Chapter 148: with translation of chapter title

Qian Renxue didn't ask her why she knew these; that wasn't important at all. She only asked Ake which metal she wanted to use to forge her battle armor.

At present, Ake's value needs to be reassessed.

"Living spirit gold, preferably the kind that harbors a malevolent spirit."

Such battle armor is most suitable for her emerald swan martial soul and most likely to cause her martial soul to mutate.

"Huh?"

Qian Renxue twitched the corner of her mouth. "Do you know what you're saying? You want to forge a complete battle armor from living spirit gold? How could such a thing exist? There simply isn't that much living spirit gold."

Xueke stared at Qian Renxue with blazing eyes, her expression serious. "No, it does exist, right in the Star Dou Great Forest."

Xueke's battle armor in her previous life was forged using that massive piece of living spirit gold, but the malevolent spirit within it was purified by Qian Renxue. This time, Xueke intends to use that malevolent spirit to reshape her martial soul.

She is not a reincarnated Divine King in the traditional sense; rather, the system caused a time reversal. Her Divine Body is gone, her Divine Consciousness has reverted to the level of spiritual power, yet her experience remains, and she still possesses the means to adjust her martial soul.

Xueke's battle armor was once the highest‑quality armor among all transmigrants. Her armor contained no alloy, only a single metal: pure living spirit gold. Yet it surpassed even the Divine Alloy forged by Qian Renxue from nine different metals, and that massive block of living spirit gold was also one of the reasons she could inherit the throne of the Life Divine King.

Unfortunately, no matter how strong her battle armor is, it is useless; Xueke herself has little combat power.

The original Life Goddess had fairly impressive combat power, but Xueke is purely supportive. The powerful Divine King Artifact 'Ancient Tree of Life' was taken by the previous Life Goddess, leaving Xueke only the new Divine King Artifact 'Heart of Life' that she obtained after ascending to godhood.

Logically, with the Heart of Life and a powerful divine armor, Xueke shouldn't be able to die, certainly not at the hands of a mere first‑rank god. Yet she was determined to seek death, to harvest regret; she chose to die intentionally, but in the end she gained nothing and now has to start over from scratch.

"I will spare no effort in helping you forge the battle armor."

"One year from now, after Atolis's martial soul awakens, we will hunt soul rings together. At that time, I will take you to obtain that piece of living spirit gold, and you will use it to forge my battle armor. How does that sound? Can you agree? Qian Ling'er, or rather, I should call you Qian Renxue."

Qian Renxue paused briefly while leafing through the schematics, then cast her gaze toward Xueke, revealing a surprised expression.

"So you've known my identity all along. From what you say, it seems you also understood early on that Atolis is innately full of soul power, which is why you keep him by your side. Is your martial soul truly an emerald swan? Is this some prophetic ability? Or can you use the power of time to see something?"

Xueke neither denied nor answered.

Among the Nine Great Dragon Kings, the Emerald Dragon King is the one who controls space and time.

Time and space have always been inseparable. In the Dragon King legends, Xie Jie—wasn't his martial soul turned into a Space‑Time Dragon by fate? Could Ake's martial soul be the 'Emerald Dragon King' among the Nine Great Dragon Kings? Perhaps, besides time, Ake also possesses spatial attributes, which makes Qian Renxue eager to duel her for a soul battle.

Qian Renxue suppressed her curiosity and let out a light laugh. "Fine, I agree; we'll do as you say, mysterious Miss Ake."

Xueke nodded. She was too lazy to keep up the pretense; at least for now, obtaining her former battle armor was the most important thing.

Xueke stepped forward and retrieved the notebook she had thrown to Qian Renxue. "Since you've accepted, I can design the battle armor for you. Rest assured, it won't disappoint you."

Qian Renxue snorted, "Don't you need to hear my requirements for my own battle armor?"

Xueke replied, "No need, because I've seen your battle armor before. Besides, I've already proven my worth; I no longer need to be a maid, right?"

Qian Renxue extended her hand in a pleading gesture, her face soft with kindness. "Of course, you have the final say over the martial soul main hall now."

Xueke seemed to recall something and continued, "By the way, my soul power level is too low; engraving the core formation quickly drains soul power, so I can't speed up. Don't push me, because urging won't help."

Qian Renxue thought for a moment, then said, "I can send a titled Douluo to assist you. How about that? It will give you more time to cultivate; you only need to speak a word."

But Xueke shook her head and refused outright, "That's impossible. Until I obtain the battle armor forged from living spirit gold, I won't teach anyone how to inscribe the core formation, let alone engrave it in front of the titled Douluo of the Spirit Hall."

"I will revise this set of schematics to better suit your martial soul, and all you need to do is forge a suitable living alloy. The higher the integration, the better. Have you learned melt forging yet?"

