Forging and Soul Engineers

"Let's leave separately. I'm afraid of rumors."

After breakfast, Mu Baobao said solemnly to Ma Xiaotao after stepping outside, making her so angry she wanted to hit him.

"I'm a dignified elder of Sea God Pavilion, disciple of the Super Douluo Ming Feng, Shrek Academy's greatest genius in a century, and the dream goddess of countless students."

"And you're saying you're afraid of rumors?"

Ma Xiaotao snapped. Her pair of melancholy yet enchanting eyes practically spewed fire, raising the temperature by several hundred degrees. Mu Baobao was not about to indulge her and retorted,

"I'm one of Douluo Continent's three great Ultimate... Dragon God Douluo, and the Sea God Pavilion Master's great-grandson, you know?"

The two traded barbs, truly incompatible as fire and ice. Yet Ma Xiaotao landed a devastating blow, speaking shyly,

"But I'm a girl. If I walk out of the same room as you, my reputation will probably..."

"You win."

Mu Baobao had no retort. The hot-tempered Ma Xiaotao really was capable of doing something like that.

If he could not provoke her, he could at least avoid her, so he hurried away.

"So irritating! You were born to the same mother. Beibei is so gentle—why are you so annoying?"

Ma Xiaotao stomped her foot. The two brothers' mother had died in childbirth while giving birth to Beibei, while their father, overwhelmed with grief, had accepted an impossible mission.

In the end, he vanished without a trace. He had most likely died at the hands of Evil Soul Masters... Whatever. It was an orphan's paradise anyway, and Shrek originally had no Outer Court.

It had only established the Outer Court due to the major empires' demand for Soul Masters, requiring applicants to reach Rank 15 before the age of twelve... Most graduates returned to their families afterward.

Most of those who remained were orphans instead, unless their own faction was not up to much... They would stay at Shrek Academy as well. Studying at the continent's number one academy and taking up a profession afterward was a genuine iron rice bowl.

Though the two were in the same year, they headed in different directions. It was not just that they did not get along... Their teachers had also been rivals in their youth.

Shrek Academy's Inner Court sat on the central island of Sea God Lake. The crown of the Golden Ancient Tree, hundreds of meters tall, spread over a radius of more than a thousand meters. The members and teachers of Sea God Pavilion lived there... along with outstanding students.

Below it stood all manner of buildings. During the era of Legend of the Dragon King, this Golden Ancient Tree would even become the Eternal Tree, with a Sky City built atop it.

At this time, the God Realm had yet to be swept away by the temporal rift, so Ah Yin naturally had not yet merged into it.

Soul Guidance technology could be seen everywhere. Douluo Continent had already entered the era of firearms. Before long, Mu Baobao arrived before a massive mechanical high-rise, upon which three large characters were engraved.

"Soul Guidance Department!"

Mu Baobao walked inside. People constantly greeted him along the way. He and Ma Xiaotao were both second-year Inner Court students and would advance to their third year next semester. It was currently summer break, so there were very few people around.

"Senior Mu!"

"Junior Mu!"

However, some students lived so far away that returning home meant practically crossing an entire nation, and the time spent traveling back and forth was not enough. Thus, quite a few students remained behind to continue studying on their own.

The Soul Guidance Department covered a vast area because Soul Tools needed to be tested constantly. Such scenes could be seen along the way. There were many elevators running up and down. The Inner Court was somewhat like a university, where students could choose the department they excelled at or enjoyed. Mu Baobao did not choose this department because he liked it.

He hated anything that required thinking. In a fantasy world, what mattered was still the difference in strength. Current Soul Guidance technology was merely at the firearm stage. Only a Level 10 Soul Engineer could create a Soul Tool capable of threatening gods.

Yet Huo Yuhao could still resolve such things effortlessly. The gods threatened by Level 10 Soul Engineers were merely hundred-level God Officers. Above them were Level 120, 130, and God Kings. But Mu Baobao disliked the knowledge taught by the Spirit Department even more. They taught so much... only for it all to lose to cheats and raw strength in the end.

"Forging Department!"

