Qian Renxue walked with light steps, her fingertips unconsciously rubbing the diamond-shaped pendant on her chest.
An irrepressible smile graced her stunning face as she skipped away from the training ground like a merry little deer.
Watching her retreating figure, Lu Xuan smiled and shook his head.
He turned and walked back into his workshop, which was filled with metal shavings and intense heat.
He was ready to start making his next Soul Tool.
What he had just given Qian Renxue was no ordinary little self-defense trinket.
It was a genuine Class 5 auto-trigger defensive Soul Tool.
In these few short months, Lu Xuan had relied on his own skilled hands to force his Soul Tool craftsmanship all the way from Class 1 to Class 5.
Although his mind was packed with the culmination of later generations' theoretical knowledge of Soul Tools, theory was theory, and practical work was practical work.
Engraving Knife techniques and the Soul Power conduction paths of Core Arrays all required tedious, repeated practice to build muscle memory.
Of course, even while engrossed in metalworking, Lu Xuan would never neglect his Soul Power cultivation.
His Soul Power had now reached the bottleneck at rank 49.
With Qian Renxue already having broken through to Soul King, he could hardly keep wandering around with the title of Soul Ancestor.
Granted, his twin God-level Martial Souls and supreme physical strength gave him more than enough power to kill opponents above his level.
But the fine tradition of "overwhelming them with stats" had to be carried through to the end!
Besides, Qian Renxue was no slouch in actual combat. If he capsized in a gutter during a spar one day, the advantage he had worked so hard to establish would be completely ruined.
Lu Xuan did not want to keep being pinned beneath Qian Renxue. As a man himself... although he looked young, he was not all that young anymore.
Just look at Ma Hongjun. At twelve, he was already an old hand at frequenting places of pleasure.
"Once I break through to Soul King and hunt down my fifth Soul Ring, I'll come back and keep hammering away at Soul Tools. This stuff really is addictive."
Lu Xuan privately set his goal, then went into seclusion.
Two months passed like a white steed flashing past a crack.
As another violent surge of Soul Power stirred the spiritual energy of heaven and earth deep within Spirit Hall, Lu Xuan broke through his shackles without any surprises and successfully crossed the threshold of rank 50!
With Qian Daoliu personally standing guard, he smoothly absorbed his fifth Soul Ring. His Soul Power naturally surged to rank 52, making him a genuine Soul King!
A seven-year-old Soul King!
When the news spread through the Worship Hall, even the air seemed to freeze.
"Never seen or heard of before" was no longer enough to describe this. It simply shattered every convention in the recorded history of the Douluo Continent!
According to Qian Daoliu's original, already exceedingly lofty expectations, Lu Xuan reaching Soul King before twelve would have counted as divine favor and extraordinary talent.
After all, Soul Power cultivation only grew harder the further one progressed. Who could have imagined that Lu Xuan would bring that goal forward by a full five years!
Faced with the looks Qian Daoliu and the others gave him, as though staring at a monster, Lu Xuan remained outwardly humble, while inwardly he felt no ripples at all.
Was this a joke?
I'd swept up all the greatest opportunities of the Douluo I era.
If I still cultivated at a snail's pace, I might as well find a block of tofu and smash myself to death against it. That would be an utter disgrace to transmigrators!
One day after his breakthrough, the sunshine was just right.
Lu Xuan went alone to the largest trading market in Spirit City.
The place teemed with voices and shops, serving as a distribution hub for rare materials from across the continent.
However, after visiting more than a dozen large metal shops in a row, Lu Xuan shook his head in disappointment.
"No good. The purity and toughness of these basic metals simply can't withstand the Soul Power impact of higher-tier Core Arrays..."
Lu Xuan stepped out through the store's main entrance and sighed as he looked at the bustling street.
"Looks like I'll still have to find a chance to visit Gengxin City."
Gengxin City was the renowned "City of Metal" on the Douluo Continent. Only there could he find the high-tier rare metals he truly needed.
