Rare Metal, SlashBlade Upgrade (Seeking Reads)

Emerging from the Star Dou Great Forest, the sky had yet to darken, indicating that less than thirty minutes had passed on the outside.

With a little time remaining, Tang Heng took the Golden Lion to the Spirit Ascension Platform.

Similar to the Spirit Ascension Platform in the Douluo plane, this one was also divided into three tiers: Primary, Intermediate, and Advanced.

Although one could be resurrected after death, there was no "keep inventory upon death" rule here. Since he had far more valuable items on him now than when he first started, it would be a hassle to lose them and have to pick them up one by one.

Most importantly, one could not return to the original point after death; one had to re-enter from outside the Spirit Ascension Platform.

Every entry resulted in a random spawn coordinate, making corpse retrieval even more troublesome.

Tang Heng chose to head to the Primary Spirit Ascension Platform to warm up first.

Upon entering the Primary Spirit Ascension Platform, he spawned beside a waterfall. Nearby was a lake integrated with the falls, lush with aquatic plants and teeming with schools of fish.

The outlet at the end of the lake turned into a winding river, with the lake water rushing toward the distance along the riverbed.

Sugarcane and bamboo grew by the lakeside. As a veteran player of My World, he certainly wouldn't pass up these basic resources, so he harvested them all and stuffed them straight into his backpack.

Perhaps because it was a water source, Tang Heng hadn't been there long before he encountered quite a few soul beasts coming to drink.

Most of their strength ranged from a few decades to a few hundred years. They were diverse in species, with no particularly powerful entities; he could basically kill one with a single swipe of his claw.

Unlike the Overworld where soul power increased, killing soul beasts in the Spirit Ascension Platform only increased mental power and soul ring age.

Though the amount was small, even a mosquito's leg is meat.

Entering the Spirit Ascension Platform in the Douluo plane cost a lot of money, and for the later Intermediate and Advanced tiers, ordinary people might not even be able to get in even if they had the money.

This was a precious resource that had to be utilized well.

Tang Heng silently calculated his lunch break time while leading the Golden Lion to wreak havoc in the Primary Spirit Ascension Platform.

In the MC plane, the Golden Lion briefly gained a physical body, its two-meter-long frame filled with explosive, muscular power.

The two shared a telepathic connection. Tang Heng rode directly on the Golden Lion, wielding a Wooden Puppet in his left hand and an Iron Spear in his right. Wind Baboons and their ilk were skewered five at a time by a single spear thrust, all turning into energy that flowed into their bodies.

[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, and the Golden Lion had gained over three hundred years of cultivation.

And this was still in the Primary Spirit Ascension Platform, where he hadn't encountered many hundred-year soul beasts, mostly just low-level ones with a few decades of cultivation.

Perhaps because the SlashBlade mod had been added, a fair number of Soul Orbs dropped when killing soul beasts, which were one of the essential materials needed for synthesizing higher-tier SlashBlades later on.

After exiting the Spirit Ascension Platform, Tang Heng placed all the Soul Orbs collected today into a chest.

He took out the bamboo he had cut by the lake earlier and crafted a new Wooden Puppet.

Using the brand-new Wooden Puppet and the bamboo, Tang Heng successfully forged the Nameless Blade [Bamboo Light].

The damage of [Bamboo Light] was slightly higher than the Wooden Puppet, and its durability was also slightly improved, though it still lacked the various fancy SE sword moves of the divine weapons that followed.

"The Silver Paper Bamboo Light can be synthesized, but I wonder if it can be forged using rare metals from Douluo?"

Since he was connecting two planes, he had to experiment more; perhaps he would discover new ways to play.

Putting the Bamboo Light into his backpack, Tang Heng moved his mind and exited My World, returning to the small grove from earlier.

"Ding-ding-ding--"

The school bell rang right on time, and Tang Heng hurried toward the classroom.

