area51novel Chapter 238: Storyline Advancement
Chapter 238: Storyline Advancement
There's no need to worry about Zhang Lexuan's side. Long You has no intention of keeping the soul spirit creation technology under his control. Neither the Long family nor Long You personally has the ability to master this technology. So now that Zhang Lexuan has recorded this technology and handed it over to Shrek Academy, Long You doesn't object at all. He really wants to use Shrek Academy's manpower and resources to quickly accumulate experience in soul spirit experiments.
This burst of inspiration, followed by simulations, made Long You suddenly realize that soul spirits weren't simply substitutes for soul rings in the Douluo Continent world, where access to the fundamental laws of the universe was currently unknown. Once artificial soul spirit technology was perfected, Long You could take a completely different, roundabout route when constructing a virtual universe.
Long You lazily walked over to Long Ping's side, smelling the already plentiful aroma of food in the kitchen area, showing no intention of helping at all. Not only did he not help, Long You also kept poking at the crystal seahorse, which didn't look like a living creature, with his finger.
Finally, Long You's impulsive action provoked the exasperated Crystal Seahorse to unleash a "Splash Jump," but Long You, who was prepared, promptly activated his "Refrigerator" ultimate move, turning Crystal Seahorse into an Icebound Seahorse.
Faced with Long You, who was clearly bored and looking for trouble, Long Ping had no way to retaliate and could only concentrate on the snacks in his hands. Once the snacks were ready, Long You, who had food to distract him, would definitely stop "teasing" him.
After a busy morning, the island welcomed a leisurely afternoon. When Long You left the New World, he had planned to relax, but due to various reasons, he had been treated like livestock for two weeks on the original continent, with no chance to relax. So now, Long You just wanted to be lazy.
In contrast to the relaxed atmosphere in Longyou, the atmosphere in a military port in the southern part of the Sun Moon Empire was extremely serious. Although there were not many people present, anyone who could get close would find that everyone there was a master, and each person was surrounded by a unique and powerful aura.
However, to onlookers, it was somewhat strange that these people could gather together. After all, among this limited group, some were surrounded by an aura of malevolence, looking exactly like evil spirit masters, while others, though not exactly upright, possessed a righteous spirit. Logically speaking, these two types of people, while not quite like a Fallen Angel spirit master meeting a Light Angel spirit master, shouldn't be able to coexist peacefully.
But what's strange is that, although the two groups were clearly separated in terms of positioning, there was surprisingly no strong sense of antagonism between them. The entire atmosphere of the open port was focused on a young man who evoked a sense of pity at first glance. It was this young man's presence that provided a buffer zone for the tension that should have been between the two sides.
The young man appeared to be under thirty years old, with a handsome face and an impressive aura. However, no matter how many advantages he had, they could not hide the fact that he could only sit in a wheelchair.
The silence in the open space lasted for a while, until a figure took off from the sea near the port not far away and quickly approached the open area. The young man in the wheelchair in the center slightly adjusted his posture.
The approaching figure stopped in front of the young man in the wheelchair, bowed, and then the figure's voice steadily spread throughout the area.
"Your Highness, the warships in the port have completed their final inspections and are ready to set sail."
"I understand. Gentlemen, the fate of the empire rests on this moment. According to the divine revelation we received, once this new continent is successfully developed, the empire's strategic reserves can double in size. We can use resource depletion to completely ignore the threat from Shrek Academy."
I know that this voyage is fraught with uncertainty and extreme danger, but I still hope that you all can fulfill the Empire's mission and add a decisive weight to the Empire's great cause..."
It's clear from the previous conversation that the young man in the wheelchair is the Crown Prince of the Sun Moon Empire. Although this Crown Prince can only move around in a wheelchair, his personal charisma is obviously quite good. At least, the powerful figures gathered in this port area are all very respectful of him.
The wheelchair-bound youth's speech wasn't particularly rousing or full of cynical platitudes, but it certainly made the atmosphere more harmonious. And judging from the speed at which the heavily modified warship left port, the start of the entire operation was definitely smooth.
However, no one, including those who had previously inspected the warship, noticed that a small soul-guided array pattern inside the materials of the newly refitted soul-guided main gun on the warship silently flashed with a strange light.
After the flash of light, Huo Yuhao, who was far away in the Mingde Hall laboratory in Mingdu, glanced at the smartwatch on his wrist with a strange expression.
[Brother Tianmeng, that's amazing! That's a patch! How are you so confident it won't be detected?]
On the surface, Huo Yuhao exerted all his strength to control his facial expression, preventing it from revealing any information. Secretly, however, he couldn't suppress his curiosity and chose to contact his mentor and friend, Tianmeng.
"Hmm, Xiao Yuhao, although I, Tianmeng, have lived long enough, shouldn't you ask Elder Yi about this kind of question? Although I don't know exactly how that kid did it, it's clear that he has mastered some of the magic array knowledge of Elder Yi's world. It's hard to say whether that kid is so confident because this magic array knowledge is something that the current Sun Moon Empire cannot understand."
To be honest, when that kid sent you to infiltrate the warship conversion factory, I really wondered if you had done something to offend him!
I never doubted that. My senior brother always plans ahead. Since he gave me the method of manipulating objects with his mind, he must be confident that I can deliver things to the required location without showing my face. What truly surprised me was how he came up with a suitable operational plan in such a short time and then conveyed it to me.
Based on the information I had previously gathered, my senior brother should have already left Douluo Continent. In that case, it would be difficult for us to contact him in one go using our current communication methods. That is to say, it would take at least one to two days for the messages I sent to reach my senior brother.
