"Miss Ye, there's nothing to be embarrassed about. I'm only offering you a suggestion."
"Besides, you're the one testing this creation of mine!"
After spending half the day discussing the performance and principles of disguise-type Soul Tools with Ye Guyi and giving her several to take back and try on, Huo Yuhao smiled faintly at her as they said goodbye, then watched her turn and leave.
"Whatever you say, I still have to thank you. I'll go get used to this disguise Soul Tool first."
Cold on the outside but warm within, Ye Guyi seemed like a carefree optimist on the surface, yet whenever she faced Huo Yuhao, her sentimental side could not help showing itself.
"Gold cups and silver cups can't beat a customer's praise. Enough with the formalities, all right..."
Thinking of how Ye Guyi, with her icy-smooth, snow-white skin, had blushed like a red apple in front of him, Huo Yuhao wondered whether he had a Succubus constitution.
"Little Yuhao, you're testing the gap between the disguise-type Soul Tools you can make now and that disguise Soul Bone Qian Renxue once had, the one that formed part of her Angel God Armor, aren't you?" Although the rather simple-minded Brother Sky Dream had yet to experience the cold and fickle ways of the world, he had vaguely guessed Huo Yuhao's intentions.
"Brother Sky Dream, you understand me that well too?" In the Sea of Consciousness, Huo Yuhao scratched his head and said, "But I'm not quite that black-hearted."
Electrolux suddenly said, "No wonder you kept warning that girl not to go parading around in front of a nine-ring Titled Douluo. Come to think of it, this must also have something to do with your earlier plans to forge divine artifacts, right?"
Huo Yuhao rubbed his face and said, "Elder Yi, you should know that, at equal levels of strength, our human bodies are so fragile that they're only slightly stronger than Elemental Spirits without physical bodies. And our actual elemental aptitude is inferior even to beasts renowned for their bloodlines, such as Dragonkind. For humans like us to wield god-level power, using tools is unavoidable."
"Rather than calling certain Soul Tools substitutes for the Soul Bones that can form divine armor, I'd say Soul Bones are black-box Soul Tools whose users don't understand their principles."
"A Soul Tool is simply an implement that guides soul power. Like Soul Bones, they're tools. In my eyes, neither is inherently superior to the other."
"In my previous life, I inherited the Tang Sect Secret Arts, the love-based skills my 'dear father-in-law' guided me to comprehend, your Undead Catastrophe Staff, Elder Yi, and the mantle of the God of Emotion. I climbed very high, but none of those things were truly my own."
"In this life, I'm going to develop my own divine skills, forge divine artifacts, and form my own divine seat. That means testing the waters, and the road won't be easy!"
After coming to the Sun Moon Empire, Huo Yuhao had made his living entirely through his Soul Tool craftsmanship. Whether it was showing off his skills before Jing Hongchen when enrolling at the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy or staying every night as a commuting student at the comfortable but expensive Mingyue Hotel, none of it would have been possible without his superb Soul Tool craftsmanship.
As a young Level 5 soul engineer certified by the Sun Moon Empire's Virtuous Hall, he found it remarkably easy to thrive in Mingdu, like a fish in water.
To be honest, Huo Yuhao and Soul Tool technology truly shared a special affinity.
In his previous life, Soul Tool technology had not only given him ideas for perfecting the Tang Sect Hidden Weapons system in the mortal world, but had also allowed him to create something like the Death Ray Tower, which could play a role in a melee between God Kings, even when he could only conduct research behind closed doors in the Divine Realm. For someone whose forte was spiritual power, encountering a Soul Tool system that demanded exceptionally high spiritual power was practically like being handed a pillow the moment he felt sleepy.
Just as Soul Tool craftsmanship had always treated him like a first love, Huo Yuhao had always paid close attention to the path of Soul Tool technology's development.
