Speedrun Forging Career

"Very good." Leng Yaozhu's gaze softened considerably as she said to Zhen Hua, "Since Liujing has taken you as his master first, and forging is the most arduous and difficult of the four major professions to get started with, he will be taught by you first. After two and a half years, you can hand him over to me." Leng Yaozhu was very confident that the cultivation resources Zhen Hua possessed were no less than her own.

Zhen Hua nodded, "Alright." Two and a half years, which would be when Nan Liujing was eight and a half years old, was enough time for him to train him to a Fourth Grade Blacksmith, or even a Fifth Grade Blacksmith. When the teaching rights were transferred, this child could also settle down.

Nan Liujing, who was eavesdropping, twitched the corner of his mouth. What was this? Was he becoming an "intern"?

After settling the ownership of the "intern" Nan Liujing, Leng Yaozhu changed the subject and explained the other reason for coming to Heaven Dou City.

She needed Zhen Hua to forge at least four pieces of fire-attribute Heavenly Forging Metal. The purpose was to perfect her Four-word Battle Armor.

Relying on the Nourishing Method, or the pseudo Four-word Battle Armor painstakingly crafted by six Saint Craftsmen working together, was ultimately inferior to a Four-word Battle Armor made of pure Heavenly Forging Metal.

Leng Yaozhu had no intention of troubling Zhen Hua to forge all the Heavenly Forging Metal needed for a complete Battle Armor; that would take too much time. So, she came up with a method: using the Nourishing Method to integrate Heavenly Forging Metal into her existing Battle Armor to enhance its strength. This had already been tested and proven feasible with a piece of metal Zhen Hua had given her in advance.

After explaining these matters, Leng Yaozhu left the Blacksmith Association like a hands-off manager, naturally not forgetting to take Nan Liujing home.

Time flew by.

Starting from the day after Leng Yaozhu left, Nan Liujing officially began his happy forging career.

Compared to others who had to endure tedium and accumulate experience when entering this profession, Nan Liujing, relying on his affinity with metal, could achieve Hundred Forging Purification almost effortlessly as long as it didn't exceed the level of Deep Silver among the mid-to-low-tier rare metals. He benefited from communicating with the innate spirituality of the metal.

Because the innate spirituality would actively tell him where it needed "massaged," removing impurities was not difficult at all.

In short, it was always on.

Of course, relying solely on cheats wasn't enough. Nan Liujing had also tried to purify higher-level metals without the help of the Plane Imprint. The success rate wasn't as high, but through repeated tempering, his proficiency was no weaker than that of veteran blacksmiths.

The pain of his soul shattering in childhood had made his mentality incredibly stable, which was what Zhen Hua was most satisfied with.

In the second month of formal forging, Nan Liujing could perform Hundred Forging Purification on all metals stored by the Blacksmith Association that did not exceed the Deep Silver tier and forge them into parts of different types. Thus, he received special permission from Zhen Hua and was promoted to Second Grade Blacksmith. At this time, he was six years and two months old.

The only thing the cheats couldn't compensate for was Nan Liujing's insufficient knowledge of these hundreds of metals.

It was like having Wind Spirit Moon Shadow, being able to instantly kill bosses, but only discovering after the kill that you had no idea how the boss fought or what its skills were.

Starting from the fourth month, Nan Liujing began to advance to Thousand Forging.

Thousand Forging focused on solidifying characteristics. Every metal had many characteristics. The difficulty of specifying and solidifying a particular characteristic was extremely high; blacksmiths often solidified characteristics randomly. For example, the Stacked Hammer characteristic possessed by Tang Wulin's Deep Silver forging hammer was why Mang Tian said he was lucky to have solidified an excellent characteristic.

After successfully solidifying a characteristic, the grade was determined by the strength of the solidified characteristic, ranging from First Grade to Fifth Grade, from high to low.

A prominent feature of characteristics was the light that leaped out of the metal after successful forging. A height of half a foot was Fifth Grade, and for every additional half a foot in height, the grade increased by one.

