Douluo Dalu 3: Legend of the White Fox

Alloys are different from ordinary metals.

Alloys can undergo secondary forging.

For ordinary metals, whether they undergo Spirit Forging or Soul Forging, once the forging process is complete, their form is fixed.

But alloys are different.

Take the alloy that Xia Yi just forged as an example. Right now, it is only a Spirit-Forged alloy, but once his forging level improves, he can reforge it, upgrading it to Soul-Forged or even Heavenly-Forged.

This is precisely why Xia Yi plans to wait until he can perform Alloy Soul Forging before creating battle armor for Ziji and the others.

If he were to use ordinary Spirit-Forged metal to make battle armor, then the only way to upgrade the armor in the future would be to replace all the metal components.

However, if he uses alloy to create battle armor, then when it comes time to upgrade, all that is needed is to reforge the metal and re-engrave the soul tool arrays.

Because of this ability to be reforged, alloy metals are far more valuable than ordinary metals.

As the president of Shrek Academy's Blacksmiths' Association, Feng Wuyu understands this better than anyone.

That's why he didn't hesitate to give Xia Yi an extra piece of Meteoric Iron.

For Xia Yi, it was a profitable deal.

Two Spirit Forgings, 20,000 contribution points, plus four pieces of Meteoric Iron.

For quite some time, he wouldn't have to worry about contribution points anymore.

"This is for you. From now on, you are a member of Shrek Academy's Blacksmiths' Association. Go and register yourself. I'll find you later for other matters." Feng Wuyu tossed a badge with a hammer insignia to Xia Yi.

Originally, he had brought Xia Yi here intending to take him on as a nominal disciple, fulfilling the task given to him by Ya Li.

But he never expected that Xia Yi could actually Spirit Forge Life Crystals and learn Alloy Fusion Forging just by reading notes.

Seeing Xia Yi's terrifying talent, Feng Wuyu hesitated.

With such exceptional talent, merely making him a nominal disciple was completely unworthy of him.

He had already accepted Tang Wulin as his final disciple.

Taking in Xia Yi as well would obviously be inappropriate.

As an eighth-rank Saint Craftsman, now that he had taken Tang Wulin as his final disciple, he was clearly prepared to spare no effort in cultivating him into a Saint Craftsman.

If he took in Xia Yi as well, aside from whether he had the energy to teach both, there was another problem—on the Douluo Continent, only one Divine Craftsman could exist at a time.

In the end, they would inevitably end up fighting over the title of Divine Craftsman, which would only lead to internal strife.

Since he had confirmed that Xia Yi possessed an extraordinary talent for blacksmithing, Feng Wuyu had to reconsider the matter of taking him as a disciple.

Xia Yi didn't bother to guess what Feng Wuyu was thinking.

After taking the badge and registering at the first-floor hall, he left.

It was only a long while after he left that the staff member responsible for registration slowly reacted.

"A fifth-rank blacksmith, thirteen years old, and capable of Spirit Forging Life Crystals…" The staff member felt like he had just seen a ghost.

During the registration process, they had to use a blacksmith's rank badge. By checking the system, all of Xia Yi's blacksmith-related records were displayed.

"Not arrogant, not impatient… that's rare." Feng Wuyu stood at the entrance of the Blacksmiths' Association, watching Xia Yi's departing figure, and sighed softly.

Just now, when Xia Yi faced the staff's shocked gaze, his expression remained utterly calm.

For someone only thirteen years old and already so accomplished, this was truly remarkable.

What Feng Wuyu didn't know was that even Xia Yi himself was curious—no matter what achievements he attained, he simply couldn't feel proud.

Sometimes, he acted quite arrogant, but deep down, he always remained extremely calm.

It was as if these accomplishments were nothing remarkable to him.

By the time Xia Yi returned to the work-study dormitory, the sky was just beginning to brighten, and the work-study students had just gotten up to wash.

Seeing Xia Yi coming in from outside, Gu Yue curiously asked, "Where did you go?"

