The Primordial Universe.
The Milky Way Galaxy, Earth.
Jiangnan Base City, Yangzhou City.
South Bank Residential District.
Inside the mysterious Virtual Trial Space.
Shi Fen leaned against the edge of the forging table.
One of his hands loosely gripped a Forging Hammer of exaggerated size and strange design. Its head was over 30 centimeters in diameter, much larger than a normal-sized watermelon.
At that moment,
his eyes held a trace of confusion.
On the anvil before Shi Fen lay a piece of iron glowing dark red and giving off residual heat. As Shi Fen sat there in a daze, it gradually cooled into a square, pitch-black block.
The forging genius in the eyes of his family and friends was now like a salted fish, having lost faith in the future.
Shi Fen was completely lost.
The 18-year deadline was drawing closer and closer.
For more than two whole years,
Shi Fen had been stuck at the eighth substage of the Treasure Refining Inheritance. He had made no progress at all in all that time. Forget the final ninth stage—he couldn't even feel his way to its threshold.
If he failed to reach the final ninth stage, he wouldn't be able to meet the trial's requirements or obtain the "extra reward" of the Treasure Refining Inheritance.
In Shi Fen's mind, the mysterious powerhouse who had given him the Treasure Refining Inheritance was a mighty, godlike being, possessing terrifying strength and unfathomable methods. This great being had personally told him that he might complete the first stage of the Treasure Refining Inheritance's "Qualification Trial" before turning eighteen.
So,
for all eighteen years, Shi Fen had steeled himself and worked desperately to study and practice.
It wasn't just for the reward. He also wanted to prove himself. The mighty being who had sent him to the Swallowed Star World had said he could do it, so he had to succeed—and even do it ahead of time.
Those eighteen years had been agonizing for Shi Fen.
For eighteen years, he had lived a "maxed-out senior-year schedule," going almost twenty-four hours a day without a break, all year round. His mind and body had constantly endured the pressure of the Treasure Refining Inheritance.
As the deadline drew nearer, Shi Fen's pressure grew heavier and heavier, and his anxiety intensified until he was on the verge of breaking down.
Even after working so desperately,
the result had dealt him a crushing blow. He had almost lost all confidence in himself.
The last shred of Shi Fen's reason told him that there were still a little over two months until the deadline. If he was going to break down, he could at least wait until after his eighteenth birthday. He still had a chance; he couldn't fall now.
Before being reincarnated into this world, Shi Fen had been one of the world's foremost experts in materials science and a legendary scientist who had made a name for himself in Huaxia Country. Thanks to his intelligence and talent, he had won countless honors and amassed great wealth in his previous life.
When he was young and full of ambition, he had contracted a strange illness so severe that it destroyed his prospects. After a brief period of despair, he chose to face the illness head-on. Following a period of recovery, Shi Fen returned to the front lines of major research projects and took up the challenge of overcoming the toughest problems in materials science once more.
His battle against the illness lasted more than thirty years.
He fought against heaven and fate. With his iron will, Shi Fen created a medical miracle, stealing years of life from the King of Hell and surviving to the age of sixty-one.
But an accident in his fifties disrupted his struggle against fate. The intense shock left Shi Fen unconscious in a hospital bed for three years. When he awoke, he knew he didn't have much time left.
After making arrangements for what would happen after his death,
it wasn't long before Shi Fen could no longer hold on and collapsed in his study.
Although Shi Fen had never married or had children in his previous life,
he hadn't left this world alone.
Outside the study were hundreds of children from the orphanage he owned. He had taken them all in. They were his children, each one dear to his heart.
Inside the study were the works that represented his life's achievements, the books he had treasured throughout his life, scientific materials from his work, as well as philosophical masterpieces, theological classics, works of world literature, and all kinds of novels he had loved reading as a child.
Realizing that he was about to die,
Shi Fen opened the aged wine his father had kept for him. He savored the fine liquor he had long wanted to drink but had never dared to, and leafed through the science-fiction novels he had loved most as a child.
With a smile on his face, Shi Fen left this world.
A man who had fought against heaven all his life had ultimately been taken away by heaven.
Perhaps good people were rewarded.
As he had wished, Shi Fen arrived in the Swallowed Star World, the world he loved most. There, he began a new life.
To fit into this new world,
Shi Fen tried not to rely on the experience from his previous life. He deliberately "dumbed himself down," imitating the way the children he had adopted used to act, making himself seem like a real child instead of an old monster reborn.
For eighteen years, not one person had noticed anything. Shi Fen had hidden it well.
It was precisely the complex and arduous experiences of his previous life that had allowed Shi Fen to endure the eighteen years of grueling pressure. In this extraordinary world, he had to figure out the Treasure Refining Inheritance on his own, teaching himself in silence and attempting to forge countless times.
It was Shi Fen's sheer tenacity
that had let him improve at a speed beyond ordinary comprehension. At just sixteen, he had reached the eighth substage of the "Qualification Trial."
The content of the seventh, eighth, and ninth substages,
was a forging method that completely defied common sense.
Through forging, this method could change the state of metal atoms, break the "metallic bonds" between them, and force individual metal atoms to fit together, "compressing" the metal's volume.
The "iron blocks" forged this way had metal properties many times better than ordinary iron.
Shi Fen had now fully mastered the eighth substage, which allowed him to compress metal ninefold. He had tested this metal, and its properties were off the charts. Its strength, toughness, wear resistance, corrosion resistance, and other specifications were absurdly high.
