He had his own Star Cabin, so he could enter the Star Battle Net whenever he wanted anyway. Following his battle with Jiang Wuyue, he really wanted to speak to Gu Yuena, so he decided to give her a call first.

After exiting the Star Cabin, he did some stretches. This thing was quite decent; even though it was a little rough around the edges, it wasn't uncomfortable in any way.

After picking up his soul communicator, Tang Wulin attached his signal booster onto it with a pained look on his face. He had bought this signal booster with his accolades out of necessity as without it, there was no way that he'd have a strong enough signal to make any calls. However, he had to pay every time he used it, and all of his calls would be monitored by the legion in case he tried to leak any confidential military information.

Thankfully, the accolades that he'd earned through his forging could be used for this purpose.

The call was connected.

"Ring ring, ring ring, ring ring!"

No was picking up. Where had she gone?

Tang Wulin dialed the number twice in quick succession, but no one was picking up, and he was starting to feel quite anxious.

Gu Yuena was quite powerful, but after losing her memories, she had no idea how to use her own powers! What could he do?

He couldn't leave the legion to see her, so he could only continue to call her. Finally, after he dialed the number for the sixth time, the call was picked up.

"Father!" Gu Yuena's elated voice rang out from the other end of the line.

"Gu Yue, where did you go?" Tang Wulin sounded like a parent scolding his child.

However, Gu Yuena seemed to be completely oblivious to the critical tone in his voice, and she replied, "I went out to play! I had some roast meat, and it was really delicious! The roast meat uncle only charged me half the money!"

Tang Wulin continued, "Even if you go out to play, you have to take your soul communicator with you; I'll get worried if I can't contact you."

"Alright. When are you coming to visit me, Father?" Gu Yuena's voice was filled with hope and anticipation.

Tang Wulin replied, "I'm currently participating in a competition, and I'll be able to visit you if I do well. The competition will commence in two days, so it'll probably be at least another month before it concludes. I'll go to visit you right after the competition ends."

"A month?" Gu Yuena exclaimed in a pitiable voice.

"Be a patient girl now, Gu Yue. I'll call you every day, alright?"

"Alright then, I'll wait for you here. You have to tell me in advance before you come back, Father. Otherwise, I could be out playing again."

"Alright, I'll make sure to tell you in advance."

Tang Wulin was struck by an immense sense of satisfaction whenever he heard her voice. In reality, he was quite worried every time he dialed her number, wondering whether she'd already recovered her memories from the effects of the Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum.

His concern and anticipation co-existed alongside one another, making him feel very conflicted. When Gu Yuena wasn't picking up her communicator the first few times he'd called her, he was petrified that she'd recovered her memories and left, and only after hearing her voice were his concerns alleviated.

……

"What? You're not going to participate in the Star Battle Net Inter-federation Competition? Why? This is a brilliant opportunity for you. With your powers, you would definitely do well in the competition, and that'll contribute greatly to bolstering your position in the Spirit Pagoda, so why wouldn't you participate?"

"I'm sorry, Teacher, I just don't want to participate in it, and there's no particular reason. I don't think I have to prove myself to anyone, so please explain the situation to the chairman, and tell him that I'm planning to go into seclusion to attempt a breakthrough to become a Soul Sage."

"You're going to attempt to make a breakthrough? Is that true?"

"Yes, it's about time for me to make a breakthrough, so I'm going to go into seclusion for a while. I'll have to leave everything else to you, Teacher."

"No problem. If you can progress to become a Soul Sage, everything will be different and no one will dare to say anything about you. You have my full support."

……

"Reimbursement? Keep dreaming! Are you telling me you don't have any money left? Aren't you a Saint Blacksmith?" Blood One was looking at Tang Wulin in a speechless manner. Never would he have thought that Tang Wulin would request to meet him in order to discuss something like this.

Tang Wulin wore a conflicted look on his face. "But it's so expensive! I'm representing our Blood God Legion in this competition, so shouldn't I be sponsored?"

"Just how stingy are you?" Blood One couldn't help but burst into laughter. He didn't think that Tang Wulin would be such a cheapskate.

Tang Wulin smiled, and said, "It's not that I'm stingy; the problem is that I really don't have much money. I was just a poor student before this, and both my cultivation and forging require a lot of money to support. I may be a Saint Blacksmith now, but I still don't have much savings. I had no time to forge in order to earn money before coming to our legion, and I can only forge for accolades here. Also, these accolades can't contribute to my promotions, and apparently, that rule was specifically introduced to target me. What's the point in forging if I can't even earn promotions?"

