Chapter 557.3 - Awakening (1/2)

“I know that. But I also heard that you expended close to sixty percent of our stationary soul cannon shells. Is that true?”

“Cough! Cough! Tha-That’s true. I can’t believe second senior brother betrayed me!” Huo Yuhao sighed.

Xuan Ziwen simply gave an emotionless reply. “Soul tools are meant to be used anyways. He couldn’t have betrayed you in the first place. The most important thing is whether you managed to witness the effects of the explosions. Were the effects up to our expectations? I can’t believe you just used over ten thousand stationary soul cannon shells so casually. You really are a failure! Why couldn’t you have mixed in some fake shells instead of only using real ones? You know well enough that it wouldn’t have been able to breach the Radiant City’s defenses anyways.”

Huo Yuhao let out an awkward laugh. “I didn’t think that much back then. The situation was already tense enough. But I admit I was wrong to have used so many shells, Teacher Xuan.”

Xuan Ziwen waved his hand to dismiss Huo Yuhao’s apology. “Our stationary soul cannon shells must still be lacking power. The fact that we only expended the energy in their defensive soul tools after firing over ten thousand shells proves that we need to improve our cannon shells. We should at least caused their soul tools to overheat. It really wasn’t worth it to fire all of those shells. Anyways, I have recently made some adjustments to our cannon shells. Now, we will start categorizing the different shells we plan to manufacture.”

“Huh? How do you plan to categorize them?” Huo Yuhao asked curiously.

Xuan Ziwen explained, “Previously, when we were manufacturing the stationary soul cannon shells in bulk, they were largely built for huge explosions. They would destroy whatever was in their way with high temperature and heat, as well as their explosiveness. Because of this, most of the current protective soul barriers—especially linked defensive barriers—are built to counter the combination of heat, temperature and explosiveness. Just now, Caitou gave me a report on the events which occurred during the battle. It seems like Tai Ah’s effects far exceeded my expectations.”

Tai Ah was the Class 9 stationary soul cannon shell which had penetrated the defenses of the Sun Moon Empire’s Palace. It was also personally designed by Xuan Ziwen.

“Hence, I have decided to vary the types of stationary soul cannon shells we will manufacture in the future. We will have shells which will provide ranged offensive capabilities and penetrative capabilities. To be honest, shells which can penetrate barriers often have better effects. Recently, I have come up with a new stationary soul cannon shell called the Clustered Piercing Shell. Its manufacturing cost is almost twice that of the stationary soul cannon shell you came up with. This was because it requires rare metals to construct. However, you can only imagine how powerful its destructive ability is! Previously, I had already rushed out the first batch of these Clustered Piercing Shells. If you are leaving for an operation again, you can bring some of them along with you.”

Huo Yuhao said, “I am afraid we won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. The current situation is not looking good and thus, I have made new plans.”

Xuan Ziwen raised his hand to stop Huo Yuhao from continuing. “Don’t talk to me about what goes on outside. As long as the Tang Sect is still around, I will never leave this place. I am only concerned with my own research. As for the other things, the responsibility will lie in all of your hands. Now that you have already become a Class 9 soul engineer, there’s nothing left for me to teach you. What you can achieve will depend on how hard you work. I have also heard about the mass manufacturing of human-shaped soul tools in the Sun Moon Empire. Haha! This idea might not be as good as it seems. Just give me some time to think about this, and I will let you know what I feel about it. With the current soul tool technology available, even Teacher Kong might not be able to manufacture a human-shaped soul tool without any undesired side-effects.”

“Teacher Kong? Who’s that?” Huo Yuhao asked.

Xuan Ziwen glared at Huo Yuhao and said, “He is my teacher. The Hallmaster of the Sun Moon Empire’s Hall of Consecration! He is also the most powerful soul engineer in the entire Sun Moon Empire. He is your grandmaster.”

“Cough! Cough! I didn’t know someone like that existed. You never mentioned him to me before, right?” Huo Yuhao was very startled to hear that.

Xuan Ziwen glared at him before reprimanding him. “That’s not my fault. You can only blame yourself for being dumb. Just use your head to think. As a young man back then who was only a Class 9 soul engineer, how could I become the lead researcher at the Virtuous Hall if not for special reasons? They only gave me the title because I was Teacher Kong’s disciple. Almost half of the Class 9 soul engineers in the Sun Moon Empire have received some sort of guidance from Teacher Kong. In fact, Teacher Kong is so great that I don’t even know where his limits lie. He’s definitely not weaker than any Ultimate Douluo, and should be extremely dangerous. In my opinion, Xu Tianran must have gotten Teacher Kong’s support. If not, it would not have been so easy for him to become the Emperor!”

Huo Yuhao started to become a little worried. Even though Teacher Kong was his grandmaster, he was on the enemy’s side! It was definitely not a good thing to have such a strong opponent.

“Teacher Xuan, in that case, I will be beginning my closed-door cultivation. You can work hard, but do remember to take care of your health.” Huo Yuhao said.

Xuan Ziwen waved his hand as though he were chasing a fly away. “You may take your leave. Next time, if you don’t have anything important to say, please don’t come and waste my time. Also, you can rest assured that after eating your Qiankun Fortune Pills, I won’t be dying anytime soon. Now that I think of it, all of you are treating my laboratory as a sweatshop! I am but an oppressed laborer.”

Huo Yuhao gave an awkward smile and thought to himself. How can any of us force you to do something you don’t want to do with that temper of yours?!

After leaving Xuan Ziwen’s laboratory, Huo Yuhao entered his own laboratory. Even though he had been absent for quite a while, it had been kept clean by the Tang Sect staff.

Huo Yuhao closed the heavy metallic door and then bolted it. At the same time, he activated the alarm system which would inform anyone who approached the door about his closed-door cultivation.

This was the safest and quietest area within the entire Tang Sect.

Huo Yuhao walked back and forth within his laboratory as he tried to tidy up his thought process. Following which, he leapt onto the bench which he used to build soul tools before sitting down with his legs crossed.