A small stream flowed down from the mountain. A herd of deer drinking at its edge seemed to sense something, looking around warily before leaping high and scattering in all directions.
However, someone had already anticipated their escape routes. A white-hot beam of light arced through the air, striking the deer herd in an instant. A soul beast with six hundred years of cultivation had its limbs severed, collapsing to the ground.
Only then did a few figures slowly emerge from the dense forest.
"Amazing! Senior, you can even control a soul tool beam that fast," Mi Jia said, looking at Lin Xiao, who had just attacked, with no shortage of praise.
"With enough practice, you could do it too," Lin Xiao said with a smile, putting away the soul tool. "Let's get closer and take a look. This soul beast should be quite suitable for Ju Zi."
The other soul beasts paid no heed to their fallen companion. By the time Lin Xiao and the others approached, no other soul beasts remained in the area.
"You're a food-type soul master, so its soul ring should give you a speed-enhancing soul skill. What do you think?" Lin Xiao said, turning to Ju Zi.
"If you fight with soul tools in the future, this soul skill could boost your mobility. Even in a soul master team, a food-type soul master who can provide buffs is quite rare."
"Mm, I'll try it," Ju Zi agreed after a brief moment of thought. "Thank you."
They had been in the Jingyang Mountain Range for nearly a month. Aside from Mi Jia, who got lucky early on and found a suitable soul ring, Ma Rulong had also found a fitting soul beast.
As a food-type soul master, Ju Zi hadn't wanted to delay the group too much because of her needs, but Lin Xiao had led them to search for a few more days until they found this promising soul beast.
"No need to be polite. Teacher tasked me with looking after you all, so naturally, we need to find soul beasts that suit you. Even for soul mentors, cultivation is very important. If you can't find a suitable soul beast now, it'll affect your future progress."
"Exactly," Mi Jia chimed in, following Lin Xiao's lead. "You're new to the academy, so you might not know, but for soul masters, sometimes we spend months out here just to find the right soul ring. It's critical for future cultivation and can't be taken lightly."
Ju Zi wasn't unaware of this. She thanked them again before moving to the side to prepare to absorb the soul ring.
"There's a water source nearby, so let's rest here for a bit."
After making arrangements, Lin Xiao walked a few steps away to check for other soul beasts. When he returned to the stream, Ju Zi was already sitting cross-legged with her eyes closed, and Lin Jiayi had appeared beside them.
"Teacher."
"Mm." Lin Jiayi nodded, looking at Lin Xiao. "Once Ju Zi finishes absorbing her soul ring, it'll be time for us to head back."
"Got it," Lin Xiao nodded.
"So, how's it been using the mechanical arm this past while?" Lin Jiayi asked with a smile, leading Lin Xiao to sit to the side.
"Very tiring," Lin Xiao said after some thought, summing it up in two words.
"Does it consume a lot of soul power?"
"No, it's mentally exhausting."
Operating a soul tool wasn't just about channeling soul power into it. The amount and method of soul power input affected the internal arrays. To maximize a soul tool's power, every array had to be utilized to its fullest.
This was why many soul mentors' most powerful soul tools were ones they crafted themselves. Only by making it personally could they fully understand its internal structure.
Using a soul tool made by someone else required significant time and effort to familiarize oneself with it, and even then, one might not fully grasp its intricacies.
Hearing Lin Xiao's words, Lin Jiayi lowered his head slightly. "If even you find it mentally taxing, others might struggle just to use it. I've already tried to simplify the arrays as much as possible. Any further reduction would likely affect the mechanical arm's functionality."
"Teacher, isn't there something that could replace some of the simpler arrays?" Lin Xiao thought for a moment before asking.
The Tang Sect's mechanical techniques might indeed be remarkable, but they were the result of generations of accumulated efforts and experimentation.
With so many soul mentors in the Sun Moon Empire, who naturally had an advantage in mechanical structures, and soul tools existing for over ten thousand years, could there really be no simpler mechanisms?
"Replace arrays?"
"Mm." Seeing Lin Jiayi's puzzled look, Lin Xiao nodded. "Like the outer shells of some soul tools—their parts are connected by mechanical structures, not all by arrays."
"In these complex soul tools, some mechanisms could replace arrays. For example, simple bending motions could use basic rotating joints instead of steering arrays."
"But that would significantly reduce the mechanical arm's flexibility," Lin Jiayi said, stroking his chin thoughtfully, though still somewhat skeptical.
"Teacher, based on my experience using it these past days, some joints on the mechanical arm don't need to be that flexible. After all, the mechanical arm resembles a human arm, and soul mentors instinctively treat it as such. Sometimes, overly flexible joints feel counterintuitive and are rarely used."
Lin Xiao felt that the development of soul tools in the Sun Moon Empire was somewhat deformed. Perhaps because soul power existed, soul tool arrays could do so much that soul mentors overlooked the most basic elements.
Beyond mechanical structures, in Lin Xiao's memories from his previous life, mechanical advancements relied heavily on material innovations. Yet in the Sun Moon Empire, while soul tool array technology had progressed, metal processing had remained stagnant for thousands of years, limited to simple forging.
Lin Xiao didn't deny that in the hands of soul mentors, forged metals could exhibit unique properties, but not everyone could achieve that level.
Starting with basic materials and developing metals with inherent special properties could save significant effort and even lower the barrier for soul mentors.
Lin Xiao hadn't seen traces of such advancements in any soul tool. When materials couldn't support a soul tool's power, most soul mentors focused on increasing their cultivation to inscribe higher-level arrays, rarely considering improving the materials' inherent strength.
Perhaps because soul tools had been around for so long in the Sun Moon Empire, thinking had become rigid. Or maybe the abundance of diverse materials in the Sun Moon Continent made soul mentors see little value in researching new ones.