Kong Deming Was Wild with Joy

Though the person could not be found, life still had to go on.

During this time, Bao Liang quietly tugged at Jing Hongchen's sleeve and asked him for something.

"Grandpa Jing, I want the carving knife ranked ninety-ninth on the list-the Vicious Blade Soul Devourer."

Jing Hongchen was drinking tea at the time, and he nearly spat it out when he heard that.

"What did you say?!" His eyes went round. "Soul Devourer? That thing is a notorious vicious object among the ranked carving knives! Sealed inside it are the resentful thoughts of Soul Masters it has devoured over who knows how many years. An ordinary Soul Engineer would need half a month of careful recovery after touching it, and you, a little child, want it for what?!"

Bao Liang looked as though it were only natural. "My Martial Soul is Explosion, and it comes with Ultimate Flame. Fire can burn away all filth.

"I was thinking I could use it as a test subject, see if I can burn and refine the evil thoughts inside it.

"Maybe I could even make use of a discarded thing and carve an array or something."

That was half true and half false.

Jing Hongchen stared at him, half convinced and half doubtful, for a long while. In the end, he gritted his teeth and sent someone to fetch it. He really was afraid something would happen to this little ancestor, but he could not resist Bao Liang looking at him with those sparkling eyes.

On the day Soul Devourer arrived, Jing Hongchen kept a stern face and tapped Bao Liang on the forehead. "Listen carefully. Until you're absolutely certain, you're not allowed to touch it! If I find out you secretly put your hands on it, there'll be a place waiting for you in Mingde Hall's confinement room!"

Bao Liang nodded repeatedly in agreement.

Only after the others had withdrawn did Bao Liang run his fingers over the carving knife. It was dark red from end to end, and its edge gave off a strange suction. A trace of deeper meaning that no one else could understand flickered in his eyes.

Of course he knew what it was.

The ninety-ninth-ranked carving knife, the Vicious Blade Soul Devourer-on the surface, it was a vicious carving knife, but its true form was no ordinary metal at all.

The entire carving knife was a single piece of Gold of Life.

It had merely been forcibly forged into the shape of a carving knife by some fellow who did not recognize its value, using a different method, completely concealing its original form and function.

Bao Liang had indeed set his sights on it now.

But to be honest, he currently had no good way to deal with the overwhelming evil and resentful thoughts on the blade. At most, he could burn it a few times each day with Ultimate Flame, treating it as a way to nurture it. It was better than nothing.

His fingertips unconsciously rubbed the edge, but he had other plans in mind.

Others could not avoid those evil and resentful thoughts fast enough, but they might not be entirely without benefit to him. Ultimate Flame naturally countered evil; if he could truly refine them bit by bit and make them his own, this knife might become an unconventional weapon in his hands.

But the time was not yet ripe, and he absolutely could not act rashly.

Besides, what if he really did purify it completely?

He had no idea how to use Gold of Life.

Plainly put, right now, it was an Electrolux trap.

For what happened when it was used recklessly, one only had to look at the Golden Hawksbill Turtle in the Star Dou Great Forest.

Relying on the fact that it counted as an Auspicious Beast, the turtle had taken a large bite of Gold of Life meant to heal the Silver Dragon King while Di Tian was not paying attention. In the end, the thing had devoured its life force instead.

That was a warning from the past, and Bao Liang had no desire to become the second.

So Soul Devourer would be set aside for now. He would take it slowly.

The lessons continued.

One day, Kong Deming set aside his work for a rare moment and gave the three children a detailed explanation of something: the Life-Bound Soul Tool.

"A Life-Bound Soul Tool is a Soul Engineer's exclusive Soul Tool, created with their own Martial Soul as its foundation through long-term spiritual imprinting, nurturing with Soul Power, and tempering of its materials.

"It isn't a mass-produced object, but a 'second life.'" A note of longing entered his voice. "Uniqueness, spiritual resonance, continuous evolution, and a shared origin with the Martial Soul-not one can be missing."

"I'm still working out my own Life-Bound Soul Tool to this day." Kong Deming made no secret of it and spoke frankly. "But I can tell you everything about the concepts and intricacies involved.

"After all, adults sometimes become rigid in their thinking because their deliberations are more mature, trapping themselves behind bars. With your children's minds, you can let your thoughts soar like heavenly steeds and offer another possibility."

