met free Chapter 55 Did you two really not discuss this beforehand?
Chapter 55 Did you two really not discuss this beforehand?
Three months later.
Star Tower, top-floor workshop.
"Master Li, this is the 'Soul Control Tool Machine.' How is it? Do you understand its core structure thoroughly?"
Ye Chenxing patted the rather large metal device next to him.
Standing before him was Li Haoyu, the level eight soul master who had sat next to Xuan Ziwen in class three months ago.
Upon hearing Ye Chenxing's address, Li Haoyu quickly waved his hand.
"Oh, Master! Please don't call me 'Master' anymore, it's too much of an honor for me."
"Now, throughout the entire Sun Moon Empire, who doesn't know that you are the true master in the hearts of all our Soul Masters!"
Li Haoyu spoke these words sincerely.
Since the establishment of the Star Tower, Ye Chenxing has been releasing and creating a variety of unprecedented soul tools at an unreasonable pace.
Among them, this soul control tool machine, which was capable of revolutionizing the entire soul tool production process, completely captivated him at first sight.
That ingenious design, that simplified approach, kept him sitting at the research table for three days and three nights, before he made the most decisive decision—to formally apply to join the Star Tower.
In these three months, the number of level eight and nine soul masters "taught" by Ye Chenxing has already exceeded one or two.
In order to receive guidance from Ye Chenxing, they all registered their names under the Star Tower.
However, even though they are all joining, there are significant differences.
Some high-level Soul Masters are willing to make some contributions to the Star Tower in exchange for benefits.
For these types of people, Ye Chenxing would provide one-on-one guidance on the soul tool as a benefit of joining.
Only those like Li Haoyu, who choose to fully join and bind their fate to the Star Tower, will be accepted by Ye Chenxing as true core members.
Their treatment was far superior to that of those who were merely nominal members. They had access to more cutting-edge research topics and blueprints. However, in return, they were also expected to dedicate themselves to the true cause of the Star Tower—to the well-being of ordinary people and to research "civilian soul guides" designed to benefit ordinary people.
Of course, over the past three months, there have been some treacherous individuals among the Soul Masters who joined the Star Tower. On the surface, they were researching convenient Soul Guidance Devices, but behind the scenes, they were racking their brains to figure out how to modify these things into weapons that could be used in war.
This was unavoidable, and Ye Chenxing was well aware of it.
But he was even clearer about one thing...
The scientific research capabilities of Douluo Continent are truly terrible.
Sometimes Ye Chenxing would even sigh in his heart, if this continent were the Blue Star from his previous life, with the starting lifespan of a level nine soul master being a hundred years, let alone ten thousand years of development, even if given only a thousand years, as long as humanity didn't destroy itself, it would probably have already independently developed two-dimensional foil.
But this is Douluo Continent.
Ten thousand years had passed between the first and second battles, and Soul Masters still mainly relied on horse-drawn carriages for travel.
I don't know what they were thinking. They have a flying soul tool, but they don't have a means of transportation.
Even excluding the period before the collision of the Sun and Moon Continents, that was several thousand years ago, demonstrating the remarkable research capabilities of the native Soul Masters.
What results can we expect from this group of people using his stuff?
Even if that day ever comes, let alone becoming a god, the Imaginary Tree could even try to summon the Desolate Heavenly Emperor.
Therefore, Ye Chenxing naturally put his mind at ease.
After seeing Li Haoyu off, he quietly looked out the window.
In three months, under Kong Deming's personal coordination and with the Sun and Moon Empire's almost unlimited resource allocation, the Star Tower has taken shape from nothing and is located in the outer city of Mingdu.
Meanwhile, the first batch of civilian soul guide devices—blood and qi vision instruments, soul guide game consoles, soul guide vehicles, soul guide communication devices, etc.—have begun to spread in Mingdu and its surrounding small areas.
These novel gadgets caused a sensation among all social classes, from nobles to commoners, as soon as they were introduced. The name Star Tower spread throughout these regions along with these advanced soul tools.
High-level Soul Masters and nobles would have to pay exorbitant prices to purchase and use it, but for ordinary people and low-level Soul Masters, Ye Chenxing opened up a rental mode and a tower experience mode for them, with prices that were practically dirt cheap.
Furthermore, branches have been established in several surrounding cities, where ordinary people can go at any time to renew their rentals, recharge their soul tools, or receive treatment at the Star Tower branch.
But Ye Chenxing was not satisfied with this.
Although Mingdu is prosperous, as the capital, the number of ordinary people here is still too small. He needs to spread these things to every corner of Douluo Continent, benefiting the entire empire and even the entire continent.
