The moon hung in the middle of the sky, and the rising sun was about to appear; time passed without a trace, and a night quickly went by.
As the spirit power in his body slowly calmed, Xu Tianyang's consciousness also gradually awakened. At this moment, he felt his brain was clearer than ever before, and most of his somewhat blurry memories from his previous life had returned. He felt as if his entire being had a new CPU, his thoughts terrifyingly agile.
"Ah~"
"The feeling of officially cultivating is truly wonderful!"
Standing up and stretching, Xu Tianyang let out a breath of turbid air, his eyes filled with joy. After a night of cultivation, he not only completely mastered the spirit power that had just awakened within him, but he also surprisingly discovered that his daily morning lessons were not useless.
Although he didn't understand the profound meaning of the Taoist classics from his previous life, they inherently possessed a unique effect, subtly enhancing his spiritual power. It could be considered a rudimentary method of spiritual cultivation.
Praise to the Three Pure Ones and the Dao Ancestors!
"Creak—"
The door opened, and Mu Mengyu walked in smiling, curiously observing her radiant son.
"Mother!"
"I actually cultivated for an entire night during my first session, which greatly exceeded my expectations."
The process of cultivation is monotonous, and once one begins cultivating, one cannot move around, or it's easy to exit the meditative state.
If one's thoughts become chaotic, the effect of sensing the elemental power of heaven and earth will be much worse, and the cultivation speed will naturally slow down. Moreover, this process is not like sleeping, where you just open and close your eyes and it's over.
During cultivation, a Spirit Master can clearly feel the passage of time. This means that however long you cultivate, it's equivalent to how long you've been sitting still.
For those who can't settle down, cultivating for two hours a day is already a challenge for them.
And cultivation should be done early; the earlier one cultivates, the better the effect. However, children are often the least able to settle down, so their effective cultivation time each day is very limited.
This is the time to compete with innate spirit power and resources.
The speed of cultivation varies greatly among Spirit Masters. For example, Huo Gua, with innate spirit power at level one, cultivated desperately after awakening his Spirit, only reaching level ten when he was nearly twelve years old.
In contrast, Wang Dong, of the same age, cultivated casually and was already a twenty-first level Spirit Grandmaster when he enrolled in school.
Dai Huabin and Ning Tian from the same cohort, who had good innate talent and no lack of resources, had even cultivated to the Soul Douluo rank.
And this gap will only widen in the future.
However, none of this concerned Xu Tianyang. He belonged to the latter category, with talent and background; level ninety-nine would not be his endpoint.
Xu Tianyang didn't explain too much; he wasn't childish by nature and possessed this level of self-control.
Mu Mengyu also didn't dwell on it too much. Xu Tianyang had always been very independent since he was young, often immersing himself in the library before the age of six. While his ability to endure the monotony of cultivation was somewhat surprising, it was nothing more than that.
"This is a palace-secret medicated meal. Although your father and I have decided not to give you elixirs to aid your cultivation, these body-nourishing medicated meals are still necessary. For a Spirit Master, not only is spirit power important, but a strong physique is also paramount." Mu Mengyu beckoned, and a beautiful maid walked in, carrying a bowl of fragrant, somewhat viscous soup.
Xu Tianyang didn't hesitate. He picked up the bowl of medicated meal, brewed from unknown ingredients, and gulped it down.
As soon as the medicated meal entered his stomach, he immediately felt a warmth flowing from his stomach to all his limbs and bones.
Feeling the medicinal power that had not yet been fully absorbed in his body, Xu Tianyang turned and went to the side hall, which was clearly a small spirit tool laboratory. After arriving in the Sun Moon Empire, Xu Tianyang had naturally done some research on the advanced technology of this Douluo world.
Arriving at a metal platform about half a meter high, Xu Tianyang skillfully picked up a small metal hammer in each hand. The handle of the metal hammer was about a foot long, and the hammerhead was cylindrical, half a foot long, weighing about thirty pounds. For an ordinary six-year-old child, such a hammer would be difficult to move, but in his hands, he used it freely.
Taking out a metal block and placing it on the forging table, Xu Tianyang swung the hammer with his right hand and brought it down on the circular metal.
"Bang!"
A deafening metallic clang suddenly rang out. Xu Tianyang, as if tireless, used both hands, continuously striking.
"Bang, bang, bang."
Mu Mengyu was already accustomed to her son's actions. She had no prejudice against him learning forging. Forging could serve to exercise the body and was indeed a good method of exercise in the early stages, as long as he didn't become completely engrossed in it.
The creation of spirit tools indeed requires many precious metals, some of which need to be processed by high-level craftsmen to meet performance requirements.
However, generally, no high-level Soul Engineer would immerse themselves in forging. If they needed materials, they would usually buy them on the market.
Xu Tianyang learned forging because he naturally wanted to see if he could forge the kind of living metals seen in Douluo III. Knowing the future of spirit tools, he was naturally envious of Soul Guidance Mechs and the terrifying Douluo armor.
As for whether he would succeed, that wasn't within his consideration. The hardest part of scientific research is the 'zero to one' process. As long as he could forge metals with such characteristics, then the Sun Moon Empire naturally had plenty of research fanatics who would study in the direction of Douluo armor and Soul Guidance Mechs.
Currently, he was only getting familiar with the basics. In the future, he would definitely establish a specialized research team to study this topic.
"Bang!!!"
As the iron hammer continuously struck, Xu Tianyang began to sweat. At three hundred strikes, his arms already started to feel sore and swollen, and as he continued, the soreness finally turned into pain.
At this moment, he was sweating profusely, his clothes clinging to his body, and sweat was constantly dripping. However, during this process, the circulating warmth within his body had also dissipated at some unknown point.
"Tired, aren't you? I've already had Xiao Rou prepare bathwater. You're all sweaty; go take a bath first."
Mu Mengyu had approached Xu Tianyang at some point. The moment he put down the forging hammer, she gently wiped the sweat from his forehead with a towel made of hundred-year ice silkworm silk.
Xiao Rou was the maid from earlier, who had followed Mu Mengyu for ten years and had watched Xu Tianyang grow up since he was a child.
"Thank you, Mother!"
He nodded, took the towel from Mu Mengyu's hand, and casually wiped the sweat from his body. Looking at the hundred-forged refined steel on the forging table, he shook his head. To successfully forge spiritual metal was a long and arduous journey.
He probably wouldn't have much time to immerse himself in it going forward. He would leave it to those crazy guys at the research institute.
He believed those research fanatics would be more suited to studying the art of forging than he was.