With the Blazing Sun carving blade in hand, Zhou Sichen felt a deep sense of resonance with it—almost as if it were an extension of his own arm. The connection was seamless, intuitive.
He returned to Fan Yu's crafting platform and once again brought out the Holy Sword of Light, a soul tool already at the peak of the Class 4 level.
Fan Yu thought for a moment and handed Zhou Sichen several items.
"I already trust you when it comes to inscribing core arrays," Fan Yu said, "but if you want this Holy Sword of Light to advance to the fifth tier, adding these materials should give it a significant boost."
Zhou Sichen didn't stand on ceremony. The items Fan Yu had offered were all rare metals—one of them being the extremely valuable Sunfire Essence Ore.
Zhou Sichen smiled. "Thank you, Teacher Fan Yu. It looks like I'll be bothering you for the next few days."
But Fan Yu didn't feel bothered at all—in fact, he was visibly delighted. Being able to witness such a peerless genius crafting a soul tool firsthand was a privilege he greatly welcomed.
Zhou Sichen said no more. Before leaving the Inner Court, he had already left Xiong Da at the Soul Duel Arena, so he had no distractions and could now focus entirely on his work.
Fan Yu's lab had everything—tools, equipment, and even high-end materials. Zhou Sichen's only task was to demonstrate his skill to a fellow master in the art of soul tool creation.
Upgrading a soul tool wasn't particularly difficult. First, the original core array needed to be dismantled. Then, new materials had to be reforged and fused with expert craftsmanship to reshape the tool's structure.
Only after that could the new core soul array be inscribed.
Zhou Sichen was already very familiar with this process. The only drawback was the time it would take.
Over the next few days, Zhou Sichen stayed entirely within Fan Yu's lab. Fan Yu remained by his side, assisting as needed—though more often, he found himself stunned by Zhou Sichen's refined and practiced techniques.
Even as a top-tier Class 8 Soul Engineer, Fan Yu's craftsmanship didn't have the same precision Zhou Sichen demonstrated. In his hands, Blazing Sun danced like a living flame.
Each movement of the blade left behind a flawless inscription—line by line, the patterns emerged with perfection, leaving Fan Yu awestruck.
Reforging the main body of the Holy Sword of Light and integrating the new materials took two days. Inscribing the Class 5 core soul array only took one.
For most Soul Engineers of that level, the process would take at least a week. Even Fan Yu himself, back when he was at the same stage, would've needed half a month.
But Zhou Sichen? Three days total. One of which was spent carving a high-tier Class 5 array—with every single pass of the carving blade nearly perfect.
What kind of monster could possibly inscribe a top-tier Class 5 core array in a single day?
Zhou Sichen had said he'd only just become a Class 4 Soul Engineer… and now, before Fan Yu's eyes, he had completed a Class 5 masterpiece in three days?
And two of those days were spent forging materials!
Indeed, the newly upgraded Holy Sword of Light was already among the top-tier Class 5 soul tools.
From the materials and forging quality to the heart of the tool—its core soul array—every part was first-rate.
At this point, Fan Yu looked at Zhou Sichen as if he were a divine treasure.
He wanted to take Zhou Sichen as a disciple, but deep down, he couldn't bring himself to do it.
Because a genius like Zhou Sichen... he didn't even feel worthy to be his teacher.
In fact, Fan Yu couldn't help but imagine: if Zhou Sichen had access to the right materials and resources, and as his strength continued to grow, his soul tool crafting level would naturally rise alongside it.
That was a terrifying thought.
But he couldn't stop himself from thinking it.
The most unbelievable part? Zhou Sichen was only at rank 40—he didn't even have his fourth soul ring yet—and he had already crafted a top-tier Class 5 soul tool?
For Zhou Sichen, this was an unexpected blessing.
He hadn't used Spiritual Detection, since Fan Yu was present—he didn't want to expose his first martial soul.
If he had used it, he was confident he could have completed the Class 5 core array in just three hours, and the result would've been even more flawless.
Even so, finishing it in three days was already remarkable—especially with Blazing Sun, which gave him support and precision he never thought possible.
Though it only ranked seventy-eighth among the List-Carving Blades, Blazing Sun felt like a perfect match for him.
While inscribing the array, Zhou Sichen even considered asking Qian Duoduo to let him keep the blade—it just felt like it had always belonged to him.
No one else could wield it so naturally, like an extension of themselves.
Holding the upgraded Holy Sword of Light in hand, Zhou Sichen couldn't help but smile.
His sister was now at the Soul King level. With this newly refined soul tool—already on par with a peak Class 5 artifact—he would no longer be holding her back.
With this, Zhou Sichen had officially become a Class 5 Soul Engineer. The only thing he still lacked was access to a wide variety of soul tool schematics.
The Zhou family's inherited martial soul was the Tome of Wisdom, a high-level support-type spirit. His father, Zhou Zhenxuan, was also a Soul Engineer—an elite Class 7 one, in fact.
A Class 7 Soul Engineer was considered a powerhouse even within the Sun Moon Empire, and even more so in the three former Douluo Continent empires, which lacked top-tier Soul Engineers.
Still, even so, the Zhou family's collection of soul tool schematics and forging techniques was limited. Compared to the Sun Moon Empire's engineers, their legacy was perhaps only a fifth as deep.
But Zhou Sichen wasn't worried.
Although Shrek Academy's top engineers only reached Class 8, they had accumulated—or rather, "acquired"—a vast collection of resources over the centuries.
While they couldn't rival the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineer Academy, they could still be considered the second-best collection on the continent.
Now that Zhou Sichen had proven his talent and ability, Fan Yu would certainly make sure he had access to everything he needed.
As a peak Class 5 Soul Engineer, Zhou Sichen was now frantically absorbing all kinds of knowledge and experience.
After completing the upgrade of the Holy Sword of Light, Zhou Sichen and Fan Yu went to the Outer Court faculty dining hall to celebrate with a good meal.
Afterward, they made their way to Qian Duoduo's office.
When Qian Duoduo saw them arrive, he was visibly surprised. After all, it had only been three days.
Zhou Sichen was a Class 4 Soul Engineer—no matter how talented, it would take at least a week to craft a Class 4 soul tool from scratch, considering the forging, preparation, and core inscription.
There was no way Zhou Sichen could've completed something in such a short time.
The most likely explanation, Qian Duoduo thought, was that Zhou Sichen had failed to master Blazing Sun and had come to borrow his wife's List-Carving Blade instead...
The very thought made his head hurt.
****
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