"Understood, understood."
Xiao Hongchen nodded solemnly, though it was unclear if he actually took it to heart.
Wang Lin didn't know whether Xiao Hongchen had said anything he shouldn't have to Meng Hongchen. In any case, it didn't affect his usual interactions with her.
Naturally, he didn't ask too many questions.
Since Wang Lin gave the immortal herbs to Ji Juechen and Xiao Hongchen respectively, a year passed in the blink of an eye.
During this year, no major events occurred in either the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy or the entire continent.
Days remained ordinary, and everyone lived their usual lives.
However, during this period, the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy and Shrek Academy held multiple negotiations, finally settling all matters and the specific list for the exchange students.
Because of his relationship with Xiao Hongchen, Wang Lin naturally saw the exchange student list of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy.
The current exchange student list was quite different from the original work. Of the Hongchen siblings, only Xiao Hongchen appeared on the list as a hostage, while Meng Hongchen was kept at the academy.
This was a condition Jing Hongchen agreed to only after Shrek Academy promised to help Xiao Hongchen hunt a suitable soul ring during the exchange period.
Of course, before the hunt, they had to notify the Mingde Hall, and the Mingde Hall would arrange for some personnel to join Xiao Hongchen's guard team.
Simply put, the people secretly protecting Xiao Hongchen had to include members from the Mingde Hall; otherwise, Jing Hongchen wouldn't be at ease.
Regarding this issue, even without malicious intent, Shrek Academy had to grit their teeth and accept it. Jing Hongchen didn't trust them, and how could they possibly trust Jing Hongchen?
Also as an exchange, the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy agreed to let Shrek Academy send two Soul Tool Department teachers to accompany them.
Wang Lin had no opinion on this. He couldn't influence Jing Hongchen's thoughts. He only warned Xiao Hongchen that if he went hunting for souls in the future, he must not let the Taotie Douluo, Xuan Zi, protect him.
Wang Lin had repeated this countless times over the past year. Xiao Hongchen naturally took it to heart, although he believed that even Shrek Academy wouldn't send a Rank 98 Hyper Douluo to protect him.
But Wang Lin said it was better to be safe than sorry. After all, Xuan Zi's reliability was obvious to everyone.
Also under Xiao Hongchen's influence, Ji Juechen was arranged to join the exchange team. This was thanks to the One Thought Seeking the Way Flower.
After absorbing the One Thought Seeking the Way Flower, Ji Juechen's sword intent cultivation surged. After a month of sudden enlightenment, he wanted to find people to fight whenever he had nothing to do.
Wang Lin and Xiao Hongchen had considered this in advance and started avoiding Ji Juechen while walking on campus early on. Although they were occasionally caught once or twice and forced to fight.
But most of the time, Ji Juechen couldn't find them and could only vent his intense desire for battle on others. Eventually, the academy's students could no longer satisfy him.
There were a few times when Ji Juechen even took his sword to find teachers. Even Xuan Ziwen was harassed by Ji Juechen once.
In an instant, countless complaints were directly or indirectly passed to Jing Hongchen. Jing Hongchen had to adopt Xiao Hongchen's suggestion and put Ji Juechen on the exchange student list.
He prepared to let him go torment the monsters at Shrek Academy.
Over the year, with the support of the Golden Dragon Blood and Bone, Wang Lin's physical strength and cultivation advanced together. He broke through to the Soul Emperor cultivation level only a month later than Xiao Hongchen, who had refined and consumed the Toad Treasure Golden Mushroom.
His cultivation speed could be called terrifying. Of course, Wang Lin didn't find this surprising.
During his trip a year ago, among the heavenly treasures Wang Lin obtained—the Heavenly Dream Ice Silkworm Shedding, the Golden Dragon Blood Right Arm Bone, and the Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum—any single one was a supreme treasure.
And Wang Lin possessed all three simultaneously. This speed could actually be considered normal, not to mention that a lot of Wang Lin's energy during this period was also diverted to Soul Tools.
Otherwise, his speed in achieving Soul Emperor would have been faster, not slower, than Xiao Hongchen's. During this year, he also consumed a piece of ten-thousand-year Whale Glue and enjoyed top-tier dietary supplements from the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy.
Most importantly, in terms of hard power improvement, Wang Lin was on par with Ji Juechen. Of course, this was under the premise that Wang Lin was holding back.
This also gave Wang Lin a rough estimate of his own strength. When sparring with Ji Juechen, Wang Lin never used the Golden Dragon Lance.
Meanwhile, over the year, Wang Lin released countless pieces of knowledge through the Science Mini-Journal. The content mainly focused on basic physics, basic mathematics, and basic chemistry, which was sealed as soon as it was released.
The academy's reaction to the first two wasn't significant, and they were never banned. The knowledge Wang Lin taught was the basics among basics.
Especially physics—Wang Lin only discussed macroscopic knowledge, mostly summarizing and sorting out common phenomena.
It was very helpful for people's cognition of the world, so naturally, it wouldn't be banned.
On the contrary, basic chemistry was directly sealed after just two articles were released. All related knowledge had to be submitted first, reviewed by the state, and then selectively disseminated.
Wang Lin accepted this very willingly. This showed that the Sun Moon Empire could see the true value of the knowledge he released.
Of course, the empire's high-level officials couldn't be blamed for reacting this way. After all, the knowledge Wang Lin released about basic chemistry was too frightening.
The content of Wang Lin's first article on basic chemistry was industrial copper production, vividly and clearly explaining the principles of electrolytic copper refining.
These contents, which were originally only half-understood, were clarified by Wang Lin in one go. The relevant industries in the Sun Moon Empire could even improve the original copper refining methods based on the knowledge Wang Lin provided, greatly increasing copper production.
This move directly scared Xu Tianran, who was sitting deep in the palace, half to death. He urgently ordered the Mingde Hall to seal all content regarding basic chemistry in the Science Mini-Journal.
As the Crown Prince of the Sun Moon Empire, Xu Tianran naturally knew where the Sun Moon Empire was stronger than the Three Empires.
Fortunately, to Xu Tianran's relief, Wang Lin was willing to cooperate. Otherwise, with Wang Lin's identity as Long Xiaoyao's disciple, he, Xu Tianran, might not necessarily be able to restrain Wang Lin.
Wang Lin was even more active about this. Every time he wrote a piece of basic chemistry knowledge, he would submit it for sealing.
Again, knowledge can only play its true role when placed in the hands of people who can recognize it.
The Sun Moon Empire surpassed the Three Empires by nearly a hundred years in Soul Tools. This wasn't just surpassing in Soul Tools alone, but far surpassing the Three Empires in technologies related to and supporting Soul Tools.
Such as metal mining and smelting technologies.
Take the technology of electrolytic copper production alone; the Sun Moon Empire already had specific practical operations and related industries. In contrast, the Three Empires didn't even know what electrolytic copper production was.
The gap between the two was evident. This was also why the Sun Moon Empire could sweep across the continent with a crushing posture in the original work.
The Sun Moon Empire's dominance was a dimensionality reduction strike against the Three Empires in every aspect except for Soul Masters. If not for the interference of a certain shameless god in the lower realm.
The Sun Moon Empire's unification of the continent would have been inevitable.