Requisitioning Lunar Yin

Yun Jingheng recovered faster than anyone had expected.

Three days later, he was able to get out of bed and walk around. Five days later, he began stretching in the courtyard. On the seventh night, when Ya Li pushed open his door, the room was empty.

She stood in the doorway for a moment, then walked to the window and pushed it open.

By Sea God Lake, beneath the moonlight, a silver-white figure was practicing swordsmanship.

Yun Jingheng's sword moved slowly.

Every thrust paused in midair for a moment, as though he were confirming something.

The pattern on the Moonlight Sword was a Crescent Moon, curved and radiating a faint frosty white glow.

After practicing for half an hour, he sheathed his sword and sat down by the lake.

Ya Li stood by the window, watching his back without disturbing him.

Yun Jingheng sat by the lake with the Moonlight Sword resting across his knees.

The frosty white glow on the blade gradually faded, returning to its dim silver color.

He looked at it and recalled how it had turned red that day in Skysea City.

He did not remember the details of that day, but he remembered the feeling. It was neither anger nor fear. It was something cold that seeped from the cracks in his bones and froze his entire body.

He tightened his grip on the hilt, then loosened it.

He realized something.

His parents stood at the pinnacle of the continent.

Yun Ming. That name represented a peerless genius, Shrek's banner, and a height admired by countless people.

But some people would not be happy to see a second "Yun Ming" appear.

His background was incredibly formidable, but the price of that was countless eyes upon him.

Whether it was recruitment or assassination.

Those eight Evil Soul Masters in Skysea City had not come for Yun Jingheng. They had come for "Yun Ming's son."

Yet his martial soul was not as earth-shattering as he had imagined.

I'm only ten. I can't die young.

So... can I make something to keep myself alive?

Yun Jingheng glanced toward the Outer Court...

The Soul Guidance Teaching Building was pitch-black, with only a few windows still lit.

He remembered the scrapped mecha whose core he had dismantled, the dust-covered components in the storeroom, and the semi-finished products in the abandoned laboratory on the third floor.

To others, those things were trash. To him, they were not.

He stood up, put away the Moonlight Sword, and turned toward the interior of Sea God Island.

Halfway there, he stopped again.

Something was wrong.

If he went to the Soul Guidance Teaching Building now, just like last time, sneaked inside, rummaged through everything, and brought back a pile of materials...

Then what? Make another telescope? Make another little gadget?

Those things were useful, but not enough.

What he needed was something that could save his life, not something fun.

He was not some cartoon inventor who could cobble together overly complicated devices by hand.

Then... should I systematically study it?

That did not seem reliable either... He could memorize all that theory by rote.

Then it seemed he could only explore it himself.

There were only a few ways to stay alive: run fast enough that no one could catch him.

Hide well enough that no one could find him.

Be tough enough that no one could hurt him.

Run fast... His Flight Soul Tool had shattered in Skysea City. He could make another one, but Flight Soul Tools could only fly in the sky. The target would be too obvious, and no matter how fast it was, it could not outrun a Title Douluo.

Hide well... Detection devices could detect Soul Power fluctuations, but that was active detection. It only lit up when activated. When it was not activated, it was just a lump of metal.

What he needed was something passive, something that could work without Soul Power.

Be tough enough... Armor? Battle Armor?

Can I design Battle Armor right now?

He lowered his head and looked at his hands.

Battle Armor was something only high-level Soul Masters were qualified to possess. It required rare metals, precise forging, and complex assembly.

He was only at three rings. Could he make Battle Armor?

He could.

But it would only be the lowest grade, and he could only make individual components.

What he needed was something else. Not Battle Armor, but something smaller, lighter, and more discreet than Battle Armor.

As the saying went, the best defense was to abandon defense.

And his offensive methods were obviously lacking. As long as his attacks were strong enough to kill anyone he encountered in an instant, he would naturally have no need for defense.

So...

He raised his head, his gaze crossing Sea God Lake and settling in the direction of the Outer Court.

