Meng Hongchen and Huo Yuhao had been trying for quite a while, but they still couldn't manage to unleash their obviously viable martial soul fusion skill.
"This won't work, Senior Sister, I'm exhausted."
At this point, their soul power was clearly already intertwining and being consumed, and Huo Yuhao could feel that something was just about to take shape… but his soul power gave out before it could fully form.
"Hehe, Junior Brother, you're just too weak~"
Meng Hongchen squatted next to Huo Yuhao, eyes filled with amusement as she looked at him lying sprawled on the ground from exhaustion.
Feeling he couldn't appear too pitiful, Huo Yuhao mustered all his strength to sit up shakily, his voice slightly weak.
"Yeah… I'm only at Rank 26 right now. This martial soul fusion skill must be really powerful to drain me like this."
After resting a while, he gathered his spirit again, stood up, and placed his hands on his hips.
"No, this won't do, Senior Sister! We have to train hard! Let's go!"
Meng Hongchen was stunned to see Huo Yuhao suddenly grab her arm and start dragging her out of the training field.
"Eh? Wait! Why does your training have anything to do with me?"
Huo Yuhao stopped and turned back with a 'hate iron for not becoming steel' expression.
"Senior Sister, don't be silly. With how compatible our soul power is, wouldn't it be a waste not to train together and improve faster?"
"Who knows? Maybe you'll hit Rank 60 in no time!"
Meng Hongchen was rendered speechless. She could only watch blankly as Huo Yuhao pulled her along.
But as they ran, they realized something: where were they supposed to train together?
Each other's dorms? A man and a woman, alone together, dual cultivating? That felt… a bit much.
Some other place? But where?
After discussing, they settled on Huo Yuhao's dorm. Going to Meng Hongchen's house would be too risky. Even they didn't really understand why their joint cultivation had to feel so hush-hush.
So the two accepted the reality of sharing a room to train, both inwardly nervous while trying to act calm and collected on the outside as they entered Huo Yuhao's dorm.
Inside, Meng Hongchen looked around curiously, then sat on the sofa looking unimpressed.
"Yuhao, your dorm is clean, sure… but this is too clean. Do you do anything besides study and build soul tools?"
Huo Yuhao made tea for her, setting a cup in front of her as he frowned.
"Isn't building soul tools fun?"
Meng Hongchen rolled her eyes. "What's fun about that?"
To her, soul tools were like school or work—something necessary, but not enjoyable. But to Huo Yuhao, a former researcher, soul tools were like toys, full of endless possibilities and wonder. He could sit at the workbench for hours without feeling bored.
After making his own cup of tea, Huo Yuhao sat beside her and shrugged.
"Engraving all kinds of core formation arrays and combining them into unique soul tools—it's just like a super open-ended design game. Super fun."
Meng Hongchen just gave him a deadpan look and sipped her tea in silence.
A few minutes passed with the two quietly drinking their tea.
"Ahem… so, uh, should we start cultivating?"
Huo Yuhao said. Meng Hongchen's cheeks flushed again.
"Isn't it lunchtime, Yuhao?" she said, trying to change the subject.
Huo Yuhao glanced outside. Indeed, it was noon.
Rolling up his sleeves, he walked toward the kitchen.
"Perfect timing. I'll cook lunch, Senior Sister. I promise it'll be so good you'll be moved to tears."
Meng Hongchen eyed his confident back suspiciously. 'You grill fish well, sure—but can you actually cook properly?'
Later, at the table—
"Yuhao, you're so domestic. Why don't you just marry me… hic."
Meng Hongchen rubbed her full belly and murmured in a daze.
Huo Yuhao nearly slipped and fell while washing dishes. But seeing she was clearly in a daze and talking nonsense, he calmed his racing heart.
Once the dishes were done, he returned to the living room, set up two special cultivation chairs provided by the Royal Soul Engineer Academy, and sat cross-legged.
"Come on, Senior Sister. We just ate, it's a good time to cultivate."
"Mm."
Still feeling sleepy from barely sleeping the night before and now stuffed full, Meng Hongchen shuffled over like a sleepy kitten and sat down cross-legged opposite him.
