For arrays at this level, just observing them could teach you a lot. In the original timeline, Huo Yuhao had become addicted the first time he watched Ju Zi carve, staring for a whole day straight.
"It's fine."
Su Wen waved magnanimously and left with a smile.
So long as it didn't touch his core interests—like the integration of metal forging and soul tools, or humanoid mecha—he didn't mind. Watching him carve was no big deal; he was happy to play the role of the nice guy.
He left the lab.
And headed straight toward the dorms.
It was one in the morning. Soul-tool streetlamps lit the paths of the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineer Academy. Many labs still blazed with light. After all, soul masters had tough physiques and abundant spiritual power. They didn't need much sleep; a bit of meditation could restore them for a full day, and soul power could be replenished with bottle milks.
So when soul masters met scientific research, they became natural workhorses—and they didn't even get sick…
The pressure in the Sun Moon Empire wasn't exactly light.
Especially at this top academy, where geniuses were everywhere. True monsters like Xiao Hongchen were rare, but geniuses who reached level 5 Soul Engineer by age fifteen could be found all over the place.
Sure, a lot of their soul power was a bit hollow… but it still counted.
This was the path the Sun Moon Empire had taken ever since their last defeat: mass-produce elites rather than pouring everything into a single prodigy, even if it sacrificed the long-term potential of a few true monsters. And the war that would erupt not long from now would prove that their choice was correct.
They churned out elites on an assembly line. The best were taken into Mingde Hall, the next tier were funneled into the army, and by sheer quantity, they forged a force that made the other nations tremble.
"…"
Su Wen shook his head and pushed those thoughts aside.
If it really came down to war, it would be at least two years away. By then, who knew what the continent would look like.
What he needed to think about now was how to condense a soul core…
That's right. Having stepped into the realm of Soul Emperor—level 64—he was already itching to go for a soul core. Up to now, his main combat power came from his contracted beasts and his powerful physique, so he hadn't felt the lack much. But recently, he'd started to feel some strain.
When using soul tools.
His strong body let him swim effortlessly through forging, leapfrogging tier after tier. His abundant spiritual power allowed him to rush to level 9 Soul Engineer in a very short time. But rather awkwardly, while he could make high-level soul tools, using them was a different story…
Even with elixirs, his soul power was only about twice that of an ordinary soul master at the same rank—at best, barely reaching an ordinary Soul Sage's level.
That led to a very embarrassing reality: he couldn't properly use the level 8 long-range soul cannon he himself had built…
—or to be precise, using it was extremely taxing.
Furthermore, because his martial spirit had been reset, the two spirits shared the same body, but the cultivation of the contracted beasts tied to his first martial spirit couldn't be synced to the second. His personal cultivation speed felt a bit slow. In three months, the second martial spirit had only gained two levels, reaching a mere level 13 soul master.
A soul core would change that. Once he formed one, it would be like strapping a rocket onto that second martial spirit.
Soul cores didn't help much in direct combat themselves, but once condensed, they provided a qualitative boost to how much soul power one could hold and how fast one could cultivate—very much like forming a Golden Core in cultivation novels; a four- or five-fold increase was nothing out of the ordinary.
They helped the body absorb the world's energy more efficiently, just like the core-forming stage in those stories.
"If I'm going to condense a soul core…"
Su Wen muttered.
"My physical toughness is more than enough, has been for a while. But soul cores have grades of their own. Xuan Ziwen's core, which he barely formed with the help of all the powerhouses of Shrek, was the lowest tier. Huo Yuhao's soul core, on the other hand, was completely over-tuned."
"Your own soul power and the ambient density of heaven and earth energy determine the lower limit of your core's quality; spiritual power sets the upper limit."
"The hardest part of condensing a soul core is stability. At the start, you siphon your own soul power and the surrounding energy to form the core, but it gets more and more unstable as it grows. Whether you can keep it under control all depends on your spiritual strength. Most people don't dare rashly push for Titled Douluo because of this—without a stronger expert protecting them, a soul core can easily go out of control and explode."
"In the original story, Huo Yuhao's soul core was condensed by pulling together his maximum limit of soul power, plus the combined cheat power of Snow Empress, Skydream and the others. Only then could he form it at the Soul Sage stage."
"And to be fair, his spiritual strength at Soul Sage was utterly broken, and even his soul power was way beyond mine."
Su Wen frowned slightly.
His combat power mainly lay outside his body, while Huo Yuhao's lay within.
After all, the Auspicious Beast's sacrifice, Snow Empress turning into a soul spirit, Ice Empress and Skydream's sacrifices—these were all concentrated directly inside Huo Yuhao, letting him form a top-tier, stable soul core…
Since his own soul power was weak, he would seek power from outside.
Condensing it inside Azure Luan's Poké Ball—that was a given.
Next…
He needed dense heaven and earth energy. That Water Dragon King's dragon core was a perfect match, but still not enough…
Skydream's remnant husk and spiritual origin were also excellent materials. After Huo Yuhao's death, Su Wen had extracted them and stored them in his spiritual sea.
He would chuck all his treasures at this. For his first soul core, it had to be the best possible under current conditions—anything less would be beneath him.
As for keeping it stable, with the Eye of Life and Big Eye in play, all he needed to worry about was how far he could push the core's condensation with his soul power and the surrounding energy.
"Life Gold!"
Azure Luan's voice echoed in his spiritual sea.
"Roar~"
Little Gold scratched its head. Its powerful physique would give Su Wen the confidence to endure the shockwaves of a forming soul core, and at the critical moment, it could further reinforce his flesh.
"I might major in time and space, but my spiritual power isn't low either. Equivalent to, uh… a hundred-thousand-year spiritual-type soul beast, I'd say. Go nuts." Big Eye spoke up as well.
"If you can't keep it stable, I'll handle it."
Then came Snow Empress's gentle voice.
Su Wen smiled slightly.
This was the benefit of having a crowd on your side.
By scraping power together from all directions, he'd patched his short board…
"You're not sleeping all the time anymore?" Su Wen asked softly.
"Mm."
Snow Empress replied in a low voice.
Perhaps because she'd sacrificed herself in her embryonic state, she'd been exhausted after offering herself to Su Wen. She spent most of her time asleep, only waking infrequently.
Now, that period of fatigue was over.
"I have to wake up and keep an eye on you. Otherwise you'll go flirting everywhere…"
Hearing the faint resentment in her tone, Su Wen coughed and quickly changed the subject.
"Azure Luan, let's hold off on using that Life Gold. We can't kill the chicken for a single egg."
Azure Luan's Poké Ball mainly relied on the Life Gold it had birthed. That was why he liked going there whenever he did anything important.
If he refined it all just to condense a soul core…
That would be no different from killing the chicken to get its eggs.
If that particular piece of Life Gold was the core of the entire pocket world, and it stopped regenerating life energy after he refined it…
He couldn't afford that bet.