Pre-Competition Preparations

The Sun Moon Empire Soul Master Tournament summons spread throughout Shrek Academy's inner courtyard, and the entire academy was instantly engulfed in an intense atmosphere of preparation.

Everyone hurried to refine their soul skills, coordinate team battles, and temper their soul power. Tang Wulin alone remained remarkably composed.

Having just returned from the Icefire Yin Yang Well, he had stabilized his cultivation at Rank 61 Soul Emperor. The Dragon Core in his dantian revolved without rest, while the Qiluo Tulip soul spirit had taken root within his divine soul. His accumulated foundation had long surpassed that of his peers. Compared to hastily piling up soul power or blindly drilling techniques, what he needed most right now was to improve his greatest reliance—his battle armor.

Battle armor was the foundation upon which soul masters stood.

One-Word Battle Armor was enough to dominate among Soul Emperors and crush those of the same rank, but he was about to face the continent's most outstanding young geniuses, along with countless strange and tyrannical high-level soul engineers. Ordinary One-Word Battle Armor ultimately allowed too little room for error against soul cannon fire and overwhelming assaults.

If he wanted to truly stand above the masses in the tournament and remain unafraid of suppression by soul technology, his battle armor had to advance.

Upon returning to his private inner courtyard dormitory, he found the room spacious, bright, cleanly arranged, and empty enough to be ideal for secluded forging.

Tang Wulin did not delay in the slightest. He directly took out the full set of forging equipment stored in his storage device: a refined iron forging base, a ten-thousand-year constant-temperature furnace, a pressure-stabilizing forging hammer, and a focus-enhancing quenching vessel. With a flick of his wrist, heavy pieces of specially made alloy fell to the floor, fitting together with precise alignment, locking, and fastening.

Click, click, click—

A series of steady mechanical locking sounds rang out.

In only a short while, an advanced forging table with a complete standardized design and intricate structure, far surpassing the academy's ordinary standards, stood firmly in the center of the room. Its surface was smooth as a mirror, its furnace contained an internal fire-gathering array, and its hammer slots were steady and shockproof. It was a top-tier private forging station.

After arranging everything, Tang Wulin immediately picked up a pen and wrote a resource application.

Unlike ordinary students, who only dared request small amounts of common metals, his application was brief yet shocking: several kinds of rare Mysterious Iron, Starfall Steel, Blue Sea Cold Gold, and a small quantity of Ten-Thousand-Year Marrow Iron. All were scarce materials necessary for forging high-level battle armor, and inner courtyard students rarely had the authority to use them.

His reason was simple and forceful: preparation for the Continental Soul Master Tournament and the advancement of his battle armor.

With his current standing as a core disciple of the inner courtyard, along with the special privileges granted to those about to represent the academy in the tournament, his application received approval without obstruction.

In less than half an hour, the academy's Supply Hall sent someone to deliver a heavy crate of rare metals to his room.

The moment the crate was opened, dense metallic spiritual energy wafted out. The materials were exceptionally pure and astonishingly dense, all excellent for Soul Forging refinement.

Tang Wulin sat cross-legged and adjusted his breathing for a moment. Once his mind had become completely clear and his Dragon Core soul power was circulating at its peak, he raised a hand and activated the furnace.

Pale blue spiritual fire slowly rose, its temperature steady and gentle, yet sufficient to melt rare mystical metals.

He raised his hand, took out the materials, and brought down his hammer.

Boom—!

The first hammer blow was heavy and steady, neither sharp nor impatient.

When ordinary soul masters forged, their hammer techniques were awkward, their rhythm uneven, and their heat control difficult. They had to repeatedly heat and hammer the metal, wasting both time and energy while damaging the materials.

But Tang Wulin's forging was an entirely different sight.

After the accumulation of forging mastery across two lifetimes, his grandmaster-level techniques, tempered through countless hammer strikes, had long been carved into his instincts.

Raise his hand, strike the hammer, turn the metal, quench it, fold-forge it, regulate the temperature, remove impurities—every movement flowed smoothly, without a single wasted motion.

The hammer wind was steady and measured. Every strike carried exactly the right force, and the strength of a thousand pounds sank completely into the metal's grain. It did not shatter, crack, swell, or warp. The spiritual fire maintained a constant temperature and locked in the material's quality, stripping away impurities layer by layer while preserving the purest metallic essence. The forging patterns were fine and even, the grain layering upon itself.

