"Since I'm making a Soul Tool anyway, I might as well take a look around the Soul Tool Department."
After reaching a deal with Ning Tian, Lu Yu decided to see how far Shrek's Soul Tool Department had developed.
In the game from his previous life, Soul Tools had initially been released as a cash-grab DLC.
A Soul Tool of the same level was equivalent to a weaker Soul Skill of the same ring tier. Not only was it weaker, but it also consumed more power, and using one required specifically adding Soul Rings that amplified Soul Power. It was putting the cart before the horse.
As a result, the DLC had failed to sell at all. Only after the developers released a series of special Soul Tools that simulated Soul Beasts' Soul Skills had players been forced to grit their teeth and buy the base DLC.
The average standard in the Douluo Three Kingdoms now was that of the base DLC.
When he passed their classroom, Lu Yu also called Huo Yutong along.
"Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, I'm going to research Soul Tools, and I need an assistant. All you do every day is sleep inside Yutong's head. Can you become a god just by sleeping? Get up and get ready to work."
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's voice rang out in both their heads.
"How can you slander an innocent man out of nowhere? Wasn't that because I had nothing to do? Mere Soul Tools? All I need to do is lift a finger, and they'll be a piece of cake."
Of course, Lu Yu could not let Huo Yutong study Soul Tools during the golden period of her cultivation.
From the start, if Electrolux refused the job, he had planned to dump it all on the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm.
Studying Soul Tools was most suitable for someone like the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, whose cultivation could not improve no matter what he did.
The Dragon Bloodline Purifier simulated a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast's skill, so it had to be at least a Level 5 Soul Tool.
With the Blade of Life's Watch and Tian Meng's spiritual control, carving the Core Array would not pose a problem.
The only shortcoming was Soul Power. Their fused Soul Power and the Mysterious Heaven Skill's rapid recovery could just barely keep up with the demand. After reaching level thirty and stealing a few more Soul Skills that amplified Soul Power, they should be able to cobble it together with some effort.
They walked out of the teaching building. Like its dormitories, Shrek's teaching buildings were divided by year using four colors: white, yellow, purple, and black. Apart from these, however, there was also a gray teaching building, which belonged to the Soul Tool Department.
As soon as Lu Yu and Huo Yutong entered the Soul Tool building, they faintly felt a tremor. Continuing forward, they found an enormous metal door ahead, with a card reader installed beside it.
"You two, stop. The Soul Tool testing area is ahead. No unauthorized entry. What brings you to the Soul Tool Department?"
A senior student spotted them and stepped forward to stop them.
"Hello, senior. We're this year's new students. I'm a Soul Engineer, and she's a Spiritual-Type Soul Master. We're very interested in the students' Soul Tools and wanted to take a look around."
"A Spiritual-Type Soul Master! Wait here. I'll go report this." The senior student hurried away and returned shortly afterward.
"Since you're new students here for a visit, come on in. Our Soul Tool Department happens to be testing Fixed Soul Cannon Shells. This will broaden your horizons."
The three arrived at the Soul Tool testing grounds, where a purple-haired "man" with fair, smooth skin stood with an enormous metal cannon resting on his shoulder.
Well, damn. Another one with Twin Martial Souls-a lollipop and the sun. Is Shrek selling Twin Martial Souls wholesale?
A food-type with Innate Full Soul Power-put him ten thousand years in the past and feed him an Immortal Herb, and he'd have a Second-Level God spot all but reserved.
Lu Yu had sensed the Martial Soul aura coming from the purple-haired "man" from far away.
Just then, a flying disc shot across the grounds with a whoosh.
The purple-haired "man's" metal cannon fired a projectile with a bang. It missed the flying disc by nearly two meters and struck the ground.
With a boom, the explosion blasted an enormous crater into the ground. Its power was ten times that of an ordinary Soul Elder's Soul Skill!
"What a shame." An androgynous voice came from the purple-haired "man's" mouth.
Lu Yu swept his Spirit Eyes over him. Good grief, was Shrek some kind of center for perverts? First there had been Wang Dong, who had sneaked into Shrek disguised as a boy, and now there was another person dressed as a man in the Soul Tool Department.
"Senior Tian Zhen, this fixed Soul Tool really packs a punch. If we brought it out in a match, wouldn't those Martial Soul Department students get blasted so hard they wouldn't know which way was north?"
Tian Zhen shook his head. "Sure, but rather than our opponents from the Martial Soul Department, I'm worried we'd blow the spectators away too. With accuracy like this, you want to use it in actual combat? All we can do is let Nan Nan take it in and detonate it at close range."
