Taking the First Step in Soul Tool Technology

Another week passed. Through sparring with his underlings, fighting Soul Beasts in real combat, and competing at the Heaven Dou City Royal Soul Arena, Lin Hao had fully adapted to his current strength.

Long Xiaoyao and the others had also found two suitable Soul Beasts for him: a Golden Horn Python just over five thousand years old, and a Golden Ring Lion-Tiger Beast just over eight thousand five hundred years old.

Both were top-tier Soul Beasts capable of rivaling the Tyrant Gold Bear King. A week apart, Lin Hao completely absorbed both soul rings, and his cultivation ultimately settled at Level 33.

At the same time, he used the immortal herbs and precious medicinal ingredients obtained from the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well to summon a group of special underlings, practically raiding the Peerless Tang Sect's nest. Nearly all of them were people from Peerless Tang Sect!

There were forty in total: three Titled Douluo, nine Soul Douluo, twelve Soul Saints, and sixteen Soul Emperors. They greatly bolstered the mid- and upper-level strength under Lin Hao's command!

The highest-ranked was Jin Peng, a Level 96 Super Douluo and vice sect master of the Body Sect. His Martial Soul was the Martial Soul Torso, and his title was Golden Body!

Of the other two Titled Douluo, one was Cai Meier, Level 95. Her Martial Soul was the Evil Piercing Dragon Soul Spear, and her title was Dragon Spear.

The last was someone Lin Hao found extremely satisfying: Yan Lingji from Nine Songs of Heaven's Moving, Level 93. Her Martial Soul was the Fire Spirit Hairpin, and her title was Lingji!

She was also the only person summoned this time who did not come from the Peerless Tang Sect. Her figure and voice perfectly matched the tastes of an old lecher like Lin Hao, but unfortunately, his body was not up to it right now!

That morning, after finishing his training, Lin Hao returned to Heaven Dou City with Yan Lingji.

He had come to attend the opening ceremony of the Heaven and Earth Commerce Association three days later, officially announcing his arrival to the Douluo Continent!

Rather than returning to the Small Courtyard he had bought, he went straight to the Heaven and Earth Commerce Association to see how preparations were progressing!

With the addition of a batch of fresh manpower during this period, the Heaven and Earth Commerce Association had developed even more smoothly.

They had acquired a warehouse on the outskirts of Heaven Dou City and converted it into a production base!

At present, the Heaven and Earth Commerce Association's main business was Soul Tools. To avoid aiding their enemies, they mainly sold Level 1, 2, and 3 Soul Tools, including both offensive and defensive types!

These Soul Tools were made by the special underlings he had summoned. The special underlings from Douluo II basically all possessed Soul Tool manufacturing skills.

Lin Hao was making full use of everyone. In the early stages, he intended to become an arms dealer in another world.

At the same time, in order to thoroughly establish the Heaven and Earth Commerce Association's reputation and gather a sum of funds along the way, Lin Hao planned to hold a Soul Tool Auction one month later.

At that time, the lowest-grade items allowed into the auction would be Level 5 Soul Tools, while the highest would be Level 8 Soul Tools. There would be two such items, and only two: one offensive and one defensive!

The Heaven and Earth Commerce Association branches in the major cities of the Heaven Dou Empire and its affiliated kingdoms would also open at the same time!

The main reason for this was that too little time had passed, and they did not have many people. Previously, everyone had been rather slow at making Soul Tools!

However, that problem had now been solved. After all, Lin Hao came from the modern world.

He had seen assembly lines before and knew what automated production was. He provided the ideas, while Xian Lin'er and the others led the research. Production equipment had already been developed.

"Young Master, you're here!"

As soon as Lin Hao entered the Heaven and Earth Commerce Association, the middle-aged woman responsible for all affairs in Heaven Dou City hurried over to greet him.

This was Shen Lingmin, one of the special underlings he had summoned during this period. She was a Level 73 auxiliary-system Soul Saint with Level 8 management skills—a truly high-level talent!

During this time, she had not disappointed Lin Hao. With all sorts of marketing and promotional methods, the Heaven and Earth Commerce Association had become famous throughout Heaven Dou City and the surrounding regions!

"Mm. No one has come to cause trouble recently, right?"

Lin Hao nodded slightly and took a look around the first floor. The decor was completely in line with his requirements, and corresponding Soul Tools had already been placed on many of the display shelves!

"No. There are two Soul Douluo in the shop, after all!"

Shen Lingmin shook her head.

"Alright, get back to work. I'll look around."

After saying that, Lin Hao headed for the stairs. The entire shop had five floors. The first three corresponded to the first three levels of Soul Tools.

The fourth floor was for large transactions and purchasing special resources, while the fifth floor was not open to the public!

After taking a quick look around, Lin Hao went downstairs and gave Shen Lingmin a few instructions before taking Yan Lingji to the production base.

He had received word from Xian Lin'er that the automated production line modified according to his ideas was basically complete and was undergoing final revisions and testing!

Xian Lin'er and Cai Meier were, after all, masters of Soul Tool manufacturing with outstanding ability and experience. The two of them had even created a simple control system.

Once they arrived, Lin Hao immediately spotted a mechanical arm that looked very familiar to him.

"Young Master, based on your design, this mechanical arm is the first stage of production and is responsible for feeding in raw materials.

The rest consists of one Soul Tool after another, with functions including metal forging, engraving simple formations, automatic assembly, and so on!"

Led by Xian Lin'er, Lin Hao made a rough circuit of the facility and nodded in great satisfaction.

He then returned to the control console and performed a series of operations according to Xian Lin'er's instructions.

After setting everything up, he watched the mechanical arm lift an ordinary iron ingot weighing over a hundred jin and place it in the forging area.

As the program started, the entire production line began operating. The furnace heated the iron block until it glowed red, after which Soul Tool hammers began repeatedly striking and forging it.

After hundreds of strikes, the entire piece of metal had shrunk considerably and met the requirements for the next step. It then entered the cutting stage.

The metal was cut into different shapes and distributed to different stations, where it was heated and forged once more.

This shaped it into various components, which were then sent to their designated locations!

Workers needed to monitor this stage from the side, because incorrect placement would affect the next step!

The next stage was the engraving of Soul Tool formations. Components of different shapes were sent beneath different Soul Tool engraving pens, where different Soul Tool formations were etched onto them!

It was worth mentioning that these Soul Tool engraving pens needed to be replaced in time, because they had to inject Soul Power into the components!

For that reason, Lin Hao had specifically ordered the development of Soul Tools capable of storing Soul Power. They were somewhat like gas cylinders and served as the energy source for the entire production line!

After the engraving was completed came the final assembly. Lin Hao carefully observed the entire process, and it went extremely smoothly.

He felt that if people monitored each stage and corrected mistakes promptly, the pass rate would be at least above 90 percent.

To be honest, this greatly exceeded Lin Hao's expectations. But once he thought of the state of Douluo tens of thousands of years later, he understood!

It could be said that this was a major step forward for the Heaven and Earth Commerce Association, as well as a major step forward for the entire Douluo Continent!

From feeding in an iron ingot to producing the first Level 1 Soul Tool, the process took about half an hour. That might seem long, but it was still far shorter than doing it by hand!

Lin Hao took out one personally made by Xian Lin'er and compared it with this one.

Its power was somewhat weaker, but in every other respect, its performance was completely identical.