After obtaining three ten-thousand-year soul rings, Heita's strength had a significant leap forward, becoming even more powerful than before.
Originally, even at Rank 29, Heita could directly overpower the Rank 50 Wu Changkong in a head-on fight. And now, facing the Rank 31 Heita, Wu Changkong had no choice but to use Rank 60-level soul power.
You have to understand—it's only been a little over a month since the start of the school term, and Heita's growth had already reached this point. Wu Changkong even began to wonder if, by next month, he'd need to wear his battle armor just to keep up when sparring with her.
Currently, Wu Changkong was only at Rank 60, with just a Two-Word Battle Armor, but once equipped, he was comparable to a Title Douluo! And Heita? She had just broken through Rank 30. She was only nine years old!
Was it even possible for someone her age to achieve so much?
Though it defied all logic, Wu Changkong still felt that Heita could do it. It was maddening!
Adding to that was Heita's terrifying learning ability—just seeing something once and she'd grasp it instantly—which forced Wu Changkong to drastically accelerate his teaching progress. Thankfully, he only taught her once a week. Otherwise, he'd have run out of material to teach after just the first class.
But even with this setup, Wu Changkong had only one method left in his teaching arsenal—
Combat! Combat! And more combat!
Aside from real combat practice, there was nothing left he could teach Heita!
This also allowed Heita to spend even more time on forging...
Although, to call it just "forging" now didn't really do it justice. Through her studies, Heita was no longer just a forger.
In the entire Legend of the Dragon King era, there were only four mecha-related professions: Mecha Forgers, Designers, Builders, and Mechanics. Heita had already mastered all of them.
At this point, she could be rightfully called a scientist.
So she didn't need to spend much time studying at Donghai Academy anymore. Instead, she had more time to work on her own projects.
Like right now—at the Forging Association of Donghai City.
---
"Uncle, give me some of these metals!"
Heita handed a piece of paper filled with names of various metals to Mu Chen, causing the corners of this Eight-Star Saint Artisan's mouth to twitch uncontrollably.
"My little ancestor... While I trust your skill level, what do you need so many rare metals for? Even for spirit-forging practice, this is way too much!"
"I just broke through," Heita casually replied.
Then, without another word, she released her soul rings before Mu Chen's eyes. With his strength as a Title Douluo, Mu Chen could clearly see her current soul power and soul rings.
Soul Elder? And three ten-thousand-year rings?! How the hell did she manage that?!
The sight in front of him completely shattered Mu Chen's understanding of reality. But he knew that Heita showing him this meant she was serious, so he immediately arranged for people to retrieve the rare metals.
The Forging Association didn't directly sell rare metals, but they provided their members with ten pieces of metal per month for forging practice.
The list Heita handed over had more than thirty types of metals. It was obvious she had a major project in mind.
After all the metals were delivered to Heita's private forging room, Mu Chen had originally intended to stay and observe her work. But then—
"I'm planning to make something for personal use. Are you interested in my body? Should I have a serious talk with Aunt Bao'er about this later..."
Joking aside, with Mu Chen's family background and social status, there was no way he'd dare cross that line!
So before Heita even finished her sentence, Mu Chen had already bolted out of there—and warned everyone not to go near the forging room unless they wanted to face the consequences.
---
"Finally, I can try this idea out!"
Once all the unrelated people had left, Heita let out a breath of relief and stepped in front of the forging table.
Ever since gaining control over Heita's avatar, Yaolan realized that this clone wasn't just a puppet—it was a real, physical child version of Heita!
Back then, he had a bold idea:
If my avatar is the true 'Heita,' then when she grows up, could I make more Heita puppets in the future?
Or even—could he start making them right now?
Honestly, Yaolan was extremely curious. Since Heita herself was already his clone, what would it be like if that clone created her own clones?
He was too curious not to try!
In other words...
We need more Heitas!
One body was no longer enough to satisfy Heita's thirst for exploration. She wanted to do more things—simultaneously!
And the reason she asked Mu Chen for so many rare metals was precisely to create Heita puppets. Although Yaolan didn't know what kind of materials were used to build Heita puppets in Honkai: Star Rail, in the world of Douluo Dalu, he planned to use metal.
The forging profession happened to align perfectly with the needs of puppet creation. That's also why Yaolan chose to become a forger first.
At the Spirit Forging level, metal could be imbued with life.
At Soul Forging, it could gain attributes and self-awareness.
At Heavenly Forging, metal could be used to create living beings—a realm far beyond human boundaries!
So looking at it that way... doesn't forging Heita puppets now seem completely doable?
But before officially starting the puppet construction, there was one very important thing left:
Heita's physical data!
Right now, the Heita clone was a real, living body. Visually, she looked almost identical to the in-game Heita puppet, except that she didn't have visible joints. So she needed to record her current physical data to prepare for puppet replication in the future.
Since the forging room was provided by Mu Chen, Heita easily found measurement tools. And instead of using high-tech scanning instruments, Yaolan felt that using more primitive methods would be fun... and Heita had no objections.
---
Wearing her signature purple dress, Heita undressed and stood before the mirror, carefully examining her current body.
"Still so flat-chested at this age... but I never imagined there'd be so much room for future growth. How did I even end up growing that much later on...? Then again, for a genius, adjusting my own body data should be child's play, right?"
So in the future, would grown-up Heita be a Shenzhou flatboard or a Russian executive?
That question no longer really mattered. After all, Heita was a genius across multiple fields. Even if her body didn't grow on its own, making it bigger would be easy, right?
No wonder March 7 gets called "Little Shorty!"
"But small and cute has its own charm, too!"
As line after line of data was filled in on the white paper, Heita completed her puppet design blueprint. Height, weight, bust, waist, hips, flexibility, durability—she accounted for everything.
---
"With this, I'll be able to create the most realistic Heita puppet ever!"