181 Improvemen

This whirlpool compressed his soul power and barely took up any room in hisdantian.

The bitterness had ended and the sweetness began the moment Tang Wulin awoke.

“We should go now.” Due to their one week delay, their one month vacation hadalready passed. In fact, as a teacher, Wu Zhangkong was supposed to report in afew days earlier than students and was already late.

“Teacher Wu, thank you.” Tang Wulin sincerely spoke his thanks as they walkedto the soul train station.

This trip actually wasn’t particularly enriching for him as he spent most ofhis time cultivating, but still, he was bursting with joy.

During this trip in Heaven Dou City, he laid eyes on the sculptures of thealmighty and legendary Tang Sect figures and officially joined the Tang Sect.He also started cultivating two Tang Sect methods; the Mysterious Heaven Methodand the Purple Demon Eyes. In both he had reached a relatively high level andheld a basic comprehension of the two.

He managed to acquire a thousand-year Dragonscale Fruit, one of the fourspirit items he needed and later evolved his spirit soul. Every one of theseevents had been a major event for him.

Although he didn’t know how much his strength had grown, he could feel afundamental change in his entire being.

The Mysterious Heaven Method helped consolidate his understanding of thechanges brought about by his spirit soul’s evolution on his own body.I have athousand-year spirit soul now, a thousand-year spirit soul! I’m probably theonly student in the academy whose first soul ring is at the thousand-year level!

These events solidified his foundation and would aid him as he developed as aSoul Master. Although the timeframe posed some problem to him, especially therisk he faced when it came time to break the second seal, all of this was aproblem for the future. For now, he was developing quite nicely.

“I only showed you the way. The only person you can rely on is yourself.” WuZhangkong said.

Tang Wulin stared, dumbfounded. He clearly remembered his father telling himthe same thing.‘In this world, the only person you can rely on and trust isyourself.’

These words were carved into his heart. He never expected Wu Zhangkong to saysomething so similar.

Yearning welled up in his heart. Mom, dad, where are you? Na’er, where did yougo?

☀

After entering the soul train, Tang Wulin didn’t waste any time andimmediately began meditating. He didn’t let his spirit soul’s evolution get tohis head; he clearly knew how weak his martial soul and innate soul power wereas well as how his cultivation rate lagged behind Xie Xie and Gu Yue.

Soul power was the foundation of all Soul Masters and all he could do was workhard to compensate for what he lacked. His spirit soul had evolved and he wouldsoon become a rank 20 Soul Grandmaster.

Tang Wulin was filled with confidence, now convinced that he would reach thatlevel within the next year or two, depending on his luck. He would become aSoul Grandmaster by the time he turned twelve.

A rank 20 at twelve years old was the definition of genius.

Once they reached Eastsea City and the familiar skyline filled withskyscrapers entered his view, Tang Wulin though he gained an appreciation forthe city. Every city was different and had their own unique character.It’s apity I didn’t get a chance to properly sightsee inside Heaven Dou City. In thefuture, I definitely have to travel the continent and see all the famoussights! Maybe I’ll even travel to the other continents. I wonder what kind ofscenery I’ll see in the other two continents?

“There are still three days left until school resumes. Use this free time foryourself and relax a little.” Even as his words lingered in the air, WuZhangkong was already walking away.

Tang Wulin didn’t immediately return to the dormitory but instead went to theblacksmith’s workshop.

He hadn’t touched the forging hammer for a whole month and his skills werebeginning to rust.I’ll go visit Mu Chen first and accept two tasks to warm upmy forging.

I still owe Teacher Wu over one million coins! I need to pay it back quicklyand earn enough money for the other three items.

He had felt wealthy saving three million but after buying the thousand-yearDragonscale Fruit, he understood just how frighteningly expensive it would beto break through his second seal. He resigned himself to spending every freehour earning money.

If I continue to improve my forging, will I be able to forge my own battlearmor when I have four rings?

