As Bibi Dong listened to him, the corner of her mouth twitched. "Your physique and spiritual power were stronger than those of most Titled Douluo?"
An Yi looked speechless. "Why else did you think I dared to fight Qian Xunji last night? The greatest strength of the Six-Winged Angel Martial Soul lies in the purification, dissolution, and suppression inherent in its divine energy."
"But those things are no use against me."
"My Martial Soul possesses the power of devouring and destruction. Qian Xunji's divine energy can't suppress me, so against me, he's no different from an ordinary Titled Douluo."
Bibi Dong frowned slightly. "But he's a rank ninety-five Titled Douluo. There's a gap of more than twenty ranks in Soul Power between you. How could you fight him?"
An Yi smiled. "Remember how I told you before that my position on Sea God Island was second only to Bo Saixi's?"
"Why do you think I could hold a position like that? Just because I'm talented?"
The corner of Bibi Dong's eye twitched. "What do you mean?"
An Yi spoke calmly. "Last year, after I broke through to rank seventy and absorbed my Seventh Soul Ring, I defeated the rank ninety-five Sea Dragon Douluo."
"What did you say?!" Bibi Dong abruptly sat up straight.
"You're not joking?"
"Why would I have nothing better to do than lie to you about something like that?" An Yi shrugged.
"Of course, my Martial Soul hadn't evolved back then. The reason I was able to defeat Sea Dragon Douluo head-on wasn't any single Soul Skill, but a Martial Soul Fusion Skill."
Bibi Dong's expression changed slightly. "A Martial Soul Fusion Skill?"
"Strictly speaking, a Self Martial Soul Fusion Skill," An Yi corrected her.
"Although my Martial Souls have evolved now, I've tried it during this time, and the origin Soul Power of my two Martial Souls can still blend together."
"The key to a Martial Soul Fusion Skill lies in the compatibility of the Martial Souls, the resonance of Soul Power, and the synchronization of spiritual power. As someone with Twin Martial Souls, I already have an absolute advantage when it comes to Soul Power resonance and spiritual synchronization. No one understands me better than I understand myself."
"As long as the Martial Soul attributes are compatible, I can naturally use it."
An Yi raised both hands. "My sun and moon Martial Souls appear to have opposing attributes, one yang and one yin, but at their core, they also have something in common."
"The moon itself reflects the sun's light. The moon can bear the sun's radiance, and the sun can also make the moon shine brighter."
"Right after breaking through to Soul Saint, I was able to defeat the rank ninety-five Sea Dragon Douluo head-on with my Self Martial Soul Fusion Skill. Now that my Martial Souls have evolved and my physique has undergone a transformation, I'm much stronger than I was before!"
An Yi snorted coldly. "Qian Xunji? What's he worth?"
"If he didn't still have Qian Daoliu behind him, I would've killed him last night."
"In Spirit Hall today, the only one who can truly threaten me is Qian Daoliu. I really can't beat him, but if I really wanted to run, that old bastard couldn't do anything to stop me."
An Yi scoffed. "His Angel Domain can't hold me. All I have to do is tear through space and hide deep in the Star Dou Great Forest next door. Could he find me there?"
"If they really push me too far..." A cold gleam flashed in An Yi's eyes. "At worst, I'll go to Slaughter City and set Tang Chen free. Then I'll let the two of them play with each other at their leisure!"
"Tang Hao's still hiding here and there outside like a stray dog. I'm also curious how Tang Chen would react if he found out that no sooner had he left than Qian Daoliu indulged Qian Xunji in bullying the Clear Sky Sect and even hunting down his own grandson."
Bibi Dong's expression changed. "Tang Chen is in Slaughter City?"
An Yi glanced at her. "Haven't you seen the King of Slaughter? That man is Tang Chen. Something just went wrong for him in Slaughter City back then, and the Nine-Headed Blood Bat King took over his body, causing him to lose his mind."
"So don't think I'm recklessly provoking him without knowing the danger. I'm not arrogant at all. On the contrary, I'm already showing a lot of restraint."
