Yan Shaozhe: Why do I want to kill him?

The instant the attendant saw the gold card, his smile grew even brighter. He accepted it carefully, and when he made out the nine-colored glazed tile pagoda emblem in its corner, he grinned from ear to ear.

"Please wait a moment. I'll wrap it up for you right away."

With that, he briskly swiped the card and packed the Scarlet Fire Carving Knife into a small box.

"Brotherhood lives in the heart..."

Ning Cong clenched one hand into a fist and thumped his chest, as though his entire body were shining with golden light.

"Thanks." Lu Cheng paused, then slowly curled his lips into a smile. The two exchanged a glance, as though they had reached some unspoken understanding at that moment.

"Let's go."

Outside the Soul Tool shop, the other bustling districts of Shrek City were pits that swallowed gold, a heaven on earth to many newcomers, but held little appeal for the two of them. Ning Cong had grown up immersed in such sights. Even a starved camel was bigger than a horse: the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda remained a sect whose wealth rivaled nations on the continent. As for Lu Cheng, nothing mattered more than improving his strength...

Thus, the two turned around and returned to the academy.

"Where are we going?" Ning Cong asked blankly.

He had thought Lu Cheng was heading back to the dormitory, but judging by this route... they seemed to be going to the Soul Tool Department?

What are we coming here for?

Lu Cheng stopped. Before him stood a dark gray building five or six stories tall, within the Soul Tool Department's territory. Since the Soul Tool Department had gotten a late start, it still looked shabby despite having Xian Lin'er and Sea God Pavilion Elder Song Yunzhi. Compared with the resplendent headquarters of the Martial Soul Department, it clearly leaned more toward research and practical work.

"Come on. I'll have to trouble you to pay inside, too."

Lu Cheng quietly looked up at the building, then turned toward the bewildered Ning Cong beside him.

"You want to rent the equipment?" Understanding dawned on the latter, and a thoughtful look surfaced in his eyes.

"Right." Lu Cheng nodded with a smile.

Entry was not restricted to Soul Tool Department students. Many workstations on the first floor were available for academy students to rent, though they charged by the hour, and a full day would cost at least a hundred gold soul coins.

Ning Cong nodded slightly and, at the administrator's desk, topped up Lu Cheng's card with enough funds for him to spend three whole years here, day and night, without rest or sleep.

The smile on Lu Cheng's face grew even brighter.

"All right, give me a moment..."

Lu Cheng casually fiddled with the equipment. It was considerably more basic than what the Sun Moon Empire had, but sufficient to manufacture most devices.

The workstation consisted of two sections.

A metal securing platform, on which Soul Tool core formations could be carved, and a metal grinding machine, used to grind out Soul Tool casings and components.

Lu Cheng hesitated briefly, then took an ordinary piece of dark metal from the rack beside him and secured it on the platform. He then took out the Scarlet Fire Carving Knife and began carving a Soul Tool core formation, his movements flowing like clouds and running water.

Watching beside him, Ning Cong was a little dazed. This guy... was already a Level 1 Soul Engineer?

That looked convincing. It certainly didn't look like random carving.

Half an hour later.

Like a master Soul Engineer who had done this countless times, he lifted the scarlet blade away from the dark metal. The patterns carved into it slowly lit up with a pale red glow, and a fiery-red pattern even rose above it.

"Did... did it work?" Ning Cong asked in astonishment.

"Yes." Lu Cheng gently wiped the scarlet blade with a cloth, his gaze calm.

"You're a Soul Engineer?" Ning Cong asked, somewhat surprised.

Logically speaking, Lu Cheng came from a poor family and had only awakened his Martial Soul at eight. How could he possibly have had the money to learn Soul Tool manufacturing?

"The library has basic instructional books on Soul Tools..."

Lu Cheng smiled.

Ning Cong's eyes slowly widened. "Don't tell me... this is your first hands-on attempt?"

"You could say that."

Lu Cheng considered for a moment, then took a copy of [A Detailed Guide to Manufacturing Level 3 Soul Guidance Rays] from inside his clothes. Reading as he operated the metal grinding machine beside him, he began making the casing.

That left Ning Cong beside him utterly disheveled in the wind.

Several minutes later.

Lu Cheng removed his goggles and gloves, then tossed the newly assembled dark red metal tube to Ning Cong, saying calmly, "Let's test its power at the shooting range."

"Huh?"

Ning Cong caught it in a flurry and followed Lu Cheng with a blank look, like a lackey.

The shooting range.

Boom!

With a thunderous roar, a scorching, dazzling red ray shot from the mouth of the long, dark red metal tube resting on Ning Cong's shoulder and pierced straight through the metal target ahead. It left a melted hole, with scarlet liquid metal still slowly dripping down.

"This target is an ordinary Level 4 Defensive Soul Tool... how could it be pierced?!" Ning Cong stared blankly. "Is this really a Level 3 Soul Guidance Ray?"

"I modified it a little and incorporated a fire crystal... Here, I bought it at a shop in Shrek City today." Lu Cheng opened his hand, holding a fiery-red crystal between two fingers. He lightly tossed it up, then caught it in his palm.

This counted as one of his gains from the Simulation memories.

The evolved version of Soul Tools was Battle Armor, and the core of the latter lay in the evolution of metal: allowing metal to gain a life of its own through forging. Put more plainly, it meant giving metal its own "attribute."

Lu Cheng could not yet achieve this through metal forging in the short term, so he used an "unorthodox path" to change the Soul Guidance Ray from its most basic process of compressing, concentrating, and firing Soul Power into one that amplified Soul Power through the fire attribute before compressing, concentrating, and unleashing it.

Just like peas passing through a Torchwood.

This was actually nothing particularly novel in the Sun Moon Empire and would appear in the tournament arena in a few years. But in the Soul Tool wasteland that was the original continent, it counted as an unheard-of innovation.

Thus, its power was enough to rise by an entire level.

Outside the training grounds.

Yan Shaozhe and Du Weilun stood on the second floor, quietly watching the two through a glass window.

"Dean, he's unquestionably a top genius! From what I can see, he's already showing an inclination toward the Soul Tool Department. If... we don't win him over soon, we may have trouble," Du Weilun said, his eyes anxious.

But compared with his agitation, Yan Shaozhe remained unhurried.

"What's the rush? The inner court already has a fire-attribute genius. As long as nothing goes wrong, that student will inevitably reach the continent's summit in the future. That girl Lexuan is extremely gifted, too. Our Martial Soul Department has long been brimming with talent."

Du Weilun wanted to speak but stopped.

"Never mind. I'll observe him carefully a while longer. If he truly merits the academy's attention, then let him perform well in the freshman tournament. What Shrek Academy lacks least these days is geniuses... Heh."

Yan Shaozhe adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses and smiled.

"Yes." Hearing this, Du Weilun nodded slightly.

But he was also somewhat bewildered. The Martial Soul Department... actually thought it had too many geniuses? What exactly was the dean thinking?

Yan Shaozhe was somewhat bewildered as well.

For some reason, seeing this boy made him want to rush over and strangle him. That innate sense of antagonism made it almost impossible for him to keep a look of disgust from showing on his face... Yet he had searched his memories countless times and had never seen this fellow before.