The Mutated Evil Eye had sensed Jiang Xia's presence while it was gestating. Now, under the formation's influence, it naturally would not refuse a contract with him.
As for Jiang Xia plundering his ice and fire attributes during his gestation, that was not a bad thing to the Evil Eye.
His instincts told him that without his ice and fire attributes, his spiritual attribute would become stronger.
In fact, Jiang Xia had indeed helped temper his spirit with ice and fire.
At the same time, Jiang Xia's Martial Soul still contained the illusory space that had nurtured him, making him feel especially close to it.
With all these factors at play, Jiang Xia's fusion this time could be called perfect.
There were no obstacles whatsoever. Even though his spiritual power realm was nowhere near sufficient to fuse with two thousand-year Soul Spirits, nothing unexpected happened.
Of course, besides the Mutated Evil Eye's perfect cooperation, this was also because the illusory space within Jiang Xia's Broken Dream Martial Soul helped share the pressure.
He now felt that his capacity to bear the strain could double outright.
The illusory space seemed to have doubled his Martial Soul out of nowhere.
It had completed his Martial Soul.
After fusing with the Mutated Evil Eye Soul Spirit this time, Jiang Xia's Soul Power reached level 34 outright!
Two of those levels had come from his own cultivation over the past six months.
Fusing with the Mutated Evil Eye automatically gave him another level.
The remaining level came from the effects of the various resources the research institute had provided him.
From this perspective, Jiang Xia had gained enormously by giving the research institute six months to study this Mutated Evil Eye.
Not only had he obtained an unprecedented Soul Spirit Fusion Skill, but he had also gained an extra level of Soul Power.
Even if he had not obtained the Soul Spirit Fusion Skill, those six months of waiting would not have been wasted. After all, that level of Soul Power was real.
Of course, this level of Soul Power had not appeared out of nowhere. He had gradually absorbed it through his cultivation. In other words, he had gained three levels in six months. As for the claim that his own cultivation had only accounted for two levels, that had naturally been calculated proportionally.
"Eastsea City..."
Zhen Hua and Mu Ye had also learned about Heavenly Phoenix Douluo Leng Yaozhu taking a disciple.
Neither of them opposed Han Tianyi's last-minute decision.
Jiang Xia would have to go to school sooner or later, and he would definitely have to join a faction in the future.
He could not keep cultivating here in Heaven Dou City forever with no clearly defined affiliation.
Although the Body Sect and the Blacksmith's Association could take Jiang Xia in at any time, judging by their current development, neither really counted as a proper faction anymore.
Within the Body Sect, Mu Ye was the only person who belonged solely to the Body Sect and had no ties to any other faction.
No, that was not right either. To be precise, Mu Ye also held nominal positions in organizations in fields such as medicinal cuisine and mecha piloting.
The Blacksmith's Association went without saying. Even Zhen Hua could not be considered purely a member of the Blacksmith's Association. In his youth, he had joined the Tang Sect and gone to Shrek Academy for further study.
Although he had only spent two years at the academy, he had still attended.
He had served in the military, too.
One could only say that among those who truly rose to their level, not a single person had just one affiliation in their background.
Sending Jiang Xia to study at Eastsea Academy was not particularly difficult to accept in itself.
Especially since building a good relationship with Gu Yue, Leng Yaozhu's direct disciple, would benefit Jiang Xia's future development within the Spirit Pagoda.
Zhen Hua said, "If you're going to develop in Eastsea City, you can ask Mu Chen, the association president there, about anything you don't understand in forging."
Mu Chen?
Jiang Xia naturally knew who Mu Chen was. He was this Divine Blacksmith Zhen Hua's junior brother.
He was also one of the continent's few rank-eight Saint Blacksmiths!
There was only one Divine Blacksmith and four rank-eight Saint Blacksmiths on the entire continent.
Of those five, two had studied under the same master.
Their teacher really was badass.