Similarly, it would take at least two days for the information from my senior brother to be transmitted back, so the time it took me to receive the magic rune array diagram from him was far too fast.
This only proves one thing: Young friend Long You was prepared for this. He had already determined before setting off that the Sun Moon Empire was very likely to take the same course of action as him, which is why he left behind contingency plans on the original continent in advance.
That's not hard to understand, but what I find hard to understand is Long You's development of the magic circle. After Yuhao got that magic circle, I actually kept studying its structure, but I have to admit that I still haven't discovered the core operating principle of this magic circle.
You see, according to you, this magic circle is adding entirely new functions to an already formed magic circle in an external way, without interfering with the original magic circle's operation at all.
[Alright, let's talk about these things when we get back to the dorm tonight. Yuhao, focus on what you're doing right now. You've been spacing out for a while, snap out of it.]
Huo Yuhao, Tianmeng, and Elder Yi were so engrossed in their conversation that they completely overlooked their slightly dangerous situation. Fortunately, Huo Yuhao had enough inhabitants in his sea of consciousness, and the Ice Emperor, whose words carried an aura of coldness, promptly brought the three of them back to their senses.
[Cough cough] X3
The three, Huo Yuhao and his companions, who were not very composed, did not blush, but instead used dry coughs to cover up their embarrassment.
Huo Yuhao's attention returned to reality. On the other side, on the island where Long Ping was stationed, Long You, who was still staying there and had not gone to the New World, also received a radio message.
Just as Elder Yi said, Long You had already determined before setting off that the Sun Moon Empire would definitely do something, and it would most likely be about the New World. Considering that the Sun Moon Empire was unlikely to develop a large aircraft or other flying soul-guided device capable of carrying multiple people across the ocean, it was highly probable that the Sun Moon Empire would use soul-guided warships to reach the New World.
Given this, it's not hard to imagine that he would use some means to gain access to the location of the Sun Moon Empire's soul-guided warships.
As for why the external positioning magic circle created by Long You left Elder Yi feeling confused, it was partly because Elder Yi had lost many of his memories during the time travel process, and partly because Elder Yi had never seen Long You's cheat mod from his previous life.
For Long You, as long as he applied programming concepts to the inscription of the magic array, it would be easy for him to find a workaround. The only problem was that Long You had to choose a soul-guiding magic array he was familiar with as the point of integration for the external mod. This is why Long You had Huo Yuhao attach the external mod to the core magic array of the soul-guiding warship's main cannon. For other soul-guiding devices running on the soul-guiding warship, Long You was not familiar with their core magic array inscription methods, and there was a high possibility of incompatibility issues.
Okay, none of that matters. After learning that the Sun Moon Empire's modified soul-guided warship had been launched, the only thing Long You needed to do was to relay this news to Zhang Lexuan, who hadn't had time to leave yet, and also hand over a blueprint for a location receiver to Zhang Lexuan.
"I had Yuhao put this in for me. Theoretically, it shouldn't be detected by the Sun Moon Empire. But theory is just theory, and this is my first time using it. So if the academy has caught up with the Sun Moon Empire's warships, it would be best to find an opportunity to destroy that patch MOD with a high-powered electromagnetic pulse gun."
"I understand. Can I borrow your radio for a moment? Also, please give me the address of the radio station you have in Shrek City. I'll send a coded message and have him deliver it to me."
Now that the location of the Sun Moon Empire's soul-guided warship has been determined, the academy is unlikely to allow the Sun Moon Empire, especially the Holy Spirit Cult, to act on its own.
As for myself, I will return directly to the original continent after dawn tomorrow.
"Giving you my mailing address is fine, but are you sure my shop assistants can deliver the message to Shrek Academy? Also, you don't need to rush off. My cousin Longping is also returning to the original continent. I'll take you there; it'll be faster."
“Alright, I’ll hitch a ride. I’m a bit scared to fly there by myself. Besides, your messenger can’t get into the academy, but the guards at the gate have a set of communication channels. I just need to tell them the channels, and they’ll help get the message in.”
The exchange ended, and the lively atmosphere that had arisen from the arrival of special information faded away in the island cottage. Returning to the Sun Moon Empire, Huo Yuhao ultimately paid a price for his distraction.
No, a more accurate way to put it is that because of this "just-timed" lapse in concentration, Huo Yuhao will have to pay the price for integrating into a completely new environment.
In the land of the Sun Moon Empire, people's awareness or recognition of Shrek Academy is only so-so. The Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy is the No. 1 in the hearts of the Sun Moon Empire's residents. By extension, it can be inferred that the soul masters of the Sun Moon Empire who can study at the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy are all geniuses. Among these genius soul masters, the most talented ones can become members of the Mingde Hall.
Now, four young students striving towards the legendary holy land of Soul Masters suddenly find themselves paired with a boy of "unknown origin." This boy is young, not particularly strong, and doesn't possess any "outstanding" talent as a Soul Master. So why would these "geniuses" allow such a boy to peacefully integrate into their lives, which are dedicated to their relentless pursuit of the holy land?
The teacher's instructions? That might be part of the answer, but it's definitely not the whole story. For newcomers to integrate into a relatively stable environment, undergoing a certain degree of testing is an essential step.
Nearly a month later, Huo Yuhao faced his real "entrance exam." He could choose to tell the teacher, but if he wanted to live peacefully among the "students," Huo Yuhao had better rely on his own abilities.
In a sense, Huo Yuhao came here to learn from others. Although the teachers wouldn't openly hinder Huo Yuhao's learning, they probably wouldn't refuse if their students could create obstacles for him.