Within Shrek Academy stood a building he had never visited before—the Blacksmith Association.

It was an academy-run association where students could practice and exchange ideas.

It stored all kinds of rare metals for students to forge with.

He had heard that students needed contribution points or something similar to exchange for them...

But that was not important. He had not even enrolled yet, so where would he get those things?

If I don't have them, why should I pay?

And if I didn't pay, no one can say I took them.

Perfectly reasonable!

Let's go!

He turned and headed out of Sea God Island.

He crossed the stone bridge, passed the training grounds, left the gates of Shrek's Inner Court, and headed toward the Outer Court.

As he passed the Soul Guidance Teaching Building, he glanced at it before quietly looking away.

The Blacksmith Association was on the eastern side of the Outer Court, a gray stone building with a hammer emblem hanging above its entrance.

The door was closed, but it was not locked.

He pushed it open and walked inside.

The hall was dark. Moonlight streamed through the windows and fell across the floor.

Display cases lined both sides, filled with forged metal samples that glimmered coldly beneath the moonlight.

He did not stop and walked straight inside.

Beyond the hall were workshop after workshop.

Farther in was a heavy metal door with a sign hanging on it—Finished Products Room.

He stood at the door and gave it a push.

It was not locked. It opened.

The Finished Products Room was huge, much larger than he had imagined.

The shelves were packed with all kinds of metal ingots, stacked neatly, each with its own label.

Sinking Silver, silver-white like congealed moonlight, filled an entire shelf.

Magic Silver was darker in color, with faint rippling patterns across its surface.

Star Silver was bright silver and emitted its own faint glow in the darkness, like starlight.

Crystal Silver was transparent like glass, yet heavy in the hand.

Dark Iron was grayish-black and rough on the surface, but incredibly dense.

Crimson Mother was reddish-brown, with rust on its surface but pure metal within.

Star Steel was deep blue, with fine particles covering its surface.

Tungsten Steel was grayish-white and exceptionally hard.

All of these had already been forged by blacksmiths. Students could exchange for them and use them to make Battle Armor, mechas, and the like.

He walked over quietly, examining and touching each piece one by one.

Thousand Forged, Spirit Forged, and even Melting Forged Alloy—multiple metals fused together, with properties far surpassing those of any single metal.

On the outside market, a small piece of any of these materials could cost an ordinary family a year's expenses.

Here, they were neatly stacked on shelves, waiting for students to use them.

And now, the student had arrived.

He picked up a piece of Sinking Silver, weighed it in his hand, and put it down.

Then he picked up a piece of Star Steel, held it to the moonlight for a look, and put it down.

He did not rush to take anything. First, he silently made a round of the room and examined the entire materials storage area.

Then he began selecting.

Three pieces of Sinking Silver, all Spirit Forged, with fine patterns on their surfaces.

Two pieces of Magic Silver, one of which was Melting Forged Alloy mixed with Star Silver.

One piece of Star Silver, the highest-quality piece.

Two pieces of Crystal Silver, transparent and free of impurities.

One piece of Dark Iron, the smallest piece, but with extremely high density.

One piece of Crimson Mother.

Two pieces of Star Steel.

Three pieces of Tungsten Steel.

He did not take much, only a little of each type. Altogether, it filled only a small box.

Without changing expression, he stored them in his Storage Soul Tool.

He walked out of the Finished Products Room and closed the door behind him.

Standing in the corridor, he thought for a moment. Rather than heading outside, he went upstairs.

Because he wanted to see whether there were higher-grade materials above.

The facts proved that there were.

He was now standing in a forging room, looking at several slightly disordered pieces of black metal lying on the table.

He did not know what they were, but he vaguely felt that they were more advanced than everything he had just collected.

Without even hesitating, he grabbed the pieces of black metal and stuffed them into his Storage Soul Tool.

Then he rummaged through the forging room.

Then he found something extraordinary: Titanium Crystal.

This was a rare metal strictly controlled by the Federation!

