Chapter 143: Spiritual Tools and Dou Emperors!
Thunk!
The hammer imbued with soul power gently tapped against a thin wing, and an invisible wave of soul energy instantly spread out. Jiang Lin could see Yuan Baozi's face turning slightly pale, but the big guy didn't say a word. He continued lifting the hammer, the faint white soul fluctuation covering the wing again, and with another thunk, he struck once more.
Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!
Soon, after more than ten strikes, Jiang Lin could sense that the patterns inside the thin wing Yuan Baozi was holding seemed to be developing a subtle and mysterious meaning from the collision of soul energies. It felt like, at this moment, the Dou Qi weapon in Yuan Baozi's hand was attempting to evolve from something artificial into something celestial.
Ten forges to transform the profound, a hundred forges to imbue with spirit—this is just a general reference, not necessarily a strict rule of needing to reach a certain number of forges. If you have exceptional control over soul power, perhaps you could imbue a material with spirit using the soul hammer in fewer than ten strikes.
But Yuan Baozi obviously wasn't at that level. He would need at least a hundred strikes to imbue one of the wings with spirit. And these wings were four in total. If his soul power were stronger, perhaps he could imbuing a larger object with soul energy in one go, reducing the number of times he'd have to repeat the process.
Soul forging didn't necessarily require the use of a hammer, but Yuan Baozi needed it as an aid. The hammer itself was a high-level item that helped him concentrate his soul power.
"Soul forging is a process of creating hope from destruction," Hulei's voice echoed in Jiang Lin's ears as Yuan Baozi worked on forging the Earth-tier Feather Sheath Wings for Gu He. "When soul power is destroyed in an instant, something called 'spiritual particles' is born—a rare substance."
"Large amounts of spiritual particles fill the Dou Qi lines, granting the material the qualifications to bear higher capabilities. For example, space-based storage rings can assist in using Earth-tier Dou techniques."
"Yellow-tier forging involves opening up the Dou Qi pathways and utilizing the material properties and Dou Qi lines to release Dou techniques from the weapon. Earth-tier forging is about imbuing spirit, granting more profound energy sensing to the weapon so it can respond to more complex instructions, and start bearing powerful rules. This stage also gave rise to the sub-professions of Dou techniques masters, array masters, and so on."
"While Heaven-tier forging uses the world as the furnace, heavenly lightning as the fire, and the spiritually imprinted materials can gain some rule powers from the world."
"Refiners basically have three major stages: Yellow-tier, Earth-tier, and Heaven-tier. Yellow-tier is about laying the foundation for the Earth-tier. Everything you learn in Earth-tier is essentially a preparation for the final Heaven-tier."
"Just like how high-tier pills create pill lightning when they are refined, when a spiritual tool begins the forging process, it will trigger a heavenly tribulation. The thunder and fire forge, and the tribulation will wash over it. This is a process that refiners cannot interfere with. It's the test for the spiritual tool and a great test for the refiner. The tribulation carries destruction and rebirth, and the spiritual tool adapts to the power of the world, drawing a trace of that power into itself, forming the Dao patterns."
"Legend has it that in ancient times, a spiritual tool known as the Fire Heaven-Sealing Tower existed. It contained fire Dao patterns that no one could understand, capable of suppressing all the world's fire and using it for its own purposes. Unfortunately, the legend was destroyed in the hands of the Eight Emperors."
The ten legendary spiritual tools, excluding the Creation Emperor Cauldron, corresponded to the nine Dou Emperors in later times in terms of attributes.
Why was it that the Fire Heaven-Sealing Tower was destroyed in the legend by the Eight Emperors and not by the Soul Emperor, who was known for destroying spiritual tools?
"There's a secret rumor that the last Dou Emperor of the Dou Qi continent, the Tuo She Ancient Emperor, found the base of the Fire Heaven-Sealing Tower before his death. He devoured all the world's fire and became an emperor."
Though the exact events of history were unclear, Hulei and the other high-level refiners could guess that each of these legendary spiritual tools contained enough power to make one into a Dou Emperor. The Eight Emperors destroyed the Fire Heaven-Sealing Tower with the intent to control the energy of the ninth Dou Emperor. But in the end, Emperor Yan took advantage of the situation, using fragments of the tower's base to devour all the world's fire and becoming the first flame, Yan.
"Unfortunately, we will never see that spectacle. The current methods of refining spiritual tools still result in the final product being a Profound tool. It may be stronger, but it remains a Profound tool without Dao patterns, which will always limit it," Hulei shook his head with a soft sigh.
Jiang Lin silently listened to Hulei's explanation, his heart filled with complexity as he watched Yuan Baozi perform the soul forging in front of him.
At this moment, Jiang Lin understood a little why Hulei had called the soul race a group of madmen. Every race should have a specialized ability, and it seemed the soul race's talents just happened to align with the craft of refining. Of course, if Jiang Lin knew that a thousand years ago, one of the Eight Ancient Races, the Xiao Clan, had made the final attempt, witnessing the catastrophic failure as they tried to remove the support of another clan's efforts, he would have a clearer understanding of why the Soul Race became dormant.
Generally speaking, if an experiment fails, it either means the direction of the experiment was wrong, or the investment was not enough.
When the foundation of a world starts to decay, and the upper limit lowers, there will always be someone willing to make a final attempt.
Should one give up in the face of despair, or should one succumb to a final madness? As refiners, the Soul Race, who are good at observing the world, will always leave their own answer to the world.
"By the way, teacher, do the Eight Ancient Races go by family names?" Jiang Lin suddenly remembered something as he watched Yuan Baozi, who was being hammered with the soul-forging process, his face turning pale. He curiously asked.
"Yes, that's right. When you meet people from those families, try to stay away. Anyone you come across can be quite troublesome, especially don't let them find out you've learned the Soul Forging Technique. Our Soul Clan's relationship with the other ancient races isn't very good," Hulei said, emphasizing the point. "The reputation of the Soul Clan isn't great, and we, their 'lapdogs,' will be affected as well."
"Alright, teacher. I understand," Jiang Lin scratched his head, instinctively, when he felt troubled.
Then, Jiang Lin focused on observing Yuan Baozi's process of soul-forging the Profound weapon.
Although the technique seemed simple, just like how he could instinctively use soul perception and slowly erase residual souls, Jiang Lin understood the importance of mastering this technique at the core level.
(END CHAPTER)
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