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0.65% Soul Land III (Douluo Dalu): The Legend of the Dragon King / Chapter 13: Three Years Later

Chapter 13: Three Years Later

Three years later. Red Mountain Academy.

Wan Yunchao twisted his chubby body, moving closer to Tang Wulin’s side and whispered, “Wulin, I heard that Zhou Shao Long broke through rank 10, and he’s going to buy a spirit soul tonight. How about you? Didn’t you tell me last time that you’re already at rank 9? We’re about to graduate. If you’re not rank 10 by the time we graduate, you’ll have to go home and cultivate without the academy’s recommendation letter. It’ll be very troublesome to enter an intermediate academy later.”

Three years had gone by, and with it came big changes for Tang Wulin.

Originally only 1.2 meters in height, he had now grown to a height of 1.4 meters. He was already somewhat taller than his peers. With a moderate build, he was neither fat nor thin. From an outsider’s perspective, he didn’t seem particularly strong. Along with his growth, his face had become increasingly handsome, especially his crystal clear black eyes that reflected light like mirrors. Although his martial soul was Bluesilver Grass, he was still very popular within Red Mountain Academy.

Wan Yunchao was the fatty that he had encountered in his first year. He had originally looked down upon Tang Wulin, but he had the tables turned on him one day when he tried bullying Tang Wulin, and was instead pushed onto the floor by Tang Wulin and beaten senseless. He had been well-behaved ever since that beating.

Neither of them had a soul skill yet, nor were there any significant differences in their soul power ranks. Tang Wulin’s physical strength undoubtedly played an important role in their relationship. Although he didn’t look particularly strong or sturdy, that time he had lifted up Wan Yunchao with a single arm had frightened Wan Yunchao into crying loudly, wah wah. Since then, Wan Yunchao had been Tang Wulin’s shadow.

The martial soul class only had a dozen or so students, and six of them had already reached rank 10 soul power. They could already advance from the lowest Soul Master rank of Soul Scholar to the rank of Soul Master. Naturally, they first had to obtain a spirit soul to advance.

In these three years, they had nearly finished their studies at this elementary academy. Once they entered an intermediate academy, they would be divided into their specializations and would attend an academy for their specialization. Glorybound City was a small city. Thus, it didn’t have an intermediate Soul Master academy. In order to enroll in an intermediate academy in a medium sized city, one was required to have a spirit soul.

Wan Yunchao was one of the six students who had achieved rank 10 soul power. Any students who reached rank 10 soul power before graduation were eligible to receive a recommendation letter from the academy, making it significantly easier to enter an intermediate academy. This was due to the fact that it acted as proof that the student had the necessary skill. If they didn’t cultivate to rank 10 before they were 10 years old, they would have to take several tests before being allowed to enroll in an intermediate academy.

“I should be nearly there. I think I’ve hit the bottleneck,” Tang Wulin said with a smile.

His cultivation speed had shocked their teacher, Teacher Lin Ximeng. Cultivating to rank 10 soul power from rank 3 innate soul power in three years couldn’t be considered fast among Soul Masters. At most, it was only considered an average speed.

However, his martial soul was Bluesilver Grass! Cultivating to rank 10 in three years with this kind of trash martial soul certainly couldn’t be considered slow. Although it couldn’t be compared with those geniuses, it was still within the upper levels within the class.

As Lin Ximeng guided Tang Wulin, she discovered that this child had a gift for meditation. It was very easy for him to sense the energy in the atmosphere. Moreover, his meditative state was exceedingly focused. Later, she discovered the cause of Tang Wulin’s fast cultivation speed. This child’s spiritual power was far higher than his peers, enabling him to cultivate with more focus and thus, speed.

If even one more student was able to reach rank 10 before graduation, the teacher would win glory as well as a bonus. Thus, in their last year of studies, Lin Ximeng had treated Tang Wulin with much more importance. She would frequently give him pointers and one on one instruction. Tang Wulin didn’t disappoint her either. With half a month to spare before graduation, Tang Wulin had reached rank 9 and was just a step away from rank 10. After this last step, he would be able to fuse with a spirit soul and become a true Soul Master.

A Soul Scholar without a spirit soul wasn’t much stronger than an ordinary person. However, once they became a Soul Master and possessed a spirit soul’s soul skill, they would enter a completely different realm.

“Good luck, good luck. Who can say for certain if we’ll enter the same intermediate academy after graduating.” Wan Yunchao laughed. “Don’t say that big brother bullied you. Once you have your own spirit soul, we’ll have another spar. When the time comes, we’ll see who beats up who.”

Tang Wulin shot him a glance as he put on his schoolbag. “You can slowly dream on.” He naturally wouldn’t tell Wan Yunchao how strong he was now.

Tang Wulin wasn’t eager to leave as they approached the academy’s gates. Rather, he stood outside the gates and waited.

