**Chapter 52: Grenade Gun - Angry Buddha Lotus Flame Version (2600 words)**
After Huo Yuhao finished weaving the items that Xiao Hongchen and his sister liked to read, the room next to Meng Hongchen was also tidied up and ready for moving in at any time.
"Yuhao, the items on this list of materials will be provided by the academy for free. Of course, if you need anything else, just tell me directly."
Xu Sheng handed Huo Yuhao a storage soul guide, which contained the instructions for the basic core array, information on entry-level soul guidance devices, and a certain amount of various metals.
"The assessments at our Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy are relatively flexible."
"Some students with good talents manage to create a first-level defensive soul guidance device when they enter school," Xu Sheng gave an example.
"Then, they don't need to defeat the three-soul beast; they just need to test its defensive ability. If the defensive effect meets the standard, they will still pass the assessment."
Each soul guide has different areas of expertise—Xu Sheng and Jia Xu, for example. Xu Sheng is proficient in making various close-combat soul guidance devices, while Jia Xu is obsessed with researching stable soul guidance devices that are conducive to escape.
Illustrious Virtue Hall has a good defensive soul guidance device: the Wall of Toughness.
It was jointly developed and produced by Jia Xu and several level 7 soul engineers in his laboratory and was mass-produced, creating a complete professional assembly line.
Xu Sheng said with a smile: "The academy does not limit the types of soul guides made. If students create defensive soul guidance devices, the assessment criteria will naturally focus on testing defensive capabilities."
"Yuhao, just follow your ideas. In the introductory stage, students are not even required to successfully create soul guidance devices."
"For most students who are new to soul guidance devices, even if they can only engrave a rough outline of the basic core array, the academy will give humane considerations."
Huo Yuhao took the storage soul guide, looked at the various metal materials inside, and nodded: "Well, I understand, Teacher Xu."
"I will most likely make an offensive soul guide."
Huo Yuhao felt that with his habit of rubbing the Angry Buddha Lotus Flame in advance, he would likely add more talent points to create offensive soul guidance devices.
Xu Sheng gave Huo Yuhao an access card made of special metal and took him into the laboratory inside the house.
"Yuhao, during the time you're preparing for the test, someone will deliver meals on time."
He pointed to the access card in Huo Yuhao's hand: "Of course, you can also go to the cafeteria of Illustrious Virtue Hall for meals. The authority of your access card is the same as that of Xiao and Meng. You can access the high-end window of the cafeteria for free."
"But you have to work hard, Yuhao. For your residence in Illustrious Virtue Hall, you currently only have temporary residence rights."
Xu Sheng patted Huo Yuhao on the shoulder to encourage him.
"Practice diligently in the future and make significant contributions to Illustrious Virtue Hall. Then you can live there permanently. There is no shortcut on this road."
Meng Hongchen had a question mark above her head and tilted her head: "Shortcut? What road has no shortcut?"
Xu Sheng glanced at Meng Hongchen beside him, then turned back to Huo Yuhao. After a moment of brief contemplation, he spoke slowly.
"Okay, Yuhao..."
He pondered, "For you, there is still a shortcut."
At the moment, the hall master is still in the initial observation stage concerning Huo Yuhao. If Huo Yuhao later shows exceptional talent, it would not be surprising for the hall master to make some decisions and arrangements regarding the "future life events of the two" for Yuhao and his granddaughter.
And judging from Meng Hongchen's performance today, it seems that she has a good impression of Huo Yuhao...
Xu Sheng can't help but feel that the relationship between Yuhao and Illustrious Virtue Hall will be stable in the future.
Xiao Hongchen said seriously: "Yuhao, to obtain the highest authority in Illustrious Virtue Hall, you must earn it through contributions; shortcuts will not work."
"Just as there is no shortcut to cultivation, you can only study soul guidance devices methodically and make a relatively significant breakthrough in the soul guidance technology of Illustrious Virtue Hall in a specific aspect."
Huo Yuhao smiled slightly and asked humbly, "Then how did you manage to obtain the highest authority in Illustrious Virtue Hall when you were less than fifteen years old?"
"Of course, it's because of my grandfather, the hall master."
"Oh? Is that so?" Huo Yuhao raised his eyebrows.
Seeing the interesting look in Huo Yuhao's eyes, Xiao Hongchen felt a chill in his heart and quickly changed the subject: "Yuhao, take a look at the list of materials."
"If you need any other materials, I can go to the warehouse with you. Oh, by the way, you don't have to involve Meng."
Huo Yuhao looked at the list of materials and thought: "Is there any metal with high hardness and resistance?"
Xiao Hongchen pondered for a while: "Titanium."
