After parting ways with Chen Fu, Ma Xiaotao hurried toward the inner courtyard. She could not wait to share the good news with Elder Xuan and the others.
Because people on the continent often reveal their spirit rings whenever they fight, the changes in Ma Xiaotao's spirit rings were impossible to hide. So Chen Fu's reminder to her was to only let the few old fellows in the academy know; it was best not to expose it to anyone else.
The gap in technology also required time to bridge.
Chen Fu did not want to hand Shrek Academy his most core [Ark] technology directly. There was even a bit of selfishness mixed in.
Sea God Lake, Sea God Pavilion.
"Elder Xuan, I'm back!"
As soon as Ma Xiaotao set foot on the island, she saw the elder who had sensed her arrival and come out early to wait.
"Mm. What have you been doing these last few days?"
The elder regained his usual demeanor, his voice calm and open.
"First tell me where Elder Mu is. I want to tell both of you together. Otherwise, if I only tell you, you'll get upset."
"What?!" The old man immediately began imagining things and started getting angry.
"No need to look. I am here."
Without a sound, the elderly man in the wheelchair appeared beside them.
He was also very curious. The moment Ma Xiaotao stepped into the inner courtyard, he had already cast his attention toward her.
"Look."
Five spirit rings,white, yellow, purple, purple, black,appeared quietly behind Ma Xiaotao.
"That brat! I'm going to chop him in half!" Seeing the white spirit ring, Elder Xuan was stunned for a moment, then felt a sharp pain in his chest.
No wonder he had felt uneasy for days. That brat had actually dared to do something like this without telling anyone!
"Calm down, Xuanzi."
With a lift of his hand, Elder Mu suppressed the pressure released from Elder Xuan's emotional fluctuation. Although he was also shocked, he still wanted to hear Ma Xiaotao's explanation.
A downgraded spirit ring,after reading through all of Shrek's secret archives, this was something unheard of.
Even the explosive ring-merging method used by the ancient Da Xumi Hammer, known for ruling an era ten thousand years ago, would only temporarily damage a ring. The ring's level would never actually change.
"See? I knew you would get worked up." Ma Xiaotao glared at Elder Xuan with a smile. Although he acted this way out of concern, his constant dramatic reactions were troublesome.
"Look closely at this white ring. Do you notice anything different?"
The white spirit ring appeared in her hand, displayed in various ray-like forms.
Seeing the obviously unusual white spirit ring, both elders fell into thought. When Elder Xuan looked toward Elder Mu, the latter nodded.
They both knew that spirit rings contained remnants of soul beasts. There was even a secret in Sea God Pavilion's archives: Tang San's wife had sacrificed herself, but she ultimately survived.
Silently sensing her own spirit ring, Ma Xiaotao clearly knew there was an "alien soul" inside it, but even Elder Mu,whose spirit power had already reached the limit,could not detect anything unusual.
That kid… how long had it been? And he had already created something that left these old monsters completely bewildered.
The air seemed to freeze. An invisible hand tightened around Ma Xiaotao's heart. Fear of death suddenly swept over her. She instinctively wanted to resist,but then remembered that two super-rank experts were right beside her.
Elder Xuan quietly watched Elder Mu adopt an offensive stance. He, too, was waiting.
Boom!
A soaring flame burst forth before their eyes.
Elder Mu withdrew his threat. His test had yielded its result.
Both elders had clearly seen it: the moment Ma Xiaotao sensed danger and reacted instinctively without resisting, the white spirit ring had already responded.
"A spirit ring protecting its master…"
At that moment, Ma Xiaotao also realized what happened. She soothed the agitated spirit ring, filled with astonishment.
A protective phenomenon like this only appeared during a sacrifice,yet it had happened now.
"Can you tell us about the experiment you did?"
"I came back specifically to explain that."
Ma Xiaotao then carefully explained Chen Fu's recent conclusion about spirit rings, the "three uses and two enhancements."
"Madman."
After a long silence, Elder Mu gave his assessment.
"Give him a batch of resources. I want to see results within half a year."
