On the second weekend, Huo Yuhao opened his eyes early in the library. After a quick wash, he headed to the Quiet Heart Studio, where Jing Hongchen's office was located.
Downstairs at the Quiet Heart Studio, Meng Hongchen stood prettily by the entrance in a white dress, her white hair draped over her shoulders and a blue gemstone bracelet around her wrist. Her large azure eyes were fixed on the junction.
Dressed entirely in white, Xiao Hongchen tossed his short white hair, clasped his hands behind his back, and heaved a long sigh:
"In ages past, mighty masters pondered bitterly for a hundred years, yet failed to create a single Core Array. Now, profound principles and wondrous theories of arrays brim and overflow before my eyes, yet I find my mind unable to encompass them, my gaze unable to exhaust them. How tragic!"
Meng Hongchen poked Xiao Hongchen. "Brother, act normal! Grandpa told us to welcome our junior brother. Don't embarrass us!"
Immersed in some sort of feeling, Xiao Hongchen said solemnly, "Little Meng, you don't understand."
"The futures of millions of Soul Engineer students across two schools and seventy-three academies rest upon my shoulders. If I don't lead the cutting edge of Soul Tool development, who will open new research paths for them?"
Meng Hongchen said in annoyance, "Brother, you're still going on about that? Didn't Grandpa say last time that he'd break your legs if you kept putting on airs like this?"
"Grandpa can break my legs, but he cannot extinguish the ambition in my heart." Xiao Hongchen waved a hand, looking forlorn.
Huo Yuhao, who had just arrived nearby and heard their conversation, was stunned. He had long since heard from Senior Brother Feng that this Senior Brother Xiao was no ordinary person, but he hadn't expected him to be so... melodramatic.
Huo Yuhao stepped forward and walked to the entrance of the Quiet Heart Studio.
The first person he saw was a girl with an oval face, white hair, and blue eyes, tall and gracefully poised.
If Huo Yuhao had to find a line to describe her, it would probably be, "From afar, she shone like the sun rising through the morning clouds; up close, she glowed like a lotus emerging from clear green waves."
The other was a youth with short white hair, his clothes whiter than snow and his features exceptionally handsome.
He didn't care whether Huo Yuhao had overheard his lofty declarations. With a smile in his eyes, he waved to Huo Yuhao:
"You must be our junior brother? Yuhao, we've been waiting ages for you."
With easy grace, Meng Hongchen took a blue engraving knife from her storage gemstone bracelet and held it out with a smile:
"Hello, Yuhao. I'm Meng Hongchen. You can call me Senior Sister Meng. This is my welcoming gift to you: a Class 6 engraving knife Soul Tool, Ice Edge."
"Although it's a Class 6 Soul Tool, its construction is complex. It uses top-tier heteropolar gradient-fusion Core Array technology, so it can be used even with Soul Power below Level 60."
"Thank you, Senior Sister Meng!"
Huo Yuhao hurriedly accepted it. The instant the engraving knife touched his hand, he knew its quality was superb. It had definitely been made from very precious materials.
The fine iron engraving knife Brother Bujue had given him was just about to fall behind his progress, so this knife had arrived at exactly the right time.
"Uh."
Xiao Hongchen clearly hadn't prepared anything, so he simply patted Huo Yuhao's shoulder:
"Junior Brother, your senior sister and I are both fourth-year students now. From now on, we'll have your back at the academy."
"I heard from Grandpa that you have a Soul Skill that's particularly suited to Soul Engineers. When I asked him about it, he told me to experience it myself. Would that be convenient, Junior Brother?"
Seeing Meng Hongchen looking over curiously as well, Huo Yuhao had no objections. He nodded and said:
"Senior Sister Meng, Senior Brother Xiao, please relax your minds."
In their perception, their field of vision was no longer limited to their eyes, as though their senses had gained another dimension.
Everything within a hundred-meter radius seemed imprinted on their minds, no longer constrained by terrain, obstructions, or their own positions.
Rather than its range, Xiao Hongchen's first thought was to test how precisely this Soul Skill could perceive localized details.
He raised a hand and took a piece of metal from his storage ring. Combined with his pale golden Soul Power, the metal actually melted like flowing water.
Metal that would ordinarily require painstaking carving with an engraving knife moved at his will in his hand, constantly taking on different shapes.
Core Arrays, various Soul Tools, and even special Soul Tools such as Milk Bottles grew out of the liquid metal.
Huo Yuhao's pupils quaked at the sight. Was this a property of Senior Brother Xiao's Martial Soul?
After all, no matter how high a Soul Engineer's level was, over ninety percent of their technical expertise lay in working metal. With a Martial Soul property like this, he was absolutely a born Soul Engineer.
