Douluo Continent: The Legend of the Gods

In the exclusive experimental building of the Soul Guidance Department of Star Luo Royal Academy, the sound of knocking came from the top floor room, the rhythm steady and unhurried.

A boy sat at the table, head down, intently carving the outer shell of a long sword that was not yet finished.

He looked to be around twelve years old, already quite tall and slender, with broad shoulders and a straight back, exuding a refined and elegant air as he sat there.

The roundness of her childhood eyes and brows has faded, and the lines have become more defined. Her brow bones are slightly high, her nose is straight, and the curve of her jaw is clean and neat.

What is most striking about him are his eyes, a very pale and clear turquoise, like the water in a pool that has just thawed in spring. At this moment, he is squinting slightly, his gaze fixed on the long sword in his hand.

The blade is made of an alloy of ebony and tungsten steel.

Black gold is a rare metal extracted from the depths of the eastern mines of the Star Luo Empire. It has extremely high density and excellent toughness, while tungsten steel is smuggled from the Sun Moon Empire. It has extremely high hardness and first-class wear resistance.

The two metals have very different melting points, and cracks can easily occur if the casting process is not handled carefully. According to Gu Qinghong, it took him three years to master a stable ratio and casting process. There are no more than five people in the entire Star Luo Empire who can make this alloy.

The blade is basically complete, about three feet long, slightly curved, single-edged, with a thick back and a thin, cicada-wing-like edge.

Against the dark background of black gold, the silvery-white patterns of tungsten steel flow like ripples on water, gleaming with a cold metallic luster under the light.

After the outer shell was completed, the core magic array on the blade was engraved.

The magic array of a level 5 melee soul tool is much more complex than that of a level 1 one. The main circuit has more than a dozen branches, and each branch has its own sub-branches, densely covering the entire metal plate.

The mental detection of the Heavenly Pivot quietly unfolded, precisely compressing to that small section in front of the blade tip. The crystal structure inside the metal, potential defects, and so on, were all clearly displayed in the mind.

At the same time, his thinking became exceptionally clear, with the optimal path for each branch automatically generated and every detail calculated with millimeter precision.

The carving knife fell, its tip slicing across the metal surface, leaving a hair-thin mark. Soul power seeped into the metal through the tip, forming a stable guide groove within. His movements were slow, but each cut was precise.

Six years have passed, and this ability has become his instinct. It doesn't need to be deliberately activated; it will appear as soon as he picks up the carving knife.

The laboratory door was gently pushed open.

A girl walked in. She looked to be about twelve years old, with a slender figure, long limbs, and long golden hair cascading over her shoulders.

Her features were refined yet understated, with an indescribable air of nobility and an innate elegance.

For a long, long time.

Six years have passed, and the little girl who used to squat by Xingyuantan and splash around in the water has grown into a graceful young woman.

Her soul power has reached level thirty-two, even faster than in the original story.

In terms of soul tools, she is already a level three soul tool master. She has strong hands-on skills and can occasionally carve a level four core magic array. However, she lacks soul power and runs out of energy after carving half of it.

But she is better at using than making. She is very familiar with the use of soul tools, and can exert considerable power in actual combat, whether it is long-range shooting or close combat assistance.

Xu Jiujiu was in no hurry. He sat down on the stool next to Yun Qinglin, rested his chin on his hands, and watched quietly.

She had seen many Soul Masters make Soul Tools, but she had never seen anyone like Yun Qinglin.

The intricate patterns were not carved out rigidly by his hands, but flowed out smoothly, as if he were simply outlining the patterns on the metal surface, which were already there.

She recalled the first time she met Yun Qinglin in the library six years ago.

They were only six years old then. She was holding the book "Basic Principles of Soul Guidance Devices" and reading it in a daze, while he sat opposite her flipping through the thick, brick-like manuscript of the Mu family.

At that time, she had no idea that this person would later occupy such a significant place in her life.

Six years have passed. They've cultivated together at Xingyuan Pool, learning about soul tools from Gu Qinghong...

She watched him grow stronger day by day, from the first ring to the fourth, from a first-level Soul Master to a fifth-level Soul Master...

Yun Qinglin's speed of soul power improvement is unparalleled in the entire Star Luo Royal Academy.

Twelve years old, level forty-three Soul Master.

This speed is unprecedented.

Each of his spirit rings was absorbed beyond the age limit... The first spirit ring was 2,000 years old, the second spirit ring was 5,000 years old, and the third spirit ring was 12,000 years old. Each one pushed his body to its limit.

While others have to wait until they become Soul Kings or Soul Emperors to absorb ten-thousand-year soul rings, he endured one at the Soul Venerable stage.