Qian Renxue looked at Xueke, her violet eyes flickering slightly, her expression a bit puzzled. "I can't do it yet, but I expect to learn soon. After all, according to Lou Gao, melt forging is much easier than spiritual forging, and I have already succeeded at spiritual forging."

Xueke was startled. "What did you say? You can spiritual forge?! But you can't melt forge—how do you perform spiritual forging? It must be with pre‑made alloy, right? What exactly is your soul power level?"

Although Qian Renxue didn't understand why Ake was so surprised, she pondered for a moment and then decided to tell the truth. After all, Ake can see the future; a brief concealment wouldn't mean much, and revealing it later would harm their cooperation, which would be counterproductive.

"It's spiritual forging of a single metal; I am currently a Six‑ring Soul Emperor."

"Ah?"

Xueke's eyes narrowed slightly, her torso leaning forward, as if a sharp gaze that could see through all lies peered through a narrow slit, scrutinizing the presence before her.

Although Xueke's physique appears very slender, she exudes an inexplicable aura.

Contradictory, yet remarkably harmonious.

This aura suddenly reminded Qian Renxue of her encounter with the Thunder God in the Thunder Canyon, but Xueke's diminutive stature and weak soul power aura made Qian Renxue feel like laughing.

"I'm not even at the level to deceive a One‑ring Soul Master; it wouldn't benefit me anyway. The Spirit Hall has the Angel God Test, and besides, can't you see future scenes?"

As she spoke, Qian Renxue reached out to pat Xueke's head, but Xueke, seeing Qian Renxue's hand hovering in midair, calmly evaded.

Seeing Ake's reaction, a hint of surprise appeared in Qian Renxue's eyes; it was the first explicit refusal from Ake in two months. She gracefully withdrew her hand, realizing that a transaction must retain its transactional nature, and unsolicited closeness would make others uncomfortable. She was not in a hurry.

Xueke let out a sigh of relief, grateful that she hadn't brought Jun Wuhen and the others along. Her lingering anxiety was completely gone; wasting a god‑level martial soul with a gifted talent would be too outrageous. Is this the value of an innate Level‑20? Indeed, she still needed to find allies to gang up on Qian Renxue, otherwise she truly couldn't win.

Xueke said calmly, "What you see isn't up to me to decide. You should first figure out the melt forging of Demon Silver and Spirit Gold yourself; once I finish my design draft, you can start preparing."

Qian Renxue's battle armor in her past life was her own design, so now she could simply copy it without rethinking. Designing battle armor is fundamentally a matter of knowledge depth. Although she had borrowed from the system, the books she had purchased with points are stored within the system. She drew quickly; Xueke retrieved tools from her storage ring, sat on a chair, and began to sketch. Her strokes were neither fast nor slow, and she didn't pause to contemplate, using various tools to continuously etch the schematics.

After an hour, the rustling of the pen finally ceased, and Xueke lifted the design draft in her hand and handed it to Qian Renxue.

"This is a complete single‑pattern battle armor design. I want you to use the rare metal 'Nether Iron' as the base for melt forging. This is my preliminary transitional single‑pattern battle armor schematic. Take a look; although the early stage requires time to polish, as soon as you forge me a living battle armor, I will have enough soul power to assist you."

"It's not a compatible living battle armor; with my soul power level, I can't wear it."

Qian Renxue nodded. "Fine, but are you sure you want to choose 'Nether Iron'? That metal suits the Nether Spirit Cat martial soul better, doesn't it? Isn't your martial soul an emerald type?"

"If your martial soul has spatial attributes, I would actually recommend you use a metal like 'Thousand‑Machine Copper.'"

Xueke remained silent for a while, then shook her head and refused, "After I obtain the living spirit gold that contains a malevolent spirit, I will abandon this living battle armor and use 'Nether Iron' instead."

A dark‑attribute battle armor won't boost one's life attribute, but long‑term cultivation within the body can alter some properties of the emerald swan martial soul, making it closer to a black swan.

"Fine, it's your call, as long as it doesn't affect your core formation engraving," Qian Renxue said helplessly, pushing her arm aside.

Xueke wore a hint of a proud smile. "Rest assured, the core formation I design is all soul power amplification. My martial soul merely needs to be infused with dark attributes, which won't affect the engraving."

Afterwards, Qian Renxue went to the Blacksmith Association to learn alloy melt‑forging combinations from Lou Gao; she only needed to study some combinations of 'Nether Iron' and the melt forging of 'Spirit Gold.'

……...

A year later, a dozen children in white robes were busy preparing for the upcoming martial soul awakening ceremony inside the Spirit Hall.

Among them, a child with a calm expression, black hair and black eyes stood out.

