“What is going on with you two?”
Jing Hongchen asked directly, getting straight to the point.
Good heavens, he had told his grandson and granddaughter to build a good relationship with Huo Yuhao.
Yet in just two days, his granddaughter called to say that Xiao Hongchen wanted to compete with Huo Yuhao in Soul Engineer creation and wanted him to be the judge.
He had meticulously planned for his grandson and granddaughter to establish a good rapport with him after they spent time together, ideally having Huo Yuhao marry into their family.
Instead, Meng Hongchen’s call hit him like a bolt from the blue.
He quickly dropped all his work and rushed over to see what was happening; any issues had to be remedied immediately.
Xiao Hongchen looked at the furious Jing Hongchen: “…”
Seeing Xiao Hongchen’s cowardly look, Jing Hongchen’s anger flared even more.
“Xiao Meng, you tell me!”
Meng Hongchen then explained the whole situation.
Xiao Hongchen looked at his sister in shock; how could she tell him everything?
Meanwhile, Huo Yuhao exclaimed, “Good heavens,” this was a classic campus trope.
In such situations, there are usually two types of endings.
One is where the young one is provoked and the elder shows up, forcing the protagonist to constantly deal with new enemies until they become invincible.
The other is being suppressed by the elders, leading the junior to harbor resentment and do something foolish at a critical moment, triggering a massive battle.
But clearly, the plot was not following the usual tropes.
Jing Hongchen pondered for a moment: “Yuhao, do you mind having a match?
My grandson has been praised so much in the past that he’s lost his bearings.”
“I hope you can teach him a lesson, but don’t let it ruin the harmony.”
Huo Yuhao naturally didn’t mind; after all, they were Jing Hongchen’s relatives, and he had to show some respect for the sake of their relationship.
“And what about you?”
Jing Hongchen looked at Xiao Hongchen with a dangerous glint in his eyes.
Scared, he nodded repeatedly; after all, he only wanted to see if Huo Yuhao was truly a Genius, not because he was jealous.
Seeing both of them nod, Jing Hongchen secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Based on his understanding of them, neither had a bad character; as long as no lines were crossed, they shouldn’t become enemies.
Jing Hongchen clapped his hands: “Alright, since you plan to compete in spirit tool creation, what metals do you need?”
Both chose several types of metal, though Huo Yuhao chose more.
Afterwards, the two began their work in different locations.
One hour later.
“Xiao Meng, do you know what your brother is making?”
Jing Hongchen asked Meng Hongchen, who was beside him.
But the shapes were very strange: several leaves like those of a plantain tree, a few long cylinders, and a shape as large as a water basin.
Looking at it, it didn’t seem like a defensive spirit tool, and even less like an offensive spirit tool.
Instead, it looked like a spirit tool for daily life.
Since Meng Hongchen was often with Xiao Hongchen, he curiously asked her if she knew what spirit tool Xiao Hongchen was making.
“I think Brother wants to make a spirit tool fan.”
Meng Hongchen said after pondering for a while.
Jing Hongchen was, after all, a Class 9 Soul Engineer; even if he hadn’t seen it, he could grasp the key point from the name.
“spirit tool fan”—the focus should be on “wind,” and he had a guess about this spirit tool.
“What effect does it have?”
“That, I don’t know.
I haven’t seen him make this spirit tool fan before; I’ve only heard him mention the name.”
Meng Hongchen shook her head.
Jing Hongchen looked toward Huo Yuhao.
Huo Yuhao was currently making a rectangular metal box with various curved pipes and many tiny tubes inside.
Jing Hongchen felt it didn’t look like a spirit weapon either.
But what Huo Yuhao was making was even more bizarre; although he hadn’t seen the spirit tool Xiao Hongchen was making, the individual components were relatively simple.
With a little mental assembly, one could roughly imagine what Xiao Hongchen’s spirit tool would look like.
But what Yuhao was making couldn’t be mentally assembled at all; until the final step, no one would understand what it was.
Although Jing Hongchen wanted to ask Yuhao what he was trying to make, he refrained to avoid disrupting his train of thought, as it would be unfair to the competitors.
Jing Hongchen suppressed his curiosity and waited.
Another hour later, Xiao Hongchen was the first to finish.
Xiao Hongchen picked up the spirit tool he had made and walked toward Jing Hongchen: “Grandfather, I’m finished.
This is the spirit tool fan I created.”
Meng Hongchen’s expression said, “As expected.”
Jing Hongchen followed up by asking, “So, what does this do?”
Xiao Hongchen said happily: “This isn’t an offensive spirit tool, nor is it a defensive one.
It’s a life-type spirit tool.
Its function is to input spirit power, and as the blades rotate, it blows wind similar to a natural breeze.”
Xiao Hongchen then activated the spirit tool fan on the spot, and a continuous stream of wind blew toward Jing Hongchen.
Jing Hongchen said with a look of surprise: “Good, good, good.
This can truly benefit all of humanity.”
“I also got the inspiration from Huo Yuhao.
In the past, we only made combat spirit tools, but I feel there are already far too many of those.”
If I’m going to create something, it should be something different.”
Xiao Hongchen said with a smile.
Jing Hongchen nodded in agreement upon hearing this.
Indeed, for so many years, they had only been making combat spirit tools—various offensive or defensive ones.
But if the war were to end, these things would become useless.
Ultimately, the development of spirit tools must move toward daily life.
He felt very gratified that Xiao Hongchen actually had such foresight.
“Good, it’s excellent that you have this mindset.
Once the war is over, if spirit technology is to progress, it will certainly move toward the lives of the common people.”
“Grandfather, then I’ve won, right?
My idea is definitely novel.”
Xiao Hongchen asked expectantly.
Jing Hongchen smiled slightly: “Although I’d like to say you’ve won, Yuhao hasn’t finished yet.
We’ll talk after he’s done.”
Everyone turned their gaze toward Huo Yuhao, who was still in the middle of production.
Huo Yuhao was currently heating glass with fire; inside were metal and an unknown liquid, with a transparent liquid flowing out from the other end.
“Grandfather, what is Huo Yuhao doing?”
“Doesn’t making spirit tools require metal?
But this doesn’t look like metal refining.”
Instead, it looked more like extracting something, but they had never seen a spirit tool that required the extraction of a liquid.
An hour later, Huo Yuhao began crafting the spirit tool core formation.
At this time, the three of them approached to watch the formation Huo Yuhao was making.
After watching for a while, they asked in a low voice, “Grandfather, what kind of core formation is this?”
Being asked this made Jing Hongchen a bit embarrassed; although he was a Class 9 Soul Engineer and understood most core formations.
But Huo Yuhao was different.
After understanding the underlying logic of core formations, he created his own new ones, which hadn’t been made public.
So he replied awkwardly, “I’m not sure either.
Let’s wait and see; Yuhao should explain it in a bit.”
As soon as he said this, Xiao Hongchen and his sister were stunned on the spot.
They then looked at Huo Yuhao in shock; there was actually a core formation that even their grandfather didn’t recognize.
Another hour passed.
After wiping the sweat from his forehead, Huo Yuhao smiled and said to Jing Hongchen, “Director, I’m finished.”
Then, the three of them came over to look.
What met their eyes was a rectangular metal spirit tool and a square metal spirit tool, connected by a plastic pipe in the middle.