"I went to train." Xia Yi flicked his long black hair and said seriously, "Success is 99% effort and 1% talent. The achievements I have today are all thanks to diligent study and hard work. Sigh, you should listen to me—"

Before he could finish, Gu Yue turned away and left.

She would rather believe in Xia Yi's usual careless attitude than believe in his serious nonsense.

Seeing that Gu Yue ignored him, Xia Yi quickly changed his words. "I'm telling the truth! I meditated until midnight, and after my martial soul evolved, I suddenly had an insight into blacksmithing. So, I rushed to the Blacksmiths' Association overnight. After hours of tireless forging and countless failures, I've finally mastered Alloy Fusion Forging."

Gu Yue abruptly turned around, her beautiful eyes flashing with excitement as she stared at Xia Yi. "What did you just say? Your martial soul evolved? You can perform Alloy Fusion Forging now?"

Gu Yue knew that Xia Yi intended to forge alloy to create battle armor for Ziji and the others.

She had originally thought it would take him about two years to master Alloy Fusion Forging.

She never expected that he would learn it so quickly—so quickly that even she hadn't reacted yet.

"Of course! Have I ever lied to you about things like this?" Xia Yi smugly activated his martial soul, and four snow-white tails swayed behind him in front of Gu Yue.

"How did you evolve?" Gu Yue asked curiously.

More than anyone, she knew how difficult it was for Xia Yi's martial soul to evolve.

So she was especially curious about how his martial soul had evolved this time.

"Hehe, didn't I absorb a bit of resentment in the Soul Dueling Arena yesterday? After meditating and refining it last night, I evolved." Xia Yi laughed heartily.

"Mm, not bad. Keep working hard." Gu Yue's lips curled into a smile, and she nodded at Xia Yi with satisfaction. Then, she even reached out and patted his shoulder.

"I was showing off so you'd look at me with admiration like a little girl and say in a sweet voice, 'Big brother, you're amazing!' I wasn't expecting you to look at me like an elder giving me an evaluation." Xia Yi's face darkened. Damn it, the more he looked at Gu Yue's smile, the more he felt she was doing it on purpose.

"Next time, for sure." Gu Yue grinned mischievously and turned to return to her dormitory.

The moment she entered, she couldn't hold back and burst into laughter.

This made Xia Yi's face even darker.

Hearing the commotion, the work-study students all opened their doors and came out, staring curiously at Xia Yi and Gu Yue's dormitory.

"What are you looking at? If you've got the guts, pay me some contribution points so I can beat you up." Xia Yi said with a dark expression.

"Don't you guys find this boring?" Wu Jin glanced at Xia Yi, then at Gu Yue's dormitory.

He really couldn't understand—one was a '100,000-year-old transformed soul beast,' and the other was the co-leader of all soul beasts, with a cultivation surpassing a million years.

Acting so childish—didn't they find it disgusting?

"A man remains a boy until he dies." Xia Yi declared proudly.

Sea God's Pavilion!

"Shameless! I've never seen someone so shameless! He clearly stole Old Jin's power martial soul to evolve, yet he dares to say he refined resentment?" Long Yeyue's face was darker than Xia Yi's.

Others might not understand why Xia Yi bragged to Gu Yue, but they were very clear—he wasn't actually talking to Gu Yue. He was talking to them across the distance.

Last night, Yun Ming had gone to observe Xia Yi but didn't notice anything unusual.

But now that they knew Xia Yi's martial soul had evolved, the higher-ups of Shrek Academy were certain—Xia Yi was definitely the one who stole the Golden Tree's power.

They had originally planned to repay him with gratitude when the time was right, but before they even had a chance to speak—

Xia Yi had already preemptively denied the theft.

It was as if he knew exactly what they were thinking.

Now, unless they could produce evidence that Xia Yi stole the Golden Tree's power, they had no excuse to trouble him.

But could they produce such evidence?

Even Xia Yi himself didn't know exactly what had happened, let alone them.