After a simple Forging process, the egg-sized piece of Shadow-Sinking Dark Crystal had shrunk significantly under the high temperatures and repeated hammering.
Its surface now displayed a tighter, dark grey texture. The residual heat had not yet fully dissipated, and under the laboratory lights, it gleamed with a soft, restrained luster.
Senior Brother He did not pause. A slender carving knife suddenly appeared in his hand.
The tip of the knife was as thin as a strand of hair, and its blade gleamed with a cold, metallic luster, clearly showing it was no ordinary item.
He spun the carving knife slightly between his fingers to adjust his grip, then leaned down and began to engrave a Spirit Tool Formation onto the surface of the Shadow-Sinking Dark Crystal, making no attempt to hide his actions.
Teacher Xuan did not stand on ceremony either. He stepped forward half a pace and tilted his head slightly, his eyes closely tracking the movement of the knife tip in Senior Brother He's hand, watching with utmost concentration.
As the blade pressed down, tiny shavings shaved off the crystal's surface, falling onto the tabletop like fine grains of sand.
Fine patterns began to emerge one by one. The curvature of the lines, the depth of the turns, and the spacing between adjacent lines were all precisely controlled under Senior Brother He's fingers.
Teacher Xuan's eyes grew wider and wider, and his heart surged with immense shock.
It wasn't that he had never seen an expert engrave a Spirit Tool Formation before. He was a Level 8 Soul Engineer himself, and the Formations he had seen or personally engraved numbered at least in the hundreds.
However, he had never seen the handling technique Senior Brother He was using right now.
Whether it was the angle of the cuts, the force applied when lifting the knife, or the subtle rhythm of his wrist's trembling at different turns, every detail was completely different from any school of carving he knew.
What made his heart surge even more was the Formation itself.
This was clearly a Class 7 Spirit Tool Formation. Although the pathways of energy flow and the coupling methods between the circuits presented a complete logic, there were several key patterns that he had not only never seen before, but could not even comprehend at the moment.
The direction of those patterns ran slightly contrary to the Spirit Tool theories he knew.
According to his common sense, such a routing method would cause energy turbulence at the intersections. Yet, the Formation before him was taking shape stably, with every groove resting quietly on the crystal surface without any sign of collapse.
Teacher Xuan stared at the patterns taking shape one by one. His Adam's apple bobbed slightly, but he remained silent.
He knew that the process of engraving a Spirit Tool Formation brooked not the slightest disturbance.
The laboratory was deathly quiet, save for the faint rustling of the metal carving knife against the crystal surface and the occasional low hum from the residual heat of the forge, which had not yet fully cooled.
Time slipped away as the patterns extended line by line. After half an hour, Senior Brother He finally carved the last circuit.
His wrist paused steadily, and then he slowly lifted the carving knife, straightened up, and let out a long breath.
Teacher Xuan almost simultaneously stepped forward and carefully cradled the newly formed soul tool core in his palm.
His movement was extremely gentle, as if he were holding some rare and priceless treasure in his palm.
He brought the core close to his eyes, squinting to carefully inspect the ending of each pattern. His fingertips gently traced the lines on the surface, feeling the depth of the cuts, which was precise to the point of near-perfection.
After a moment, he looked up, his eyes filled with a near-intoxicated daze.
"Perfect!" he murmured. "A perfect Class 7 soul tool core!"
He turned to look at Senior Brother He, his gaze more burning than at any moment before.
Being stared at like this, Senior Brother He felt his back tense slightly. He found it rather awkward to be looked at by another man with such an expression.
Just as Teacher Xuan was about to speak...
*Boom!*
A deafening roar suddenly rang out without warning, forcing him to swallow the words that were at the tip of his tongue.
*Boom! Boom! Boom!...*
One explosion followed another, causing the entire laboratory to tremble in response.
The metal shelves on the walls hummed continuously, and several unsecured Spirit Tool components on the table slid to the edge, teetering precariously as if an earthquake were happening.
Senior Brother He and Huo Yuhao exchanged a glance, both seeing the same shock in each other's eyes.
This was the Mingde Hall of the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineer Academy, the universally acknowledged Holy Land in the hearts of the Sun Moon Empire's Soul Engineers.
Who would dare to run amok here?
