Sea God's Pavilion.
The azure lake water rippled with the breeze.
The night was quiet.
At the peak of the ancient golden tree, an aged figure sat in a wheelchair, quietly overlooking the distant Shrek Academy, lost in thought.
"Teacher," Yan Shaozhe's figure slowly appeared. He skillfully reached out to push the wooden wheelchair, exhaling a breath of stale air.
"That child—what do you think of him?" Mu En asked softly.
"Although I have to admit it, he is indeed a prodigy, even surpassing Ma Xiaotao and Lexuan to a certain extent. His second awakening of the Blood Pupils, regardless of the method—it all signifies his terrifying talent for body martial soul."
"Once the Body Sect discovers this kid, they will definitely pull out all the stops to recruit him or even snatch him by force."
Yan Shaozhe's eyes were complex, revealing the turmoil within his heart.
"Knowing that, yet you still push him out the door—" Mu En said leisurely.
"You knew, Teacher?" Yan Shaozhe's face looked a bit awkward.
"It's not as if Ma Xiaotao and Lexuan aren't here. I see that Lu Cheng treats them quite well. As long as Ma Xiaotao is still at Shrek Academy, Lu Cheng will definitely not take even a single step toward the Body Sect." However, a look of confidence soon filled his face.
This was the confidence he had in manipulating Lu Cheng.
His own good disciple had the kid infatuated. Wanting to run? Heh, no way—
"Perhaps." Mu En pondered for a long time before uttering a sentence that left one baffled.
His thoughts were not much different from Yan Shaozhe's. Although somewhat dissatisfied with his disciple's actions, he also knew that the relationship between Ma Xiaotao and that youth was intimate, even transcending that of ordinary lovers. Although this mysterious bond was somewhat abrupt, it was ultimately a good thing for Shrek, so he didn't mind it too much—
"But Lexuan seems to have discovered something." Mu En narrowed his eyes and spoke slowly.
"Teacher, what do you mean?!" Yan Shaozhe's pupils shook. This was the generational successor of the Shrek Academy Sea Gods Pavilion, a true Shrek direct descendant, and the future helmsman. If something went wrong with her, the entire future high-end combat power of Shrek Academy would be severed.
"It's just a guess." Mu En waved his hand, his tone indifferent.
"Moreover, I made more than one preparation back then. Even if that girl Lexuan investigates to the end, she can only trace it back to the Holy Spirit cult. After that night, Xiaoyao slaughtered all the Evil Soul Masters who knew the truth to prevent future trouble."
"Unless she already knew the truth and worked backward from it." Mu En suddenly chuckled and shook his head.
"I must be getting senile to say such things."
"So this is why you have been giving Bei Bei special training recently?" Yan Shaozhe realized. "That's only one aspect—"
Mu En shook his head.
"I am becoming increasingly confused about the current younger generation. If Lexuan was once definitely the future helmsman of Shrek Academy in my heart, then looking at her performance since she awakened her second martial soul, the Spirit Eyes, two and a half years ago, I have some doubts. She spends her days in tears, crying her heart out over a youth from her dreams—and now she is even suspicious of everything."
"Ma Xiaotao's personality is too careless; she is not suitable to be the helmsman. That Lu Cheng has a meticulous mind, which is good, but unfortunately, he is not from my Shrek direct line. Even if he unites with Ma Xiaotao in the future, he must never hold the dominant decision-making power. I do not trust him."
"So what you mean is—" Yan Shaozhe's pupils suddenly constricted.
"Correct. Currently, the only suitable and trustworthy person is Bei Bei. Before I die, I will perform an empowerment on him to help his martial soul evolve into the Bright Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon, at least to keep Lu Cheng in check—" Mu En tapped his fingers lightly.
"As for Lu Cheng, with Ma Xiaotao keeping him in check, no matter how much of a prodigy he is, he can only play a role like Xuan Zi, becoming a subordinate of Bei Bei, or rather, a hired thug for the entire Shrek Academy. Of course, he still needs to be personally disciplined by me."
"As for Lexuan, it is best to set her up so she can assist Bei Bei in becoming the Pavilion Master of the Sea Gods Pavilion. As for that Tang Ya, the last girl of the Tang Sect, I can only say sorry."
"As expected of Teacher. Brilliant!" Yan Shaozhe said, completely convinced.
The next day, early morning.
Beams of light spilled into the dormitory.
Many new students filed out of the corridor. Having held it all night, the urge to urinate surged. Nearly a thousand male students on the three floors of the building blocked the entrance to the restroom completely.
—The noise resounded through the hallway.
"Hey, move aside; don't steal my spot."
"I was here first, okay!"
"Get lost. Do you want a fight?!"
The faint sounds of noise and fighting drifted into the dormitory.
Wang Dong'er rubbed her eyes and realized she was still lying on Lu Cheng's bed. She blushed and tidied her clothes. Fortunately, the dormitory had a washbasin; otherwise, she would have had to run and compete with a group of boys.
She patted her delicate face in the mirror. After hesitating for a moment, she used a disguise technique, and in a short while, she recovered her original appearance as the boy, Wang Dong'er.
But just as she was leaving, her pink-blue eyes glanced at the crowded restroom at the end of the corridor, and a look of unnaturalness appeared on her face.
"Go to the office building, the blue one—" Lu Cheng yawned lazily, his voice coming from inside the dormitory.