It would have been impossible for him to accomplish such a massive undertaking by himself alone.
He needs to recruit a wide range of talents, a large number of soul masters to innovate and produce high-level soul tools; he also needs more soul control machine tools to produce a large number of low-level soul tools.
There is another matter, which is of utmost importance—the soul-guided satellite.
Ye Chenxing now possesses the ability to simplify and downgrade the production of all soul tools. However, the capabilities of the soul tools produced will also be greatly reduced. If a soul tool satellite wants to achieve the same effect as the modern Blue Star, the difficulty will definitely be greater than that of a level 10 soul tool.
Therefore, at present, soul-guided communication can only achieve a stable signal around Mingdu, and the altitude has not reached the expected level.
However, Ye Chenxing also came up with some solutions, such as first focusing on the altitude problem, making up for the insufficient signal range with quantity, learning from the experience of linking soul tools, and achieving the effect of no delay within the same city and barely usable across cities.
However, none of this has much to do with Ye Chenxing now.
While developing the Star Tower and collecting faith power are important, Ye Chenxing would never put the cart before the horse; his own cultivation is the foundation of everything.
Therefore, he successfully handed over the daily operation and management of the Star Tower, as well as the research on advanced soul guides, to the new person in charge—Qian Gu Dong Feng.
The Star Tower itself is suspected of plagiarizing the Spirit Pagoda. As Archer, who is essentially the Spirit Pagoda's master in disguise, he is adept at handling these mundane affairs and is also skilled in soul tool research. He is the perfect person to do these tiring tasks. Although Ye Chenxing is the one handling things on the surface, the one who is actually doing the work is this nuclear-powered ox.
As for the consumption of soul power, Archer, who has the ability to "act alone" and does not need to participate in the battle, has a soul power output that is negligible.
There is also some good news to be had – in these short three months, through the feedback he received from absorbing the Angelic Martial Soul to kill Zhong Liren, Ye Chenxing has already advanced three levels. He only needs one more Soul Ring to officially advance to the Soul Master level.
As for the choice of this third spirit ring, he already had a plan in mind.
This time, he wanted a different kind of support ability, a healing ability that could restore health.
Unfortunately, Ah Yin was heavily modified by the Imaginary Tree, so it couldn't provide him with the bugged ability of the 100,000-year-old Blue Silver Emperor that could never be extinguished by wildfire and spring back to life. Therefore, he could only focus on summoning.
I have quite a few candidates in mind.
Ye Lingling, the owner of the Nine Heart Begonia in the first era of Douyi, was a member of the Royal Fighting Team. Although she was a bit weaker, the Nine Heart Begonia's abilities were indeed simple and powerful. If there had been an ultimate evaluation at that time, it could probably have been given a separate category of ultimate healing.
Alternatively, the Emerald Swan, Bi Ji, in the core area of the Star Dou Great Forest would also be an excellent choice. However, she is Di Tian's wife after all, and he has no grudges against Di Tian. In fact, he even received her help in making his first fortune.
One must never forget one's roots!
Then there's Ya Li, the Holy Spirit Douluo from Shrek Academy in Douluo Continent III. She's kind-hearted by nature and has loved helping others since she became a Soul Master. She came from a slum and, even after becoming a Soul Master, she still decided to use her healing abilities to treat the poor.
This coincided with his own thoughts, and his inspiration for collecting the power of faith also came from the other party.
However, there is a fatal flaw! The other party is a true-blue Shrek, and even the Lord's wife. This identity is incompatible with his. Although the summoned heroes will be loyal to him, he still hopes that the other party will also agree with him in this respect.
They're all a bit lacking.
Ye Chenxing shook his head. They already have cheat codes, can't they give it a little more power? Why can they only summon Douluo Star? Why can't they exert their full power and directly snatch the Goddess of Life from the God Realm? Otherwise, why would they need to struggle with this?
"Hmm... but it would be better if it were a female character. After all, she's much more pleasing to the eye than an old man."
Meanwhile, in the basement of the Star Tower headquarters.
While engrossed in processing a mountain of documents, Qian Gu Dongfeng suddenly felt a tickle on his nose.
"Achoo—!"
----------
"Knock knock knock—"
A knock sounded on the door, but Ye Chenxing didn't even look up:
"Enter."
The door was pushed open, and a subordinate strode in, bowing respectfully: "Tower Master, two people have come today, wishing to join our Star Tower."
"Oh?" Ye Chenxing put down her pen and raised an eyebrow.
"That's rare, two of them actually came at once."
The Star Tower currently has two levels of members: ordinary members and core members.
The entry requirements for ordinary members are not high, and many level nine soul masters have chosen this identity. There are also few restrictions, as long as you don't do anything to harm civilians.