"Qian Xunji thinks I only dared to defy him because I had Qian Daoliu backing me. In fact, if it weren't for Qian Daoliu, he'd already be a dead man."
Over the following days, An Yi simply stayed in the Saintess Hall.
Officially, he was in seclusion, recovering from his injuries. In reality, aside from necessary rest and cultivation, he spent almost all his time researching the Adaptive Soul Guidance Cultivation Armor with Bibi Dong.
At first, Bibi Dong had merely followed An Yi in working out the relevant Soul Guidance Circuits with the intention of giving it a try.
But as their research progressed, she gradually realized that the thing was far more complicated than she had imagined.
From energy input to pressure feedback and the methods of suppressing Soul Power and spiritual power, every part required repeated consideration.
Fortunately, the Level 10 Soul Guidance Grand Library in An Yi's mind didn't disappoint him.
Whenever the two made progress in their research, the library would provide new guidance at just the right time, adding to their design ideas, pointing out problems with their current plans, and suggesting directions for further improvement.
With this guidance, together with Bibi Dong's own knowledge and comprehension, their research progressed considerably faster than expected.
Seven days later.
The design plans for the first-generation cultivation armor were finally complete!
From the overall armor structure to the dense, complete Soul Guidance Circuits inside and the choice of materials for each core component, everything had been finalized after the two of them repeatedly worked it over.
All that remained was to build it.
The batch of rare metals and ores An Yi had asked Qian Xunji to "help" gather some time ago also happened to arrive at the Saintess Hall over the past few days.
With everything ready, An Yi wasted no time, pulling Bibi Dong along to begin the manufacturing process.
For the main frame and outer plating of the cultivation armor, An Yi chose deep sea sunken silver.
Not only was the stuff exceptionally tough, but it also conducted Soul Power extremely well. He had conveniently stuffed quite a bit of it into his Storage Soul Tool when he was on Sea God Island.
As for the other supplementary materials, the rare metals with various special properties, and some special gemstones used as energy buffers and nodes, they all came from the things Qian Xunji had collected.
Once the preparations were complete, the two divided up the work.
An Yi personally handled the complex, intricate Soul Guidance Circuits, while Bibi Dong took responsibility for the parts she was confident in, checking the paths of energy flow against the plans as she engraved.
As for metalworking, it posed even less difficulty for An Yi.
When ordinary blacksmiths forged metal, they needed the high heat of a furnace to temper it repeatedly, relying on the force of hammer blow after hammer blow to beat the impurities out of the metal bit by bit.
But An Yi didn't need to go to all that trouble.
First, he used scorching heat to melt the metal instantly. Then he sensed its internal structure with his powerful spiritual power and used the power of space to strip away the impurities bit by bit.
After purifying it, he used the power of space as a mold to temper and shape it.
Using his spiritual power to perfectly control the power of space, he compressed and shaped the metal from every direction. This method of processing was who knew how many times more precise and efficient than taking some lousy hammer and going "clang, clang, clang."
The two worked for three full days, forgetting even to eat and sleep.
At last, the first-generation Adaptive Soul Guidance Cultivation Armor was born!
A complete suit of silver-white armor stood quietly before them.
It was humanoid in form, with a breastplate, shoulder guards, arm guards, waist guards, and leg guards, every part joined together by a precise connecting structure.
The silver-gray surface of the armor had no unnecessary ornamentation. Its lines were simple and smooth, yet it gave off a cold, hard mechanical feel.
As for the easily damaged special gemstones and the expensive rare-metal nodes, An Yi had embedded and concealed them all within the armor's thick inner layers.
This was an extra layer of protection he had deliberately added. After all, gemstones were fragile. If they were accidentally knocked and damaged during cultivation or movement, causing the formation to collapse, things would get really interesting.
Bibi Dong stood on the grass, looking at the cultivation armor before her, its metal gleaming with a cold, dim luster. Her expression was somewhat unnatural.
Although she had participated throughout the process, from the initial conception to its completion, when something that completely surpassed the understanding of the current era actually appeared before her eyes, it still felt unreal.
She even felt as though everything she had experienced during this time had been a bizarre, absurd dream!