Live Ammunition Soul Guidance Sniper Rifle

"Senior Sister Meng, what is it?"

"It's a secret!"

Meng Hongchen blinked and whispered, "Let's set a time. Hmm, Monday morning. I'll come find you at the library then!"

After their brief exchange, the three returned to their seats to study.

Apart from asking Jing Hongchen a few questions and exchanging ideas among themselves, nothing eventful happened.

As their study session ended, Feng Yu walked into the office carrying a document envelope. Seeing Jing Hongchen testing Huo Yuhao, he did not interrupt.

Huo Yuhao answered fluently. Even when questions touched on fields he had yet to study, he could attempt an answer based on his own understanding.

Jing Hongchen nodded in satisfaction. "Your theoretical knowledge has already reached the standard of a Level 3 Soul Engineer. In another few months, you'll probably be approaching Level 4."

"But theory is ultimately just words on paper. Do you understand what I mean?"

Huo Yuhao nodded earnestly. "Theory that can't be put into practice is ultimately just warfare on paper, a castle in the air."

"According to the academy's student training handbook, students are only assigned mentors once they become Level 4 Soul Engineers. They join a project team under their mentor, broadening their horizons while developing practical skills."

Jing Hongchen pointed at Feng Yu.

"I intend to let you join a team early and gain experience on your Senior Brother Feng's project."

Assigning him to a team right after he received his Level 2 Soul Engineer certification-Teacher was making history. Even Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen had not received such treatment back then.

Feng Yu lowered his gaze and grumbled inwardly. As far as he was concerned, looking after his junior brother was just something he could do along the way.

Jing Hongchen continued, "Your Senior Brother Feng's current project has cost a great deal of money without producing results. It's about to be shelved."

"As it happens, Illustrious Virtue Hall has recovered some funds, and he's finished his proposal for a new project."

"Go lend him a hand later. Once his new project is fully underway, you'll officially join his team to learn."

Huo Yuhao said, "I'll follow your arrangements, Teacher."

Jing Hongchen said, "Good. You three go eat at the Teachers' Canteen first. Yuhao, after you've eaten, go to Laboratory Building 14 to find your Senior Brother Feng."

"I'm keeping him here to discuss something."

"All right!"

Only after the three had left the office did Feng Yu place the document envelope on the desk.

"Teacher, intelligence sent by a second-tier merchant association directly under Illustrious Virtue Hall."

Jing Hongchen returned to his seat and glanced at Feng Yu, who stood with his gaze meekly lowered, looking only at the tips of his shoes. Then he tore open the tamper-evident strip and began reading carefully.

The intelligence report was professionally written.

Its very first sentence gave the conclusion: Huo Yuhao was the White Tiger Duke's son by a concubine. Oppressed by the duchess, he had left the White Tiger Duke's Mansion and headed for Shrek City.

Below was a detailed account of the investigation. Jing Hongchen went straight to the figures.

Over the period from eight to six years ago, Star Luo City had recorded 384,529 people awakening their martial souls, of whom 41 had awakened body martial souls.

Only two had eyes as their martial souls. One was named Huo Yuhao, with level-one innate soul power. From birth until the age of eleven, he had lived with his birth mother, Huo Yun'er, in the servants' quarters.

Huo Yun'er had died when Huo Yuhao was ten.

The other was named Li Zhe, whose innate soul power was unknown. He had awakened a year before Huo Yuhao and had already been taken away by a mysterious individual. His entire family had moved, their whereabouts unknown...

"There's nothing wrong with this report. Feng Yu, when you leave later, remember to go to the Review Office and sign the confidentiality agreement that's already been drafted."

Feng Yu said with a bitter smile,

"Teacher, I haven't even read the report."

Teacher placed tremendous importance on his junior brother. His insistence on such a thorough investigation was precisely a sign of that importance.

After carefully reading through the report, Jing Hongchen extended a finger and tapped lightly, sending soul power surging out.

With a bang, the stack of documents rapidly burst into a small fireball within an extremely confined space.

A moment later, it had turned into a small pile of black ash.

In part, he had done this out of consideration for Huo Yuhao's self-respect.

The other reason was that, although Huo Yuhao's origins might not remain secret for long, it was best for that information to stop with him for now.

The empire was vast, but its people still ate from separate pots.

Letting people with ulterior motives learn of it too early would only create needless trouble.

He calmly waved a hand at Feng Yu.

"Go on. Remember to sign the confidentiality agreement. As his senior brother, you must shoulder your responsibilities."

After Feng Yu bowed and left, Jing Hongchen lightly tapped the desk with his index finger.

Since that was the case, perhaps he could have Yuhao lend a hand the next time that project encountered a difficult hurdle.

