"Hmm. Not bad."
Li Chen soon finished absorbing it.
With his Supercomputer Martial Soul and the aid of the Skull of Destiny and the Three-Eyed Golden Lion,
Li Chen easily suppressed the backlash from the remnant will of the Soul Beast within the Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Silver Emperor's right leg bone.
Once the absorption was complete,
Li Chen floated effortlessly into the air.
Fine plantlike patterns appeared on the skin of his right leg, while the bone gave off a faint blue-gold glow of life.
That wasn't all.
Li Chen's Soul Power had risen by one level on its own, reaching level 55.
The Blue Silver Emperor's innate power washed through his body, strengthening his meridians.
He had also gained the Blue Silver Emperor's affinity with plants.
There was only one thing to say:
Anything from the Tang family was bound to be top-notch!
"Li Chen, why don't I give you the Eight Spider Lances to absorb too?" Huo Yuhao offered.
"Huh? But External Soul Bones are incredibly rare. Don't you want them for yourself?"
External Soul Bones were different from those within the body. The Eight Spider Lances might only be a thousand years old, but an External Soul Bone could grow stronger alongside its host.
The Skull of Destiny worked the same way.
Such Soul Bones had no fixed upper limit, making them exceptionally rare.
"No need. I have the Dark Gold Terror Claw, so the Eight Spider Lances wouldn't do much for me. You could use them as extra arms when making Soul Tools."
"Thanks, then. I'll find you something better someday."
Li Chen accepted them with a smile.
Huo Yuhao nodded, unbothered.
Without Li Chen, he would still be blindly doing Tang San's bidding. Besides, the Eight Spider Lances were mainly poison-based, and Huo Yuhao's two top-tier Martial Souls favored explosive power. He had little need for them.
After absorbing the Eight Spider Lances,
eight spider legs grew from Li Chen's back. They were remarkably handy.
"Have the metals from Spirit Hall arrived?"
Li Chen walked over to the workbench and asked.
"They arrived two days ago. I had Xiao Hongchen and the others deliver the first batch they'd finished: ten thousand Soul Guidance Water Heaters and Milk Bottles, along with Soul Guidance Lamps," Jing Hongchen replied.
"We've also made two High-Altitude Detection Soul Tools. They're enough to cover a ten-kilometer radius. We haven't touched the remaining metal. I thought we'd wait for you to come back and decide what to make with it."
Though Jing Hongchen was a level-nine Soul Engineer, he treated Li Chen as an equal when it came to Soul Tools.
And for good reason.
Li Chen's level might currently prevent him from making higher-level Soul Tools, but the series of war-focused Soul Tools he had developed had drastically sped up the Sun Moon Empire's unification.
When it came to Soul Tool design,
even Jing Hongchen and Kong Deming admitted they could not match him.
"Thanks for all your hard work. Here's what I found: the Soul Power in this era's environment is much denser."
"I think we could make a batch of Soul Tool High-Explosive Bombs and use the ambient Soul Power to amplify their blasts. The results should be impressive."
Jing Hongchen nodded. "All right. I'll make one and test it."
"Great. Sorry for the trouble, Hall Master Jing. I'll try to get the first satellite into orbit as soon as possible."
In the Flowing Cloud Mountain Range,
everyone at the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy swiftly got to work.
Because the environmental conditions had changed, the Soul Tool Machine Guns and Soul Tool Bullets used by the Soul Engineer Corps needed corresponding adjustments.
Xiao Hongchen, Meng Hongchen, Huo Yuhao, and even Ju Zi buried themselves in the work, hoping to fully equip the corps with basic Soul Tool weapons as soon as possible.
Kong Deming, meanwhile, took the metals from Spirit Hall
and began making the cores for the Soul Tool weapons.
His Silver Moon Divine Light Shield could draw on the power of a Soul Engineer Corps within its range and make it his own.
If he brought the Soul Engineer Corps along this time, Tang Hao would have no chance of escaping, even if he detonated all nine of his rings.
Kong Deming raced to finish adjusting both Soul Engineer Corps. Once he could draw on their full strength, he could trap even a Limit Douluo!
Soon,
half a month had passed.
A Soul Tool Rocket dozens of meters tall stood in a clearing.
It carried a Soul Tool Satellite.
"Unbelievable..."
It wasn't Huo Yuhao's first time seeing a rocket, but he still found it unbelievable.
