"Greetings, Dean Yan."
Although Jing Hongchen didn't prompt him, Wang Lin, standing next to Xiao Hongchen, still offered a greeting. It was only right to be friendly to his "great nephew."
"Hello, Wang Lin. Thank you for guiding us yesterday."
Yan Shaozhe's attitude toward Wang Lin was much more affable. Wang Lin nodded but said no more, and Xiao Hongchen did the same.
After the two followed quietly for a while, Jing Hongchen found an excuse to send them away. During this time, Xiao Hongchen also found an opportunity to retrieve that special soul bone from Jing Hongchen's hand.
Walking toward the lab, Xiao Hongchen patted his storage soul tool, looking completely relaxed.
"I accomplished the mission Little Meng gave me."
"After today's stunt, I doubt you'll be going to Shrek Academy," Wang Lin replied, ignoring the specific context.
"Then I won't go. The idea that they want me as a hostage! I, Xiao Hongchen, will find another way to set foot in Shrek Academy."
Xiao Hongchen scoffed. Wang Lin, whose hearing had been greatly enhanced, had relayed the conversation between Jing Hongchen and Yan Shaozhe to him earlier.
His conversation with Wang Lin just now was an impromptu coordination. The exchange program was clearly an invitation sent by Shrek Academy. Yet, it turned out that Shrek Academy wanted him to be a hostage. He, Xiao Hongchen, wouldn't be so cheap as to eagerly offer himself up to Shrek Academy.
"Enough about that. Let's look at the soul bone."
Xiao Hongchen shook his head. His storage soul tool flashed, and a sea-blue transparent crystal sphere, the size of a ping-pong ball, appeared in his palm.
A faint golden light flickered inside the transparent sphere.
"Uh, are you sure this is a soul bone?"
Wang Lin looked at the crystal sphere in Xiao Hongchen's hand, utterly confused.
"Of course. Have you heard of the Sea Princess race?"
"Is this the Heart of the Ocean, an external heart soul bone!?" Wang Lin exclaimed in surprise. He hadn't expected the Hongchen family to possess such a treasure.
"You actually know about it?" Xiao Hongchen was a little surprised. "So, you know how precious this soul bone is, but don't get your hopes up."
Saying this, he handed the Heart of the Ocean to Wang Lin. Wang Lin examined the Heart of the Ocean in his hand and asked.
"Why?"
"Because absorbing a soul bone greatly strengthens the body part that houses it. Strengthening the bones doesn't put much strain on the body.
But internal organs are different, especially the heart. Greatly strengthening the heart increases its pumping capacity, raising the overall blood pressure. The effects of this are immeasurable."
Xiao Hongchen spoke ominously. He looked at Wang Lin with a solemn expression and earnestly warned him.
"Do not attempt to force absorption just because this Heart of the Ocean is an external soul bone separate from the body's skeletal system. An ancestor of my family, a Soul Douluo, once forcibly absorbed this soul bone. He succeeded, but..."
"But what?" Hearing Xiao Hongchen's words, Wang Lin naturally grew interested.
He knew Xiao Hongchen was right. After absorbing the Heavenly Dream Ice Silkworm's slough, the toughness of his skin had significantly improved.
"But he only managed to take three steps before all his blood vessels burst, and he died."
Xiao Hongchen's expression was very serious.
"Alright, I'll be careful."
Wang Lin nodded seriously, taking the matter to heart while tucking the Heart of the Ocean into his storage soul tool.
With the integration of the Golden Dragon bloodline, Wang Lin's physical strength was constantly increasing. It was only high blood pressure caused by heart strengthening.
Wang Lin believed he could withstand it, or at least he would be able to withstand it someday.
As they talked, the two reached the entrance of the Third Laboratory. Wang Lin took out the lab access card.
He entered the lab with Xiao Hongchen.
Inside the lab, all the students, including Xuan Ziwen, were mostly present.
Each went to their respective positions and began working on their tasks.
Only Wang Lin was relatively idle, having not been assigned a task.
But he was not without things to do. He picked up a fingertip-sized piece of Soul Tool metal from the desk.
The Rank 2 carving knife in his hand flew, carving simple patterns onto the surface of the Soul Tool metal.
Soon, the simplest Rank 1 discharge Soul Tool array was carved by Wang Lin.
He put down the finished Soul Tool metal and was about to pick up another piece from the desk.
But a delicate female voice sounded beside him.
"Hey, Wang Lin, there's a problem with this Soul Tool array, isn't there? With that gap, it doesn't meet the Rank 1 Soul Tool array standard."
Wang Lin looked at Ke Ke, who had spoken, and smiled: "I know. That's the effect I need."
As he spoke, Wang Lin took out another piece of Soul Tool metal.
An identical discharge Soul Tool array was carved onto it by Wang Lin.
He pinched the two carved Soul Tool arrays and channeled soul power into them.
Crackling!
Blue electric arcs leaped across the Soul Tool arrays. After confirming there were no issues.
Wang Lin took out pre-prepared metal components and copper wires and began assembling them around the two freshly carved Soul Tool arrays.
Soon, a Soul Tool that didn't look like a Soul Tool was assembled by Wang Lin.
The fingertip-sized discharge Soul Tool array was connected by ordinary copper wires to a peculiar handle and a strange mechanism.
"What is that?" Ke Ke's voice sounded again.
"This is the wired Soul Guide Telegraph."
Saying this, Wang Lin channeled soul power into the Soul Core Array. He reached out and pressed the peculiar handle.
Click!
As Wang Lin pressed the handle, the circuit connected, the current flowed, and the iron bar wrapped with the wire became magnetized.
The small iron plate above the bar was instantly attracted and pulled down.
"It worked!"
Watching this, Wang Lin knew he had succeeded, but there wasn't much joy on his face.
"Wired Soul Guide Telegraph?" Ke Ke looked confused. She watched the iron plate constantly moving up and down as Wang Lin pressed the handle.
"What's the use of this?"
"It accelerates the speed of information exchange," Wang Lin said in a deep voice. At his words, Ju Zi, not far away, slowly looked up.
Her gaze fell on the wired Soul Guide Telegraph, and Xuan Ziwen did the same.
"That's it?"
Ke Ke couldn't figure it out. Not just her, Ju Zi and Xuan Ziwen also looked puzzled.
"That's it." A glint flashed in Wang Lin's eyes. He picked up a baffle and placed it between the handle and the electromagnet.
He pressed the handle, and the small iron plate on the electromagnet still moved up and down.
"Senior Sister Ju Zi, how about helping me out?"
Saying this, Wang Lin took out two identical Rank 1 Soul Tool textbooks.
He handed one of them to Ju Zi and said in a deep voice.
"Senior Sister Ju Zi, every time the iron plate moves, it represents a number. The first number represents the page number, the second number represents the line number, and the third number represents the column number."
Holding up the textbook in his hand, Wang Lin said, "I need you to find the corresponding character in the textbook based on the numbers I tap out, and then write that character down separately."
"Okay." Ju Zi nodded. She already understood Wang Lin's meaning. Not just her, Xuan Ziwen and Xiao Hongchen also seemed to understand Wang Lin's intention at this moment. Only Ke Ke was still completely confused.