Compensation

After receiving Jing Hongchen's promise, Ye Luochen nodded.

Although he had failed to obtain a soul ring on this trip, it would not affect his cultivation.

Soul Power would not stop increasing just because he lacked a soul ring. He was merely short one soul skill for the time being.

Afterward, Ye Luochen did not linger there and left Mingde Hall, returning to his dormitory.

Not long after, an instructor came to his door and handed Ye Luochen a ring.

Ye Luochen naturally recognized it. It was a storage Soul Tool produced by Mingde Hall.

"The compensation arrived this quickly?"

Ye Luochen was somewhat surprised.

He had thought that the compensation Jing Hongchen mentioned would take at least three to five days to be delivered.

Yet it had been sent over in less than an hour.

With a thought, Ye Luochen activated the storage Soul Tool.

Then, two small, exquisite items, shaped very much like mirrors, appeared on the table.

"That's all?"

Ye Luochen froze slightly.

Although he had not suffered any substantial injuries during this trip, nor had he, like the Hongchen siblings, been weakened by excessive exhaustion to the point of needing bed rest—

he had truly gone through a life-or-death crisis.

And he had gone through that life-or-death crisis while under the protection of a Level 9 Soul Engineer leading the team.

If the Level 9 Soul Tools on the Hongchen siblings had not been powerful enough, he would have long since become a cold corpse.

Yet the compensation was only these two little things?

Puzzled, Ye Luochen picked up the description placed beside the two items.

Only after reading it did Ye Luochen realize just how precious these two items were.

"Level 9 Soul Tool—Mirror of Protection."

"Can be actively activated. Based on the intensity of the Soul Power injected by the user, it releases a Soul Tool barrier of corresponding strength."

"After charging, it can be used as a trigger-type Soul Tool. A full charge allows three uses, each producing a Soul Tool barrier that lasts thirty seconds and is strong enough to withstand the full-force attack of an assault-type Titled Douluo."

Holy hell, two Level 9 Soul Tools!

Having spent so long in Mingde Hall, Ye Luochen naturally understood the value of Level 9 Soul Tools.

Every one of these could be called a strategic-level existence. They were absolutely priceless and unavailable on the market. Even some Level 9 Soul Engineers possessed only one.

Yet Jing Hongchen had given him two at once!

Moreover, the functions of these two Soul Tools were extraordinarily overpowered.

When actively activated, they adapted to the user's strength.

That sounded somewhat useless, because if the user's Soul Power was weak, the barrier it produced would naturally be weak as well.

But as a Soul Engineer himself, Ye Luochen instantly recognized just how outrageous this trait was.

It had almost no usage restrictions!

By convention, the higher the grade of a Soul Tool, the stronger its user had to be.

Even if a Level 2 Soul Engineer were given a Level 6 Soul Tool, he would not be able to use it.

But this Soul Tool did not have that restriction.

"No wonder Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen were clearly only Soul Kings at the time, yet they could activate those two Level 9 Soul Tools to fight the Evil Eye Tyrant."

Only then did Ye Luochen understand.

As Xuan Ziwen's disciple, he naturally knew that his teacher's greatest dream was to promote the accessibility of Soul Tools.

To let everyone use Soul Tools without burden.

Originally, he had felt that dream was somewhat unrealistic.

But judging from this Soul Tool and the two Soul Tools the Hongchen siblings had used earlier, Mingde Hall had likely already traveled quite far down that path.

Compared to this trait, however, the other trait was what Ye Luochen truly valued more.

Passive trigger activation.

It could produce a barrier lasting thirty seconds, one capable of withstanding the full-force attack of an assault-type Titled Douluo.

After every full charge, it could be activated three times.

Taken separately, none of these three points was particularly rare.

There were plenty of trigger-type Soul Tools.

There were also plenty of Soul Tools that could be activated multiple times on a single charge.

As for a barrier capable of withstanding a Titled Douluo's attack, while it sounded absurd and would certainly cause a sensation in the outside world—

as the holder of Level 6 access privileges in Mingde Hall, Ye Luochen knew that Mingde Hall actually had quite a few Soul Tools of that level.

But when all three traits were combined, it became completely different.

Because that meant that with this Soul Tool, anyone could directly withstand the full-force attacks of an assault-type Titled Douluo for a full ninety seconds!

And there were now two such items before Ye Luochen!

In other words, he could hold out for one hundred and eighty seconds—three whole minutes!

Furthermore, these were not one-use items. They could be recharged and used again.

In theory, as long as Ye Luochen could fully charge one Mirror of Protection during the ninety seconds that the other was active, then keep alternating them like that—

he could pull himself up by his own bootstraps and extend those ninety seconds indefinitely.

Brother, that was invincible!

The moment he thought of that, this idea immediately surged into Ye Luochen's mind.

If he could pull himself up by his own bootstraps and remain undefeated even against an assault-type Titled Douluo, then as long as he did not court death, he would basically never have to worry about his safety again.

But after only a moment, Ye Luochen shook his head.

That was simply unrealistic.

A barrier of that strength would inevitably consume an enormous amount of energy.

Leaving aside the fact that he was only Level 40 now, even if his Soul Power were higher, he likely could not fully charge the other one within ninety seconds.

That fantasy of pulling himself up by his own bootstraps was merely a fantasy.

But that did not affect Ye Luochen's delight in the slightest.

Because even if he could not pull himself up by his own bootstraps, these two Mirrors of Protection were still incomparably precious treasures.

Their basic functions alone were already so powerful as to be absurd.

"So this is Mingde Hall..."

Ye Luochen could not help marveling repeatedly.

He truly had not expected Jing Hongchen's simple mention of compensation to mean something so precious.

After all, when he had been at Shrek, as far as he knew, several students who had luckily survived a tragedy similar to the one he had experienced had seemingly received no truly valuable compensation.

They had received nothing more than so-called titles and the status of legendary figures in the eyes of other students.

And the Sea God Pavilion elder who had led that team had not been punished by the Sea God Pavilion, unlike the Level 9 Soul Engineer who had led today's team and was punished by Jing Hongchen.

Even more absurdly, those few students who had survived had to "voluntarily" comfort and forgive that negligent Sea God Pavilion elder.

They had to be "considerate" and say, "This isn't your fault. Don't blame yourself."

And now that he had gone through a very similar situation, what had Mingde Hall done?

Setting aside who was better or worse, at the very least, Mingde Hall had not left Ye Luochen feeling cold-hearted.