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Half a month later.
Sunset Forest.
Su Yu ventured deep into the poisonous miasma of the Sunset Forest.
Kuang Tie was still operating within the toxic zone. Although, with Su Yu's earlier help, he had quickly located his target, as he continued moving through the miasma, he discovered its hidden value.
It could be used to temper one's spiritual power.
Kuang Tie's martial soul was originally a Refined Steel Hammer, which later mutated into the Soul Suppression Hammer. Not only did it have a restraining effect on souls and spiritual power, but it also possessed inherent spiritual attributes.
This was precisely why he was now searching for traces of Medusa.
For a Spirit-type Soul Master, failing to absorb spirit-attributed soul rings would be a waste of their spiritual potential. Kuang Tie's martial soul had mutated after he had already acquired four soul rings, none of which possessed spirit attributes. Due to the needs of his sect, after the mutation, he had sought to quickly improve his strength. By sheer luck, he found a ten-thousand-year-old spirit-type soul beast for his sixth soul ring.
However, this experience made Kuang Tie acutely aware of how rare spirit-type soul beasts truly were.
Because of this, as a Soul Saint, Kuang Tie had spent a great deal of time attempting to secure a spirit-type soul ring for his seventh ring—a crucial position—but this delay had cost him dearly.
After absorbing his seventh ring, still unwilling to settle, Kuang Tie decided to search in advance for suitable spirit-type soul beasts for future rings.
Now that he had reached the Soul Saint level, the Ironblood Sect had firmly established itself, giving him more freedom to seek his own opportunities.
Medusa—this was the spirit-type soul beast he believed most compatible with his Soul Suppression Hammer, and also one he had a real chance of finding.
After all, the dangers in Sunset Forest were far less severe than those in Star Dou Forest.
The Star Dou Forest certainly contained spirit-type soul beasts, and of much higher age limits, but Kuang Tie would never dare enter Star Dou Forest outside the specific times for acquiring soul rings.
Everyone knew that at least five soul beasts over two hundred thousand years old resided in the Star Dou Forest.
The number of one-hundred-thousand-year-old beasts could even be in the double digits.
If even one of these powerful beings decided to leave the core zone to hunt, it would spell disaster for him. Considering Kuang Tie needed extended time to track and observe his target soul beast, the likelihood of such a dangerous encounter increased drastically.
By contrast, Sunset Forest was far safer.
With his strength, Kuang Tie was confident that he could handle even soul beasts of sixty to seventy thousand years.
"This miasma can even corrode spiritual power, but my Soul Suppression Hammer is no joke."
Kuang Tie possessed an ice crystal, which he held in his mouth to temporarily block the miasma's ordinary toxins.
However, as he ventured deeper, even the ice crystal couldn't fully neutralize the increasingly potent poisons affecting him.
With further exploration, he realized that some of the toxins could even erode his spiritual power. Initially, Kuang Tie was cautious, but as the toxins continued to corrode his spirit, he found that this adversity allowed him to further develop his Soul Suppression Hammer.
Suppress!
Thanks to the hammer's special traits, he could suppress the toxins' effect on his spiritual power while using their corrosive force to temper and refine it, enhancing its quality.
As the quality of his spiritual power improved, its overall volume passively increased as well.
Most Soul Masters typically expanded their spiritual power's quantity first, which would eventually lead to qualitative improvements. Kuang Tie, however, took the opposite approach—enhancing the quality first, which in turn pushed the quantity to grow.
Additionally, he used his spiritual power to strengthen his physical body. By treating the trace amounts of poison in his body as a form of pressure, he used his Soul Suppression Hammer to temper his physique.
Having discovered this new application of his martial soul, Kuang Tie no longer feared the toxins in the miasma. Instead, he delved deeper, using the poisons of the toxic haze to refine both his spiritual power and his body.
After nearly a year, Kuang Tie's spiritual power and physique had advanced rapidly.
He had now arrived near the valley where the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well was located.
One more step forward would place him within the range of the Biphosphorous Sevenfold Flower's poisonous fumes.
Kuang Tie had tried once to absorb those rainbow-colored toxic gases. Only after attempting to absorb them did he realize how reckless he had been.
It took him a full three months of recovery to completely expel the multicolored toxins from his body.
Fortunately, during those three months, the tempering effect of the rainbow poison significantly strengthened both his spiritual power and physical body.
However, the near-death experience left him too wary to ever attempt absorbing such toxins again.
Let alone stepping into the area fully engulfed by the rainbow-colored poison.
At that moment, Su Yu's figure appeared in the center of the miasma.
He coincidentally crossed paths with Kuang Tie.
"You?"
Kuang Tie recognized Su Yu's soul power fluctuations and was shocked to see him this deep into the forest.
Likewise, Su Yu was surprised that Kuang Tie had ventured this far.