Among them, Thousand Forging First Grade was known as Spirit Forging, half a step into Spirit Forging, and began to imbue metals with external spirituality.

Thousand Forging Second Grade would allow the metal to be imbued with the blacksmith's life aura, amplifying its characteristics, with a guaranteed increase of at least ten percent in Soul Power. It was typically used for Purple-tier Mecha or even One-word Battle Armor.

In short, metal characteristics were like a Soul Master's Soul Skills, with some being weak and others strong, and a wide variety of types. The strength of the grade also determined the strength of the characteristics of the same metal.

According to the regulations of the Blacksmith Association, a Level 3 Blacksmith needed to successfully solidify the characteristic of one type of metal, regardless of the metal type.

A Fourth Grade Blacksmith, however, needed to consecutively solidify the characteristics of two Thousand Forging metals and forge them into a specified shape.

There was a special exception: if a Level 3 Blacksmith solidified a characteristic of Thousand Forging metal to Second Grade during forging, they could be directly promoted to Fourth Grade Blacksmith.

Under Zhen Hua's careful guidance and the cheats provided by the Plane Imprint, Nan Liujing quickly completed the solidification of over twenty different Thousand Forging metal characteristics, including some at the Second Grade level.

Logically speaking, he should have been promoted to Fourth Grade Blacksmith, but Zhen Hua's requirements were extremely high. Thousand Forging of ordinary and low-tier rare metals was simply not enough.

Only when Nan Liujing successfully forged mid-tier rare metals to the Second Grade level would he be considered promoted.

At this point, after two months of refinement, he was only six and a half years old. Tang Wulin, on the other hand, became a Fourth Grade Blacksmith around the age of ten.

Being a Fourth Grade Blacksmith at six and a half years old meant what?

It meant that ordinary people who were not Soul Masters, who had to accumulate decades of experience and maintain sufficient Blood Essence during that time to reach the summit, were seen by Nan Liujing at the age of six and a half.

If it weren't for the fact that Thousand Forging First Grade and even Spirit Forging required sufficient Soul Power, Divine Power, and physical stamina, and the assistance provided by the Plane Imprint was still insufficient, Nan Liujing would even have qualified to attempt Spirit Forging.

At home.

"What kind of Martial Soul do you think Na'er can awaken?" Ye Xinglan gently nudged Nan Liujing with her shoulder. After half a year of getting along, their relationship had become very close.

"I don't know."

Nan Liujing looked at Na'er, who was undergoing Martial Soul awakening with the help of Ye Changming, and frowned. In the original timeline, Na'er only obtained her Martial Soul after reuniting with Gu Yue. He wasn't sure if this life would change that.

In the vast room, gentle Soul Power light converged on Na'er, attempting to activate the Martial Soul hidden within her.

However, under Ye Xinglan's extremely expectant gaze, even as Ye Changming's Soul Power was about to overload the awakening stone, there was no Martial Soul fluctuation on Na'er's body.

"No Martial Soul?" Even Ye Changming, a knowledgeable and experienced expert, was somewhat stunned as he looked at the exquisite and cute silver-haired loli before him.

Na'er slowly opened her eyes, a strange light appearing in her purple pupils.

Ye Changming left, saying he was going to get a different awakening stone.

Ye Xinglan hugged the silent Na'er with concern, "It's okay, Na'er. Even if you don't have a Martial Soul, you still have Brother and Sister. If anyone dares to bully you, I'll beat them to death."

"Don't worry, Sister Xinglan. I'm fine." Na'er had remained very calm throughout.

Ye Xinglan felt a little worried, but suddenly Na'er reached out and hugged Nan Liujing, "Brother, hug."

The little loli carried a faint, fresh scent. Nan Liujing dotingly pulled her into his embrace. Half a year had passed, and Na'er hadn't grown even a centimeter.

Na'er's fair arms tightly wrapped around Nan Liujing's body, her small face buried in his chest.

Ye Xinglan watched this scene with great envy, pouting, "Brother is still the best, Sister just doesn't compare."

Nan Liujing retorted irritably, "When we sleep at night, Na'er is practically your body pillow, isn't that enough?"