Their soul powers slowly intertwined again. (Don't overthink it.)
Four hours later—
Meng Hongchen, now refreshed, snapped out of her trance. Blushing, she hurriedly bid farewell and left the dorm.
Huo Yuhao casually waved her off, then walked over to his workbench. 'Once we get more used to training together, it'll feel more natural.'
Feeling the tangible improvement in his soul power, he smiled.
'If I keep training like this for two or three more days, I'll probably gain another rank.'
For someone with an ultimate attribute martial soul, that kind of progress was like riding a rocket.
'Maybe I'll hit the bottleneck at Rank 30 before the tournament even starts.'
Putting aside thoughts of cultivation, he picked up a finely crafted carving knife and began thinking about upgrading his floating cannon.
With recent instruction from Jing Hongchen, a stockpile of rare metals from Kong Deming, and his soul power now at Great Soul Master level, Huo Yuhao felt it was time for a major upgrade.
Heart racing with excitement, he dove back into soul tool crafting.
Skipping dinner entirely, Huo Yuhao worked straight through until five in the morning—twelve full hours.
While exhausted, he was a soul master, so he didn't have to worry about things like sudden death from overwork.
Looking at the fifteen newly upgraded, slightly larger, and much sharper floating cannon units laid out on the workbench, he felt proud of his work.
Without resting, Huo Yuhao stored the floating cannons in his soul tool and left the dorm.
It was still pitch black at this hour of the season in the Sun Moon Empire.
Not surprisingly, the roads were completely empty. Huo Yuhao couldn't help but sigh.
'I'm working way too hard.'
At the entrance of the soul tool testing grounds, he scanned the campus card Jing Hongchen had given him. The gates slowly opened, accompanied by a mechanical female voice.
"Welcome, esteemed member."
Regular students had to spend credits to use the testing facilities—after all, if you blew something up, no one was going to reimburse you.
But students like Huo Yuhao, with special access granted by the headmaster, could use the place freely.
Feeling a bit proud, Huo Yuhao entered and released the fifteen floating cannon units, letting them hover with ease.
At his current level of mental and soul power, fifteen was his limit for simultaneous control of these real third-tier soul tools.
He began testing, sending them flying around in sequence.
"Not bad. Control's smooth enough—this'll be useful in real battle."
Then he began strategizing how to maximize their offensive capabilities.
Each floating cannon now had different attack functions: paralysis beams, high-energy rays, soul tool projectiles… a whole arsenal.
To increase the firepower, he had restricted each unit to just one or two specific attacks.
Walking over to a console, he adjusted the training ground's target settings.
"Mobility mode activated. Target count: 30."
The mechanical voice chimed as five large doors opened, and thirty mechanical dummies walked out, moving in varied patterns.
Huo Yuhao activated Spiritual Detection. His Spirit Eyes lit up, and the fifteen cannons became streaks of light, firing beams that struck each dummy with pinpoint precision.
"Good mobility."
He recalled the cannons, pleased.
Still, the downside remained—the units were too small for truly devastating attacks.
But that's exactly what his twelve-hour upgrade session had focused on solving.
Moving to another section of the facility, he changed the settings again. Massive twenty-centimeter-thick steel plates rose from the ground.
With a flourish, Huo Yuhao pointed forward. The fifteen cannon units flew together and rapidly assembled into a massive barrel emitting an aura of destruction. A black light gathered at the muzzle, then fired—an annihilation ray tearing through plate after plate.
Seeing his soul power drop by half, Huo Yuhao didn't rest. He split the units into three groups of five, forming three smaller barrels that unleashed volley after volley of soul tool projectiles.
"Boom. Boom. Boom."
Explosions rang out as the metal plates were riddled with holes.
Soon, the barrels overheated, and Huo Yuhao's soul power was down to 40%.
He let the cannons return to their individual forms, floated them behind himself, and used his ultimate ice soul power to cool them while checking the damage to the plates.
"Hmm… the annihilation beam pierced seventeen plates. Not bad."
"The cannon firepower's decent too."
(End of Chapter)
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