Lin Xia's thoughts were still churning between the scorching heat of "Fire Punch" and the biting cold of "Ice Punch." His fingertips seemed to retain the faint electric sensation left behind by Thunder Punch, and his craving for attribute-infused ores spread through his heart like wildfire.
At that moment, the sound of footsteps approached. Lou Gao's face—deeply etched with scorch marks from years beside the forge, crisscrossed with rugged lines, was now overflowing with an almost childlike purity of joy, utterly uncontrollable.
His eyes shone brilliantly, like the hottest core of a blazing furnace, and even his beard trembled slightly with excitement.
Before Lin Xia could fully come back to his senses, Lou Gao's calloused, iron-clamp-like hand had already seized Lin Xia's wrist and dragged him straight toward the forging room without explanation. The sheer force nearly made Lin Xia stumble.
"Teacher? Slow down—this… what's going on?"
Caught off guard by this sudden enthusiasm and by Lou Gao's expression, like someone who had just discovered an unparalleled treasure and had to share it immediately. Lin Xia asked instinctively, completely baffled.
He had only just pulled himself out of the excitement of Thunder Punch, and his mind still couldn't keep up with his teacher's pace.
"Hahaha! A tremendous stroke of fortune! Lin Xia, it worked! It worked!"
Lou Gao didn't bother with any suspense. His booming voice echoed through the training hall, every word brimming with indescribable excitement and barely restrained impatience.
Lou Gao stopped, turned around, and firmly grasped Lin Xia's shoulders with both hands. His blazing eyes locked onto Lin Xia as if he wanted to forcibly imprint the light in them straight into Lin Xia's mind.
"After all this time—no, after days and nights without rest!"
Lou Gao spoke at lightning speed, nearly spraying saliva onto Lin Xia's face.
"Relying solely on the treasure we brought back, the Void Stone vein! I stared at that thing until my eyes were about to go blind! And guess what?"
Lou Gao gestured wildly, as if unveiling a world-shaking secret.
"I discovered something incredible! Soul guidance arrays! Those profound, inscrutable arrays on ancient soul tools—their source is very likely copied straight from the patterns naturally formed on these heaven-and-earth-born precious ores! Especially this Void Stone!"
His fingers carved forceful shapes through the air, as if sketching invisible runes.
"I took those living, flowing stardust patterns on the Void Stone and compared them, bit by bit under a magnifying lens, with the array engravings on your spatial soul tool ring!"
"Heh! Damn it all! They're practically the same! Same lineage, passed down from the same origin! The only difference is that the patterns on the Void Stone are more primitive, more alive! Like the difference between tree roots and leaves!"
Lou Gao suddenly spread his arms wide, as if embracing an entirely new world.
"So I followed the example, took those 'living' patterns from the Void Stone, dismantled them, simplified them, then recombined them according to the flow of soul power! And guess what?"
"It worked! It really worked!"
Lou Gao counted on his rough fingers, his voice rising higher with every item.
"Energy storage arrays! Same basic principle as a storage ring, but they can store more soul power and far more stably!"
"Linking arrays between different soul tools! Like building blocks, letting energy flow between components and chain them together!"
"And the most critical one, power arrays!"
Lou Gao practically roared, his voice filled with incomparable pride.
"Arrays that let dead chunks of metal move on their own! I figured those out too!"
Finally, Lou Gao slapped Lin Xia hard on the shoulder, making him jolt, then declared with blazing eyes and absolute certainty.
"Lin Xia! As long as we get our hands on top-tier materials!"
"That monster you drew on the blueprints—the soul-guided mecha!"
"I've got at least a seventy percent chance of building you a rough prototype right now! Something that can move! A steel monster that can throw punches!"
Boom!
Every word from Lou Gao struck Lin Xia's chest like a sledgehammer.
Soul guidance arrays… mecha prototype… power core…
These concepts—symbols of the pinnacle achievements of a lost civilization, had been forcibly reverse-engineered by Lou Gao in such a short time, using nothing more than the natural patterns of a Void Stone vein imbued with spatial power?
He had even independently developed entirely new types of arrays?!
Lin Xia's mind went completely blank, his thoughts freezing solid, leaving only a buzzing echo behind.
He stared at the wildly gesticulating, beard-quivering old man before him, his gaze utterly numb, as if he were looking at something wearing human skin…
No.
Even calling him a monster wasn't enough.
This was sheer, unreasonable brilliance—brutally tearing open the abyss that separated the Douluo Continent from soul-guidance civilization!
A true freak of nature that crushed entire eras beneath his feet!
Heroes are as numerous as carp crossing the river, there truly was no exaggeration in that saying!
At this moment, Lin Xia understood those words with bone-deep clarity.
Compared to Lou Gao's terrifying creativity, the other two so-called divine craftsmen seemed… utterly eclipsed.
After the overwhelming shock came volcanic exhilaration and an explosive thirst for knowledge!
Lin Xia snapped back to his senses, his eyes blazing with even greater intensity than Lou Gao's. He grabbed Lou Gao's arm in return, his voice trembling with excitement.
"Teacher! You, this is unbelievable! Teach me! You have to teach me! How did you do it?!"
"Hahahaha! Nonsense!"
Lou Gao burst into hearty laughter at Lin Xia's reaction, the pride in his heart nearly overflowing.
"You're my final disciple. If I don't teach you, who would I teach? Come on, let me open your eyes!"
Laughing loudly, Lou Gao grabbed Lin Xia again and strode forward, dragging him straight into the core area of the forging room.
The moment Lin Xia stepped into this space ruled by scorching heat and the scent of metal, the sight before him made him suck in a sharp breath of cold air and freeze completely in place!
The area that had once been packed with forging tables, molds, and semi-finished metal ingots had been cleared into a vast open space.
And occupying that space were no longer familiar anvils and hammers, but instead… a dazzling array of metal constructs of all shapes and forms, each radiating either faint or intense energy fluctuations!
They were no longer lines on blueprints, but tangible creations—made of metal and soul guidance arrays—
Soul tools!
Most of them looked crude and rudimentary, some even bearing obvious welding seams and repair marks, but their very existence was a miracle in itself!
"Heh, stunned speechless, aren't you, kid?"
Lou Gao stroked his beard smugly as he watched Lin Xia stand there slack-jawed, like a child eager to show off his toys.
Lou Gao walked up to the nearest device.
It was a cylindrical structure about half a man tall. The base was forged from thick refined iron, but the main body was formed from a basketball-sized Void Stone crystal that had been cut and polished.
Inside the crystal, the flowing stardust-like lights were far more active than what Lin Xia had seen in the ore vein. Guided by some invisible force, they raced along the complex grooves etched into the crystal's surface, forming a miniature, constantly rotating nebula vortex.
The entire device emitted a low, steady hum. The surrounding space itself warped faintly, releasing powerful spatial and soul power fluctuations.
"See that?"
Lou Gao carefully pointed at the node where the stellar currents converged using a refined steel probe.
"This is the first thing I fully figured out—the energy storage array! Directly 'copied' from the most core patterns of the Void Stone!"
"See that vortex? It automatically absorbs, compresses, and stores spatial energy and ambient soul power! Its efficiency is more than ten times higher than the charging soul tools we use now and it's far more stable!"
"This is the prototype of the future mecha's heart, the power furnace!"
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