"The hardness and resistance of titanium are unique among all metals."
"But it is a rare metal. Every soul guidance device in Illustrious Virtue Hall has a limit on its use every month, and there are also requirements for the effective utilization rate of titanium."
For the researchers of Illustrious Virtue Hall, the effective utilization rate of rare metals must reach at least 70%. Before mastering it thoroughly, practice engraving the core array with ordinary metals to improve proficiency.
If the engraving of the core array of a soul guidance device uses rare metals like titanium, then the production should be ensured to be as successful as possible.
Xu Sheng waved his hand, smiled heartily, and invested in the potential player he had taken a fancy to.
"It's okay, Yuhao, I'll take you to the warehouse to get some titanium. Put it on my account first. If it's not enough, you can deduct it from my account."
Xiao Hongchen happily took Huo Yuhao to the warehouse and asked Teacher Xu and his sister to wait there.
After turning around, Xiao Hongchen hooked Huo Yuhao's shoulder and whispered:
"Yuhao, while you and my sister are neighbors, I don't want you knocking on Meng's door, let alone disturbing her peaceful life. If you encounter problems with soul guidance devices, you can always come and ask me."
"What if your sister knocks on my door? If I turn her away, wouldn't that be a bit rude? In any case, you don't want your sister to be unhappy."
Xiao Hongchen was stunned, took a breath, and pondered for a moment.
"In that case, I hope you can inform her brother as soon as possible."
Huo Yuhao did not refuse, and then the two of them took some titanium from the warehouse and returned the same way.
Xu Sheng introduced the uses of each workbench in the laboratory to Huo Yuhao. "I wish you a smooth journey to becoming a member of the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy. Yuhao, I'll leave now."
After informing Huo Yuhao where he was in the Illustrious Virtue Hall laboratory, he left the house.
"Meng, let's go too; let's not disturb Yuhao." Xiao Hongchen continued to take on the responsibility of protecting his sister.
Meng Hongchen waved her hand and smiled: "Yuhao, if you don't understand anything, just come to me next door."
Huo Yuhao smiled and nodded, then watched the brother and sister walk out of the house before closing the door.
He came to a matte silver-white metal table. His main task was to create a handy soul guide.
He first thought of his most powerful attack method: the Angry Buddha Lotus Flame.
"Can I simplify the current Angry Buddha Lotus Flame, based on the existing foundation—that is, weaken it and make it into bullets for a soul guidance device?"
This way, he wouldn't even have to rub the Angry Buddha Lotus Flame on the way to attack the enemy.
Although the power might be smaller, it has an advantage in quantity.
Whenever he had the time, he could create a few Angry Buddha Lotus Flame version ammunition and directly fill it into the soul guidance device when needed.
With this idea, Huo Yuhao fell into deep thinking about it. While brainstorming, he thought of the terrifying range explosion power of the Angry Buddha Lotus Flame and suddenly thought of a weapon.
"The grenade gun... It seems that I can make a customized version of the Angry Buddha Lotus Flame."
Through some games, anime, and film and television works in his previous life, Huo Yuhao had a certain understanding of this weapon and had once had a strong interest in grenade guns.
However, this time it would not be firing 70 caliber ammunition but using a weakened version of the Angry Buddha Lotus Flame as the explosive bomb for firing.
If this idea could be realized, from a long-term perspective, it would be a high-end version of the grenade gun.
However, Huo Yuhao soon considered a major problem in the production process.
"If I can't engrave the foundation of the array that greatly improves the metal's resistance, it will be difficult to withstand the power of the Angry Buddha Lotus Flame, let alone compress the Angry Buddha Lotus Flame into ammunition."
The most critical aspect of the soul guidance device is the core array.
The ninth-level core array might allow the metal to carry enough power to threaten the Title Douluo.
In other words, he needs to engrave the foundation of the array that enables the metal to bear the Angry Buddha Lotus Flame.
He recalled that when Xiao Yan first condensed the Angry Buddha Lotus Flame (Heavenly Flame + Beast Flame, Dou Qi version), he managed to fight across several levels.
But now, Huo Yuhao had condensed the Angry Buddha Lotus Flame (Heavenly Flame sub-flame + Beast Flame, soul power version), and at the second ring, he could also fight against an ordinary five-ring soul king.
After all, the previous fire lotus had bombarded the Death Messenger, who was at the peak of the four-ring soul sect, to a great extent.
Huo Yuhao murmured: "With this level of power, it is quite challenging to make ammunition suitable for a grenade gun."
Of course, when the Death Messenger first appeared in the original work, he did not have the best soul ring configuration, only a configuration of two yellow and three purple. Thinking about it this way, the significance of bombarding him does not seem very high.