Kuang Tie was standing right at the border of the Biphosphorous Sevenfold Flower's poisonous zone, where even now a faint concentration of the toxin was spreading—and Kuang Tie was able to endure it.
"Not bad—you've made it all the way here," Su Yu remarked, intrigued. He didn't leave right away but instead struck up a conversation with Kuang Tie.
Whatever else could be said about him, Kuang Tie had taken over the ruins of the Tang Sect with his Ironblood Sect, which instantly earned Su Yu some goodwill toward him.
After all, Kuang Tie was essentially the man who had, in a real sense, wiped out the Tang Sect—a ruthless feat indeed!
"Uh, senior…" Kuang Tie looked at Su Yu's youthful appearance, unsure whether addressing him as 'senior' was still appropriate.
Before, Su Yu hadn't revealed his face, and Kuang Tie had only sensed his intimidating aura and watched him move freely through the miasma—hence the respectful title. Now, seeing Su Yu's young face, it suddenly felt awkward to keep calling him that.
"Just call me Su Yu. I'm only a Soul Saint, after all."
"Su Yu? Soul Saint?" Kuang Tie's heart stirred, and he blurted out, "Could you be the Su Yu from the Sun-Moon Hall of the Sun Moon Empire?"
"You've heard of me?"
"…"
Kuang Tie was speechless.
Did this guy really not know the scale of the storm he had stirred up?
Many teams had returned from that battle alongside Du Busi and the Body Sect squad, and the details of that conflict had long since spread.
A level 79 Soul Saint defeating a level 97 Titled Douluo in battle, even going one versus two against Shrek Academy's Yan Shaozhe and Xuanzi, both peak-level Titled Douluo.
Such a terrifying record couldn't be suppressed by mere censorship. Even though the Empire had tried to contain it for morale reasons, word still got out.
Why? Because Su Yu's feats were simply too monstrous.
Even more, many believed his performance was something that could be replicated.
At the very least, it seemed that with a fully-equipped high-level battle armor, Soul Saints could genuinely challenge Titled Douluo-level opponents.
This was the real reason Su Yu's legend had spread so widely.
Now that Kuang Tie had learned Su Yu's true identity, he couldn't help but feel deeply shaken.
So, the mysterious senior he had encountered over a year ago turned out to be Su Yu.
Knowing Su Yu possessed power on par with a Super Douluo, Kuang Tie immediately grew wary, fearing that Su Yu might act against him.
After all, the Sun Moon Empire had already launched its war.
As for why Su Yu was here, Kuang Tie wasn't certain—but the likelihood of Su Yu targeting soul masters from the Douluo Three Kingdoms was high.
"No need to be so tense. I have no reason to make a move against you, do I?" Su Yu said calmly. "I've heard that the Ironblood Sect doesn't have a harmonious relationship with the Heaven Dou royal family. Perhaps we might even find some common ground."
This was exactly why Su Yu had chosen to strike up a conversation with Kuang Tie.
Although the Ironblood Sect wasn't particularly large, its location was key—right where the former Tang Sect once stood, on the outskirts of Heaven Dou City.
As for how bad relations were between the Ironblood Sect and the Heaven Dou royal family, such that Su Yu believed they might have shared interests?
Well, the fact that the Ironblood Sect had directly seized the Tang Sect's territory and established its own sect there said it all.
While Shrek Academy had turned a blind eye—perhaps constrained by unspoken rules or a need to maintain some ridiculous "neutrality" that prevented interference in factional conflicts—the Heaven Dou royal family had no such restrictions.
The Heaven Soul Empire's royal line was the descendant of the old Heaven Dou imperial family. Although the connection to the Tang Sect had weakened over ten thousand years, their shared roots were undeniable.
Who on the continent didn't know the deeds of the Sea God from ten thousand years ago?
Naturally, the Heaven Soul royal family wished to maintain ties—however symbolic—to that legacy, which meant that their reputation was still linked to the Tang Sect.
For the Tang Sect's territory to be taken by force was a blatant slap in the face. The Heaven Soul royal family might not retaliate directly—royalty was fickle and cold by nature—but the fact that the Ironblood Sect dared to make such a move proved they didn't regard the royal family with any real fear.
"Common ground?" Kuang Tie grasped Su Yu's meaning.
He was weighing the possibility of an alliance between them.
And in the end, Kuang Tie came to a conclusion—it wasn't impossible.
The friction between the Ironblood Sect and the Heaven Soul royal family wasn't just about the seizure of Tang Sect land and the humiliation it brought.
Many of the elder soul masters within the Ironblood Sect wielded hammer-type martial souls, and they all shared a secondary occupation—blacksmithing.
Su Yu remembered from his past life that Douluo Dalu had a "City of Metals."
He was certain he had read about it in the first series, though only vaguely.
