"Hehehehe…"
Xuan Ziwen chuckled.
Su Wen grinned, pointing at him. The two shared a glance, silent understanding passing between men.
"All right, all right. Time to keep slaving away at this level 9 soul tool…"
After the brief bout of joking, Su Wen begrudgingly sat back down at the lab bench. He looked at the thick cannon barrel parts piled to the side, the scattered metal components, and the heap of jumbled, complex core arrays in front of him—and the headache resumed.
"Stop thinking. Eat first…"
A golden-haired girl appeared in front of him. Her fair skin made Su Wen daze for a moment. He glanced at the lunchbox that had appeared on the table, then at the tall girl standing beside him with hands on her hips, baring small tiger teeth.
"Thought it was Na Na for a second."
"What's that supposed to mean!" Mu Qiu'er protested, displeased.
Her golden eyes glared angrily at Su Wen.
"Why don't you just go die on her already! I haven't even had a bite yet and you're feeding her first?!!"
"…"
Su Wen let out a quiet sigh.
"Hmph! I'm going to guard you like a hawk from now on." Mu Qiu'er crossed her arms, setting off a wave of fullness. After a snort, she saw Su Wen focusing on his food and felt bored again, so she bent over to look at the scraps of components on the table.
"Why aren't you using forged metals? Don't tell me you can't, hehe. I can already fuse-forge two kinds of metals now, you know. Want me to help? I can be your little assistant~"
Mu Qiu'er flashed her tiger teeth, holding up two slender white fingers, looking at Su Wen with proud confidence.
Su Wen gave a sidelong glance at the snowy ravine at his side, then sucked the noodles into his stomach.
"Looks like you haven't been slacking."
"Mm-hm!"
Mu Qiu'er lifted her chin proudly.
"But try not to flaunt your forging skills in daily life. Oh, and remind Lou Yingying, Song Lei and the others: just focus on soul-tool tech while you're in the Sun Moon Empire—especially linkage arrays! Start from the fundamentals." Su Wen said.
"Ah… fine." Mu Qiu'er's red lips parted slightly. She felt like Su Wen was just suppressing her, so she angrily grabbed his arm and bit down hard.
"Hiss…"
Watching Mu Qiu'er's retreating back, Su Wen shook his head.
He'd deliberately relaxed his defenses. Otherwise, with his current physical toughness, Mu Qiu'er would have shattered a couple of teeth.
"Right!"
Su Wen suddenly recalled something and called out to her back.
"Yeah!" Mu Qiu'er seemed to have been waiting for that. Her long legs carried her back like the wind. Her golden hair fluttered through the air, excitement shining in her beautiful eyes. Her delicate, slightly tsundere face lit up.
"What, you've come to your senses and decided to make this young lady your secretary? You should've said so earlier—this is how it ought to… What are you doing?"
Meeting Mu Qiu'er's confused gaze, Su Wen opened his palm.
Resting there was a thin, dark-black piece of metal, like ink-black porcelain jade, carved with intricate patterns through which hints of golden light seemed to flicker.
It looked minimalist, yet it gave off a heaviness like a mountain.
"Level 8 defensive soul tool. Here, keep it on you. It can withstand a full-force blow from a peak Soul Douluo. You're still too weak right now, only at Soul King level…"
"…"
Mu Qiu'er ground her teeth, glaring at him.
She wanted to tear a chunk of flesh off him and storm away, but halfway out the door she felt unwilling, so she turned back in a flourish, snatched the defensive soul tool from his palm with a crisp smack, and pocketed it.
"What's it called?"
"I just whipped it up while learning soul tools. Never named it." Su Wen waved his hand.
"Then it'll be called Su Wen's Blessing!" Mu Qiu'er declared seriously.
"…"
The corner of Su Wen's mouth twitched.
"What do you mean Su Wen's Blessing? That name's ridiculous…"
"I don't care! From now on, it's called Su Wen's Blessing!" Mu Qiu'er suddenly thought of something. A rosy blush stained her fair cheeks, and her beautiful eyes grew soft and misty.
Su Wen nodded. "All right, if you say—"
"Mmph—"
Before he could finish, Mu Qiu'er bent down, forcibly turned his head, and pressed her red lips hard against his.
Fragrance flooded around him.
He didn't know how long it was before the girl suddenly pulled away, licking her enticing lips with a little flick of her tongue, then strutted proudly toward the door.
"Su Wen's Blessing, Hongchen's Blessing…"
Su Wen shook his head.
But that being said, this thing was indeed an experimental piece he'd created by imitating Hongchen's Blessing. The effect was very successful—of course, he'd added a bit of extra material…
"Linked arrays, huh…"
Su Wen exhaled lightly.
He fixed a piece of polished rare metal onto the test bench. His hand closed lightly, and a tempting emerald-green carving knife appeared in his grip. Under his hand, the blade danced like a living thing. Stroke by stroke, it began to etch across the metal. Time ticked away. The lines on the metal grew deeper and shallower in turn, gradually forming a complex array.
"Huff…"
He didn't know how long had passed.
Su Wen finally exhaled a long, turbid breath.
Seeing the core array in front of him finally completed, he joined it with the previous three. There was a crisp click as the special metal catches locked in. When he channeled soul power into his palm, all four core arrays lit up with a pale yellow glow, projecting starlike radiance into the air above.
"It worked. No mishaps…"
He finally relaxed.
Even with the Eye of Destiny assisting him, all it could do was accelerate his speed. It couldn't grant him the casual, nearly one-hundred-percent precision he enjoyed when working on soul tools below level 9.
The failed prototypes piled beside him were proof enough—that was the true difficulty of linkage arrays.
A single soul-tool core array only needed focus on itself.
But linkage was like coding in his past life: front-end, back-end, database all running at once, and even more demanding—they all had to connect together perfectly. Every single "program" had to be flawless and compatible. Otherwise, if a single core array in the chain failed, you had to start over…
"Phew…"
He glanced out the window. The sky was already dark.
A whole day had gone by just like that.
And there were still eight arrays left…
Su Wen smacked his lips. Still, fun was fun; joking was joking. This was, after all, the first truly proper level 9 soul cannon he'd ever built with his own hands—one whose destructive power could rival a Titled Douluo's strike. Even if he had to take it slow, it would be worth it.
He was someone who liked to pursue perfection.
"Ju Zi? You haven't left yet?"
A figure suddenly appeared in the distance. Su Wen blinked in mild surprise.
"Uh… yeah, haha."
Ju Zi said, a little embarrassed.
"I didn't think you were already able to carve level 9 core arrays. It's really… eye-opening."
Watching someone carve a core array was considered rude unless they were close. Every Soul Engineer had their own unique style of carving; in a sense, it was a private secret.
But Su Wen's brush-like movements and stunning technique had drawn her in unconsciously.
And it was a level 9 core array at that—something even Teacher Xuan had never carved. Naturally, it held a mysterious allure.
Of course, once she came back to her senses, she was shocked.
How old was Su Wen again?
He was about her age, yet he was already challenging level 9 Soul Engineer arrays?!!
…