Chapter 1174: Taking the First Step

Forging the metals required for the suits of three-word battle armor for Wu Siduo and the others would provide him with further soul refinement practice.

Tang Wulin turned to Yang Nianxia, and said, "I'll take care of your suits of battle armor, but you'll have to forge the metals for all of the other students' suits of battle armor. You're already a fifth-rank blacksmith now, and there's no way for you to improve other than to practice more. I'll provide you with the metals required for that."

"Sure!" Yang Nianxia was ecstatic. He was certainly hoping that he would be able to refine the metals for his own future suits of battle armor. Even though that appeared to be quite a far-fetched goal, he still had a passion for forging, so it was naturally fantastic news to him that Tang Wulin was able to provide him with the uncommon metals for him to practice on. A major factor behind his stalling forging progress was the lack of sufficient resources. The academy sanctuary only had some basic daily necessities, but was sorely lacking when it came to forging resources.

After grasping everyone's requirements, Tang Wulin left the underground sanctuary and returned to the surface.

Long Yuxue had been waiting for him this entire time, and when she saw Tang Wulin again, she could clearly sense that there was something different about him. The brooding look deep in his eyes had disappeared, and he seemed to be filled to the brim with excitement.

The discovery that Teacher Wu was still alive along with 215 other Shrek Academy students naturally instilled Tang Wulin with extreme excitement, not just because it would make the future rebuild of Shrek Academy easier, but simply because they were alive! Only after enduring a life and death ordeal would one truly be able to understand just how lucky they were to be alive.

After returning to the blacksmith association, Tang Wulin was still in a state of high excitement as he returned directly to his room before dialing a number on his soul communicator.

"How long will you take to get here?" 

After receiving a reply, Tang Wulin continued, "Alright, I'll wait for you, and I have some good news for all of you when you get here."

After that, he dialed a few more numbers and repeated the same conversation.

The first step on the monumental journey of rebuilding Shrek Academy had finally been taken, and during the next few days, Tang Wulin dedicated himself wholeheartedly to forging, and perhaps he was lifted by his good mood, but his soul refinement success rate was becoming higher and higher.

The soul refined metals he forged for Wu Siduo and the others were not as difficult as the metals forged for his own suit of three-word battle armor, and even the most difficult metals, which were for Wu Siduo, only consisted of soul refining alloys consisting of four different types of metals. In contrast, Tang Wulin's battle armor consisted of alloys forged from eight different types of metals. The differences in the numbers and types of metals used were dictated by individual abilities, and on top of that, the Goldwater Consonance that Tang Wulin had obtained had also been a contributing factor.

Even as a Divine Blacksmith, Zhen Hua had no way of bringing out another piece of Goldwater Consonance. With that piece of uncommon metal, Tang Wulin was able to forge the metals required for his suit of three-word battle armor to perfection.

Even Zhen Hua was full of praise toward the metals he had forged for his suit of three-word battle armor, proclaiming that even if he were to infuse no additional metals and simply heavenly refine everything in the future, that would still result in a suit of four-word battle armor that ranked above all suits of such armor in this world.

The Goldwater Consonance was extremely effective, but even it had its limits. It could only facilitate the fusion between nine different types of metals, and its effects were only applicable to soul refined metals. As such, Tang Wulin would have to rely solely on his own abilities when it came time to forge the metals required for his suit of four-word battle armor.

As a Divine Blacksmith, Zhen Hua was clearly a better blacksmith than Tang Wulin, but not everyone would benefit from having suits of battle armor that had many different types of metals infused. To put it more accurately, the power of the battle armor depended on the physical constitution of the battle armor master. Without a sufficiently powerful body, the Soul Master wouldn't be able to handle an overly powerful suit of battle armor.

This was exemplified by the fact that Tang Wulin had forged alloys consisting of six different types of metals for A'Ruheng's suit of three-word battle armor, but Sima Jinchi could only handle five types of metals as his upper limit.

Even with his current physical constitution, Tang Wulin wasn't entirely able to support alloys consisting of eight different types of metals. However, he was confident that he would be able to handle it after absorbing the essence in the 12th Golden Dragon King seal.

After cultivating the Body Sect's congenital secret method and completing the first perforation stage, Tang Wulin was becoming more and more confident in his own physical constitution. He was confident that if he were to continue to cultivate like this, breaking the 12th seal shouldn't pose too stern of a test for him.