Blood One pondered the issue momentarily before replying, "The soldiers of our Blood God Legion don't have much of a concept of money, but even if your forging accolades can't contribute toward promotions, you should be able to exchange them for money. How about this? I can help you convert your forging accolades to federal credits at a 1 to 100 rate. You can calculate that for yourself."

1 to 100? Tang Wulin immediately felt this to be a bad deal.

"That's way too low! In the outside world, a Saint Blacksmith can earn around 10,000,000 credits per job, but each job I complete in the legion only earns me around 1,000 to 2,000 accolades. Even soul refinement jobs will earn me around 10,000 to 20,000 accolades, so that's only 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 federal credits per job..."

"Take it or leave it; I don't care!" Blood One waved a dismissive hand as if he were shooing away a fly.

"I'll take it!" Tang Wulin hurriedly said with a fawning smile. It was a good thing that he had the option to exchange some extra accolades for federal credits. In reality, he wasn't actually short on money, so in comparison, it was better for him to exchange his accolades for some valuable resources.

The commissariat had a very good supply of all types of uncommon metals, as well as even some precious materials that were very difficult to source in the outside world. All of these things could be exchanged for using accolades, so his forging accolades were certainly far from useless even if they couldn't contribute toward promotions.

After exiting the Blood God Battalion, Tang Wulin headed straight to his forging room. There were still two days until the commencement of the Star Battle Net Inter-federation Competition, and it was only going to be the regional competition, so at the very least, there should be no issues for him during the first few rounds. If he really did encounter an insanely powerful being during the early rounds, then that would simply be a matter of bad luck, and he couldn't do anything about that aside from giving everything he had to strive toward a promotion to the major rank.

However, at the same time, he had devised a plan for himself.

Mu Ye had always advocated to him that there was no clash between battle armor and mechas. Most high-level battle armor masters also possessed their own mechas, but it was very rare for top-tier battle armor masters to also be top-tier mecha pilots.

In the past, Mu Ye had gone down the wrong path and dedicated all of his time and effort toward mechas. In the end, he became a divine-grade mecha pilot, but he had passed the ideal battle armor cultivation age range at that point, and lost the opportunity to become a four-word battle armor master.

In contrast, Tang Wulin's situation was far superior to his. He was only 21 years of age, yet he was already a two-word battle armor master. Furthermore, he could attempt to forge metals for his suit of three-word battle armor as soon as he became a six-ring Soul Emperor. After all, he was already a Saint Blacksmith, so he definitely had the required skills. Following a few more years of accumulation, he'd most definitely be able to become a three-word battle armor master.

As for mechas, he had never had sufficient time and resources to dedicate to this field, so he'd never paid much attention to it. Now, he had already decided that he was going to forge a suitable mecha for himself, and he was going to make a black mecha from the get-go. At the same time, this had to be a black mecha with evolutionary potential, just like his suit of battle armor.

This would require a vast amount of resources. With his skills as a Saint Blacksmith, he'd be able to forge the metals required, but at the same time, he had many things to learn about circuits and mecha designs.

He had considered requesting assistance from another, but he could only create a mecha that was ideal for himself if he were to do everything on his own. Mecha design wasn't as complex as it was for battle armor as battle armor had to be able to fuse into one's body. In contrast, mechas were a lot larger in size, and they were far easier to design and customize. As such, Tang Wulin had decided that he was going to create a mecha for himself solely on his own. As for the resources required to accomplish this goal, those naturally had to be exchanged for using accolades. As such, he had to earn more accolades.

Prior to visiting the Blood God Battalion, he had received a call from Long Yuxue that a three-word battle armor master of the legion was going to visit him to have his suit of battle armor repaired.

Tang Wulin was given quite a surprise when he discovered that the aforementioned three-word battle armor master was none other than Xu Weitao. He was no longer a complete newbie who didn't know anyone in the Blood God Legion, so he naturally immediately identified that this was the commander of the Blood Division of the Blood God Legion.

He was one of the 14 most powerful beings in the entire legion, a Titled Douluo who was also a three-word battle armor master!

Long Yuxue was standing beside Xu Weitao, and she gave Tang Wulin a meaningful look.

Tang Wulin hurriedly stood up straight and extended a military salute. "Greetings, Superior."

Xu Weitao patted his shoulder in a benevolent manner, and said, "You're already a member of the Blood God Battalion, so you're no longer under the direct control of the legion. As such, you can just call me Old Man Xu."

Ol, Old Man Xu?