area51novel Chapter 260 Making Preparations
Chapter 260 Making Preparations
Shifting perspectives, Long You, sensing something was amiss, slowed down after initially leaving Huo Yuhao's detection range, and also slightly reduced the effect of his invisible soul tool.
There's no way around it; even a tiny fraction of a soul tool utilizing the power of laws will have an overwhelming effect on ordinary soul tools. If Long You hadn't toned down the effect of his invisibility soul tool, He Caitou might not have been able to find him.
He Caitou's analysis was correct; Long You's reminder to He Caitou while on the run indicated he did indeed want to find companionship. After years of living in seclusion, Long You now desperately needed to reintegrate into a group. However, judging from his interactions with his companions yesterday, Long You realized he was finding it difficult to truly belong. Therefore, he needed a catalyst, and He Caitou, also a Soul Master, was the perfect one to help him re-enter group life.
Five minutes later, He Caitou, who had been driving at full speed, caught up. Seeing that his pre-arranged partner had arrived, Long You immediately put the effects of the Law-based Invisibility Soul Tool on He Caitou, and the two of them took off and flew towards their previously agreed destination.
Compared to Soul Masters, Soul Masters actually prefer ambushes with ample preparation time. Since as long as Long You is there, the rest of the Shrek Academy team won't be able to find the two, so there's no need for them to waste time on the road. They can simply prepare a "romantic" experience for everyone at the finish line, and use the remaining time to discuss their respective progress with Soul Tools over the years.
Compared to the phenomenal progress of Long You, He Caitou's advancements in soul tools seemed rather unremarkable. However, as their conversation deepened, Long You had to admit that He Caitou was indeed a genius-level soul tool master with exceptional talent. Although his expertise was limited, He Caitou had made significant progress in soul-guided powered mechs.
It's unclear whether He Caitou regretted not being able to pilot the "Cherno Alpha" as the main pilot back then, but in any case, he has put a lot of effort into the control system of the Soul Guidance Powered Mech over the past few years.
Through communication with Longyou, it was learned that as long as the latest driving control system made by He Caitou is used, even a large soul-guided power mech with a height of over 15 meters will not be less agile than a medium-sized soul-guided power mech with a height of around 5 meters.
With the aid of an AI to supplement the operation of the fire control system, the larger the Soul Guidance Powered Mech is, the more Soul Guidance Devices can be installed, and the more terrifying the destructive power of the Soul Guidance Powered Mech will be.
In addition, He Caitou has also made breakthroughs in the research of the spirit-sharing soul tool. Once the soul-guided mecha fusion is completed, the new spirit-sharing soul tool will ensure that the pilot in the auxiliary role among the two pilots can also maintain a clear consciousness. Although they cannot operate it, they can offer opinions and can also operate it to save themselves in dangerous situations.
Compared to the emergency version of the soul-guided powered mecha fusion that Long You created to cope with the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Battle Tournament, the current version, after years of upgrades and improvements by He Caitou, is obviously much more powerful. To put it in a somewhat imprecise mathematical way, it's basically gone from 1+1=1.5 to 1+1=2.5.
"Hmm! That's really good. With this method, the trick we used as an emergency measure back then finally has a bit of the feel of a fusion technique. When I get what I want from the Earth Dragon Gate this time and upgrade the Soul Guiding Power Mech, I'll modify it a bit as well."
After learning in detail about the effects of He Caitou's research, Long You admitted that he was tempted. Long You himself had no idea how chaotic this trip to the Sun Moon Empire would be, and he would accept any means that could increase his own strength.
"Sigh, although these results seem pretty good, judging from the models and experiences brought back by my junior brother from the Sun Moon Empire, it will probably be difficult for us Soul Masters, who are more focused on combat, to balance research and strength improvement in the future."
Although it's not particularly obvious yet, I can clearly feel that the time I've devoted to soul tool research is starting to affect the improvement of my strength.
"Well, the problem you mentioned is indeed a source of frustration for many combat-type Soul Masters. To achieve results in research, one always needs to be fully committed. Unfortunately, once one's Soul Power level reaches a high level, one also needs to be fully committed. The conflict between these two is essentially a conflict of the total amount of human energy, which is basically unsolvable unless one happens to encounter a research-type Martial Soul awakening."
In my opinion, research-oriented Soul Masters will likely become a specialized type of Soul Master in the future. They won't be responsible for combat, but only for developing Soul Tools that can enhance combat abilities or serve other purposes.
"But that's the future!"
"No, it's no longer the future for the academy. In my opinion, the teacher Xuan Ziwen, whom Yuhao recruited from the Sun Moon Empire, is the most outstanding research-oriented soul tool master of this era. As long as we can provide Teacher Xuan with enough experimental data and a clear enough research direction, those standard soul tools, and even semi-customized soul tools, can all be solved by Teacher Xuan."
What you really need to think about is actually quite simple: First, what is your combat style? Second, what kind of soul tool is best suited to your combat style? That's all.
"But Teacher Xuan's strength is only at the Soul Saint level. He definitely can't make those high-level soul tools!"
"No, no, no, Senior Brother, you've confused the specifics of research and production. Think back carefully, what really consumed a lot of your time and energy, was it production or drawing the soul tool design blueprints? It must be the design blueprints! Teacher Xuan may indeed be unable to produce overly advanced soul tools due to his strength, but that doesn't stop him from doing design work in the Panlong Realm."
No matter how much time we spend improving our soul power level, we can't abandon the soul tool crafting skills we've honed since childhood. Truly powerful soul masters equip themselves with soul tools they've crafted themselves. Only by crafting them themselves can a soul master truly understand the soul tools they use.
