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After helping Bai Chen absorb his second soul ring, the group left the mixed zone and headed toward the outer area of the Star Dou Forest.
Compared to Bai Chen, Ning Tian's soul ring was much easier to deal with.
First, her physical strength wasn't nearly as outrageous as Bai Chen's. As a support-type soul master, her body was only slightly stronger than that of an average great soul master. Not to mention ten-thousand-year soul rings—she couldn't even absorb a thousand-year one. A normal hundred-year soul ring was already enough for her.
Second, the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Pagoda was quite special. This martial soul didn't have strict requirements regarding the type of soul beast. Whether she absorbed a ten-year Iron Armored Turtle or a ten-thousand-year Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear, the difference in her abilities wouldn't be significant. Most of the enhancements were simply increases to defensive attributes.
Therefore, they didn't need to risk going into the mixed zone—the outer region's soul beasts were sufficient.
After half a day of searching, Bai Chen and the others found a suitable soul beast for her and helped her complete the hunt.
With a defense boost and a stamina boost, Ning Tian also gained an attribute enhancement suitable for Bai Chen.
With that, Ning Tian officially advanced to the rank of Great Soul Master.
From the second ring onward, the advantages of the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Pagoda began to show. Their soul skills weren't fixed—they would grow stronger as the number of soul rings increased.
Ning Tian could now provide a 30% boost to both strength and defense. This was something even top-tier support-type Soul Elders might not necessarily achieve.
More importantly, support-type effects often depend on the target. Given Bai Chen's exaggerated base strength, the effects might even appear to weaken in comparison.
As the strongest support-type martial soul on the continent, the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Pagoda could treat everyone equally—even someone as monstrous as Bai Chen could still receive a full 30% boost.
A 30% increase in both strength and defense—just how terrifying was that? The "stat monster" nature of the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Pagoda was beginning to reveal itself.
After helping Bai Chen and Ning Tian obtain their soul skills, the group stopped lingering. Under the lead of Ning Rongrong and Hua Tianyu, they left the Star Dou Forest and returned to the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect in Heaven Dou City.
For the rest of the vacation, nothing special happened to Bai Chen.
Until the very end of the break, something extraordinary finally occurred.
"Clang! Clang!"
In the private soul tool laboratory provided by the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, Bai Chen continuously swung the forging hammer in his hand.
Sweat dripped down his forehead, and he looked extremely exhausted.
But he didn't relax in the slightest. For him, this was the most critical moment.
He was attempting Spirit Forging.
For all blacksmiths, Spirit Forging was a crucial threshold. If Thousand Refinement could be achieved through effort alone, then Spirit Forging began to demand talent.
Blacksmiths lacking sufficient talent might never cross this threshold in their lifetime. On the other hand, anyone who successfully completed Spirit Forging even once could officially become a master-level blacksmith, capable of standing on their own.
The key difference lay in the word "spirit."
A thousand refinements produce spirit; ten thousand refinements produce soul. Spirit Forging, in a sense, was creating life. The forged metal would not only gain its own spirit but could also resonate with the soul master and merge as one.
The biggest difference between One-Word Battle Armor and Two-Word Battle Armor lies here. One-word armor may be light, but it cannot truly fuse with the soul master like two-word armor. This is the gap in materials.
The Bai Chen of this era had not yet completed Spirit Forging—but the Bai Chen of the Dou Two era was different. His talent in forging was even higher. If he could succeed this time, the experience might guide his future self to step into the realm of a fifth-level blacksmith sooner.
Time passed quickly. Bai Chen's soul power was nearly depleted.
For him, the most troublesome part of Spirit Forging was the rigid requirement for soul power—it had to connect with the metal's spirit, and that process required continuous soul power input.
To avoid running out, Bai Chen had conserved his soul power in the earlier stages, relying purely on his monstrous physical strength to push through.
Even so, the final stage still left him somewhat strained.
Even in the Dou Three era, Spirit Forging was extremely difficult—even Soul Kings struggled with it. For a mere Great Soul Master like him, the challenge was immense…
But as his soul power was about to run dry, Bai Chen instead revealed a smile.
As a blacksmith, he could feel it—he had entered the final stage.
His cultivation might be low, but don't forget—he had absorbed genuine thousand-year and ten-thousand-year soul rings!
Natural soul rings provide comprehensive benefits, including higher-quality soul power and faster recovery.
So even if his soul power level hadn't yet reached level 25, in terms of overall quality, he was no weaker than Soul Kings of the Dou Three era.
Combined with his previous careful conservation of soul power… this could work!
With the final hammer strike—
A burst of golden light suddenly erupted before Bai Chen.
Ten thousand refinements give birth to soul. After a year, he finally completed the leap from Thousand Refinement to Spirit Forging.
If Zhen Hua found out that Bai Chen had become a fifth-level blacksmith at just seventeen, he probably wouldn't faint from shock—he'd spit blood.
Bai Chen set down the forging hammer, adjusted his breathing, and after confirming his body had cooled down, he slowly sat in a chair, revealing a relaxed smile.
He knew—this wasn't the first piece of spirit metal in this era.
The Douluo Continent had naturally occurring spirit metals—such as Ice God Crystal.
Artificially created spirit metals might have excellent performance, but compared to natural ones, there was still a noticeable gap. Unfortunately, those natural top-tier metals had long been exhausted over the millennia.
But Spirit Forging? Soul Forging? Heaven Forging?
Humanity's strength lies in creativity—constantly challenging and reshaping nature. Even if Spirit-forged metals couldn't yet match natural spirit metals, their existence still held great significance for human society.
"Heh… I'll treat this piece of spirit metal as a gift for Teacher Xuan."
Thinking of Xuan Ziwen's excited reaction upon receiving it, Bai Chen—utterly exhausted—felt his eyelids grow heavy.
He yawned, his head tilted… and he fell into a deep sleep.