Forest Mixed Zone

To mass-produce Soul Tools on an assembly line, the most important thing was creating a control system.

Through the control system, mechanical arms could perform automatic forging, inscribe formation arrays, and assemble components.

As long as he could create the control system, the plan for mechanized Soul Tool production would basically succeed.

However, in this world where technology was not particularly advanced, creating such a system was no easy task.

The main issue was the lack of foundational equipment needed to make such a system. It was like trying to build a skyscraper without laying the foundation first—the difficulty was obvious.

Before making the control system, Jing Chen still needed to spend time preparing some things before he could begin developing it.

This would take quite a while. Even though Jing Chen had streamlined the process as much as possible, it would still take several years to complete.

After returning home, Jing Chen washed up properly before entering the Time and Space Divine Tower and getting busy.

After staying home for two days, Jing Chen left the city again and returned to the Star Dou Great Forest.

This time, he and Yi Yi ventured deeper into the Star Dou Great Forest, arriving at the Forest Mixed Zone.

Humans divided the Star Dou Great Forest from the inside out into the Great Danger Land, Core Zone, Mixed Zone, Outer Zone, and Edge Zone.

The area where Jing Chen and Yi Yi had often operated before was the Outer Zone, where Thousand-Year Soul Beasts were the main inhabitants and Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts rarely appeared.

The Mixed Zone they had now entered, on the other hand, was mainly inhabited by Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts, though powerful Thousand-Year Soul Beasts also roamed there.

The Core Zone was mainly inhabited by Soul Beasts over fifty thousand years old, and it was possible to encounter Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts.

As for the Great Danger Land, it was the true central region of the Star Dou Great Forest. It had been given that name because a group of ferocious beasts lived there.

These ferocious beasts were among the strongest Soul Beasts on the continent. Even the weakest possessed the battle power of a Super Douluo, while the strongest were at the peak of Limit Douluo.

Forget the Great Danger Land—even the next level down, the Core Zone, was somewhere Jing Chen did not dare enter at present.

With Yi Yi's current combat power, it could handle Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts, but if it encountered a Soul Beast over fifty thousand years old, it would basically be a dead end.

"Yi Yi, if you can't beat it, run back to me right away. Don't force a fight, understand?" Jing Chen held Yi Yi up in both hands and earnestly reminded it.

"Yiyi. (I remember.)" Yi Yi blinked its big eyes, its serious expression looking somewhat adorably foolish.

"Mm, go on." Jing Chen set Yi Yi on the ground, signaling that it could act.

After reluctantly bidding Jing Chen farewell, Yi Yi began its day of hunting.

Just as before, Jing Chen entered the Time and Space Divine Tower. He first crafted Soul Tools, then worked on theoretical research and preparations for creating the control system.

The overall quality of the Soul Beasts in the Mixed Zone was much higher, making Yi Yi's hunts far more difficult than before.

The first Soul Beast the little fellow encountered was a Ten-Thousand-Year Earth Tyrant Bear. As a high-level Soul Beast, it was quite powerful.

Of course, the Earth Tyrant Bear was powerful, but Yi Yi, the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger, was even stronger.

Once the two began fighting, Yi Yi still gained the upper hand and kept the Earth Tyrant Bear suppressed.

Yi Yi possessed many attributes, which gave it a diverse range of attack methods and constantly caught its opponents off guard.

After more than ten minutes of fierce fighting, Yi Yi successfully killed the Earth Tyrant Bear and absorbed all of its ten-thousand-year cultivation.

It was worth mentioning that Yi Yi also absorbed the soul ring produced by the Earth Tyrant Bear.

The soul rings produced by Soul Beasts contained a great amount of energy, and Yi Yi did not waste that energy either.

After completely absorbing its cultivation, Yi Yi's age increased by roughly a hundred years. This increase far surpassed what it gained from Thousand-Year Soul Beasts.

"Yiyi!" After killing the Earth Tyrant Bear and absorbing its cultivation, Yi Yi transformed into the form of a little tiger and spat out a ring.

Holding the ring in its two little tiger paws, Yi Yi followed Jing Chen's previous instructions. It touched the ring to the Soul Beast's corpse, then silently recited, Store it.

The mountain-like Earth Tyrant Bear was placed into the Storage Ring. Having successfully stored it, Yi Yi happily jumped about on the spot.

"Yiyi! (I'm so smart.)" The little tiger Yi Yi praised itself before swallowing the ring and continuing its search for prey.

When it swallowed the ring, it used its spatial ability to keep the ring from coming into contact with the digestive substances in its stomach, ensuring that it would not be damaged.

Jing Chen had come up with this method mainly to avoid wasting the corpses of the hunted Soul Beasts.

Because he had prepared more metal, Jing Chen stayed in the Star Dou Great Forest longer than last time—seventeen full days.

Over those seventeen days, he produced forty Level 1 Soul Guiding Ray Guns.

As the saying went, practice made perfect. As the number of times he crafted them increased, both his crafting speed and skill improved to a certain degree.

He now found crafting Soul Tools even more effortless, and his efficiency was much higher than before.

Besides producing forty Soul Tools, his cultivation had also broken through during this period, reaching Level 16.

As for Yi Yi, its improvement was even greater than Jing Chen's. Over those seventeen days, by devouring Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts, its cultivation reached more than seven thousand one hundred years.

Although its average daily increase in age was lower than what it had gained during those days in the Outer Zone.

But one had to remember that the higher its age became, the harder it was to improve. Going from four thousand years to seven thousand years was more than twice as difficult as going from two thousand years to four thousand years.

Furthermore, Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts were not as numerous as Thousand-Year Soul Beasts. Finding them took time, hunting them took effort, and the number it hunted each day was less than half that of Thousand-Year Soul Beasts.

All these factors combined caused the average daily increase in age to decline.

Jing Chen was not surprised by this slower rate of improvement. He had long been mentally prepared for it.

The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's devouring trait meant that it would improve rapidly in its early stages, only to slow down more and more later on.

He had never expected Yi Yi to reach a cultivation of several hundred thousand years. As long as it could break through to one hundred thousand years, that would count as a success.

During Tang San's era, that Dark Demon Evil God Tiger, with a cultivation of over sixty thousand years, had been able to fight Tang San, who was Level 93 and wielded a divine artifact.

Their chances of victory had been roughly six to four—Tang San six, the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger four.

Using Tang San's combat power at the time as the standard for estimation, that Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's strength should have been equivalent to a Level 98 Super Douluo, perhaps nearing Limit Battle Power.

At just over sixty thousand years, it had already nearly reached Limit Battle Power. If it broke through to one hundred thousand years, it would most likely possess true Limit Battle Power.

Since breaking through one hundred thousand years would more or less grant it Limit Battle Power, there was no need to pursue two hundred thousand or three hundred thousand years. It was not worth it.

The reason it was not worth it was because the higher a Soul Beast's age, the smaller the increase in strength it gained.

This could be seen from the fact that a Ten-Thousand-Year Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear could contend with an ordinary Titled Douluo, while a Hundred-Thousand-Year Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear was comparable to a Level 96 or 97 Super Douluo.

Yet Xiong Jun, a Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear over four hundred thousand years old, could only be considered an ordinary Limit Douluo.

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