Chapter 424

– Shocking the Divine Blacksmith
A thunderous crash shook the room. A spray of powder burst from the heavy silver. This was proof of the tremor effect at work! It could vibrate impurities out of a metal!
Although the result was simple, this wasn’t something that just anybody could do. In order to bring out the full potential of this effect, a blacksmith needed to possess overwhelming strength, a firm foundation of soul power, immense spiritual power, and a deep understanding of the metal they were forging. If the blacksmith did not fulfill even one of these requirements, it would be impossible for them to use tremor effectively. In fact, the tremor effect could even become a disadvantage.
And Tang Wulin’s second strike used it to his advantage. A third strike followed, then a fourth, and then a fifth. Three seconds separated each one.
As he watched the boy in front of him forge away, Zhen Hua’s amicable smile gradually grew concerned. A trace of doubt flickered in his eyes.
Tang Wulin continued hammering, and soon enough, his seventh strike landed. The heavy silver trembled, and in a flash of light, the impurities were separated. It was hundred refined!
It only took him seven strikes to hundred refine the heavy silver! Zhen Hua straightened his back slightly, and the more knowledgeable blacksmiths in the audience gaped. As a Divine Blacksmith, Zhen Hua could easily hundred refine a piece of metal with a single strike.
A child in his teens had done it in seven!
It was then that Tang Wulin finally moved his right hand. He pressed a button to reveal the star iron, which had just finished calcining, and struck down with his right hammer. The blow sent tremors through the star iron.
H-he’s dual forging! The clerk who led Tang Wulin here was already speechless. He couldn’t have possibly imagined that a teenage boy like Tang Wulin could be so skilled! This child is actually dual forging! And he’s dual forging two different metals at that! Even if he’s just hundred refining them, that’s a feat only a third or fourth-rank blacksmith would be capable of!
Both of Tang Wulin’s hammers crashed down, forging both the heavy silver and the star iron simultaneously. Every strike shook the hearts of the spectating blacksmiths.
Blow after blow thundered throughout the hall, and Tang Wulin’s world shrunk down to just him and the metals. He was itching to put what he just learned about alloy forging into practice. He wanted to test it out and deepen his understanding. The itch began at the back of his consciousness at first, but as he continued forging both metals, it grew in intensity until, finally, he felt as if he were about to explode.
Everyone stared in shock as Tang Wulin hammered the metals with unbelievable might. Another droning hum, a fraction different in pitch, soon filled the hall to overlap with the first. Two lights shot into the air, one a resplendent silver, and the other a coalescence of countless specks of starlight. The two combined, rising six feet into the air as a two-colored beam. It illuminated the hall, a magnificent sight that bathed the onlookers in a bright glow for one moment and faded to nothing in the next.
Two hammers! Two metals! And both metals were first-grade thousand refined with spirit!
It was plenty amazing for the light of a thousand refining to ascend five feet into the air, yet the child before everyone’s eyes had simultaneously refined two metals and summoned light that reached six feet high! That was the sign of a fabled saint-grade thousand refining, a feat that only Saint Blacksmiths should have been able to achieve!
Tang Wulin didn’t notice the reactions of the audience. In truth, this result was thanks to the cloud gold hammers he had borrowed. They were a spectacular pair of hammers that had accompanied Zhen Hua for many years. They had taken in some of his strength, which bolstered the tremor effect. Tang Wulin had been absorbing some of Zhen Hua’s essence every time he swung the hammers. He was also in perfect condition. This combination of factors helped him to just barely succeed in a saint-grade thousand refining.
However, he was not done yet!
Three purple soul rings rose up from beneath Tang Wulin. Soul power coursed through his body and into the cloud gold hammers. A cloudy, misty aura immediately materialized around the hammers. A breath of life came from them, and they suddenly grew lighter. As a result, Tang Wulin was able to wield them even faster than before.
The hammers moved in perfect sync, closing in on the pair of thousand refined metals like lightning. They struck with a resounding boom, smashing the two metals together!
The hardest part was over! From that point on, it would be smooth sailing.
Every strike of the cloud gold hammers held tremendous power and smashed the two metals closer and closer together. Tang Wulin used each blow to pour both life force and soul power into the metals, washing them from the inside out. The beam of light that stemmed from the two metals began warp, and the separate colors started intermingling and fusing together.
It was time to start forging the alloy!
The entire crowd collectively gasped. Where did this kid come from? He’s actually attempting to forge an alloy! Just how old is he! Not even the President could forge alloys at such a young age! It doesn’t look like this is his first time doing this either!
If it were up to the higher ranked blacksmiths, they would have spirit refined the metals then used both to forge an alloy. Yet Tang Wulin chose a different approach. He had jumped right to forging the alloy after thousand refining the metals. In the end, however, he ended up choosing this approach because of his weak soul power. He would deal with spirit refining the metals once they had actually been forged into alloys. This was all for the sake of his one-word battle armor after all. Heavy silver and star iron were needed to forge star silver, an alloy he needed to craft the rest of his one-word battle armor set in the future. To that end, thousand refined metal would be sufficient for the time being. He could think about spirit refining once he was more powerful and skilled. Besides, forging alloys was a walk in the park for him now.
Tang Wulin didn’t dare spirit refine the metals because the cloud gold hammers didn’t belong to him. He feared that the finished product wouldn’t be completely his if he did. He had actually considered spirit refining the alloy as well, but the chances of success weren’t too high. Furthermore, his current priority was to learn Zhen Hua’s alloy forging technique!
As Zhen Hua watched Tang Wulin assault the metals like a raging tempest, he subconsciously stepped forward to get a better look at the metals on the table. The heavy silver and star iron gradually fused into one, their resplendent auras merging together as well.
Tang Wulin maintained a steady forging tempo. His upper body never stopped moving, but his lower body remained an unshakeable foundation. He didn’t move a single inch from where he stood. Tang Wulin’s three soul rings thrummed in the hall, giving off a gentle light that seemed to envelop him.
He’s a three-ringed Soul Elder! And all of his rings are purple! No one dared ridicule Tang Wulin now. The gruff blacksmith who had voiced his doubts about Tang Wulin earlier was now staring at the scene before him with a blank expression. He was a third-rank blacksmith in the middle of delving into the mysteries of thousand refining. Tang Wulin, on the other hand, popped out of nowhere and showed off his skill as a fourth-rank blacksmith! I can’t believe I was mocking him…
All of Tang Wulin’s focus was on the two metals. He stared at them with rapt attention, watching every reaction as they fused. As he hammered away, he brought forth the skymoon powder, sprinkling it over the metals in between strikes. The powder coated the heavy silver and the star iron as they slowly mixed together. The results of this turned out just as Zhen Hua had said they would. The metals became tougher and harder to forge, but the chance of failure drastically decreased.
That was when Tang Wulin began to forge faster. The hardest part about forging an alloy was preserving the spiritual nature of the component metals used. Blacksmiths couldn’t let the spirit of the metals die, so they needed to use their spiritual power to protect the metals. Zhen Hua’s technique made this part of the process much easier.
And all it required was skymoon powder.
Tang Wulin could sense the profoundness of what was happening with the two metals. It didn’t take long before they completely fused into one alloy. The barest hints of a star silver’s splendor could now be seen.
But at that moment, Tang Wulin withdrew his soul rings.
Zhen Hua broke out into a cold sweat. Did his soul power run out?
But then a golden soul ring appeared, and he sensed Tang Wulin’s blood essence go wild.