Forging a Weapon into a Soul

As Ling Yi strolled among the piles of broken weapons and shattered blades, he stretched out his right hand. His Soul Power surged with his thoughts, and a flash of azure light revealed the "Blue Silver Grass" Martial Soul, which resembled a vine-like spirit snake.

Two halos appeared simultaneously beneath his feet, one bright yellow and the other deep yellow, swirling and pulsating around Ling Yi.

Under the blue light of Soul Power and the Yellow Soul Ring, the entire underground space became even brighter.

Seeing this, Zhang Lei, who was standing next to Ling Yi, also stretched out his right hand. A gray light flashed and transformed into a brownish-yellow long pole with a "Hoe" Martial Soul with a dark and shiny blade, which he held in his hand.

Similarly, a bright yellow halo appeared and coiled around Zhang Lei's feet.

This Soul Ring comes from the "Iron Birch Tree" in the old forest north of the original Mountain Sea Village, and it is over 330 years old!

At the end of January in the 2605th year of the Douluo Calendar, which is nearly two years ago, Ling Yi returned to "Wood Plant City" and was granted the title of Baron for becoming Blacksmith.

When Zhang Lei returned home to reflect on his actions, he was seventeen years old and had cultivated his Soul Power to level ten.

A battle axe of the Thousand Refinement, with a strength of over five hundred jin honed through more than ten years of practicing the "Farmer's Three Forms" and "Basic Body-Training Exercises," plus the enhancement of the five senses by Ling Yi's "First Soul Skill - Abundant Vitality," was used to strike down the weak point indicated by Ling Yi.

Successfully obtained the 330-year-old "Iron Birch Tree" Soul Ring!

Soul Skill: Hard as Jin Gang!

When the Soul Skill is activated, the material of the Martial Soul "Hoe" is transformed into the same level of hardness as the heartwood of an "Iron Birch Tree," and its weight increases tenfold. The Soul Master himself is immune to the change in weight.

This is a buff-type Soul Skill, with no offensive or defensive capabilities. From the current perspective of the Douluo Continent, it is considered a useless Soul Skill.

This is why, apart from a small number of Tool Martial Soul Master, very few people include "Iron Birch Tree" in their Soul Ring options.

Of course, whether it was out of trust in Ling Yi or the fact that the "Iron Birch Tree" in the old forest was over 300 years old, Zhang Lei did not hesitate for a moment before choosing to follow Ling Yi's arrangement and cut down the "Iron Birch Tree" that recorded many of their childhood memories.

Zhang Mufeng, whose Martial Soul is "Mixed Iron Staff", made a similar choice. His Second Soul Ring was the 600-year-old "Iron Birch Tree" in the Frost Forest, a primary Soul Hunting Forest in the northern part of the Water Wood Duchy.

With the addition of Soul Ring, Zhang Lei's Soul Power surged to level 11 at 38%. After nearly two years of cultivation, the nineteen-year-old now has Soul Power level of 14 at 77%. In terms of progress, he is even faster than when he was Soul Scholar!

Images of chopping down the "Iron Birch Tree," absorbing the Soul Ring, and testing the effects of Soul Skill flashed through Zhang Lei's mind as he followed closely behind Ling Yi to the very center of the space.

A series of circular pits, each over 1.5 feet in diameter, came into view, their layout of four vertical and five horizontal lines quite striking.

Most of the craters were empty, except for three craters at the edge, which contained many remnants of weapons.

Zhang Lei knew that, unlike the broken weapons and wreckage outside, these items in the craters were said to have been collected from the battlefield ruins of the [Heaven Dou Empire] and the [Star Luo Empire], requiring a considerable amount of manpower, material resources, and financial resources from the [Blacksmith Association - Water Wood Duchy Branch].

After glancing at the two craters on the left and right, Ling Yi didn't stop. He walked straight to the middle one, jumped down, and Zhang Lei followed closely behind.

Within the pit, which was about 1.5 feet in diameter and 1 meter deep, the scattered remnants of weapons and broken blades were laid out haphazardly, leaving almost no room to step.

