering.
After satisfying the little girl's appetite, he continued:
"No matter how powerful a human Soul Master is, they'll still fall when faced with an endless mechanical tide."
"Even I can't guarantee I'd escape unscathed if you unleashed your full firepower."
"Take the Level 9 Fixed Soul Guidance Shell, for instance. Its power is enough to make even a Super Douluo change color. It's roughly equivalent to the old geezer's full-force strike."
Xu Qing relaxed in his seat, his gaze sweeping over Hall Master Jing, who was deep in thought, and Xiao Hongchen, who was beaming with pride at having been proven right.
There must be plenty of such terrifying weapons hidden beneath Ming Capital, what with these people and their fear of not having enough firepower.
"Exactly!!"
Xiao Hongchen folded his arms, no longer thinking about the food at all.
His mind was filled with thoughts of how he could make Xu Qing understand that Soul Tools were good, Soul Tools were wonderful, and Soul Tools were the best...
As far as he was concerned, Xu Qing had already shown signs of heading down that path by asking him to craft Soul Tools!
Body Soul Masters were naturally suited to becoming Soul Engineers. Just look at the two peers who had made the deepest impression on Xiao Hongchen.
One had an Eye Martial Soul and was named Gu Tong; the other had a Hands Martial Soul and was named Wang Yanfeng.
They had started learning about Soul Tools from scratch, yet after only two and a half years, they could already make Level 2 peak-grade Soul Tools!
And that was without the kind of top-tier resources Mingde Hall had to offer.
So what about Xu Qing, whose Martial Soul was a Body Martial Soul?
Heh heh heh...
If Xu Qing started learning and then discovered that, even with his natural advantages, he still couldn't match this young master...
Just imagining it gave Xiao Hongchen a cerebral orgasm.
Before you continue