Forging in Progress

A few hours later, Elder Qian slowly came to.

Realizing he had fallen asleep, Elder Qian jolted upright. His eyes darted around as he searched everywhere for Shi Fen.

Seeing that Elder Qian had woken up, Shi Fen hurried over and said happily, "You're awake, Master. Did you get some good rest? Are you feeling more refreshed? I'm ready, so we can start forging whenever you are."

Elder Qian had only just woken up, and he still felt somewhat tired. A single nap wasn't enough to get rid of that kind of fatigue.

Elder Qian yawned and gestured for Shi Fen to begin.

Shi Fen immediately fired up the furnace, ready to forge the Youquan Blade again. While Elder Qian stretched and worked out the stiffness in his muscles to dispel the fatigue that had built up over the past few days, he watched every detail of Shi Fen's movements closely.

Shi Fen put on the Heat-Insulation Suit and placed six 20-kilogram chunks of Blue Gold in the furnace.

While the Blue Gold heated up, Shi Fen's Spiritual Force examined the Heat-Insulation Suit from every angle. The suit he'd bought could easily have passed for an astronaut's extravehicular spacesuit; it was extremely bulky. The Heat-Insulation Suits here, on the other hand, were practically skin-tight. The difference was enormous.

When it came to such high-grade materials, Shi Fen's curiosity was as instinctive as breathing. There was no holding it back.

"The design is so refined, and I've never seen the material before. I wonder what it's made of..."

The furnace had heated the Blue Gold to the target temperature. A clear ding rang out, interrupting Shi Fen's "wild imaginings."

This time, Shi Fen had no need to hide anything while forging the Youquan Blade. He planned to show Elder Qian a little of what he could do.

Two identical Forging Hammers flew off the rack and landed in Shi Fen's hands. He gripped them tightly as six golden-hot chunks of Blue Gold flew out of the furnace and hovered before him, radiating an astonishing heat.

Two incandescent chunks of Blue Gold separated from the rest and landed on the forging platform before him. Shi Fen swung both hammers and tapped the metal lightly. The hammers spun rapidly in his hands. He moved so fast that they seemed like two Shadowless Hammers, constantly "caressing" the Blue Gold.

After striking the Blue Gold a few times, Shi Fen used his Spiritual Force to bring down two more incandescent chunks onto the platform. His "Shadowless Hammers" flashed, and he immediately moved on to the final pair, repeating the process over and over.

The temperature of all six searing chunks of Blue Gold barely changed. They had hardly cooled at all by the time Shi Fen finished the initial forging. Every piece of metal had surpassed the limit of the Hundred-Refined God-Forging Steel stage.

In terms of quality, the incandescent Blue Gold could now be called "Two Hundred-Refined."

With his strength surging and all restrictions removed, Shi Fen had made a new breakthrough in forging. When it came to basic forging, his astonishing strength and ability to sense metal had revealed an entirely new path.

It seemed that "hundred-refined" wasn't the end.

There could be "thousand-refined," "ten-thousand-refined," and perhaps even higher levels beyond those.

The moment Elder Qian saw Shi Fen wielding both hammers, his eyes went wide. Seeing Shi Fen's incredibly "arrogant" forging technique left him completely stunned. If I hadn't rested, I might not have been able to see all the details. No wonder this kid told me to take a break...

While the Blue Gold was still hot enough, Shi Fen stacked the pieces together and moved on to the next stage of forging. He swung the hammers quickly and precisely. Now the Blue Gold's "slow heat loss" had become a burden instead.

Shi Fen let go, leaving the hammers floating beside him, then walked over to Elder Qian and started making small talk.

"Master, I told you that you needed to get some rest. I've been hammering away at the air countless times over the past few days. My hammer technique's not bad, is it?" Shi Fen blinked innocently.

Elder Qian fell silent.

It was a long while before Elder Qian finally replied, fighting to keep his voice calm and putting on the air of an expert despite his guilty conscience. "It's not bad."

Elder Qian seemed calm on the surface, but inside, he was already cursing. How can this kid be so freakish? Even with Spiritual Force to help him, it shouldn't be this ridiculous.

Elder Qian had a disciple who was a Spiritual Master.

