After leaving the Star Dou Great Forest, the sky had yet to darken, which meant less than thirty minutes had passed outside.
With a little time left, Tang Heng took Golden Lion to the Spirit Ascension Platform.
Like the Spirit Ascension Platform in the Douluo Plane, this one was also divided into three levels: primary, intermediate, and advanced.
Although you could revive after dying, items didn't stay with you when you died. He had a lot more valuable things on him now than when he'd first started, and picking them all up one by one after losing them would be a hassle.
Most importantly, after dying, you couldn't return to where you'd been. You had to re-enter from outside the Spirit Ascension Platform.
Each time, you spawned at random coordinates, which made retrieving your belongings even more troublesome.
Tang Heng chose to go to the Primary Spirit Ascension Platform and practice first.
After entering the Primary Spirit Ascension Platform, he spawned beside a waterfall. Nearby, a lake merged with the waterfall, lush with aquatic plants and teeming with fish.
At the far end of the lake, the outlet became a winding river, and the water flowed along its channel into the distance.
Some sugar cane and bamboo grew beside the lake. As a veteran My World player, Tang Heng wasn't about to pass up these basic resources. He broke them all off and stuffed them into his inventory.
Perhaps because it was a water source, Tang Heng hadn't been there long before he encountered plenty of Soul Beasts that had come to drink.
Most had strength ranging from a few decades to a few centuries of cultivation. There were all kinds, but none were especially powerful. He could kill most of them with a single swipe.
Unlike in the Overworld, where killing Soul Beasts increased Soul Power, killing them in the Spirit Ascension Platform only increased mental power and Soul Ring age.
The gains were small, but even a mosquito's leg was meat.
Each visit to the Spirit Ascension Platform in the Douluo Plane cost a lot of money. Later on, the intermediate and advanced platforms would be so expensive that ordinary people might not even be able to get in.
These were precious resources, so he had to make good use of them.
Tang Heng silently kept track of his lunch break while taking Golden Lion on a rampage through the Primary Spirit Ascension Platform.
In the Minecraft Plane, Golden Lion had temporarily gained a physical body. Its two-meter-long frame was packed with explosive muscle.
The two were of one mind. Tang Heng rode on Golden Lion, holding a Wooden Puppet in his left hand and an Iron Spear in his right. Wind Baboons and the like were pierced five at a time, their energy flowing into the pair of them.
[Mental power +0.01] [Mental power +0.009] [Mental power +0.02] ...
In just half a day, Tang Heng's mental power had increased by nearly five points, while Golden Lion had gained over three hundred years of cultivation.
And that was in the Primary Spirit Ascension Platform, where he hadn't encountered many Hundred-Year Soul Beasts. Most of the Soul Beasts he fought had only cultivated for a few decades.
Perhaps because he'd added the SlashBlade mod, killing Soul Beasts had dropped quite a few Soul Orbs. These were essential materials for crafting higher-tier SlashBlades later on.
After exiting the Spirit Ascension Platform, Tang Heng put all the Soul Orbs he'd collected that day into a chest.
He took out the bamboo he'd cut by the lake and crafted another Wooden Puppet.
Using the brand-new Wooden Puppet and bamboo, Tang Heng successfully crafted the Nameless Blade [Bamboo Light].
[Bamboo Light] dealt slightly more damage than the Wooden Puppet and had a little more durability, but it still lacked the flashy special moves of the divine blades that came later.
"I can craft Silver Paper Bamboo Light now, but can I forge it using rare metals from Douluo?"
Now that the two planes were connected, he needed to experiment as much as possible. He might discover some new ways to play.
Tang Heng put Bamboo Light in his inventory, then left My World with a thought and returned to the little grove he'd just been in.
"Ding, ding, ding—"
The school bell rang just then, and Tang Heng hurried back to the classroom.
He was a few minutes late, but the teacher didn't scold him. She just told him to hurry back to his seat and left it at that.
The afternoon classes were dull, all about basic Soul Master knowledge.
Soon it was time to go home. As soon as the bell rang, Tang Wulin grabbed Tang Heng and ran out, apparently unable to wait any longer.
On the way, Tang Heng stopped at a little supermarket and bought some chocolate, since Na'er had seemed to like it yesterday.
"We're back!"
The door swung open. Hearing the noise, a little silver-haired girl hurried to the entryway and flung herself into Tang Heng's arms.
"Welcome home, Brother Heng~"
"And me! Don't forget me!"
Na'er smiled and let go, then walked over to Tang Wulin and gave him a big hug too.
"Here, I bought this for you."
Na'er took the chocolate from Tang Heng, overjoyed. She rose onto her toes and lightly kissed him on the cheek.
"Thanks, big brother!"
By the time he came back to himself, Na'er had already run back to the kitchen, leaving a string of laughter as clear as silver bells behind her.
"Mm... Big brother, you're so sly. No wonder you went out of your way to buy chocolate." Tang Wulin puffed out his cheeks and stared at him like a pufferfish.
Tang Heng smiled and ruffled Tang Wulin's hair hard, then told him to get on with his homework.
"Big brother, aren't you going to do your homework?"
"The teacher exempted me. She said I just need to focus on cultivation."
"That's not fair!"
"Hahaha, come talk to me about fairness when you can beat me."
Tang Wulin went off to do his homework, looking unhappy. Tang Heng used going for a stroll as an excuse, found an empty corner, and entered My World.
This time, he wasn't going to increase his Soul Power just yet. He planned to build himself a new house.
Living in the blacksmith's shop forever wasn't an option, and Tang Heng had been pretty good at construction in his previous life. Building a simple house wouldn't be difficult.
He quickly sorted through the building materials in his chest and got to work.
He picked a spot, laid the foundation...
Quite a few villagers came over to watch, gathering together to see Tang Heng build a house beside their village.
"Hm-hm-hm?" "Mm-hm-hm-hm." "Hm-hm!"
The villagers seemed to be talking among themselves, but Tang Heng couldn't understand their village chatter and wasn't interested anyway.
Then a stone mason villager approached and showed him his trade offer:
64 emeralds for one piece of dyed terracotta.
So they were figuring out how to fleece me, huh?
Tang Heng promptly drew Bamboo Light and pressed its tip against the swindler's neck.
"Hm-hm-hm!"
The stone mason dropped the terracotta and ran for his life.
What kind of swindler village is this? Every last one of them's trying to rip me off. Once I've built some streetlights, I'll hang you all from them.
After a couple of warnings, the gawking villagers scattered like startled birds and beasts.
The village's Iron Golem came over too and patrolled around Tang Heng's little house, driving away the Zombies and skeletons that tried to hurt him at night.
To show his gratitude, Tang Heng gave the Iron Golem a few Iron Ingots each time he completed a stage of construction.
After eating the Iron Ingots, the scars on the Iron Golem quickly disappeared, and the health it had lost fighting the Zombies was restored.
"Hmm—"
The Iron Golem somehow pulled a Poppy from nowhere and handed it to Tang Heng.
Tang Heng took the red flower and held it beneath his nose, breathing in its fragrance. The refreshing scent made him feel at ease, body and soul.
"Thanks, Brother Iron."
He planted the Poppy in the flower bed in front of the house and went on building, day and night.
At last, he finished the construction at sunrise on the third day.
"Phew, just a simple little country cottage."
Looking at his creation, Tang Heng felt a sense of accomplishment well up inside him. Perhaps because it had become real, the satisfaction he felt was especially strong.
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