Chapter 234: The Mysterious Soul Devices
As the applicant placed his hand on the scanner, a mechanical voice rang out:
[Age: 30 years, 4 months, 6 days. Current Soul Power: Rank 36. Overall Evaluation: Poor.]
Hearing the applicant's age, the staff member glanced at him in surprise. He looked barely over twenty, nowhere near thirty his youthful appearance was misleading.
However, how young someone looked wasn't the examiner's concern. His only job was to conduct the test. He proceeded, "Name, gender, place of residence?"
"Lu Yan, male, staying at Dusk Inn in White Cloud City."
The staff entered his details into their tablet like device, then called out: "Next!"
With dozens of examiners conducting tests simultaneously, the majority of applicants were immediately disqualified. Many had attempted to cheat, but their tricks were exposed instantly by the two soul devices on the examiners' desks.
These applicants, who had come hoping to slip through the cracks, fumed in frustration.
They simply couldn't understand where had White Cloud Academy gotten these advanced soul devices? They were too accurate!
Most of them had come confident that they could exploit loopholes.
In other academies, their "special cases" often went undetected, allowing them to pass the first round unnoticed.
Yet here, they had failed immediately all thanks to these two strange soul devices.
Even if this were any other academy, their backgrounds and influence could have easily secured them a spot. They could have pressured the institution or bribed their way in.
But now?
They were facing an academy founded by the continent's only living god!
Their status and wealth meant nothing in front of this divine figure. There were no backdoors, no connections to pull.
If they failed, they failed.
And they had failed at the first test.
These two "hated" soul devices that had exposed their weaknesses?
They were the creations of Xuan Ji, the Soul Engineer, a persona materialized by Ye Cheng over three years through the power of belief.
Ye Cheng's Soul Engineering Revolution
Currently, Douluo Continent's technological level was far from advanced.
Any god killing soul devices that Xuan Ji could design were impossible to manufacture due to the lack of infrastructure.
However, simpler inventions like these testing devices?
Those were easy.
Even though these devices seemed high tech and unbelievable to the people of this world, in Xuan Ji's perspective, they were primitive tools as basic as bows and arrows to a modern engineer.
The technology was so simple that he didn't even need specialized components he could handcraft them on the spot using local materials.
Beyond these testing devices, he had also developed:
A computer like system to create a campus wide network.Tablet like devices for staff, acting as portable data terminals to register applicants.
This allowed instant data storage instead of relying on manual record keeping.
At present, Xuan Ji's abilities couldn't go beyond this level.
If he could, he would have already created god killing soul devices or pushed Douluo into the interstellar age.
But science and technology are not the work of one man.
A true "God of Science" might be able to single handedly develop entire civilizations…
But Xuan Ji wasn't there yet.
The Need for Scientific Talent
If Ye Cheng truly wanted to advance soul engineering, he needed:
Skilled researchersIndustrial workersMass production facilities
With these three things, even the most basic technologies could lead to rapid progress.
But right now?
Douluo Continent had none of them.
For thousands of years, this world had been ruled by martial strength not science.
Even soul engineering knowledge had long been lost.
The only remaining relics were ancient soul devices from the past.
What About Sun Moon Continent?
Compared to Douluo, the Sun Moon Continent had preserved some knowledge of soul engineering.
They were more technologically advanced and could produce basic soul devices.
However, at this point in time, they were still far behind the Sun Moon Empire of ten thousand years later.
When Ye Cheng teleported across the sea to observe their progress, he had hoped for something impressive…
Instead, he was disappointed.
Their soul devices were laughably primitive compared to what he could teach from scratch in just a few months.
If he could train students to reach that level in a few months, why waste time traveling across the sea to recruit them?
The Sun Moon Continent's current technology wasn't worth the effort.
Thus, Ye Cheng abandoned the idea of seeking talent there.
Instead, he chose to start from zero and personally cultivate the first generation of true soul engineers in Douluo.
Future Expansion Plans
For now, his focus was on Douluo Continent.
With its massive population, there were plenty of minds to develop.
Once he built a strong foundation, then he would consider expanding his reach to other continents.
After all, the Sun Moon Continent was far away.
Unlike Tang San, he didn't have the ability to merge continents together at least, not yet.
To achieve that, he would need to reach a level beyond the God King realm.
As for how Tang San had done it in the original story?
Ye Cheng suspected that he had borrowed power from the Divine Realm Core or used his soul bound deity parents to assist him.
Otherwise, there was no logical way for a mere God King to achieve such a feat.
Based on system knowledge, a God King could destroy a planet, but moving a continent was an entirely different level of power.
If he wanted to physically shift landmasses, his strength wasn't enough yet.
But in time, that would change.
Thank you for the support, friends. If you want to read more chapters in advance, go to my Patreon.
Read 20 Chapters In Advance: patreon.com/cortez10