Su Ming, Snow Mastiff Armor

As the core capital of the Star Luo Empire on the Douluo Continent, Star Luo City is peerlessly prosperous and wealthy. The Starlight Auction House, situated in the heart of the city, is the most bustling and spiritually vibrant location in the entire metropolis.

Even though a grand auction of Soul Tools and rare treasures had just concluded and the crowds were gradually dispersing, the clamor outside the auction house doors lingered, refusing to fade.

The air remained thick with the pure spiritual energy emitted by various Soul Tools, the faint fragrance of rare natural treasures, and the fluctuating soul power of passing Soul Masters of varying strengths. The noise of the crowd and the bustle of carriages fully showcased the vibrancy and prosperity of a top-tier auction house.

Amidst the crowd, Su Ming wore a crisp, plain white martial outfit. It lacked any redundant decoration; the fabric was as clean as snow, tailored with a sharp, capable fit that allowed for unrestrained movement.

He stood tall with bright, spirited eyes, carrying an aura that felt completely out of place with the surrounding commotion.

At this moment, his fingertips tightly gripped a pitch-black wooden brocade box engraved with complex sealing patterns. The box felt icy, and through the thick wood, an extremely violent, chilling, and bone-piercing evil aura—as if originating from the deepest abyss—continued to seep out incessantly.

It drilled straight into his limbs and bones; any ordinary Soul Master who touched it for even a moment would lose their composure and be corrupted by the evil energy.

Su Ming gently stroked the surface of the box, his mind focused as he clearly sensed the malevolent aura radiating from the object inside. A flash of realization crossed his eyes, and he muttered to himself with curiosity:

As expected of a malevolent object ranked ninety-ninth on the list of engraving knives. The baleful energy is monstrous and the evil nature is overbearing. Even if an ordinary Soul Master obtained it, they would never be able to suppress this tyrannical energy and would be backlashed in an instant.

"It is a pity you met me, the summoner of the Snow Mastiff Armor. This little bit of leaking evil energy is useless against me."

What he held in his hands was precisely one of the finale items of this auction: the Spirit-Devouring Engraving Knife.

The origin of this knife was extremely bizarre. It was forged three thousand years ago by a heinous evil Soul Master of the Sun Moon Empire, using the essence and blood of countless living beings, the resentment of vengeful spirits, and forbidden evil arts. The blade itself harbored a monstrous curse.

It was born to devour its master. From its creation until now, all thirty-seven of its previous owners had ended up with their soul meridians severed, dying suddenly and violently. None had a good end; it was a malevolent treasure that people avoided at all costs.

Thinking of how he had exhausted most of his savings and spent a massive amount of Gold Soul Coins to win the Spirit-Devouring Engraving Knife, Su Ming felt a sharp pang of pain in his heart. He thought to himself with a pained expression: This engraving knife is simply too expensive; it has almost emptied my entire fortune. It seems that after I return, I will have to rush to produce a batch of high-precision Soul Tools to sell in order to make up for this deficit.

Su Ming was by no means an ordinary Soul Master. He was now a level 41 Soul Ancestor, his cultivation far exceeding that of his peers. At the same time, he was a genuine Level 3 Soul Engineer and a self-proclaimed Level 4 Blacksmith, possessing the heaven-defying ability of the highest realm in the forging world—Thousand-Refinement metal.

The Thousand-Refinement he spoke of was by no means as superficial as what ordinary blacksmiths in this world did, relying solely on brute force to hammer metal a thousand times mechanically.

Instead, it was the ultimate Thousand-Refinement that perfectly aligned with the settings of the third installment of the Douluo Continent, Legend of the Dragon King: using soul power combined with spiritual power to precisely forge metal thousands of times, refining all impurities within it, drawing upon the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and awakening the metal's own spirituality. This allowed the metal to bloom with brilliant spiritual light, becoming iridescent and achieving a heaven-defying qualitative change—a top-tier forging technique that most people in this era had never heard of or seen.

The reason he could master such a heaven-defying forging technique at such a young age was entirely due to his unique and heaven-defying Martial Soul—the Snow Mastiff Armor.

The Snow Mastiff Armor was not a native Martial Soul of the Douluo Continent, but the supreme Metal-element treasure from Armor Hero: Legend of Light and Shadow. It was the Metal-element Light and Shadow Armor among the Five Elements, born from the purest and most yang Gold Shadow Stone in heaven and earth.

It was a righteous armor bestowed upon the world by the ancient power of the sun, ranking among the Five Light and Shadow Armors. It specialized in extreme power, with defense and explosive force that were peerless among armors of the same rank.

The armor was primarily a clear silver-white, accented with noble dark gold and deep blue patterns. Its design was heavy and rugged, with distinct edges and sharp, cold lines. It radiated a righteous aura that was extremely rigid and yang, suppressing all evil, and carried the supreme pressure of the Metal-element origin.

As the summoner of the Snow Mastiff Armor, Su Ming was born with control over the Metal origin of heaven and earth, possessing an innate, extreme affinity for all metals, ores, and soul-forging metals in the world.

