Chapter 32: Art is an Explosion!
Lin Xuan heard the sound and turned around.
He saw a robust, bald young man standing not far away. His skin was a healthy, dark bronze, his face looked honest and kind, and his eyes were bright.
He was wearing the deep blue overalls unique to the Soul Tool Department and was holding a stack of heavy metal plates. It looked like he had just come from the direction of the warehouse.
Lin Xuan's gaze fell on his face, and he immediately understood.
—Coarse Vegetable Head.
Fan Yu's personal disciple, one of the future core figures of the Soul Tool Department, and also Huo Yuhao's guide and best friend in the field of spirit tools in the original work.
"I'm in the right place," Lin Xuan nodded to him, his tone calm.
"I'm a freshman here to apply for elective courses in the Soul Tool Department. Teacher Mu Jin told me to find Teacher Fan Yu."
"Electing the Soul Tool Department?"
Coarse Vegetable Head was stunned for a moment. He sized Lin Xuan up carefully, and suddenly seemed to remember something as a look of realization appeared on his dark face.
"Wait... could you be that... Lin Xuan?"
Lin Xuan raised an eyebrow. "You know me?"
"Who in the Outer Academy doesn't know you by now?"
Coarse Vegetable Head laughed, his smile simple and honest.
"Taking on a whole class by yourself, defeating Xu Sanshi despite the level gap, and having a Soul Ring configuration that scares people to death... the news has long since spread. Even we over here in the Soul Tool Department have heard about it."
He walked forward a few steps holding the metal plates, his attitude becoming much more enthusiastic.
"Are you looking for the Teacher? He should be in the Third Laboratory right now, but he doesn't like to be disturbed while he's doing research... Tell you what, I'll take you there. Follow me to register first, and while we're at it, we can wait for the Teacher to finish debugging that set of core arrays he's working on."
"Thank you for the trouble, Senior," Lin Xuan replied politely.
"No trouble at all, no trouble at all."
Coarse Vegetable Head waved his hand. As he led the way, he asked curiously,
"But I'm honestly a bit surprised. With your Martial Soul talent being so strong, why would you want to come and learn about spirit tools? Generally, the top students of the Martial Soul Department don't think much of our side."
Lin Xuan followed his lead, his gaze sweeping over the various spirit tool components and blueprints displayed on both sides of the corridor. His tone was calm.
"The Martial Soul is the foundation, and the spirit tool is a tool. There's no harm in understanding one more kind of tool."
Hearing this, Coarse Vegetable Head looked back at him, a hint of surprise appearing in his eyes.
"That makes sense," he said sincerely.
"We're here. The reception desk is just ahead. Fill out a visitor log first, and I'll go put these materials away."
The laboratory building was brightly lit, and the air was filled with the faint scent of metal and lubricant. From a distance, the low hum of operating spirit tools and the crisp sound of clashing machinery could be heard.
Shortly after he finished the visitor log, Coarse Vegetable Head returned.
"Let's go. You're in luck. Laboratory Nine happens to be empty right now. I'll take you there first so you can experience the basic operation of spirit tools for yourself."
"Then I'll have to thank you, Senior."
Lin Xuan stood up and followed. The two of them turned several corners and stopped in front of a heavy, silver-white metal door.
Coarse Vegetable Head entered a command on the spirit tool panel beside the door, and the door slid open silently.
The interior was like a whole new world.
The walls and floor were all paved with smooth alloy plates, reflecting a cold metallic luster.
The entire space was about three thousand square meters, divided into front and back areas by a transparent reinforced glass curtain wall.
In the front half, ten multifunctional workbenches were neatly arranged, with various precision carving knives, measuring instruments, and unfinished metal components placed on them.
The back half was an empty testing ground. The wall at the far end was covered with charred marks and dents of varying depths, clearly imprints left by long-term power testing of spirit tools.
"This is General Laboratory Nine. It's usually used for the assembly and basic testing of spirit tools below Class 3."
Coarse Vegetable Head introduced, "The front is the production area, and the back is the testing area. The glass is specially made and can withstand a direct impact from a Class 4 spirit tool."
He walked to an idle workbench and turned to look at Lin Xuan.
"By the way, Junior, how much do you know about spirit tools?"
Lin Xuan answered truthfully, "Aside from using storage spirit tools, this is my first formal contact with them."
Coarse Vegetable Head nodded, not surprised, and then asked,
"Then what type of spirit tool are you more interested in? Defense, support, reconnaissance, or the offensive type?"
Lin Xuan hardly gave it a thought.
"Offensive. To be precise, explosions. Extreme explosions, extreme lethality."
Nothing was more awe-inspiring than the mushroom cloud rising from an atomic bomb explosion; if there was, it was the mushroom cloud from a hydrogen bomb.
Coarse Vegetable Head was stunned for a moment upon hearing this, then shook his head, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
"As expected of a genius from the Martial Soul Department... you all pursue extreme killing power."