Those were not empty pleasantries.

Xiao Hongchen asked curiously, "Grandmaster, your Silver Moon has the spatial attribute, so why must your Life-Bound Soul Tool be made of metal? Isn't space itself the best material?"

Kong Deming froze.

He had spent decades pondering his Life-Bound Soul Tool, his mind full of thoughts of "finding rarer metals and carving more intricate arrays." Yet it had never occurred to him that space itself might be the vessel.

Meng Hongchen added in her childish voice, "If a Life-Bound Soul Tool is a second life, could it grow up slowly on its own, like a Soul Beast? Without you always having to feed it materials."

Kong Deming's pupils contracted slightly.

Growing up on its own.

The casual words of these two children had struck straight at the dead knot that had held him for decades.

He had always thought of "using materials to nurture the tool," but had forgotten that "using the Martial Soul to nurture the tool" was the true foundation.

Bao Liang said nothing, only committing their words to memory.

He suddenly recalled his External Soul Bone, the Eye of Judgment. Once an External Soul Bone had been fully absorbed, it shared an origin with the Martial Soul and no longer needed to be deliberately "fed," growing alongside its owner's cultivation.

Perhaps the principle behind a Life-Bound Soul Tool lay in those words: "shared origin."

Kong Deming seemed to notice the change in his expression and gave the boy a meaningful glance, but asked no further questions.

At the end of the explanation, Kong Deming sighed helplessly. "The development of Soul Tools is now limited by the strength of soul-guiding metals, and it has been at a standstill for a long time.

"No matter how good an array is, it's no use if the material can't support it."

That sigh gave Bao Liang an opening to speak.

"Grandpa Kong," he said, looking up, his eyes astonishingly bright, "my Ultimate Flame can purify Soul Power and burn away impurities.

"So, do you think we could use another method to purify metal too, like my Ultimate Talent does? For example..."

He paused, then uttered a single word:

"Forging?"

A boom resounded in Kong Deming's mind, as though something had exploded.

That was right-

If Soul Power could be purified by an external force, why not metal?

A scene suddenly rose before his eyes: red-hot metal lay on an anvil, a hammer fell, sparks flew, and impurities were forced out inch by inch. Under repeated blows, the metal transformed from the inside out, reborn.

Ordinarily, the craftsmen of the Sun Moon Empire only melted metal and poured it into molds, producing a lifeless object. But forging smiths were different-with every blow of the hammer, they struck at the metal's sinews and bones, questioned the material's very heart.

When Soul Engineers made Soul Tools, they had always used the metal extracted from ore directly as material.

But if they used forging to hammer it repeatedly, could they also force out the impurities within the metal, making it tougher and stronger?

Soul Masters could make their own Soul Power increasingly condensed through repeated hammering-so why not metal? High temperatures, high pressure, repeated forging, feeling the structure within the metal, treating a piece of metal as carefully as they would when inscribing a Core Array, letting it achieve true rebirth!

The Sun Moon Empire's usual method of processing metal had always been to smelt the raw ore dug from a vein at high temperatures, separate out the impurities, then cool and solidify it before using it directly as Soul Tool material.

Even when forging methods were used, they involved high-temperature stamping to shape the metal as desired. Very few people hammered metal into components blow by blow.

But now, one sentence from this child had struck straight at the soul, straight at the essence.

It seemed they had previously been too preoccupied with Core Arrays and soul guidance theory, single-mindedly developing new technology while overlooking the most fundamental thing in making Soul Tools.

Why... why had none of them ever thought of this question all these years?

Forging... could such a primitive technique actually be the key to taking Soul Guidance Technology a step further?

"That's it, that's it! Forging is forging! Hahaha! Good, good, good! Heaven blesses our Sun Moon Empire, heaven truly blesses our Sun Moon Empire!"

Kong Deming slapped his thigh, his beard and hair bristling as he laughed heartily.

"Child! You truly are the lucky star of our Sun Moon Empire! Hahaha!"

He struck his staff against the floor, his voice ringing like a great bell:

"Someone! Quickly notify Jing Hongchen and Ye Yulin! Tell them to come to the Worship Hall at once!"

"Another monument to our Sun Moon Empire, another truth, will be born at this very moment!"