Star Luo City, the central city of the Star Luo Empire on the Douluo Continent, was prosperous and wealthy beyond compare. The Starlight Auction House, located in the heart of the city, was the liveliest place in the entire city and the one with the richest spiritual energy.
Even though a grand auction of Soul Tools and rare treasures had just ended and the crowds were gradually dispersing, the clamor outside the auction house lingered on.
The air still held the pure spiritual energy radiating from all kinds of Soul Tools, the faint fragrance of rare natural treasures, and the varying waves of Soul Power released by Soul Masters from every walk of life. Voices and carriages filled the streets, showcasing the bustle and prosperity of a top-tier auction house.
Amid the crowd, Su Ming wore a neat, plain-white outfit fit for action, without a single unnecessary ornament. The fabric was as clean as snow, the cut crisp and practical, and the clothes fit him neatly, moving with him as he strode about with carefree ease.
He stood tall, his eyes bright and lively, and carried an air utterly at odds with the hubbub around him.
At that moment, his fingers clutched a pitch-black wooden brocade box carved with intricate sealing patterns. The box was cold to the touch, and through its thick wooden walls came an intensely violent, bone-chilling aura of evil, as though it had come from the abyss of the netherworld.
It continued seeping out in an endless stream, boring straight into his every limb and bone. Any ordinary Soul Master who touched it for even a moment would lose control of their mind and be invaded by its evil aura.
Su Ming gently stroked the surface of the box with his fingertips, his mind calm and inwardly focused as he clearly sensed the vicious aura radiating from the object inside. A glimmer of understanding passed through his eyes, and he murmured curiously:
"As expected of the fearsome object ranked ninety-ninth among the listed engraving knives. Its murderous aura reaches the heavens, and its evil nature is overwhelming. Even if an ordinary Soul Master got their hands on it, they wouldn't be able to suppress this violent aura. They'd be struck by its backlash in minutes."
"But you ran into me, the wielder of the Golden Armor. This little bit of evil aura leaking out won't affect me at all."
The object in his hands was none other than the Spirit-Devouring Engraving Knife, one of the auction's headline items.
The knife had an exceedingly strange origin. Three thousand years ago, an utterly depraved Evil Soul Master from the Sun Moon Empire had forged it using the blood essence of countless living beings and the resentment of vengeful spirits, together with forbidden dark magic. A vast curse lay hidden within its blade.
It had been born to devour its master. Since its creation, all thirty-seven of its masters had met the same fate: their Soul Power meridians were severed, and they died violent deaths. Not one had met a good end. It was a vicious treasure everyone avoided like the plague.
Thinking of how he had spent most of his savings and a vast amount of Gold Soul Coins to win the Spirit-Devouring Engraving Knife, Su Ming felt a pang in his heart. His face full of pain, he thought to himself: This knife was far too expensive. It had nearly emptied my entire purse. Looks like I'll have to make another batch of high-end Soul Tools to sell once I get back, just to make up for the loss.
Su Ming was no ordinary Soul Master. He was already a forty-first-rank Soul Ancestor, far beyond cultivators his age. At the same time, he was a genuine Level 3 Soul Engineer—and a self-proclaimed Level 4 blacksmith—with the heaven-defying ability to forge Thousand-Refinement metal, the highest realm of blacksmithing.
The Thousand-Refinement he spoke of was nothing like the crude method of ordinary blacksmiths, who relied on brute force to strike a piece of metal a thousand times in mechanical repetition.
Instead, it was the pinnacle of Thousand-Refinement, just as described in the third installment of the Douluo Continent series, Legend of the Dragon King. By combining Soul Power with spiritual power, one struck the metal with precision hundreds and thousands of times, purifying every impurity within it, drawing in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and awakening the metal's own spirit. The metal would then shine with brilliant spiritual light, its surface gleaming with flowing radiance as its quality underwent an astonishing transformation. It was a supreme forging technique that the vast majority of people in this era had never heard of, let alone seen.
The reason he had mastered such a heaven-defying forging art at such a young age was entirely thanks to his one-of-a-kind, extraordinary Martial Soul: the Snow Mastiff Armor.
The Snow Mastiff Armor was not a native Martial Soul of the Douluo Continent. It was a supreme treasure of the Metal element from The Armor Heroes: Legend of Light and Shadow, one of the Five Light and Shadow Armors. Born from the purest, most yang Gold Shadow Stone in the world, it was a Metal-element Light and Shadow Armor.
It was a righteous armor granted to the world by the power of the ancient sun. Among the Five Light and Shadow Armors, it specialized in overwhelming strength, with defense and explosive power far surpassing those of other 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 thick and rugged, with sharply defined edges, fierce lines, and a cold, stern look. It radiated the righteous might of utmost yang, able to suppress all evil, and carried the supreme majesty of the Metal element at its core.
As the Snow Mastiff Armor's wielder, Su Ming was born with control over the world's source of Metal. He possessed an innate, unparalleled affinity for every kind of metal, ore, and Soul Tool metal.
