Chapter 289.3. Tactical Surrender?

Five minutes passed very quickly, and the tournament began with another shout from Chen An. The entire hall went silent, and all the soul engineers started to get busy.

He Caitou looked at Huo Yuhao. “Yuhao, we can skip the next round if we make a Class 4 Milk Bottle. Should we try?”

Huo Yuhao shook his head and said, “Follow the plan. We can’t catch too much attention. Chen An is an idiot, he made us the center of attention. We can only earn money if we remain low-profile. If we are in the spotlight, it’s going to be hard to bet!”

Huo Yuhao didn’t unleash his Darkgolden Terrorclaws this time. He only simply used his right hand to pick up a piece of suitable metal and used the equipment on the table to build the shell of a Milk Bottle. He wasn’t quick, but he was accurate. If someone watching wasn’t experienced or skilled enough, he wouldn’t be able to tell what Huo Yuhao was doing.

He Caitou proceeded with his work just like Huo Yuhao did. The two of them maintained a steady progression as they created their Milk Bottles.

For other soul tools, the outer shell was used for protection and decoration. However, it was different for Milk Bottles. Every part of a Milk Bottle was designed to prevent the leakage of soul power, so requirements for making the outer shell were very strict. It had to be fully sealed, and most parts of a Milk Bottle had to come from one entity. They couldn’t be separate parts that were joined together to form an outer shell.

The standard crafting table that the Duskwater Alliance provided was of decent quality. There was stamping equipment that could shape soul tools, which helped to expedite the process of creating a Milk Bottle.

Very soon, an outer shell crafted from the Sun Moon Empire’s specialty metal, Spiritmagic Bronze, appeared in front of Huo Yuhao.

Huo Yuhao looked at the rest of the busy soul engineers and calmly chose a piece of Skyspirit Silver, which was the most valuable and costly among the three types of rare metals. He placed it in front of him and use a cutting-type soul tool to cut four square-shaped pieces of the metal. Every piece was around two hundred grams in weight, and he placed each of the pieces in front of him.

It was complex to create a Milk Bottle because the requirements for its internal construction were as fine as the requirements for constructing its outer shell. The primary reason was that two formation arrays were needed. The first one was an energy-gathering formation array, and the other one was a storage-type formation array.

Huo Yuhao cut four pieces of the Skyspirit Silver for a reason.

He didn’t use his Darkgolden Terrorclaws, but retrieved a standard carving knife to hold one piece of the metal in a slot on the carving table. He could only use one hand, and thus it was a little inconvenient for him if he wanted to conceal his true abilities.

No one saw it, but Huo Yuhao’s eyes brightened as he lowered his head. The entire structure of the piece of Skyspirit Silver was presented in his spiritual mind. His Purple Demon Eyes had reached their most advanced stage, and he could use his spiritual power to display the finest details in his spiritual world.

Huo Yuhao was slightly inferior to He Caitou in terms of creating soul tools. Mainly it was because He Caitou’s cultivation was higher. It was also because He Caitou was more focused on specializing in soul tools compared to Huo Yuhao.

However, that was only true under one condition; if Huo Yuhao didn’t use his Spirit Eyes! When Fan Yu decided to accept Huo Yuhao as his disciple, he already knew that Yuhao’s Spirit Eyes were an unbelievable martial soul for a soul engineer. It was equally great in terms of creating soul tools or using them!

After two years of training in the Illustrious Virtue Hall, Huo Yuhao was able to fuse his Spirit Eyes and soul tool creation together.

The texture of the Skyspirit Silver was very fine. More importantly, its texture was very uniform even while it was very tough. It wasn’t like other metals, which differed slightly in different areas. It was also why Skyspirit Silver was the first choice in creating the formation arrays of lower-level soul tools.

Huo Yuhao couldn’t even bear to use it to create the formation arrays of the Zhuge Divine Crossbow Cannon! Huo Yuhao secretly sighed in his heart, and the carving knife in his hand moved.

While he could only use his right hand, it was very stable. His thumb and index finger were slightly to the front of the carving knife. He used the first joint of his middle finger to press down on the knife, holding it steadily between his three fingers. The bottom of the knife was shaped like a sharp cone. Most carving knives adopted such a structure, which was considered the standard by soul engineers.

The blade of the knife moved gently, and he poured his soul power into it. A dim layer of white light appeared on the surface of the blade. One corner of the piece of Skyspirit Silver was cut off. The knife moved in a gentle arc, and an arc-shaped mark was left behind on the piece of Skyspirit Silver.

Huo Yuhao’s three fingers moved slightly and the knife was like a spiritual serpent that surrounded the piece of Skyspirit Silver. It moved up and down, carving off small bits of metal that fell onto the table. They were proportionally spread around the area in which Huo Yuhao was carrying out his work.