Most of the laboratory equipment had already been moved out, leaving only a few samples for external display.

Huo Yuhao picked up a level-six research sample. Unable to make heads or tails of it, he asked curiously,

"Senior Brother Feng, what exactly was this project you're shelving meant to do?"

With this project about to be shelved and a new one ready to follow seamlessly in a few days, Feng Yu seemed quite relaxed.

"It's perfectly normal that you can't understand it, Junior Brother. This project is actually a subproject of an emerging category of Level 9 Soul Tools."

"Do you remember our eldest senior brother?"

Seeing Huo Yuhao nod, Feng Yu continued,

"His name is Xu Wenhan, and he belongs to a collateral branch of the imperial family. He's a Level 9 Soul Engineer and one of the leading authorities in linked soul tools, so he enjoys tremendous prestige in the military."

"My project is a branch of linked soul tools: the Laminar Flow Output Soul Tool."

"What's laminar flow?" Huo Yuhao asked.

Feng Yu explained,

"It's a state of water flow. In laminar flow, the water moves steadily and in an orderly fashion, in layers that don't interfere with one another."

"That makes it highly predictable, with extremely little energy lost during output."

"The Laminar Flow Output Soul Tool's function is to output soul power in laminar form, reducing the burden of integration on linked soul tools."

"The project required us to produce a Level 8 Soul Tool. Unfortunately, even after burning through all the money, we only managed a level-six finished product."

"How much did it cost?" Huo Yuhao asked curiously.

"Over forty-eight million gold soul coins." Seeing Huo Yuhao's shocked expression, Feng Yu explained, "This project had military backing, so it received more funding."

"Ahem. Although outsiders call it the most useless Level 6 Soul Tool, procedure requires all level-four through level-six samples to be registered and archived together."

"Yuhao, if you're interested, I can give you a level-three one. Take it back and play around with it. It's quite interesting."

Having his own creation reduced to something he could give away as a plaything left Feng Yu deeply embarrassed too.

Huo Yuhao accepted the Level 3 Laminar Flow Output Soul Tool and casually put it into his storage ring before asking what he really wanted to know.

"Senior Brother, among intermediate soul tools, are there any with high power and fast projectile speeds?"

So his fear of insufficient firepower had flared up. Feng Yu nodded in understanding. If he had Huo Yuhao's accuracy, he would want to get his hands on a devastating weapon too.

"My next research project is a Level 8 Super Piercing Cannon."

"Piercing cannons belong to the broader category of soul guidance rays. They fit your requirements well and are among the ranged soul tools with extremely powerful single-target penetration and destructive power."

"But when it comes to the strongest single-target penetration and destructive power, that should be another branch."

Having just completed his project proposal, Feng Yu had no shortage of relevant books. He took one from his storage ring, opened it, and handed it to Huo Yuhao. "Take a look yourself."

Huo Yuhao focused on the page, his eyes widening.

Piercing cannon branch: Live Ammunition Soul Guidance Sniper Rifle.

Characteristics:

Unrivaled penetration, ignoring the vast majority of defenses of the same level. (Example: a single shot shattered three layers of soul tool shields of the same level.)

Extreme range, capable of precise strikes over tremendous distances, far exceeding conventional soul cannons.

Instant hit upon firing, with an extremely fast ray and virtually no travel time, making it difficult to react.

A miraculous siege weapon, with devastating effects against walls, fortresses, and heavily armored targets.

Good grief, a soul tool meant for siege warfare? If this hit a person, wouldn't it leave them black and blue?

Huo Yuhao swallowed.

Seeing that he had finished reading the introduction, Feng Yu asked, "Yuhao, why don't you think about what the price of such a perfect offensive soul tool might be?"

Huo Yuhao analyzed it rationally.

"First, highly concentrated soul power detonates inside the soul tool. No matter how good the metal is, its lifespan would probably still be very limited."

"Second, piercing cannons already demand a large total reserve of soul power. This Live Ammunition Soul Guidance Sniper Rifle probably demands even more."

Feng Yu clapped his hands and added,

"The Live Ammunition Soul Guidance Sniper Rifle can be called the greatest consumer of soul power among ranged soul tools of the same level."

"An ordinary level-forty-six Soul Ancestor wouldn't have enough soul power in total to charge a Level 4 Live Ammunition Soul Guidance Sniper Rifle even once."

"Most importantly, it can generally only fire once before its core array melts down."

"All these difficulties are almost impossible to resolve. I heard that a few decades ago, a stubborn sixth-year student at the academy chose it as his graduation project."

"He couldn't even produce a qualifying level-five finished product and nearly failed to graduate!"