Douluo Continent: Martial Soul Young Gilas, Sandstorm King!

Chapter 91 The Obsession with the High Building!
Lin Xia's consciousness let out a silent roar.

He wanted to rush over, to use his own soul to block the flames, to awaken his teacher... but he discovered in despair that he was just a "light" with self-awareness.

He can't move!
He was unable to speak!
He couldn't mobilize any forces!
He couldn't even cause the slightest ripple of any flame in this space!
He was firmly "pressed" to the spot by that grand phoenix will, and could only be an absolutely clear-headed bystander, watching helplessly as his most respected teacher endured a soul-burning and dissolving pain a thousand times more painful than the torture of being slowly sliced ​​to death!
This feeling of helplessness was ten thousand times more painful for Lin Xia than when his soul was burned by the divine fire!
Regret, like a poisonous vine, madly coiled and tightened around the core of his consciousness.

It's him!

He was the one who pushed his teacher into this abyss of no return!
"Why?!"

Lin Xia's consciousness roared silently, questioning this space and the phoenix will that was watching everything from the shadows.

"This is the Divine Trial?! No guidance whatsoever! No buffer whatsoever! Right off the bat, they're using divine fire powerful enough to incinerate the soul of a Title Douluo to forge a Soul Saint?! This isn't a test! This is murder! This is torture!"

Lin Xia's anger was like a stone thrown into a sea of ​​fire, failing to cause the slightest ripple.

Only the eternally burning flame coldly responded to his silent accusation.

Time loses its meaning here. Perhaps a long time has passed, or perhaps only a moment.

The towering silhouette of the building has shrunk by almost half, and its color has changed from pale gold to almost transparent gray-white, as if it will completely dissipate in the next second.

The intense waves of pain also weakened considerably. It wasn't that the pain had lessened, but rather that the very essence of the soul had been burned so severely that even uttering the thought of "pain" had become difficult.

This is a sign that the soul is about to be completely annihilated!
Lin Xia's consciousness trembled violently, as despair overwhelmed him like a cold tide.

At this moment, a sudden change occurred!
Deep within the gray-white soul core, enveloped by divine fire and on the verge of complete collapse, a faint, almost imperceptible yet exceptionally tenacious light, like a spark in a raging storm, stubbornly shone forth!
That light was not the original energy of the soul, but a purer, more restrained form of will, as if it had been forged through countless trials!

It exhibits a strange dark golden color, with a metallic cold and hard texture and a furnace-like internal high temperature, weakly but extremely firmly resisting the erosion of the surrounding destructive divine fire.

Craftsmanship as solid as iron!

tempered into a steel!

This will is the spirit of a master craftsman that Lou Gao has cultivated throughout his life, pursuing the ultimate in forging, spending his days with flames, and undergoing countless trials and tribulations. It is the spirit that is deeply ingrained in his soul!
It is not soul power, but it is more resilient than soul power.

It is not aggressive, yet it can preserve its last shred of authenticity amidst the flames of destruction!
At the same time, Lin Xia was horrified to discover that as the dark gold will stubbornly flickered, extremely fine, hair-like golden-red energy threads were slowly separating from the divine fire that enveloped the building, silently wrapping around and penetrating that point of dark gold will.

The thread was not destructive; rather, it carried a strange warmth and inclusiveness, like the purest source of flame, attempting to achieve some kind of deep fusion with the indomitable spirit of craftsmanship…

Lin Xia's heart jumped!

He didn't know if this was a final burst of energy before destruction, or... the true beginning of rebirth.
Just as Lin Xia was pondering these things, the gray-white soul core that was about to be completely annihilated suddenly erupted!

An overwhelming and unstoppable obsession, pure to the extreme, erupted like a volcano that had been dormant for millions of years finally finding an outlet!

This power is not soul power, but it is more condensed and resilient than soul power.

It has no physical form, yet it possesses a tangible quality capable of shaking the very walls of the soul. It is not a flame that bursts outward, but rather it erupts from the deepest recesses of the soul, from within!
This terrifying torrent of spirit instantly pierced through the invisible barrier constructed by the Phoenix Will between Lin Xia and Lou Gao, pouring into Lin Xia's consciousness without reservation and brutally!

"Buzz!"

Lin Xia's consciousness suddenly froze, as if it had been struck hard by an invisible hammer.

However, the expected pain of having one's consciousness scattered did not come. Instead, what followed was a... vast and profound understanding and pursuit accumulated over decades!

The endless sea of ​​fire that had been churning before him was no longer there; his consciousness was instantly pulled into a completely different "scene".

Lin Xia saw—

A thin, small boy, in a simple blacksmith's shop, clumsily lifted a heavy hammer for the first time and smashed it against a red-hot iron blank.

Sweat soaked through his coarse clothes, sparks scorched his tender skin, but his eyes were only fascinated by the crisp "clang" sound and amazed by the iron block stretching and changing under the hammer blows.

In his youth, Lou Gao stayed up all night under the glow of the furnace. He repeatedly hammered, quenched, tempered, and ground the iron... failing time and time again, until scrap iron piled up like mountains.

Each failure didn't bring him frustration, but rather deeper reflection—an almost obsessive dedication to mastering the nuances of heat, force, and material texture.

He used his palms to sense the subtle differences in furnace temperature and listened to the different sounds the metal made during forging, as if he were having a soul-to-soul conversation with the cold metal.

The master craftsman, now middle-aged, faces a rare piece of meteorite iron.

His gaze was terrifyingly focused, and his hands were as steady as mountains.

Each hammer blow carries a rhythm forged through countless hammer blows and precise control down to the finest detail. It is no longer a simple tapping, but rather the imprinting of will, soul power, a profound understanding of metal, and the ultimate desire for the "perfect form" into the material, one blow at a time!
What he pursued was no longer sharpness or sturdiness, but the "spirit" of the object itself, the secret of creation that turns decay into magic, like "gold meeting fire to become a vessel".

Countless days and nights, drenched in sweat, amidst smoke and fire.

He was exhausted countless times due to depletion of his soul power, and was cut countless times by exploding metal fragments.

Those calloused, scarred hands are the medals of exploration into the ultimate realm of technology.

That pure love for forging techniques and his insatiable pursuit have long transcended fame and fortune, becoming an instinct ingrained in his bones and soul, and the only belief that supports him to keep moving forward in the midst of tedium, hardship, and even danger—a craftsman's heart is as strong as iron, and he will be tempered into steel through a hundred trials!

This is not just a simple collection of memories, but the essence of Lou Gao's entire life's insights, obsessions, thoughts, pain and ecstasy regarding "tools"!
It was through countless hammer blows that he came to understand the breath of metal, the rhythm of flames, the transmission of power, and the profound meaning of balance!

This unwavering conviction is pure, tenacious, and fervent, like the ever-burning flame in his furnace, the very foundation of his soul!

"This...this is the teacher's path...the essence of his life..."

(End of this chapter)