Not too long after, a smear of radiant silver hair wandered over from the composite academy building.

“Na’er, slow down. You’re going to trip.” Tang Wulin’s voice was brimming with love as he doted on her.

Na’er had a head of short silver hair, and even after three years, she hadn’t changed too much. She was just a bit taller than before while remaining just as adorably pretty. It was just that, no matter how you looked at it, Tang Wulin and Na’er didn’t look like they only had a one year age difference between the two of them. She was just a loli who hadn’t grown too much.

“Big brother, I want to eat a lollipop,” Na’er giggled as she held onto Tang Wulin’s arm.

“Alright. Let’s go buy one and then I’ll bring you home before I head off to the workshop.” Tang Wulin said as he patted her head.

As the dismissed students left, none of them were surprised by the sight of these two siblings. They had long since gotten used to it.

In the second year that Na’er stayed with the Tang family, she had attended the Awakening Ceremony and brought about a marvel. This marvel wasn’t that her martial soul was exceedingly powerful. Instead, she didn’t possess any martial soul at all. This was something that was rarely seen throughout the history of the continent.

Naturally she could only enter the ordinary section of the academy to study without a martial soul.

Na’er grew to become very pretty, making all of the other girls jealous while arousing the curiosity of all of the boys. Due to this, Tang Wulin never had a shortage of fights. One time, a group of male students stopped him, and since he was unable to beat them all by himself, he just used his body to protect Na’er. In the end, he was covered in cuts and bruises, but not a single hair on Na’er was damaged.

The next day, Tang Wulin found the leader and would have a fierce fight every day until finally, he had beaten his opponent until they were afraid of him and were too scared to bully Na’er anymore. Because he was in the Soul Master class, he didn’t receive any serious punishments. He was famous after that fight, and no one in the Red Mountain Academy dared to bully Na’er again.

Since he was eight years old, Tang Wulin had acted like a young man. He shouldered the responsibility of picking up and dropping off his younger sister.

After buying some snacks, Tang Wulin dropped off Na’er at their home along with his schoolbag. In exchange, he put on some oil soaked work clothes and left the house once again.

Mang Tian’s workshop had already become a part of his everyday life.


Chapter 14: Thousand Refined Tungsten Hammer

“Wulin’s here!” A youngster in his twenties, with a tall and sturdy build, called out to Tang Wulin in greeting.

“Brother Long.” Tang Wulin asked with a smile, “What task has teacher assigned to me today?”

Brother Long grinned, “There’s quite a lot for you to do. Just go into the room and take a look for yourself. Speaking of which, I’m really envious of you. You’re so young, yet your workload is already more than mine!” Blacksmithing was an industrious profession. Naturally, the more work one did, the more one’s income would be.

With a chuckle, Tang Wulin asked, “If I’m comparable to you, then how come Teacher still hasn’t let me forge large components?”

Brother Gong answered, “That’s so you can have a stronger foundation. Fine then, hurry up and go! Otherwise you won’t be able to finish today’s work in the two hours you have.”

Mang Tian’s workshop had just three members, Mang Tian, Brother Long, and Tang Wulin. Originally, Brother Long was Mang Tian’s sole disciple, but with Tang Wulin’s arrival, he had gained a second disciple. Starting from his second visit to the workshop three years before, Tang Wulin had begun calling Mang Tian ‘Teacher’.

Mang Tian was an extremely strict teacher. He had high demands of his disciples, but he also taught them earnestly. Tang Wulin would often find himself thinking that he learned more things here at the workshop than at the academy.

Everyone had a workshop to work in. Mang Tian brought some forged machine components from outside before distributing them. He gave the simple ones to Brother Long and Tang Wulin, while he personally oversaw the forging of the complex ones.

Every week they would each have one day of specialized training when Mang Tian would instruct them personally. For the rest of the week, they only had to finish the tasks that Mang Tian gave them. The more they worked, the better their craftsmanship and the more money they earned.

Tang Wulin entered his own forging room. It was very different from the dirty and disordered reception room outside. In contrast, he had kept his room extremely neat and tidy.

There were already some raw materials lying on the forging bench, as well as a blueprint by its side.

When he had first come here, Mang Tian had made him pound iron for three months in order to teach him the proper force transmission and mitigation techniques. Each day he had to strike the iron for two hours. Those two hours were always an abyss of suffering for him.

Due to his constant practice, Tang Wulin had grown even stronger than before. Originally, he had used a small iron hammer, but the necessary hammer was gradually replaced by larger and larger ones. After three months of practice, he was allowed to do some simple metal extraction work. One year later, he began making the simplest of components.

It wasn’t until half a year before that he had been promoted from forging small components to medium sized components. Mang Tian even began comparing him and Brother Long more and more strictly. However, Tang Wulin’s temperament had a special sort of perseverance. In the three years he had been working there, not once had he complained about his hardships.

