The Problem Was Most Likely with the Materials!

Lou Gao's eyes erupted with immense joy. He carefully held up the Fine Iron Plate engraved with a Soul Tool Array by his own hand as though it were a priceless treasure.

Though it was merely an experimental piece, this groundbreaking first step carried immeasurable significance!

"Xiao Xia, look! It worked! We succeeded in the first step!"

Lou Gao's voice trembled with excitement, and his face was filled with uncontrollable delight.

Lin Xia felt his heart pounding fiercely, his eyes equally full of anticipation.

"Teacher, try it!"

Lou Gao nodded heavily and impatiently picked up an ordinary Iron Ore about the size of a fist that had been set aside for testing.

Taking a deep breath, Lou Gao slowly poured Soul Power into the Fine Iron Plate engraved with the Magic Array while bringing the Mineral Ore close to the center of the array.

Under their tense gazes, a miracle occurred!

The instant the Mineral Ore touched the light of the Magic Array, it seemed to be swallowed by invisible space. With a whoosh, it vanished without a trace!

"Hahahaha! It worked! It really worked! Storage! Spatial storage!"

Lou Gao was instantly overjoyed. The immense excitement nearly made him jump up like a child, and his face shone with an unprecedented sense of accomplishment.

The mystery of Soul Tools that had plagued him for more than ten days—perhaps even longer—had finally been uncovered by his own hands!

However, at the very moment Lou Gao was drowned in ecstasy, Lin Xia keenly sensed that something was wrong.

After the Mineral Ore vanished, the Soul Power Fluctuation on the Fine Iron Plate did not stabilize. Instead, it flickered violently once before rapidly dimming. The glow of the Magic Array's lines also became extremely faint, even carrying a vaguely unstable sense of "depletion."

"Teacher!"

Lin Xia's heart tightened, and he immediately called out in urgent warning.

"Quick! Try to see if you can take that Mineral Ore back out?!"

Lin Xia's shout pulled Lou Gao back to reality, and the smile on his face instantly froze.

Only then did Lou Gao realize that he had overlooked the most crucial step—retrieval!

What kind of Storage Soul Tool was it if it could only store things but not retrieve them?

A sense of foreboding instantly surged through Lou Gao's heart.

Lou Gao hurriedly mobilized his Soul Power again and focused his mind, attempting to connect with the array space inside the Fine Iron Plate and retrieve the Mineral Ore he had just stored.

As Soul Power entered it, the lines of the Magic Array faintly lit up once more, but the light was incredibly dim, like the last ember of a candle in the wind.

Lou Gao's Spiritual Power desperately searched through the faint spatial nodes formed by the Magic Array, sensing... Yet no matter how hard he tried, the vanished Mineral Ore was like a stone sinking into the sea, nowhere to be found!

The air in the Forge Room seemed to freeze.

The wild joy from moments ago was like a fire doused with a bucket of icy water, extinguished in an instant.

"No... it's gone?"

The color rapidly drained from Lou Gao's face, his eyes full of shock, confusion, and immense disappointment.

Lou Gao tried repeatedly, even increasing his Soul Power output, but the Magic Array on the Fine Iron Plate merely flickered a few times as though it had poor contact, then gave no further response.

It felt as if he had just opened an extremely unstable Space Crack that had collapsed in an instant. The Mineral Ore had been thrown into unknown Void Turbulence, and there was no stable "space" for him to retrieve it from.

"Failed..."

Lou Gao's voice was dry and heavy with frustration as he stared blankly at the Fine Iron Plate in his hand, which seemed to have lost all its spirituality.

"How could this be... The Magic Array was clearly engraved, and it successfully sent the object away... Why... why can't I retrieve it?"

The enormous contrast left Lou Gao briefly lost.

He had clearly seen the dawn of success, only to fall into the abyss when it was within reach.

Seeing his teacher's despondent appearance, Lin Xia furrowed his brows, but his mind was racing.

Lin Xia forced himself to calm down and began searching through fragmented memories for deeper knowledge regarding Soul Tool creation.

Vague impressions from his previous life, scattered mentions from the original work, and the understanding he had accumulated through his research during this time rapidly came together and formed deductions in his mind like puzzle pieces.

First step: design and conception—they had completed this. Lou Gao had perfectly replicated the Core Array of a Storage Soul Tool.

Second step: material preparation and metal forging—Lin Xia's gaze suddenly locked onto the ordinary Fine Iron Plate in Lou Gao's hand! A crucial point struck him like lightning!

"Materials!"

Lin Xia blurted out, his voice carrying the excitement of sudden realization.

"Teacher! The problem was most likely with the materials!"

Lou Gao abruptly looked up at Lin Xia, his gaze shifting from confusion to focused inquiry.

Lin Xia strode forward and pointed at the Fine Iron Plate, analyzing rapidly:

"Teacher, look! The metal we used is merely ordinary Fine Iron! Although you forged and purified it perfectly, it is neither a special metal capable of effectively conducting and storing Soul Power, nor, more importantly, does it contain any Space Attribute at all!"

Lin Xia pointed to the dim Magic Array patterns.

"The core of a Storage Soul Tool is the creation of a stable subspace or spatial node! The Magic Array is needed to guide and construct it, but the 'foundation' and 'container' for building that space must be the metal itself!"

"Ordinary Fine Iron simply does not possess the fundamental properties needed to bear Space Power! Its structure, its affinity for Soul Power, and especially its compatibility with spatial laws are all far too inadequate!"

Lin Xia recalled the crucial steps of Soul Tool creation in his mind.

"The third step is engraving the Core Array. You succeeded at that, Teacher—you engraved the Magic Array onto the metal—but this metal simply cannot bear it stably!"

"The result is that the space collapses instantly. Naturally, the stored item is lost, and it may even have been torn apart by spatial turbulence!"

"The Magic Array itself was also damaged because its vessel could not withstand the power, making it impossible to activate stably again!"

Lin Xia's tone was resolute:

"So failure was almost inevitable! The metal we used was fundamentally incompatible with a Space Array! It's like using mud to build a dam that needs precision and pressure resistance—it was destined to collapse!"

As Lou Gao listened to Lin Xia's clear and organized analysis, the confusion in his eyes was swiftly replaced by realization and an even deeper gravity.

After all, Lou Gao was a Divine Craftsman. One hint was all he needed.

He carefully examined the Fine Iron Plate in his hand, sensing the nearly vanished Soul Power Fluctuation and the deathly silence of the Magic Array lines, and thoroughly understood the root of the problem.

"So that's how it is... So that's how it is!"

Lou Gao let out a heavy sigh, the disappointment on his face replaced by an intense thirst for knowledge.

"This old man had it wrong!"

Lou Gao looked at Lin Xia with eyes full of appreciation and gratification.

"Xiao Xia, your analysis is absolutely right! The key to this problem lies in the materials! We need not only special metals capable of bearing Soul Power, but also... materials containing Space Attributes!"

Lou Gao rubbed his chin, his thick brows tightly furrowed as he fell into thought.

"Materials containing Space Attributes... Those are truly rare! Star Sand? Void Stone? Those are all legendary items, things one may encounter but cannot seek! In Gengjin City's storerooms... there seems to be a record that a tiny amount of Star Sand powder was stored there years ago? I wonder whether it is still there..."