After listening to Yun Ming, Yun Ze wiped the bump swelling on his head and said,
"Let's have fewer tests like that, please."
Yun Ming looked at Yun Ze and said,
"All right. I'll treat your injuries once we get back to the academy."
Yun Ze asked curiously,
"Father, look at these injuries. If Mother sees them, will you still be able to sit at the table?"
Yun Ming shuddered at that and said irritably,
"If she sees them, I'll be the one on the table."
After saying that, Yun Ming led Yun Ze toward Shrek Academy.
Yun Ze suddenly asked curiously,
"By the way, Father, what was going on with those Evil Soul Masters we met on the way here?"
Yun Ming shook his head and said,
"It was just a coincidence. You and the Soul Guidance Train were simply fated to run into trouble. It was your first time riding one, and you ran into something like this."
"Those Evil Soul Masters were members of a small gang. The Federation caught their leader a few days ago."
"Now you've run into them, and they've been caught too. The whole gang's together again, and they'll be shot before long."
Yun Ze nodded and said with a sigh,
"The Federation's criminal laws are harsh, but they don't seem to be all that effective. Terrorist attacks still happen from time to time."
Yun Ming sighed and said,
"The era ten thousand years ago was too primitive. The Sun Moon Empire oppressed the three kingdoms that originally belonged to the Douluo Continent, and Shrek Academy was deeply troubled as well."
"When the times were turbulent, no one had time to carefully study whether each Martial Soul was evil, or whether an evil attribute could affect someone's temperament."
"People could only rely on experience, and even on the belief that it was better to be safe than sorry, when dealing with Evil Soul Masters."
"That created an unbridgeable divide between ordinary Soul Masters and those with dark Martial Souls. It was a divide forged in blood."
"Even after thousands of years, it still hasn't been fully bridged."
Yun Ze sighed and said,
"That era really was primitive. We can't entirely blame ordinary Soul Masters, since the actions of Evil Soul Masters were genuinely unpredictable."
"Some would slaughter an entire village just for a meal, while others would kill thousands of infants to further their cultivation."
"People like that, in those war-torn times, would have had to be eliminated as quickly as possible. Even I would have chosen to do so."
Yun Ming nodded and said to Yun Ze,
"You were born in a relatively peaceful era. I hope that if you become strong enough one day, you'll try to bridge the divide between dark Martial Souls and ordinary Soul Masters."
Yun Ze smiled and shook his head.
"That's not something one person could ever accomplish."
Even by Douluo IV, that man surnamed Qiangu hadn't achieved it by himself. He'd done it through the power of an organization.
And that was a full ten thousand years later, in a much more peaceful age. This era seemed far more peaceful on the surface, but there were still turbulent undercurrents.
Yun Ming said,
"Let's not talk about that. When we get back, after the healing-type Soul Master I find has treated your injuries..."
"You need to think carefully about what to choose as your second profession, and decide which cultivation method you want to practice."
"We've discussed this before. You don't want to join the Tang Sect, but the Mysterious Heaven Skill is actually the best fit for you. The qualities of your Martial Souls conflict with one another, so a balanced and gentle cultivation method could help harmonize them."
Yun Ze replied,
"As long as my spiritual power is strong enough and I can control each Martial Soul precisely, there's no such thing as conflicting qualities between Martial Souls."
Yun Ming smiled, then said to Yun Ze,
"You certainly have the same confidence in yourself I had when I was young."
After returning to Shrek Academy, Yun Ze searched carefully through the books in the Inner Court's library.
In the end, he settled on a meditation method called Battle to Heaven Standing. It was said to have been left behind by a Limit Douluo senior who had devoted himself to cultivating battle qi.
Yun Ze only had to recite it once for his blood and qi to surge through the pathways it described, alongside his Soul Power.
It was clearly an excellent fit for his body.
After a night of careful consideration, Yun Ze decided to study both forging and design as his secondary professions.
Yun Ming had initially rejected the idea, but Yun Ze memorized an entire reference manual for first-level designers in a single night.
In the end, Yun Ming decided to let him try it his own way.
His forging teacher was naturally Feng Wuyu, a well-known figure in the original story.
As for his teacher in Mecha design, that was Cai Yonghong, the head of Shrek's Mecha Designer Association.
She was a character who hadn't appeared in the original story. She was roughly a level-ninety-six Super Douluo and a ninth-level Mecha Designer.
This ninth-level Mecha Designer had a special skill: designing Battle Armor for those with Twin Martial Souls or multi-attribute Martial Souls.
It was said that most of the Battle Armor designs for Twin Martial Soul Soul Masters at Shrek Academy had come from her, at least in part.
She had a great deal of genuine expertise in the study of Martial Soul rhythms. Yun Ze was often left stunned by the specialized knowledge she shared.
Under the guidance of these two teachers, Yun Ze's secondary professions advanced rapidly.
Yun Ze really did have a gift for it. After only a year, he could already manage Thousand Refinement forging.
Yun Ze spent a year becoming proficient in Hundred Refinement. Once he had mastered the theory behind forging, Feng Wuyu put him through a round of intensive training.
Then he prepared to have Yun Ze forge his own first pair of forging hammers.
The forging material Feng Wuyu chose for Yun Ze was quite special.
It was a rare metal called Dragon-Patterned Blood Gold.
Despite having "dragon" in its name, it had nothing to do with dragons. It was a reddish, metal-like substance excavated from meteorites.
It had been given its name because its natural patterns resembled a coiling five-clawed dragon. It was an extremely scarce, nonrenewable resource.
Its most distinctive trait was its ability to create a magnetic field that opposed its owner's state of mind.
When its owner was agitated, it would soothe their emotions. If they were hesitant, it would bolster their resolve.
It was like a clever little lackey, naturally imbued with a touch of spirit.
But for that very reason, taming it was extremely difficult.
Almost no forger was willing to take on a job involving this metal.
Feng Wuyu had set this test for Yun Ze for several reasons. As Yun Ze's cultivation grew, the battle spirit brought on by his Twin Spear Martial Soul became increasingly powerful.
Too much of anything was bad. If that battle spirit became excessive, it could turn into recklessness, so having a metal object that could balance his state of mind would be a good thing.
Yun Ze took a deep breath. He was already a level-twenty Soul Grandmaster, and handling a Thousand Refinement was no problem at all.
The real challenge was his state of mind...
Before you continue