The Sun Moon Imperial Academy.
Inside a coffee shop.
Sunlight spilled over the second floor of the little building and onto the young men and women seated beneath an awning, their smiles brimming with youthful energy.
Everyone was discussing the academy's recent happenings.
"I heard Mingde Hall recently developed artificial soul rings?"
A beautiful girl was the first in her group to broach the subject.
Everyone immediately grew excited.
"Yeah. Ever since His Highness announced it in public last time, it seems they've been gradually preparing to release the details. I just wonder whether the technology is mature yet..." a boy said with a sigh.
"Well, my uncle's the deputy commander of the Evil Lord Soul Engineer Corps, right? Military Headquarters launched the first pilot program a while ago, and artificial soul ring technology was exactly what they were studying," another boy said mysteriously.
"So how did it go, Zhang? Stop being so damn mysterious and tell us already!" the others urged impatiently.
"Hey, there's not much to it, really. Military Headquarters was the first to run trials of this artificial soul ring technology, and our academy is next. I heard... the technology is already quite mature, and it's an epoch-making revolution in soul tools. You all know absorbing a ten thousand year soul ring causes soul shock, right?" The boy chuckled and waved a hand.
"And?" someone asked skeptically. "Why bring that up? Soul shock, ten thousand year soul rings-that's all stuff you'd have to be at least a Soul King to get involved with. What does it have to do with us?"
"Hehe, of course it has something to do with us." The boy seemed very satisfied with his classmates' prompting. "What if artificial soul rings don't cause soul shock?"
"..."
For an instant, everyone fell silent.
Then