Douluo Continent, Huo Yuhao who returned from Sekiro

Chapter 38 The Importance of Hand Strength

"Hello, Senior Ning."

Huo Yuhao was still reeling from the shock of discovering that the burly man in front of him was actually a support-type Soul Master, and greeted him somewhat shyly.

"Haha, don't be so polite. Ah Jie's friends are my friends. Make yourself at home and sit wherever you like."

Ning Ge looked at Xiao Yuhao, who was only 1.4 meters tall, laughed heartily, and then pulled out two chairs from a pile of discarded soul tools for the two of them.

"Hey Lao Ning, this place is so shabby, you can't even settle down here. I'm not trying to be mean, but if it weren't for your skills, you'd be lucky to get any business all day long."

Jie Chuan kicked a broken soul core back into the trash heap before casually sitting down. Ning Ge wasn't angry; he lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, and exhaled a cloud of mist before offering cigarettes to Huo Yuhao and Jie Chuan.

"Tell me, what do you want? You never come here unless you need something. Are you short on cash and need to borrow money, or have you messed up the soul tool I painstakingly prepared for you?"

Ning Ge squinted at Jie Chu, scrutinizing him with an air of bad luck, as if he hadn't checked the almanac before going to bed and had stepped in dog poop as soon as he stepped outside.

"No, don't worry. The soul tools you repaired for me are quite durable and won't break down anytime soon. I came to see you this time because of Yuhao."

As he spoke, Jiechu steered the conversation toward Huo Yuhao.

Ning Ge looked Huo Yuhao up and down, raising an eyebrow slightly: "I said, 'Outstanding,' Brother Yuhao looks only ten years old, and he's probably at most level twenty. Isn't it a bit too hasty for you to get him a soul tool right now?"

Huo Yuhao knew that it was time for him to step forward. Often, people weren't unaware of his purpose; they simply waited for his reaction before directly confronting him.

Therefore, Huo Yuhao stood up directly and said, "Senior Ning, I just turned nine this year and should now be considered a first-level Soul Master. I want to participate in the special recruitment of our academy, but I am only level eleven now and my soul power level is not high enough. So I want to be an apprentice here for a while to hone my soul tool making and repair skills."

"Before my soul power level broke through level ten, I had already independently crafted several level one soul tools. After breaking through to the first ring, I stayed at home for only a few days before coming to Shrek City. Therefore, the level two soul tool I am currently trying to make is only half finished. Please take a look."

As he spoke, Huo Yuhao took out a soul-guided ray gun, a thermal soul-guided spear, and two soul-guided core arrays that had clearly just been engraved with circuitry from his storage soul-guided device and handed them to Ning Ge.

Ning Ge took the items Huo Yuhao handed him and placed them on the only decent soul-guided carving table in the room. He then carefully examined the two level-two soul-guided core arrays that Huo Yuhao had given him.

"Hey, Ah Jie, where did you pick up such a treasure? I just heard Yu Hao say that he could directly take on a level 2 soul tool at level 11, and I thought this kid was like you, always bragging. But these two soul tool cores, they're completely flawless!"

Ning Ge's face showed shock as he carefully examined the two soul-guiding core arrays, which were precisely engraved with lines and had no imperfections or protrusions. The more he looked at them, the more incredible they seemed.

The so-called "miscellaneous lines" are errors that occur when the carving knife is not firm enough during the carving process of the soul guide core array, resulting in a slight tremor in the carving. The "protrusions" refer to the unnatural spasms that occur when the carving speed is not fast enough during the carving process, and when the hand muscles are overstretched due to prolonged knife grip, resulting in unnatural spasms.

Both of these are common mistakes made by low-level Soul Masters. Even Soul Masters at levels four to six sometimes make these kinds of basic errors.

Since such minor errors, as long as they don't occur too often, will not affect the normal operation of soul power in the core array of the soul guide, unless it is a masterpiece, the core array of a low-level soul guide will generally have more or less imperfections and protrusions.

Ning Ge then picked up the two level-one soul tools placed on the soul tool carving table and disassembled the soul tool circuit cores. Finally, Ning Ge's tightly furrowed brows slowly relaxed, as the soul tool core arrays of these two soul tools were not as perfect as before.

Although the bumps were almost non-existent, there were still some imperfections. The quality of each of the soul cores was stronger than the last, which shows that Huo Yuhao's soul guidance technology was growing at an incredibly fast pace.

In fact, the reason why Huo Yuhao was able to overcome the problems of impurities and protrusions that often occurred in low-level soul tool masters so soon after entering the world of soul tools was not only due to Huo Yuhao's hard work, but also because of the continuous improvement of his physical fitness.

Compared to other Soul Masters of the same age, Huo Yuhao's physical strength can almost be described as monstrous. Generally speaking, it is better to get involved in the profession of Soul Master as early as possible. Many large families even let their children start making Soul Tools as soon as they awaken their Martial Soul.

This also led to a rather troublesome little problem. You can't expect a child who is not even ten years old to have much hand strength. Although the profession of Soul Master does not involve combat, it requires a very high level of hand strength. If the hand holding the carving knife is not steady enough, all sorts of problems will naturally occur. So what kind of life did Huo Yuhao lead after awakening his Martial Soul?

He sneaks into the viscount's house to film the viscountess's affair with her lover, infiltrates the dangerous territory of a small sect to steal land deeds, takes a hapless guy who's gotten himself into a lot of trouble out of the city, and also has to act as a bodyguard, having Soul Masters or even Soul Sect experts hanging behind him in a rally race where losing means death.

So, don't be fooled by Huo Yuhao's shock at Ning Ge's burly physique and status as a support-type Soul Master. In reality, compared to other Soul Masters of the same age who can't even kill a chicken properly and get chased by geese for two blocks when they return to their villages, Huo Yuhao's physical abilities are just as outrageous as a humanoid Soul Beast.

Why do the imperfections and bumps that often appear in junior soul masters gradually disappear after they advance to intermediate soul masters?

As their soul power level increases, their physical fitness also improves. In addition, with their persistent practice of wielding the carving knife, they have a basic understanding of how to handle the minor troubles encountered during the soul guide circuit carving stage. Therefore, such low-level errors in the soul guide core formation occur less frequently with higher-level soul guide masters.

Huo Yuhao's physical condition is already excellent, and he has been training in inscribing the soul guide core array. This is why the soul guide cores that Huo Yuhao inscribes rarely have protrusions. His hand strength is much greater than that of his peers.

As for why the problem of the impurities could be overcome so quickly, it is thanks to the illusory golden eye that Qian Daoliu opened for Huo Yuhao between the eyebrows.

Besides being used to determine the cooking temperature of grilled fish, the Illusory Eye is also adept at observing the lines on the core formation.

(End of this chapter)