After becoming a "spectator," Huo Yuhao felt that human civilization on the Douluo Continent had taken the wrong technological route with Soul Tools. Whether it was the Mecha or the Humanoid Soul Tools from the era of Tang Wulin, that crown prince of his father-in-law's family ten thousand years later, they either relied on the soul master's own strength or had become black boxes whose users did not understand their principles.
Huo Yuhao believed that the ultimate goal of Soul Tool development should be to let users get things done safely without having to do anything themselves, while remaining under their absolute control at all times.
Tools as hardware, and self-maintaining, self-iterating artificial intelligences as software-that was the future!
If Huo Yuhao's plan succeeded, it would usher in an age of divine artifacts-not a single divine artifact, but genuine divine artifacts manufactured entirely on assembly lines.
This was Huo Yuhao's plan after reviewing everything he had witnessed in his previous life: to turn the Soul Tool system, which had been upended onto the wrong technology tree, back onto the right path.
Many days later, in Laboratory Three of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy:
"What have you cooked up this time, kid?" asked Huo Yuhao's teacher, Xuan Ziwen.
When Xuan Ziwen saw the joy on Huo Yuhao's face that day, he knew that this young man's months of tinkering since enrollment had finally borne fruit.
"Teacher, I've successfully developed Soul Tools that can replace a Torso Soul Bone. Although they only provide power at the Five-Ring Soul King level, the first step is always the hardest." As Huo Yuhao spoke, he took two blue-green garments from his Storage Soul Tool that appeared to be nothing more than ordinary clothes.
The two blue-green garments looked exactly like ordinary clothing, without any mechanical feel, because they were made from precision materials Huo Yuhao had fashioned from alloys. These were not Spirit Forging creations from the era of Tang Wulin, the crown prince of "Tang Bingqing," ten thousand years later, but products that could be manufactured on assembly lines through a transparent production process. With a single glance, Xuan Ziwen sensed Space Disturbance Soul Arrays inscribed within the garments as options for evasion or concealment, and Elemental Separation Soul Arrays as options for attack or defense...
Limited by Huo Yuhao's current cultivation, both Soul Tools were only Level 5. Yet Xuan Ziwen's first impression upon seeing them was this: if he or any other soul engineer in the Sun Moon Empire were tasked with producing these two Level 5 Soul Tools to the same standard of craftsmanship, each would consume far more manpower and material resources than making a Level 7 Soul Tool.
"You really have a knack for efficiency. At this rate, before long, I may have to start calling you Teacher. Though it'll take me some time to work out the principles behind these two Soul Tools you've given me, I still hope you'll keep at it."
For Huo Yuhao, spending time with the perpetually modest Xuan Ziwen after enrolling in this life was worlds apart from his memories of dealing with that "renowned teacher," Zhou Yi, after enrolling in his previous life.
"But there's one thing you must remember: whatever difficulties you encounter on the Soul Tool path in the future, don't be impatient. Your journey so far has been too steady, too smooth. That's given you very high expectations when you do all sorts of things. If you encounter a setback, I'm afraid..."
Looking at the student before him, a dazzling rising star in Soul Tool craftsmanship, Xuan Ziwen could not help offering a warning. Their months together had led him to regard Huo Yuhao as a kindred spirit despite their age difference, so he spoke plainly about many things rather than dressing his words in flowery language.
With his insight and talent, Xuan Ziwen naturally understood how extraordinary the two items Huo Yuhao had produced were.
And given his disposition, he could see all the more clearly that the design of these two lightweight Hexagonal Soul Tools, which combined offense and defense, was precisely what best suited his belief that Soul Tools should develop toward serving ordinary people.
However, Huo Yuhao's youth and his consistently carefree manner left Xuan Ziwen with a lingering concern.
"Don't worry, Teacher. I'm not someone who thinks too highly of himself." Hearing the concern in his teacher's words, Huo Yuhao grew serious as he answered. "Teacher, there's something else I'd like to ask of you. Since you hope Soul Tool technology will ultimately become integrated with the general public rather than soul masters, I think you'll agree to this..."
Before you continue