Grandmaster forging, naturally attaining its full momentum.

Several figures happened to pass through the corridor outside.

Huo Yuhao, Wang Dong'er, Bei Bei, Xu Sanshi, Jiang Nannan, Xiao Xiao, and He Caitou—the entire second generation of the Shrek Seven Monsters—were there. They had originally been heading to the training grounds together to coordinate their team battle formation. As they passed Tang Wulin's door, they heard the uninterrupted yet exceptionally rhythmic and steady sound of forging hammers from within.

At first, they assumed it was ordinary cultivation and forging, so they paid it no mind.

Yet after only a few breaths, everyone stopped at once.

"Something's wrong. This hammer rhythm... it's far too steady." Bei Bei's gaze narrowed slightly, his eyes filled with surprise.

His cultivation was profound and his experience vast. He had heard countless smiths hammer metal, but he had never heard hammer strikes so orderly, weighty, and uniform in rhythm.

Boom, boom, boom—

The hammering blended into a continuous stream. Its rhythm remained constant and unbroken, its force rising layer by layer, without the slightest hesitation, pause, or deviation.

Even the eighth-rank forging masters specially employed by Shrek Academy would inevitably have fluctuations in rhythm and force while forging. None could achieve such nearly perfect mechanical precision.

"Is this... ultimate force control?" Xu Sanshi's eyes widened, his face full of disbelief. "That control is terrifying. The vibration frequency and depth of every single strike are exactly the same!"

Wang Dong'er blinked her bright eyes, her expression full of shock. "Junior Brother Wulin... knows how to forge too? And he sounds incredibly good at it!"

Xiao Xiao covered her lips lightly with one hand and said softly, "It's more than just knowing how. At this level, he's definitely above a high-level forging master!"

Huo Yuhao's senses were the sharpest. His Spirit Eyes glimmered faintly as he gently extended his spiritual power and peered through the gap in the door.

The next instant, his pupils contracted slightly, and a storm surged within his heart.

Inside the room, the white-clad youth stood before the forging table, his expression calm and composed.

Countless metal fragments danced in orderly patterns within the spiritual fire. With every descending hammer strike, innumerable fine forging patterns formed and layered over one another. His eyes were clear, his mind wholly focused. Every motion carried the rhythm of the Great Dao. He appeared relaxed and casual, yet possessed the ease and certainty of one long immersed in the Dao.

Most terrifying of all—his soul power was barely being consumed.

Others relied on exhausting their strength, forcing themselves onward, and trying again and again when they forged. But Tang Wulin forged as naturally as breathing, his soul power flowing smoothly and freely, his mastery reaching the pinnacle of perfection.

Huo Yuhao was deeply shaken.

He knew full well how much mental energy, soul power, patience, and precision forging demanded. Among soul masters of the same rank, being able to steadily forge ordinary alloys was already rare. Yet Tang Wulin's mastery of fire, hammer, and force had long surpassed the realm of ordinary soul masters. It could only be called grandmaster-level attainment.

He was clearly so young, had only just entered the Soul Emperor realm, yet his forging foundation was already this terrifying.

Just how many trump cards does he still have? Huo Yuhao silently sighed.

No one spoke. They stood quietly outside the door, listening to the continuous, flawless sounds of hammering within. Nothing remained in their hearts but profound shock.

No one had expected that this newly advanced six-ring Soul Emperor possessed not only astonishing combat strength, but also such terrifying forging skill.

Inside the room, Tang Wulin was completely unaware of the eyes outside. He immersed himself wholeheartedly in the state of Soul Forging.

What he intended was not to reforge his battle armor components, but to elevate them through Soul Forging—to wash and refine the old armor with soul power, advancing it layer by layer.

For One-Word Battle Armor to advance to Two-Word Battle Armor, the most crucial step was deep Soul Forging: weaving soul power into its patterns and condensing an armor soul.

The Dragon Core slowly revolved, and strands of pure, vast dragon-type soul power seeped into the grain of the metal.

Ordinary smiths could only rely on external force to hammer and temper their materials, but he possessed the Dragon God's Origin. His soul power inherently carried the foundation of the Great Dao. Every strand that penetrated the metal was reshaping the structural laws within it.

Once, ten times, a hundred times...

A hundred refinements made steel, a thousand refinements birthed patterns, ten thousand refinements condensed a soul.