The seed of life had greatly fortified his seals, so as long as he didn't voluntarily break them, they wouldn't break on their own for at least the next decade. This gave Tang Wulin even more confidence to carry out the plan to revive Shrek Academy.

It was imperative now to improve the overall powers of the 215 remaining Shrek Academy students and source sufficient resources for them. At the same time, he also had to accumulate wealth and resources in preparation to rebuild Shrek Academy in the future.

Seeing as he was going to rebuild Shrek Academy, he definitely couldn't make it worse than its predecessor. Shrek Academy was once a city; the largest city on the entire continent! One could only imagine the resources required to rebuild such a city. In fact, it couldn't even be considered to be a rebuild as there wasn't even a foundation left. There was only a massive lake that remained of the former Shrek City, so accumulating wealth and resources was extremely important.

Furthermore, he also had to address the current state of the Sea God's Lake. He had to completely eradicate the radiation left behind by the Godslayer missile and make the seed of life flourish into a massive tree so it could become the core of Shrek Academy. Both of those tasks couldn't be accomplished in a short time, but it was imperative for him to complete them as quickly as possible.

However, in any case, he now had a clear target at the very least, and he wasn't fighting alone.

Tang Wulin forged a piece of uncommon metal each for Wu Siduo and the others, and it was up to them to complete the transition from suits of two-word battle armor to suits of three-word battle armor.

After that, he traveled to the Tang Sect's Heaven Dou City branch.

Following the destruction of the Tang Sect headquarters, the entire Tang Sect had kept an extremely low profile, and many of the Tang Sect branches that were out in the open had already shut down.

The only large branch that was still open to the public was the Heaven Dou City branch. To put it more accurately, this was the current Tang Sect headquarters.

The Tang Sect originated in Heaven Dou City, and the headquarters had been established here since the Tang Sect was founded 20,000 years ago.

After returning to Heaven Dou City, Tang Wulin had refrained from coming here as he was worried that doing so would attract attention.

It was undoubtedly the case that the current Tang Sect headquarters was being scrutinized by countless powers. It wasn't that those powers didn't want to force the Heaven Dou City branch into closure; their attempts had simply been thwarted by the Tang Sect. Furthermore, Mo Lan was now essentially the mayor of Heaven Dou City, and she extended a lot of assistance toward this Tang Sect branch, thereby allowing it to continue to operate.

Even so, the Tang Sect branch was extremely inconspicuous and was frequented by far fewer people than before. It was quite apparent to anyone that following that major disaster, the entire Tang Sect was falling into obscurity.

After disguising himself, Tang Wulin arrived outside the gate of the Tang Sect's Heaven Dou City branch. 

He looked at the antiquated courtyard and the huge plaque above the entrance, and a peculiar light flashed through his eyes. He then made his way into the building without any hesitation.

The antiquated feel became even more pronounced in the building. This building had already stood for over 10,000 years, but it had been maintained extremely well, and countless Tang Sect forefathers had frequented it in the past.

One of the reasons why the Spirit Pagoda hadn't targeted this place was because its founder, Spirit Ice Douluo Huo Yuhao, had once grown up here! This was the Tang Sect branch established by him and his generation of Shrek’s Seven Monsters, so despite the animosity the Spirit Pagoda harbored toward the Tang Sect, they refrained from targeting this branch as a gesture of respect to their founder.

As for other powers, there were many who wanted to target this branch, but they would face immense pressure by doing so.

The Tang Sect had been founded by Tang San, and the founder of the Spirit Pagoda, Huo Yuhao, had grown up at this branch. These were two legendary figures that received unanimous consensus from historians as two beings who had most definitely already become gods.

Hence, even the Eagle Faction of the federal government decided to take no further action toward this new Tang Sect headquarters after an internal conference.

After all, the Tang Sect was already keeping a very low profile, and it would be wise not to overly repress them. Otherwise, if the Tang Sect were to retaliate, it would spell some major issues.

At the very least, the current situation suggested that the Tang Sect was being very sensible and displayed no intention to oppose the federation. Compared to the Spirit Pagoda, which was at the very height of its powers, the Tang Sect was far inferior anyway.

Tang Wulin continued onward, yet he was stopped in his path by a pair of young men in Tang Sect uniforms before he could even pass through the second courtyard.