The Vicious Cycle of Soul Tools, Goodbye Dugu Yan

But this raised another problem: how to engrave them? What techniques to use? What tools?

He knew absolutely nothing about these basics.

Furthermore, although the core of a Soul Tool is the soul guidance array, the materials used are also critical; one cannot simply engrave directly onto any random piece of metal or gemstone.

Metals require forging steps like purification, shaping, quenching, and polishing, while gemstones require cutting. These are the tasks of a blacksmith, yet in the Douluo Continent, blacksmithing is regarded as a lowly profession and receives no respect at all.

Finally, the Douluo Continent holds the power of Martial Souls in high regard, emphasizing the cultivation of Martial Souls and soul power. Aside from a few support-type Soul Masters with no combat ability, no one wants to invest time and energy into other matters, especially a project as vast and foundationless as Soul Tool research.

These various reasons piled up, creating a vicious cycle where research into Soul Tools could never develop.

Clearly, Xing Tian was still very interested in the content regarding Soul Tools; even after Ye Lingling had finished reading the book, he was still thinking about them.

In my past life, I saw many divine weapons. If that senior hadn't possessed the blessing of a Dharma-Protecting Buddha Weapon, I wouldn't have ended up perishing together with him. Powerful divine weapons can even be condensed into the body to bolster oneself, and can even give birth to sentience.

However, the more powerful a divine weapon is, the more difficult it is to forge; it cannot be crafted simply by relying on high-quality materials and flames.

It requires the infusion of the "three treasures" of essence, energy, and spirit, followed by long-term refinement. It even requires one to integrate the Dao and principles one has comprehended into it.

Therefore, to forge a true divine weapon, one must be a powerful expert, and one might not even be able to refine more than a few in a lifetime.

Yet, judging by the descriptions, Soul Tools don't even require very high cultivation; they seem much simpler than in my past life, only lacking a systematic foundation of knowledge. Otherwise, if the two could be combined...

When Xing Tian's thoughts returned to reality, he found that both Ye Lingling and Osler were staring at him.

"What's wrong?"

Osler pointed to the side: "You're asking what's wrong? Look around you!"

Xing Tian glanced over and discovered that everyone else was gone, leaving only the three of them.

Osler rolled his eyes and grumbled: "Who told you to get so absorbed that you forgot the time? It's mealtime now, everyone has left, and only Ye Lingling and I are left. If she hadn't stopped me, I would have definitely woken you up! Sigh, the good food is probably all gone. I really don't understand what's so interesting about Soul Tools."

"You don't need to worry about that. Let's go."

Xing Tian and Ye Lingling stood up.

"Where to?"

"To eat, of course. If we don't go now, we'll really go hungry."

Heaven Dou Royal Academy is worthy of being an academy founded by the royal family; even the cafeteria is extremely luxurious. It is several stories high, can accommodate five hundred people dining at once, and is not crowded at all, even featuring private rooms.

Osler introduced it: "The biggest specialty of the academy cafeteria is actually the cooked soul beasts. Compared to ordinary food, these soul beast dishes can help Soul Masters recover soul power and subtly enhance a Soul Master's physical constitution."

"It's just a pity that the Soul Master world has explicit regulations forbidding the large-scale hunting of soul beasts; even for the purpose of making food, it is not allowed."

"Therefore, the soul beast food in the academy is actually made from farmed soul beasts. The variety is quite limited, and they are all under a hundred years old. Occasionally, one over a hundred years old appears when students and teachers go out to hunt for souls and bring them back to sell to the academy, but in the vast majority of cases, they keep them for themselves."

Osler said with a melancholy expression: "Since we arrived so late, we'll probably only be able to eat the leftovers."

At this moment, Ye Lingling pointed in one direction and said: "Yanyan is over there."

Xing Tian said: "Then let's hurry and get our food, then head over."

A few minutes later...

Osler looked astonished, his jaw practically hitting the floor: "Are you sure you're going to eat all that!"

It turned out that Xing Tian had filled his entire tray and stacked the food in layers, forming a small mountain.

"Can't help it, my appetite is just this big."

For Xing Tian, cultivation is seventy percent training and thirty percent eating. Without sufficient nutrition, how could he withstand such massive consumption, and it would be difficult to sustain the expenditure of physical strength.

The three of them arrived at Dugu Yan's side and sat down. Dugu Yan looked up and said with pleasant surprise: "Xiaotian, you're here! You finally enrolled; I've been waiting for you for two years! I'm at level 26 now. When are you free? I want to wash away my past shame!"

"Whenever, I'm fine with anything."

"Then I'll wait until you reach the Tianzhu Level, during the practical training class!"

Osler was exceptionally quiet, but he was inwardly astonished.

Dugu Yan's words made it clear that she had once been defeated by Xing Tian. Dugu Yan's prowess was famous throughout the academy; her poison had a terrifying dominance over groups of low-level Soul Masters, not to mention the Jade Phosphorous Serpent poison.

Dugu Yan often only needed to shroud herself in poison mist, and others couldn't get close. By releasing some poison mist, she could take down a large group of people; that feeling of being corroded and rotting away was not something an ordinary person could endure.

As it happened, Osler had once been on the receiving end of such treatment.

And now, he was being told that Xing Tian had once defeated Dugu Yan, and it sounded like it had been easy, and that was two years ago. How old was he then? He probably had just obtained his first Soul Ring.

The more Osler thought about it, the more terrifying it seemed, and he became increasingly curious about what exactly Xing Tian's Martial Soul was. So far, he had only heard the name but had never seen it in action.

In the distance, unnoticed by the others, a black-haired, slender young man watched them silently. His appearance could not be called handsome, and his facial muscles seemed quite stiff, but his eyes were very sharp, like lightning.

The next day, Xing Tian finally began his formal classes as a student of the Tianwei Level Class One.

The Tianwei Level is divided into several classes, and the overall division is into two stages: students with two rings but less than level 25 are in the first stage, while one-ring students are in the second stage. The students in Class One are all in the first stage.

However, most of these students enrolled when they had one ring and have been here for several years. Students like Xing Tian, who enrolled only after reaching two rings, are rare and are considered transfer students.

Since he was a transfer student, he naturally had to introduce himself. Everyone's expression was no different from Osler's at the time.

Some students immediately had ulterior motives; the clever ones wanted to win him over, the arrogant ones wanted to use their age and level to suppress him first before trying to win him over, and others were simply jealous.

These young nobles were all in their early teens, the age where they were most snobbish, bullying the weak and fearing the strong.

They soon discovered that Xing Tian was very close to Osler and Ye Lingling, and could even sit at the same desk as Ye Lingling. These two were people they could not afford to provoke, especially Ye Lingling.

Let alone these nobles, unless it was a formal soul duel, even a prince would not easily dare to touch a hair on her head.