Chen Fu hated when people had no sense of boundaries.
Although he was frustrated that the soul ring self-evolution project had been delayed, he quickly pulled himself together and began focusing on the most important task at hand.
"If it's slow, then it's slow."
He could only comfort himself like this. His fifth soul ring held plenty of soul power,based on his calculations, it contained roughly 86% of the soul power of Ma Xiaotao's sixth soul ring, which was very close to the threshold of a hundred-thousand-year ring.
"This alone shows how much the dissolving-ring method improves a soul master's physical strength. After less than a year of training in it, I almost have a body that can withstand a hundred-thousand-year soul ring at level fifty."
Of course, a Soul King's training speed couldn't be compared to that of a lower-ranked soul master. If an ordinary soul master wanted to cultivate a body capable of enduring such a ring, they might need an entire lifetime,and even then, only a slight chance.
Blessings and misfortune always coexist. He always tried to keep a balanced view of things.
"The soul power from this ring is enough for me to cultivate to level sixty within half a year, maybe even with some surplus. That's not bad."
Calming his mind, Chen Fu issued instructions to Youlan.
"Fully cooperate with the calculations for Project Ascension. Contact Fenix directly if anything is needed."
[Command recorded]
"Next, before Project Ascension begins, I need to finish Mortalfall."
With spiritual power, Chen Fu constructed the model of a soul tool. A sword-shaped design gradually took form in his hands.
"Soul-severing Tear, Ghostwood, Starlight Illusion Stone, Dream Pearl… these are difficult to obtain. But if I slowly create materials with identical properties from samples, it might work. And using this ultra-dense Xuantian Meteorite from Di Tian as the core, I can grind it into the sword embryo bit by bit over time. The feasibility is high."
He took out various peerless materials Di Tian had given him. Chen Fu held a fist-sized metal sphere wrapped in a soul tool casing, running calculations in his mind.
The Xuantian Meteorite inside was only the size of a fingertip. Its density was enormous, and it had to be sealed by a specially made soul tool container; touching it directly could injure someone.
Logically, an ultra-dense object should feel extremely heavy, but none of Chen Fu's detection methods could measure any weight from it.
Faced with such an inexplicable phenomenon, he could only make bold guesses: perhaps it simply didn't move? Or perhaps it existed at multiple points at once?
Unfortunately, Youlan could slowly erode and manipulate it. By analyzing sample after sample, the results showed that the meteorite indeed had extremely high density,a finger-sized piece weighed nearly five tons. The reason users felt no weight was because its very nature formed a closed gravitational loop. External gravity couldn't affect it, and its own gravitational pull collapsed inward, canceling itself out. Thus the bizarre combination of being extremely heavy yet incredibly light.
The world was always full of wonders. Every time he discovered something new, Chen Fu sighed in heartfelt amazement.
Sometimes new discoveries overturned common sense,but that didn't matter. Find the pattern, then make use of it.
It was a method that worked for both science and life.
Time slipped quietly through his fingertips. In Shrek City, the use of battle-soul monitors continued to rise. Soul masters who traveled outside would periodically return to update their data with Youlan's main server.
Soul tools were actually very cheap,if research and development costs were ignored.
Seeing the crowds on the street, most soul masters wearing various models of battle-soul monitors, Chen Fu suddenly felt as if he were watching vegetables growing vigorously in his own garden.
He had given the blueprints of the device to Shrek's Soul Tool Academy. After the designs were simplified and modularized, some clever soul engineers differentiated their devices by adding decorative accessories.
"I heard there's a kind of divine material rich in life force that can adapt to changes in soul power."
Chen Fu was curious about this material. If he could obtain it, he could attempt to further optimize Nirvana and Fenix, allowing them to truly evolve on their own.
"I asked the dean and the others. They said a long time ago, an evil soul master obtained such a metal and made it into an engraving knife."
The girl beside him tugged his hand, pulling him toward the lively part of the crowd.
"No thinking about soul tools today. You're going shopping with me!"
"Alright, alright, I won't talk about it."
Chen Fu raised his hands in surrender. Today was the academy's enrollment day,the busiest time in Shrek City.
"I heard you made a Soul Douluo cry during the Sea God Festival."
The commotion on Sea God Lake that day had been so huge that even Chen Fu outside the academy felt it. He even used Youlan to "watch" the entire event through the battle-soul monitors worn by inner court students.
"That infuriating guy! If Phoenix Flames weren't so destructive, I would have beaten his face into a pig's head!"
Thinking about it made Ma Xiaotao angry all over again. Couldn't that genius teacher just behave and stay where he belonged? Why did he have to join in the fun?
If not for Senior Sister Zhang Lexuan asking her to help host, she would never attend such events.
"…I see."
Chen Fu didn't ask further. He never participated in time-wasting activities like that. Besides, when the conflict broke out, he temporarily rerouted thirty percent of Youlan's computing power to Fenix for combat assistance,directly tipping the scale.
That Soul Douluo didn't have much more soul power than Ma Xiaotao equipped with six external soul sources,one even being a hundred-thousand-year ring. His soul power quality also wasn't higher than hers when strengthened by Evil Fire Phoenix and Nirvana.
And for combat rhythm and micromanagement, Youlan had recorded battle data from tens of thousands of Shrek City soul masters over half a year. Three layers of computational power,enough to support an entire soul master regiment,were allocated to Fenix remotely.
Every moment of the Soul Douluo's soul power recovery, expenditure, soul skill strength, stamina, soul power circulation, bodily force, spiritual fluctuations,all of it was monitored by Youlan in real time and transmitted to Fenix, allowing Ma Xiaotao to counter him at every turn.
"Speaking of that… isn't Fenix a bit too strong?"
Ma Xiaotao touched the folded device on her ear, suspicion in her voice. She had compared it to devices on the market. They were fine for daily use, but during intense combat, they lagged too much,only good for recording skills and analyzing weaknesses. They absolutely couldn't do what hers did: even against a Soul Douluo, still instantly analyze and suppress them from start to finish.
"It's your custom-made version. It has to be strong, right?"
Chen Fu turned away with a smile. The entire city's network bandwidth had nearly frozen that day,how could it not be strong?
"Hehe, true!"
The girl cheered up immediately and pulled Chen Fu toward Shrek's main gate.
"Come on, let's meet the new students and see if there are any promising seedlings!"
Waiting for martial souls to be revealed was like opening lottery boxes,almost everyone loved it.
"Come on, why aren't you moving?"
Ma Xiaotao tugged, but Chen Fu didn't move. Confused, she turned back.
Chen Fu was staring blankly into the distance. A familiar yet unfamiliar girl's silhouette faded into the crowd.
Memories from a past life hit him like a tidal wave. A hollow ache surged through his chest. The wooden buildings and steel towers in front of him overlapped in his vision,past and present merging into one disorienting dream.
[Creator's mental state shows severe fluctuation. No external attack detected.]
[Executing First Protocol]
The invisible net covering Shrek City dissolved instantly into countless points of starlight, scattering into the sky.
"Look, there's starlight in the sky!"
"Are you stupid? How can there be,wait, seriously?!"
"A titled expert is fighting, maybe?"
The sudden appearance of daytime starlight caused panic in the city, though the arriving Titled Douluo calmed the crowd quickly.
Some people raised their battle-soul monitors to send messages,
"Huh? My full signal just turned into an X?"
Many soon discovered their devices had gone offline.
That day, Shrek City went dark.
Network: disconnected.