After seriously looking over the blueprint, he understood what today’s task was. He had to make ten machine armored ankle-joints. They were spherical in shape so if the work was done with a mold, it would only have to be pressed twice in order to be finished. However, when it came to forging it, the demands were much higher.

Blacksmithing was divided into many ranks. Generally speaking, there was the Hundred Refined. Hundred Refined was when a component was refined a hundred times throughout. Even higher than that was Thousand Refined.

The more times it was refined, the less impurities a metal would have. Naturally, a metal of quality was required to withstand the pressure of a thousand refinements. For now, Tang Wulin was still unable to create a Thousand Refined component, so he was rarely required to do this sort of work.

With practiced movements, he pressed the button on the workbench, causing it to split open in the middle which exposed a forging furnace. He fastened some metal to the channel on the side, then pressed another button which delivered the metal into the furnace.

He picked up a pair of metal hammers with a shiny black finish. These two hammers were about the same size as the ones he had first used when he had first come here. For this kind of small component, hammers of this size were the most suitable.

However, these hammers were also a present that Mang Tian had given him after having worked in his workshop for one year. Mang Tian had personally manufactured these Thousand Refined Tungsten Hammers. Each one weighed about 40 kilograms, which made it exceedingly difficult for an ordinary person to swing them. Nevertheless, they seemed nearly weightless in Tang Wulin’s hands.

Under the high temperature of the furnace the metal quickly blushed a deep red. Tang Wulin swung the hammer in his right hand onto the crown of the metal. The hammer in his left hand soon connected from the bottom. Pressing down from either side, Tang Wulin was able to remove the chunk of heated metal.

He rapidly swung the tungsten hammers in each hand and a succession of ‘dings’ could be heard. With those resounding ‘dings’, he began that day’s forging.

Blacksmithing was a craftsman’s job. It wasn’t just a simple skilled trade. Mang Tian had told him when he first started that in order to become a blacksmith, he had to use his brain. During the process of pounding the metal, he had to feel the vibrations and the changes in the metal’s vein lines. Only after grasping these two things would he be able to forge quality goods.

In the aspect of perception, Tang Wulin was excellent. Tang Wulin wasn’t aware of the fact that when Mang Tian had gifted him this pair of Thousand Refined Tungsten Hammers, it had signified that he had formally become a blacksmith.

His monthly income couldn’t be considered much but he still earnestly saved a set amount each month. With the remainder, he set apart a small portion to spend for his little sister, while the rest was given to his mother as aid in their family expenses.

He was only a nine year old child right now, but with his three years of forging as well as his resolute nature, he was much more steadfast in comparison to his peers.

Two hours later he gave the final component the finishing strike. Letting out a sigh, he grabbed a nearby towel and wiped away his sweat. Looking upon the ten shining joint components in front of him, he revealed a satisfied expression.

After becoming accustomed to forging, he had grown to like this type of work. Everyday he would brandish his hammer and pound metal. It was a way for him to vent his feelings in a carefree manner. Moreover, there were times when he was pounding the metal that he would enter a peculiarly fantastic state. It was as if he resonated with his hammer as well as with the metal he was forging. Whenever this state occurred, the components that he forged would be especially outstanding. Those components would even draw praise from the cold natured Mang Tian.

“Teacher.” Tang Wulin was just preparing to hand in his work when he discovered that Mang Tian was already in his forging room.

Mang Tian walked over to the workbench to inspect the product first. He nodded, then handed Tang Wulin some paper bills. “Here’s this month’s wages. Your work is pretty good.”

“Thank you, teacher.” Tang Wulin was elated as he hurriedly received the paper bills and stuffed them into this pocket. Due to his excitement, Tang Wulin’s little face was somewhat red yet he couldn’t help but wave his fists in joy.

Mang Tian gave him a doubtful look. “I’ve never seen you so happy to receive your monthly wages before.”

Slightly short of breath, Tang Wulin took a deep breath of air before saying, “Teacher, I’ve saved up enough money to buy a spirit soul!”

Mang Tian blankly looked at him, then said with a hint of emotion, “You’re saying that your martial soulhas already reached rank 10?”

Tang Wulin nodded his head. “I should nearly be there.”

Mang Tian gave a rare trace of a smile. “Good luck.”

“Teacher, I’ll head back first then.” Tang Wulin placed his finished components in a box, then departed full of joy.

As he watched Tang Wulin’s departing back, Mang Tian couldn’t help but show a bigger smile. “At last, that kid is acting like a normal kid. It’s a pity that his martial soulis Bluesilver Grass. No matter what his spirit soul is, I fear that it’s all… However, this is also fortunate for me. This child’s talent in forging far surpasses my own.”


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