Mu En's Attitude

The Sea God Pavilion was silent.

Xuan Zi pushed the door open in a rush, breaking the stillness of the night.

Mu En still reclined in his old wicker chair, his posture unchanged. He merely opened his eyes slowly and glanced at Xuan Zi.

"The door hinges were replaced not long ago. Xuan Zi, what's so urgent that you have to put them through this in the middle of the night?"

Xuan Zi got straight to the point and recounted everything he had learned while investigating Gu Mingyuan by Sea God Lake that evening.

Mu En listened quietly, his eyes betraying little emotion. "Did that second martial soul contain bloodlust, resentment, or lingering souls?"

"None of those." Xuan Zi shook his head, certain of his answer.

"Only pure darkness and the power of judgment."

"Then don't be so quick to label it." Mu En closed his eyes again. His voice was calm, but it gave Xuan Zi something solid to hold on to.

"Darkness is not the same as evil."

Mu En then asked about Gu Mingyuan's performance since enrolling.

Xuan Zi explained the final match in detail.

He dwelled especially on the last moments: Gu Mingyuan's Soul Skills had been sealed by a Martial Soul Fusion Skill, and his Soul Power had nearly stopped flowing. Yet he had taken the full force of the Martial Soul Fusion Skill Golden Road and even used its impact to push his gathered strength to its limit.

There were also some strange Tang Sect techniques, and an even more demanding eye technique...

Mu En's fingers paused slightly on the armrest.

"His body can withstand it, and he has some foundation in spiritual power..." Mu En murmured.

Xuan Zi had spent many years at Mu En's side, so he caught the change in his tone. His expression shifted, and he ventured a question.

"Elder Mu, do you think he's suited to your..."

"Too early to say." Mu En cut him off, his expression still unreadable.

"No matter how good the material is, what matters is what it becomes after it's shaped."

Xuan Zi understood and pressed no further. Knowing Elder Mu had taken note of Gu Mingyuan was enough. He bowed, urged Mu En to rest, and turned to leave.

Just as he was about to cross the threshold, Mu En added quietly:

"From now on, you can tell me about this child from time to time."

Xuan Zi paused. Understanding flashed in his eyes, and he nodded.

The wooden door closed again.

The wicker chair rocked gently beneath the dim light. Mu En's figure seemed to blur into the empty pavilion, looking a little lonely.

"I think I know who it is."

Over the next few days, Gu Mingyuan spent much of his free time in the library, frequently borrowing introductory books on Soul Tools.

His narrow victory in the freshman final had been a warning. Golden Jade Body was powerful, but his weaknesses remained: he lacked ranged attacks, ways to reposition quickly, and means of restraining an enemy.

If he encountered another trump card like Huo Yuhao's, one that could forcibly seal his Soul Skills, he would have nothing left to rely on but his body. And his second martial soul, Demon's Contract, was not yet something he could reveal publicly.

Soul Tools could fill those gaps in his fighting ability.

More importantly, his Tang Sect was not the Tang Sect of old.

The Tang Sect's decline ten thousand years ago had proved one hard truth: if they clung to the Hidden Weapons blueprints left by their ancestors and refused to look ahead, the times would eventually grind them to dust. If he intended to build a new Tang Sect, he could not remain ignorant of the Soul Tool system now at the heart of the soul master world.

He remembered that Elder Yi's demiplane held undead creatures. What if they could wield Soul Tools too?

At that thought, Gu Mingyuan shut his book, took out paper and pen, and filled in an application for Soul Tool Department electives.

Mu Jin was somewhat surprised when he received the application.

Class One was an elite class focused on direct combat, and few of its students wanted to divide their attention by studying Soul Tools. But Mu Jin did not stand in Gu Mingyuan's way. After all, Qian Duoduo had openly shown great interest in him during the freshman final.

The application met no resistance and was approved quickly.

Two days later, in the Soul Tool Department's testing area.

Fan Yu stood before a workbench, looking at Gu Mingyuan with delight.

"Dean Qian says you have a strong physique, but making Soul Tools involves more than hammering metal." Fan Yu pushed a basic Soul Power carving knife and a piece of scrap metal toward him.

"Carve the simplest energy-gathering pattern onto this plate. I want to see how much control you have."

Gu Mingyuan picked up the knife. Its handle was cool in his hand. Recalling the diagrams in his books, he channeled Soul Power into the tip and drew it downward.

Crack.

Accustomed to striking with heavy fists, he misjudged the force this delicate task required. He fed too much Soul Power into his first cut, and the knife sliced straight through the metal plate, scraping across the workbench.

Fan Yu said nothing. He simply pushed another metal plate over.

Gu Mingyuan sighed inwardly. A flash of violet-gold crossed his eyes as he activated the Purple Emperor Eyes.

The knife came down again.

This time, its edge sank steadily into the metal's surface. With the Purple Emperor Eyes giving him a close view and his Soul Power carefully controlled, Gu Mingyuan kept his wrist taut and dragged the blade slowly, awkwardly, across the plate.

After the time it took an incense stick to burn, a Soul Tool pattern appeared on the metal plate. Its lines only barely met the requirement for continuity.

Fan Yu picked up the plate, examined it, and set it down.

"Good eyesight, Soul Power control, and wrist stability. But you have no foundation at all. You're working entirely by instinct." Fan Yu looked at Gu Mingyuan with anticipation.

"Come here three evenings a week. We'll start with identifying materials and learning basic formations."

"Understood." Gu Mingyuan nodded.

With that, Gu Mingyuan formally became an elective student of the Soul Tool Department.

Time slipped through his fingers like sand amid a grueling routine.

By day, Gu Mingyuan attended classes and combat practice with Class One in the Martial Soul Department. Three evenings a week, without fail, he stayed in the Soul Tool Department's testing area, learning from Fan Yu how to polish components. At dawn and late at night, he could always be seen on the western shore of Sea God Lake, gathering Purple Qi and drawing in moonlight.

On rest days, he went to the courtyard in South City.

The Tang Sect did not keep expanding blindly or recruiting more people. Lin Yan quietly sifted through information from every corner of the city, while Jiang Wenzhou devoted himself to the Heartbound Bell, developing its ability to send messages through vibrations in different environments and testing how much interference it could withstand.

After breaking through level twenty, he had also gained his second Soul Skill:

Heart Echo: Leaves a heart-sound imprint on up to three targets for half an hour. Even if a secondary bell is removed or destroyed, the user can sense the target's location and vital signs, and send a simple warning.

The three had clear roles, and together they made their hidden base secure.

Eight months passed in the blink of an eye.

After countless days and nights of sweat and practice, Gu Mingyuan had passed the assessment just over half a month ago. He now wore the badge of a first-rank Soul Engineer on his chest.

He was confident he could reach the second rank within a month. The Purple Emperor Eyes might have been troublesome to cultivate, but their benefits were undeniable.

Even more exciting, he had finally broken through the level-thirty bottleneck yesterday. His first year at Shrek Academy had officially ended, and a long vacation lay ahead.

First, though, he intended to pay the Holy Spirit Cult a visit and squeeze some money out of them.