Bei Bei watched Su Ming remind him again and again about Tang Ya's Soul Ring, and gave him a helpless, rueful smile.
"Got it, got it. You don't need to keep reminding me. In a few days, I'll accompany Xiao Ya to hunt Soul Beasts and obtain a Soul Ring. I'll carefully check its attributes and absolutely won't choose anything sinister or violent. I'll make sure her Soul Ring matches are well considered. You just focus on your own business and stop worrying about things you can't control."
Su Ming chuckled and said no more.
"Good. Then I'm relieved. I'm off to work on some Soul Tool-related things. See you later."
After going over all the precautions with Bei Bei once more, Su Ming turned and headed straight for the Soul Tool Department building at Shrek Academy.
Over this period, Su Ming had personally forged several kinds of rare, specialized metals, refining every one of them to the Thousand-Refinement level. He had long since made plans to use these top-grade forging metals to create a dedicated body for the Armor Beast, one that could house the Snow Mastiff.
An Armor Beast was the spiritual essence of armor, condensed from Gold Shadow Stone—the armor's true soul and the core source of its power. It was no mere beast totem.
It possessed an independent consciousness, character, and principles. It would acknowledge only a summoner whose ideals aligned with its own, sharing the summoner's thoughts and being bound to him by blood.
The Snow Mastiff he had summoned still lacked a stable physical form. Most of the time, it could only exert its power by relying on his own combat strength, which greatly limited its performance in actual battle.
That was precisely why Su Ming had decided long ago to forge an unbreakable metal body for the Snow Mastiff.
As his Soul Power and cultivation as a Soul Master continued to improve, the Snow Mastiff's sealed power would also gradually be released.
Once it was equipped with a metal body perfectly suited to it, the combat strength of him and the Snow Mastiff fighting together would increase exponentially.
When they encountered powerful enemies in the future, if he couldn't beat them alone, he and the Snow Mastiff could throw honor to the wind and fight side by side in the name of justice.
Once the Snow Mastiff Armor's power was fully unleashed, its dedicated mount, the Snow Mastiff Colt, would make up for the Snow Mastiff's fatal weakness: its high attack and defense came at the cost of poor mobility.
Its clumsiness and sluggishness would be swept away. With offense and defense in balance and the freedom to advance or retreat, it would have no weaknesses left.
Soon, Su Ming arrived at his private room.
He raised a hand and activated his storage ring. A flash of light later, a large quantity of precious metals spilled out. Deep Silver, Mithril, and Adamantine—every piece had been forged and refined countless times, reaching the top-grade Thousand-Refinement quality.
Su Ming sat down and pondered, carefully planning the Armor Beast's construction.
In the end, he settled on a design: the Armor Beast's energy core would be made from Deep Silver, whose exceptional malleability allowed Soul Power to pass through it with ease.
Its intricate Soul Guidance connections would be carved from Mithril, whose texture was warm and whose affinity for Soul Power was remarkably delicate.
Then, he would use Adamantine and Diamond Adamantine—both extraordinarily hard, with incredibly high melting points and ideally suited to powerful offensive equipment—to forge the Armor Beast's main skeleton and outer protective body.
The concept was flawless, but the real challenge lay right in front of him: how was he supposed to carve the core Soul Guidance Array?
The Soul Tool technology of the three kingdoms of the original Douluo Continent in Peerless Tang Sect's era was relatively primitive and outdated. The knowledge and ideas taught by Shrek's Soul Tool Department couldn't help him at all.
Ordinary Soul Engineers clung to rigid, antiquated design principles, which were nowhere near as innovative as the unique construction methods in Su Ming's mind.
What was more, the Armor Beast and armor Martial Soul were secret concepts. He absolutely couldn't expose them carelessly. If word got out, they would surely attract endless covetous eyes and bring him enormous trouble.
Su Ming sighed softly. "Looks like I'll have to feel my way through it slowly, one step at a time. I'll try carving the array and making a prototype first."
With that, he cleared his mind and began drawing the Armor Beast's core array.
The work was tedious and painstaking, and it took an enormous toll on his concentration. A single deviation would ruin everything.
He tried again and again, and failed again and again, as the array repeatedly collapsed. In the messiest attempt, the array ran wild and exploded halfway through. Metal dust rained down over him, leaving him covered in grime and looking utterly disheveled.
For three whole days, he went without sleep, studying and carving the core array day and night. Despite countless attempts, every one of them ended in failure.
Su Ming rubbed his temples, which throbbed and tingled with numbness, and let out a weary sigh. "Sigh, looks like I'll have to put off building the Armor Beast's body for now. I'll try again once I'm a higher-level Soul Engineer and have a deeper grasp of arrays."
He glanced at the time without thinking, and his mind stirred at once.
Judging by the time, today was the day Bei Bei would take Tang Ya out to hunt Soul Beasts. Along the way, they would meet Huo Yuhao, the child of destiny whose fate was intertwined with theirs.
Su Ming looked at the empty Soul Tool workshop before him, lightly rubbing his palm with his fingertips as he silently weighed things over.
Looks like it's time to set out for the Star Dou Forest and get to Electrolux first.
At the thought, he felt a slight twinge of unease and murmured inwardly, Still, snatching someone else's opportunity and taking what should have been Huo Yuhao's path is, more or less, a bit dishonorable.
But then he thought it over and sighed to himself. "Ah, forget it. I can't afford to worry about these little matters of honor right now.
"Later, when I help protect his mind and freedom against that Great God King Tang San, who insists on keeping Huo Yuhao firmly in his grasp and turning him into a docile, mindless lackey of the Tang family, I'll have repaid my debt for snatching this opportunity today."
Once he had made up his mind, Su Ming no longer hesitated. He tidied the Thousand-Refinement metals and Soul Tool equipment scattered across the tabletop, then headed straight back to his dormitory at Shrek Academy.
He hurried back to the student dormitory and pushed open the door. His gaze swept across the room. Bei Bei, who usually shared it with him, was gone; only Xu Sanshi remained, resting and tending to his Soul Tool equipment.
Su Ming went straight over and quietly asked where Bei Bei and Tang Ya were. Once he confirmed that they had indeed left early to hunt Soul Beasts in the Star Dou Forest, he didn't linger.
He casually greeted Xu Sanshi, then hurried out of the dormitory and headed straight for the main gate of Shrek Academy, making for the Star Dou Forest.
Though he had no idea which corner of the Star Dou Forest Huo Yuhao was in right now, nor could he locate Electrolux's remnant soul, hidden within a Soul Beast's body, one thing was clear to him.
As the child of destiny on this continent, Huo Yuhao was bound to meet Bei Bei and Tang Ya by chance while they were out Soul Hunting.
In other words, he didn't need to waste time searching for Huo Yuhao. He only had to find Bei Bei and Tang Ya, then quietly follow them.
Once they met Huo Yuhao, he could hide in the shadows without revealing a trace of himself and wait. When the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm had fully become Huo Yuhao's Wisdom Soul Ring, he would act at the right moment, using the Gold of Life to draw Electrolux's attention, then successfully claim his remnant soul and consciousness.
After thinking through the entire plan, Su Ming quickened his pace. He hurried to the carriage station outside the academy and looked around.
He stopped a coachman who was waiting for passengers and hurriedly asked whether he had seen a male and a female Shrek student heading out of the city just now.
After getting precise directions from the coachman on which way Bei Bei and Tang Ya had gone, Su Ming immediately pulled out several heavy Gold Soul Coins and handed them over.
He urgently ordered the coachman to hitch up the horses and race after Bei Bei and Tang Ya in the direction they had gone.