Chapter 350: The Ranking of the Seven Monsters, Returning to Sea God Island
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Xu Yuan shook his head.
"I originally planned to break through here. The ambient energy in this plane is far more violent than that of the Douluo Plane, and it stimulates my soul power more intensely. If used properly, it would make condensing a soul core easier."
As he spoke, he still wore an expression of regret.
"Unfortunately, Teacher instructed me to return to condense my soul core. Additionally, Elder Feng is also preparing to return to the Douluo Plane to perform soul forging at Sea God Island, and he asked me to come and observe."
Since mastering spirit forging, Xu Yuan had never stopped striving for improvement, and his understanding of spirit forging had always kept pace with his progress.
In fact, even before heading to the Star Luo Continent, his understanding of spirit forging had already reached its peak just before advancing to Level 7 Blacksmith.
Afterward, he focused on fusion forging, though he remained at the level of refining one-grade alloys without attempting spirit forging on alloys with spiritual properties after fusion forging. However, this only made things easier for him.
The purpose of fusion forging was to compensate for the shortcomings of various rare metals.
For example, Blue Womb Copper was inherently fragile and could easily shatter from improper hammering, damaging its internal structure. However, when fused with sunken silver, it gained excellent ductility, no longer being brittle, while also compensating for sunken silver's poor soul power conductivity.
By offsetting each other's weaknesses, along with the fact that spiritually imbued alloys were inherently of higher quality than ordinary rare metals, awakening their spirituality became easier, making spirit forging more successful and significantly reducing the difficulty of forging.
This was the biggest difference between Level 6 and Level 5 blacksmiths in spirit forging.
In normal blacksmith training, only those who have mastered spirit forging attempt fusion forging, and mastering fusion forging marks the transition to Level 6.
Moreover, Level 6 blacksmiths have a deeper understanding of spirit forging because they can more clearly perceive the changes in the spirituality within metals during the process of forging spiritually imbued alloys, giving them a more thorough grasp of its essence.
Additionally, some wealthy blacksmiths, during their advancement from Level 4 to Level 5 spirit forging, use large quantities of spiritually imbued alloys to increase their chances of success and expedite the process.
Before deepening his expertise in fusion forging, Xu Yuan's understanding of spirit forging had already reached the limit of Level 6. If he were to continue practicing spirit forging with various spiritually imbued alloys, his understanding of spirit forging might even surpass that of a Saint Craftsman.
"Soul forging?"
Na'er looked surprised.
The four elders had always been stationed in Shrek City, constantly guarding against Alba's potential return and attacks. After two months with no trace of Alba, was an elder finally returning?
And the first to return was Elder Feng.
She had always assumed the first would be Elder Cai, who handled numerous outer court affairs.
Returning for forging?
"Do you remember when Senior Brother raided the four royal cities? I told him to take more special rare metals. He actually found a unique metal in Lamo's royal city that perfectly matches the evolution direction of his martial soul. He plans to have Elder Feng help integrate it into his battle armor through fusion forging."
Na'er nodded in understanding.
So that was the reason.
"Elder Feng spent two months researching metals and deducing fusion forging methods. Senior Brother was practically dying of impatience."
Xu Yuan still vividly remembered the obvious urgency in Lan Muzi's voice during their soul-guided communication.
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Shrek City
The Shrek City in the Demon Plane was modeled after the inner city of Shrek in the Douluo Plane.
Within two months, based on the original foundation of Alba's imperial city, basic construction was rapidly completed.
The demonic creatures played a significant role in this.
After more than a month, Xu Yuan and Na'er returned, feeling both unfamiliarity and familiarity.
"Mother."
The two approached the passage where all four elders were present.
"Xiao Yuan." Ya Li smiled as she looked at Xu Yuan.
Although Xu Yuan had secluded himself for nearly two months, his contributions remained the highest.
The ranking of the Seven Monsters of Shrek had already been finalized a month ago.
Unsurprisingly, Xu Yuan was ranked first among the Seven Monsters. Yuanen Yehui ranked second, Tang Wulin third, followed by Yue Zhengyu, Wu Siduo, Xu Lizhi, Ye Xinglan, and Fang Yuan.
Though Tang Wulin had drawn out three overlords from the east, he merely lured them out. The actual battles were fought by Lan Muzi and Tang Yinmeng, and since he hadn't made any major contributions afterward, he ranked behind Xu Yuan.
As for Yuanen Yehui, setting aside the fact that the Demon Gate was opened because of her, her assistance to Shrek in subduing many natives using the advantages of her demonic bloodline alone was a great achievement.
"Those not of our kind cannot be trusted."
However, Yuanen Yehui possessed demonic bloodline—pure Purple-Gold Demon bloodline!
Coupled with her Fallen Angel martial soul, which originated from the seeds left by Alba, her bloodline was exceptionally pure, free of impurities, comparable to that of a true demon lord.
This granted her treatment akin to a quasi-lord.
In fact, if Alba's plan had succeeded, Yuanen Yehui opening the Demon Gate and invading the Douluo Plane—even if she couldn't fully occupy it—would still allow her to dominate a region. At that time, as Alba's proxy, she would become the ruler of that territory on the Douluo side.
Ranked fourth was Yue Zhengyu, whose martial soul strongly countered demonic creatures.
Wu Siduo was also powerful, having slain many demonic beings.
Notably, during the exploration of Sass's royal city, her Ghostly Spirit Cat martial soul seemed to have encountered some kind of opportunity, triggering an evolution.
The last three members—Ye Xinglan, Fang Yuan, and Xu Lizhi—were the most similar in cultivation level and also the lowest-ranked.
Ye Xinglan was stronger than Fang Yuan overall, but her total contributions fell short of Xu Lizhi's.
There was no helping it; food-based soul masters played a significant role in the early stages of exploration and continued to contribute consistently, providing a reliable baseline.
As for Fang Yuan, he seemed completely fine with being ranked eighth.
He knew he was likely the weakest among the eight.
Xu Yuan had paid some attention to him. Over the past two months, Fang Yuan had been running around the Demon Plane, busy with something unknown.
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Crossing the Passage
The world shifted. Passing through the purple gate, Xu Yuan returned to the familiar world soaked in life energy.
The sensation of suddenly transitioning from the Demon Plane to the borders of Sea God Island was vivid.
"Na'er hasn't returned; she continues to train over there." Xu Yuan feigned a contemplative expression.
It seemed Na'er was deliberately avoiding returning here.
Xu Yuan's mind stirred.
Could it be that staying there allowed her to sever her connection with Gu Yue?
Not dwelling too much on it, Xu Yuan saw his teacher after exiting the Demon Gate.
"Teacher."
"Hmm, you haven't condensed your soul core yet." Yun Ming observed for a moment, seemingly relieved.
"Teacher, why did you instruct me to return here to condense my soul core? Is there some disadvantage to doing so in the Demon Plane?"
Xu Yuan truly had no prior intelligence on this matter.
Yun Ming shook his head.
"In fact, condensing a soul core in the Demon Plane wouldn't significantly affect you. In the history of soul masters, many have condensed their soul cores in small worlds or semi-planes. Some even achieved the rank of Limit Douluo, and among them were top-tier Limit Douluos."
Xu Yuan frowned.
This only deepened his confusion.
If the location of the breakthrough had no impact on the condensation of the soul core or the future of the soul master, why did his teacher insist he return here to condense it?
Yun Ming looked toward the Sea God Pavilion.
More accurately, he was looking at the Golden Ancient Tree.
Noticing his gaze, Xu Yuan understood.
This was Elder Tree's intention.
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