Without the relentless erosion from that strange energy, a faint layer of white light immediately appeared over the pauldron, and the gash began to seal in a slow yet steady manner.

Tang Wulin carried the pauldron over to Xu Weitao, and said, "All done, Uncle Xu."

Xu Weitao had witnessed this entire process, and he had an astonished look on his face as he said, "How did you do that? That wasn't forging, as far as I could tell. This energy comes from the Demonic Centipede Puppet Monarch of the 101st abyssal level; how did you dispel it so easily? Back when its energy first infiltrated my body, I had to expend a lot of power before I finally managed to recover from that injury. If I'd known that you could get rid of that energy so easily, I would've just come to you!"

A wry smile appeared on Tang Wulin's face in response. "I'm not a healer, so my ability won't work on life forms; it's only applicable to metals."If he were to pierce the Golden Dragon Spear into Xu Weitao's body, it would immediately begin to suck away his life force, and that would inflict even more damage than the power of that Demonic Centipede Puppet Monarch.

Xu Weitao nodded with a peculiar look on his face. The more he learned about this young man, the more he came to realize just how exceptional he was.

It was no wonder that the Blood God Battalion had swooped in to take him so quickly; if he'd known all of this from the beginning, he wouldn't have given the Blood God Battalion a chance to take Tang Wulin!

"I originally planned to have this pauldron reforged. A piece of soul refined metal required to make a pauldron like this will cost at least 20,000 accolades, so I'll pay you according to that number," Xu Weitao offered.

Tang Wulin hurriedly said, "There's no need for that, Uncle Xu. I barely did anything, so you don't have to give me any accolades."

Xu Weitao insisted in a serious voice, "I can't just employ your services for free. The fact that you didn't have to do much is beside the point; the fact of the matter is that I had my pauldron repaired by you. That is a testament to your skills, but I still have to pay you nonetheless. Otherwise, I'd be taking advantage of you! If you want to thank me, then you can prioritize my forging jobs in the future. Besides, I've always harbored ambitions of becoming a four-word battle armor; perhaps you'll already be a Divine Blacksmith by then, and I'll have to come to you again."

Xu Weitao insisted on giving Tang Wulin 20,000 accolades before departing.

Long Yuxue didn't depart with him, and she was currently appraising Tang Wulin with a peculiar look on her face.

Tang Wulin extended his Blood God Bracelet toward her, and said, "Here's your half; these accolades can't be used for promotions, but you can still buy things with them."

This workshop had been sponsored by Long Yuxue in the beginning, and it was agreed that they'd be splitting the profits evenly between one another. However, only after witnessing Tang Wulin's skills did Long Yuxue come to realize just how unfair this agreement was.

"You don't need to give your accolades to me. You earned everything on your own, and I..." Long Yuxue's voice trailed off mid-sentence.

Tang Wulin smiled, and said, "Didn't you hear what Uncle Xu just said? Just because I'm earning these accolades doesn't change the fact that you sponsored me in the very beginning. Without your help, I wouldn't even have this workshop, so you deserve half the profits. Come on, lady boss, it's time to take your share."

Long Yuxue blushed slightly upon hearing the words "lady boss", and she didn't make any further effort to turn down her share of the profits. [In China, the term "lady boss" can refer to a business owner who's a woman, but also the wife of a male business owner, so it's kind of an implicit term, hence the blush.] Instead, she merely said, "Tell me if you're ever short on accolades."

"I will. It's about time we moved this workshop to a larger space. By the way, did you enter the Star Battle Net Inter-federation Competition?"

Long Yuxue nodded in response. "I'm registered to compete. Most of the members of our legion who are five-ring Soul Kings and above have registered. I reckon our legion will dominate the western competition region, especially considering there aren't that many cities in the entire western competition region."

A wry smile appeared on Tang Wulin's face. "Looks like it's not a good thing that we're in the western competition region!" Indeed, among the 25,000 soldiers of the Blood God Legion, there had to be thousands of Soul Masters at or above the Soul King stage and below the Titled Douluo Stage. They were going to be facing countless powerful competitors.

Jiang Wuyue was already very powerful, and if it weren't for Tang Wulin's bloodline advantage, it would be rather difficult for him to defeat Jiang Wuyue. Even so, he was only a lieutenant colonel, so there had to be many more Soul Masters in the legion who were more powerful than him, yet hadn't attained suits of three-word battle armor yet. He would have to give everything he had if he wanted to make it to the finals.

What was of the greatest concern to Tang Wulin wasn't the Soul Master battles. After all, he had attained his dragon core now, so he was relatively confident in the Soul Master battle portion. However, the mecha battles wouldn't be so easy for him.

