A low hum was everywhere. In a golden world, a golden room, with a few golden people. Music, which was neither happy nor sad, with instruments that couldn't be told apart. It was like the world itself was making the music.
Then the scene changed. It was like watching an unsteady camera, constantly shaking and moving. Ringing sounds, as if two hard objects were hitting each other, playing by the rhythm of the melody around them.
The perspective widened. An armoured lizard-like person appeared, very deep in colour, but still golden. Giant plates on the human like body and a cruel grin on the face. The gold appeared almost liquid.
The scene widened further, no ringing sound was heard anymore. The man's outstretched hand was holding a child in his arms. It was Wu Siduo, she was held by the neck clearly choking. Struggling, he just kept on holding her, laughing.
… … …
Karni woke up sweating, his eyes flashed a gold colour for a second before the colour went back to normal.
He rushed to his neighbouring room and knocked. He was walking back and forth restlessly. He knew what it was, but still, he was nervous. He had to inform her.
Siduo opened the door with barely visible eyes. She was still half awake, but she could tell Karni was nervous, she just nodded to come in. She walked back to the bed, and fell on it head first, sighing. She had an inkling of what this was about.
"I had another vision."
"Called it." She said to herself.
"You were being held by the neck by that boss guy. At least I think it's the boss guy based on what you've told me."
"Mm. What else?"
"That's… That's it. Sisi, should we really continue this?"
"Mhm." She murmured. It felt like she wasn't really taking him seriously.
"But… Sisi, what I saw. What if you…" He didn't want to finish that sentence.
"Remember… Last time?" She slurped the saliva that was threatening to drool.
"You saw me getting hit, I didn't die. I'm just in danger here. I'm sure you can save me out of that pickle once we're in it. I trust you."
Karni was taken aback a bit. That… was a big amount of trust.
"Now leave, it's not even 5 yet. We have two hours before we have to leave, and I wanna sleep."
"Right." He almost turned to leave the room before backpedalling. "Are you sure you're reincarnated?" He asked, half jokingly and half serious.
Siduo turned her head sideways, but still very much half asleep. "Why?"
"Cause for some reason it's me that has to save the person with combat experience."
"Kiki… I don't have any particularly deep insights in my current martial souls. They have zero connection to my previous life. I also never knew Tang Sect techniques before. There's only so much I can do with combat smarts when there's a wide difference in power. I wasn't even an agility system, how exactly am I supposed to… Wait a minute you asshole. You're teasing me! Get out of the room! I need my beauty sleep!"
Karni quickly ran out of the room, having been at least partly satisfied. A small, but a worried smile appeared on his face. "She trusts me eh. "
His mind flashed back to the incident, when he… He shook his head. No. This wasn't as dangerous… but… he had to be ready.
"Fine. I promise not to disappoint your trust. She gets into this trouble because of me anyway. I should at least take some responsibility."
… … …
"Yeah, yeah. I'm coming already. It's your fault for making me oversleep." Siduo complained.
The two were running to the train station, they were late for their train. Siduo was still rather sleepy. She didn't even fix her hair. It was standing out everywhere.
The two came just in time for the door to close. They were on their way to visit Tie Tiao - their regular meetup. They had to tell them about their breakthrough. It should enable them to proceed with their future plans faster.
The two sat, and ironically, it was Siduo, the agility system soul master, that was out of breath right now.
"Say, I have been thinking since the morning talk. Remember the tracking device we planned? We should be able to make it by now. We might as well count it as our breakthrough project. Upgrade it to 4-stars. It should be doable for us now."
"Mm. That's fine by me. You want it done before the operation?"
"Yeah. I believe we can limit ourselves to two months, if it doesn't work, we make a quick prototype with the most important functions for the plan."
"Aight that sounds good… Now," she stretched, "lemme sleep a little more."
"Sheesh. Just what were you doing last night?"
"Not telling, now shush."
… … …
"Ma Fai? You're… You look different. Oh. Um. Hi." Karni said, biting his own words forcefully.
"Yo." Siduo said simply. Not really caring. "Is big sis Kexin inside?"
"Yeah." Tie Tiao said, who was next to Ma Fai.
Siduo left, Karni stayed with Tie Tiao and Ma Fai for a second.
"You two okay?"
Ma Fai and Tie Tiao looked at each other and nodded. "We… um… It's a long story."
"I'll go get Sisi. We can meet up inside."
Karni followed Siduo to Tie Kexin. The Tie Family decided to give over this project to their children to make them grow up. In this case, they were taking care of everything alone. Tie Kexin was the main project handler, while Karni, Siduo and Tiao were acting as support.