Although he was a few minutes late, the teacher didn't reprimand him, simply telling Tang Heng to return to his seat quickly without saying anything else.

The afternoon classes were dry and tedious, consisting of basic knowledge about soul masters.

Soon it was time for school to end. As soon as the bell rang, Tang Wulin pulled Tang Heng and ran out; it seemed he was already impatient.

On the way, they passed a small supermarket, and Tang Heng went in to buy some chocolate, as Na'er had seemed to like it quite a bit yesterday.

"We're home!"

The door was pushed open, and a small silver-haired figure heard the commotion and ran quickly to the entryway, rushing into Tang Heng's arms.

"Welcome back, Brother Heng~"

"What about me, what about me!"

Na'er smiled, let go, walked up to Tang Wulin, and returned the gesture with a big hug.

"Here, I bought this for you."

Na'er took the chocolate from Tang Heng's hand, overjoyed, and stood on her tiptoes to lightly peck Tang Heng on the cheek.

"Thank you, Brother!"

By the time he came to his senses, Na'er had already run back to the kitchen, leaving behind a trail of bell-like laughter.

"Ugh... Brother is so cunning, no wonder you went out of your way to buy chocolate." Tang Wulin pouted and stared at him, looking just like an inflated pufferfish.

Tang Heng laughed, ruffled Tang Wulin's hair vigorously, and told him to go do his homework.

"Brother, aren't you going to do your homework?"

"The teacher exempted me; he told me to focus on my cultivation instead."

"That's not fair!"

"Hahaha, come talk to me about fairness once you can actually beat me."

Tang Wulin went off to do his homework, looking quite reluctant. Tang Heng made an excuse to go for a stroll, found a secluded corner, and entered My World.

He didn't plan on raising his soul power this time; instead, he intended to build himself a new house.

Living in the blacksmith shop forever wasn't a long-term solution, and since Tang Heng had been quite proficient in architecture in his past life, building a simple house wasn't a difficult task.

After quickly organizing the building materials in his chests, he got straight to work.

Planning the site, laying the foundation...

Quite a few villagers from the village came over to watch, gathering together to observe Tang Heng building a house right next to their village.

"Hmm-hmmm?" "Hmm-hmm-hmm-hmmm." "Hmph-hmm-hmm!"

The villagers seemed to be conversing, but Tang Heng couldn't understand their villager-speak, nor was he interested.

That was until a mason villager walked up to him and displayed his trade menu:

64 Emeralds for one piece of stained terracotta.

So, they were trying to figure out how to scam him, were they?

Tang Heng decisively drew [Bamboo Light], the tip of the blade resting against the throat of this profiteer.

"Hmm-hmmm!"

The mason dropped the terracotta and ran off as fast as his legs could carry him.

"Am I in some kind of scammer village? Everyone is so crooked. Once I build some streetlamps, I'm going to hang you all up on them."

After issuing a warning, the crowd of onlookers scattered like birds and beasts.

The Iron Golem from the village also walked over, patrolling around Tang Heng's small house and driving away the Zombies and Skeletons that tried to harm Tang Heng at night.

To show his gratitude, every time Tang Heng completed a stage of construction, he would take out a few iron ingots and give them to the Iron Golem.

After consuming the iron ingots, the scars on the Iron Golem's body quickly vanished, and the health lost from fighting the Zombies was restored.

"Hum—"

The Iron Golem pulled a Poppy from somewhere and handed it to Tang Heng.

Tang Heng took the red flower and sniffed it gently; the refreshing fragrance made him feel physically and mentally invigorated.

"Thanks, Iron Brother."

After planting the Poppy in the flowerbed in front of the house, Tang Heng continued to build day and night.

Finally, as the sun rose on the third day, the construction was complete.

"Phew, a simple little country cottage."

Tang Heng looked at his creation, a sense of accomplishment welling up within him. Perhaps because it had become reality, the satisfaction he felt this time was particularly intense.