Elder Mu set the tone. By now, he felt that their Spirit Tool Institute was no match for that kid alone.
He now deeply understood the meaning behind the phrase "spirit tools are not weapons."
Just the first-generation [God-Ring] Spirit-Soul Counterbalance Device alone,its principles sounded simple, but they could not achieve miniaturization or precision, and the constantly shifting proportional-control program was incomprehensible.
And the Da Xumi Hammer was actually called crude by that kid!
But the energy-storage ring technology, in theory, truly had an incredibly high upper limit.
As for the final dissolving-ring technique,this was an entirely different extreme!
The theory of spirit-ring augmentation,why had no one proposed it before? A giant spirit beast, and in the end all one received was a small ring… How wasteful! It should be preserved as a family treasure!
While the higher-ups of Shrek murmured endlessly, Chen Fu encountered a problem.
"How do you divide a soul?"
Originally, in Chen Fu's plan, after removing the residual soul, the energy-storage ring would take a small portion of the soul and fuse it into the ring, bypassing the initial "adaptation" phase.
But in the end, he had to concede. You could cut off a bit of mental power and sleep for a few days to recover,but the soul represented consciousness to some extent. That was not something one could simply cut.
Thus, the special materials Chen Fu had collected that could slightly affect the soul were useless.
Since he could not tamper with the soul directly, spirit-ring augmentation now had only two possible routes, and no other branches.
"How do you guide the soul into the spirit ring?"
Since he could not divide the soul, he would continue improving spirit-ring engraving technology.
Chen Fu did not have soul-interference abilities, but as he had once said,"Fire can be drawn without fire-attribute spirit power." Using tools to command tools, using the small to control the large,that was the charm of technology.
...
Another month passed in a blur. Chen Fu had formed some ideas regarding soul-related materials and was preparing to start designing the schematics.
"Young master."
Butler Fu, who had come to deliver orders, called out softly.
"Mm? Is there something else?"
Chen Fu nodded, briefly skimmed the order, and found that a few more gullible clients had sent him materials. His irritation disappeared instantly.
"The Sect Master of Nine Treasure City has come to visit. He is waiting outside."
Straightening his clothes, Chen Fu calculated the time. Without realizing it, four months had already passed.
"Sect Master Ning, long time no see. What brings you here?"
Unless necessary, Chen Fu always spoke directly.
"I indeed have a request, and I hope you can consider it."
Ning Yi had already gathered information about Chen Fu and had communicated with Shrek's higher-ups during this time, learning bits and pieces. So today, he purposely came at the time Chen Fu updated his orders.
"Please speak, Sect Master Ning. I will do my best to agree."
Nine Treasure City was one of Chen Fu's main sources for research materials,though now only one of them,so anything Ning Yi asked that he could do, he would.
"I heard that you are a teacher at Shrek's Spirit Tool Institute?"
"Yes, that's true."
"Would you be willing to take my daughter as your disciple?"
Ning Yi had already heard about Chen Fu's position: a nominal instructor who did not teach classes, but nothing said he could not take a disciple.
He originally planned to ask Fan Yu to check whether his daughter had talent for spirit tools. But then he learned from a friend that the headmaster of the Spirit Tool Institute was currently leading a large group of people to brute-force a spirit tool,and that spirit tool was just one of Chen Fu's practice pieces from three years ago.
Later, Ning Yi pulled strings to find Elder Xuan to ask for details, including the bright spirit tool [Nirvana] that Ma Xiaotao always wore around her neck,all made by Chen Fu.
Gathering all the information, Ning Yi could not help but sigh. Setting aside spirit power cultivation and destructive capability, in terms of technology alone, Chen Fu could single-handedly crush the entire Spirit Tool Institute.
With such a superior spirit-tool master right before him, of course Ning Yi wanted the best teacher for his daughter.
"Has Ning Tian studied spirit tool basics before?"
"She is currently learning the fundamentals."
The Nine Treasure Glazed Sect had always placed great importance on spirit tools.
"Let her finish learning the basics first, then have her come to me. I'll find time to prepare a set of teaching materials."
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