Douluo Continent: I possess astonishing wisdom as I control energy!

A series of rhythmic hammer blows, imbued with unique soul power fluctuations, resounded rapidly, like the beating of war drums.

Each hammer blow was accompanied by a precise burst of soul power; the hammerhead collided with the red-hot metal blank, scattering brilliant sparks.

Xiao Hongchen's expression subtly shifted during the forging process, his gaze remaining fixed on the metal, seemingly immersed in a "dialogue" with it.

Finally, after a powerful, rhythmic hammer blow, he abruptly stopped.

Instantly, the entire forging room fell into a deathly silence; everyone instinctively held their breath.

On the forging table, something inside the metal that had previously only faintly glowed with soul power seemed to have been completely activated. The next moment, a gentle spiritual light, pulsating like breathing, suddenly rose up!

A brief silence fell over the forging room, then...

"Hahahaha! I did it! I did it!! I did it!"

Xiao Hongchen's hearty laughter broke the silence; his words were filled with barely suppressed excitement.

The onlookers erupted in cheers and exclamations, crowding around to admire the transformed metal.

Inside the observation room above, Meng Hongchen watched her older brother's smug, almost ecstatic, expression and couldn't help but put her hand to her forehead, giving him a look that said, "I don't know this idiot."

Kong Ming'an leaned against the railing with great interest, a faint blue light gleaming in his eyes as he carefully observed the successfully forged metal.

This is "Half-Spirit Forging".

In just one month, Xiao Hongchen completed the hundred-fold and thousand-fold forging processes.

The reason it was able to move so quickly was thanks to the numerous forging manuals collected by the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile School, as well as the forging notes of the legendary craftsmen throughout the ten thousand years of Douluo Continent.

It can only be said that the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile School is truly wealthy. They buy and preserve anything they deem potentially useful, after all, it only costs a small amount of money. Money is the last thing the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile School lacks.

These ancient texts contain relatively mature theories on the hundred-fold forging process, as well as theories on the general direction of the thousand-fold forging process, which greatly saved Kong Ming'an the time required for deduction.

Furthermore, Xiao Hongchen, possessing the Three-Legged Golden Toad Martial Soul, exhibits a terrifying talent for metal forging due to his natural affinity and control over metal.

In just seven days, even including the initial two days spent familiarizing himself with the forging process, he mastered a stable hundred-fold forging technique.

Subsequently, with the assistance of Kong Ming'an, he spent another twenty days breaking through again, successfully crossing the threshold of the Thousand Forging Realm and stabilizing there.

Of course, some might ask, isn't this only at the thousand-fold forging stage? Why does he call it "half-spirit forging"?

It's very simple. The reason why this piece is called "semi-spiritual forging" is that the blank that Xiao Hongchen forged this time is not ordinary metal, but a "spiritual metal" that has already nurtured spirituality!

After Xiao Hongchen stabilized his Thousand Forging Technique, Kong Ming'an had him try refining spirit metals through the Thousand Forging process.

After several failures, Xiao Hongchen finally succeeded!

In Kong Ming'an's observation, this metal possessed inherent spirituality, and its strength surpassed that of ordinary thousand-refined metal, but it did not achieve a qualitative leap. However, the spirituality contained within it had become more active and condensed.

It is called "half-spirit forging," which is just as its name suggests.

A moment later, the door to the forging room was pushed open, and Xiao Hongchen, still bursting with excitement, strode in, looking at Kong Ming'an with undisguised smugness on his face:

"how?"

Kong Ming'an nodded and sincerely praised, "Not bad."

"Of course!" Xiao Hongchen said without any modesty, chuckling lightly, "After all, I'm a genius!"

Kong Ming'an remained noncommittal, but slowly said:

"Next, you will continue forging, using spirit metal as raw material. Ultimately, this is a shortcut."

"Your next direction in forging should be to use forging techniques to imbue the metal with its own spirit; that is true 'spiritual forging.'"

Forging is an indispensable step in the mass production of usable "Spirit Forging" metal.

So far, he has successfully used soul-guided machinery to imitate and replicate forging techniques, thereby achieving a streamlined and mass-produced process for the most basic "hundred-refinement" metal.

Further mass production of "thousand-forged" metal and even "spirit-forged" metal will require more samples.

Upon hearing this, Xiao Hongchen nodded thoughtfully.