He darted agilely around the martial soul main hall, sometimes shouting orders, sometimes directing everyone to tidy the hall; the once‑a‑year martial soul ceremony for the commoners was about to begin.

Strangely, although there were many children who looked stronger than him, everyone obeyed this child without hesitation, daring not to delay, because his recognized elder sister is the de facto ruler of the martial soul main hall—the youngest ever Spirit Hall bishop in history.

However, he indeed had some skill; before long, the originally chaotic hall gradually became orderly under his command.

All of his actions were seen by Xue Ke.

Xue Ke's lips pressed slightly, her hands clenched before her chest, she gazed at the youth with a faint smile, a hint of anticipation in her eyes.

Bishop Ake, A Tuolisi truly is a hardworking child, isn't he?

An elegant female voice with a hint of sigh suddenly sounded from behind her; Xue Ke immediately turned, somewhat surprised and delighted, and complained to the newcomer:

I thought you had forgotten our promise? You, who took the battle armor and didn't come back to stay, the Spirit Hall is your home! You change faces faster than flipping a book—are you trying to run away?

Qian Renxue chuckled: "What are you saying? Do I look like someone who doesn't keep promises? Besides, I've already made you a spirit battle armor; even if you ran, you wouldn't lose anything."

Perhaps because they had become familiar, or because their cooperation was pleasant, their communication became much more enthusiastic than before; they dispensed with formalities and instead redirected their gaze and topic to A Tuolisi.

Today is the day of A Tuolisi's martial soul awakening; you've always said his talent is astonishing, and I am quite curious—what martial soul could surprise you? No matter how busy I am, I must rush back.

Xue Ke sighed; ever since the battle armor appeared in Gengxin City, Qian Renxue has been getting busier.

In just a year, the concept of battle armor had swept across the entire Douluo Continent; Qian Renxue used the name 'Mufeng' as a shield, submitted it directly, and unexpectedly ended up thoroughly defeating the 'Top Ten Core Competitiveness of Martial Souls' that Grand Master Yu Xiaogang had long held at the top of the journal.

Infuriated, a certain master sighed all day, washed their face with tears, and stayed up late until they lost quite a bit of hair.

Gengxin City instantly became the most popular main city for Soul Masters; everywhere were Soul Kings and above coming to request single-word battle armor. Ning Fengzhi of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, with a venomous gaze, immediately tried to monopolize the source of battle armor, only to be loudly cursed by Lou Gao and driven out.

What's more interesting is that Ning Fengzhi still didn't dare offend Lou Gao, running back and forth timidly several times; 'Mufeng' and Lou Gao have now become the heart's desire of every Soul Master under heaven—anyone who dares to show disrespect to 'Mufeng' and Lou Gao is truly taking on the many with the few.

After all, soul bones are forever in short supply, and battle armor comparable to a soul bone is akin to a soul bone that only oneself can use and others cannot seize—what does that mean? Although battle armor remains precious, this means that ordinary Soul Masters can also have a brand‑new path forward, and can openly use it without fear of it being taken by others.

Moreover, the wealthy and powerful can even have custom‑made exclusive battle armor—how cool is that!

The Star Luo royal family immediately sent people wanting to spend money to buy the exclusive manufacturing rights for a set of White Tiger battle armor.

Although soul bones can be inherited, everyone possesses a desire to own things—who would want their belongings coveted by others? Battle armor, however, entails no such worry; what is yours remains yours.

If one purchases the exclusive manufacturing rights, thereafter, aside from the Star Luo Dai clan, no one else can obtain any White Tiger series battle armor from Gengxin City.

But for now, it has only just been made; facing the enthusiasm, Lou Gao merely claimed outwardly that the battle armor is still in experimentation, and will be opened to all Soul Masters once completed.

Over this past year, they have produced only three sets of battle armor: Qian Renxue and Ake made spirit battle armor, while Lou Gao made ordinary single‑word battle armor, which was also taken out for display.

Lou Gao's temperament is exceptionally stubborn; Qian Renxue advised him several times, but he insisted on using meteoric iron as the base metal for his spirit battle armor. However, Lou Gao cannot spirit‑forge meteoric iron, and he also refused Qian Renxue's help, so his spirit battle armor has remained on hold.

Now Lou Gao uses a wearable single‑word battle armor forged from thousand‑forged meteoric iron.

Furthermore, since Xue Ke was only willing to help Qian Renxue inscribe the core formation, the original agreement was merely to assist Qian Renxue wholeheartedly in making battle armor, and had nothing to do with others; thus Lou Gao's core formation was inscribed by Qian Renxue herself.

She secretly learned a bit from Ake; Qian Renxue currently can only do some simple core inscriptions, and nothing more.

Brothers, am I fierce or not!

(End of chapter)