The Operation

On the Sun Moon Continent, in the Dark Moon Forest, two figures descended from the sky. Evil Lord spread out his spiritual power and began scanning the entire forest. Immediately, a black figure flew out of the forest. "Go after her," Evil Lord said to the Wolf King. The Silver Moon Wolf King didn't dare hesitate and immediately set off in pursuit.

"Stop running. Evil Lord will definitely catch you."

"If I don't run, am I supposed to just wait for you two to kill me?" A powerful surge of spiritual power came straight at her. "Not good!" Her head, struck by the spiritual power, immediately grew dizzy. Behind her, the Wolf King also controlled the Elements and attacked. Faced with Mental Interference on one side and an elemental attack on the other, she was eventually caught up to by the Wolf King and brought before Evil Lord.

"Evil Lord, I haven't done anything to offend you, have I? I'm already poor enough as it is. What are you bringing this dog to my place for?" Starlit Night Raven angrily questioned Evil Lord. From the spiritual attack just now, she had sensed that Evil Lord wasn't trying to kill her; otherwise, he could have completely scrambled her mind. The Wolf King beside her felt insulted when he heard her call him a dog and glared at her fiercely.

"Of course I have business with you. You have two choices: come with me, or I'll send you on your way." Evil Lord spoke coldly to Starlit Night Raven. He knew that, without this wolf, he could use her tribe to threaten her. This Raven had always been alone in the forest, so he could only make his words sound more severe to keep her under control.

Starlit Night Raven knew as soon as she heard him that she had no choice. She didn't want to die yet. "I'll go with you, but I need to go back and make some arrangements."

"You think I'm joking with you? You're the only one in this forest. What is there to arrange? Do you think I'm easy to fool?" Evil Lord was clearly getting angry, and waves of spiritual power emanated from him.

"No, no, I wouldn't dare fool you. It's just that I have some things at home I can't bear to leave behind. I'll take you there, and you can see if there's anything you want. You can have it all." Raven hurriedly explained.

In Raven's cave, Evil Lord looked at all the odds and ends and immediately felt speechless. The ground was covered with century-old Spirit Herbs and Spirit Fruits Raven had collected. Evil Lord couldn't help grumbling, "I know you're poor, but you don't have to be this hard up. You have at least two hundred thousand years of Cultivation. Do you really have to live like this?"

"Do you think everyone's as loaded as you? It was already poor here to begin with. Before, I used up everything I had to get through two Heavenly Tribulations. These are what I've spent ages collecting." As she spoke, Raven stuffed some into her mouth. "Do you want any? If not, I'll eat them all."

After hearing her, Evil Lord could only wave his hand helplessly. The Wolf King also shook his head beside him, mocking the Poor Bird in his heart. Seeing that they didn't want any, Raven hurriedly began eating them.

Evil Lord said to them, "Turn into human form in a moment, then follow me." As he spoke, Evil Lord transformed into a man with dark red hair.

The Wolf King hurriedly transformed into a man with silver-gray hair, while Raven quickly finished the last Spirit Fruit and transformed into a tall woman with long black hair. The two then flew along with Evil Lord.

After speaking with Evil Lord, Huo Yuhao immediately returned to her room, packed her luggage, and prepared to head north. Huo Yuhao checked out with the innkeeper, shouldered her pack, and set off for the Far North.

Huo Yuhao left Star Luo City with seventy Gold Soul Coins still in her pocket, more than enough to cover the cost of traveling to the Far North. Although Huo Yuhao had now awakened her Martial Soul and recovered some of her spiritual power, the journey to the Far North would take her across the entire territory of the Heaven Dou Empire.

Half a month later, Huo Yuhao reached Lingdou City in the Heaven Dou Empire. At this time, the Heaven Dou Empire had not yet split into the Heaven Soul and Dou Ling Empires, and Lingdou City had never been a capital. It was still just a fairly large city. During the past half month, Huo Yuhao had sometimes been lucky enough to catch a ride, but most of the time she had walked. After arriving in Lingdou City, she went there to buy some provisions, then visited the blacksmith's shop and the roadside stalls. Huo Yuhao wanted to make some Milk Bottles to deal with the Soul Power problem she would face later on her journey to the Far North. Besides the possible problem of keeping warm, she also wanted to make some Soul Tools for self-defense.

She had actually had this idea back when she was in Star Luo City, but it was easier said than done. Huo Yuhao had already searched for Rare Metals for making Soul Tools in Star Luo City, but the reality was that, even though her spiritual power could support her in making Soul Tools, Rare Metals in Star Luo City were scarce and especially expensive-far beyond what she could afford at present. Huo Yuhao could only turn to ordinary metals, but iron was cheap and full of impurities.

As for making a batch of low-grade Soul Tools and selling them to quickly earn money to buy Rare Metals, Huo Yuhao didn't dare put Soul Tools on the market at present. The Soul Tools currently found on the Douluo Continent were all used for storage, and they were extremely outdated and scarce. If brand-new Soul Tools suddenly appeared on the market, they would surely attract other people's attention and bring unnecessary trouble. So Huo Yuhao could only travel on, checking the stalls in the cities along the way to see if she could find a bargain.

Huo Yuhao walked through the city, looking over the goods in the vendors' hands, searching high and low, but there were basically no Rare Metals. Thinking about how she had hardly bought any Rare Metals along the way, Huo Yuhao couldn't help sighing that Rare Metals were just as scarce on the Douluo Continent now as they would be ten thousand years later. She had originally wanted Evil Lord to bring some, but help from afar couldn't solve an immediate need. The journey was long, and how much could Evil Lord bring anyway? So she hadn't brought it up with him.

Before becoming a god, Huo Yuhao had been a Level 9 Soul Engineer, and she had spent a long time researching Soul Tools in the Divine Realm. She knew the most important things about Soul Tools were whether the metal could withstand the engraving of a Soul Guidance Array and whether the metal itself could conduct Soul Power well. Huo Yuhao thought that, with the Far North drawing closer and her having so few Rare Metals, she could only improve the quality of low-grade metal to meet her needs.

Following the clang of hammering, Huo Yuhao came to the blacksmith's shop. "Boss, how much do you charge for iron blocks?"

At the sound of her voice, the man vigorously swinging a hammer looked up and saw a white-haired little girl standing in front of him. He stopped working and looked around before asking her, "Where are your parents?"

"It's just me. How much do you charge for iron blocks?"

"Go play somewhere else, kid. This isn't a place for you to play."

Huo Yuhao knew from his words that he thought she was a child playing around. She took a Gold Soul Coin from her pocket and held it out in her hand. "I have money. Will you sell me iron or not?"

Looking at the Gold Soul Coin in the girl's hand, the man took out a few pieces of iron from the room behind him. "These are the best ones. Two Silver Soul Coins. If you want me to forge anything else, it'll cost extra."

Huo Yuhao saw that although the iron blocks weren't expensive, they had too many impurities. She picked out the best-quality one among them and asked, "Can you remove the impurities inside this piece? Money's no object."

"Remove the impurities? You mean forge and refine it? I can't do that. To remove all the impurities from this iron block, only a Divine Blacksmith could forge Hundred-Refinement Steel, as the legend goes." The man spoke with a look of longing on his face, then asked, "Hey, are you going to buy it or not?"