After confirming the soul beast he wanted to hunt, Wu Tong didn't hesitate any further and immediately began preparing for his first soul ring.
The first thing he needed was a sufficient amount of gold soul coins. Only with enough wealth could he hire people motivated by profit to risk their lives for him.
Whether it was recruiting soul masters to assist in the soul hunt or gathering information on the Mind-Eye Golden Fox, it all required a large sum of gold soul coins.
Fortunately, this wasn't a difficult problem.
Wu Tong's brain held detailed memories of the knowledge he had searched for in his previous life online. Whether it was soap extraction, snack preparation, or porcelain crafting—he knew it all.
Any of these could be used to generate considerable profit once introduced.
Once wealth was secured, the next challenge would be locating the Mind-Eye Golden Fox.
For that, Wu Tong planned to contact an intelligence organization to help him track its whereabouts.
As for such organizations, there was one right outside the Soul Hunting Forest. It had already become an established trade.
Thankfully, the Mind-Eye Golden Fox wasn't some mythical or extremely rare soul beast. Even in the Soul Hunting Forest, its presence had been recorded. So, the time needed to find one wouldn't be too long.
During that waiting period, Wu Tong could forge some weapons for self-defense.
For men, the allure of firearms was undeniable.
There wasn't a man who could resist the charm of guns, and Wu Tong was no exception.
In his past life, Wu Tong had been somewhat of a gun enthusiast. He often searched for gunfight videos online and had inevitably come across tutorials on firearm construction.
Those instructions and technical details were still crystal clear in his mind.
Wu Tong was confident that, by following the right steps, he could recreate firearms. And even the most basic handgun could easily break through the defenses of a four-ring defensive-type soul master.
Let alone the fact that Wu Tong had plans beyond just handguns.
Moreover, since he only needed to hunt a hundred-year-level soul beast, having a gun would practically guarantee his success.
After all, the most powerful soul beasts in the Soul Hunting Forest were usually no stronger than the thousand-year level.
Spirit Hall sent soul masters regularly to clear the forest and prevent the rise of ten-thousand-year beasts.
So, guns weren't so much for hunting soul beasts as they were for guarding against ill-intentioned soul hunting teams.
With a clear plan in mind, Wu Tong began to take action.
The next day, just as dawn broke, Wu Tong climbed out of his warm bed.
After getting ready and bringing along the leave slip he had gotten approved by a teacher the day before, he headed out of the academy.
What he didn't expect was that another boy also happened to wake up at the same time.
The boy looked at Wu Tong's departing back and, despite his surprise, couldn't help but sneer inwardly.
"Hmph, so what if you get up early? You're ignorant, always wandering outside. You'll never achieve anything great."
That boy, of course, was none other than the great Tang San—the future ruler of the Tang Clan, the dual-god inheritor of Sea God and Asura, and a divine king in the making.
After asking his teacher about Body Martial Souls, Tang San learned that they were considered useless.
Naturally, he no longer paid much attention to Wu Tong.
After all, just as his teacher Yu Xiaogang had said, even with great talent, someone with a useless martial soul could never surpass him. There was no need to care about Wu Tong.
Meanwhile, Wu Tong had no idea that Tang San was inwardly criticizing him.
Out on the street, Wu Tong soon found the most prosperous restaurant in the city.
There, he traded several traditional Huaxia recipes from his memory to the owner in exchange for a hefty payment.
Afterward, Wu Tong used the money he earned to hire a group of people and taught them how to make popular street snacks.
Then he commissioned a carpenter to build a batch of mobile food carts.
Once he had purchased large quantities of raw ingredients, he assigned his team to set up stalls throughout the city to sell the snacks.
With this setup, even if Wu Tong did nothing each day, gold soul coins would continue to roll in steadily.
With that matter handled, Wu Tong took the firearm component blueprints he had drawn the night before and went to a blacksmith.
He handed over the detailed, dimension-marked schematics and requested the smiths to forge the parts. After agreeing on a pickup time, he left the forge.
Leaving the blacksmith's shop, Wu Tong used the remaining gold soul coins to visit the intelligence post for the Soul Hunting Forest located in Nuoding City.
There, he commissioned them to search for the whereabouts of the Mind-Eye Golden Fox.
By the time everything was done, dusk had already fallen.
Bathed in the glow of the setting sun, Wu Tong walked back toward the academy.
Golden light scattered across his face, making his strikingly handsome features look almost divine, like a god descending from a painting.
His radiant presence caused several young girls passing by to blush, their cheeks tinged with pink.
(End of Chapter)