"An Yin."
Only after a long hesitation did Xu Cheng slowly speak.
The next instant, a figure slowly emerged from the shadows in a corner of the Experimental Area.
"Your Highness the Holy Son..."
The dark silhouette thickened like a pool of ink and swiftly gathered, shifting from two dimensions into three to form a shadowy figure.
He was a Soul Saint and Branch Altar Master whom Xu Cheng had taken under his command at a Holy Spirit Cult branch altar in a nearby town. His Martial Soul was a shadow, and although he was considerably weaker than other Soul Saints of the same rank, he came and went without a trace. At night in particular, he moved so swiftly that he could travel ten thousand miles before dawn.
Xu Cheng had kept him by his side as a messenger.
"Take this letter to the Fire Phoenix Soul Engineer Corps at the border between the Sun Moon Empire and the Star Luo Empire. Find Huo Qing, commander of the Fourth Battalion, and give it to her. If anyone stops you, just give them my name."
"Yes..."
An Yin was entirely concealed beneath a black robe. Neither his face nor his expression could be seen.
His voice was hoarse, his reply crisp and decisive.
Then he became a "pool" of ink once more and slowly disappeared into the shadows...
Apart from the Royal Soul Engineer Corps, the Fire Phoenix Soul Engineer Corps was one of the Sun Moon Empire's Four Beast Corps. Every corps commander was a Level 9 Soul Engineer, and its commander, Fire Phoenix Douluo, was one of them.
The maid his mother had left behind commanded one of the corps' four battalions. Each battalion commander was a Level 8 Soul Engineer, making them part of the corps' core strength.
A battalion commander might not sound like much, but every battalion had at least four hundred Soul Engineers, all elites among elites. Reportedly, even the weakest were above the fifth realm, and those in the sixth and seventh realms were far from rare. That alone showed how formidable they were.
Although he had met her once just after transmigrating, while he was still swaddled in blankets, he had not seen her again in the decade since.
They had, however, remained in contact through letters.
At the very least, she cared a great deal about him. Every year, she sent him plenty of resources, some of which must have cost even a Level 8 Soul Engineer like her a painful fortune...
So, at least for now, her concern for him felt more like that of an elder relative.
As for Ju Zi, Xu Cheng pursed his lips slightly.
He had merely asked Huo Qing to keep an eye out. If she happened to meet Ju Zi, he could intercept her early.
Even if she did not, according to the original storyline, Ju Zi would come to the Sun Moon Imperial Academy to study under Xuan Ziwen. He only needed to stay at the academy and wait by the stump for the rabbit to come to him...
In any case, she would not get away.
"Time to work!"
Xu Cheng gathered his thoughts, rolled up his sleeves, and got to work.
He took the short dagger Meng Hongchen had given him that day out of his storage Soul Tool and placed it on the workbench.
After securing it in place, he began his Analysis.
Naturally, he had a reason for being so eager to help.
What he lacked most at present was someone in an official position willing to back him. Jing Hongchen, Elder Kong, or Elder Cheng, who taught history, would all do. Only by analyzing a Level 7 Soul Tool's core and displaying even more monstrous talent could he earn their special regard.
He was certain Elder Cheng had noticed his performance over the past few days. Jing Hongchen went without saying-almost everyone around him was one of the man's "people," from his homeroom teacher Lin Jiayi to the siblings Xiao and Meng...
Yet they had stubbornly held back, probably still wavering over the decision.
After all, his identity was extremely sensitive. Approaching him meant choosing a side. They were all thousand-year-old foxes, with political instincts honed to the limit.
Even this Level 7 Soul Tool might well have been Jing Hongchen's test for him.
Although Meng Hongchen had not revealed how she had broken it, this was a Level 7 Soul Tool made for his own granddaughter by a Level 9 Soul Engineer, the master of Mingde Hall, and one of the foremost Soul Tool researchers in the Sun Moon Empire. Could a Soul Grandmaster who had not even reached Soul Elder really have broken it? Did that not say something in itself...?
"..."
After a long while, Xu Cheng finally let out a long, stale breath.
Sweat covered his forehead. Even with the cheat the system had given him, Analysis Mastery, analyzing this Level 7 Soul Tool was anything but easy.
His spiritual power had almost been squeezed dry, and he had even overdrawn it a little.
Day n of missing Tian Meng...
Suddenly, a towel gently wiped the sweat from his forehead. Xu Cheng glanced beside him. It was Nana, a flicker of heartache passing through the young woman's eyes.
They exchanged a smile. Things were not so bad after all. At least he had someone beside him...
Xu Cheng exhaled softly and immersed himself in his research again.
The Analysis was complete, but plenty of problems still lay ahead.
This Level 7 Soul Tool was the highest-grade Soul Tool he had ever encountered. The intricacy of its core formation far exceeded his imagination. A metal piece seemingly no larger than a plate was covered in densely packed runes.
It contained far more than the structure of a Level 3 Soul Tool, including how Soul Tools from Levels 1 through 7 generated their power, how to make them easier for the wielder to use, how to perform checks, and how to seal higher-level Soul Tools so that their restrictions would gradually lift as the wielder's strength increased...
The sight made Xu Cheng's scalp prickle.
It was like a student fresh out of high school receiving a doctoral dissertation. The amount of Soul Tool knowledge involved was staggering...
Even a Level 5 or Level 6 Soul Engineer from Mingde Hall might not be able to build it.
It made Xu Cheng begin to doubt his own conjecture. Could this really be a test?
Who the hell tested someone like this?
But Xu Cheng did not give up. Instead, he buried himself in the library and the Experimental Area, researching day and night...
Mingde Hall.
It was a spacious hall, its walls, floor, and ceiling all gleaming with a metallic sheen, like a fortress of metal. High above the entrance hung a plaque: Mingde Hall!
"You mean... you made a mistake?" Seated in the secondary seat, Jing Hongchen gaped at Elder Cheng, who occupied the seat of honor with a wry smile.
"Yes. I originally intended only to introduce a fault into the Level 4 Soul Tool section of little Meng's Soul Tool. Correcting that section would have been enough to repair it. But... I replaced the wrong component connecting the different levels. Now, to make the Soul Tool function, everything will have to be torn down and rebuilt. It amounts to... building it from scratch."
The old man shook his head helplessly.
The main reason was that neither of them wanted Xu Cheng to notice anything amiss. Even Meng Hongchen had been kept in the dark. Everything had been done silently in a single instant during class.
So even as a Level 9 Soul Engineer, he had failed to control his touch properly...
"Well..."
Jing Hongchen hurried to reassure him. "Ultimately, I was the one who suggested this. I wanted to test the boy and see just what level he was at. Sorry for the trouble of asking you to act, Elder... Besides, we can simply count this as a failed attempt. If the boy can't figure it out, he'll surely give up on his own..."
Elder Cheng shook his head.
"Actually, I'm very interested in him myself. Otherwise, I wouldn't have agreed to your suggestion."
"I'm also deeply curious about this prince..."
"As it happens, the academy's end-of-term assessment is only a month away. That will be another opportunity to observe him."
"That's all we can do..."
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