The more he said, the more he felt himself to be justified. In reality, even Qiangu Dongfeng was unaware that his grandson hadn't even held Gu Yuena's hand before.

Qiangu Zhangting was already reaching toward Gu Yuena's hand as he spoke, and his face had become quite flushed.

Right at this moment, purple light suddenly glowed from Gu Yuena's eyes like a pair of purple vortexes, and Qiangu Zhangting instantly stiffened as if he had been immobilized.

A hint of fierce killing intent flashed through Gu Yuena's eyes, and she had even raised her right hand. If she wanted to take Qiangu Zhangting's life, it would only take a simple gesture.

"You think you can touch me? No one else in this world can touch me aside from him!" Gu Yuena's voice sounded as if it were coming from the iciest depths of hell, and Qiangu Zhangting remained completely still and unresponsive like a statue.

"I can't kill him now. Qiangu Dongfeng has already begun to suspect me; I have to assuage those suspicions."

Gu Yuena lowered her hand, and her expression eased slightly as she strode over to a nearby window, then cast her gaze toward Shrek Academy in the distance.

She could only see a vast expanse of dense mist due to the effect of the anti-surveillance devices, but she could sense his presence there.

What should I do?

A series of complex thoughts surfaced in her mind.

......

A crisp clang rang out, heralding another successful soul refinement.

Tang Wulin nodded with a pleased expression.

His soul refinement success rate was infinitely approaching 100%, and the quality was also improving day by day.

Following his return, he had immediately begun focusing on his forging. Elder Long and Yali were overseeing the Shrek Academy rebuild, while he was constantly forging metals required for suits of high-grade battle armor.

This was a massive workload, but it was a perfect form of cultivation, allowing him to grow accustomed to his powers having broken the 14th Golden Dragon King seal and reached the Hyper Douluo level.

There had always been an insurmountable gulf between Hyper Douluos and Titled Douluos, and this resulted from a fundamental change.

At the Hyper Douluo level, one would begin to sense the laws of the world and detect some things that existed beyond the realm of concrete reality. For example, one could begin to try and actively control space.

Almost all Limit Douluos had the ability to tear open space, and in order to be able to freely traverse through small planes, one had to at least be a Hyper Douluo.

For example, in the past, Tang Wulin would've only been able to enter the Myriad Beast Plane through a special avenue. However, at the Hyper Douluo level, all he required was a set of coordinates, and he would be able to traverse freely into the Myriad Beast Plane as long as the planar rulers, Da Ming and Er Ming, didn't refuse him entry.

After reaching this level, everything he had learned about the power of the plane in the past was seamlessly integrated, thereby deepening his understanding and allowing him to truly control it as a part of his own body.

To put it in simpler terms, in the past, he was able to infuse into his attacks the planar power of elemental tribulations that he had absorbed through the Infernal Lightning Vine.

This was a groundbreaking enhancement that had elevated his attacks to a whole new level.

However, after reaching the Hyper Douluo level, Tang Wulin discovered that these powers of laws had naturally become a part of his own power, and that he was able to control a part of it with minute accuracy.

In a sense, wielding the power of laws had become a way of battle that he was now able to adopt.

In the past, he had only been able to borrow these powers of laws, but now, he could unleash his own tribulation lightning without the assistance of other soul skills. This was already a fundamental difference.

Of course, it certainly wasn't the case that all Hyper Douluos were capable of this. In fact, generally speaking, most Hyper Douluos would be just beginning to develop a faint understanding of laws at this point.

It was exactly because of this that both Tang Wulin's absorption of tribulation lightning and his usage of the power of laws had improved drastically in his forging.

It was becoming clearer and clearer to him why Zhen Hua had said that power was key for a Divine Blacksmith.

Zhen Hua's greatest limiting factor was that he was stuck at the Titled Douluo level. Tang Wulin was confident that if Zhen Hua could become a Hyper Douluo, then his heavenly refinement would be elevated to a whole new level.

Of course, this was entirely implausible now. Zhen Hua's foundation was too unstable, and his body had been severely taxed from his years of heavenly refinement; the only possible way for him to become a Hyper Douluo would be if he were provided the purest of blood essence by a patriarch like Er Ming to the Yuanen Family.

Currently, when attempting heavenly refinement on a single type of metal, Tang Wulin's success rate was over 90%; this was definitely unprecedented in the history of all Divine Blacksmiths.

One had to realize that even the most ordinary of heavenly refined metals could be used to create four-word battle armor!

A four-word battle armor master didn't necessarily have to be a Limit Douluo. In reality, even Hyper Douluo could handle a suit of four-word battle armor. Furthermore, four-word battle armor crafted from a single type of heavenly refined metal would be more suitable for Hyper Douluos as it would be less taxing on their bodies.

At the same time, Tang Wulin's heavenly refinement success rate for alloys comprised of less than four types of metals had risen to around 30%. This didn't sound very impressive, but it was enough to eclipse Zhen Hua's record in his prime.

Currently, Tang Wulin hadn't succeeded even once in heavenly refinement on an alloy comprised of over four types of metals. His suit of battle armor was comprised of six different types of metals, so completing heavenly refinement on it was quite a distant goal for him.

Zhen Hua had always told him that there were no shortcuts in heavenly refinement. Only by accumulating experience and sensing the minute changes in planar laws through constant heavenly refinement could one hope to improve.

Tang Wulin firmly believed in this because he was constantly learning from every single heavenly refinement, regardless of whether he succeeded or failed.

There weren't actually that many Hyper Douluos in Shrek Academy, but there was no lack of Soul Masters of that caliber at the Tang Sect. However, only the four Limit Douluos had suits of four-word battle armor.

Tang Wulin had extended that offer to the Yuanen Family precisely because Shrek Academy was lacking in high-end teachers.

They did indeed have four Limit Douluos, but aside from them, there weren't actually many Titled Douluos in the academy. Both Lan Muzi and Tang Yinmeng were Titled Douluos, but they hadn't reached the Hyper Douluo level yet, while Tang Wulin and Yuanen Yehui were at the Hyper Douluo level and Titled Douluo level respectively.

Aside from Tang Wulin, Wu Zhangkong was the only other Hyper Douluo in Shrek Academy.

Tang Wulin's return had coincided with Wu Zhangkong's return with a batch of students that had just completed their training on the demonic island.

A common trait among all students who had undergone the special training on the demonic island was that they were all very disoriented.

Tang Wulin had experienced the training himself, so he knew just how terrifying it was.

Furthermore, Wu Zhangkong had brought back a piece of good news. This piece of news was very beneficial to the development of the academy, but it wasn't necessarily good news for all of the students.

Tang Wulin placed the piece of metal that he had just soul refined off to the side. For him, soul refinement was the equivalent of taking a break; only heavenly refinement could be considered to be true cultivation.

His most important mission at the moment was to produce enough heavenly refinement metals for three suits of four-word battle armor.

These suits of four-word battle armor were for Yuanen Zhentian, Yuanen Tiandang, and Wu Zhangkong.