Qian Duoduo stared at the freshly-forged alloy in front of him, speechless for a long moment. The radiant shimmer of soul light, the faint pulsations that suggested some form of breath—it was unlike any refined metal he had ever seen. At last, he swallowed hard and asked cautiously,"Forgive my curiosity, but… just what kind of metal is this?"
Xu Xingyu didn't intend to hide anything. He calmly replied,"This is Spirit-Alloy—a fusion forged by combining two metals through a unique technique. Not only does it inherit both metals' original properties, but it also gains a degree of spiritual resonance. In a way, it's… alive. Not sentient like a creature, of course, but closer to a plant—it responds, grows, and remembers."
Qian Duoduo sharply inhaled.
A metal with a soul…?
He couldn't imagine what sort of soul tool could be crafted from something like that. But there was one thing he could be certain of: its value would be astronomical.
Yet—according to the data—wasn't Xu Xingyu just a third-rank Soul Engineer? Wouldn't using a material of this level for a Rank 3 soul tool be a complete waste?
What he didn't know was that although Xu Xingyu's cultivation was only at the Soul Elder (three rings) level, the technique he cultivated—the Origin Star Celestial Codex—granted him a pseudo-chaotic core within his heart. His soul power flowed eternally, never exhausting.
In other words, his regeneration speed was absurd. Even crafting Rank 5 or 6 soul tools posed no difficulty.
More importantly, his theoretical knowledge had long since surpassed the Rank 8 threshold. For someone like him, crafting a tool worthy of Spirit-Alloy was child's play.
But this time, Xu Xingyu wasn't aiming to craft just any soul tool.
This time, he was going to forge the foundation of his battle armor.
A soul tool of the future. Humanoid. Integrated. External. When fully compatible, battle armor could elevate a soul master's strength by two entire realms.
At the Qiling Tower, they had already begun early research on both mechas and battle armor—technologies that were still centuries away from appearing in Douluo Continent's main timeline.
However, their research had revealed an inconvenient truth.
Battle armor could not be mass-produced.
The amplification existed—but only in custom-fitted, soul-compatible models. Without full integration with a soul master's martial soul, its effects were far too limited. Mass-produced suits were little better than decorative armor.
In contrast, mechas—though slightly inferior in theory—could be manufactured at scale. They didn't need soul-martial compatibility. Anyone could inject soul power into one and operate it. Compatibility increased power, of course, but was not essential.
Just as Xu Xingyu was weighing which component to forge first, Qian Duoduo coughed lightly.
"Ahem… Xingyu, I don't mean to rush you, but… you've only got half an hour left for the assessment. If you want your soul tool to be graded, you might want to start building it now."
Of course, his words weren't just about the time.
He was curious.
Curious about what this monster of a student could possibly create using Spirit-Alloy.
Truthfully, even if Xu Xingyu didn't finish his submission, Qian Duoduo would bend the rules himself. As the Vice Dean of the Soul Tool Department, did he not have that right?
With forging skills this outrageous—even if Xu Xingyu's crafting ability was mediocre, Qian Duoduo would personally drag him into their ranks.
That said... once this assessment was over, he definitely needed to talk to his wife, Xian Lin'er, first. If that sly old fox Yan Shaozhe from the Sea God's Pavilion caught wind of this kid's talent, there'd be a war to recruit him.
With Xian Lin'er backing him, he might still win.
While Qian Duoduo was off daydreaming about the glorious future of the Soul Tool Department, Xu Xingyu had already begun his next step.
From his storage soul tool, he pulled out a jade-green carving knife and began etching into the freshly-forged Star-Silver alloy.
And then…
That impossibly tough alloy, said to rival the bones of ten-thousand-year soul beasts in hardness—sliced open like tofu.
Qian Duoduo's scalp tingled.
More surprises? He was already getting numb from them. Had he actually gotten used to being shocked?
That knife—what in the world was it?
Could it be one of the Ranking Carving Blades? Only the top thirty on the list had the power to effortlessly cut rare alloys.
But no matter how he racked his brain, Qian Duoduo could not recall any jade-green carving blade among them.
He wasn't wrong.
The blade in Xu Xingyu's hand was, in fact, once part of the Ranking Blade List. Or rather—it had been removed.
Its original name: Soul-Devouring Carving Knife.