The very thought of having a battle armor got his blood pumping. On the roadhome, he recalled Wu Zhangkong’s explanation about battle armors.If I had abattle armor, that Three-Eyed Demon Ape wouldn’t have even stood a chance!

Teacher Wu is so awesome! Tang Wulin had witnessed five of Wu Zhangkong’s sixsoul skills, and though he didn’t really know what the ten-thousand-year soulskill was, the unparalleled might of that slash which killed the Three-EyedDemon Ape was obvious.

Will I be that strong in the future? Tang Wulin had unknowingly placed WuZhangkong as his goal.

Tang Wulin visited the Blacksmith’s Association and immediately went to findMu Chen.

“Teacher, I’m back.”

At the sight of his enthusiastic disciple, Mu Chen cracked a smile. “How areyou? Was your vacation relaxing?” He was the most easy-going among Tang Wulin’steachers. As long as he wasn’t in the middle of teaching, he would reveal awarm temperament.

“I gained a lot from it, but I didn’t have a chance to practice forging thewhole time.” Tang Wulin lowered his head in shame.

Mu Chen let out a hearty laugh. “You’re such an honest child. Don’t worryabout it so much; relaxing is also a part of cultivating. Once you reach acertain level of forging, practicing constantly is no longer as important asaccumulating and consolidating your experiences.”

“Dad, you’re too nice to him. Why didn’t you let me go out and play during myvacation? You made me forge every day,” a familiar voice whined. Mu Xi enteredthe room with a pouting face.

Mu Chen said, “When your own forging level is as good as Tang Wulin’s, thenyou can have a vacation too.”

“Hmph!” Mu Xi shot a glare at Tang Wulin before stomping out.

Tang Wulin was at a loss as to how to deal with his senior disciple sister’shostility.She really is unbridled.

“This kid…” Mu Chen knit his brows. He understood the competitive nature ofhis daughter but he never thought about correcting it. It was a virtue foryoungsters to have such a personality. A competitive heart would drive one towork harder.

Mu Xi definitely made Tang Wulin her goal, otherwise she wouldn’t have actedlike that. This is good, but it’s a pity that her rival is a little freak likeWulin. It won’t be easy for her to surpass him!

“You’ve just returned; go rest first. But let me warn you, your training willbe even more rigorous from now on, so prepare yourself. Since you have threedays until school resumes, use one day to rest and return to learn the othertwo days.”

“Yes.” The lack of any admonition set Tang Wulin at ease, but still, heresolved himself.I can’t let Teacher down!

After leaving Mu Chen’s office, Tang Wulin went to accept two rank threeblacksmith tasks before returning to the workshop.

He had meditated the entire ride home so he wasn’t tired at all and planned oncompleting these two assignments before he went to learn from Mu Chen. Theywould count as a warm-up and prevent his hands from being shaky when he waswith Mu Chen.

He adjusted the forging table, set the metal down, and began forging.

He became more comfortable with the Thousand Refined Heavy Silver Hammers astime passed and was surprised to discover the truth in Mu Chen’s words. Hehadn’t simply said them to comfort Tang Wulin. After a month away from forging,the process he made was actually going more smoothly than before. He couldeasily sense the fine changes within the metal and its spirit now.

Tang Wulin had assumed he would produce a failed product the first time as hereadjusted himself to forging, but contrary to his expectations the entireprocess flowed smoothly. Every chunk of metal was Thousand Refined successfullyand was of an even higher quality than before the vacation. With the aid of thePurple Demon Eyes, his efficiency had also increased by fifty percent. His soulpower had also increased, and aided by the compression due to the MysteriousHeaven Method, he now possessed more stamina to forge for longer lengths oftime.

This was a markedly pleasant surprise. In the past, he could only ThousandRefine two chunks of metal in a row, but now he could work with four and end upwith even higher quality results.

Regardless of whether they were Hundred Refined or Thousand Refined, therewere several grades assigned to the quality. There were three grades forHundred Refined: low, medium and high. The Thousand Refined had five gradestotal with first grade at the top and fifth grade at the bottom.