Ning Chen held the Fierce Slash Blade he had just forged and examined it carefully beneath the sunlight.
The Fierce Slash Blade had a smooth, slender body without much weight to it, and its design closely resembled a goose-quill saber.
The blade curved slightly, tapering cleanly and sharply from its spine to its edge, exuding a crisp and fierce aura.
Yet unlike an ordinary goose-quill saber, this Fierce Slash Blade possessed a deep, restrained crimson hue, as though flames had seeped into its very bones during the forging process.
Most eye-catching of all were the patterns that began at the hilt and extended along the blade's spine all the way to its tip.
The patterns layered over one another in an orderly arrangement, becoming deeper and more intricate the closer they came to the tip.
Like frozen veins of flame, or traces left by molten lava flowing across the blade, they faintly shimmered with a dark red luster beneath the light.
They were decorations, but they were also formation patterns forged from Crimson Steel.
When used, they allowed the wielder's Soul Power to flow smoothly along the patterns, thereby unleashing greater power.
He casually spun the blade in a flourish. Its edge cut through the air with a faint hum.
Soul Power flowed into it, and the formation patterns forged from Crimson Steel on the blade faintly glimmered.
"Soul Power is circulating normally. Next, it's time to test the Fierce Slash Blade's power!"
Ning Chen went to the center of the courtyard and secured a piece of wood he had prepared beforehand, as thick as an adult's thigh.
He then raised the Fierce Slash Blade in his hand, poured Soul Power into it, and swung it fiercely!
A scorching, solid blaze instantly emerged from the Fierce Slash Blade, like a flame slash compressed to the extreme, striking the wood with perfect precision.
A clean cutting sound rang out. Wherever the blade passed, the piece of wood as thick as an adult's thigh was sliced neatly in two.
Ning Chen walked up to the wooden stump and saw that the cut was flat and smooth. A faint charred mark lingered around the edge, while the air carried a light scent of burnt wood.
Ning Chen could not help laughing with delight. Its power was even greater than he had imagined, absolutely no weaker than the single-target offensive soul skills granted by some high-quality hundred-year Spirit Rings!
Looking at the Fierce Slash Blade in his hand, fashioned like a goose-quill saber, Ning Chen felt immensely satisfied.
However, Ning Chen was not planning to go soul hunting just yet.
His first Spirit Ring was already seven hundred years old, so his second Spirit Ring had to begin at the thousand-year level.
Thousand-year soul beasts were already scarce in the Soul Hunting Forest, and there were simply no suitable thousand-year soul beasts for Ning Chen in the Balak Kingdom's Soul Hunting Forest.
If he wanted to obtain a suitable thousand-year second Spirit Ring, he would have to travel to the Star Dou Great Forest.
The Star Dou Great Forest lay directly south of the Heaven Dou Empire, adjacent to the southeastern border of the Balak Kingdom.
It even spanned the borders of the two Great Empires, Heaven Dou and Star Luo. Its vast area was nearly equal to the entire territory of the Balak Kingdom, making it the foremost of Douluo Continent's three major wild soul beast habitats.
Any Soul Master with sufficient strength and good fortune could find the Spirit Ring most suited to them within it.
For Ning Chen, the Star Dou Great Forest was the best choice for acquiring his second Spirit Ring.
Likewise, compared to the Balak Kingdom's Soul Hunting Forest, the Star Dou Great Forest was geometrically more dangerous.
Even the Azure Wood Puppet could not give him enough of a sense of security. Ning Chen planned to forge a full set of second-level Soul Tool-grade magical artifacts before heading to the Star Dou Great Forest.
In the blink of an eye, another two months passed.
With the insight and understanding brought by mastering the Nine Yang Divine Skill, Ning Chen's artifact-forging methods improved rapidly as well.
Over those two months, Ning Chen had more or less completed his goal.
The second-level Soul Tool-grade Fierce Slash Blade looked sharper and smoother, while its patterns had become considerably more intricate.
