Douluo Continent: This Tang San is different

Chapter 347 Lou Gao's Relief

If Lou Gao's Soul Armor could be mass-produced, the strength of the Spirit Hall's grassroots Soul Masters would definitely increase by two or three levels.

If weapon-type soul tools were also mass-produced, soul masters would definitely be able to increase their strength even more.

Unfortunately, weapon-type soul guides cannot be researched openly, as this would make one an enemy of all soul masters on the continent. Even within the Spirit Hall, apart from support-type soul masters whose souls lack offensive capabilities, most soul masters do not particularly like them.

The example of the Star Luo Empire illustrates this point. When the research into soul-guided weapons was brought into the open, all the major families strongly opposed it, because it would gradually diminish the importance of the families to the empire.

Although the Spirit Hall's family values ​​are not as strong as those of the two great empires, they still exist. It is necessary to subtly change the mindset of its members and gradually help them accept new things.

Therefore, if war were to break out now, it would likely still be dominated by cold weapons. It would probably take at least ten years for soul-guided weapons to take the lead.

Or perhaps, when the Spirit Hall develops an offensive soul tool capable of destroying a city in a single blow, all the soul masters on the continent will realize that times have changed.

"Brother, my Soul Armor can't be mass-produced yet. After all, it's a technical skill." Lou Gao shook his head. "Although it can't compare to the Soul Imprint Throne, it's still a new product that combines armor and a soul tool. It's not easy for others to imitate it. They would have to reach the thousand-refinement level at least. Currently, only my apprentice can do it."

"A hundred-times-forged armor would be fine, right?" Tang San touched the soul armor, sensing the soul guidance patterns within, knowing that those were the key to this armor.

In theory, even metal refined to a hundred times can be used to make soul armor, but it is not as durable as metal refined to a thousand times.

"It's possible, but I won't admit to that kind of garbage." Lou Gao looked down on the Hundred Forged material, his face full of disdain, feeling that it was an insult to the Soul Armor.

"It's enough for the grassroots staff. Besides, it's all metal, so if it breaks or gets damaged, they can just melt it down and recast it. The materials can be recycled, and the soul guide patterns can be re-engraved," Tang San said with a smile. "It can also be used to give ordinary craftsmen some practice, which can improve their experience."

"That's indeed a good suggestion." Lou Gao thought about it carefully, thought it was feasible, and agreed. However, he then asked, "Could you teach me how to do inlay work?"

Compared to spirit forging and fusion forging, he longed for the magical pattern forging.

That is what truly gives life to metal! It allows the forged metal to absorb the energy of heaven and earth and evolve on its own!

"Yes, but to learn that skill, you must at least reach the Fusion Forging level, and your strength must be at least at the Soul Douluo level."

Although Tang San wanted to teach him, Lou Gao could only do Spirit Forging at the moment, and was still quite a distance away from Fusion Forging.

More importantly, Lou Gao's own strength is too poor.

Moreover, Tang San knew Lou Gao's personality and dared not tell him the method in advance. Otherwise, if he tried it himself, he would probably die for his cause, just like in the original story.

Lou Gao possesses extraordinary talent and passion for forging.

Lou Gao sighed, realizing once again that the relationship between forging and cultivation was actually directly proportional. He said, "It seems I need to find a way to improve my strength first, otherwise I might not even be able to compare to your girlfriend."

The girlfriend of Tang San mentioned by Lou Gao is naturally Huo Wu.

Using gravity and flames to quench metal is more efficient than blacksmiths forging iron. While others painstakingly compress iron blocks and quench away impurities, she simply melts the metal and then uses gravity to separate the individual metals from the remaining impurities. This allows her to mass-produce thousands of metals, making her far more efficient than any other blacksmith.

Moreover, Huo Wu is currently considering using gravity to draw in the energy of heaven and earth, and injecting it into the metal during the condensation process, in order to achieve the goal of mass production of spirit-forged metal.

To be honest, when Lou Gao first learned about this method of refining metal, his eyes widened in disbelief, but in the end he could only sigh, "Times have changed too fast."

However, compared with other older generations, Lou Gao is more open-minded and does not think that it is cheating or cheating. For blacksmiths, quenching metal is just the foundation. The real skill lies in shaping the quenched metal material and making finished products.

"Senior Lou Gao, please don't be modest. Huo Wu doesn't know how to forge..."

Tang San smiled and said that even if Huo Wu was able to forge finished products in the future, they would still be far inferior to craftsmen like Lou Gao who put everything into forging.

At least in terms of his pursuit of forging, Lou Gao gave up everything, while Huo Wu's main purpose in refining weapons was to hone her control over fire, light, and gravity elements, and forging was secondary.

"No need to comfort this old man, it's all up to you young people now..."

Lou Gao suddenly sighed, and his short frame hunched over, but he immediately straightened up and laughed, "But this old fellow won't admit defeat! In this new era, there are still ships capable of carrying me! If not, then I'll build one myself! Let's see how I catch up with you!"