After that absorption, he was in a coma for three whole days, and Wang Xian'er stayed by his bedside without leaving for a moment.

Thanks to the nourishment of his body by the Emerald Swan Martial Soul, and the sharing of mental burden by the Heavenly Pivot, Yun Qinglin's mental strength is now no less than that of an ordinary Soul Emperor.

It is worth mentioning that Yun Qinglin's soul rings, starting from his third, were provided by his soul spirit.

But so far he has not promoted the Soul Spirit Technique, he has only communicated with the Soul Beasts.

His spirit is an emerald swan named Qingxiao, who was chosen by Brigitte from among her own people for her exceptional talent.

Qingxiao was full of curiosity about the world. Not every emerald swan was willing to leave the forest, but Qingxiao was.

She was exceptionally talented, a true genius among her clan, but she didn't want to spend her whole life by the Lake of Life; she wanted to go out and see the world.

So after Brigitte explained the method of the soul, she immediately agreed.

On the day the contract was established, Qingxiao's spiritual power was many times stronger than that of the Sharp Scale Serpent. When that extreme vitality surged into his spiritual sea, he felt as if he were being immersed in a lake of life.

Qingxiao didn't say much. After the contract was completed, he called out softly and then quietly rested in the depths of his spiritual sea, a distance away from the gray light spot of Electrolux, so as not to disturb each other.

Now Qingxiao knows Yun Qinglin's biggest secret. In recent years, Qingxiao has often chatted with Electrolux, and he is quite studious.

But the first one to possess a soul was not Yun Qinglin, but Shi Tou.

When they reached the Stone Ring, Yun Qinglin and Wang Xian'er brought him to the Star Dou Great Forest.

He named his martial soul the Golden Pattern Blade. When he broke through to the first ring, Yun Qinglin suggested that Wang Xian'er take them to Star Dou to obtain a soul ring.

The stone's spirit is a metal-attribute snake-like spirit beast called the Sharp-Scaled Serpent.

After hearing about Yun Qinglin's Soul Spirit Technique, Biji took the initiative to cooperate and found a Sharp Scale Serpent that had failed in its struggle for territory. The murderers didn't care about the natural battles between soul beasts.

Survival of the fittest.

Yun Qinglin's mental strength was barely enough to complete the soul contract at that time. When he saw the sharp-scaled snake emerge from the stone's body, Bi Ji was shocked.

When Biji left, she said something to Yun Qinglin.

She said, "What you've done is bigger than you realize."

Di Tian had not expected that Yun Qinglin would bring good news so quickly. He looked at Yun Qinglin for a long time and declared that he had gained true friendship from Xing Dou, giving him one of his own scales.

It didn't contain any divine punishment power; it was just something like a token, telling him that with this scale, he could freely enter and exit the Star Dou Great Forest, but only as a person.

This greatly facilitated Yun Qinglin's subsequent research.

The method of soul spirits was also the reason why Bi Ji ultimately decided to make one of her clansmen become Yun Qinglin's soul spirit.

After her initial shock, Wang Xian'er's gaze towards her disciple changed. She had known for a long time that her disciple had a secret, but so what? Everyone has their own destiny. As long as Yun Qinglin didn't go astray, she wouldn't let Yun Qinglin be completely honest with her.

In fact, Wang Xian'er didn't want him to try a 12,000-year-old soul beast in the third ring, even though the two were very compatible, it was still very dangerous.

However, Yun Qinglin had already analyzed the situation carefully. With Elder Yi around, the ten-thousand-year-old jade swan was not difficult for him, because his spiritual power was already close to that of a Soul Emperor when he reached the third ring, and the Soul Spirit Technique did not involve soul vibration.

Physical fitness is the least of his worries; given the compatibility of their origins, absorption will be effortless for him.

Even though he succeeded, he did not choose to promote the Soul Spirit Technique, and he did not form a Soul Spirit Contract for a very long time.

The reason is that he discovered that even with the Soul Spirit Technique, even if he designed it to be a Soul Beast, it could actively break the contract. This means that the Soul Beast must have enough wisdom to understand this choice and enough trust to entrust its future to him.

This is nothing short of a fantasy for low-level soul beasts.

Not every soul beast is willing to become a soul spirit; they will still lose their freedom. What about those who are unwilling? Continue hunting? What's the point of the Soul Spirit Technique then?

What I fear most is that the Soul Art will eventually evolve into something like the Spirit Pagoda in Douluo Continent 3.

