Tang Wulin

"Damn! Chen Ming, you've gone too far! You actually got first place!"

"The rest of us are all ranked in the hundreds."

"I can't take it anymore! I never expected that beauties, novels, and gambling would hurt me this much... From today on, I swear off gambling and drugs! I am determined to cultivate!"

Seeing the monthly exam results posted, Huo Tian, Feng Rulang, and Lei Yuan wailed one after another. They didn't mind their brothers suffering, but they hated seeing their brothers get ahead.

"Isn't that a bit exaggerated? And why are your written exam scores so low? Shouldn't you have gotten perfect scores?"

Hearing this, Chen Ming felt it was an exaggeration. The main thing was that the test difficulty was very low, he hadn't put in much effort, and wasn't a perfect score on the written portion normal?

"You really deserve to die!"

"I can't do this! I can't go on like this! I need to study! I need to cultivate!"

"Chen Ming, you traitor! You actually ranked first!"

The three clowns wailed there. If the gap wasn't large, it would be one thing, but the best among them, Lei Yuan, was only ranked two hundred and third, while the worst, Feng Rulang, was around four hundredth.

There were ten freshman classes in total, with one hundred students in each class, totaling about one thousand people.

Chen Ming being able to take first place was purely because he was a well-rounded warrior. The second-ranked Lan Mengqin had perfect scores in the written exam, soul power, and spiritual power.

It was just that her strength and speed were not as good as Chen Ming's, missing two bonus points, which was why she was ranked below him.

Even though her written exam and spiritual power were both perfect scores like Chen Ming's, and her soul power was even higher than his, the lack of those two bonus points couldn't be made up for.

"Oh my, can you blame me for that? Let's go, time to eat."

"Let's go."

"How boring."

Chen Ming smiled and called for everyone to go eat. The other three followed with their heads hanging low, clearly not in the best of moods.

There were no classes in the afternoon because of the grade posting; the head teacher was in a good mood and didn't care about those who hadn't done well.

Thus, Chen Ming ran to the forging room to forge. As he brought his hammer down heavily, a piece of hundred-refined first-grade metal was completed.

[Forging Skill +50]

In one month, he had already become capable of completing hundred-refined first-grade work, but he hadn't yet grasped thousand-refining and could only study it bit by bit.

"Thousand-refining has spirit... thousand-refining... should I try using life energy?"

Chen Ming sat on a stool, pondering the teachings regarding thousand-refining. The path of forging was indeed not easy to walk, and Chen Ming thought of a method: using the life affinity of his Life Tree martial soul to let the metal gestate life.

However, metal gestating life seemed to be spirit-forging, while the elemental law power mastered by the Silver Dragon King corresponded to heaven-forging.

In other words, he only needed to handle thousand-refining, fusion-forging, and soul-forging, and he could leave the rest to his martial soul.

But clearly, one month was still too short, not enough for him to step into the territory of thousand-refining.

"Are you interested in forging?"

Just then, an untimely voice rang out. Chen Ming jerked his head up, instinctively pulled out his Silver Dragon Spear, and stood up in alert.

"When did you..."

Chen Ming noticed that at some point, a man with long black hair wearing white robes was already standing in front of the anvil, observing his hundred-refined first-grade work.

"Don't be nervous, I mean no harm. I... should also be a blacksmith. Do you want to learn forging?"

Seeing Chen Ming pull out the Silver Dragon Spear, ready to stab at any moment, the black-haired man immediately spoke in a gentle, soothing tone.

"Weirdo... do you know that appearing suddenly like this will scare people to death?"

Chen Ming looked at the man in front of him. This appearance, these words, combined with the other's strength and the slight resonance coming from his Silver Dragon King martial soul, he could be certain that the other person was Tang Wulin.

He hadn't expected to run into him so soon, and he wondered if the Silver Dragon Fish would also pop out just like the other party.

"My apologies, it was my lack of consideration... I just saw you forging, are you interested in it?"

"More or less. I've been researching thousand-refining lately. Looking at you, do you want to teach me how to forge?"

Chen Ming spun his spear, put it away, and figured that since Tang Wulin had delivered himself to his doorstep, he might as well take advantage of it.

Hearing this, Tang Wulin nodded immediately. He picked up a forging hammer, placed a piece of metal, and the forging memories of a Divine Craftsman flashed through his mind.

Then, he brought the hammer down heavily. With just one strike, the piece of raw sinking silver ore was completed into a hundred-refined first-grade piece.

Then another hammer fell—a thousand-refining strike. Spiritual light erupted, a ten-foot radiance of extreme thousand-refining. Following that, another strike, and the aura of life erupted—the creation of spirit-forging.

Finally, another piece of metal was taken out, and golden dragon scales appeared on Tang Wulin's right hand.

A slight sense of intimacy welled up, as if... he were his own son? This feeling made Chen Ming very surprised. Could it be that the purity of his Golden Dragon King martial soul and Silver Dragon King martial soul were both higher than the other's?

"Don't get distracted, the next strike is the final one."

Just as Chen Ming was lost in thought, Tang Wulin's gentle voice came, pulling his focus back.

As the other party brought the final hammer down heavily, the two pieces of metal instantly fused to complete the soul-forging—soul-forged jade silver.

Then, this piece of soul-forged jade silver transformed directly into two forging hammers, which Tang Wulin held in his hands.

"One strike for fusion-forging and soul-forging... you wouldn't happen to be a Divine Craftsman of this era... just wandering around Tiandou Planet, would you?"

Chen Ming looked at the soul-forged hammers in his hands in astonishment. Sure enough, the gap between him and a true forging master was still too vast.

"A Divine Craftsman, perhaps... Here, take this forging hammer. I hope you can become a Divine Craftsman yourself one day."

Tang Wulin handed over the forging hammer, feeling a sense of familiarity as he looked at the silver-haired, purple-eyed child before him.

"...Thanks."

"Come here. Follow my movements, and I'll teach you how to forge."

After Chen Ming took the forging hammer, Tang Wulin gestured for him to come closer and began to impart his forging techniques.

Under the guidance of a master, Chen Ming's success rate in forging first-grade hundred-refined metal had already reached ninety percent.

"You have a great talent for forging. Perhaps in a few months, you'll be able to attempt thousand-refinement, but for now, you should focus on building your foundation."

"If you have time in the future, you can come here to forge. I will come by to guide you."

"Aren't you busy?"

Hearing this, Chen Ming spoke subconsciously, wondering if Tang Wulin had become a pop star yet. He would have to check on that later.

Tang Wulin was stunned for a moment, thinking of the manager who had picked him up; he seemed to have forgotten about that person...

"Not busy. I don't have any work for the time being."

"Are you not taking any forging orders?"

"...Yeah."

"Then let me treat you to a meal. Consider it a thank you for teaching me how to forge."

Since the other party was teaching him, he couldn't just take advantage of him for free; he had to at least offer a meal as a gesture of gratitude.

"Alright."

Hearing this, the other party nodded, and then followed Chen Ming to find a restaurant that looked decent.

"Order whatever you like. I can still afford to pay for a meal."

Chen Ming flipped through the menu. His current savings were around one million, which was more than enough for a meal.

ps: The fourth update for February 22nd, totaling 8,000 words.