The second-level Soul Tool-grade protective inner armor, the Earthguard Armor, was already being worn close against Ning Chen's body.
Not only was its own defensive power formidable, it could also activate the defensive spell Thick Earth Protection, which condensed earthen armor around the vital areas of his body.
It lasted for ten seconds. During Thick Earth Protection, it could withstand the full-force attacks of three Soul Elders.
There were also the second-level Soul Tool-grade Wind-Chasing Boots. Once Soul Power was infused into them, the inscriptions within could be activated, directly increasing Ning Chen's speed by thirty percent.
They also came with the low-level spell Wind-Chasing. Once activated, it granted explosive movement speed for three seconds, making it highly useful whether in battle or while fleeing.
The Fierce Slash Blade, Earthguard Armor, and Wind-Chasing Boots—these were the results of Ning Chen's two months of forging and artifact refinement.
After forging these three second-level Soul Tools, his little treasury declared bankruptcy. He did not even have money left for the journey to the Star Dou Great Forest or for purchasing supplies.
Now that he had a second-level Soul Tool-grade Fierce Slash Blade, the First-Level Flame-Slashing Blade he had forged earlier was no longer of much use.
So Ning Chen simply put it up for consignment at the Treasure Gathering Pavilion.
The art of forging Soul Tools had long been lost in the present-day Douluo Continent. They could only be obtained through excavations of various ruins, and most of them were storage-type Soul Tools.
Ning Chen's Fierce Slash Blade was not only an exceptionally rare offensive Soul Tool, but also of excellent quality. In the end, it sold for an extremely high price.
After the Treasure Gathering Pavilion took its commission, Ning Chen received a full two thousand Gold Soul Coins!
It was the largest sum of wealth he had ever obtained at one time.
According to the people at the Treasure Gathering Pavilion, the person who had bought the First-Level Flame-Slashing Blade seemed to be a highly influential noble from Barak City.
He had purchased the Fierce Slash Blade not to use it, but to collect it.
With two thousand Gold Soul Coins in hand, Ning Chen immediately began urgently preparing all sorts of supplies for his trip to the Star Dou Great Forest.
Food, water, changes of clothes, and everything else were fully prepared.
For convenience on the road, Ning Chen also bought a horse said to possess soul beast bloodline, spending a full fifty Gold Soul Coins.
Though the price was steep, it was worth it. This gray-furred horse was not only fast, but also had great endurance. It was absolutely no worse than some of the so-called blood-sweating steeds from his original world.
For convenience, Ning Chen gave the gray horse a name: Little Gray.
This trip to the Star Dou Great Forest would take at least half a month, and at most one or two months.
Ning Chen therefore chose not to renew the lease on his current courtyard. Once everything was ready, he set off one morning.
After several months, Ning Chen had grown quite a bit taller, but riding a horse was still somewhat difficult for him.
So Ning Chen hitched a carriage to Little Gray and hurried all the way toward the Star Dou Great Forest.
The Star Dou Great Forest lay southeast of the Balak Kingdom, only around five hundred kilometers from Suotuo City, known as the "Balak Granary."
To reach the Star Dou Great Forest, Ning Chen would inevitably have to pass through Suotuo City.
And Suotuo City was where the famed Shrek Academy from the original story was located.
Shrek Academy also possessed a certain reputation within the Soul Master World.
That was entirely because Shrek Academy's founder was Flender, the Horn of Soaring, one of the renowned Golden Iron Triangle of the Soul Master World, and a Soul Sage powerhouse.
For that reason, although Shrek Academy was located in the countryside on the outskirts of Suotuo City and its environment was not particularly good, many people still brought their children there every year to apply for admission.
However, Shrek Academy had always maintained strict standards for its students. After all these years, it had never even managed to gather enough students to participate in the Continental Elite Soul Master Academy competition.
It was rather a case of thunderous noise but little rain.
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