So for the past six years, Yun Qinglin and Ilex have focused their main efforts on another direction—whether it is possible for Soul Masters to generate Soul Rings on their own without the need for Soul Beasts.

The idea sounds like a pipe dream, but Electrolux says it's not impossible.

The essence of a soul ring is the soul and spirit of a soul beast, condensed with soul power.

However, the soul of a soul beast does not seem to be necessary; at most, it is just some fluctuation of soul energy.

If a Soul Master can use their mental power to simulate the fluctuations of a Soul Beast's soul and guide the Soul Power within their body to operate in a specific way, is it possible to "weave" a Soul Ring within their body?

By simply contacting their target soul beast in some way and then simulating it with their mental power, a soul master can generate a soul ring.

Yun Qinglin calls this direction the self-generated soul ring.

They have devoted countless hours and energy to this direction over the past few years.

Electrolux studied the energy structure of spirit rings in the Sea of ​​Spirit, while Yun Qinglin used his own spirit rings to conduct experiments, analyzing the formation process of spirit rings again and again.

Qingxiao was also a great help. She used her own soul fluctuations as a reference, allowing Yun Qinglin to perceive every detail of the soul ring's condensation more clearly.

Moreover, Yun Qinglin went to the Star Dou Great Forest many times. With Di Tian's token and the inherent affinity of the Emerald Swan, he was almost safe when interacting with soul beasts. In addition, the auspicious beasts also came over later.

Every time he went to the Star Dou Great Forest, he would bring her a lot of human food to try, and she would also give him the corpse of a ten-thousand-year-old Bright Soul Beast.

Yun Qinglin said the deal was worthwhile.

He observed the energy pathways within many different types of soul beasts, and was also taken by Brigitte to observe the process of other humans acquiring soul rings. With the help of Ilex and Tianheng Zhishu, he observed the formation process of soul rings.

There has been progress.

They already had a preliminary theoretical framework, knowing roughly what the energy structure of a spirit ring was like, the role of mental power in it, and how to operate mental power to simulate similar fluctuations.

He planned to use the first spirit ring of his second spirit as an experiment. If it succeeded... then it would be time to promote the Spirit Spirit Technique and the Self-Spirit Ring Technique.

The research on the soul bone has been temporarily put on hold.

It's not that it's unimportant, it's just that we can't manage it all.

A person's energy is limited, and Yun Qinglin has hardly taken a single day off in the past six years.

During the day, he cultivates, attends classes, and makes soul tools; at night, he studies the art of soul spirits, deduces his own soul rings, practices distraction control, and also has to find time to take care of Qinglin Hall.

His life was like a tightly wound spring, turning non-stop.

After Yun Qinglin finished carving the last branch, he put down the carving knife, nodded in satisfaction, embedded the core magic array into the blade, connected the guide groove, and closed the soul power channel.

In less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, a complete longsword appeared in his hand.

He stood up, gripped the hilt of the knife, and channeled his soul power into it.

The blade lit up; on its dark gold base, silvery-white tungsten steel patterns flowed like ripples on water, and a thin layer of cold light shimmered at the edge. He casually swung it, and the blade sliced ​​through the air, emitting a crisp hum.

"Done." He placed the knife on the table.

After a long while, he picked up the knife, weighed it in his hand, and examined it from all angles: "Is this made for stone?"

"Yes, he's been practicing with two swords lately, and he's missing a good sword for his left hand. This should be enough for him for now."

"You really care about him." After a long while, he put down the knife, his tone slightly teasing. "That guy Shi Tou is always following you around. You make knives for him, and he acts as your bodyguard. You two are quite a perfect match."

Yun Qinglin smiled: "Jiujiu, I made your flying soul tool, soul cannon, and soul skill reflection shield."

After a long while, her face flushed red. She turned her head away and muttered, "I didn't say I wouldn't thank you."

Of course she remembers.

The flying soul tool was the first level-five soul tool that Yun Qinglin made for her half a year ago, and the materials used were even better than those used for the stone knife.

Her favorite soul skill is the Reflection Shield. The round shield is only the size of a palm and doesn't take up much space when worn on the wrist, yet it can directly block attacks from Soul Master level and reflect some of the soul power back.

It took Yun Qinglin two months to complete, during which seven blanks were discarded. Gu Qinghong even said that the magic array was too complicated and not suitable for making a portable one.

But Yun Qinglin still managed to do it. She asked him how he did it, and he said it just took a few tries. He said it so casually, as if he were talking about what he ate that day.

She may not say it, but she remembers it.

Yun Qinglin flexed his fingers: "What brings you here today? Didn't Elder Gu tell you to test that newly made remote soul tool this afternoon?"