Martial Soul Awakening

Chang Li's Black Tower was likewise a character whom Lu Jingming had spent several precious years summoning into this world, accumulating True Power bit by bit until he finally succeeded in turning the unreal into reality.

Like Jing Liu, Black Tower came from "Honkai: Star Rail." She was member number eighty-three of the Genius Club, an Envoy of Wisdom, and a cosmic-level genius.

Previously, with Jing Liu and Chang Li's full support, Haiyuan City had already recovered its basic order from the turmoil and chaos.

Those Sea Soul Beasts that occasionally came ashore to stir up trouble often could not even last a single exchange before Jing Liu's overwhelming strength and were easily driven back.

However, Lu Jingming knew perfectly well that merely restoring peace to the city was far from enough. If Haiyuan City was to truly prosper and grow, far more effort would be needed to explore new paths of development.

After learning that this world was in the Peerless Tang Sect era of the Douluo Continent, Lu Jingming keenly set his sights on Soul Tools.

Lu Jingming knew that in this unique Peerless Tang Sect era, Soul Tools had become a crucial force driving the world's development and had entered a golden age of rapid progress.

Their explosive momentum had even posed a tangible threat to the Soul Master profession, which had once stood high above all others and occupied an absolute dominant position.

The neighboring Sun Moon Empire had grown increasingly powerful through its heavy investment and research into Soul Tool technology.

As a transmigrator, Lu Jingming knew well that in only a few years, the Sun Moon Empire would rely on its advanced Soul Tool technology to unleash a storm across the Douluo Continent, crushing the entire continent with overwhelming superiority.

If not for a certain God King in the original work breaking the rules and descending to the lower realm without permission to forcibly interfere with its course of development, the Sun Moon Empire would likely have swept across the entire continent with ease long ago and realized its ambition of unifying Douluo Star.

Having seen through all this, Lu Jingming understood the importance of Soul Tools to Haiyuan City's future development.

Thus, he made up his mind and spent several years scrimping and saving, painstakingly accumulating True Power.

Heaven rewarded his efforts. He finally gathered enough True Power to materialize Black Tower, though even after successfully arriving in this world, Black Tower was only a severely weakened version of herself.

But Lu Jingming did not care about that, because what he valued was not Black Tower's combat ability, but her unparalleled intellect and formidable talent for invention.

In Lu Jingming's blueprint, Black Tower's wisdom and creativity were indispensable—indeed, even more important than Jing Liu and Chang Li.

Although all of them summoned to the Douluo Continent were not at their peak and had lost many of the powerful abilities they could originally use only in their respective worlds.

However, upon arriving in this new universe, they had also gained their own martial souls and soul skills.

For them, gaining martial souls and soul skills might, to some extent, be considered a restriction, since they differed from the uninhibited power they had once possessed.

But from another perspective, this also opened a path of cultivation for them in this entirely new world.

With talents far surpassing ordinary people, it would only be a matter of time before they recovered their original strength. They might even rise to an even greater level and reach unprecedented heights.

"Black Tower isn't here. She must be holed up in her laboratory again!" Lu Jingming looked around, but could not spot Black Tower anywhere. He immediately understood that this research-obsessed genius had once again immersed herself in exploring the unknown.

After all, Black Tower's intense thirst for knowledge was an instinctive trait of a genius. Having just arrived in this brand-new world, everything was novel and tempting to her.

Though once she figured out the principles behind something, she would quickly cast it aside and stop paying attention to it, the various byproducts she created during her explorations had greatly benefited all of Haiyuan City.

In less than a year, Black Tower had relied on her astonishing intellect to gain a remarkably thorough understanding of Soul Masters, soul beasts, and Soul Tools.

She truly deserved to be called a cosmic-level genius. If not for the enormous differences between universes, with Black Tower's intelligence, she might have surpassed every Soul Engineer in this world within a single month and led Soul Tool technology to entirely new heights.

Lu Jingming merely sold a few Soul Tools that Black Tower had discarded as defective products in secret, yet he easily earned over a hundred million Gold Soul Coins.

Things that were beneath Black Tower's notice were, in the eyes of the Soul Engineers of the Star Luo Empire, treasures worthy of a master's handiwork. Their refinement even surpassed the Soul Tools produced by the Sun Moon Empire's Mingde Hall.

In less than a year, Lady Black Tower's name had spread widely throughout the Star Luo Empire's Soul Engineer circles.

Unfortunately, traditional Soul Masters in the current Star Luo Empire still rejected Soul Tools and Soul Engineers. Otherwise, given Black Tower's abilities and achievements, her fame would likely have already swept across the entire Star Luo Empire.

Still, Lu Jingming felt the current situation was quite good. Haiyuan City was still in the early stages of development, after all, and keeping a low profile was more conducive to steady progress.

To advance Haiyuan City's development, Lu Jingming spared no effort. He even sacrificed himself by voluntarily serving as Black Tower's experimental subject, allowing her to study the True Authority in exchange for her inventing practical everyday Soul Tools that could improve Haiyuan City's environment and technological standards.

In truth, Lu Jingming could have forced Black Tower to conduct research if he wanted to, but he had no desire to do so from the bottom of his heart.

In his eyes, these summoned companions were not tools, but the family he trusted and cherished most in this unfamiliar world.

Perhaps Lu Jingming's sincerity moved Black Tower. She voluntarily threw herself into Haiyuan City's development and construction, undoubtedly easing much of the burden and trouble borne by Chang Li, who was responsible for managing the city.

Though the changes in Haiyuan City were not yet obvious due to the short amount of time, Lu Jingming firmly believed that before long, Haiyuan City would undergo a complete transformation and become the most advanced city in the entire Star Luo Empire. It might even surpass the Douluo Continent's current greatest city—the Sun Moon Empire's capital, Mingdu.

After all, Black Tower had been in this world for less than a year. She had spent most of that time analyzing the world's fundamental rules and familiarizing herself with new material information, yet she had already become a Rank 9 Soul Engineer.

Given time, the results she could achieve would surely be even more astonishing.

At that moment, Lu Jingming walked to the center of the Awakening Room and stood firmly in the middle of the six-pointed star array.

His expression was calm as he looked toward Jing Liu and said steadily, "Teacher, I'm ready."