Douluo Dalu 3: Legend of the White Fox

"This was really forged by Xia Yi?" Holy Spirit Douluo Ya Li gazed at the Life Crystal in her hand, her beautiful eyes shining with amazement.

Although both were life-type spirit-forged metals, the life energy within the Life Crystal forged by Xia Yi was more than twice as dense as those forged by other sixth-level blacksmiths.

It even surpassed the life-type spirit-forged metals created by Zhen Hua.

It wasn't that Xia Yi's spirit-forging skills had surpassed Zhen Hua's, but rather that the Genesis Effect of his forging hammer was simply too extraordinary.

Especially after his forging hammer had also been upgraded to the spirit-forging level, the Genesis Effect had been amplified once again.

Xia Yi had already named his forging hammer the Hammer of Genesis.

With both the Life Crystal and the Spirit Life Gold sharing life attributes, the advantage brought by the Genesis Effect was even more pronounced.

"Yes, he is already a fifth-level blacksmith. He's been continuously spirit-forging for three days and three nights without rest, yet he's still energetic," Shen Yi said, her delicate face a bit pale.

The wings of a battle armor were indeed just one component, but they were often the largest part. Some larger wings, when fully extended, were even taller than the battle armor master themselves.

Since Life Crystals were extremely rare, the wings Shen Yi had designed for herself were already considered small. When fully extended, their width was less than two meters, and their height only reached her shoulders.

Moreover, forging Life Crystals required extreme caution. At the same forging level, it took nearly twice as long as forging other metals.

Originally, Shen Yi estimated that just forging her battle armor wings would take at least two to three months, or even half a year.

Yet, Xia Yi had finished the task in only three days and three nights.

Spirit-forging consumed immense mental and soul power. Even a Soul Emperor-level sixth-level blacksmith required considerable rest between each attempt at spirit-forging.

However, Xia Yi—despite being only a three-ring Soul Elder—managed to forge 500 kilograms of Life Crystal in one go.

The most impressive part was that he never failed, not even once.

Even when working with such difficult materials as Life Crystals, he achieved a flawless record.

While Shen Yi's continuous blood sacrifices had nearly drained her, Xia Yi remained perfectly fine.

"If I had known back at Eastsea Academy, I would have just brought him back as a student," Ya Li sighed softly. She was increasingly regretting letting Xia Yi slip through her fingers back then.

Like Bi Ji, Ya Li was a pinnacle-level healer and had a natural affinity for rare life-type metals.

Based on Xia Yi's performance and his first soul skill, she was certain that his fox martial soul must also possess life attributes.

"Your Holiness, are we really going to reject a genius like him?" Shen Yi couldn't help but ask.

She clearly knew that Shrek Academy had refused to give Xia Yi a spot.

Ya Li rubbed her temples in frustration and said helplessly, "Giving him a spot now would only make Shrek Academy a laughingstock. Besides, if he truly wants to join Shrek Academy, he'll find a way in with or without a quota. And if he doesn't want to join, no amount of special treatment will persuade him. Denying him a spot will only fuel his determination. Take your situation as an example—perhaps he accepted your commission deliberately to showcase his talents to us. I just received news that he bought a large number of spiritual items at the auction, likely to prepare for another breakthrough. I am certain he won't give up on joining Shrek Academy easily."

"No matter how talented he is, without a quota, he won't get in," Shen Yi said firmly.

"I'll handle this. You go and find Blazing Dragon Douluo and tell him about Xia Yi. Once Xia Yi enters Shrek Academy, he must do whatever it takes—by any means necessary—to recruit Xia Yi as his student," Ya Li said, a sly smile appearing on her lips.

"By any means necessary? What do you mean?" Shen Yi asked, puzzled.

"Exactly what it sounds like," Ya Li chuckled. "To deal with Xia Yi, you only need to do one thing—be more shameless than him."

Shen Yi stared blankly at Ya Li, stunned by the uncharacteristically audacious remark from someone usually so gentle and graceful.

"Don't be so surprised. I've been keeping an eye on Xia Yi for the past three years and have learned quite a bit about his personality. If I weren't afraid of being mocked by Tian Feng Douluo, I would have forced him to be my disciple by now," Ya Li said with a playful smirk. "Since he's Heavenly Phoenix Douluo's student, I can't do it myself, but having Blazing Douluo do it works just as well. I'm curious to see if Heavenly Phoenix Douluo can still show off in front of me then."

Shen Yi was speechless. She couldn't understand why two of the most distinguished women on the continent—Ya Li and Leng Yaozhu—were so eager to compete over Xia Yi.

At that moment, Xia Yi had already returned to his hotel room and was fast asleep.

After leaving the Blacksmith's Association, he went straight to the auction house and spent all the money he earned from the commission on spiritual items, which he stored in his wine gourd.

Before departing Eastsea City, Gu Yue had already designed the soul array for the gourd, with Bi Ji helping to engrave it.

The gourd's internal space was about fifty cubic meters.

Though it was a bit small, Xia Yi believed Gu Yue's future improvements to her mecha design skills would eventually expand the space considerably.

Xia Yi had named his wine gourd the Yin-Yang Wine Vessel.

Through this forging experience, Xia Yi finally understood why battle armor masters were so rare.

Just the forging cost for Shen Yi's battle armor wings alone was enough for him to purchase over thirty thousand-year spiritual items and five ten-thousand-year items.

While Life Crystals were particularly expensive to forge, the overall cost was still astronomical.

For other sixth-level blacksmiths, earning that much would take two months to half a year—assuming they never failed. Any failure meant compensating the client out of pocket.

Yet for Xia Yi, it was a different story entirely.

He didn't bother attending the auction himself—it was too much of a time drain. Instead, he paid 20% above the estimated price for each item, selecting them carefully.

At the second auction house, he happened upon a sale of spiritual liquor produced by the Body Sect.

The auctioneer hyped it up, claiming that the Body Sect's disciples owed their superior physiques to this exclusive liquor.

Without hesitation, Xia Yi bought all 300 pounds of it after tasting and confirming its quality, pouring it into the Yin-Yang Wine Vessel.

With Gu Yue's soul array, the ice-water dual-attributed spirit-forged Crimson Demon Gold, and so many spiritual items, Xia Yi was confident the liquor would soon reach the effect he desired.

Although the Genesis Effect had kept his body in peak condition throughout the three days of spirit-forging, the intense mental focus had exhausted his mind.

All he wanted now was a good, long sleep.

"He goes straight to sleep the moment he gets back," Gu Yue grumbled, gnashing her teeth in frustration.

With so many people waiting to see Xia Yi fail, she couldn't understand how he could ignore the noise and simply fall into a deep sleep.

"Sleep then—might as well sleep to death," Gu Yue muttered bitterly, though she didn't disturb him.