He headed straight for the top floor. Soul Engineers carved Soul Guidance arrays onto forged metal, turning it into mighty Soul Tools, but they still needed metal. After ten thousand years of development, forging was no longer as watered down as it had been during the Douluo era. Lou Gao, Tai Tan, Tang Hao... none of them could even perform Spirit Refinement, yet they called themselves Divine Craftsmen.

Junior, Intermediate, Advanced, Master, Grandmaster, Saint, and Divine were the rankings during the Douluo Continent era. In Legend of the Dragon King, there were Levels 1 through 9, with only the final level being Divine. Levels 1 and 2 were Hundred Refinement Fusion Refinement, Levels 3 and 4 were Thousand Refinement Fusion Refinement, Levels 5 and 6 were Spirit Refinement Fusion Refinement, Levels 7 and 8 were Soul Refinement Fusion Refinement, and Level 9 was divine-grade Heavenly Refinement.

Lou Gao had sacrificed his life to give Tang Sect hidden weapons spirituality. At best, he had been a Level 4, half-step Spirit Refinement blacksmith... Yet even without Soul Engineers carving arrays on them, they could severely injure Spirit Hall's Super Douluo.

A Super Douluo corresponded to a Level 10 Soul Engineer. That was simply absurd. When Sun Moon Continent collided with Douluo Continent, it brought powerful Soul Guidance technology with it.

Only then did the profession of blacksmith receive serious attention and development. But the highest level now was only Level 5 or 6 Spirit Refinement Fusion Refinement. They knew higher-level forging should exist, but the cultivation of spiritual power had yet to form a system in the era of Peerless Tang Sect, and there were far too few Soul Masters with spiritual power. That was why Huo Yuhao had been chosen by the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm.

The greatest people of one era might be ordinary in the next, but in this era, they were enough to stand proudly above the masses. Luck was also part of strength.

Ding!

The elevator doors opened. Mu Baobao expertly headed toward a certain room down the corridor. The moment he pushed open the door, a wave of scorching heat and reddish-white mist rushed over him.

Fortunately, everyone who could enter the Inner Court was a monster. An ordinary person would probably suffer heatstroke after just a few minutes here. After exchanging another round of polite greetings, he arrived at his station.

All sorts of colors filled the room. Many precious metals sat on the shelves, dazzling the eye.

Mu Baobao was currently only a Level 3 Thousand Refinement blacksmith, but in the Douluo Continent era, he would probably have been considered Saint-grade. The entire room was filled with Level 4 Divine Craftsmen.

Fortunately, the forging system had not yet been fully perfected. One could graduate from the Inner Court at Level 4... At Level 5, every nation would offer generous treatment. The requirements were far lower than becoming a Level 6 Soul Master or Level 5 Soul Engineer. It was the perfect choice for slacking off.

Besides reaching the required rank as a Soul Master, Soul Engineer, or blacksmith... one also had to complete thirty Shrek supervision missions hunting Evil Soul Masters.

For that, they really had Tang San to thank. After he destroyed the Capital of Slaughter, Evil Soul Masters had nowhere left to go and could only cause trouble once more... Over the next tens of thousands of years, it was no exaggeration to say that the Tang Sect, Shrek, and the three generations of protagonists were all cleaning up after him. Without that inheritance ground—

The Asura God... who else could he choose besides Tang San? As long as he eliminated his competitors, he would be first. That was truly ridiculous... Mu Baobao had completed very few missions. His rank was not low either... but he simply did not want to go. Graduate? Graduate for what?

Shrek was his home. Graduating would not mean going home—it would mean becoming a monk. He could just lie flat.

His father had already completed missions until he died. Why should he go too?

Iron Mother ×10

Mithril ×10

Adamantine ×10

...

The morning was just that plain and unremarkable. He completed his own work, with an hour in the middle for resting and attending class. If he did not finish, he could continue in the afternoon.

Or he could attend classes in other departments. Most students had selected several subjects, merely distinguishing between majors and minors. After all, no matter what world one was in, one could be unable to do something, but one could not fail to understand it. At the very least, one needed basic common sense.

Mu Baobao had a Spirit Department class and a Soul Guidance Department class to attend that afternoon, or he could spend money to buy recordings and study by himself, though there would be no teacher explaining things that way.