He didn't care about this. His martial soul was special; forging high-grade metals allowed him to extract pure energy from them. Forging was essentially equivalent to cultivation, and even more efficient than normal cultivation. Continuously forging wouldn't harm him. However...

He moved closer to Kong Ming'an, nudged him, and asked in a low voice:

"By the way, you've been pulling out all this high-grade metal, all mysterious. What kind of big thing are you planning to build? How about I join you?"

After thinking for a moment, Kong Ming'an sent a design drawing to Xiao Hongchen through the "Ling Shu Network".

After receiving the package and opening it, Xiao Hongchen glanced at it briefly, and his eyes unconsciously flickered slightly.

Above the design drawings was a set of armor designs that were complex in structure, exquisite in components, and full of power and beauty.

"This is?"

"I'll call it 'Battle Armor' for now," Kong Ming'an explained.

This is something he derived from his grandfather's "mecha" and the concept of "battle armor" from later generations.

Compared to "mechs," "battle armor" would probably be more versatile, perhaps serving as a supplement to "magic cultivation" and "physical cultivation." Of course, this is just a concept; the basic elements haven't been filled in yet.

In the past, it was basically used to make PowerPoint presentations to fraudulently obtain funding.

Xiao Hongchen stared at the blueprints, his eyes growing brighter, his fingers rapidly tapping and drawing on the virtual blueprints:

"Ming'an! I think your 'Battle Armor' can be modified! Thicker composite armor plates can be added here, here, and here!"

"And here and here, they can be perfectly integrated with a linked soul-guided cannon array! And on the back, there's a reserved interface for a large thruster."

With his excited modifications and suggestions, the design drawings in the shared field of vision quickly transformed, and the "Battle Armor," which was originally biased towards close-fitting armor, gradually evolved into a humanoid armor with more characteristics of a heavy firepower platform.

Kong Ming'an stared at the design drawing, which was gradually taking shape and bearing a somewhat familiar outline, and was momentarily speechless.

Good heavens, isn't this just a simplified, miniaturized version of my grandfather's mecha? No, it's actually closer to a humanoid soul tool?

"Do you like this style?" Kong Ming'an asked.

"Of course!" Xiao Hongchen's eyes lit up, his tone full of enthusiasm, "Only tall and imposing humanoid armor like this is cool enough!"

"Ideally, it should be four or five meters tall! Equipped with twelve soul-guided cannons of different purposes!"

"High-powered thrusters are installed on the legs and back to ensure mobility! In addition, a giant melee soul-guided sword and a heavy soul-guided shield are provided!"

"Finally, the Soul Master should drive it himself; that's what a man should drive!"

Chapter 155 A Fallen Nobleman, Cough, and the Fallen Young Master Wang Dong'er

Seeing Xiao Hongchen's fervent expression, as if he wanted nothing more than to jump into the blueprints, Kong Ming'an chuckled slightly, unsure of what to say for a moment.

After a brief pause, he patted Xiao Hongchen on the shoulder: "Don't worry, it will happen."

Xiao Hongchen's eyes instantly burned with excitement: "Really?!"

"It's a package deal," Kong Ming'an nodded, but didn't want to directly reveal his grandfather's mecha project, only confirming it.

"Your revised drawings are feasible, but they will require higher-quality materials."

“Materials are not a problem!” Xiao Hongchen immediately said, “I’ll go forge them right away! I’ll try to get materials that meet the requirements as soon as possible!”

After saying that, he popped a "Blue Silver Refreshing Grass" into his mouth to refresh himself, and rushed back to the scorching forging table with great enthusiasm and full power.

Meng Hongchen watched her brother's retreating figure and sighed helplessly.

"I really doubt whether I'll ever have a sister-in-law again. I used to cultivate every day, but now I spend every day in the forging room with metal. Sigh."

"Having something you love and a goal to strive for is actually quite good," Kong Ming'an said, offering a word of comfort.

Meng Hongchen raised her eyes, then rolled her eyes at Kong Ming'an and retorted:

"Do you think everyone is like you, with people flocking to you even if you're always in the lab?"

Kong Ming'an wisely chose to remain silent.

Meng Hongchen gave a light snort and then got down to business:

"Speaking of which, that girl named Wang Dong'er has been at the Chamber of Commerce for six whole days now, constantly asking to see you. How long are you planning to keep her waiting?"

"No rush, I'll go see her in a bit."