In his previous life, he had used every available technological method to create all kinds of advanced materials.
Those materials had been national treasures. Yet compared with the properties of Nine-Fold Iron, they were thoroughly outclassed in every way.
The difference between them couldn't be measured in ordinary terms.
And this was only the compressed iron of the eighth substage.
The ninth substage was the pinnacle: it could "compress" metal a hundredfold.
If Nine-Fold Iron was already this impressive, then Hundred-Fold Iron could probably be called "God Iron."
Using data he found online, Shi Fen had made careful calculations.
By conservative estimates,
Hundred-Fold Iron could easily serve as the main material for SSS-grade weapons and equipment, and could even be used to make SSS-Grade Weapons.
SSS-grade weapons and equipment were the "standard combat loadout" of Invincible War Gods and powerful councilors. When they used weapons of that level in battle and unleashed their full strength, their weapons wouldn't break easily.
That showed just how powerful the properties of Hundred-Fold Iron were.
At present, Shi Fen couldn't compress metal a hundredfold. He couldn't even manage a ninety-onefold compression. He had been stuck at this bottleneck for two whole years, with no clue how to overcome it.
Shi Fen had thought of many possible reasons.
The most likely explanation
was that he first needed to awaken his Spiritual Force. With the help of Spiritual Force, forging should become far more effective, allowing him to seize the opportunity and break through.
After realizing he couldn't make any more progress, Shi Fen had spent the last two years frantically building a foundation. He had used equipment to manufacture all kinds of specialty steels, then practiced from every angle. He had also trained with all his might, hoping to awaken his Spiritual Force as soon as possible.
Each new kind of steel had a different internal composition, which meant a completely new path to forging Nine-Fold Iron.
So whenever he switched to a new material, Shi Fen couldn't forge it into Nine-Fold Iron right away. He had to improve little by little, gradually mastering the forging method for that metal.
Over the past two years, Shi Fen had mastered the methods for forging Nine-Fold Iron from a total of fifty-two kinds of metal, laying a solid foundation.
There were only about two months left until his eighteenth birthday. Shi Fen's physical fitness was already close to the Quasi-Fighter threshold.
He could feel strange changes in his body lately. They were signs that his Spiritual Force was on the verge of awakening. He sensed that he would fully awaken it within a week or two at most.
He hadn't dared to waste those one or two weeks. He kept practicing the fifty-two forging methods and trained even more furiously.
But when he actually began to "review his lessons," Shi Fen froze. He finished practicing all fifty-two forging methods in less than three hours. Each method took him less than three and a half minutes on average.
It was this excessive familiarity that left Shi Fen completely lost and desperate.
He couldn't understand why, despite having become so strong, he still couldn't break through the limit of the eighth substage.
Shi Fen watched the lump of metal gradually cool before him. As he slowly came to his senses, he put down the hammer. For once, he didn't tidy up his workspace, leaving the mess where it was as his figure gradually faded and he left this special Virtual Trial Space.
The Virtual Trial Space was inside Shi Fen's Sea of Consciousness.
He could enter that special Virtual Trial Space through the Golden Light Sphere at the center of his Sea of Consciousness.
His consciousness recovered very quickly inside the Virtual Trial Space. Resting there for ten minutes was more effective than sleeping outside for eight hours. So even if he stayed there for seven days and nights, working nonstop, he wouldn't feel tired.
Thanks to this special trait,
Shi Fen had forced himself not to sleep, refusing to waste time on it. He had pushed himself as hard as he could, hoping to break through as quickly as possible.
For all eighteen years, Shi Fen had been a tireless workhorse.
The Golden Light Sphere at the center of his Sea of Consciousness released energy at an extremely slow pace, gradually improving his physical fitness. Without this miraculous effect, Shi Fen wouldn't have been able to practice forging every day and still come close to the Quasi-Fighter standard before turning eighteen.
If he weren't so weak that he still needed food to nourish his body, then with his drive, Shi Fen would definitely have stayed inside without coming out at all.
Shi Fen's consciousness returned to his body, and he immediately opened his eyes to check the time.
"It's only a little after seven in the evening."
"I won't forge anymore tonight. I'll go for a walk and relax."
He figured a little relaxation might help him awaken his Spiritual Force sooner if he was lucky. After all, less than two months remained. He wanted to use that last bit of time to push for the ninth substage's "hundredfold compression."
"Luo Feng's probably studying at this hour, right? The economics books I ordered for Luo Hua arrived, so I might as well drop by and see them tonight." Shi Fen glanced at the large stack of unopened packages beside his bedroom door and quickly made up his mind.
Shi Fen picked up the whole stack of packages, opened the door, and went outside. He locked it with one hand and strode toward Luo Feng's house.
His house and Luo Feng's were separated by only one wall.
Shi Fen had barely walked a few steps before reaching Luo Feng's front door. With his free hand, he gave it a light knock and called out with a familiar smile, "Uncle, Auntie, it's Shi Fen. I'm here to visit!"
Not only had Shi Fen arrived in the Swallowed Star World, he had also happened to become Luo Feng's neighbor. Over the past eighteen years, they had grown up side by side.
After nearly eighteen years of growing up together, Shi Fen and Luo Feng had become brothers who could talk about anything.
Shi Fen wasn't just Luo Feng's neighbor; they had also been born on the same day, though Luo Feng was about an hour older.
Shi Fen didn't care much about that. Being reborn was already an immense stroke of luck—how could he dare ask for anything more?
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