Members can exchange contribution points for soul tools or blueprints, with very generous benefits.
Besides the initial group he attracted through lectures, many more joined later. The addition of those advanced soul masters alone caused a significant surge in popularity for him within the Sun Moon Empire.
As for the core members, that's a different story.
This membership is still personally reviewed by Ye Chenxing, and basically only Soul Masters who are truly inclined towards the development of civilian Soul Tools can join. Moreover, the rules are very clear—ordinary members are not required to belong solely to the Star Tower, but core members are not; they cannot be affiliated with other organizations at the same time. Currently, the number of core members is still small, and he personally oversees the selection of each one.
"Give me their information and take me to see it." Ye Chenxing stood up and reached out to take the information.
"Yes."
A moment later, in the meeting room.
Ye Chenxing sat in the main seat, looking down at the two documents in her hands, then looking up at the two girls standing in front of her, and fell silent.
After a long silence, he finally spoke with a hint of helplessness: "Um...you two, you really didn't plan to come together?"
Standing to his left was a black-haired girl with a touch of pinkish-purple in her long hair. She had a unique temperament amidst her cold beauty. She was wearing the school uniform of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy. She was extremely beautiful with fair skin, but there was a faint gloom between her brows and eyes, making her seem unapproachable.
The girl on the right has long orange hair, and her bright eyes look sleepy. Her skin is very well-maintained. She is also wearing a school uniform, has a good figure, and her overall demeanor is much more lively than the girl next to her, but she exudes a lazy air about her. (All images are taken from anime characters)
The orange-haired girl spoke first, her tone light and familiar: "Tower Master, Nana and I met at the entrance. We didn't know each other at first, but we got to know each other and found out we were classmates." The black-haired girl nodded in response.
Upon hearing this answer, Ye Chenxing silently rolled her eyes.
Seriously? The Holy Spirit Cult and Xu Tianran are both sending me female spies?
And on the same day?
He rubbed his temples, wanting to say something, but he swallowed it back.
"Ju Zi, and Nana, right?" Ye Chenxing placed the documents on the table, his gaze sweeping over the two of them. "Why do you both want to join the Star Tower? Tell me your thoughts."
Upon hearing this, a look of sadness appeared in Orange's eyes:
"I used to be a commoner living in a remote area... My life was pretty good until the Star Luo Empire attacked the border." Her voice began to tremble slightly as she said this. "My home, my family... were all gone. After many twists and turns, I wandered around and finally came to Mingdu thanks to my Soul Master talent."
She took a deep breath, her eyes already a little moist: "I hope that ordinary people will never have to go through what I went through again, and that's why I want to join the Star Tower."
Ye Chenxing looked at her face, his expression unchanged, but he sighed softly in his heart.
It's said that a lie that's half true is less likely to be exposed, and Orange's story certainly followed this principle. But there was nothing she could do; she had run into Ye Chenxing.
This girl did indeed experience the tragedy of her family being destroyed and her loved ones dying. There's nothing wrong with the story itself, but as for those tears... whether it was acting or a genuine expression of emotion, only she herself probably knows.
"I'm sorry, I brought up some sad memories for you."
"It's alright, Tower Master, it's all over now."
Ye Chenxing didn't rush to express her opinion, but instead turned to look at Nana on the other side:
"And you?"
Nana was initially surprised that this seemingly cheerful senior had such similar experiences to her. Hearing Ye Chenxing's question, she quickly snapped out of her daze and nervously began to speak:
"I...I am also an orphan, and I hope...there will be fewer people like me in the world."
Her voice trailed off, and her gaze shifted slightly.
Well, the difference is clear in a single sentence: the Holy Spirit Cult's training for undercover agents is far inferior to that of the Crown Prince.
After listening, Ye Chenxing silently looked at the two women, her eyes scanning their faces several times.
The two people standing before me are Nana and Ju Zi. One is a pitiful girl who was persecuted by the Holy Spirit Cult in the original work and had no choice in her own life. The other is an ambitious avenger who wants to use Xu Tianran's power to destroy the Star Luo Empire and kill Duke Baihu.
If he hadn't been familiar with the original plot, he might have actually been fooled by the two. After all, they were indeed orphans, and with two beautiful young girls standing pitifully in front of him, anyone else would probably have felt pity and wouldn't have thought of anything else.
But now...
Although both men had ulterior motives and ulterior motives, why would he turn down a benefit that was offered to him? It's safe to say that he knew both men inside and out, without even needing to do any background checks.
Leaving aside the orange, I wonder if I could give this Nana a generous gift pack of evil spirit master experience.