Meanwhile, at the Worship Hall.
After returning, Qian Daoliu first offered Qian Renxue a few words of comfort, then sent her back to rest.
Only Qian Xunji was left in the empty hall.
Qian Daoliu turned around, his voice calm. "Tell me. What exactly happened?"
Qian Xunji gritted his teeth and stepped forward. "Father, he really was the one who forced me to act tonight. He relied on your backing to provoke me with his words, and he even struck me first..."
"Then why did you go over to Bibi Dong's place?" Qian Daoliu cut him off.
Qian Xunji clenched his fists and said hatefully, "That guy has been going to Bibi Dong's place every night lately and not leaving until noon the next day. Who knows what they've been doing?"
Qian Daoliu looked at him and asked, "So what?"
Qian Xunji's expression froze. "So what?"
Qian Daoliu snorted, his tone turning cold. "Don't forget, Bibi Dong is the saintess in name and your disciple! If this really gets out, it'll be Spirit Hall and the Angel Clan that lose face!"
"Even if those two really are fooling around, they'd be helping you cover up that rotten business from back then!"
"And you went over there to confront them? What did you find out? Even if they really are together, what are you going to do about it? Are you going to step in and stop them? Stop making a fool of yourself!"
Qian Xunji laughed in anger, his face turning alternately green and white. "Father, are you saying I just have to swallow it and let that brat do whatever he pleases?"
Qian Daoliu's face darkened. "I'll say it again. Xue'er is what matters most right now!"
"Regardless of whether he struck first tonight or you did, the fact is that, in Xue'er's eyes, you nearly killed him! And he was injured saving Xue'er!"
Qian Daoliu paused, then continued, "You say he set this up? Was he the one who called you to the Saintess Hall?"
"You say he attacked you, yet here you are, standing without a scratch on you?"
"You say he deliberately injured himself tonight? To what end? What would be the point?"
Qian Daoliu's tone grew increasingly impatient.
"If he was putting on an act by injuring himself, who was it for? Surely he wasn't trying to drive a wedge between you and Bibi Dong? Or between you and Xue'er?"
"Do you think that's possible? There was hardly any relationship to speak of between you and Bibi Dong to begin with. You're Xue'er's birth father, and he's a teacher who's been here less than a month. What could he accomplish no matter how hard he tried to drive a wedge between you? Would Xue'er really take his side?"
Qian Xunji was at a loss for words.
"But what happened tonight was definitely deliberate on his part!"
Qian Daoliu sighed. "Then tell me what he's trying to do."
Qian Xunji gritted his teeth and struggled for an answer. "I don't know, but he did it on purpose!"
Qian Daoliu was somewhat speechless.
"Do you know what you just said?"
"He deliberately let you slash him with a sword just to frame you? What good would that do him?"
"Was he putting on an act for me? Even if you really had killed him, would I have attacked my own son to avenge an outsider?"
Qian Xunji's expression froze, his eyes full of indignation. "Father, even you don't believe me?"
Qian Daoliu looked at him and said calmly, "I do, but you have to tell me what he did all this for."
Qian Xunji gnashed his teeth, both hands clenched tightly. "How would I know?!"
Qian Daoliu shook his head, a flicker of disappointment in his eyes.
"Enough. Stay away from Bibi Dong's place from now on."
"Father!"
"Enough! Stop talking nonsense!"
The next day.
Qian Daoliu arranged for some tonics to be delivered to the Saintess Hall.
Qian Renxue came along as well. However, An Yi had announced that he was entering seclusion to recover and would receive no visitors, while Bibi Dong did not even show her face.
Qian Renxue could do nothing about it and could only leave.
An Yi, meanwhile, used his recovery as an opportunity to stay in Bibi Dong's bedchamber without any need for secrecy.
At the same time, he wanted to test whether the Level 10 Soul Guidance Grand Library in his mind would be interested in Bibi Dong.
He used the same line of reasoning he had used on Qian Renxue yesterday.
An Yi patiently guided Bibi Dong to consider the essence of Soul Master cultivation.
And as he broke down the principles of compressing Soul Power and assisting its circulation through the body, the look Bibi Dong gave him gradually grew strange.
"How do you know all this?" Bibi Dong couldn't help interrupting him. "Did the people on Sea God Island teach you?"
An Yi found that somewhat amusing. "Why would they study any of this?"
"I've spent all these years cultivating in the Sea God's Light. I figured it out myself."
An Yi picked up his cup and took a sip of water. "To the Soul Masters of Sea God Island, the Sea God's Light is a miracle, a gift from the Sea God. How could they possibly approach the essence of the Sea God's Light the way I do?"
Bibi Dong looked puzzled. "But what's the point of figuring it out?"
An Yi looked at her. "To replicate it, of course."
Bibi Dong froze, her pupils contracting slightly. "Replicate it? With a Soul Tool?"
An Yi nodded. "That's right."
Next, An Yi tried using the "lesson plan" Qian Renxue had triggered yesterday to guide Bibi Dong through the practical methods of making it a reality.
The two of them sat on the grass, talking from morning until noon.
As they talked, the look Bibi Dong gave An Yi grew increasingly strange, while An Yi grew more enthusiastic the more he spoke.
Bibi Dong was a Soul Douluo, after all, and widely experienced besides. She considered problems and explored new ideas far faster than Qian Renxue, a young girl who had seen so little of the world's storms.
Under An Yi's guidance, Bibi Dong soon followed his line of thought into a deeper analysis.
And as she responded, the lesson plan in An Yi's mind did indeed react, automatically unfolding more numerous and complex ideas and Soul Guidance Array designs.
In just one morning, their discussion had produced a clear model for a cultivation-assisting Soul Tool that simulated the Sea God's Light.
An Yi's idea was a full-body suit of Soul Guidance Cultivation Armor powered by a Soul Master's own Soul Power!
After all, creating a large-scale force field that simulated the Sea God's Light out of nothing would consume a terrifying amount of energy. Laying out the array would also be extremely complicated, and the strength of its suppressive pressure would be difficult to adjust precisely for each individual.
But Soul Guidance Cultivation Armor powered by the Soul Master's own Soul Power would solve that problem perfectly.
Soul Guidance Circuits would be engraved directly inside the armor, absorbing the Soul Power the wearer actively channeled into it.
The stronger the Soul Master's own Soul Power, the stronger the compression and force-field pressure exerted on the entire body when the Soul Tool operated.
Moreover, once the Soul Master had expended too much Soul Power and their body could no longer endure it, the energy fed into the armor would naturally decrease, and the pressure produced by the Soul Tool would automatically weaken in turn.
Adaptive Soul Guidance Cultivation Armor!
A long table, brought over for the occasion, stood on the grass in the small garden.
White paper covered its surface, with several pens and the metal samples An Yi had taken from his Soul Tool laid beside it.
An Yi leaned over and put pen to paper, sketching a suit of Soul Guidance armor that covered the entire body.
He labeled each part in turn: the breastplate, shoulder guards, arm guards, waist guard, leg guards, and even the power structure on the back.
Bibi Dong sat beside him, watching as he added detail after detail to the drawing.
For now, the Soul Tool was still only a concept. There was a great deal of work to do before it could actually be made.
The choice of materials, the stability of the circuits, the method of regulating the pressure output, and even the effects of prolonged use on a Soul Master's body would all need to be tested repeatedly.
Even so, it was already a fairly complete direction to pursue.
As long as the subsequent research went smoothly, it might well be possible to actually make it.
Bibi Dong slowly raised her head and looked at An Yi, who was bent over the drawing, making revisions.
This guy...
How is he so smart?