Most importantly, customized level-4 equipment required the souls of the alchemist [a]and the equipment user to be compatible. It wasn’t just a matter of another person joining in the process. The souls and minds of the alchemist and equipment user would need to be intertwined together.This was a tall order as it meant that there had to be mutual trust between the alchemist and the equipment user. If one’s soul was not being true to itself, the refining process would immediately fail. Trust was a hard thing to come by in the divine territory. Lavel searched high and low but ultimately decided that Wang Zhong was the only one who wouldn’t pose a threat to her and had the ability to assist her.

As for the money required, it was peanuts to Lavel.

Lavel started to explain some details about soul compatibility. Other than Wang Zhong, it was also Lavel’s first time doing this, but this process didn’t seem too complicated to her.

Lao Wang listened carefully and nodded from time to time. After hearing what Lavel had to say, he suddenly realized why Lavel chose him to help her refine the sword weapon. Soul compatibility wasn’t about peeking into the other party’s soul, but just placing one’s trust in the other party. To ordinary alchemists, this was just a part of their job. However, to Lavel who was a prominent figure in her level-8 civilization, there was a great hidden danger in placing her complete trust in another person unless that person was so weak that he would be harmless to her.

Lao Wang didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. It was absurd that he was able to gain from this just because he was weak.

Some narrow-minded people might worry that Lavel was trying to covet something of theirs, such as the technique of adjusting one’s spiritual energy waveband. This technique was rather rare in the divine territory. However, Wang Zhong was not one of those narrow-minded people and thought in a straightforward manner. Lavel was a Gold Core expert, and he didn’t think that she was unworthy of this technique at all. Besides, he could sense Lavel’s sincerity. Even if she really coveted his technique, she didn’t need to go to such lengths. She could have just told him at the beginning since he didn’t intend on keeping this technique a secret.

Only idiots would blindly hold on to the little bargaining chips they had. Based on the current situation that the human race was in, humans needed to be more open to learning in order to secure their status in the divine territory. No matter how one looked at it, Wang Zhong would benefit the most from the soul compatibility procedure with Lavel, who was a Gold Core expert.

“Senior Lavel, thank you!” Wang Zhong said with sincerity. “If there’s anything I can help you with, just name it.”

Lavel chose him after considering various factors and also because of a few coincidences, but ultimately, Wang Zhong was the one who benefitted the most.

Lavel smiled. This was why she chose Wang Zhong. Not only did he pose no threat to her, but he was also a smart person who knew his boundaries. If it was someone from a low-level civilization who didn’t know where to draw the line, they might think that she had an ulterior motive and was trying to take advantage of them. She wouldn’t feel comfortable with that. If there wasn’t enough trust between the alchemist and equipment user, there would be no chance that the equipment would turn out to be a top-grade one.

“You want the sword, while I want the achievement and experience, as well as a perfect partner. There’s no need to thank me. Both of us are just taking what we need,” Lavel said casually. “By the way, I heard that you have caused some trouble recently?”

Lao Wang laughed and scratched his head.

“No worries. You can do whatever you want here, and I’ll ensure that nothing will happen to you.”

That line sounded a little domineering, but it sounded way cooler than what Celeste had said previously! After all, Lavel was a true Fire Demon race Gold Core expert. She wasn’t one of those so-called geniuses who were still on the way to becoming an expert. She was already in the namelist of experts challenging the Tide of Fate!

…

Since Wang Zhong had agreed, both of them readily decided to carry out the soul compatibility procedure on the same day.

The two of them sat cross-legged and entered a meditation state. The faint glow of spiritual power could be seen radiating from their bodies as their souls intertwined.

To refine an excellent level-4 or level-5 private life weapon, the alchemist and equipment user had to have absolute trust in each other, as well as similar mindsets. This foundation was essential, or there would be usage problems with the equipment later on.

The soul compatibility procedure was not about invading the other party’s privacy, but allowing the other party to sense your will, personality, spiritual power, state, and other fine details about you. This was a little similar to the soul-prying that elemental spirits did when choosing their hosts, but that was one-sided as opposed to the soul compatibility procedure, where both parties could see into each other’s soul.

It didn’t take long for Lavel to perceive Wang Zhong’s nature.

Wang Zhong had a unique body physique for a person that came from Earth, a low-level civilization, which surprised Lavel.

Earth was a level-4 civilization that had too little time to evolve. Their cultivation methods and innate talents were inadequate. Those who came from such a civilization would definitely be among the weakest in the divine territory. However, Wang Zhong was different. His physique was unusually good. The spiritual power that he gained from cultivation evenly penetrated into the delicate parts of his body, such that even a single fine hair on his body was nourished by this spiritual power.

This was extremely unusual! Of the thousands of races in the divine territory, most of their bodies were made of flesh and blood, including the Titans and the Vielders. The bodies of the Titans were as indestructible as the strongest metal, while the bodies of the Vielders were so weak that a sharp grass blade could hurt them. This difference was caused by the extent of spiritual power that their bodies could tolerate.

The more spiritual power one’s body could tolerate and store, the stronger one’s body would be.

Lavel estimated that Wang Zhong’s body was almost comparable to that of a Titan. This was unimaginable… He was just a Foundational Stage who came from a low-level civilization. He was definitely a BUG-level existence among those in the Foundational Stage, and his physique could be considered top-notch even among the Void Core experts. It was no wonder that he was able to withstand the incessant heavy blows when battling his Blood Demon race opponent from the Combat Cultivation Hall.

Compared to his unbelievably strong physique, it seemed that he was relatively weaker in terms of spiritual power.

However, compared to the average Foundational Stage, his Spiritual Energy Value was practically bottomless… Just his Spirit Sea alone had far exceeded the limit of an average Foundational Stage, not to mention his entire body’s spiritual energy capacity. In fact, his spiritual power was comparable or even better than many Void Core experts. To think that he hadn’t even formed his Void Core yet…

Nonetheless, Lavel was more shocked at his soul and his savage ice and fire ability!

It wasn’t just an innate talent, for he was able to truly harness its power. In this batch of Heavenly Gates pupils, one would already be considered part of the upper echelons if one harnessed either of these two elemental attributes. Of course, there were stronger experts out there. However, one should take into account that Wang Zhong’s spiritual quality was graded as fourth-grade during the Heavenly Gates initiation test previously, where he was deemed to have no additional attributes or inclination towards any attribute.

Since Lavel wanted to choose Wang Zhong as her partner, she did a background check on him, which included his initiation test results.

His test results were very shocking. Lavel definitely trusted in the supervisor’s evaluation ability. It was highly unlikely that there was a mistake in the test results, much less such an outrageous one. That meant that Wang Zhong only started to get in touch with his ice and fire attributes a few months ago, yet his ability managed to skyrocket to this level within such a short period? Did he consume some sort of elixir? This was way too exaggerated even if he had two elemental spirits. The guiding effect of the elemental spirits was way too effective…

[a]?