Chapter 92

"Clang—clang—clang—"

The hammering was regular, its rhythm steady.

It was not the dull thud of brute force smashing down, but a crisp sound with a distinct rhythm, like a pendulum, like a heartbeat.

With every strike, the Cold Iron Essence changed shape slightly.

From an irregular ingot, it gradually spread into a flat sheet.

The instant the hammer struck metal, sparks flew everywhere. Tiny fragments scattered onto the ground around the anvil, quickly cooling into gray-black fine powder.

Basic hidden weapon craftsmanship was so familiar to him that he could do it with his eyes closed.

Over the years, he had dealt with plenty of metal. He had engraved hundreds of core formations for Soul Tools already, so forging a few parts was nothing difficult.

He did not need to repeatedly experiment like a novice. With every hammer blow, he knew exactly what effect it would produce.

Which direction the metal would spread, how far it would spread, and where the next blow should land.

But what he was making today was not an ordinary hidden weapon.

As he forged, he ran through the structure in his mind.

The essence of Tang Sect hidden weapons lay in the precision of their mechanisms and the piercing power of specialized needles, but their weakness was obvious—springs, gears, linkage rods, and a whole pile of parts all had to be stuffed inside, so they could not be made very small.

Moreover, purely mechanical structures placed extremely high demands on a material's fatigue life. After prolonged use, springs would loosen and gears would wear down.

Soul Tools did not have such problems.

Soul Power Cores did not suffer mechanical wear, Soul Power Pulses had no delay, and energy output was far more stable than springs.

But Soul Tools had always followed the idea of