In a similar manner, Tie Kexin did not need to report anything to the family, but also couldn't get any new funding should they mess up. The Tie family were merchants by heart, medical merchants at that, and they took this as quite a serious test for the children.
"Alright. Everyone's here. The two of you don't know yet, but Ma Fai will be joining us in this project." Tie Kexin began the meeting.
"I'm guessing the family stuff was resolved then?" Siduo commented.
Ma Fai was quiet for a second as the eyes turned onto her. "Not… exactly. My fa- The Ma family threw me out. They gave no apology."
"They fucking what!" Siduo banged on the table and stood up forcefully.
"Those fuckwits. I swear to gods, I will show them, they abandoned you?! When they were the cause of everything in the first place! They don't deserve to have the surname Ma!"
"Ho- How do you know?" Ma Fai said.
"I…" She glanced at Karni for a bit. "I know things about the source of your martial soul, the Evil Phoenix. I… I've read a lot about what triggers it has and what not." She sat down, still fuming, but toned it down just a bit, if only for saying too much.
Ma Fai breathed deeply, not expecting that some secrets of her family were so known. "I'm sorry."
"Don't blame yourself. They should've helped you with your martial soul, not… this."
It was the first time Karni saw Siduo this frustrated since their fight. Just why did she care… No. Why did she know so much about this martial soul? Who was she in her previous life exactly?
"Siduo, calm down a bit." Tie Kexin interrupted with a soft face.
"Right. Sorry."
"Instead, how about you tell us about your progress, any breakthroughs in your research?" She changed the topic, she knew well how uncomfortable this was for Ma Fai.
"Not exactly." Karni started. "It's better if we just show you."
The two stood up in understanding and summoned their martial souls. Three purple soul rings on each of them appeared around them.
"How is this possible?" Ma Fai was the first to voice.
"Actually, we've been at a bottleneck for a while now. The teacher's forced us to stay there so we could upgrade our martial souls in the Spirit Ascension Platform." Karni scratched his head.
"This is our big update. With this, we should be able to tackle the 4-star rank and hopefully succeed in about two months if we're lucky. We've already researched some of the 4-star prosthetics and cores, adapting them to 3-star level, now we can try for real as our soul power should support it."
"Very good. Let us talk about the future plan then. The first thing on the list is the target audience."
The five children and one older teen talked for about 2 hours. Marketing, consumers, sellers, competition, and all the annoying little nooks and crannies. They would start small. Medicine and soul tools for normal people, and as Karni and Siduo become better, they can expand farther into the market.
Ma Fai's unique abilities with fire should help in a lot of aspects as well. Combining Pill Making with different soul tools, might make them more accessible. For now it was an idea with potential.
Ma Fai would become a blacksmith as well. While it was a late start, her ability to control fire should work well to give her a little help. They'll need an inside blacksmithing team.
Karni wouldn't even consider getting Tang Wulin into this in the future should he actually befriend him. He's not a fool. Do you know how busy and greedy that guy is? The whole business would go bankrupt!
"I promise to learn blacksmithing. I'll be of use."
"No worries. If you can't progress fast, just take it at your own pace." Tie Kexin smiled.
"I… but… you guys took me in when… when I was about to… kill… I can't thank you enough." She said quietly. It was weird seeing the usually fierce Ma Fai in such a state.
"We're not the Ma family Little Fai. If you fail, it's not wrong. Only from failing can we learn." Tie Kexin held Ma Fai's arm.
"I… ok…" Ma Fai was still struggling to grasp the concept of it. Her whole life she's been fighting to keep her family's attention… but now? What was she supposed to do, if not fight for their attention?
"Let's end the meeting here." Tie Kexin said, seeing the mood of Ma Fai. She quickly glanced at Tie Tiao and gave him a long look.
Tie Tiao understood after a while. "Fai, you wanna practise some sparring, the other two can teach us as well." He turned to Karni and Siduo in a similar way his sister turned to him.
"Sure, let's watch you two spar, I'm up for giving some constructive criticism." Siduo grinned.
"'Constructive' being a very loose term." Karni added.
He got hit on the head. They headed outside, successfully distracting Ma Fai from her own thoughts.
The two got into position. Tie Tiao took out his daggers, while Ma Fai simply called forth her martial soul.
"Wait, wait, wait. Ma Fai, where's your claws?" Siduo asked.
"Ah… It was made by the Ma family, so they took them."
"Right. Tiao, give me your daggers."
"Eh? But I always fight with them?"
Siduo didn't care. She just took them from his hands. He didn't really fight back either outside of the basic complaint. There was no point.