"The second floor is the restroom for female teachers of the Outer Academy."
"Oh, oh—thank you, Brother Cheng." Wang Dong'er thought of last night's events, her pretty face blushing, and she nodded, not daring to look Lu Cheng in the eye.
Lu Cheng washed up slowly.
There were no classes for the second year today.
Or rather, he had no classes. With his strength and cultivation, he had long since outgrown the boring and tedious training of the Outer Academy disciples. Even if he wanted to join the inner court, Yan Shaozhe would likely not say much.
But he had no intention of becoming deeply bound to Shrek Academy. He was just muddling through, waiting for that tournament a year later to make his mark.
And his current task was—
The Soul Tool Department building.
It was grey-black with a metallic luster. Lu Cheng, dressed in his yellow school uniform, swiped his card with an expressionless face and walked inside. He skillfully arrived at the third floor, which was the only place that could provide for the experiments of Soul Engineers level six and above, to inscribe core formations.
For him, who had already cleared it once, even level-nine spirit tools, such as Ye Yulin's secret Sun Moon Needle (a level-nine spirit tool with an exaggerated coverage strike range); the most secret thing of the Sun Moon Empire—the humanoid spirit tool mecha; or even level-nine fixed-load spirit tool shells were all easy to acquire as long as his cultivation and mental force kept up.
In the simulator, he had used another identity to enter the Sun Moon Empire Royal Academy to study and had even once gained the favor of Kong Deming, taking the opportunity to learn about many of the Sun Moon Empire's core research results.
The only thing that could still make him spend time studying now was naturally one thing—
Battle Armor.
As the most perverted auxiliary equipment in the entire Douluo Universe, which could increase the wearer's strength by an average of nearly twenty levels and could tank, fight, fly, and run, he naturally could not miss it.
However, waiting for the complete technology of Battle Armor would require at least ten thousand years to mature. Now, he could only grope his way forward step by step.
In the completely sealed inscription room.
In Lu Cheng's hand, a fire-red carving knife danced like a dragon or phoenix, carving piece after piece of spirit tool formation cores, all of level seven quality. Such fast speed, if placed in the outside world, would likely attract a crowd of people to watch and marvel, but Lu Cheng and Tian Meng had long since become accustomed to it.
When the parts were pieced together and assembled into a decent-looking humanoid mecha nearly three meters tall, Lu Cheng put down his carving knife and climbed inside to try and connect the controls.
The mecha moved nimbly. As the core formation was activated, countless parts of the entire body began to operate. Judging by the specifications, it had basically reached the peak of the Sun Moon Empire's current research on humanoid mechas, but it was far from meeting Lu Cheng's vision.
Click~
The hatch opened, and Lu Cheng jumped down, his brows tightly furrowed.
"Still lacking—"
If he had known, he should have found Xuan Ziwen in the simulation to get that mental control system. In the original work, at this period, the humanoid spirit tool closest to battle armor was the Ice Polar War God Armor created by the joint efforts of Xuan Ziwen and Huo Yuhao, which could even be said to be the prototype of the battle armor ten thousand years later.
It was just that the Ice Polar God Crystal, such a heaven-defying material, filled in the strength of the forged metal.
And the project that Mingde Hall originally failed and abandoned—the mental control system—instead blossomed again in Xuan Ziwen's hands, becoming the most important link in the Battle Armor.
"It's a pity I don't have an ice-attribute martial soul; otherwise, the first thing I'd do is run to the Earth Dragon Gate and dig it clean," Lu Cheng narrowed his eyes.
Of course, what gave him a bigger headache now was the control system.
This thing couldn't be created in a day or two.
Even for him, he had fallen into a certain bottleneck. If he wanted to break through again, he was afraid he would at least need to reach a level-nine Soul Engineer to be qualified to continue pushing the Battle Armor project forward.
"It's too time-consuming and labor-intensive—" Tian Meng also began to retreat, speaking with some hesitation.
Although the vision Lu Cheng painted was big and beautiful, the time and energy required were extremely exaggerated.
With this time, maybe he could have increased his level a few more times.
Even if Lu Cheng learned metal forging, the distance to that so-called four-word battle armor, or even the six-word god armor that would automatically evolve after becoming a god, was still as remote as a heavenly chasm.
"No rush." Lu Cheng shook his head.
This was his trump card for dealing with God King Tang, so naturally, he was not in a rush for immediate success.
He waved his hand casually, putting this defective humanoid mecha into his spirit tool storage ring, and left the laboratory.
He strolled around the playground.
He discovered that Huo Yuhao had sadly fallen into the hands of Zhou Yi and was miserably running on the playground wearing heavy armor, while Wang Dong'er had run to Mu Jin's class, leaning idly against the classroom window, lost in thought, seemingly thinking about what happened last night.
He grinned and glanced at Huo Yuhao for a while, cheering him on.
Then he leisurely walked toward the dormitory.
"Sister Xiao Ya?"
However, downstairs at the dormitory, Lu Cheng caught a glimpse of a graceful figure with some surprise. She was wearing a light blue, tight-fitting outfit that outlined her graceful curves, adorned with a white silk belt at her waist. She had a fresh and neat ponytail and was wearing light blue peep-toe high heels. She was boredly kicking the tree bark lightly while craning her neck to look at the first-floor male dormitory.
Her nearly perfect oval face was full of entanglement and hesitation.
Notes:
Nearly forgot...
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