The mecha pilots of the Blood God Legion were constantly fighting on the battlefield and honing their skill against abyssal creatures. In terms of practical combat prowess, the mecha pilots of the Blood God Legion were definitely among the best in the entire federal military, so it would definitely not be an easy task to fight off such fierce competition.

The mecha pilot that he'd encountered in the combat room had already been quite powerful. If it weren't for the fact that they'd been unfamiliar with his abilities and was overly aggressive with their attacks, it would not have been so easy for him to win that battle.

Furthermore, as he progressed through the rounds, the mecha pilots that he faced were only going to become more and more powerful. This was definitely going to be harder than Soul Master battles as one would immediately be handed a loss once their mecha became damaged to a certain extent.

Just thinking about it was giving him a headache.

"Did you register as well?" Long Yuxue asked.

"Yes."

Long Yuxue asked, "What are you going to do if you encounter me in one of the rounds?"

Tang Wulin faltered slightly upon hearing this. "I guess I can go easy and let you last a little longer?"

Long Yuxue stomped down onto his foot in an enraged manner. "What do you mean let me last a little longer? You should concede right away!"

Tang Wulin winced, and a wry smile appeared on his face. "But what about the openness, fairness, and impartiality of the competition? "

Long Yuxue scoffed, "You can throw all that out the window! What's your nickname? Tell me!"

Tang Wulin shook his head with an expression that was filled with grief and indignation. "No!"

Long Yuxue ground her foot into the back of Tang Wulin's foot, and insisted, "Tell me!"

Tang Wulin replied in a resigned manner, "My nickname is Little Tang."

Only then did Long Yuxue smile and disclose, "My nickname is Little Xue. You know what to do if you come up against me, right?"

"I... I have a mission! The Blood God Battalion gave me a mission; they're going to evict me from the Blood God Battalion if I don't make it to the finals," Tang Wulin lied without even batting a single eyelid.

Long Yuxue faltered slightly upon hearing this. "Is that true?"

Tang Wulin replied in a serious manner, "Of course it is!"

Long Yuxue harrumphed, "Then you'd better pray that you don't come up against me! I'm going now. Are you going to stay here?"

Tang Wulin nodded in response. "I want to practice my forging for a while."

Two days passed by in the blink of an eye, and aside from his cultivation, Tang Wulin dedicated all of his time to learning about mechas and completing some forging jobs. There were only very few people in the legion who were aware of the fact that he was a Saint Blacksmith, and he was only taking soul refinement jobs, so he wasn't getting much work. Xu Weitao had acted very quickly, organizing a new site for his workshop the very next day, and the forging bench, as well as everything else, had all been transported over to that new workshop. This was a private space with a designated warehouse attached.

During these past few days, Tang Wulin also logged on to the Star Battle Net once every day. Following his registration, Tang Wulin had already been notified of his exact competition times, and he had to have already logged on to the battle net before the stipulated time.

The first battle was going to take place tonight at 8pm.

For some reason, he was even more excited to participate in this Star Battle Net Inter-federation Competition than he was for the competition in the Star Luo Empire.

Perhaps it was due to the fact that this was a competition that encompassed the entire federation. He was going to face all of the most powerful opponents in the entire federation below the Titled Douluo level, and Blood One had undoubtedly ordered him to participate in this competition as a form of training.

Even back in Shrek Academy, tapping into one's latent potential through practical combat had always been highly advocated. During this competition, he could fight to his heart's content without having to worry about harming his opponent.

"Welcome, Little Tang, you have logged on to the Star Battle Net. There is still half an hour left before your battle; please head to the Soul Master battle area lobby right away."

Tang Wulin chose this exact time to log on to the battle net, and he was immediately greeted by an electronic notification as soon as he logged on.

He was going to be participating in the first elimination round of the Soul Master segment of the western competition region, and the first elimination round of the mecha segment was going to be taking place the next day. The different segments had been scheduled for different days precisely to cater to participants like Tang Wulin, who registered for both modes of battle.

Tang Wulin had still underestimated the overall period of time that this competition would be in progress for. According to the competition schedule, it was most likely going to take three months for the entire competition to run its course.

Tang Wulin had already decided that he was going to apply for a break with Blood One as soon as he progressed to the finals so he could visit Gu Yuena.

The round had already commenced at noon, and there were already countless participants wearing white masks with strings of text above their heads around the sports stadium of the western competition region.

The text above Tang Wulin's head currently indicated that his battle record was five wins and zero losses.

He didn't participate in too many practice matches as he already had a vast wealth of practical combat experience, and he didn't want to waste his money.

"Your battle will commence in one minute."

It was finally time for his match, and Tang Wulin took a deep breath. Prior to logging on to the Star Battle Net, he'd already primed himself to his peak condition.

Golden light flashed, and his surroundings warped and twisted. In the next instant, he found himself on the competition platform.