"Come on, I usually lose anyway. Even with the daggers."
Siduo turned around, 'smiling'. "Then don't lose."
Karni was enjoying this dynamic. "We'll upgrade them for you as well. You'll get them back… hm… next weekend. We'll make some quick and simple claws for Ma Fai as well. We'll get you a better version after we finish with some personal things."
"That's not fair!" Tie Tiao complained.
"Yeah, Siduo is rarely fair." Karni commented.
Siduo nodded.
The two were forced to clash. Martial Soul vs Martial Soul. Little Swellow vs Flaming Eyes Hawk. No tricks. The result was obvious.
… … …
Karni and Siduo were back in Star Luo City. They spent a day at the Tie family house and returned in the morning.
"I'll go tell Grandma Ying about our progress."
"Alright. I'm guessing we start working on the blueprint for the tracking device in the evening?"
"You bet. I have some notes in the upper left drawer on the desk if you want to start sooner." Karni made a descriptive gesture of the room.
"A free offer to roam your room? Who could refuse?"
"Yeah, real smooth there Juliet."
"Who?"
"Ah, forget it."
Unfortunately, he couldn't get away with easy bad jokes to make in this world, he had no meme references here! He couldn't even use bad book references!
Feeling a bit disappointed with this realisation, he went off to the Holy Tiger Hospital.
… … …
By now it was a well integrated routine. The hospital staff knew him as well. He was the only child visiting alone like this.
Sometimes the staff would worry, but another, senior member would tell them it's fine. Only a select few knew that Karni was a soul master. He really didn't have to worry about many things. Soul masters were well protected in the federation.
Karni got to Shi Ying's room, knocked and entered.The two said their welcomes. Karni brought up his gifts like usual. Chocolate! Chocolate is the best medicine. At least for the soul.
This time he brought her favourites. The old lady gave him a raised eyebrow. "Anything you want to tell me?"
"That easy to read huh?"
"Of course, you think I'm not over 60? I'm not that easy to fool."
"Well then. I guess there's no point dragging this further." Karni stood up from the chair and showed his martial soul. Grandma Ying's reaction was similar to Ma Fai's. Disbelief. But she caught her focus back quicker.
"I understand. When are you beginning?"
"In around two months. We want to get used to our abilities and still create a few additional soul tools for the plan, and then it will be in full gear."
"I… see. Just… Be safe, when it comes to it. And tell me when you start. I'll be waiting."
"Mm. I promise to tell you everything. And I mean… Everything."
Shi Ying looked a bit weirdly at him, then nodded.
"Well… Before that. Just come back safe and sound. We can talk about things later. For now, be sure to make all the preparations you have to."
"You… are being surprisingly… how should I say this…"
"Okay with it?"
"Yeah."
"Think about it like this. If I disagreed, what would you do? We both know I'm not about to expose you, and even if I did? You would likely find some way to get to it either way."
Karni chuckled a bit. She was right.
"And besides, that girl is just as stubborn as you. You two keep each other safe."
"Yeah, she's quite a bit more stubborn than me I'd say."
"Don't worry, you'll learn to win those battles." The old lady chuckled.
"Mm. Yeah. Happened a few times already. Though it's rare."
"Oh? The boy grows ever stronger."
The two decided to eat that chocolate Karni brought. Wouldn't want to waste it.
… … …
"Ta-da." Siduo presented a blueprint she made herself.
It was clearly designed by her. The style of the two was completely different. Hers was of a bit more traditional design, but one that took advantage of her claws for carving. She was a mechanic as well after all. She needed the skill to research her own soul tools.
"That… Is very small. How long would it last?" It was an extremely compact soul battery.
"Eh, I'd say it can power the watch for at least a week once we complete it."
"Impressive. But…"
"Yeah I know, after we make the little thingies for Tie Tiao and Ma Fai. I'll probably revisit the blueprint as well. Hopefully you can draw it as well, it'll be easier to build a better battery for me too, if you don't understand any concepts you can always consult me while redesigning it."
"Let's do that then. So which one do you want to create first? You think you can upgrade Tie Tiao's daggers by yourself?"
"I should be able to, though it won't be too big of an upgrade."
"In that case, I'll go make a quick blueprint for the claws. We can focus on the actual upgrades after we finish with the gang."
"We should finish this by the end of the week and start working on the tracking watch."
Karni looked at her. "Just so you know, it's only for safety. No privacy peeking."
Siduo gasped. "You'd really think I'd do that? Nooooooo. I'd have no reason to peek into your daily life. I already know everything."
"Yeah that's true." Karni stretched. "Let's do this."