As the repeated Soul Forging refinement continued, the original One-Word Dragon armor components began to undergo a heaven-shaking transformation.

The armor's originally simple metallic sheen gradually faded. A deep blue base spread like a tranquil night sky, while fine dragon-scale patterns layered over one another and ran through the entire armor. Faint moon-white radiance flowed through the gaps between the scales, gentle yet sharp.

This was the name he had chosen for his exclusive battle armor from the very beginning—Dragon Moon!

The dragon represented his Golden Dragon King martial soul, while the moon represented the person he loved most, Gu Yue.

The dragon soared across the heavens, and the moon covered mountains and rivers.

The plant-life soul power of the Qiluo Tulip circulated in tandem, seeping into the texture of the Dragon Moon Battle Armor. It granted the entire divine armor an unending restorative trait, causing its durability, self-repair, and elemental resistance to soar across the board.

No one knew how much time passed.

Buzz—!

A deep, weighty metallic hum, clear as a dragon's roar, exploded from within the room.

All forging abruptly stopped.

Every component of the Dragon Moon Battle Armor on the table trembled intensely. Dark golden dragon patterns intertwined with flowing moonlight, and innumerable fine armor patterns finally linked into a single whole. The quality of the entire armor completed a total transformation!

Soul Forging complete, armor rank breakthrough!

Two-Word Dragon Moon Battle Armor, complete!

Tang Wulin raised a hand and lightly brushed over it. The radiant Dragon Moon Divine Armor instantly covered his body, perfectly fitting his frame as it took shape.

The shoulder armor resembled crouching dragon heads, its angles cold and stern yet adorned with soft moon-white radiance. The breastplate was densely covered in dragon scales, its deep blue base flowing with faint golden brilliance. Moon patterns ran through his waist and spine, like moonlight descending to coil around a dragon's body. Its dominance was restrained, its nobility natural. It possessed both the tyranny of the Dragon God and the stillness of moonlight.

Compared to the One-Word Dragon Moon Battle Armor, the Two-Word version had undergone a complete elevation in texture, quality, and Dao resonance.

Its defensive strength doubled, its soul power amplification doubled, the upper limit of soul skill capacity soared, and its margin for error greatly increased.

It had also condensed three exclusive traits:

Dragon Core Origin—its armor force was heavy, its dragon might suppressed evil, and it could restrain all beasts, evil souls, and baleful auras.

Qiluo Vitality—life was hidden within moonlight. Any damage would repair itself, while injuries would slowly recover along with the flow of soul power.

Yin-Yang Dual Ward—it carried the principles of ice and fire from the Icefire Yin Yang Well. Its resistance to extreme cold and extreme heat was greatly enhanced, and it feared no ordinary elemental bombardment.

Now, clad in the Two-Word Dragon Moon Battle Armor, supported by the foundation of a six-ring Soul Emperor and with the Dragon Core anchoring his dantian—

Even against a high-level Soul Saint, he could fight calmly. Even if he encountered dense soul cannon bombardment from the Sun Moon Empire, he would still be able to remain undefeated.

Outside the room, the Shrek Seven Monsters were already deeply moved, their expressions filled with indescribable shock.

In merely a few hours of secluded forging, he had forcibly refined his exclusive battle armor from One-Word to Two-Word, and had even forged such peerless Dragon Moon Divine Armor, one that possessed its own Dao resonance.

That cultivation speed, forging talent, strength of character, and accumulated foundation had completely surpassed their understanding of what a "genius" was.

Huo Yuhao looked at the tightly closed door, his gaze solemn yet filled with wholehearted admiration.

With Tang Wulin clad in Two-Word Dragon Moon Battle Armor in this Continental Soul Master Tournament, Shrek's confidence was far greater than anyone had imagined.

Inside the room.

Tang Wulin raised his hand and clenched his fist. Dragon patterns and moonlight flowed gently around him, while the armor felt cool, heavy, and solid. A surging sense of power filled every limb and bone.

A calm golden gleam flashed through his eyes, and his mind was as steady as an abyss.

The advancement of the Dragon Moon Divine Armor was complete. His own cultivation had stabilized at its peak, and the trinity of Dragon Core, soul spirit, and battle armor had fully taken shape.

The Sun Moon Tournament would gather heroes from every side, with soul tools clashing for supremacy.

He was fully prepared.