"Watch what, a ghost?"
Ma Xiaotao laughed and punched Chen Fu. She knew he must have made some major breakthrough he wanted to share.
She pulled Ma Xiaotao into the laboratory and quickly shut the metal door before the hamster girl could rush in.
"Come back when you actually have results."
"You jerk!"
Outside the door, the big hamster stomped her foot angrily, then left without looking back to read in her experimental field.
Lanxiang Pavilion was eventually replaced by Lin Pavilion, but the place was huge. Mo Lin had already opened a flower garden in the backyard, and now she was using it to cultivate plants.
"Look at my soul ring."
Chen Fu released his martial soul. A faint blue, irregular spiritual mass enveloped his body.
"Where's your soul ring?!"
Ma Xiaotao grabbed Chen Fu by the collar, shaking him hard, but still couldn't find any hidden soul ring.
"Uh…"
A Level-58 Battle Soul King physique had overwhelming power over someone as weak as him.
Even though he extracted the soul power stored inside soul rings through his "ring refining" method and raised his level to 47, he was still quite fragile.
"Look carefully at this."
Chen Fu lifted a mass of air toward Ma Xiaotao.
"Huh?"
Through her spiritual sense, Ma Xiaotao could perceive a transparent ring floating in his hand.
"Why doesn't it have any color?"
Normally soul rings were all brightly colored. Why was today's so low-key?
"My soul skills come from my martial soul's inherent abilities. The soul ring just unlocks the upper limit. So I removed the remnant soul inside the ring and absorbed the soul power. After that, the ring became like this."
"What???"
Doing black-tech tricks without saying anything?
Seeing her puzzled expression, Chen Fu began explaining the results of his research on soul rings.
"You figured out ring detonation and ring dissolution?!"
"Not ring fusion,ring dissolving. And I only came up with the theory for ring detonation. I'm not teaching you that. It's a crude technique."
"How do you verify soul ring augmentation? What steps do you need?"
"Calm down. Don't shout. I need to prepare some soul tools. When you're ready to break through to Soul Emperor, call that Titled Douluo in the wheelchair. We'll find a fierce beast to test on."
"What???"
A string of question marks exploded in Ma Xiaotao's head,not because something was wrong with her, but because something was definitely wrong with Chen Fu.
In Chen Fu's perception, the soul power of that wheelchair-bound Douluo was thick and solid as steel. His presence felt even more dangerous than the sloppy dean. He was probably the ultimate boss of Shrek Academy. With someone like that, persuading a fierce beast physically wouldn't be a problem.
"Storage ring tech suits you well. I can modify yours right now."
Chen Fu got excited and tried to drag her into new experiments.
"No no no!"
It wasn't that she didn't trust Chen Fu,she just hadn't recovered from the shock yet, and being dragged into unknown territory triggered basic instinctive resistance.
"Your soul skills boost you a lot. Removing the remnant soul might affect your soul ring age. Your soul power level won't change, but your soul ring might temporarily drop a level," Chen Fu explained earnestly.
"But! Your soul ring will gain the potential to continue improving!"
"Let me process this first, okay? I'm not running."
She gave the somewhat embarrassed Chen Fu a look and reorganized her thoughts.
In the end, she decided to trust his judgment. Even though it was obvious he was planning to use her as an experiment subject, she didn't believe he would harm her if there was real danger.
"Haha, great. Wait here, I'll build a new soul tool."
Chen Fu pulled out a small stool and table, sat Ma Xiaotao down, and handed her snacks so she could amuse herself for a while.
Then he dug through his spatial ring and took out all kinds of rare materials,Deep Sea Mystic Gold Essence, Earth's Deep Core, Moonfall Fire Essence, Azure Star Iron,materials good enough to forge a ninth-rank soul tool.
Some of them were skimmed off his mentor Fan Yu, and others were taken from the unlucky people who brought metals to him for custom forging.
They only cared about results. Chen Fu would use his martial soul to slightly adjust alloy parameters to achieve the same effect, then pocket the leftover materials.
In his hands, these precious resources could reach one hundred and twenty percent of their material potential.
"Project start. Temporary codename: Divine Ring Plan."
[Task tracking initiated]
It was the first time Ma Xiaotao had ever watched him craft a soul tool up close. Various materials dissolved rapidly in Chen Fu's hands, turning into refined components.
Behind him floated a two-meter-wide energy matrix built from fourth-rank Ark Cores. It continuously fed him soul power so he could rapidly reconstruct materials as he pleased.
This Ark Matrix was the reason Ma Xiaotao couldn't beat Chen Fu in unrestricted duels.
Although Chen Fu had to spend a full month's worth of soul power reserves to defeat her, and she could beat him easily by fighting twice in the same month,which always made him curse,it still frustrated her.
But that was in the past. In theory, she would eventually enjoy the same unlimited firepower someday.
Unknowingly, two hours passed. Chen Fu finished refining the first batch of materials and began soul-power inscription.
The blueprint was an upgraded version of his earliest spiritual shock device,improved precision, broader parameter ranges, enhanced adaptability, and most importantly, spiritual micro-control.
Lines formed automatically across the module surface. His engraving knife danced along the channels, then made micro-adjustments with spiritual force until the entire circuit was flawlessly connected.
"This is literally cheating," Ma Xiaotao muttered. She had seen Teacher Fan Yu craft soul tools before; others carved each line carefully, afraid of mistakes. But Chen Fu drew one decisive stroke for each path and fine-tuned the rest with spiritual power.
After finishing one module, he immediately moved on to the next.
Time slipped into late night. After ten hours of nonstop work, from noon till dark, Chen Fu finally completed his Divine Ring soul tool.
Compared to Nirvana and Emerald, which required lots of micro-engineering and fragmented labor, the Divine Ring flowed from start to finish. Except for the core, almost all modules were completed in a single stroke.
"Xiaotao…"
After assembling the last piece, a soul tool resembling a hibernation pod appeared before him.
He turned to call her to try it out, only to find her already asleep on the small table.
Checking the soul tool's clock, he realized it was late at night.
He took out a blanket from his spatial ring, draped it over her, then gently carried her to the nearby rest room.
The girl held the blanket tighter. The dim light cast soft shadows across her beautiful eyelashes.
Smiling silently, Chen Fu stepped outside and leaned against the door.
He was waiting for someone,an old man.
Before long, the spirit-sense engraving on the lab wall lit up. A heavy aura approached the metal door.
To keep the lab from being destroyed by brute force, Chen Fu opened the door himself.
"What wind blew the dean here tonight?"
"Is Xiaotao with you?"
The old man looked annoyed.
"I planned to have her participate in an experiment, but it took longer than expected. She got tired and fell asleep."
The old man inspected Chen Fu carefully, then snorted and vanished.
"I just hope he doesn't come smash my place when he sees Xiaotao's soul ring change color."
Chen Fu sighed. That old man had a foul temper, but he was still reasonable.
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