Time passed, and in the blink of an eye, half a month flew by.
Inside Mingde Hall's Soul Tool experimental area.
It was already close to midnight.
Yet a figure still sat at one of the workbenches in the corner.
A fine carving knife scraped across the metal surface, producing soft rustling sounds.
His gaze was incomparably focused, as though the entire world contained nothing but the core formation he was currently engraving.
Not far away, the teacher responsible for guiding him could not help glancing up at the clock on the wall.
Then the corners of his mouth twitched slightly.
"Why hasn't this kid left yet?"
Beside him, another teacher could not even be bothered to raise his head, as though he had long since grown accustomed to such things.
"Perfectly normal. You just got here, so you don't know this kid well. He's always like this."
"He was here at this hour yesterday, and the day before that too."
"In the past half month, I haven't seen him leave before midnight even once."
Hearing this, the teacher could not help shaking his head with a laugh.
To be honest, although the hall master had personally approved Ye Luochen's entry into Mingde Hall,
they had not initially thought much of him.
After all, no matter how great one's talent was, it still had to be proven.
The path of Soul Tools ultimately required enormous amounts of time and experience to slowly accumulate.
But after truly interacting with him over the past half month, they realized that they might have been wrong.
Ye Luochen's talent in Soul Tools was indeed astonishing, but that was far from the most terrifying thing about him.
What was truly terrifying was the way he learned.
He attended classes in the morning, came to Mingde Hall in the afternoon, then returned to Mingde Hall at night after dinner.
Once the experimental area closed, he went back to cultivate.
Then he showed up again early the next morning.
Other than the sleep he absolutely needed, he spent nearly all his remaining time immersed in classrooms and Mingde Hall.
There had not been a single exception in half a month.
"Was this kid always this hardworking before?"
One of the teachers could not help asking.
The teacher beside him shrugged.
"Who knows? Anyway, after teaching students for so many years, this is the first time I've seen someone like him."
"Learning quickly would be one thing, but he studies like his life depends on it."
As they spoke,
Ye Luochen finally slowly stopped moving at the workbench.
He let out a long breath.
Then he set the metal plate in his hand aside.
At the center of that metal plate, a complete second-rank core formation flickered faintly.
Seeing this, the teacher in charge of guiding him walked over and picked up the core formation for a look.
After several seconds of silence, he could not even be bothered to comment on it and simply placed it in the approved section.
This had happened far too many times over the past half month.
The first time Ye Luochen succeeded in engraving one, they had been utterly shocked.
After all, Ye Luochen had only recently come into contact with Soul Tools. A few days ago, he had still been a complete novice who could not understand a single word in class.
Yet a few days later, he had transformed and directly produced a second-rank Soul Tool core formation?
When he succeeded a second and third time, the Mingde Hall teachers were still greatly surprised.
They were surprised that the earlier second-rank Soul Tool core formation had not been a lucky fluke, but that he actually seemed to have a real chance of succeeding.
But by the eighth, ninth, and tenth successes, all the way to however many times he had succeeded now,
they had long since become accustomed to it.
The guiding teachers now unanimously believed that if this kid failed an engraving even once, it would be far more worthy of attention than another success.
"Teacher."
Ye Luochen stood up.
"I should have more or less mastered second-rank core formations."
Hearing this, the teachers exchanged looks, their expressions all somewhat strange.
Just listen to that. What kind of thing was that supposed to mean?
By convention, many Soul Engineers would declare themselves Soul Engineers of the corresponding rank after successfully making something just once.
It was like running: as long as someone had broken ten seconds in the hundred meters once, they could be called a ten-second runner.
But this kid, after tempering himself through countless repetitions, came out with, "I should have more or less mastered it"?
One of the teachers coughed.
"In that case, we will formally conduct your second-rank Soul Engineer assessment tomorrow."
"Alright."
Ye Luochen nodded.
He looked at the time, then at the guiding teachers eagerly waiting to get off work.
After hesitating for a moment, he ultimately decided not to keep pushing himself any further. He packed up his things and headed outside.
However, after he left, the teachers did not rush to leave work.
Instead, they began a heated discussion.
"Wait, are you really going to let him take the second-rank Soul Engineer assessment?"
"Of course I am."
"But how long has he been studying?"
"Uh, half a month."
"..."
The air instantly fell silent, and the teachers all lapsed into silence.
Half a month.
Going from no foundation at all to challenging the second-rank Soul Engineer assessment.
Just thinking about such a thing felt outrageously absurd.
"Should we inform the hall master?"
"We should. What if he actually passes?"
"What if? Do you think there's still any chance this kid won't pass?"
The next day, inside the assessment room.
Several teachers had gathered there.
Elder Ma and Jing Hongchen were among them.
Ye Luochen stood before the workbench. After steadying his breathing, he injected Soul Power into the Dark Iron Blade, which appeared and began moving continuously across the metal surface.
An hour later.
With the final pattern engraved,
Buzz—
The core formation lit up with a faint glow.
Then Ye Luochen placed the core formation into the Soul Guidance Cannon frame that had long been prepared beside him.
The next instant, red light glowed from the cannon barrel, and explosive energy began to gather continuously.
Clap! Clap! Clap!
Several bursts of applause sounded from nearby.
Jing Hongchen wore a warm smile as he applauded and said,
"Luochen, congratulations. From this moment onward, you are officially a second-rank Soul Engineer."
"Fifteen days, from no foundation at all to the second rank—you have given this old man quite a tremendous surprise!"
Hearing this, Ye Luochen replied,
"It is all thanks to the academy's cultivation. Without the teachers imparting everything they knew, I could never have achieved this."
He was not merely being polite.
What kind of place was Mingde Hall? It was the core of the academy and even the empire.
The mentors who could enter it were all elites of the academy and the empire. Their time was incredibly precious, and they had countless matters to handle every day.
Therefore, most students in Mingde Hall spent the majority of their time using the superior resources Mingde Hall provided for self-study.
They could only ask questions when their guiding teachers had time to come by.
But Ye Luochen was different.
Jing Hongchen had arranged six guiding teachers for him at once.
This ensured that every minute Ye Luochen spent in Mingde Hall, a guiding teacher would be beside him, ready to answer his questions at any time.
Of those six guiding teachers, four were seventh-rank and two were eighth-rank.
Such a terrifying lineup would probably be enough to establish a small Soul Engineer academy if placed elsewhere.
Ye Luochen's frightening rate of progress could never have been achieved without acknowledging the contribution of such formidable teaching staff.
Before you continue