Tian Zhen was about to lower the Soul Cannon when he suddenly discovered a three-dimensional image in his mind, covering the entire competition grounds. The position of every stone and every grain of sand was etched into his mind. Even when someone walked past and stirred them up, he could easily predict their trajectories.
"Let me fire another shot."
Tian Zhen raised the Soul Cannon and called out to the person recording the results nearby.
"But didn't Teacher Fan say we were only testing three shells today?"
"Just tell him I got the urge and couldn't help shooting."
"All right." The recorder pressed the flying-disc button, and the instant the disc appeared, Tian Zhen decisively pressed the firing trigger.
A shell hurtled across a hundred meters and slammed into the flying disc. With a boom, the disc was smashed to pieces!
"A direct hit! Senior Tian Zhen, your aim is pretty good!"
"Hehe, of course. Even in other areas, I can get the job done in one shot." Tian Zhen gave the recorder a thumbs-up, and the recorder lowered their head with a crimson blush.
"Let me guess. A Soul Skill this impressive must belong to one of you two, right?"
Tian Zhen looked toward Lu Yu and Huo Yutong nearby.
"It's my Soul Skill." Huo Yutong stepped forward, and a noble, pure-white million-year Soul Ring lit up beneath her feet.
The Spiritual Detection Soul Skill, together with the Spiritual Sharing technique she had taught herself.
After the gold of life had forcibly expanded her spiritual sea, she had also learned the technique of Spiritual Sharing. However, she had learned it too recently and could currently share with only two people.
"A Ten-Year Soul Ring?" Tian Zhen was somewhat surprised. After all, at Shrek, a Ten-Year Soul Ring was rarer than a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring.
"A fine Soul Skill. With this, fixed Soul Tools can officially be used in actual combat. I'll go get Teacher Fan Yu." Tian Zhen left the testing grounds and soon returned with a white-haired middle-aged man.
Fan Yu's expression was gloomy. He had just learned that his wife, Zhou Yi, had been stripped of her Outer Court duties and placed in confinement. He had told her long ago to behave herself, but she had refused to listen. Now look what had happened-she had provoked the Clear Sky Sect's young master and even alarmed Mu En.
Thinking of the punishment the academy had handed him, Fan Yu felt he would not be in a good mood for the next month.
He looked at Huo Yutong.
"Show me your Soul Skill."
Huo Yutong immediately used Spiritual Detection Sharing on him, and Fan Yu's gloomy expression brightened.
"To think such a powerful Soul Skill exists. You're practically a born Soul Engineer."
"How about joining the Soul Tool Department directly? I can give you a core disciple position in the Soul Tool Department."
Misfortune truly did go hand in hand with good fortune. Fan Yu felt that if Huo Yutong joined the Soul Tool Department, even Zhou Yi's confinement would be worth it. He had long been fed up with that woman. She wore that wrinkled, sallow-faced wife's mask every day, leaving him unable to get it up even when he wanted to.
"As a core disciple of the Soul Tool Department, you won't have to worry about expulsion for insufficient cultivation, and you can use the academy's crafting benches for free. Not only that, you'll receive a monthly quota of rare metals to practice with for free. As long as you aren't expelled from the academy, you can freely use the Soul Tools you make."
"Our Soul Tool Department can also help you hunt spiritual-type Soul Beasts. How does that sound?"
Fan Yu began talking on and on.
"Master, what do you think?"
Huo Yutong turned to Lu Yu.
"Master?" Fan Yu looked toward Lu Yu beside her.
This young couple certainly knows how to spice things up.
"What's your Martial Soul?"
"Blue Silver Grass."
"Blue Silver Grass? Then are you here to join the Soul Tool Department too?"
Fan Yu immediately lost interest. There was also a student with Blue Silver Grass in the fourth year, but his talent was mediocre, and even now, he was only a Level 2 Soul Engineer.
"Although ordinary Soul Tool Department disciples don't receive as many benefits as core disciples, they can still rent and buy crafting benches and rare metals at internal prices."
"Is that so?" Lu Yu calculated the Soul Tool Department's benefits in his head. Judging by the value of the rare metals, they sounded quite good.
If core disciples of the Soul Tool Department, which Shrek did not value, received such good treatment, wouldn't the treatment of the Martial Soul Department's core disciples be even better?
"That won't be necessary. Compared with being a core disciple of the Soul Tool Department, I think being a core disciple of the Martial Soul Department offers wider seas and higher skies."
Before you continue