Perfect Array

Time quietly slipped away.

An hour quickly passed…

As time went on, Su Luoheng's pace gradually slowed down. After prolonged engraving, his arm started to tremble slightly.

In the final few steps of the engraving process, his speed significantly decreased.

"Ding—"

The final second ended.

Su Luoheng stopped his carving knife in response.

Looking at the core array, which emitted a faint glow, he sighed regretfully.

Despite his cautiousness, he still made a mistake.

When engraving the last core array, a sudden tremor in his wrist caused the final stroke to land slightly off-target, which affected the closure of the entire array. Although he quickly implemented a corrective measure to close the array and prevent it from collapsing, the array's quality was compromised. It had originally been a second-level core array, but it was now downgraded to a first-level one.

However, even with this mishap, his performance was still outstanding!

Soon, under Qin Cong's guidance, all the students brought their completed works to the testing platform.

The testing platform was quite similar to the one they had seen during the freshmen assessment, except this device could test up to third-level core arrays—a full level higher than the previous one.

"Wu Yong, you're first."

"Four core arrays: one second-level and three first-level."

Wu Yong hurried to the front and presented his four core arrays.

Once everything was ready, Qin Cong pressed his hand into the palm-shaped indentation on the testing platform and injected his soul power. Soon, a silvery-white glow enveloped the four core arrays.

After about a minute, the white light slowly faded.

"One second-level core array, low quality. Three first-level core arrays: two high-quality and one medium-quality."

Qin Cong read out the results in a calm voice, his face as serene as ever, showing no hint of emotion.

"Next, Shan Cheng."

"Three core arrays: two second-level and one first-level."

"Two second-level core arrays: high quality and medium quality. One first-level core array: medium quality."

"Next, Chen Yangyu."

...

In the following moments, the students took their turns at the testing platform according to their table numbers. Some had better results, some worse, but each had at least one second-level core array to their name.

As the testing progressed, it was soon Su Luoheng's turn.

"Next, Su Luoheng."

When Qin Cong saw that it was the student he had been paying close attention to, his usually calm expression revealed a slight change, indicating his anticipation of Su Luoheng's performance.

After all, he had noticed that this student had crafted quite a few core arrays earlier.

At the same time, Su Luoheng had already walked to the front of the testing platform.

"I have six core arrays: five second-level and one first-level. Please proceed with the test, Teacher."

He took out the core arrays one by one. At first, everything seemed normal… but the moment he mentioned the number and level of the arrays, the Tenth Exam Area erupted!

As soon as the words left his mouth, Qin Cong's previously composed expression vanished, replaced by utter astonishment.

The reactions of the other students were much the same.

All eyes in the Tenth Exam Area were now focused on Su Luoheng.

"..."

They looked at their peer with eyes full of shock.

In six hours, he had successfully engraved five second-level core arrays and one first-level core array. None of them could have managed that feat!

"How did he do it?"

"Unbelievable, right?"

"Six core arrays? Is he some kind of freak with extra hands?"

"Just trying to show off?"

"Maybe he just made a bunch of fake ones to look good?"

"I think that could be possible!"

For a moment, Su Luoheng's astonishing performance sparked a huge commotion in the Tenth Exam Area. Students were reacting with a mix of envy, jealousy, disdain, curiosity, scorn, and even admiration. There were also a few who maliciously speculated about his results.

The Tenth Exam Area was buzzing like never before.

"…"

"Teacher, can we begin the test?"

Amid the chatter around him, Su Luoheng frowned slightly and spoke up to remind them. While he didn't care about the baseless guesses of others, the constant noise was irritating.

"Uh… yes, of course."

Qin Cong snapped out of his daze and immediately initiated the test.

The white light once again enveloped the six core arrays.

This time, everyone, including Qin Cong, held their breath in anticipation, anxious to see if the test results would align with Su Luoheng's claims.

Time seemed to crawl by.

No one had ever felt a single minute of testing last this long.

Finally, the white glow slowly dissipated.

The information for all six core arrays appeared on the screen.

At that moment, all the students held their breath, waiting for Qin Cong to announce the results.

"One first-level core array, quality… perfect! Five second-level core arrays, with one medium quality, two high quality, and two… perfect quality!"

"All six core arrays have passed inspection!"

"…"

As soon as Qin Cong finished speaking, everyone, including him, froze in shock.

For a brief moment, there was utter silence in the area—you could hear a pin drop.

It was true: Su Luoheng had indeed made five second-level core arrays and one first-level core array, and two of the second-level arrays had even achieved perfect quality. Even without discussing the array quality, the sheer feat of producing six core arrays in six hours was beyond what any of them could accomplish.

"…"

All eyes were now focused on Su Luoheng.

…

…

The academy teachers were efficient.

In less than two hours, they had ranked the results of the second-year soul tool examination.

Naturally, the first place went to Su Luoheng, who had crafted six core arrays. Whether in terms of quantity, level, or quality, he had outshone every second-year participant by a wide margin.

The rankings sparked heated discussions once they were released.

The topic of conversation was, unsurprisingly, Su Luoheng. Word spread quickly among the second-year students, and soon Su Luoheng was being hailed as a genius!

However, Su Luoheng didn't care about these discussions.

While the soul tool competition was over, the soul master competition hadn't yet begun.

Su Luoheng's plan was to win both titles, so right after the competition ended, he returned to the lab to find his teacher and learn more about the soul master assessment.

The soul master combat competition, as its name suggests, tested the combat capabilities of soul masters.

The assessment followed a one-on-one battle format.

Since the students of Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineering Academy were all highly skilled soul engineers, soul tools naturally played a part in their overall strength, so they were allowed to use soul tools in combat.

However, to maintain the integrity of the competition and prevent soul tools from overpowering the battles, specific limits were placed on the level of soul tools allowed in each grade. For instance, first-year students could only use second-level soul tools, second-year students were capped at third-level soul tools, and so on.

Moreover, soul tools classified as fixed-installed soul tools of any level were strictly prohibited from being used.

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