He had seen the Soul Tool Rocket's blueprints too. They involved mechanics, aerodynamics, even electronics, all integrated with Soul Tool Technology.
Spread out, the damn blueprints would cover an entire soccer field.
Huo Yuhao still couldn't remember them in full.
Yet Li Chen had designed the rocket himself and could even build one with his own hands. Huo Yuhao seriously wondered whether the kid had a cheat like Tian Meng living in his head too.
"Charging complete!"
Kong Deming's voice came through the walkie-talkie in Li Chen's hand.
The Soul Tool Walkie-Talkie
was another of Li Chen's inventions. It allowed conversations over short and medium distances.
After all, the Sun Moon Empire of his own era
could make calls across vast distances once it had Soul Tool Satellites.
Kong Deming flew out from beneath the rocket and retreated to a safe distance.
"Good. I'll run one final check, then we're ready for launch."
The problems that seemed so complicated to Huo Yuhao were no trouble at all for Li Chen and his Supercomputer Martial Soul.
The Computer screen ran a rapid self-check and showed no faults in the rocket's systems.
"Launch! Ignition!"
At Li Chen's command,
the high-pressure Milk Bottles beneath the Soul Tool Rocket blasted out flames of Soul Power. The towering rocket kicked up a cloud of dust and shot into the sky!
Everyone at the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy looked up and watched until it vanished from sight.
Li Chen studied the data on the Computer screen intently.
The rocket would not fly straight up forever.
On the contrary, it would turn after launch, using Douluo Star's rotation to gain speed and conserve fuel.
Fifteen minutes later, the rocket's first-stage engine separated. The second-stage engine ignited successfully, and it continued climbing, its speed reaching Douluo Star's first cosmic velocity!
A few minutes after that,
the rocket reached Douluo Star's Kármán line. Its nose fairing split open, exposing the satellite to space.
The second-stage engine kept firing until it pushed the satellite into its designated orbit. Spring-loaded catches released, and the satellite floated free.
Then the engine aboard the Soul Tool Satellite fired, making a slight adjustment to its orientation.
Finally,
the satellite stabilized. Its solar panels unfolded, and it settled into a steady orbit synchronized with Douluo Star's rotation.
"We did it!" Li Chen cried with a grin.
"Yes!"
Ju Zi and the others erupted in cheers.
With a Soul Tool Satellite, they could monitor the ground and make calls across vast distances.
That wasn't all.
The Soul Tool Satellite could also launch strikes from high above!
On the battle display of Ju Zi's Soul Tool Computer,
images of the surrounding area streamed in from the satellite. They could even make out what was happening inside Spirit City.
"Li Chen, the empire's lucky to have you!"
Ju Zi pulled Li Chen into a big hug.
"Come on, Ju Zi. If you hadn't taken me in back then, I'd still be wandering around."
Li Chen chuckled.
Ju Zi snorted. "Shrek was too blind to see your worth. They decided your Martial Soul was trash just because it had no combat ability, and they refused to admit you."
"So I was the one who found you. Though even I had no idea you'd turn out this strong..."
Thinking back, Ju Zi could only marvel at how things had worked out.
Shrek's arrogance had eventually led to Li Chen personally bringing in the Soul Engineer Corps and flattening Shrek Academy with saturation bombardment.
As for Xuan Zi and Yan Shaozhe, those two Super Douluo had been vaporized on the spot by a volley of Li Chen's Soul Tool nuclear bombs.
"Look! Spirit City's changed so much."
Meng Hongchen's voice rang out as she pointed at the Soul Tool display.
Everyone turned to the screen. In the images transmitted by the satellite, Soul Guide Circuits were being laid throughout Spirit City on a massive scale, drawing crowds of onlookers.
"Technology really does change lives. Still, I doubt Bibi Dong will say the technology came from our Sun Moon Sect. She'll present it as Spirit Hall's doing," Ye Yulin said.
Li Chen chuckled. "That's fine. Let them spread Soul Tool technology first. Once people get used to modern technology, it's almost impossible to make them go back to a primitive way of life."
"We hold the core technology. When the time comes, they'll learn what it means to be at someone else's mercy!"
Li Chen was not worried in the slightest.
Meanwhile,
in the Divine Realm,
the Five Great God Kings stared at the satellite floating above Douluo Star, lost in thought.
"What... what is that thing?"
The God King of Destruction and the others looked baffled.
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