Mu Changqing dressed, put all the rubbish he had produced back into his storage Soul Tool, then stepped forward and pressed the button beside the iron door.
The iron door slowly rose. The scraping of its chains sounded especially loud in the silent cultivation room, and a shaft of sunlight fell across Mu Changqing's lower body.
"Finished cultivating!"
Fan Yu had been waiting there for who knew how long. As he watched the iron door rise, he noticed that Mu Changqing seemed to have grown a little taller and rubbed his eyes.
After a moment's thought, Fan Yu decided it might have been his imagination. He paid it no further mind and smiled at Mu Changqing.
"The heaven and earth primordial Qi in this advanced cultivation room is quite plentiful. Cultivating in there really gives twice the results with half the effort!"
"I wonder if these cultivation rooms could be introduced to the Martial Soul Department too!"
Mu Changqing walked out, turned to look inside, then looked at Fan Yu and rubbed his chin, as though sizing something up.
"Not for now! We could only introduce them throughout the academy if we had enough advanced materials in the future!"
Fan Yu shook his head helplessly. He wanted to make advanced cultivation rooms more widely available too, so they could nurture more talented people for the academy.
The main problem was that the advanced materials needed to build these rooms were pitifully scarce on the Douluo Continent, and no one here could inscribe the advanced formations that gathered heaven and earth primordial Qi.
After all these years, the Soul Tool Department only had eight advanced cultivation rooms. They were mostly used by the department's teachers and core disciples, and even required reservations, which showed just how scarce they were.
Even the advanced materials had been purchased from the Sun Moon Empire, and a Class 8 soul engineer from the Sun Moon Empire had been hired to inscribe the formations.
Shrek Academy also had a Class 8 soul engineer, but the formations he inscribed were far too ineffective at gathering heaven and earth primordial Qi. Making advanced cultivation rooms widely available would be difficulty piled upon difficulty.
Mu Changqing said nothing more and nodded quietly. With the Martial Soul Department withholding the Soul Tool Department's resources for so many years, it was already quite impressive that it had survived until now.
"Changqing, would you like to inspect Bei Bei's classroom now?"
As they spoke, the two left the advanced cultivation room area once again and headed toward the teaching area. They chatted and laughed along the way, and Mu Changqing displayed a composure that hardly seemed to belong to a six-year-old child.
Bei Bei's lesson on Class 2 Soul Tool theory had already ended for the day, but he was still studying the diagrams for inscribing Class 2 formations.
"Bei Bei! Would you like to visit the snack street by Shrek City's east gate this evening?"
Zhang Lexuan propped her fair chin on one hand, her bright, watery eyes watching Bei Bei as he bent over his work. They were the only two in the classroom.
Her question stunned Bei Bei. In her impression, not only did Zhang Lexuan cultivate diligently, she was also very particular about food and never touched junk food. Why the sudden change today?
"Oh, I've seen how hard you've been cultivating these past three months, so I wanted to take you out tonight to relax!"
At Bei Bei's reaction, a blush rose on Zhang Lexuan's fair, tender cheeks. Her eyes remained fixed on him, hoping he would answer quickly.
"Sure!"
Bei Bei stopped and put down the Soul Tool blueprint in his hands, then smiled at her. Just as the two were being lovey-dovey, the classroom door was pushed open.
"Ahem..."
Mu Changqing held the door handle with one hand and brought his other hand to his lips in a fist, coughing twice to ease the atmosphere in the room.
"Big Brother! What brings you here?"
"Changqing, you're here!"
Bei Bei's and Zhang Lexuan's eyes both lit up when they saw Mu Changqing enter. Neither had expected him to have time to visit.
"I came to see you, Bei Bei!"
Mu Changqing walked over to Bei Bei's desk, while Fan Yu also came in through the doorway, running a hand over his hair.
"How has your cultivation been lately? Have you been studying Soul Tool theory seriously?"
Mu Changqing sat in the chair beside Bei Bei and picked up a random Soul Tool diagram from the desk, looking it over as he asked how Bei Bei had been doing over the past three months.