He also possessed a heaven-defying metal identification ability comparable to the Seven Treasure Glazed Pagoda of the Seven Treasure Glazed Sect. With a single glance, he could instantly distinguish the quality, spiritual content, and hidden value of a metal, discerning truth from falsehood and value from worthlessness.

This unique talent allowed him to easily earn his first pot of cultivation funds during his early stages, so he did not have to worry about scarce cultivation resources or expensive Gold Soul Coins like other Soul Masters of his age.

When he was short on cash, he only needed to stroll through the ore markets or wild mining areas of Shrek City. Relying on his keen perception of metal, he could easily find rare ores and sell them for massive amounts of Gold Soul Coins, living a life of comfort and smooth sailing on his path of cultivation.

He could barely compare to his roommates, Bei Bei and Xu Sanshi, those "Heavenly Dragon People" from their own factions.

Even more heaven-defying was that after summoning the Snow Mastiff Armor, he could resonate perfectly with the metal during the forging process, precisely sensing every texture, every impurity, and the most suitable forging force and rhythm within the metal.

He could adjust his forging techniques at any time, achieving twice the result with half the effort. Even without the Clear Sky Sect's Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer, he could easily create cross-era Soul Tools and forged metals that far exceeded the common understanding of this era.

One must know that this was the era of the second installment of the Douluo Continent, Peerless Tang Sect. The forging techniques across the entire continent were extremely backward; the art of forging was not valued by Soul Masters or Soul Engineers at all.

Everyone only focused on the production of Soul Tools while ignoring the importance of the original quality of the metal. Even the Sun Moon Empire, which was at the peak of soul engineering, only occasionally used some crudely hammered metal for the core parts of their Soul Tools. They could barely reach the most basic Hundred-Refinement metal, let alone the peak Thousand-Refinement metal that could trigger spiritual light. Su Ming's forging ability was truly one-of-a-kind and heaven-defying in this era.

With this thought in mind, Su Ming's fingertips moved slightly, slowly opening the black brocade box in his hand.

In an instant, a tyrannical evil aura that blotted out the sky erupted, cold, cruel, and filled with resentment, sweeping in all directions as if countless wronged souls were shrieking in agony.

The surrounding air instantly became bone-chillingly cold. Even the Soul Masters passing by the auction house entrance felt a palpitation, turning their heads one after another with expressions of terror.

However, the moment this monstrous evil aura, capable of devouring a person's heart in an instant, began to spread, the power of the extremely rigid and yang Metal-element armor within Su Ming's body automatically burst forth.

An invisible pressure of righteousness swept over his entire body. The origin power of the Snow Mastiff Armor awakened instantly, acting like an invisible barrier that completely suppressed and tightly confined the malevolent evil energy, preventing even a trace from leaking out.

After suppressing the resentment and evil energy accumulated within the Spirit-Devouring Engraving Knife, the origin aura of the Snow Mastiff Armor first transformed into a hazy silver-white halo, and finally into a Snow Mastiff.

It obediently lingered by Su Ming's side, staring quietly at the pitch-black, cold, and evil-patterned Spirit-Devouring Engraving Knife in the box like a curious child, without a hint of fear.

Su Ming raised his hand and gripped the Spirit-Devouring Engraving Knife he had just won at auction. The blade was bone-chillingly cold, and the extreme evil energy drilled frantically into his meridians through his fingertips.

Yet, it could not shake his rock-steady mind. The yang power of the armor protected his soul, isolating all the cursed evil energy.

A flash of determination crossed his eyes as he sighed softly, his tone carrying a bit of helplessness and heartache: "Sigh, if it weren't to actively attract the attention of Electrolux, why would I go to such lengths and exhaust my entire fortune to bid for this malevolent blade?"

"Although I spent a huge sum of money, this is no ordinary scrap blade. The blade contains the Gold of Life's Watch, but in this era, no one knows its true use. Only someone like Electrolux from that continent would know how to use it; otherwise, such a treasure would be buried in vain."

After the soft sigh, Su Ming closed the brocade box and carefully put the Spirit-Devouring Engraving Knife away. This had cost him a large sum of Gold Soul Coins; if he accidentally lost it, Su Ming would truly have nowhere to cry. After placing it into his storage Soul Tool, he turned and prepared to walk out of the Starlight Auction House lobby to return to his residence to study the knife and wait for his opportunity.

However, just as he had stepped out of the auction house gate and was only a few streets away from leaving the city, before he could even steady his footsteps, a heart-wrenching, shrill scream suddenly erupted from a small alleyway, followed by...

A thick, nauseating stench of blood, accompanied by a dense, dark, evil aura, instantly swept through the entire alley, forcibly shattering the peace and tranquility that Star Luo City usually enjoyed.

The shrill, desperate scream suddenly pierced the silence. The remote alley was already sparsely populated, and the few passersby were scared out of their wits, fleeing in a panic to hide.

The quiet and secluded street fell into chaos instantly. The deathly silence was torn apart by fear, and a cold, terrifying aura shrouded the entire corner, leaving everything in a mess of panic.