After hearing his master's words, Huo Yuhao didn't hesitate in the slightest.
"I'd like to request some internal management authority in Mingde Hall, Master."
Jing Hongchen chuckled helplessly.
"Management authority, huh? You're still a bit young... but since you're asking for it, I'll grant it. Take this."
Huo Yuhao looked puzzled as Jing Hongchen handed him a Mingde Hall emblem.
"Because of your age and cultivation level, it wouldn't be proper for me to give you a position with formal power. That would go against protocol. But as long as you wear this emblem, which represents me personally, the entirety of Mingde Hall will follow your instructions. With the prestige you already hold among its members, I don't think anyone will object."
Hearing this, Huo Yuhao was overjoyed. This was exactly what he needed right now.
"Thank you, Master."
He took the emblem and pinned it proudly to his chest.
"Then I'll be off for now. The royal court is unstable at the moment, and the Worship Hall has more than enough troubles. I'll leave Mingde Hall in your and Xuan Ziwen's hands for the time being."
After parting with Jing Hongchen, Huo Yuhao turned to face the vast structure that was Mingde Hall.
From this moment onward, he could be said to have 'taken over' this great machine of soul tool production and development. That also meant every research and production plan he had laid out could now move forward, with Mingde Hall as its foundation.
"First things first..."
Huo Yuhao strode purposefully toward a certain area in the soul tool production sector.
"Team Leader Wang, how's the current production status of the powered battle armor?"
Wearing his signature white lab coat and hands in his pockets, Huo Yuhao approached a middle-aged man wearing the black uniform that marked a member of Mingde Hall's production division. The man had black-rimmed glasses and was scribbling on a clipboard.
The man took off his glasses and looked up in surprise as Huo Yuhao approached.
"Xiao Huo? Oh, congratulations on your promotion."
Team Leader Wang, head of powered armor production, was one of the people in Mingde Hall closest to Huo Yuhao. Seeing the emblem on his chest, he couldn't help but crack a grin and joke.
Huo Yuhao gave a wry smile.
"Promotion? I'm still young."
Wang nodded. He had always admired, even respected, Huo Yuhao. From the development of powered armor to the reconstruction of Mingde Hall, Huo Yuhao's intellect had already earned the unanimous approval of everyone inside the institution.
Even from Wang's perspective as an eighth-ranked soul engineer, Huo Yuhao had every right to take charge. His talent in soul engineering needed no further praise—he would likely surpass everyone in Mingde Hall before long.
"Ahem... as for current production status, let me take a look. I was just reviewing the latest reports."
Wang turned back around, put his glasses back on, and began scanning the report sheet on the clipboard. Huo Yuhao leaned in to focus as well.
"First, the military-grade Sunlight Series—Generation One powered armor for soul engineers. So far, we've produced 136 standard units and 8 captain-class units. The daily output for standard units is 5, while the captain-class units are produced at a rate of one per week."
The standard Sunlight armor was designed for regular soldiers in the Soul Ancestor to Soul Douluo range. The captain-class variant, with significantly boosted capabilities, was meant for mid-tier commanders—Soul Sages and Soul Douluos.
For rank-nine soul engineers or other high-level experts, powered armor had limited usefulness. What Huo Yuhao was really aiming for was a system more akin to mecha suits—like the Soul Armor introduced in Soul Land III.
"Next is the regular military-grade Moonlight Series—Generation One powered armor for ordinary soldiers. So far, 581 units have been produced, with a daily output of 15 units. That's the current status."
The very first prototype they developed had been dubbed "Sun Moon Light" by Huo Yuhao. Later, to better distinguish between the soul engineer and non-soul engineer versions, he had renamed them—"Sunlight" for soul engineers, "Moonlight" for ordinary users.
Hearing these production numbers, Huo Yuhao was stunned.
Each Sunlight standard armor cost 2 million gold soul coins. The captain-class was even pricier at 5 million. Even Moonlight units came in at 500,000 each. Producing this many... they had already burned through several billion gold soul coins.
"Team Leader Wang... can our Mingde Hall's finances really handle this?"
Seeing Huo Yuhao's dumbfounded look, Wang couldn't help but laugh aloud.
"Our finances? Of course not. But we've got a very generous client footing the bill. Guess who?"
Huo Yuhao asked, "Who?"
Wang grinned. "The commander of the Imperial Dragon Soul Engineer Regiment."
"...Huh?"
Now it all made sense. The Imperial Dragon Regiment, one of the Empire's elite protector forces, had the scale—and wealth—of a royal faction. And with its commander, Xu Tianyuan, being a member of the royal family, placing an order worth billions of gold soul coins was no issue at all.
Huo Yuhao narrowed his eyes. Jing Hongchen had mentioned earlier that new arms deals had been finalized with military forces under Xu Tianran's command. It now seemed clear—the Imperial Dragon Soul Engineer Regiment was firmly under Xu Tianran's control.
The Royal Soul Engineer Regiment answered only to the Emperor and would never participate in the succession conflict. As for the other three elite forces—Xie Jun, Terrorclaw, and Phoenix Flame—Huo Yuhao doubted they would support the Third Prince. Whether they would side with Xu Tianran or stay neutral remained uncertain.
But now, things were getting clearer.
'How could Xu Tianran possibly lose now? What cards does the Third Prince even have to challenge him?'
Huo Yuhao was very curious.
"Alright then. Team Leader Wang, how's the research going on the 3–5 meter mecha?"
In Mingde Hall, Wang was something of a special case. He had originally been involved in Jing Hongchen's project developing a 15-meter super-large humanoid soul tool. With that background, he was fully capable of overseeing mecha development as well.
Wang sighed.
"Not ideal. We've produced several batches of working prototypes, but we can't get them to surpass soul engineers and soul masters in real combat. Their mobility is too poor. On the battlefield, they'd be sitting ducks for high-level enemy soul masters."
Huo Yuhao frowned. He understood.
Even in the Soul Land of 10,000 years later, most deployed mecha paled in comparison to Soul Armor. They were too bulky and impractical—useful only for crushing weaklings. Unless the pilot was extremely skilled, mecha simply couldn't match the performance boost Soul Armor gave to soul masters and engineers.
'Using something that expensive, just to stomp grunts... isn't worth it.'
(End of Chapter)
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