Tang Mo walked aside and sat down, his gaze still fixed on the medicinal broth in the iron pot. All he needed to do now was stir it every half hour to ensure the somewhat thick broth did not scorch on the bottom as it cooled.
Just as he was about to massage his aching arms, two hands suddenly settled on them, kneading them with unpracticed movements.
He looked toward the owners of those hands and only then discovered that Ning Rongrong and Hu Liena had sat down beside him at some point.
Qian Renxue sat some distance away, a trace of conflict flashing through her eyes. Since she was currently disguised as Xue Qinghe, she needed to pay particular attention to her every move, especially since she could not simply reach out and massage Tang Mo's arms like Ning Rongrong and Hu Liena.
"Junior brother, what are you working on?" Hu Liena asked.
At her question, Ning Rongrong likewise looked at Tang Mo with curiosity in her eyes.
"A secret medicine that can improve physical constitution. Taking it over a long period can even improve cultivation talent, and it might also promote martial soul evolution," Tang Mo answered truthfully.
Upon hearing the Crimson Yang Pill's effects, all three stared dumbfounded at the medicinal broth in the iron pot, which had already taken on a blend of burnished gold and vermilion.
Even if they racked their brains until their heads split, they would never have imagined that a pot of mush like this could possess such heaven-defying medicinal effects.
The strength of a martial soul was fundamentally related to three things: physical constitution, soul strength, and bloodline power.
A powerful bloodline was the key to a powerful martial soul, while a body and soul capable of withstanding the martial soul's power were prerequisites.
To put it plainly, a martial soul was like a weapon. To stand unrivaled beneath the heavens with a weapon, not only did the weapon itself need to be powerful enough, but its wielder also needed to be able to lift and swing it.
Otherwise, no matter how fine the weapon, without a sufficiently powerful wielder, it could only fade into the crowd.
Yu Xiaogang was an excellent example. His martial soul, Luo Sanpao, was essentially a beneficial mutation of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon. If his body and soul had been strong enough, Luo Sanpao could have been the Golden Sacred Dragon.
So his theory was not wrong: there were only useless Soul Masters, not useless martial souls. He simply had not realized that he was useless himself.
"Besides Soul Tools for everyday use and Storage Soul Tools, what function would you most want a Soul Tool to have?" After enjoying Ning Rongrong and Hu Liena's massages for a while, Tang Mo suddenly posed the question to the three of them.
One batch of Crimson Yang Pills would last him some time. Before he exhausted the pills, he would have a fair amount of time to research magical artifacts.
Thus, he could certainly take advantage of this time to refine a magical artifact for each of them, using those as practice before refining his own.
After all, there were certain differences between magical artifacts and Soul Tools. In addition, some special materials on the Douluo Continent differed somewhat from the artifact-refining materials in the world of Tang Mo's previous life. Refining magical artifacts therefore felt a little like opening blind boxes to him. Before opening the most valuable blind box, he had to open a few cheap ones to try his luck.
"Self-defense." After a moment's thought, Qian Renxue gave her answer.
Although she currently had She Long, the Snake Lance Douluo, protecting her, and the palace's Imperial Guards escorted her whenever she went out, she still needed the ability to repel enemies without using her full strength, just in case.
Her secret technique could indeed change her appearance and, to a certain extent, disguise her martial soul as a swan rather than a Six-Winged Angel. But once she fought at full strength, the secret technique would gradually fail.
For that reason, she had spent all these years doing her best to avoid situations in which she needed to act personally.
But a flaw was a flaw. Avoiding it as much as possible did not make it cease to exist.
So the instant Tang Mo mentioned what type of Soul Tool they needed, she thought of one that would let her defend herself without activating her martial soul.
However, the methods for making Soul Tools had long since been lost. Those currently circulating on the market were treasures excavated from ruins or passed down through generations of Soul Masters, and they could essentially only be used in daily life or as storage devices.
Thus, Qian Renxue was merely saying it casually. She did not believe Tang Mo could produce a Soul Tool that met her requirements.
"Enhancing spiritual power," Hu Liena said thoughtfully.
She specialized in charm, which was essentially a special application of spiritual power. The stronger her spiritual power, the stronger her charm abilities would be.
When Ning Rongrong's turn came, she visibly froze. As the little princess of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, she lacked nothing, so she had no particular requirements for a Soul Tool.
"Give me your dagger. I'll improve it for you later," Tang Mo said, gently patting Ning Rongrong's head.
Ning Rongrong looked rather helplessly at the hand resting on her head, but had no intention of dodging it.
Soon, a little light suddenly entered the pitch-black night, and a faint glow gradually appeared on the horizon. Seeing this, Tang Mo walked over to the iron pot, picked it up together with the heating Soul Tool, and carried it into a room where no daylight reached.
After closing the door, he activated the Soul Tool again, and the temperature of the thick medicinal liquid in the iron pot gradually rose back to room temperature.
He quickly turned off the heat, added honey, stirred it evenly, and poured it into an iron basin.
Next, he poured a powder resembling Chinese yam flour into the iron basin and quickly kneaded the mixture into pills the size of Chinese parasol tree seeds.
Before long, only six hundred tiny pills remained in the iron basin. They were so small that several laid side by side only equaled the length of a single capsule.
Small as the pills were, their potency was not weak. Tang Mo estimated that he could take no more than two a day, one in the morning and one at night.
Taking too many would not only prevent him from fully absorbing their medicinal potency but could also easily leave his body too weak to handle the nourishment, doing harm rather than good.
As for Qian Renxue and the other two, they could take at most one every three days. Taking more would likewise do them no good.
Seeing that a full day and night of effort had not been wasted, Tang Mo divided the pills before him among jade bottles he had prepared in advance: three hundred for himself, and one hundred each for Qian Renxue, Hu Liena, and Ning Rongrong.
"Creak~"
Pushing open the door, he discovered that all three were waiting outside and had not left.
He handed each of them a jade bottle. After he briefly explained how to take the pills, Hu Liena pulled Ning Rongrong, who did not want to leave, into her room.
Tang Mo and Qian Renxue, meanwhile, simply stared at each other. No room had been prepared for Qian Renxue here.
"Would you like to come sit in my room?" Tang Mo asked without joking.
Qian Renxue naturally knew that Tang Mo was only joking. Just as she was about to take the offered way out and return to her temporary residence, two words suddenly slipped from her mouth: "Sure, okay."
Not only did Tang Mo freeze slightly at those words, but Qian Renxue, who had spoken them, also found herself caught between advancing and retreating.
Qian Renxue was currently on the verge of a breakthrough. If the Crimson Yang Pill really possessed the considerable potency Tang Mo had described, she felt she would most likely be unable to maintain her secret technique.
Once the secret technique failed, her true form would be revealed. She was not yet ready to face Tang Mo in her true form.
Her feelings were somewhat complicated. She was imagining how Tang Mo would react upon seeing her true form. The thought was strange, but she simply could not quite stop her mind from wandering.
Yet no amount of thinking meant much. No matter where she took the Crimson Yang Pill, her secret technique would fail.
Since the secret technique would fail sooner or later, it no longer made any difference where she took the Crimson Yang Pill.
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