Mu Changqing stood half a head taller than Bei Bei and gave him an overwhelming sense of pressure. It came not only from the suppression of his martial soul, but also from their blood ties.
"I've been cultivating properly these past three months, and I even passed the Class 1 soul engineer examination!"
Bei Bei beamed, stood up, and proudly patted his chest, hoping to win Bei Bei's approval.
"That's good, then. Don't get arrogant! Remember, beyond the heavens are more heavens, and beyond every person is someone greater!"
"I know, Big Brother!"
Looking at Mu Changqing's poker face, Bei Bei pouted and planted both hands on his hips.
Zhang Lexuan and Fan Yu exchanged smiles as they watched the two characters. Although they were brothers born of the same mother, Bei Bei's and Mu Changqing's personalities were complete opposites.
In their eyes, Mu Changqing was mature and steady, while Bei Bei was still a little childish. But they were only six years old, after all.
"Teacher Fan Yu, could you make a Soul Tool here that increases gravity within an area?"
"It would only need to simulate effects such as increased gravity, gravitational compression, or a gravity quagmire."
Mu Changqing tightened his grip on the blueprint and paused, as though something had occurred to him.
Over the past three months, under the pressure of Xuan Zi's gravity field, Mu Changqing's physique and blood Qi had both improved significantly.
He therefore felt that an environment of strong gravity might train the body more effectively, perhaps even reaching deep enough to train the internal organs. Its effects would far surpass running laps around the field in iron clothing.
Fan Yu's wife served as an advanced teacher in the Martial Soul Department. His method of training his students' physical fitness was to make them run laps around the field wearing iron clothing.
Her training method could improve the students' physical fitness to a certain extent, but it also had a drawback.
Every student's physical condition was different. Continuing like this over a long period would cause some damage to their physical foundations, and in serious cases, could even affect their future cultivation aptitude.
Even Yu Xiaogang, the theoretical master from ten thousand years ago, had known to give students medicinal baths when they ran laps. Zhou Yi, on the other hand, simply made the students slog away.
The other three people in the room were all taken aback by Mu Changqing's sudden proposal of a gravity Soul Tool.
"The Soul Tool Department doesn't have that kind of Soul Tool at present, but it shouldn't be very difficult to make."
"What suddenly gave you that idea?"
Fan Yu adjusted his glasses, his eyes alight with enthusiasm, and strode over to Mu Changqing.
"For these past three months, I've trained under the pressure of Elder Xuan's gravity field every day, and both my physique and blood Qi have improved significantly!"
"So that gave me the idea!"
Mu Changqing had nothing to hide about it.
"Using a gravity room to train physical fitness does seem better than traditional lap running!"
"You really are a genius, Changqing!"
Fan Yu suddenly slapped his thigh hard and praised Mu Changqing.
If a gravity Soul Tool came into being, the applications of Soul Tools would expand into soul masters' daily training. Soul Tools would no longer serve merely as weapons, but could also become useful helpers in everyday human life.
Moreover, if students from the Martial Soul Department experienced how Soul Tools could not only be used in combat, but also improve them and change their training methods, it might ease relations between the Martial Soul Department and the Soul Tool Department.
It would let more teachers and students at the academy see the potential applications of Soul Tools in more fields and improve their opinions of them.
"I think we could also add an automatic adjustment device and a life-monitoring device to the gravity Soul Tool!"
"The automatic adjustment device could produce different gravity fields according to the students' different physical conditions!"
"The life-monitoring device could prevent students from suffering serious injuries through overtraining!"
Hearing Mu Changqing's words, Bei Bei's mind suddenly became nimble, and he voiced his thoughts.
"You're both geniuses! Our Shrek is going to flourish!"
Fan Yu gathered all their information in his mind. Seemingly struck by inspiration as well, he suddenly rushed out of the classroom, hurrying impatiently to the laboratory to begin drawing the preliminary design for a gravity Soul Tool.
The three left in the room shook their heads helplessly at his hurried departure.
"Changqing, would you and Na'er like to come with us to the snack street by the east gate this evening?"
Standing to one side, Zhang Lexuan smiled as she extended the invitation to Mu Changqing.