Just as Lu Xuan was privately planning his trip, a soft rebuke in a sweet voice with a distinctive hint of huskiness came from diagonally ahead:
"Yan, can you stop following me? Don't you know how annoying you are?"
Lu Xuan instinctively turned to look.
A girl with short black hair stood not far away.
Although she was still young, her figure was already beginning to take shape, and a natural, effortless allure lingered between her brows.
Behind her, a sturdily built boy with a flamboyant head of red hair followed her every step.
He looked just like a delinquent with an outrageous hairstyle.
The red-haired boy did not get angry at being scolded. Instead, he plastered his face with smiles and rubbed his hands as he offered a fawning explanation:
"Not at all, Nana. You really misunderstood! I'm here to pick out a birthday present for Xie Yue too. We're just going the same way, that's all!"
Yan? Nana?
Lu Xuan raised his brows slightly, a hint of amusement flashing in his eyes.
Wasn't this Hu Liena and her number-one "simp," Yan?
The famous Spirit Hall Golden Generation from the original story.
Judging by Qian Renxue's age, Hu Liena was probably only around nine right now.
Tsk, the Golden Generation... and one of Spirit Hall's three great "love-addled fools," too.
Lu Xuan silently grumbled to himself, his gaze involuntarily lingering on Hu Liena for another couple of seconds, purely out of curiosity about a character from the original story.
Hearing Yan's flimsy excuse, Hu Liena rolled her lovely eyes.
Not bothering to pay him any more attention, she helplessly turned and continued walking forward.
Seeing this, Yan immediately trotted after her like a tail she could not shake off.
However, just as Yan passed Lu Xuan, he keenly noticed the look Lu Xuan had just given Hu Liena.
"Hey! Brat, what are you staring at?!"
Yan abruptly stopped and glared viciously at Lu Xuan.
He looked Lu Xuan up and down. The boy barely reached his chest and still had a very childish face. At a glance, he looked easy to bully.
The nameless anger in Yan's heart immediately flared, mixed with a measure of arrogance.
His attentions had been rejected in front of the girl he liked, and he had been fretting over having nowhere to vent!
What was so impressive about bullying someone his own age?
Only by using his greater age to bully a little brat like this could he display his "might" as a Spirit Hall genius!
If he refrained from bullying the other party because he was young, then it would all be meaningless!
"You're asking for a beating!" Yan snorted coldly.
His thick arm shot out, his fingers curling into claws. Carrying a scorching gust, his hand viciously grabbed for Lu Xuan's collar without the slightest courtesy!
Faced with this sudden bullying, Lu Xuan did not even lift his eyelids.
The instant Yan's fingers were about to touch his collar, Lu Xuan moved.
His figure shifted slightly like a phantom, easily evading Yan's grab.
Immediately afterward, Lu Xuan drove his right leg against the ground and exerted force through his waist.
A terrifying surge of physical strength instantly poured into his right fist.
Bang!
A deep, thunderous impact exploded through the street.
Lu Xuan's fist slammed unerringly into Yan's chin!
He had not used even a trace of Soul Power in that punch. It was pure, supreme physical strength!
"Urgh-!"
Yan did not even have time to let out a scream.
As though struck by a charging giant rhinoceros, his feet instantly left the ground.
His body traced a tragically beautiful arc through the air, flying more than a dozen meters before crashing heavily into a fruit stall.
Fruit shattered and scattered across the ground, and Yan's eyes rolled back.
His eyes turned straight into two mosquito-coil spirals. Without so much as a twitch, he passed out on the spot.
The sudden turn of events made Hu Liena, who had been walking ahead, whip around and cover her red lips in shock.
Lu Xuan leisurely withdrew his fist and lightly dusted off his hands.
Looking at the unconscious Yan in the distance, he spat disdainfully:
"With those third-rate skills, you're trying to copy Shrek and bully people? You really can't take a single hit."
Before you continue