Crafted by a powerful evil soul master, it had once held the 99th position among the carving blade rankings.
Its performance should have placed it well within the top 30. But during its creation, the evil soul master had fused a sliver of his own divine consciousness into the blade—granting it a powerful curse of resentment.
That hatred became its own form of will.
Anyone who lacked strong enough mental strength would be devoured by the knife's backlash. And so, over the years, every single person who'd dared use it had met a miserable end.
Incidentally, this very blade had once been purchased by Huo Yuhao, the original protagonist of the Douluo Dalu series, during an auction in the Star Luo Empire.
So how did it end up in Xu Xingyu's hands?
That story began a year ago.
Back when he aided the Star Luo Army in retaking a Sun-Essence Gold vein deep within the Mingdu Mountains.
At the time, the Sun Moon Empire's commander was none other than Starry Sky Douluo Ye Yushuang—a powerful figure who tragically fell in that very battle.
Xu Xingyu, by sheer luck, had recovered Ye Yushuang's storage ring.
Inside was an absolute trove of soul tool blueprints, forging notes, and high-level crafting data. He didn't hoard it.
Instead, he ordered his subordinates to painstakingly transcribe every design, every record, and every schematic.
Once everything had been copied and preserved for the Qiling Tower, he returned the originals to the Star Luo Empire and bartered for key resources.
Among the trades: a carving knife known as Morning Star—Ye Yushuang's personal blade.
Xu Xingyu then used Morning Star to exchange for something buried deep in the Star Luo vaults…
The Soul-Devouring Knife.
Why?
Because Xu Xingyu knew something no one else did.
This blade had been forged from a divine material—Life Gold.
If the curse could be removed, the knife's full potential would awaken. It would become one of the most powerful carving blades in existence.
More importantly—it would no longer bear the risk of backlash.
When Xu Xingyu was younger, he had once encountered a Golden-Shelled Turtle deep in the Star Dou Great Forest. It had consumed a fragment of Life Gold.
He had helped the soul beast extract the foreign object—and in doing so, had absorbed the Life Gold into his own body, using it to refine himself.
From that day forward, he understood exactly how to manipulate Life Gold's full potential.
After acquiring the cursed carving knife, he used the same method as Huo Yuhao.
He summoned Electrolux, the ancient necromancer sealed within his spiritual sea, and purged the curse from the blade.
From that day on, the Soul-Devouring Carving Knife was reborn.
Xu Xingyu gave it a new name:
Sentinel of Life.
A carving blade of jade green. Born from death. Awakened through life.
This was the blade he now used. The weapon that would carve the Spirit-Alloy.
The very tool that would etch the first stroke of his battle armor's destiny.
***
Back at the exam site, Xu Xingyu had already completed the outer shell of the soul tool he intended to forge. Only the crucial core formation remained unfinished.
With only fifteen minutes left on the clock, Qian Duoduo, who had been observing silently, couldn't be certain if Xu Xingyu would manage to complete his soul tool in time.
From Qian Duoduo's perspective, Xu Xingyu's creation was clearly a close-range soul tool gauntlet. Combining the resilience and toughness of Star Silver (Xingyin) as the base metal, its offensive capability should be formidable.
By Qian Duoduo's estimation, the finished soul tool would at least reach Rank 4 strength—a remarkable achievement for a student of Xu Xingyu's age.
But that was assuming the core formation could be finished in time. Given the complexity of the core soul array, completing it within fifteen minutes was a daunting challenge.
Yet, Xu Xingyu's incredible speed and precision showed no mercy to time. He had already carved more than half of the intricate core formation, causing Qian Duoduo to twitch involuntarily.
Isn't he afraid of making mistakes by working so fast? Qian Duoduo wondered.
As the final moments approached, Xu Xingyu finished carving the core array and began assembling the gauntlet's shell. When the timer finally rang, Xu Xingyu's soul tool was complete.
Qian Duoduo breathed a sigh of relief, feeling the pressure of the tight deadline ebb away. The whole atmosphere had been nerve-wracking.
Calming himself, Qian Duoduo immediately started inspecting the gauntlet.
After careful observation, he couldn't detect any flaws. The gauntlet was incredibly tough, razor-sharp, and capable of providing a noticeable enhancement to the wielder's combat ability.