"Haha, Senior Lou Gao is still as sharp as ever!" Tang San praised, then talked about the forging and production of the Soul Armor, and offered some suggestions.

When the topic of forging came up, Lou Gao's eyes lit up, as if someone who hadn't drunk water for three days and three nights had finally found it. He absorbed Tang San's experience and kept offering his own opinions and suggestions...

···

In the blink of an eye, three days had passed. Lou Gao left with a weary body, while Ju Douluo returned with Shen Hou, You Ji, and Hai Zhu.

All three of them had spirit rings that were close to a thousand years old. It could be said that their starting point as spirit masters was higher than that of Tang San and the others. However, considering that they were all over sixteen years old, their spirits were part of their bodies, and they could all enhance their physical qualities, it was not unacceptable that their first spirit rings could withstand a level of nearly a thousand years.

Shenhou's soul ring undoubtedly comes from the Great Heart Rat, giving her a soul skill that can stimulate her blood and qi by accelerating her heartbeat, which can enhance her physical qualities in almost every aspect.

After Tang San's examination, it was discovered that this spirit ring also gave her a certain degree of control over the blood in her body.

This confirmed Tang San's previous guess: once Shenhou awakens a second time, his martial soul will not only include the heart (including blood vessels), but also blood.

This soul skill was named the River of Qi and Blood by Tang San.

Judging from the current situation, Shenhou will definitely follow the path of cultivating blood and qi in the future, and his future soul rings will inevitably be the Great Heart Rat. Perhaps after he grows up, his aura will burst forth, causing his blood and qi to surge like a long river, or even converge into a sea.

The Rooster's first soul ring comes from the Thousand-Patterned Turtle.

The shell of this turtle-like spirit beast has dense wrinkles that are extremely sensitive, allowing it to sense every slight movement.

The skill it bestows upon the Rooster is called: Tortoise-Patterned Skin.

When used, it can cause the skin of the possessed creature to form a shell-like armor that can cover the entire body without any gaps.

More importantly, this makes the Rooster more sensitive to skin manipulation, allowing it to move excess wrinkles to areas that can be covered by clothing, such as the neck and waist.

This also allowed her to reveal her true colors.

At first glance, she isn't particularly beautiful, but she is pretty and pleasing to the eye; among ordinary people, she would be considered quite outstanding.

This is also the happiest thing for the Rooster.

At least, the "skin disease" that had plagued her for the first half of her life was resolved after she obtained her first spirit ring. Although it wasn't eradicated, for her, the type of spirit beast that Tang San chose for her was tantamount to giving her a rebirth.

Finally, there is the Pig (亥).

His first spirit ring came from a ground dragon-type spirit beast called Steel Armor Dragon, which greatly strengthened his bones—whether it was muscles or skin, the hardness of his skeleton was comparable to ordinary untempered iron.

His first soul skill is called: Bone Armor.

That is, based on the martial soul skeleton, extra bones grow and condense on the body surface to form a suit of armor-like appearance, which almost enhances all attributes.

Combined with his vital energy and blood, when he uses his soul skills, he is practically a demon god from hell.

After studying it, Tang San discovered that the form of this bone armor was very worthy of reference. If other soul masters could use their respective martial souls as a carrier and take advantage of the condensation form of this bone armor to achieve a similar state, they might be able to unleash even stronger power.

Therefore, Tang San kept the three for a while longer to conduct a more detailed examination. Only when the three, Zi Rat, Chou Ox, and Yin Tiger, came looking for them did Tang San tell Shen Monkey, You Rooster, and Hai Pig to go back.

As for the three newcomers, Tang San began a new round of analysis—

The Rat is a rather thin male, but with taut muscles, a very large nose, wide nostrils, and abundant nasal hair that is intertwined with his beard, making it difficult to distinguish.

Its martial spirit is its nose.

In addition to basic hand and foot skills training, Tang San suggested that he smell various scents, record them, and form conditioned reflexes so that in the future he could imagine the whole picture of things in his mind just by smelling them.

The universe has no limits; one can search for it across thousands of miles!

That's it.

The Ox is a tall creature, as tall as the Pig, exceeding two meters, but requiring much more decoration. Its martial soul is its left arm. If it can awaken a second time in the future, it may include its left hand and left shoulder, or it may include its right arm as well.

His training consisted of basic exercises, including stance training to stabilize his center of gravity, strengthen his physique, and develop the strength and attack techniques in his arms.

In the future, the acquisition of spirit beasts will mostly involve those with strong arms or those that are relatively agile.

Tang San's expectations for him can be summed up in just two words:

Supporting the sky.

Develop a pair of divine and demonic arms to support the vast sky!

The last one, Yin Hu, is a woman with a beautiful figure. Her martial soul is her right hand, and her development is similar to that of Chou Niu. However, compared to her arm, the most powerful part of her hand is not its strength, but its nimble fingers.

Therefore, Tang San entrusted her to Xiao Wu so that she could learn medicine with him, so that she could understand all the meridians, blood vessels and acupoints of the human body, and then she could learn the basic skills.

(End of this chapter)