But at this moment, Zhang Lei's gaze did not fall on the scrap metal that had once slain countless enemy soldiers and been stained with countless drops of blood. Instead, he stared intently at the figure standing in the center of the crater, his eyes bright and full of fervor.

This wasn't Zhang Lei's first time here.

Or rather, even when Ling Yi wasn't around, he would still come here every day.

All for that was the towering figure in his eyes, standing tall and upright, within that crater.

It was a long-handled war weapon, two and a half meters tall, stuck in the ground at the bottom of the pit!

A long, purplish-black shaft, with a jet-black, T-shaped metal blade, fits perfectly into the shaft—this is a battle halberd!

Without Ling Yi saying anything, Zhang Lei spontaneously stepped forward quickly, transferring the "Hoe" Martial Soul from his right hand to his left. His right hand, as if caressing a lover, gently pressed against the purplish-black shaft of the battle halberd.

Gray Soul Power surged, seeping into the battle halberd from Zhang Lei's right hand like silk threads, and beautiful, bright patterns appeared on the purplish-black long shaft.

At the same time, the Soul Ring swirling beneath Zhang Lei's feet seemed to be transmitting signals, their bright yellow light flashing intermittently.

Seeing this, Ling Yi nodded in satisfaction. Since he couldn't forge a weapon that would allow Soul Power to flow freely, he would work on the materials!

The two-meter-long handle of the halberd came from the heartwood of the "Iron Birch Tree" from which Zhang Lei obtained his First Soul Ring.

Ling Yi took only the heartwood from the bottom five meters of the "Iron Birch Tree," which was over ten meters tall, and meticulously crafted it into the shafts of two battle spears.

Using the alloy formula he learned from Lou Gao, he created two spearheads with a hardness no less than that of "Cold Heart Iron Essence".

The combined halberd, in terms of quality, can be said to be one of the two strongest pieces in Ling Yi's current works. Even the three master craftsmen of the Water Wood Duchy, Old Master Jin, would have to admit that they were inferior.

The two halberds, one of which is in the depression on the left, was used by Ling Yi for experimentation. He spent some time researching and developing a technique to nourish the weapon with Soul Power.

This allowed the "Tool Martial Soul Forging Secrets" technique, which was initially established in the Cold Wind Grand Camp a few years ago, to be further improved.

To be honest, Ling Yi created "Tool Martial Soul: Forging Secrets" not to correspond with "Beast Martial Soul: Xingyi Fist Style" or to satisfy some kind of panel data collection fetish.

He had three main objectives.

First, we need to study the formation principle of Soul Master's Martial Soul.

Secondly, we hope to find a way to create artificial Tool Martial Soul by exploring the connection between Tool Martial Soul and Soul Master.

Third, to accumulate basic theories for the future creation of Soul Tool.

If the manifestation of Beast Martial Soul originates from a kind of beast-blooded wizard inheritance similar to that in Western fantasy novels, then the source of its power is a kind of Soul Beast.

Therefore, the source of the Tool Martial Soul's inheritance is clearly not related to the bloodline of Soul Beast.

In addition, Ling Yi was quite interested in Tool Martial Soul, especially Tool Martial Soul of weapons and tools. He wondered whether they were material or energy, and how they could transform between the real and the virtual.

Unfortunately, limited by his own strength and the limited information he had access to on Martial Soul, Ling Yi's foundation was still too shallow to support further in-depth research.

With a thought, Ling Yi unleashed a green light from his right hand and flicked it forward. The "Blue Silver Grass" Martial Soul, with its whip-like vines, instantly lengthened and Entanglement around Zhang Lei's right arm.

Full of vibrant energy, it flowed into Zhang Lei's body along the vines, merging with the ceaseless flow of Soul Power, and making a sensing mark on the Soul Power circulation route between Zhang Lei and Zhan Ge.

The circulation route of this Soul Power has changed considerably from the Ling Yi taught Zhang Lei back then.

It is closer to the Soul Power trajectory when Zhang Lei uses his First Soul Skill, "Hard as Jin Gang".

Clearly, Zhang Lei had taken Ling Yi's instructions to heart, and in the past two years, he had worked hard to deduce the approximate origin of his First Soul Skill.