Spirit City.
Upon receiving Tang San's letter, the editor-in-chief of the Spirit Newspaper went directly to the Pope's Palace and handed the document to Bibi Dong.
As she read Tang San's detailed theory on the impact of environmental conditions on a spirit master's combat performance, Bibi Dong nodded slightly in approval. She understood all too well how environmental factors could enhance or limit a spirit master's strength.
Ordinary spirit fighting arenas were little more than open slabs or blocks of stone. Even if they were a hundred meters long and wide, they still greatly restricted the abilities of agility-type spirit masters.
If competition venues were diversified—featuring deserts, swamps, forests, grasslands, rivers, and other natural terrains—it would not only increase spectator interest but also allow organizers to better evaluate whether spirit masters were applying their skills appropriately.
In the eyes of a Titled Douluo like Bibi Dong, the strength of a spirit ability was secondary to the quantity and quality of soul power. Out of nine spirit abilities, only a few were typically utilized in actual battle; the rest remained situational or obsolete. However, for non-Titled Douluo, learning to adapt their abilities to various environments was critical.
She had already concluded that if the Continental Advanced Academy Soul Dueling Tournament adopted multiple venue types in the future, young spirit masters would begin training across diverse environments from the start. This would reduce the Spirit Hall's training burden when recruiting new talent.
"He's really something."Bibi Dong instructed the editor-in-chief to publish Tang San's article in the next issue of the Spirit Newspaper. Then she summoned Chrysanthemum Douluo.
"Tang San is very gifted. I'd like to bring him into the Spirit Hall, but I worry that his talents will be dulled by the rigid education of the Spirit Academy. Still, as long as he's outside our ranks, I can't be at ease. I keep feeling something unexpected will happen."
Chrysanthemum Douluo understood and bowed."Your Holiness, Tang San's martial soul is a mutated Blue Silver Grass, a plant-type spirit. My own martial soul is the Strange Chrysanthemum, also a plant-type. Why don't I accept him as my disciple?"
"Do you think you're qualified to teach him?" Bibi Dong replied sharply."With his pride as a genius, he won't accept guidance from someone less knowledgeable than himself—even if you are a Titled Douluo."
Chrysanthemum Douluo's breath caught in his throat, but he didn't object. Tang San's talent was clear for all to see. Not only had he recently published insightful theories on optimal spirit ring combinations, endurance thresholds for different ranks, and the use of whale glue, but his earliest work—on soul master positioning and self-analysis—had already changed the lives of countless spirit masters across the continent.
In terms of pure power, Tang San was still just a Great Spirit Master with only a thousand-year second ring. But in terms of influence, even the Pope herself could not match him. She rarely left Spirit City, and to most, she was more of a concept than a presence.
But Tang San? Tang San was a symbol. His theories had reshaped spirit master training strategies and philosophies. Agility attack system spirit masters, in particular, had seen an unprecedented rise in status.
In the past, agility-type spirit masters lacked clear roles. In combat, they were often seen as tagalongs—there to finish off opponents after the power attack and control types had done the heavy lifting. Their positioning was awkward at best.
But Tang San had redefined them. He identified their core roles as interference, assassination, and scouting. The first two had long been part of their duties, but no one had ever articulated them so precisely. The third—scouting—was an entirely new recognition. This clarity elevated both the value and status of agility-type fighters, and by extension, the Agility Clan.
At this point, it could be said that Tang San was the idol of nearly ninety percent of agility attack spirit masters. And because the Spirit Hall had never released personal information about Tang San, most believed he was one of them—an agility-type spirit master.
After all, who would ever imagine he was an auxiliary-type spirit master whose martial soul was Blue Silver Grass?
Of course, not everyone was pleased with his classifications. Healing-type and food-type spirit masters had been particularly unhappy. Tang San's work grouped both under the umbrella of auxiliary-type spirit masters and created subcategories within that designation. Originally, they had enjoyed being recognized as entirely separate systems. Now, they were simply branches of the same category, and their prestige had taken a hit.
Thinking of the recent tremors in the spirit master world, Chrysanthemum Douluo couldn't help but sigh."I'm really not worthy of teaching a disciple like him…" he thought.
"What I want," Bibi Dong said, pulling him from his thoughts, "is for you to assign someone to protect Tang San. Who do you think is suitable?"
"Ling Yan," Chrysanthemum Douluo answered after a pause.
"She's a seventy-eighth-rank Soul Saint with the Wind Chime Bird martial soul. Her speed is second only to Swift of the Agility Clan, and she's only thirty. She has the potential to break through to Titled Douluo before fifty. But…" he hesitated,"…her temperament is impulsive."
"All the more reason to send her. Let her go. It'll help her calm down and develop patience. She'll need that to become a proper scouting-type agility spirit master," Bibi Dong said thoughtfully.
The order was given.
Chrysanthemum Douluo personally informed Ling Yan. Whether she liked it or not, she couldn't refuse…
At the same time.
Nuoding City.
Tang San had agreed to forge a Dragon Pattern Spear for Yang Long—a replica of his martial soul.
"With your forging skill, how well can you craft a spear?"Yang Long asked. Despite being a transmigrator, he didn't know much about forging. He vaguely recalled terms like "hundred-forging" and "thousand-forging" from Legend of the Dragon King, but that was it.
"I can do thousand-forging," Tang San said after a moment's thought.
"Alright then—thousand-forging."Yang Long naturally wanted the best possible version of his Dragon Pattern Spear.
"In that case, the customer will need to pay more," Tang San said bluntly."The five hundred gold soul coins you paid as a deposit won't be enough."
Yang Long frowned."How much more are we talking?"
Tang San didn't hesitate."Based on market rates, a thousand-forged weapon costs at least 120,000 gold soul coins. What you want is a long weapon—a spear—so it'll cost about 220,000. The deposit should be at least 110,000."
"Are you robbing me?!" Yang Long snapped."A hundred and ten thousand just for a deposit? Two hundred and twenty thousand total? Do I look like a fool?!"
Even the entire Breaking Clan couldn't come up with that kind of money.
"Please calm down, customer. That's the standard price for a thousand-forged weapon—what we call divine-grade gear. This is already the discounted rate," Tang San said with practiced calm.
"If you don't believe me, you can ask around at any blacksmith shop in the city. They'll quote you the same. Thousand-forged metal isn't that expensive, but the process of forging it into a weapon is what makes it costly. These weapons can only be made by divine blacksmiths from Gengxin City. And you want the entire Dragon Pattern Spear to be thousand-forged."
"If you think it's expensive, believe me—I do too."
Yang Long was so angry he wanted to stab Tang San with a fruit knife.
Trying to suppress his rage, he asked,"What's the cheapest option?"
"If you can provide the metal yourself, it'll reduce the cost by 10,000 gold soul coins."Tang San offered a businesslike smile."You understand—this is my livelihood. The blacksmith shop needs income too. After material costs, we still need a profit margin of at least 50%. Otherwise, spending so much time and energy on a thousand-forged weapon isn't worth it. We could just forge kitchen knives, scissors, and saws instead—those can sell for three to ten times the production cost."