Siduo readied her tools, activating her third soul ring to start carving.
… … …
Intense, rhythmic tapping was heard in Karni's room. His martial soul was resting at the desk, constantly releasing a soft song to set a rhythm. It was a simple trick, but it worked like a charm.
This particular part was an array, drawn quite largely and in fine detail, but the notes on the sides told just how small it truly was. It was just a bit bigger than an average wristwatch.
The array had many smaller ones fused into each other. Noting the connections, they were done in a very specific pattern. When a certain node would be activated, another would close, and yet another would activate.
Some of them required multiple nodes on, to actually activate. Some of them needed certain nodes to be inactive. This was the very core of the wristwatch, and it was also the hardest part.
Should Karni manage to make this, he would become a true 4-star Mecha Designer. After a certain point, your soul power didn't play a lot of roles anymore. Only Spiritual Power did. At least for Mecha Designers.
The other parts of the tracking watch weren't nearly as complicated as this one. The actual tracking? Very dependent on the metals for range. What he was making right now was quite a complicated UI for the whole thing that would tie the watch together in a neat package.
Everything he's designed so far was either of the 3-star ranking or on the edge of 4-star. This was the first part that was truly a 4-star rank of understanding to create, and it was all an array.
He put the pen down, overlooking all the tiny details. The logic was there, but whether it worked or not would only be shown once the actual device was completed physically. Unfortunately, he didn't have a computer language and a testing site to try everything out ahead of time like one could when programming.
He passed it onto Siduo. This was a challenge in and of itself. If she managed to create this, as tiny as it was, even if it didn't truly work, she'd be considered a 4-star Mecha Manufacturer.
She looked at the blueprint, focused, and brought out the rest of the watch. Only one little hole the width of a wrist was left on the watch. It was quite big for a wristwatch, but that was expected, it had many functions it needed to do. There was only so much space they could cram everything into when they were still 3-star Mecha Engineers.
She put her index finger and middle finger together as her third soul ring lit up in the room. Only her two fingers fused and created a tiny black blade of concentrated energy.
She had mastered her technique quite well, but there was still much to go. For one, a single finger was definitely possible. There was also the length. She couldn't control it yet, but she could clearly manipulate it to a degree.
The two finger version was perfect for carving arrays. She went to work, while Karni controlled his own third ring to a calming pace. Just like her, he learned to control the tempo of the sound that the bo staff released when he used his third soul ring. And just like her, he had a lot of things to still control well.
In both of their cases, the limits were control, and if one didn't have it, the soul power used was far too big to be viable for anything useful.
Siduo carved, line by line, detail by detail. Swinging her fingers in a slow tempo following Karni's own sound from the staff. The two have really become used to this over the past two months.
When Mo Qing found out about it, he only allowed them to do this sort of thing once a week, lest they become dependent on each other too much. Or, in this case, Siduo becoming dependent on Karni too much.
She first did the outside, then individual nodes. Finally after about 20 minutes of constant carving, there were only the connections left. The outside nodes? Connected. The inside nodes that connected to the outside nodes and also to each other? Connected.
The centre was last. Siduo was clearly sweating. Neither of them was completely used to such tight spaces to create in, but thankfully, Tang Sect Mecha Engineering specialised in this.
An almost silent cutting sound was heard as the centre of all connections was being formed slowly, but surely. Tiny dust of metal fell off here and there and every now and then, the metal dust had to be wiped out with a brush. At the end Siduo blew inside it to get rid of any unnecessary particles. She finished it. The two looked nervous for a few seconds. Did the array hold? It didn't fall apart? Is the power balanced?
Nothing happened. The two let out a sigh of relief. Now for the final test. To put this part into the actual watch. Connect it all together.
Siduo softly placed it into the watch. It made a quiet 'click' sound. The display clearly lit up. The two looked at each other.
Karni started cycling through the options. Messaging? Working. Tracking? Working. Information about the physical state of the body? Working. The other watch didn't have the UI yet, but the elements to detect the other watch were already in place. Everything was working fine! It was a success!
"I'll do the second array tomorrow. I'm way too tired."
"That's fine. We actually finished the whole thing. I never want to do a project like this again." Little did he know, but Karni jinxed his whole life with that single statement.
"Yeah. Same here. I wonder what Teacher Mo will think when he sees the completed package."
"Yeah, it's gonna be interesting. We should do some testing afterwards as well. We don't want anything to go awry after. We can't."
"We won't. Have some trust in yourself. I trust you."
"Thanks. I… I'll save you. I promise."
"You know… That sounds really fucking weird when you say it like that."