Hearing Ye Luochen's words, then looking at the Soul Tool shield that was continuously glowing.
Xuan Ziwen's brows immediately rose.
"So the thing you carved earlier wasn't an empty shell—you had reserved energy interfaces with specific specifications inside it?"
"Then you carved two formation arrays matching those specifications, inserted them into the reserved interfaces, and allowed the energy to circulate?"
Judging solely by the strength displayed by the Soul Tool shield, it had barely reached the threshold of a third-grade one.
Its defensive capabilities were quite ordinary.
Yet this novel production process had piqued Xuan Ziwen's interest.
Xuan Ziwen continued:
"However, doing this means adding several more steps to what could originally have been a one-step Soul Tool core carving process, greatly increasing its complexity."
"Moreover, you succeeded this time because the formation arrays were low-level and their energy was weak.
"If they were any higher—fourth-grade, fifth-grade, or even beyond—the energy intensity would increase dramatically.
"Even with better materials, there would still be a high risk of explosions during assembly."
"Furthermore, you would need to ensure that the interface specifications were completely identical. Otherwise, even if the materials were strong enough, at best they could not be assembled, and at worst, they would still explode."
Xuan Ziwen spoke rapidly, immediately pointing out the flaws in Ye Luochen's approach.
Listening to his analysis, Ye Luochen could not help nodding.
Every word Xuan Ziwen said had hit the nail on the head, perfectly identifying the core issues.
However, Ye Luochen did not mind and slowly said:
"That is indeed true. In fact, this is also my first time attempting something like this."
"This is your first attempt too?"
Hearing Ye Luochen's words, Xuan Ziwen froze for a moment before asking:
"Can you tell me why?"
"Could it be because of what I just said—that Soul Engineers need to have ideas of their own?"
Ye Luochen nodded.
"That was certainly part of it, but I actually had this idea long ago.
"It was just that these past few days, several instructors had been keeping a close eye on me, so I never had the chance to try it."
Good heavens, so you came to me to test something this dangerous?
Xuan Ziwen's mouth twitched.
"I have actually always been curious about why Soul Tools pursue integration, cramming all kinds of formation arrays together to form a single core."
Ye Luochen's voice continued.
"Granted, that makes things simpler and more convenient, but an integrated design is destined to have extremely poor repairability.
"As long as one formation array develops a problem, the other arrays intertwined with it will also be affected, and the entire Soul Tool is basically declared scrapped."
"That might be fine if the raw materials were cheap, but rare metals are incredibly expensive."
Hearing Ye Luochen's words, Xuan Ziwen nodded.
As an eighth-grade Soul Engineer, he understood this deeply.
What Ye Luochen described was entirely correct, and the higher the grade of a Soul Tool, the more pronounced the problem became.
Move one hair and the whole body followed. They were extremely difficult to repair, and even when repairs were possible, the cost was exorbitant.
Seeing Xuan Ziwen nod, Ye Luochen continued to ask:
"Then if that is the case, why not consider changing the approach?"
"Make the core components modular, detachable, and replaceable.
"That way, whichever component has a problem can be replaced with precision."
"Just like this Soul Tool shield of mine: two formation arrays, one for charging and one for defense.
"If either formation array breaks, simply take it out and replace it with a new one. Once it is replaced, the Soul Tool shield can resume normal operation."
"Wouldn't that save a great deal of cost?"
When Ye Luochen finished speaking, Xuan Ziwen pondered for only a moment before responding:
"It is a highly forward-looking concept, but have you considered that Soul Tools vary from one another?"
"Every Soul Tool made by every person is different. How difficult would it be to achieve the modularity and replaceability you speak of?"
"Ultimately, the work would still have to be done by the individual himself, and one person's energy is limited."
Ye Luochen had anticipated this question long ago.
And he had already prepared an answer:
"Not necessarily. If we want modularity, then the entire process no longer needs to be completed by a single Soul Engineer."
"For example, I only make charging formation arrays, you only make acceleration formation arrays, and someone else only makes the core framework with reserved interfaces."
"As long as we have a unified standard and all follow those specifications, they can easily be assembled together."
"Furthermore, since the difficulty of producing a single formation array is far lower than that of a traditional complete Soul Tool core formation array, production speed and efficiency will definitely improve enormously."
"Even, if the technology becomes more mature and the standards more standardized, Soul Engineers will no longer be needed for these stages. They can be handed over to Stamping Machine Tools for assembly-line production."
Hearing Ye Luochen's words, even Xuan Ziwen, who had immersed himself in the field of Soul Tools for many years and possessed incomparably vast knowledge, fell into a long silence.
"Standardization... division of labor... Stamping Machine Tools... assembly lines..."
After repeating several of the terms Ye Luochen had mentioned a few times, Xuan Ziwen's eyes gradually brightened.
Then he looked at Ye Luochen, his voice abruptly rising:
"Good lad, such a creative approach—you are simply a genius!"
"If it can truly be realized, Soul Tool production will enter an entirely new era.
"Production speed will become who knew how many times faster than the current manual methods!"
Seeing Xuan Ziwen's excited expression, a smile appeared on Ye Luochen's face.
Judging from his reaction, this assessment was probably in the bag.
In truth, his concept was not as "creative" as Xuan Ziwen claimed.
He had merely described the things he had seen on Blue Star before transmigrating.
After all, Blue Star had also fully entered the technological age, with all kinds of technological products emerging one after another.
Very few of those products were made by hand.
They were basically processed and assembled on factory assembly lines.
Moreover, the vast majority of products were highly repairable.
For example, mobile phones, computers, various appliances, weapons, and so on—if something broke, one only needed to dismantle it and replace it with a new part before it could continue functioning normally.
To be honest, Ye Luochen truly could not understand why, despite also entering a technological age,
Soul Tools had never developed anything similar.
Instead, they retained completely individualized production methods and extremely poor repairability.
It was as if concepts such as modularity and standardization had never occurred to anyone.
This undoubtedly restricted the development speed of Soul Tools to a great extent.
Had some mysterious force locked it away?
Did it not want Soul Tools to develop too quickly?
Before you continue