But from another perspective, the Death Messenger was still capable of blowing up the Shrek Seven Devils.
Huo Yuhao sat in front of the metal table and pondered for a long time, rubbing his eyebrows unconsciously.
"Well... the biggest problem now is how to engrave a core array that can allow the metal to bear the power of the Angry Buddha Lotus Flame."
Alternatively, the metal's tolerance limit is the upper limit, and the Angry Buddha Lotus Flame is continuously weakened until the metal can bear it. However, doing so would not align with the art of explosion.
The purpose of creating a grenade gun is to appreciate the aesthetics of continuous explosions. Weakening the power of the Angry Buddha Lotus Flame too much would indeed make it boring.
"Since I don't want to weaken the Angry Buddha Lotus Flame too much, I have to increase the strength of the metal itself and create a qualitative change."
Huo Yuhao continued to think along this line, focusing on raising the upper limit of the metal itself…
Time passed quickly as he thought seriously, and he lost track of time. Suddenly, Huo Yuhao recalled the technology tree of spiritual metal and word battle armor in the third part of the Tang Family Continent.
Soul guidance devices are the precursor technology of battle armor.
The fundamental support for the production of battle armor comes from the metals produced through the so-called hundred-forging purification, thousand-forging spirit, and higher-level spirit forging and soul forging.
The strength of metals produced through forging improves significantly.
This kind of metal, even if at the level of hundred-forging purification, could greatly enhance the power of soul guides.
The voice of Electrolux echoed in his mind: "Yuhao, are you contemplating metallurgy technology?"
Huo Yuhao's expression brightened. In terms of refining, Electrolux can be regarded as the ancestor after all, having refined the super artifact-level Eternal Tower.
"Master Yi, I have an idea called forging. The first stage is also referred to as 100-forging purification."
"Of course, 100-forging purification does not simply mean hammering a hundred times, but rather removing the impurities in the metal to a certain extent, so that the structure and texture of both the exterior and interior of the metal undergo a qualitative transformation."
In Douluo Dalu 3, while some people cannot reach the level of 100-forging purification after thousands of hammerings, others can achieve the same level with just one hammer.
After listening to Huo Yuhao's description of forging, Electrolux smiled amiably: "I understand."
"Haha, it's a kind of refining technique that has entered the realm, not difficult."
Electrolux condensed into a gray human figure outside Huo Yuhao's body: "Yuhao, I say, you can do it."
"Okay." Huo Yuhao nodded heavily, a little excited.
Electrolux laughed and said: "You can use the Heavy Xuan ruler as a forging hammer."
Huo Yuhao took out the Heavy Xuan Ruler.
Under Electrolux's guidance, he placed a piece of titanium on the metal table, released his spirit eye martial soul, swung the Heavy Xuan ruler, and smashed it down.
"Bang."
After a solid strike with the ruler, and following Electrolux's spiritual guidance, he released a trace of soul power and injected it into the titanium. This was an unknown metallurgical technique that Electrolux had mastered during his lifetime.
After mastering the forging rhythm, Huo Yuhao began to strike the titanium continuously. If his soul power was insufficient at any point, he would replenish it with the soul pill.
"Bang bang bang..."
In the boudoir of the next room, Meng Hongchen, who had changed into pure white pajamas adorned with a girlish design, was reading the book "The Ruthless Master Sister Must Graduate," which Huo Yuhao had made for her. She lay on her side on the bed facing the light ball, with a beautiful smile at the corner of her lips.
"Hehe, I knew that those who practice the ruthless way will ultimately become romantic in the end."
Meng Hongchen was engrossed in the story when she suddenly heard strange noises coming from next door. She half-sat up from the bed and gazed at the wall curiously.
"Huh? Why do I keep hearing strange humming sounds from Yuhao? What could he be doing?"
It was already dark, and Huo Yuhao was still swinging the Heavy Xuan Ruler and hitting the metal continuously.
Working late into the night, under Electrolux's guidance, he completed the hundred-forging purification of titanium. If he were not affected by the IQ lock, the difficulty would be quite manageable, especially with the personal guidance from the weapon refiner.
"Yuhao, you will reduce the power of the Angry Buddha Lotus Flame by a portion, and then use this piece of metal to engrave the core array to make ammunition. You should be able to withstand it."
Huo Yuhao's eyes sparkled with excitement, and then he took out a stack of papers and designed the drawings of the explosive gun—the Angry Buddha Lotus Flame version—with great interest.
"Ha, following the tactics of rubbing the flame lotus on the go... the battle skills of using the grenade gun to launch the Angry Buddha Lotus Flame are being born."
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Day 2
(End of this chapter)