Quick, accurate and steady. Huo Yuhao didn’t seem any different from the rest of the soul engineers, but he captured the essence of a true soul engineer. If there was an advanced-level soul engineer watching him, he would be extremely impressed.

He Caitou adopted a different method from Huo Yuhao. The knife in Huo Yuhao’s hand moved very smoothly, and hardly ever stopped in the process of cutting the Skyspirit Silver. On the other hand, He Caitou stopped every time he made a cut. It was as if he needed time to think and judge.

On a closer look, every pause he made was equally long. Each pause only lasted for an instant. The continuous rhythm made his movements seem even more artistic than Huo Yuhao’s.

This was a rhythm that only an advanced-level soul engineer could achieve. Every advanced-level soul engineer would come to possess his own rhythm in the process of creating his soul tools. The short pause mustn’t be underestimated. He Caitou wasn’t as accurate as Huo Yuhao. He had to rely on his own experience and eyes to make his own judgment and achieve overall control during the process of creating his soul tool. The short pause provided him time to think. Once he attuned to his own rhythm, his spiritual power, soul power, and focus could follow it unerringly.

A Class 3 Milk Bottle was considered quite complex among Class 3 soul tools. Even as He Caitou tried to suppress his own rhythm, he only used one hour to form the two formation arrays. The rhythm couldn’t be broken. He couldn’t help it even if he was too quick. He could only try to delay his progress in assembling the components of his Milk Bottle. As for Huo Yuhao, he was still carving. However, he was already on his third piece of Skyspirit Silver.

He was very serious at this time. He controlled the details very well, which was a stark contrast to his carefree attitude during the qualifiers.

He was here today to show his might, hoping to draw out those that he wanted to and test them.

As a soul engineer, Fan Yu had once told him that he had to respect his work. It was only by respecting his own work that his soul tool could have its own spirituality.

He Caitou managed to delay completing his tool for two hours. It was only after more than ten soul engineers had submitted their work that he slowly completed the creation of his Milk Bottle. Huo Yuhao also started to assemble the final components of his Milk Bottle at this point.

Since he was using one hand, he couldn’t be as swift and flexible as when he was using two hands. However, he wasn’t rushed or slow. He made great use of the carving table to aid himself. Finally, he managed to complete the creation of an exquisite green Milk Bottle.

Huo Yuhao let out a long breath as he lifted his head. He revealed a pleased look on his face. Among all the Class 3 soul tools that he had ever created, he was the most satisfied with this one. He had even completed it with an ordinary carving knife. He had carved it very meticulously, and even used some of the slight changes in the stable Skyspirit Silver to achieve his goal. Even though it was only a Class 3 soul tool, Huo Yuhao felt that it was something novel.

He Caitou smiled as he asked Huo Yuhao, “Are you done?”

“Yes.” Huo Yuhao passed his Milk Bottle over to He Caitou. There were referees behind everyone. When the referee behind Huo Yuhao saw what he did, he shot him a look of disapproval. However, he acted like nothing had happened because of Chen An.

He Caitou placed the Milk Bottle that Huo Yuhao had created beside his own Milk Bottle. Both of them had used the same materials, but Huo Yuhao’s Milk Bottle was slightly longer than his. After he touched Huo Yuhao’s Milk Bottle, he revealed a stunned look on his face.

He Caitou was considered an advanced-level soul engineer. In Shrek Academy, he was one of the best. It was important to note that Fan Yu wasn’t a Class 9 soul engineer yet. This meant that Class 8 soul engineers were the strongest in Shrek Academy right now.

Of course, Xuan Ziwen wasn’t included. Xuan Ziwen was also a Class 8 soul engineer, but he was different from Fan Yu. He had been the chief researcher of Illustrious Virtue Hall! In terms of his theoretical knowledge and abilities in various areas, he was already at the Class 9 level, it was just that his cultivation wasn’t at that standard yet.

The higher the class of a soul engineer, the more demanding the requirements on their soul power when creating soul tools. At Huo Yuhao’s level, he could create Class 6 soul tools due to the fact that his overall soul power was greater than average due to his twin martial souls. As a result, he was considered a Class 6 soul engineer. Even so, he wouldn’t be able to create Class 9 soul tools when he became a Class 8 soul engineer. Without the abilities of a Titled Douluo, there was no way he could create Class 9 soul tools. Acting recklessly would only endanger his own life. Xuan Ziwen had warned Huo Yuhao more than once that he couldn’t overestimate his talents. Many soul engineers had perished at the hands of their own experiments. Huo Yuhao had also become very wary because of that.