Senior Brother He's mind raced. As outsiders from the Spirit Pagoda, they seemed like the most likely suspects at this moment, but it absolutely couldn't be them.
But Huo Yuhao's thoughts were completely different. He possessed far more information than Senior Brother He. The moment the explosion rang out, the first thought that popped into his mind was: the Holy Spirit Cult?
Could it be that the Holy Spirit Cult did not wish to see cooperation between the Sun Moon Empire and the Spirit Pagoda, so they sent people to sabotage it?
This speculation seemed reasonable, but Huo Yuhao quickly dismissed this answer.
His vast mental force spread out silently like a tide, devoid of the cold and gloomy aura characteristic of Evil Soul Masters.
However, he sensed numerous auras, each powerful and fierce, with blood energy so abundant it was almost boiling.
It was actually... the Body Sect?!
The Body Sect of this era was at its Peak, completely different from its state Ten Thousand Years later when only a few scattered members remained.
At this time, the Body Sect was teeming with experts, and the Sect's strength was sufficient to go head-to-head with any top power on the continent.
At this moment, Huo Yuhao sensed that there were already over a hundred Body Sect Spirit Masters who had broken into the academy's perimeter, and not a single one of them was below the rank of a Spirit Saint.
In the history books Huo Yuhao had read countless times, there was absolutely no record of this event.
Was this a "butterfly effect" caused by his presence in the timeline, or did this period of history always exist but was deliberately erased?
Just as Huo Yuhao was wondering why the Body Sect would suddenly attack the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineer Academy, Teacher Xuan's face next to him underwent a drastic change.
His voice rose several pitches higher than usual, and he practically roared, "Run! Fixed-Mount Soul-Guided Shells are stored inside Mingde Hall! If they get detonated, everything here is finished!"
Huo Yuhao knew very well that the previous explosions were merely the Body Sect's method of blasting open a passage to force their way into Mingde Hall; after all, the Body Sect did not use Spirit Tools.
But Teacher Xuan did not know this. He only knew that if the batch of Fixed-Mount Soul-Guided Shells stored beneath Mingde Hall exploded, the force would be enough to blow the entire academy, along with its foundations, into the sky.
Huo Yuhao did not explain further. He simply exchanged a glance with Senior Brother He and followed closely behind Teacher Xuan, rushing out of the laboratory door.
The public hall outside was in utter ruins. The workstations that had been neatly arranged were now scattered in disarray, metal fragments were strewn everywhere, and the sound of screams mixed with the scent of blood rushed over them.
A massive hole had appeared in the floor in the center of the hall, and many black-clothed figures were emerging from it one after another.
Most of them were heavily built, and even wrapped in tight black outfits, they could not conceal their almost barbaric muscular contours.
Almost without pausing upon landing, they lunged toward the surrounding Soul Engineers.
Screams, sounds of fighting, and the hum of Spirit Tools charging up blended together.
Right at that moment, an angry roar exploded like a clap of thunder.
The sound waves rolled in, almost covering the entire academy; even the underground Mingde Hall could hear it clearly.
"Body Sect! How dare you!"
That was Jing Hongchen's voice.
Clearly, he had already recognized the identity of the invaders.
This loud shout was both an expression of rage and a warning to all the teachers and students of the academy that the invaders were from the Body Sect.
Hearing this roar, Teacher Xuan sensed his surroundings once more. Finding that the terrifying explosions had indeed not rung out again, his racing heart finally settled slightly back into place.
He then took a deep breath and quickly donned a suit of spirit tool armor.
The armor was entirely silver-grey, with intricate energy circuits embedded at the joints, clearly showing it was a meticulously customized piece.
Immediately after, he shot forward like a projectile, leaving behind an afterimage as he charged straight toward the nearest black-clothed man from the Body Sect.
Although this technical Genius, who spent all year cooped up in his laboratory, usually did not seem suited for combat, he was a Level 8 Soul Engineer after all. Donning his spirit tool armor now, his charge was exceptionally fierce.
However, Huo Yuhao did not hesitate for a second. With a surge of Spirit Power beneath his feet, he followed closely behind.
Teacher Xuan was a Genius he wanted to abduct back to the Spirit Pagoda, so he absolutely could not allow anything to go wrong with him here.
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A/N:
I hope all of you are enjoying this story so far. I would appreciate some Power Stones if you can spare any. Leave a review if you like the story. Thank you.