Kong Ming'an spoke calmly, but paused slightly, turning his head to look at Meng Hongchen: "Do you want to come along?"

Meng Hongchen nodded without hesitation: "Of course, after all, you're the kind of guy who's most likely to ruin pretty girls. If I don't keep an eye on you, who knows if you'll take advantage of them."

"It doesn't have to be that bad, does it?"

"Hard to say."

As she said before, she could trust her childhood sweetheart with anything. If he asked her to do something, she would do it without hesitation, because she knew he would never harm her.

But in this one aspect, she has absolutely no trust!

……

……

Without lingering in the forging room, Kong Ming'an took Xiao Hongchen's piece of "semi-spiritual forged" metal as a sample, and the two returned directly to the Mingmeng Chamber of Commerce headquarters.

Stepping out of the spatial ripples, the two figures appeared from the office area. A staff member, who had been notified in advance, then approached and led them to a room.

The staff member stepped forward and opened the door with the room key, and immediately, the interior view came into view.

It wasn't an interrogation room or a prison cell, just an ordinary, seemingly very comfortable staff dormitory.

Soft, soul-guided light filled the room. A plush carpet covered the floor, and bookshelves and green plants lined the walls. There was even a small round table covered with a clean tablecloth and several comfortable-looking sofas.

But near a single bed on the inner side, the figure of a young girl was revealed.

She sat there quietly, her long, blue-pink hair appearing somewhat dull under the light, casually draped over her shoulders.

He kept his head down, his hands tightly gripping the hem of his clothes, exuding a sense of repression and unease.

Hearing the door open, she abruptly raised her head, and in the next moment, her tense, wary, and stubbornly calm blue-pink eyes met Kong Ming'an's gaze.

In that brief moment when their eyes met and the distance closed, Wang Dong'er felt a slight fluctuation in her third martial soul, which had been motionless and completely unresponsive to her commands.

Although she still couldn't mobilize it, the slight fluctuation caused by the boy's approach completely confirmed her guess!

It really was him!

Wang Dong'er understood, and a surge of emotion mixed with anger, grievance, and a resolute determination to go all out welled up in her heart.

She stared intently at Kong Ming'an, as if trying to see right through him.

Since meeting the boy, she has used every imaginable, discreet method to investigate his identity.

The result, however, was that the other party was the sole bloodline of Kong Deming, who was known as a pillar of the empire.

Rumor has it that the other party is exceptionally talented and has a deep understanding of soul tools, but he lives a secluded life, and very little specific information about him is available, as he is extremely well protected.

Since the other party did something to her, yet didn't directly control her but instead let her leave, it's clear they've given them some leverage over her, making them certain she won't simply run away.

She couldn't find any more useful information.

She could hide, but there was most likely nowhere to hide; she might be caught as soon as she left Mingdu.

Under such circumstances, it seems she has no choice but to obediently wash herself clean and offer it up herself. If she doesn't come, who knows what the other party might do?

This feeling of being manipulated and forced to bow down inexplicably gave her a deep sense of humiliation.

However, she was helpless about it.

She was no longer the young master of the Haotian Sect; she had no power to resist.

The other party's status was too high, and the power behind them was too strong. She had no chance of resisting at all. No matter what the other party did to her, she could only silently endure it and digest it alone until the other party was satisfied.

She even suspected that the disappearance of her eldest and second uncles might be related to this person, or rather, to his powerful grandfather!

If she could satisfy the other party, perhaps she could also get the information she wanted? Therefore, she had to come; she had no way out.

So she came. After six agonizing days of waiting in this comfortable yet invisible room, today, she finally saw him.

Biting her lip, Wang Dong'er suppressed the stinging sensation in her nose, gripped her skirt tightly with both hands, and mentally prepared herself for any shameless demands the other party might make. She decided to speak first and question them.

However, before she could speak, Kong Ming'an raised his hand to interrupt her.

"Don't worry."

He spoke softly, and then, to Wang Dong'er's astonishment, the space beside Kong Ming'an distorted, revealing a gray doorway.

His gaze was calm as he glanced at Wang Dong'er, his tone indifferent, as if giving an order:

"Come on, let me show you something, and we'll talk after we've seen it."

Having said that, he said no more, not even glancing at Wang Dong'er, and stepped through the gray door with Meng Hongchen beside him, their figures disappearing instantly.