Researching Soul Devices, First Meeting with the Hongchen Siblings

Although it could not compare to the world from Li Qingming's previous life, this place was already quite good.

What left Li Qingming somewhat helpless was that advancement in student grade here was not based on time, but on one's Soul Engineer rank.

In other words, a first-rank Soul Engineer could become a second-year student, a second-rank Soul Engineer could become a third-year student, and so on.

This arrangement was actually somewhat unreasonable, but Li Qingming had no good solution for it.

However, his innate spiritual power was relatively high. Under such circumstances, even though he did not possess a martial soul particularly suited for Soul Engineer cultivation, he could still master soul devices fairly easily.

Moreover, although this was merely ordinary student housing, it still contained a soul device design table where he could study.

Of course, being able to stay in a single room might also have been because of Kong Deming, but Li Qingming did not care about that.

Besides leaving himself a way out, he had come here to study in peace.

Thus, Li Qingming went to the library and began studying knowledge related to soul devices.

New students could normally attend the general classes, but if they wished, they could also seek out teachers for private instruction.

However, Li Qingming's identity was somewhat special. He had already taken Kong Deming as his teacher.

Therefore, even if Kong Deming did not value him or even disliked him, Li Qingming was still Kong Deming's student in name.

Kong Deming's students held very high clearance within the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy, so Li Qingming easily entered the inner section of the library.

Looking over the library's wide variety of soul device books, Li Qingming made a brief selection and picked up the most ordinary one, titled Basic Theories of Soul Device Science.

There were hundreds of such books displayed here for students to choose from and study.

After casually picking one, Li Qingming sat down and began reading seriously.

His learning ability was very strong, and paired with his powerful spiritual power, he could memorize things extremely quickly as well.

In just a short time, he had already learned seventy or eighty percent of the techniques here.

As time passed from noon into evening, Li Qingming finally rose to his feet around eight or nine at night. By then, there was no one left in the entire library.

Glancing at the book he had only read halfway through, Li Qingming picked it up and prepared to leave.

Just as he stepped out, a young man on the other side also walked out.

Their gazes met for a moment.

The young man had long silver hair. That was not the most important part; the key was his eyes. One was crimson red, while the other was sapphire blue.

As those heterochromatic eyes looked at him, Li Qingming's brow furrowed slightly.

While Li Qingming assessed the young man before him, the young man was also assessing Li Qingming.

At this moment, Li Qingming had black hair and black eyes. He was not as handsome as before, but his natural features were still there, making him an exceptionally rare handsome youth.

In particular, the calm and indifferent air about him made even the young man pause for a moment.

"You look like you're new here. I haven't seen you before."

"Let me introduce myself. My name is Xiao Hongchen."

The young man's voice was calm, but when he heard the name Xiao Hongchen, Li Qingming raised his brow.

He had not expected to encounter this person so soon after arriving.

However, Xiao Hongchen took Li Qingming's raised brow as a sign that the other party knew his reputation.

After all, he was a renowned young genius. At only twelve this year, he already possessed soul power above rank forty and was even a third-rank Soul Engineer.

Talent like his would be considered top-tier anywhere.

Therefore, Xiao Hongchen was not surprised that the other party recognized him, nor did he find it strange.

Looking at Xiao Hongchen, Li Qingming smiled.

"My name is Li Qingming. I'm a first-year student. Nice to meet you."

As he spoke, Li Qingming extended a hand toward Xiao Hongchen.

Xiao Hongchen glanced at him. He had originally been somewhat interested in getting to know such a handsome youth.

After all, even in the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy, he had never seen a boy this good-looking.

But upon hearing that Li Qingming was a first-year student, he immediately lost interest.

Being a first-year student meant that the other party had not even reached the rank of a first-rank Soul Engineer. After all, reaching first-rank Soul Engineer status would automatically make one a second-year student.

Since Li Qingming was still a first-year student, it meant he had no talent whatsoever in soul devices.

Thus, Xiao Hongchen merely glanced at him and gave a slight nod. He did not shake his hand, instead turning around to return his book before directly leaving.

Li Qingming was somewhat baffled by Xiao Hongchen's sudden change in attitude, but after thinking about it briefly, he roughly understood what was going on. He did not care.

After all, what the other party thought had nothing to do with him. As long as it did not affect him, Li Qingming had never cared about such things.

After Li Qingming also left the library and returned to his dormitory, he did not sleep that night. Instead, he continued studying the books here.

The production of soul devices was far more complicated than Li Qingming had imagined.

First, one needed to design blueprints personally or obtain blueprints designed by someone else, then forge the materials.

Once the materials had been forged, they had to be assembled and disassembled. After assembly, the core formation within also needed to be connected.

Every single step and detail was extremely complex.

Fortunately, Li Qingming's spiritual power was exceedingly high. In that state, no matter what book he read, he could remember it after one glance.

Thus, after merely looking at it once, he roughly understood the situation and began researching the so-called first-rank soul devices.

The first first-rank soul device Li Qingming chose was called the Power-Gathering Ring. This ring was engraved with a strength formation that could increase the user's physical strength, making it one of the most basic first-rank soul devices.

Besides requiring a complete understanding of the core formation within, this soul device also required mastery of a certain amount of soul device theory.

However, Li Qingming had thoroughly finished reading the introductory soul device curriculum in just one day.

After reading it, he had committed it all to memory. With a little thought, connecting it all together posed no difficulty either.

Thinking of this, Li Qingming stood up and stretched lazily.

When he looked outside, it was already daytime.

Li Qingming did not care that he had gone an entire night without sleep.

With that in mind, he headed to the library again. He needed to find books on crafting first-rank soul devices.

The library did have such books, but borrowing books on crafting first-rank soul devices required passing the first-rank Soul Engineer assessment, possessing a special identity, or already being a second-year student.

But that did not matter to Li Qingming. As Kong Deming's disciple, he could easily borrow any book in the library.

However, when he arrived at the library this time, he encountered Xiao Hongchen sitting there the moment he entered.

Xiao Hongchen was studying a book on third-rank soul devices, and seated across from him was a young girl.

The girl also had long silver hair tied into a ponytail.

When she saw Li Qingming enter, her beautiful eyes secretly turned toward him, carrying a trace of curiosity.