That disciple had reached the level of an intermediate War God, but his forging ability was nowhere near Shi Fen's—not by a long shot. Spiritual Force really had helped him a great deal. By sensing the metal's interior, he had improved rapidly at forging.

Even so, it would still take him a long time to reach Elder Qian's level, and he would only then have a chance of catching up.

As if he'd thought of something, Elder Qian hurriedly asked Shi Fen, "Why are you swinging the hammers so fast? Aren't you worried you'll make a mistake?"

"I'm not swinging them fast. I just calculate quickly in my head, so my hands move almost automatically. I've already held back to improve my chances of success," Shi Fen said "modestly."

"Holy crap!" Elder Qian blurted out, unable to stop himself. His expression was a sight to behold. The initial shock gradually gave way to intense envy and resentment.

"I'm going to cut the metal."

Seeing that things were taking a turn, Shi Fen immediately made himself scarce.

Elder Qian's feelings were a tangled mess.

Elder Qian watched as Shi Fen skillfully cut the metal, heated it, and forged it again.

Shi Fen's technique and every other aspect of his work were flawless. Every operation was practically "textbook-perfect." How am I supposed to teach a disciple like this? What could I even teach him?

Elder Qian was at his wits' end.

Shi Fen worked quickly, without a single unnecessary movement. He didn't dare chat with Elder Qian again. To help the weapon blank cool as quickly as possible, he picked up a fan and blew on it vigorously.

It took him very little time to finish making the rough weapon blank and two scrap-metal daggers.

Working deftly, Shi Fen mixed the special mud used for coating. This time, he didn't use his hands. Instead, he used his Spiritual Force to spread an even layer of mud over the weapon blank.

Quenching, fitting the hilt, polishing, sharpening, acid-washing...

It took a little over an hour.

Shi Fen handed Elder Qian a brand-new Youquan Blade and two Chrysanthemum Pattern Flying Daggers.

Elder Qian turned the blade over and inspected it carefully. To his astonishment, the new Youquan Blade was almost identical to the old one in every way: its patterns, its shape, even the distribution of weight along the blade.

If it weren't for the tests proving that the new Youquan Blade was better quality, Elder Qian would have thought it was a duplicate.

The new Youquan Blade and the two flying daggers had all reached Series 7 quality. The Youquan Blade was light, weighing only 108 jin, but it was more than enough for a Beginner War God to fight with. To forge a blade of this quality from Blue Gold took skill that could only be called divine.

Elder Qian knew he could do the same. He could use Blue Gold to forge cold weapons of this level, and his weapons would be better than Shi Fen's. But he absolutely couldn't produce patterns so uniform and precise.

"Who's teaching whom here?" Elder Qian was completely dumbfounded.

"This Youquan Blade has reached Series 7?" Shi Fen was pleasantly surprised. He hadn't expected the forging effect of breaking through from "hundred-refined" to "two hundred-refined" to be so impressive.

"It has," Elder Qian confirmed. After a brief pause, he continued, "Your foundation in forging is incredibly solid. It looks like I don't need to teach you that part. We can go straight to experiments at a higher level."

Shi Fen nodded, keeping his expression composed and showing no trace of smugness. He said excitedly, "That's great! I want to try out my method and see if I can forge an even higher-grade Kro Alloy."

Elder Qian pressed one hand down in the air, signaling Shi Fen not to get carried away. Suppressing his shock, he became very serious. "Not yet. First, forge every kind of cold weapon, then we'll talk.

"You've had too few chances to work with high-grade materials, so you don't have much forging experience with them. Your technical foundation is solid, but you need to build an equally solid foundation in understanding the properties of different materials."

"All right, Master. I'll listen to you," Shi Fen answered obediently.

Elder Qian was very pleased with Shi Fen's attitude. He handed the new Youquan Blade and the two flying daggers to Shi Fen and said with satisfaction, "You can keep the weapons you forged yourself. I don't need these. How can you train your martial skills and Spiritual Force without weapons?"

"Sure!"

Shi Fen's eyes lit up. Weapons were extremely scarce for him. He was now the "poorest" invincible War God in the world.

He didn't own a single high-grade weapon.

The Youquan Blade solved his immediate problem and gave him a chance to practice his swordsmanship. Shi Fen didn't know what kind of weapon he was best suited to use. He would have to find the right one for himself while learning various manuals.