Ye Xinglan chuckled awkwardly at his words, "Who can blame me when Na'er is so soft and fragrant, so comfortable to hold?"

As the two bickered back and forth in their daily routine, neither of them noticed the increasingly intense radiance flowing within Na'er's purple eyes.

Her fair, tender hands unconsciously tightened their grip on Nan Liujing's clothes.

Two years later.

Blacksmith Association Headquarters, Forge Room.

Zhen Hua stood with his arms crossed, calmly observing the disciple holding the Cloud Gold Forging Hammer.

As agreed, the two-and-a-half-year period had arrived, and it was time for Nan Liujing to head to Shrek City to receive guidance from Heavenly Phoenix Douluo. Therefore, Zhen Hua had specifically chosen this day for his disciple to attempt Spirit Forging.

Nan Liujing's gaze was sharp as he examined a rare metal called Thunder Silver. In terms of metal tiers, it was comparable to Deep Sea Deep Silver.

The metal was a cold, tension-filled silver-gray, its surface not smooth like a mirror but covered in fine, lightning-shaped natural patterns, as if struck by lightning.

"Begin," Zhen Hua said in a deep voice.

Nan Liujing nodded and pressed the button on the forging platform. The metal was immediately drawn in for calcination.

A moment later, the red-hot Thunder Silver reappeared.

Nan Liujing took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and the space around his body faintly emanated a distorted silver dark light. Two years ago, he had already fused with the Evil Eye External Soul Bone given to him by Zhen Hua, which had caused his divine power to surge significantly. To this day, his divine power had reached 485, nearing the Spirit Sea Realm.

As the Thunder Silver came into contact with the divine power fluctuations, it responded instantly. The increase in divine power allowed Nan Liujing to communicate with the metal's innate spirituality more smoothly.

His right arm shot up, the sound of it breaking through the air tearing through the heatwaves of calcination, and smashed down heavily on the side of the Thunder Silver. With a loud "dong," fine electric light flickered within the metal.

With just one strike, the chaotic lightning lines within the metal became slightly more orderly.

The purification of Thunder Silver did not remove impurities but rather smoothed out the dense lightning lines within.

"Dong." Without any pause, Nan Liujing, like a machine, precisely locked onto the positions where the lightning lines intertwined. Each strike, aided by the "shock" characteristic of the forging hammer, helped him untangle them better.

In just eight hammer blows, with surgical precision in their landing points, the Thunder Silver had undergone the initial Hundred Forging Purification.

Visually, the intricate lightning lines within the Thunder Silver resembled a traffic jam clearing up, with occasional flashes of electricity darting through.

Nan Liujing didn't stop. Starting from the ninth hammer blow, he began communicating with the innate spirituality to complete the selection and solidification of characteristics.

Solidifying characteristics was the most demanding aspect for a blacksmith, representing the ultimate limit for ordinary people who were not Soul Masters.

Characteristics were like hungry children; each feeding (hammer strike) had to be precise. Too much could lead to obesity, too little to stunted growth. Furthermore, one had to guide the characteristic along the correct path before it solidified.

Otherwise, if it went astray and intersected with other characteristics, it would become a mishmash, like a failed Martial Soul mutation, turning a Golden Sacred Dragon into a pig that could only fart.

For other blacksmiths, this step was like walking a tightrope. But Nan Liujing was different. With his ability to communicate with innate spirituality, he fed with unparalleled accuracy, injecting every drop of energy into the characteristic.

A faint heat emanated from Nan Liujing, his bloodline power.

Gradually, under Zhen Hua's gaze, the Thunder Silver involuntarily began to emit a deep, cold light, its interior appearing overcast, yet with faint flashes appearing.

Infused with the aura of blood essence, the metal's characteristics received an amplification, a typical Thousand Forging Second Grade.

Nan Liujing's forging technique was like playing a piano, sometimes swift, sometimes gentle.

Finally, as the forging hammer fell again, accompanied by a pleasant "ding" sound, Nan Liujing's eyes narrowed. This was the prompt for successful solidification.