"He counts as your martial uncle, too," Zhen Hua explained.
Over these three years, Jiang Xia had studied forging with him and had formally become his disciple.
There was no helping it. Jiang Xia had improved too quickly. By now, he was only a step away from advancing from a master blacksmith to a grandmaster blacksmith.
Han Tianyi could offer Jiang Xia very little guidance in forging.
Yes, Jiang Xia was already a master blacksmith, a genuine rank-three blacksmith.
The requirement for a rank-three blacksmith was to master thousand refinements and achieve a certain degree of consistency.
During the assessment, one had to complete thousand refinements three times.
Jiang Xia could already accomplish that, and he was now pushing toward first-grade thousand refinements.
In fact, Jiang Xia had succeeded once, and being able to achieve first-grade thousand refinements even by chance already put him at the level of a rank-four blacksmith.
However, Zhen Hua's lineage had a habit of holding people back and had not granted Jiang Xia the actual title of rank-four blacksmith.
To be precise, Jiang Xia had not even completed his rank-three soul engineer certification, or even his rank-two soul engineer certification. Zhen Hua had never arranged them for him.
And Jiang Xia really had no need to rush into an assessment.
So he had simply let Zhen Hua keep "overlooking" it.
"I'll make a call for you beforehand. You can just head straight over when the time comes."
"Oh, right, you haven't had your blacksmith rank assessed yet. Just get it assessed over there."
Well, well. He had finally unrolled the map and revealed the dagger.
Zhen Hua's maneuver left Jiang Xia speechless.
He had kept him from taking an assessment for three years, all so he could have him take it over there.
When Teacher Zhen Hua heard I was going to Eastsea City, he was probably already secretly grinning from ear to ear, wasn't he?
Making a whole batch of dumplings just for a dish of vinegar.
Still, Jiang Xia did not refuse.
He nodded, waited for Zhen Hua to finish writing the letter, then tucked it into his pocket.
Then he looked toward Mu Ye.
Mu Ye said helplessly, "If you really want to eat my cooking, just come back to Heaven Dou City whenever you have time each week."
He was not going to cook every day and even deliver takeout especially for Jiang Xia.
Jiang Xia gave a sheepish smile.
"Wasn't I also hoping to ask you about mecha design and mecha manufacturing while I was at it?"
Mu Ye said, "Heh."
Over these three years, he had become Zhen Hua's disciple, but had not formally become Mu Ye's disciple.
In terms of seniority, Mu Ye was his senior brother.
What mecha design and mecha manufacturing? Although Mu Ye stood at the pinnacle of the continent, Han Tianyi did too. Both were rank nine.
There was no need to surrender that title.
"All right, enough nonsense. Hurry up and prepare something for your junior brother to eat."
Han Tianyi waved a hand, telling Mu Ye to hurry up and cook.
Mu Ye was speechless.
"Remember to make the kind with long-lasting medicinal effects."
Mu Ye was even more speechless.
All this master and disciple knew was how to eat at his expense.
So many precious ingredients!
He had already provided them free of charge for three years. Who would have thought he would have to keep providing them?
Seeing Mu Ye's miserable expression, Han Tianyi shook his head with a chuckle.
Jiang Xia's Broken Dream Martial Soul could also be treated as a Body Martial Soul. By now, he was basically a member of the Body Sect, so what was wrong with using the resources of its sect master? Wasn't that perfectly normal?
As sect master, he had failed to shoulder the heavy responsibility of breaking through to the Limit, leaving this generation of the Body Sect without a Limit Douluo to hold the fort. Shouldn't he now dutifully provide resources to nurture one?
A Ruheng was indeed exceptionally gifted and had already shown the makings of a Limit Douluo, but had he not yet to fulfill that potential, while also already being able to take care of himself?
In any case, until a new Limit Douluo emerged in the sect, that excuse was enough to keep Mu Ye working off his debt.
"Heavens above, being the sect master really is hard!"