In the following month, Aos Qin began fully cooperating with his uncle to refine the iron materials.
Because Uncle Aubert's soul power had already reached the fifteenth level, Aos Qin's refining of the iron was no longer limited to mere refined iron; a significant portion reached the level of Iron Essence.
Of course, spirit forging (Ling Zuan) was still not possible.
Sure enough, this batch of high-quality, finely crafted weapons and armor gained popularity in Soto City. In just one month, Aos Qin earned ten Gold Soul Coins.
He used this money to buy a piece of rare metal, the size of an adult fist — Cloud Copper (Yun Tong) — at the metal trading market in Soto City, and also a metal engraving knife coated with diamond powder.
During his spare time at work, Aos Qin first spent a full five hours in two sessions forging the Cloud Copper into Spirit-Forged Metal.
It wasn't that Aos Qin wanted to do it in one go — the hardness of Cloud Copper was far greater than Iron Essence, and Aos Qin's current tenth-level soul power wasn't enough to accomplish it in a single session.
After spirit forging, Aos Qin shaped the Cloud Copper into a delicate cube, shrinking it from the size of an adult fist to that of a baby's fist. Upon close inspection, a faint blue spiritual glow could be seen.
Aos Qin intended to use this Spirit-Forged Cloud Copper as the core formation of a soul tool.
Here is an introduction to the structure of a soul tool:
Typically, a soul tool consists of three parts: core formation, inner shell, and outer shell.
The core formation contains inscriptions that determine the soul tool's function.
The inner shell conducts and channels energy.
The outer shell forms the soul tool's shape and protective layer.
Since Aos Qin would soon hunt soul beasts in the Soul Beast Forest after awakening his martial soul, he decided that his first soul tool would be a melee attack-type soul tool — the Jungle Knife.
Due to limited funds, the inner and outer shells of this soul tool could only be made of ordinary Iron Essence. Aos Qin added a small amount of chromium to slightly increase its durability and then applied spirit forging to improve the metal's affinity to soul power.
To compensate for the insufficient hardness of the outer shell, Aos Qin inscribed four runes on the core formation: Sturdy, Sharp, Energy Form Conversion, Energy Form Fixation.
Although these were all first-level runes, combining them was slightly beyond Aos Qin's current skill level.
Especially since he only had one set of materials, leaving no room for mistakes. Therefore, after completing the inner and outer shells, Aos Qin didn't immediately inscribe the core formation. Instead, he repeatedly practiced in the Omnipotent Library, ensuring a 100% success rate.
This practice meant that until the night before the martial soul awakening ceremony, Aos Qin still hadn't finished the soul tool.
"Three days is still too tight… but there's no need to rush. I remember that after awakening, school doesn't start immediately. As long as I finish before school begins, it's fine," Aos Qin thought as he exited the Omnipotent Library.
"Tomorrow I'll awaken my martial soul. I must stay well-rested. I'm curious what my martial soul will be… I wonder what the soul master in charge of awakening thinks, seeing two children with full innate soul power in a row…
In the original story, Oscar's location at the beginner soul master academy wasn't mentioned, but it's probably in Soto City.
Hmm… looks like I can be like Tang San, going to school while forging and earning money," Aos Qin mused as he entered deep sleep.
The next day, his biological clock woke him as usual. Aos Qin dragged Oscar, who had stayed up late the night before due to excitement, out to exercise.
Thanks to Aos Qin being such a capable elder brother, Oscar, who should have been a heavy sleeper, was passively trained to wake up early and do morning exercises.
With enough exercise and proper nutrition, the Aos brothers were already taller than their peers.
Although only six years old, they were nearly 1.4 meters tall, well-behaved, and the pride of Obkin and Yun Shuangshuang — also the "perfect kids" that other children envied.
After running around the village, the brothers returned home to find breakfast already laid out, and Uncle Aubert had also arrived.
"You two little rascals, why are you back so late? Don't you see today is Martial Soul Awakening? What if you delay it?"