From that day on...

The old man and the young one were like "internet-addicted teenagers" who couldn't tear themselves away from an internet café, spending every day in the Forging Room.

Elder Qian stood by and instructed Shi Fen, teaching him how to use Kro Alloy made from various monster materials to forge weapons best suited to each type of metal. Shi Fen obediently followed Elder Qian's instructions, turning out weapons like he was on an assembly line.

They started with standard Series 1 weapons, forging every kind of common cold weapon.

This kind of forging was easy for Shi Fen. For weapons below Series 6, all he had to do was heat the Kro Alloy of the corresponding grade and forge it into shape. The weapons relied entirely on the properties of the material itself.

The craftsmanship of these weapons was extremely crude and simple.

Shi Fen could hardly make use of any of his abilities.

Shi Fen became a "production line," like a forging machine. He never made a single mistake, rapidly turning out one weapon after another.

Starting with standard Series 7 weapons, the process became a little more complicated. Even so, with Shi Fen's strength and skill, forging the weapons was still easy. He could keep turning them out quickly, just like on an assembly line.

Standard Series 8 weapons, standard Series 9 weapons, standard S-class weapons, standard SS-class weapons...

Shi Fen charged forward, making one breakthrough after another.

Shi Fen forged like mad day and night. In just over three months, he quickly cleared all the "hurdles" Elder Qian had set for him.

As a result, Shi Fen acquired a complete set of SS-class equipment. He made thirty flying daggers alone. He also forged two of every common weapon—knives, swords, staves, clubs, spears, shields, and so on. He handed one of each to Elder Qian as proof of his progress and left the other in the Forging Room for martial-skills training.

Seeing how hard Shi Fen worked at forging, Elder Qian was extremely generous. He sent all the weapons Shi Fen had forged to the Extreme Martial Arts Hall to be sold. He didn't keep a single bit of the profits, transferring every last cent straight to Shi Fen's account.

He also gave Shi Fen another bottle of Spirit of Vegetation liquor, so he could quickly recover the energy he spent forging and raise his physical fitness to the War God limit. Shi Fen learned from Elder Qian that it was concentrated liquor made by soaking Millennium Black Crow Root. Its effects were astonishing: half a jin of liquor was as potent as half a portion of Millennium Black Crow Root. Shi Fen didn't dare drink a single drop for three months. He planned to save it for his family and forcibly boost their strength.

Once the forging was done, the two tacitly agreed to take seven days off. Even an iron man couldn't keep going nonstop for over three months.

When it was time to rest, they needed to rest.

Shi Fen planned to go home for a few days. His family had moved into a new villa, and he'd only spent one night there. That was a little strange.

Now that he was going back, he could boost his family's strength.

For the past three months, in order to raise his strength as quickly as possible, Shi Fen had forced himself to train every night despite his exhaustion. He trained under the extreme gravity of his Inner World, hanging several of the lowest-grade World Rings on himself to increase the weight he carried as he practiced martial skills and improved his physical fitness.

By pushing himself to the limit, Shi Fen had managed to raise his strength to over 350,000 kilograms in just three months. Without using any other methods, he'd gained 50,000 kilograms of strength in three months—an average of 500 kilograms a day.

Those training results could scare the life out of a whole crowd of War Gods.

He had the Inner World and the remaining medicinal power in his body to thank for breaking through so quickly.

After becoming a War God, Shi Fen could finally lift the World Rings of the intermediate grade.

An intermediate-grade World Ring weighed an astonishing 30,000 kilograms. Shi Fen was truly stunned that such a small World Ring could be made of a material with such an incredible density. Its material was far denser than Red Chaos Copper Mother. Shi Fen couldn't imagine what grade of material it was.

Could it be G-grade?

Shi Fen could only guess high.

Even the strongest Spiritual Force he currently possessed couldn't budge the highest-grade World Ring by so much as an inch. It must weigh at least a million jin.

The better the material, the more excited Shi Fen became.

When the time came, the rings would surely fetch a price that satisfied him.

On the ground of the Treasure Refining World, the transparent little box filled with Storage Cards was still sitting motionless. Shi Fen had tried many times to use the World Power of his World Ring to move it, but he still hadn't managed to put it back.

Shi Fen still had a very long road ahead of him...