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The wind passed; the clouds settled. After a thoroughly satisfying bath in the side chamber's private bathhouse, Chu Chengzhou dressed neatly and finally turned to serious matters.
"Xue'er," he said, "when you return to Spirit City, you'll find a completely different Bibi Dong."
"A different Bibi Dong? How so?"
Qian Renxue looked puzzled.
"I won't say," Chu Chengzhou replied with a mysterious smile. "Just wait until you go back—you'll see for yourself."
"Are you really not going to tell me?"
Chu Chengzhou shook his head. "All beautiful things are best discovered on one's own. The anticipation makes the moment of revelation even more wonderful than you imagined."
"Fine! If you won't talk, don't blame me for being unreasonable!"
Having just enjoyed a hearty—though not fully satisfying—meal, Qian Renxue crossed her arms and shot him a cold, teasing smirk.
Chu Chengzhou: "???"
"Xue'er, calm down! We're still young—we should practice… restraint."
Seeing Qian Renxue advance step by step, Chu Chengzhou felt a bad omen creeping in.
He hadn't spent time with his beloved moonlight companion, Yue Hua, for several nights and had originally planned to visit Moon Pavilion tonight—but it seemed that plan was now doomed.
"No," Qian Renxue declared, eyes gleaming, "you should practice restraint—but I don't need to!"
With that, the domineering princess pounced like a tigress.
"Wait! Let me catch my breath—I'll tell you right now!"
"Hmph~ Too late!"
Chu Chengzhou: "…"
Bring it on—I, Chu Chengzhou, fear no woman!
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Six days later — afternoon.
Having fully absorbed his latest insights, Chu Chengzhou glanced at his status panel and saw the newly unlocked skill: [Battle Armor Crafting (Red)]. A satisfied smile tugged at his lips.
As expected, the Red-Tier Battle Armor Crafting skill corresponded precisely to the future era's three-word Soul-Refined Battle Armor—the highest standard of its kind.
Without hesitation, he pulled two exquisite sets of armor from his storage-type soul tool.
One gleamed pure white as jade; the other shimmered in blue-gold.
The blue-gold armor was forged from Soul-Refined Blue Gold, while the jade-white set was crafted from Soul-Refined Jade Silver—a rare metallic alloy Chu Chengzhou had recently developed by fusing Mythril and Mithril Silver. This unique alloy naturally amplified holy-attribute soul power.
Needless to say, the Soul-Refined Blue Gold armor was for Tang Yuehua, and the Soul-Refined Jade Silver set was for Qian Renxue. Before forging, both sets had already been blood-bound to their respective owners.
While most components of these armors resembled conventional battle gear—albeit far more refined and elegant—the helmets had been replaced with ornate headbands. Moreover, each set featured two pairs of wings on the back: upper and lower.
Previously, when his skill was only at the [Battle Armor Crafting (Purple)] tier—or perhaps because the reference design, the basic Thousand-Refined Battle Armor, was too crude—his earlier "enhanced" versions had looked little different from ordinary full-body armor.
But ten days ago, when the skill upgraded to Black tier, the changes went beyond just soul-guided arrays. The entire structure was refined to align with future standards: bulky helmets gave way to elegant headbands, and wing attachments were added as standard.
Of course, since Spirit-Refined Battle Armor was only suitable for six-ring Soul Emperors—and both Tang Yuehua and Qian Renxue were already above Level 70, not to mention Xiao Wu and the others training on the Sea God Island, whose levels were surely no lower—Chu Chengzhou had never bothered crafting Spirit-Refined sets.
What about Ma Jake, his Level-60 "employee"?
Please—he was the boss!
A somewhat negligent boss, sure—but undeniably a capitalist. And Ma Jake was hardly some delicate secretary in fishnet stockings.
As the next evolution beyond Spirit-Refined armor, Soul-Refined Battle Armor naturally inherited all its features.
Qian Renxue, already a flying-type soul master with her Six-Winged Angel spirit, needed no help taking to the skies. But Tang Yuehua, who lacked innate flight, would gain full aerial mobility once she donned her wing-equipped Soul-Refined armor.
Chaos energy surged from Chu Chengzhou's palms, condensing into a soul-force carving knife emitting a soft jade-green glow. He began etching soul-guided arrays onto the armor blanks.
Thanks to his near-maximum precision control, the intricate work posed no challenge. Within two hours, two radiant sets of Soul-Refined Battle Armor emerged—one glowing with azure brilliance, the other radiating pure holy light.
After storing the armors away, Chu Chengzhou pulled out two more items: a longsword forged from Soul-Refined Jade Silver, and a strange, multi-barreled device crafted from Soul-Refined Blue Gold.
Six barrels, to be exact.
Once affairs in Tian Dou wrapped up, Qian Renxue would return to Spirit City to begin her Angel God Trials—and for that, the stronger she was, the better.
While battle armor significantly boosted a soul master's power, it wasn't the only external aid available. Potent offensive soul-guided weapons could also offer decisive advantages.
Given that Qian Renxue's Six-Winged Angel spirit emphasized holy energy (with fire as a secondary element) and that she specialized in swordsmanship, Chu Chengzhou decided to craft her a holy-power-amplifying longsword.
And if Qian Renxue got one, then of course his beloved Yuehua couldn't be left out.
In fact, as a support-type soul master whose combat strength relied entirely on soul bone skills, Tang Yuehua arguably needed an offensive soul-guided weapon more than Qian Renxue did.
But Tang Yuehua had never trained with bladed weapons before—and learning swordsmanship from scratch would be impractical.
Thus, Chu Chengzhou turned to something far easier to master: firearms.
Not conventional machine guns requiring ammunition belts, of course—but a compact, handheld, soul-guided version of the Fire God cannon that consumed only soul power to unleash devastating barrages.
Chu Chengzhou: "3,600 rounds per breath—compassionately showering mercy upon the world."
Qian Renxue's holy sword was straightforward: he simply replicated the armor's soul-guided amplification arrays directly onto the blade.
But Tang Yuehua's Fire God Cannon was far more complex. In his design, it required not only compatible amplification arrays but also an internal system capable of converting injected soul power into tangible "bullets" and firing them at extreme velocity.
Fortunately, two days prior, after Chu Chengzhou proposed the concept and forged the base frame, Soul Engineer Master Ma Jake had already solved the core engineering challenges. The device was essentially a finished product—only awaiting Chu Chengzhou's final touch: the new-generation amplification arrays.
Another hour and a bit later, Qian Renxue's Holy Sword and Tang Yuehua's Fire God Cannon were complete.
"Hmm… this thing probably qualifies as a Grade-9 soul-guided weapon, doesn't it?"
Chu Chengzhou mused, eyeing the freshly minted blue-gold cannon with satisfaction.
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