"My precious Baobao, you finally came."

He had just pulled up the bellows and ignited the flames in the furnace. Soul Guidance technology really was useful... Back on Douluo Continent, a single forging session would require several burly men, but now one person could do it, and the bellows could operate by themselves.

He had only just changed into his filthy work clothes when a middle-aged man around fifty years old shouted. Not a single wrinkle marked his face, but his white hair stood up like steel needles, making him seem somewhat weathered. He was tall and powerfully built, at least 2.2 meters tall, broad-shouldered and broad-backed, with bronze skin and solid muscles.

The man even gave him a bear hug. Mu Baobao was instantly speechless, baring his teeth in pain from the crushing embrace.

"Teacher, you're a Title Douluo!"

He yelped. Even without using their martial souls or firepower, high-level Soul Masters possessed terrifying physical strength.

Blacksmithing and Soul Engineering could be learned by ordinary people too, but their ultimate achievements would never exceed Level 3. They lacked the stamina and physical constitution needed to support such exhausting work.

Soul Masters could be said to possess a naturally superior class. If an ordinary family produced even one, their fate could be changed.

"And stop calling me Baobao. Just call me disciple," he complained. Beibei was merely somewhat childish as a name, but Baobao had an entirely different feel to it.

Mockery, contempt... the connotations were almost entirely negative. Even his fellow disciples did not call him that.

His teacher had quite the background: Qian Duoduo, a Rank 94 Title Douluo known as Wulong, vice dean of Shrek Academy's Soul Guidance Department, and a Level 9 Soul Engineer.

He was one of the Sea God Pavilion elders... More accurately, that referred to his teacher's wife. His teacher was the dean of the Soul Guidance Department, the Martial God Douluo, also with Rank 94 Soul Power.

Her Soul Engineer rank... was unknown, but she was this teacher's wife, so naturally he had to spoil her.

Xian Lin'er possessed the Azure Flame Dragon martial soul, a powerful martial soul with the special ability to control decomposition. She had originally belonged to the Spirit Department... and had even once shared an ambiguous relationship with Ma Xiaotao's teacher, Spirit Department dean and Super Douluo Ming Feng Yan Shaozhe, but they had parted on bad terms.

Qian Duoduo had happily taken over. He had even handed the position of Soul Guidance Department dean to her. Though they were both over eighty, they had not even become husband and wife in reality. His restraint was truly impressive.

The Fei Yangyang, Tom Cat, and Hei Xiaohu of the Douluo world? The Double-Faced Turtle... was undoubtedly Xu Sanshi. Both of them used shield martial souls as well.

Qian Duoduo disliked the title "teacher's wife," which was why he had Mu Baobao call her teacher. He treated Mu Baobao even better than his own son, not only because Mu Baobao was the great-grandson of Dragon God Douluo Mu En, but also because he was a way to curry favor with Xian Lin'er.

It was comparable to Yan of Douluo Continent... In the end, he had only gained another's attention through death.

More often, once they knew there was no possibility, they helplessly found an honest person instead. As someone from Blue Star, Mu Baobao would rather be beaten to death than take over someone else's leftovers.

"A beating is affection, and scolding is love. The harder your teacher hits, the more it means he cherishes you..." Qian Duoduo said angrily as master and disciple began bickering. "Then go hug your teacher's wife. She's the Martial God Douluo and loves beating and scolding people."

"Spare me. That was how we got along back then. And why do you look so listless, brat? No wonder you dare speak to your teacher like that."

Qian Duoduo said this because when people were muddleheaded, they were too lazy to hide their thoughts and simply said whatever came to mind.

"Ma Xiaotao snuck into your room again? I'm not criticizing you, brat, but that girl is being so proactive, and you can still hold back..." Qian Duoduo grinned wickedly. Mu Baobao grinned wickedly too.

"How could I compare to your endurance, Teacher? You're nearly ninety and still haven't won over Teacher's wife. As expected of a defense-type Title Douluo—Ninja God... Dragon."

"Hm." Qian Duoduo immediately furrowed his brow and snapped, "My precious Baobao, what did you say?"

"Looks like your teacher needs to give you some guidance!"