He gripped the forging hammer tightly with both hands and brought it down with the force of splitting a mountain.

With a thunderous roar, the Thunder Silver seemed to undergo a super evolution. Its volume shrunk, and a deep silver-blue light erupted from its entire body. It rose to over four feet, a faint, ethereal thunder dragon floating above, emitting a high-pitched dragon's roar.

Thousand Forging First Grade!

Almost instantly, two purple soul rings rose from Nan Liujing, and his dark blue eyes burst forth with a bright silver glint.

Soul power and divine power fully unleashed!

His technique immediately turned into a gentle drizzle. His soul power gathered on the forging hammer, and as it fell, it continuously produced pleasant "ding ding ding" sounds on the metal.

Threads of soul power were injected into the metal from different positions with each strike, establishing a bridge for external and internal communication and external spirituality. The innate spirituality had already communicated with Nan Liujing in advance, eagerly emerging to seek the location of the external spirituality.

For an ordinary blacksmith, this step would be a stumbling block. Most of their strength would be spent searching for the innate spirituality, leaving them with insufficient power for what followed. This was why ancient blacksmiths forged metal using the external spirituality they imparted themselves, as it was too difficult otherwise.

To this day, although Zhen Hua had pioneered the concept of innate spirituality, many ordinary blacksmiths who had no hope of achieving Heavenly Forging still relied on the old methods. After all, unless it was Heavenly Forging, there wasn't much difference between the two forging methods.

At this moment, electric light swirled around Nan Liujing, and the Dragon Subduing Staff flew out, hovering above the metal. It was like a fixed device; every ten strikes Nan Liujing completed, the Dragon Subduing Staff would descend and strike the metal surface. The Dragon Subduing Staff, imbued with the Soul Spirit of the Thunderclap Nether Vine, would immediately unleash astonishing lightning elemental energy fluctuations.

This was like a firework in the night, visible from afar.

The innate spirituality of the Thunder Silver, utilizing this energy, quickly found the external spirituality and was drawn into the bridge connecting with the outside world.

Visibly, Nan Liujing's soul power decreased like a leaking bottle.

Sensing Nan Liujing's abundant bloodline power, the innate spirituality of the Thunder Silver began to boldly interact with the external life elements, then construct its own life system.

From this point on, forging was no longer the difficult part; maintaining stability was the most crucial aspect.

Subtle, invisible world essence began to converge towards Nan Liujing, helping him maintain his soul power output. This was also the confidence Zhen Hua had in allowing his disciple to attempt Spirit Forging.

A graceful, bright blue radiance gradually lit up within the Thunder Silver as time passed, signaling the birth of a new life.

Nan Liujing's eyes flickered. While continuing to strike, he casually popped a pre-prepared Golden Dragon Candy into his mouth.

As the rich energy poured into his internal organs, a faint golden light appeared on his skin.

Zhen Hua raised an eyebrow. He heard a rushing sound within his disciple's body, clearly the power of blood. But it was a pity. If this were true bloodline power and not a Soul Skill, he could have recommended his disciple to a friend.

Feeling the surging bloodline power, his innate spirituality, borrowing this power, felt the speed of life elements in the world suddenly surge.

With each strike that fell, its volume shrank. Fifteen minutes later, the entire piece of Thunder Silver began to tremble violently.

"Thunderclap!"

Nan Liujing let out a low shout. Instantly, from the Dragon Subduing Staff, a strangely shaped plant leaped out. It was the Soul Spirit, Thunderclap Nether Vine.

Ten vines, like lightning rods, drew in astonishing Lightning power, which struck into the forging hammer. Nan Liujing then slammed it down again.

With a boom.

A strong life aura was born, and a whimpering sound, almost audible, echoed in his ears. The entire piece of Thunder Silver now bore lightning patterns like the eye of a storm, with delicate halos appearing around it, extremely magnificent.

Nan Liujing panted, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

Spirit Forging was a success!

The solidified trait is original, or at least, I think it is. I haven't seen any other fanfiction write about it. It's a supplement to the setting, and it won't appear too often later on, so don't worry.