At one point, he had even considered traveling there to learn forging techniques.
But later, that thought had faded into the back of his mind.
Even if he hadn't forgotten, achieving that goal would have been impossible.
The City of Metals—Gengxin City—and its Blacksmith Association had long since been forcibly disbanded.
After the collision and merging of the Sun Moon Continent with the Douluo Continent, the superiority of soul tools became apparent—and Douluo's greatest weakness was its lack of rare metals.
Naturally, the City of Metals became a target for many factions.
Not only the Heaven Soul Empire, but even the Star Luo and Dou Ling Empires had plundered Gengxin City's metals on a massive scale for their own research.
Afterward, the city's blacksmiths suffered as well.
Because aside from a small quantity of rare metals, most of the city's stock consisted of common metals.
However, it was said that with sufficient skill, a master blacksmith could transform even the ordinary into the extraordinary. That made the humble blacksmiths a target.
Many of the Ironblood Sect's elders were descendants of those blacksmiths from Gengxin City.
Kuang Tie had never felt a strong sense of belonging to the Three Kingdoms of Douluo—certainly not enough to sacrifice everything for them.
Cooperating with the Sun Moon Empire wasn't some act of treason in his eyes.
However, before agreeing to anything, he had to ensure the Ironblood Sect wouldn't become a sacrificial pawn—and that he'd gain sufficient benefit in return.
*One hour later.*
After their conversation, Su Yu had gained a thorough understanding of the Ironblood Sect's history.
"Fate truly works in mysterious ways," he mused.
Within Su Yu's sea of consciousness, the rune for "Fate" shimmered, its lines refining and smoothing into a more complete form.
"So your Ironblood Sect is descended from the blacksmiths of the old Blacksmith Association... you must have preserved quite a bit of forging knowledge."
Kuang Tie sighed heavily.
"Blacksmiths are ranked from low to high: Apprentice, Journeyman, Master, Grandmaster, and Divine Smith."
"To forge common metals into something with the properties of rare metals—making them usable as rare metals—you need at least Grandmaster-level skill. And back then, there were no more than thirty Grandmaster blacksmiths in the entire Association."
The rise of the Tang Sect had once brought prestige to the blacksmith profession, but it was largely limited to the blacksmiths within Tang Sect itself, where there were over a hundred Grandmasters.
However, as the Tang Sect declined, the blacksmith trade also fell into obscurity.
And when the Tang Sect finally collapsed and exhausted its foundation, the Three Kingdoms moved in to act on long-held ambitions.
"Moreover," Kuang Tie continued, "even Grandmasters can only perform this level of forging once a month at most. That's the limit."
This alleviated, to some extent, the Three Kingdoms' reliance on rare metals—but only marginally.
Grandmasters and higher-level blacksmiths were forcibly taken by major factions, and their forging techniques preserved to train new blacksmiths in hopes of easing the metal shortage.
But by then, the Blacksmith Association had been reduced to a shell.
Its top-tier blacksmiths kidnapped, its family-forged techniques seized under the guise of 'righteous necessity'—the Association was all but dead.
In his youth, Kuang Tie had gathered a few descendants of those blacksmiths and founded the Ironblood Sect.
"What level of forging have you reached?" Su Yu asked, curious.
With Kuang Tie's strength and talent, his forging skills likely benefited from significant boosts.
"I'm nothing special," Kuang Tie said with a hint of pride, "but I've reached the peak of Grandmaster-level."
"Oh?" Su Yu was pleasantly surprised.
Grandmaster-level was already quite formidable.
Even many ninth-tier soul engineers only had decent forging ability—and by the standards of the Douluo Continent, most of them barely reached Master level.
At best, some of their advanced techniques like alloy forging might touch Grandmaster-level in certain aspects, but overall, their skills were lacking.
"Brother Kuang Tie, I have a keen interest in forging. Might I trouble you for some pointers in the future?"
"You? A disciple of Sun-Moon Hall? Lacking rare metals?" Kuang Tie asked, visibly puzzled.
In his mind, forging's main value lay in transforming ordinary metals into rare-metal equivalents, primarily to substitute rare metals in soul tool creation.
However, unless one was a Divine Smith who could truly turn the ordinary into the extraordinary, forged metals still had limitations. They couldn't be used to make soul tools above the sixth tier.
In fact, lower-quality products couldn't even support the intricate core formations of a fourth-tier soul tool.
"You misunderstand, Brother Kuang Tie. I'm genuinely interested in forging and wish to study it for its own sake. By the way, have you ever considered reviving the blacksmithing trade?" Su Yu asked.
"Revive blacksmithing?" Kuang Tie looked at him, baffled.
He had no idea how that would even work.
Train a bunch of high-level blacksmiths… just to work for the major factions?
(End of chapter)