"That's fine too. Offensive spirit tools are indeed the most intuitive. Come, I'll demonstrate a basic offensive spirit tool for you to see."
He led Lin Xuan toward the testing area at the back and took an object out of a storage spirit tool at his waist.
It was a black metal sphere about the size of a basketball. Its surface was smooth without any patterns, and it came with a palm-sized remote control.
"Watch closely. This is a Class 2 spirit tool, the Burst Shell. It relies on compressed fire-attribute Soul Power inside to ignite. Once triggered, it can produce a large number of high-temperature fragments, covering a radius of fifteen meters."
As Coarse Vegetable Head explained, he walked to the edge of the testing area and gently tossed the black sphere onto the empty ground ahead.
"Originally, it only had one detonation method: impact trigger. But I recently developed a new detonation method."
He held up the remote control in his hand, his thumb resting on the bright red button.
"Remote control."
A confident smile appeared on his face as he pressed down hard.
"Just like this—"
...One second, two seconds, three seconds.
The black sphere lay quietly on the ground, showing no reaction at all.
The smile on Coarse Vegetable Head's face froze.
"Uh... maybe there's a bit of a delay in the core array circuit contact..." he muttered somewhat awkwardly, taking two steps forward to check.
Just as he bent down and his fingers were about to touch the sphere—
BOOM!!!!
The black sphere suddenly exploded without warning!
Blinding firelight accompanied by a deafening roar suddenly bloomed, and countless scorching metal fragments shot out in all directions like a rainstorm!
The shockwave from the explosion violently blew away the dust on the ground, and the entire testing area was vibrating!
Coarse Vegetable Head had no time to react. His pupils shrank, and his Soul Power was about to erupt defensively by instinct.
But what moved faster than him was a shadow that suddenly descended.
The moment before the fragments reached his body, his figure eerily disappeared from where he stood.
At the same time, a fluffy white Tu Tu appeared out of thin air at his original position.
Puff puff puff puff—!
A series of dense piercing sounds rang out. The Tu Tu was pierced and torn apart by dozens of scorching fragments, turning into a cloud of blood mist and stray fur.
And Coarse Vegetable Head himself appeared beside Lin Xuan.
He was still in shock, a layer of cold sweat seeping from his forehead as he turned in astonishment to look at Lin Xuan, who was standing calmly by his side.
Coarse Vegetable Head opened his mouth, looking at the calm side profile of this freshman junior, then at the charred shallow pit in the center of the testing area. For a moment, he didn't know whether he should say thanks first or explain this damn "demonstration accident" first.
After a long while, he finally wiped the sweat from his forehead and said with a bitter smile,
"Junior... your reaction speed, and this Martial Soul application... it's really..."
He shook his head and let out a long breath.
"Thanks. Also, about this Burst Shell... it usually isn't like this."
As he spoke, he muttered in a low voice again, "Strange, why did the power feel much greater than expected this time?"
"I understand. Accidents happen in experiments," Lin Xuan comforted.
Just then, a displeased male voice came from behind them.
"Caitou."
The voice wasn't loud, but it made Coarse Vegetable Head's body visibly stiffen.
Hearing this, Lin Xuan turned his head and saw a tall middle-aged man behind the glass curtain wall looking over with a slight frown.
"Didn't I just tell you a couple of days ago that current remote trigger devices relying purely on mechanical structures are insufficiently stable and carry risks?"
"Getting injured yourself is due to your lack of skill, and I would simply punish you with extra training. But if you had injured a student from another department who came for an exchange or a visit, who would take responsibility for that?"
"Teacher!"
Coarse Vegetable Head quickly turned around. "It was my negligence. I shouldn't have used an experimental product that wasn't fully stabilized during a demonstration. I accept my punishment."
He scratched his shiny bald head and said in confusion, "But... I clearly tested it once yesterday. At that time, both the delay and the power were normal. I don't know why today..."
Fan Yu's gaze moved from Coarse Vegetable Head to the charred explosion point.
"spirit tools are not a game, Caitou."
He stepped through the door at the side of the glass curtain wall and entered the testing area, his voice echoing in the empty metal space.
"An oversight in any single link—such as material purity, the precision of the core array, the seal of the energy circuit, or even a torque deviation in a single screw—can lead to two results."
He held up two fingers.
"First, the spirit tool fails completely and becomes scrap metal."
"Second, it triggers a chain collapse and backlash of the energy circuit. The internal Soul Power will be like a flood breaking a dam, wildly crashing, surging, and multiplying within the airtight container, finally exploding out of control."
His finger pointed at the charred pit.
"What shouldn't explode will explode, and what was meant to explode will have power far exceeding the design value."
"Remember, the precision of a spirit tool is both its strength and its weakness."
Just as Fan Yu's voice fell, a sharp light suddenly flashed in the depths of Lin Xuan's eyes as he had been quietly listening.
"...Chain reaction?"
Loving Book So Far Check Out 40+ Chapters In Advanced At Pa Treon:
patreon.com/FictionsTL