Their father's loud voice greeted them. Oscar glared at Aos Qin and whispered in a tone only he could hear: "It's all your fault. I said today is a rest day."
Aos Qin suppressed the urge to roll his eyes and quietly replied: "It's not even 6:30 yet. Awakening happens around noon, so there's no need to make up excuses. Our parents are just worried," he thought to himself.
In truth, Aos Qin felt warm inside seeing his parents care so much for him. Whether in his previous life or this one, his parents always loved him.
Seeing the boys frozen at the door after Obkin's words, Yun Shuangshuang quickly said, "Alright, stop talking. Soul power doesn't appear easily. If you can't become soul masters in the future, staying healthy is important. It's still early; go wash up and eat. After breakfast, follow your father and uncle to the Martial Soul Hall in the village. I'll stay home and make you something delicious. Today your dad and uncle won't go to the stall."
After Yun Shuangshuang spoke, Obkin lowered his head and remained silent.
Aos Qin and Oscar quickly went to change into clean clothes, washed their hands, and sat at the table.
While changing, Aos Qin thought:
"This world's Martial Soul Awakening is like the college entrance exam in my past life — a gateway. If you pass, you advance; if not, you remain struggling. In both lives, parents do their best to accompany their children through important moments.
But here on Douluo Continent, for a commoner to awaken a strong martial soul with soul power… the difficulty is even higher than the gaokao."
During this breakfast, Aos Qin noticed the atmosphere was unusually quiet. Even Uncle Aubert seemed slightly nervous.
After all, his coal-type martial soul was a mutated food type — useless in combat and couldn't be eaten normally.
If it weren't for its higher burning temperature and that coal material generated by the martial soul wouldn't make iron brittle, Aos Qin wouldn't have become a blacksmith. Otherwise, this coal martial soul would truly be useless.
After breakfast and changing into clean clothes, Uncle Aubert and Obkin led Oscar and Aos Qin to the Martial Soul Hall in the village center.
Though called a Martial Soul Hall, it was just a slightly larger stone building, only a little better than the Soul Village in Tang San's memory.
Walking along the road, Aos Qin recalled his memories of Martial Soul Halls. He felt positively about them — they allowed commoner soul masters a chance to stand out.
Though not mentioned in the original story, the Martial Soul Hall handled the evil soul masters later causing trouble.
Aos Qin thought the biggest mistake of the previous head, Qianxun Ji, was forcing Tang Hao's wife, A Yin, to death over the pursuit of soul rings and soul bones. Even so, from the perspective of those involved, there was little to be done.
However, Aos Qin wouldn't abandon his own brother to assist the Martial Soul Hall.
As he thought this, the four had arrived at the Martial Soul Hall.
Though it was only 7:30, judging by the number of people present, most of the children awakening their martial souls and their parents had already arrived — they were indeed late.
Waiting was boring. Aos Qin casually heard the village chief say that the soul master awakening them today wasn't directly from the Martial Soul Hall, but hired by it.
Thinking about it, Aos Qin understood. Soto City was a major southern city of the Dou Dou Empire. Many villages depended on it. While the Martial Soul Hall in Soto was larger, soul masters were still few.
Even the Martial Soul Hall couldn't guarantee enough personnel all the time. The masters handling awakenings were mostly young high-level soul masters, at most soul lords. The real senior figures didn't handle these matters personally.
Around 9:00, Aos Qin felt a flash in the corner of his eye.
Looking closely, he saw a middle-aged man speaking with the village chief. Soon, the chief led him toward where they were waiting.
Aos Qin realized this must be the soul master responsible for their martial soul awakening.
As the man approached, Aos Qin saw him clearly — wearing stiff glasses, hooked nose, gaunt face. Something about him seemed extremely familiar.
Indeed, after the village chief introduced him, the man stepped forward and said kindly:
"I am Flander. Don't be nervous, children. Follow me, and I will awaken your very own martial souls."