On the surface, it was a powerful close-combat soul tool. But Qian Duoduo couldn't help but wonder—was it really necessary to use Spirit-Alloy to craft this?
Xu Xingyu offered no further explanation. He only said it was a close-range soul tool designed for Soul King level warriors.
As for the details, those were classified under the strict secrecy of Qiling Tower. Unless his teacher, Silver Dragon Douluo Gu Yuena, permitted it, he couldn't disclose anything to Qian Duoduo.
With that, Qian Duoduo gave up probing and officially announced that Xu Xingyu could minor in Soul Tool studies starting from first year. He also warmly welcomed Xu Xingyu to join the Soul Tool Department anytime.
However, Xu Xingyu's main focus remained the Martial Soul Department, since his own knowledge of soul tools already exceeded what Shrek Academy's Soul Tool Department could teach.
He chose the minor only to prevent himself from forgetting the soul tool forging methods by neglecting them too long.
As Xu Xingyu prepared to leave the exam hall, a teacher from the neighboring testing room approached Qian Duoduo and began reporting on Xu Yanxue's exam results.
Like Xu Xingyu, Xu Yanxue had passed and earned the qualification to minor in the Soul Tool Department.
But her work was so exceptional that the examiner was eager to consult with the Vice Dean about enrolling her directly into the Soul Tool Department as a core disciple.
Xu Yanxue had crafted a Rank 3 Soul Tool Battery, a very common device in Qiling Tower.
Although its fabrication was difficult, it was nothing challenging for her.
What stunned the examiner wasn't the soul power storage capacity—because in this era, batteries (or "milk bottles") were a common soul power reservoir.
What made this particular battery remarkable was its small size and incredible storage volume—it held more soul power than a Rank 4 "milk bottle".
Most shockingly, it possessed a sealing function, preventing the slow soul power leakage typical of ordinary batteries.
Qian Duoduo was astonished. He had always thought Xu Xingyu was the natural genius of the Soul Tool Department, but now it seemed his younger sister Xu Yanxue was just as talented.
This revelation transformed Qian Duoduo's plan from simply recruiting Xu Xingyu to binding both siblings firmly to the Soul Tool Department.
If they succeeded, the department's prestige within Shrek Academy would surely rise like a blazing phoenix.
After the exam, Xu Xingyu and Xu Yanxue left the Soul Tool Department building together, heading toward their dormitory.
On the way, they discussed their respective tests.
"Brother Xingyu, was it too showy of us to perform so openly during the exam?" Xu Yanxue asked, her eyes wide with innocent curiosity."We demonstrated techniques neither the Sun Moon Empire nor the original Three Great Empires have ever seen before.""Was it really okay to reveal that so easily?"
Xu Xingyu chuckled.
"What's wrong?" Xu Yanxue pouted, displeased."I'm worried about our faction's secrets leaking out!" she said, eyes sparkling with concern."That's no laughing matter!"
"Don't worry," Xu Xingyu quickly backtracked. "I just wanted to explain why we exposed those techniques.""Personally, I don't like Shrek Academy's teaching philosophy. But right now, Shrek's influence over the original Three Great Empires is enormous.""So we have to leverage Shrek's fame to promote Qiling Tower.""That means revealing some eye-catching tech—like bait—so they'll bite."
"Ohhh!" Xu Yanxue finally understood her brother's plan.
In short, they were using their value to build a good relationship with Shrek Academy, aiming to influence the academy's outdated views on soul spirits.
If, in the future, Shrek declared soul spirits the correct cultivation method, Qiling Tower's expansion would face no barriers.
Plus, soul masters purchasing soul spirits would increase dramatically.
Currently, the biggest problem for Qiling Tower was that only noble families could afford soul spirits.
Commoner-level soul masters rarely bought them.
But that was inevitable—manufacturing soul spirits was costly. Not everyone could afford them.
Poorer soul masters missing out was a natural consequence, since money isn't something everyone can get.
To address this, Xu Xingyu had created a scholarship system at Qiling Tower.
If a soul master's talent was high enough, they could fuse a soul spirit for free.
And if those people later joined Qiling Tower, all the better—more manpower is always welcome.
Having explained his plan to Xu Yanxue, they arrived at their dormitory building.
After some small talk, Xu Xingyu returned to his room.
But as he opened the door, he was greeted by none other than a dead-tired Wang Dong'er, sprawled out on the floor.