"I understand. But speaking of which, Xiao You, it's quite surprising that you have such a good helper as Xiao Yan, and that you can understand the plight of us 'poor' soul masters!"
"Get lost! If it weren't for the cigars that help you ease the burden of meditation, do you think you would have only now encountered the conflict between research and cultivation? As a food-type soul master, you should be aware of your own cultivation speed."
With the business concluded and the doubts resolved, He Caitou immediately began teasing Long You. However, what He Caitou hadn't anticipated was that being a contrarian was an innate trait, one that would absolutely not disappear with time. Even if Long You still had social issues, once he transformed his social skills into those of a contrarian, Long You would never lose.
However, this is a scenario that requires constant vigilance, so the argumentative exchange between Long You and He Caitou did not last more than a few minutes.
"Alright, let's get down to business. Those guys can't possibly be faster than us, so there's no need for us to dawdle on the road. Let's just head straight to the final rendezvous point. We can find a suitable spot along the way to prepare some gifts for them to cheer them up, and also hone the combat style that Soul Masters are truly good at—positional planning."
"Alright, this is a good opportunity to conduct a self-test of extreme marching. Let's see what our fastest speed can be while maintaining combat readiness."
Over the next two days, Long You and He Caitou used a combination of land and air travel to quickly reach the final meeting point they had agreed upon before dispersing. Although they communicated frequently during the journey, considering the relatively short distance, they were now close to their destination.
"Wait, that direction..." Long You, who was flying rapidly through the air, grabbed He Caitou beside him. It was only because He Caitou reacted quickly enough that Long You's action could have caused an aerial accident.
"what happened?"
“Bourne has discovered something unusual. According to the data detected by my soul-guided device, there should be a small village in the mountains at our ten o'clock position, but the current condition of this village may be quite poor.”
"Somewhat bad? What do you mean?"
"First, fly over there invisibly, talking as you go. If the detection results are correct, this is hell on earth."
Because the analysis of Byrne's detection results was so unbelievable, Long You didn't directly reveal what he had seen. Instead, he quickly switched his flying soul-guided power mecha from normal mode to stealth mode. On the other side, although He Caitou was still in a daze, seeing that Long You wasn't joking, his elite soul master skills allowed him to switch his soul-guided power mecha to flight mode in the shortest possible time.
"Damn it, this is definitely the work of an evil spirit master. Judging from the scene, not much time has passed. Xiao You, your soul-guiding device has a wider detection range, can you find any trace of those rats?"
"Found them. Those rats truly lived up to their name; they're right here in their hole."
"What do you mean? Those rats didn't leave? They're still in the village?"
“That’s right. They’re in the basement of the village’s ancestral hall. Although I can’t be sure whether the figures I saw were living beings because of the distance, even if they weren’t, they were very important to the evil spirit masters who committed the tragedy. Destroying them was a no-brainer.”
"Judging from this scene, it seems that this time the perpetrators are evil soul masters who possess blood-related abilities. Can your invisible soul tool block those rats' perception of blood?"
"No problem, move quietly, we need to get closer to scout. If those rats aren't very strong, the two of us will just take action. If there are any experts, we should at least call our senior sister over to keep things in check."
Because of their shared communication channel, Long You and He Caitou's exchange didn't hinder their continued progress at all. In fact, after realizing that the situation in this small mountain village might be more troublesome than expected, the two equipped themselves with medium-sized soul-guided powered mechs. These mechs, the size of which allowed them to barely remain within the range of the spatial law-based invisibility soul tools, were a necessity. They were genuinely afraid that their opponents might possess pheromone or scent-based abilities, requiring the most comprehensive and complete protective shield.
After donning the Soul-guided Powered Mech, Long You commanded Bourne to establish an interactive channel with the AI assistant on He Caitou's side, allowing He Caitou to share a more comprehensive detection perspective in real time.
The anti-gravity system on the soul-guided power mech activated, and Long You and He Caitou controlled the mech to float slightly in the air, slowly flying towards the ancestral hall in the center of the village. When they were about 20 meters away from the ancestral hall, the previously black and white underground detection image suddenly came to life.
Although the colors are not those seen by the normal human eye, with the help of multiple soul-guided detection devices, the entire underground space can be said to have few secrets left.
"Hmph, what an evil thing. Of the dozen or so humanoid creatures in the entire basement, only two show any signs of life. What are the rest? Puppets?"
"More or less. That's not important. What's important is that these two vengeful spirits aren't very strong; they're still within our capabilities. Let's discuss how to help the wronged souls in this village find peace."
"Very well, the strongest combat power of a Soul Master is when they are on the pre-set battlefield. It's been so long, it's time to test their progress."
"Stop wasting time. Have you finished your 3D model yet? Once you're done, let's leave first. We'll come back in and operate after Brother Zheng has finished setting up and planning the position."
"It's finished. We can leave once we've set up some soul-guided devices for monitoring."
With the help of AI (intelligent life form), the difficulty of talking and working at the same time has been greatly reduced. Therefore, although Long You and He Caitou were constantly communicating, the necessary preparations were indeed completed.
After carefully confirming the counter-surveillance measures set up by the two evil soul masters underground, Long You left behind a monitoring soul guide device equipped with invisibility and counter-surveillance measures, and then carefully left the small mountain village that had been turned into a ghost town with He Caitou.
The reason Long You and his companion insisted on leaving the small mountain village before making overall arrangements was twofold: firstly, they feared inadvertently disturbing the underground rats; secondly, they were afraid that staying in this ghostly village for too long would directly affect their sanity. Having spent so much time on Douluo Continent, and having encountered evil soul masters before, this was truly the first time Long You had witnessed such a brutal scene. The longer he watched, the more afraid he was that his Dao heart would waver.