Forging!

The moon had sunk to the middle of the sky, and the rising sun was about to appear. Time passed without a trace, and the night quickly went by.

As the Soul Power within him gradually settled, Xu Tianyang's consciousness slowly awakened as well. At that moment, he felt that his mind had never been clearer. He recalled most of the hazy memories from his previous life, and his whole being seemed to have been fitted with a new CPU. His thoughts were terrifyingly quick.

"Ah~"

"Official cultivation feels really great!"

Xu Tianyang rose to his feet, stretched lazily, and exhaled a breath of stale air. His eyes were filled with delight. After a night of cultivation, he had not only completely mastered the newly awakened Soul Power in his body, but he had also pleasantly discovered that his daily Morning Lesson had not been pointless.

Although he did not understand the deeper meanings of the Taoist Classics from his previous life, they possessed a peculiar effect that could imperceptibly strengthen his Spiritual Power. They could be considered a rudimentary method of spiritual cultivation.

Praise the Three Pure Ones!

Creak—

The door opened, and Mu Mengyu walked in with a smile, looking curiously at her energetic son.

"Mother!"

"I never expected your first cultivation session to last an entire night. That truly exceeded my expectations."

Cultivation was tedious, and once one began, one could not move about carelessly. Otherwise, it was easy to slip out of the meditative state.

Once one's thoughts became disordered, the effect of sensing Heaven and Earth Origin Power would be greatly reduced. Cultivation speed would naturally slow as well. Moreover, cultivation was not like sleeping, where one could simply close one's eyes and have time pass in an instant.

When cultivating, Soul Masters could clearly feel the passage of time. In other words, however long one cultivated was equivalent to however long one sat still.

For those who could not settle down, being able to cultivate for two hours a day was already asking a lot.

And cultivation had to begin early. The earlier one cultivated, the better the results. Yet childhood was often the hardest time to calm one's mind, so effective daily cultivation time was extremely limited.

That was when Innate Soul Power and resources came into play.

The difference in cultivation speed between Soul Masters was enormous. Huo Gua, for example, had only Level 1 Innate Soul Power. After awakening his martial soul, he cultivated desperately, yet he only reached Level 10 when he was nearly twelve.

Wang Dong, who was the same age, cultivated whenever she felt like it, yet she was already a Level 21 Soul Grandmaster when she enrolled.

Dai Huabin, Ning Tian, and other talents from the same class who possessed both natural talent and abundant resources had even cultivated to the rank of Soul Elder.

And this gap would only grow wider in the future.

However, none of that had anything to do with Xu Tianyang. He belonged to the latter group. He had talent and backing. Level 99 would not be his endpoint.

Xu Tianyang did not explain much. He did not possess a child's temperament to begin with, and he had this much self-control.

Mu Mengyu did not dwell on it either. Xu Tianyang had always been very independent-minded. Before the age of six, he had often shut himself away in the Library. Though she was somewhat surprised that he could endure the tedium of cultivation now, that was all.

"This is medicinal cuisine specially prepared by the palace. Although your father and I have decided not to give you medicinal pills to assist your cultivation, you still need to eat this nourishing medicinal cuisine. Soul Power is important for a Soul Master, but a strong physique is equally vital." Mu Mengyu beckoned, and a beautiful maid entered carrying a bowl of fragrant, somewhat thick soup.

Xu Tianyang did not hesitate. He picked up the bowl of medicinal cuisine, made from who knew what ingredients, and gulped it all down.

The moment the medicinal cuisine entered his stomach, he immediately felt streams of warmth flow from his stomach into his limbs and bones.

Sensing the medicinal power in his body that had yet to be fully absorbed, Xu Tianyang turned and headed to a side hall. The hall was practically a small Soul Tool laboratory. After arriving in the Sun Moon Empire, Xu Tianyang had naturally done more than a little research into the black technology of the Douluo World.

Stopping beside a metal platform about half a meter tall, Xu Tianyang skillfully picked up a small metal hammer in each hand. The handles were about a foot long, while the cylindrical hammerheads were half a foot long and weighed around thirty pounds. Though such hammers would be difficult for an ordinary six-year-old child to even move, he wielded them with ease.

He took out a metal block and placed it on the Forging table. Then, Xu Tianyang swung his right-hand hammer and smashed it down onto the round piece of metal.

Bang!

A piercing metallic boom rang out. As though he never tired, Xu Tianyang worked both hands at once and began hammering without pause.

Bang, bang, bang.

Mu Mengyu was already used to watching her son's movements. She had no objections to him learning Forging. Forging could strengthen the body and was indeed a fine form of exercise in the early stages, so long as he did not become too engrossed in it.

The creation of Soul Tools did require many precious metals, some of which had to be processed by high-level craftsmen before they could meet performance requirements.

However, high-level Soul Engineers generally did not immerse themselves in Forging. Whenever they needed materials, they usually bought them from the market.

Xu Tianyang had learned Forging because he wanted to see whether he could create the living metals from Douluo Three. Knowing the future of Soul Tools, he naturally coveted Soul Tool Mechas and the terrifying Battle Armor.

As for whether he could succeed, that was not within his considerations. The hardest part of scientific research was the process from zero to one. As long as he could forge metal with such characteristics, the Sun Moon Empire would naturally have no shortage of research fanatics to study it in the direction of Battle Armor and Soul Tool Mechas.

For now, he was merely familiarizing himself with the basics. In the future, he would certainly establish a specialized research team to study this subject.

Bang!!!

As the hammer continued to strike, Xu Tianyang began to sweat. By the three-hundredth strike, his arms had started to feel sore and swollen. As he continued, that soreness finally turned into pain.

By then, he was drenched in sweat, his clothes clinging to his body as droplets continuously fell from him. Yet during this process, the wandering warmth within his body had vanished without him even noticing.

"Tired, aren't you? I've already had Xiao Rou prepare the bathwater. You're covered in sweat, so go take a bath first."

At some point, Mu Mengyu had come to Xu Tianyang's side. The instant he put down his forging hammers, she gently wiped the sweat from his forehead with a towel made of Hundred Year Ice Silkworm Silk.

Xiao Rou was the maid from earlier. She had served Mu Mengyu for ten years and had watched Xu Tianyang grow up.

"Thank you, Mother!"

Xu Tianyang nodded and accepted the towel from Mu Mengyu. He casually wiped away the sweat on his body, then looked at the piece of Hundred Refined Steel on the Forging table and shook his head. Forging metal with spirituality was still a long road ahead.

He probably would not have much time to immerse himself in it from now on. He should leave the rest to those madmen at the Research Institute.

He believed those research fanatics were more suited than he was to studying the path of Forging.