Little did he know that Xiao Hongchen was equally shaken inside. A divine skill. This was absolutely a divine skill!
With such a meticulous, all-encompassing god's-eye view, he could reduce his Soul Power consumption when controlling metal transformations by at least thirty percent.
If he became a little more familiar with Spiritual Detection, he was even confident that he could manifest a Class 5 Core Array right now, at Level 49!
That meant his offensive output would increase substantially.
"Hahaha! Had heaven not brought forth me, Xiao Hongchen, the art of Soul Tools would endure an eternal night!"
Huo Yuhao had no idea why Xiao Hongchen was laughing. He felt that Senior Sister Meng seemed a little more normal after all.
He looked toward Meng Hongchen, just in time to see her examining him from head to toe with Spiritual Detection while muttering under her breath:
"No way?"
"Am I seeing things?"
"He doesn't have even a single opening anywhere on his body?"
"That's way too freakish!"
"Surely Junior Brother doesn't cover his backside even when he's going upstairs!"
"Then does he sleep with his backside facing the wall?"
Huo Yuhao's mouth twitched. Senior Sister Meng had quite the inner drama going on. He hurriedly interrupted:
"Senior Brother, Senior Sister, let's head inside!"
His train of thought abruptly interrupted, Xiao Hongchen felt as though he had forgotten something. He nodded along with Meng Hongchen:
"Little Meng, let's head inside, then."
Inside the office, Huo Yuhao was already sitting obediently on a small sofa not far from Jing Hongchen, with a book laid out on the table.
Meng Hongchen and Xiao Hongchen had each found a seat, but neither had started studying. Both looked toward Jing Hongchen as he walked over to Huo Yuhao.
"What books did you bring for today's independent study?" Jing Hongchen asked sternly.
Huo Yuhao had already taken two books out of his storage ring:
"Teacher, one is Manifold Soul Power and Solution Arrays by Makelong, which I borrowed from the library."
"And there's Logic Arrays and Interfaces, which you gave me half a month ago. I'm planning to read the two together and cross-reference them."
Jing Hongchen nodded. "Mm, Feng Yu did give you some advice after all. All right, I won't disturb your studies for now. If there's anything you don't understand, you can ask at any time."
"Yes, Teacher. Oh, and if you finish your water, remember to call me. I'll refill it for you. I'm afraid I might get too absorbed in reading to notice."
"No need, no need. Your teacher is still in his prime. I can still move around." Although Jing Hongchen declined, not a trace of sternness remained on his face. Clearly, he appreciated it.
"Oh, then I'll start reading, Teacher."
With that, Huo Yuhao opened Manifold Soul Power and Solution Arrays and resumed reading.
He had already read quite a bit of it yesterday, and today was a good opportunity to continue.
Junior Brother was this good at pleasing Grandpa? Xiao Hongchen shot Huo Yuhao a glare. Here to drive up the competition, are you? I, Xiao Hongchen, have never feared a challenge. Hmph!
But once Huo Yuhao opened his book, he entered a state of flow without the slightest hesitation.
Xiao Hongchen immediately felt the helplessness of someone casting flirtatious glances at a blind man. Shaking his head, he too took out a book and began studying on his own.
Huo Yuhao knew very well that anyone who could become a top-tier Level 9 Soul Engineer in the field of Soul Tools had to be knowledgeable, widely experienced, and possessed of an extraordinary mind.
Fundamentally, he had been able to enter the Imperial Soul Engineer Academy, become Jing Hongchen's disciple, and enjoy such excellent treatment because Jing Hongchen cherished talent, not for any other reason.
Trying to play clever games right under an important figure's nose would be true foolishness, so Huo Yuhao's approach was simply to act naturally.
Besides, once Huo Yuhao immersed himself in the knowledge contained in those books, he really could turn a completely deaf ear to everything around him.
And so the office immediately fell quiet.
Huo Yuhao read quietly. Whenever he encountered a question that required some thought, he would pick up his pen and casually sketch diagrams or work through derivations on the paper he had prepared...
These were all instinctive habits, no different from when he studied on his own in the library.
To be honest, in the eyes of a Soul Tool master like Jing Hongchen, this was genuinely more gratifying than any supposedly "thoughtful" gesture.
He had taught at the academy when he was younger, too. Whether a student was serious about independent study was something he could tell at a glance.
Xiao Hongchen's sensitivity to theoretical knowledge fell short even of Meng Hongchen's, let alone Huo Yuhao's. Reading and studying on his own was extremely boring to him.
But he possessed an unparalleled affinity for metal. In terms of talent for Soul Tools, he was probably the most gifted of the three.
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