It was hailed as the "universal enhancer" that had to be incorporated into Four-Character Battle Armor and Rank 9 Soul Tools!

His heart stirred, but he restrained himself and took only the smallest piece, roughly the size of a watch.

What he did not notice was that in the corner of the office, a figure leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, watching every move he made.

Feng Wuyu had not gone to sleep that night. He had just "finished working overtime" and was preparing to return to Sea God Island when he sensed Yun Jingheng approaching the Blacksmith Association.

Out of humanitarian concern, Feng Wuyu did not show himself. He had heard that little Jing Heng had begun making Soul Tools after visiting the Soul Guidance Teaching Building.

What if the boy took a stroll around this place and fell in love with forging?!

And if he took him as a disciple too...

Then that old fellow Zhuo Shi would never be able to hold his head up in front of him again~

Wahahahahaha—!

But in truth, he regretted it.

When Yun Jingheng entered the Finished Products Room and began looking around and touching everything, he had nearly laughed.

He had even thought that the boy was taking some materials just to experience the mysteries of forging.

But when Yun Jingheng entered his personal forging workshop and stuffed every last piece of Black God Iron—materials he had just been studying and had spent a fortune buying from Divine Craftsman Zhen Hua—into his Storage Soul Tool...

He finally realized something was wrong.

This brat... didn't come here to stock up, did he?

No! This brat absolutely came here to stock up!

Then he watched Yun Jingheng take a piece of Titanium Crystal. Fine, fine.

Though it hurt, it was still within what he could accept.

He continued watching, thinking the boy should have taken enough by now.

Yun Jingheng did not leave.

He stood before the Workbench and looked around. His gaze finally fell on the wall opposite the Workbench.

A painting hung on the wall, depicting a blacksmith hammering metal.

The painting was old, with curled edges.

He looked at it for a while, then walked over and took it down.

Behind the painting was a wall no different from any other wall.

But when he reached out and knocked on it, the sound was hollow.

Feng Wuyu's eyelid twitched.

No way...

Yun Jingheng felt along the wall and found a seam directly beneath where the frame had hung.

It was extremely narrow. Without careful searching, it would have been impossible to find.

"Click..."

!!!

"Nooo—!"

But it was too late. Yun Jingheng had already pried that spot open...

Behind it was a small hidden compartment containing only a single piece of metal.

The metal was not large, only the size of a thumb, silver-white all over—but it was a different kind of silver-white, like moonlight falling on snow or frost flowers forming before dawn.

It glowed on its own in the darkness, faint and gentle, rising and falling like breathing.

As he looked at it, he suddenly felt that his heartbeat matched the rhythm of its glow.

He reached out and picked it up.

It was very light, so light it seemed weightless.

It lay cool in his palm, like a small piece of solidified moonlight.

Leaning against the wall, Feng Wuyu watched the brat pry open the hidden compartment, watched him pick up the metal, watched him turn it over in his hand.

He felt as if he were about to shatter.

That was not Black God Iron, nor was it Titanium Crystal. It was Lunar Divine Metal!

Heavenly Forged Metal!

It was something he had begged for ages to obtain.

He had planned to keep it for himself, to comprehend the true mysteries of heavenly forging.

Now, it lay in that brat's palm, being examined from every angle.

Yun Jingheng did not know what it was, but he could feel it.

There was a strange resonance between him and this piece of metal, as though it were responding to him—and he to it.

He raised it and examined it beneath the moonlight.

Moonlight passed through it, casting a patch of silvery light upon the wall. Fine, intricate patterns flowed within it.

He suddenly smiled.

"Forging is truly miraculous," he said softly. "To think it can create such a divine treasure."

Without hesitation, he pocketed it.

Feng Wuyu snapped out of his stupor.

"Damn it! You little brat! Do you even know what that is? And you just took it?!"

He bared his teeth, his body twisted at a bizarre angle.

"My Heavenly Forged Metal—! My Lunar Divine Metal—!"