He also possessed an astonishing ability to appraise metals comparable to the Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda of the Nine Treasures Glazed Sect. A glance was enough for him to instantly identify a metal's quality, spiritual nature, and hidden value—to tell the real from the fake and judge its worth at a glance.
This heaven-sent talent had made it easy for him to earn his first funds for cultivation. Unlike other Soul Masters his age, he didn't have to spend his days fretting and running about in pursuit of scarce cultivation resources and expensive Gold Soul Coins.
Whenever money was tight, all he had to do was wander through the ore markets in Shrek City or the wilderness mining regions. Thanks to his keen sense for metals, he could easily find rare ores and sell them for a fortune in Gold Soul Coins. He had no worries about food or clothing, and his cultivation journey had gone smoothly.
He could just about keep up with his roommates, Bei Bei and Xu Sanshi, those two scions of their own powerful factions.
Even more astonishingly, after summoning the Snow Mastiff Armor, he could perfectly resonate with metal as he forged it, precisely sensing every grain and every impurity within. He could also feel the ideal strength and rhythm for each strike.
He could adjust his forging technique at any time and achieve twice the result with half the effort. Even without the Clear Sky Sect's Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer technique, he could easily forge Soul Tools and metals that were generations ahead of what people in this era thought possible.
It was worth remembering that this was the era of Peerless Tang Sect, the second installment of the Douluo Continent series. Forging techniques across the continent were extremely backward, and Soul Masters and Soul Engineers alike paid little attention to the art of forging.
Everyone focused solely on studying how to make Soul Tools, overlooking the importance of a metal's intrinsic quality. Even the Sun Moon Empire, with its top-tier Soul Tool techniques, used only roughly hammered metal now and then in the core components of its Soul Tools.
Their metal couldn't even reach the most basic Hundred-Refinement standard, let alone the Thousand-Refinement level, the pinnacle that drew forth a metal's spiritual light. In this era, Su Ming's forging ability was truly one of a kind.
With that thought, Su Ming moved his fingers and slowly opened the black brocade box in his hands.
In an instant, a violent, evil aura surged forth, blotting out the sky and covering the sun. It was cold, vicious, and filled with resentment. The hatred of countless spirits swept in every direction, as if a multitude of wronged souls were howling in agony.
The air around them turned bone-chillingly cold. Even the Soul Masters passing by the auction house felt a chill in their hearts. They turned to look, their faces full of fear.
Yet the moment this overwhelming evil aura, powerful enough to devour someone's mind in an instant, began to spread, the utmost-yang power of the Metal-element Armor within Su Ming burst forth of its own accord.
An invisible aura of righteousness swept over him. The Snow Mastiff Armor's source power awakened in an instant, forming an unseen barrier that thoroughly suppressed the vicious evil aura and locked it down so tightly that not a trace could escape.
After suppressing the resentful spirits and murderous aura that had built up inside the Spirit-Devouring Engraving Knife, the Snow Mastiff Armor's source spirit first became a hazy silver-white glow, then transformed into a snow mastiff.
It obediently circled Su Ming, like a curious child, quietly staring at the black, icy knife covered in evil patterns inside the box, without the slightest hint of fear.
Su Ming raised his hand and gripped the Spirit-Devouring Engraving Knife he had just won at auction. The blade was cold as ice, and its intense evil aura burrowed wildly through his meridians from his fingertips.
Yet it couldn't shake his mind, steady as a rock. The armor's utmost-yang power guarded his soul, shutting out every trace of the curse and evil aura.
A note of certainty flashed through his eyes. He let out a soft sigh, his voice tinged with helplessness and heartache. "Sigh, if I hadn't wanted to draw Electrolux's attention, why would I have spent so extravagantly, using up my entire fortune to bid for this vicious knife?"
"Sure, I paid a high price, but this isn't an ordinary piece of junk. The blade contains Gold of Life's Watch. It's just that no one in this era knows how to use it properly. Only Electrolux, who comes from some other continent, knows how. Otherwise, no one would let such a treasure go to waste."
After sighing, Su Ming closed the box and carefully put away the Spirit-Devouring Engraving Knife. He had spent a huge sum of Gold Soul Coins on it; if he lost it by accident, he'd truly have nowhere to cry. After placing it in his Storage Soul Tool, he turned and prepared to leave the Starlight Auction House's hall, return to his lodgings, and study the knife in depth as he waited for an opportunity.
But just after he had stepped outside the auction house, with only a few more streets to cross before reaching the city gates, a heart-rending, unbearably shrill scream suddenly rang out from an alley before he could steady his footing. Then—
A thick, nauseating stench of blood, accompanied by a powerful aura of darkness and evil, swept down the entire alley, brutally shattering the peace and quiet that usually reigned over Star Luo City.
The shrill, despairing scream abruptly tore through the silence. The narrow alley was already deserted, and the few passersby there were fled in terror, scrambling for cover.
The quiet, lonely street fell into chaos in an instant. Fear shattered the stillness, a chilling, horrifying aura descended over the entire corner, and everything around them lay in disarray.