Opportunity and Breakthrough

Wei Wen knew in his heart that Shi Fen was just trying to comfort him.

His own talent, compared to Shi Tian, was actually about the same. Yet, he still felt a sense of pride. As a high school senior, he had only used his meager weekend leisure time to study forging, and he had already made tremendous progress.

Because of Shi Fen's "seclusion," Shi Tian had taken over as his primary instructor. Changing teachers had not hindered Wei Wen's rapid improvement.

A few weeks ago, he had followed Shi Tian's lead, using refined steel to learn the forging of weapon blanks. During one of his solo practice sessions, he had accidentally succeeded once.

The weapon blank that Wei Wen had luckily forged was taken over by Shi Tian, who continued the forging and processing until it became an exquisite short blade. Although the short blade lacked a "birth certificate," it still sold for a high price of 600 Huaxia coins when listed at Three Stones.

Shi Tian did not keep this 600 yuan; he transferred it directly into Wei Wen's account.

This unexpected income only solidified Wei Wen's determination to study forging.

In Shi Tian's eyes, Wei Wen was a very clever "apprentice," and being Shi Fen's good friend, he taught him with extra diligence. The conditions Wei Wen enjoyed now were far better than what he had back in the day; having a "master" to guide him from the start, how could his progress not be swift?

Shi Tian's forging ability was nowhere near Shi Fen's level, but it was significantly higher than that of Shi Tie, who had taught him when he was a child.

The importance of a good teacher is unparalleled.

Two teachers, one strong and one weak, teaching an apprentice with the same talent.

Naturally, the more capable teacher produces the more capable apprentice.

Only in this way could Wei Wen progress rapidly, far exceeding the speed at which Shi Tian had improved in his youth.

Wei Wen was not only talented but also capable of enduring hardship; he practiced with extreme diligence, coming here to study forging whenever he had time. He often practiced until his hands trembled so much that he couldn't even hold his chopsticks.

Seeing Wei Wen train so hard, Shi Tian took charge of his diet during training, preparing plenty of beef to help him replenish his nutrients and condition his body.

The more Shi Tian taught him, the more he appreciated this little brother. When he discovered that Wei Wen had accidentally forged a weapon blank, he was shocked.

From then on, he stopped viewing Wei Wen as just an "apprentice," instead seeing him as a future partner, a future blacksmith for Three Stones, and a core pillar of the shop's future.

Shi Tian shared this thought with Shi Tie.

Shi Tie was in full agreement, believing that planning for the future in advance was an excellent choice. The two of them, quite unscrupulously, made the decision to treat Wei Wen as a "lab rat," taking this opportunity to plan for the future of Three Stones.

Thus, without his knowledge, Wei Wen became the experimental subject of Three Stones—a subject to be cultivated with all their might, with resources poured into him to turn him into a Three Stones blacksmith as quickly as possible.

With the full supply of resources, guidance from a master, excellent talent, and his own hard work, Wei Wen's blacksmithing skills advanced by leaps and bounds.

Shi Fen was aware of this.

That was why he was curious as to why Wei Wen had ordered so much pig iron.

Seeing that his words of comfort seemed to have truly left Wei Wen in a state of "self-satisfaction," Shi Fen couldn't help but smile.

Shi Fen tapped Wei Wen on the arm and said with a laugh, "I mean, you're doing just fine using refined steel to learn forging, so why order so much pig iron?"

Wei Wen, no longer caught up in his own progress, smiled slightly and said, "I just feel like my foundation isn't very solid, so I ordered some pig iron, planning to go all out and shore up my base."

"For me right now, the best material for practicing forging is pig iron. Using refined steel is just too early."

"I plan to use the vacation after the college entrance exam to practice with all these tons of pig iron. By then, my forging foundation will definitely have improved a great deal."

The speaker had no such intention, but the listener took it to heart.

These words were like a thunderclap, exploding repeatedly in Shi Fen's mind.

Shi Fen had an epiphany!

He understood.

He understood why he had been stuck at the eighth stage for two years without the slightest progress.

It was all the "fault" of that one sentence in the third major stage.

"To possess the ability of hundredfold metal concentration, one must use the best iron as raw material, tempering it to the level of the Star Sea Pattern, before one can proceed with metal concentration."

It was that very sentence—influenced by his past life, Shi Fen had misunderstood it.

He had interpreted it as using the best high-quality steel as raw material, tempering it to the level of the Star Sea Pattern, and then continuing to forge. To this end, he had used various materials on the raw material platform to create 52 types of high-quality special steel. He had exhausted himself trying to forge them, mastering the ninefold concentration of 52 types of metal.

After realizing this, Shi Fen felt so foolish.

The third major stage was clearly about Transcendent Forging. And didn't that "common" refer to pig iron?

The pig iron created within the Virtual Trial Space was an alloy of iron and carbon, without any other impurities. Yet, Shi Fen had been foolish enough to create 52 types of high-quality special steel.

He only needed to forge a binary alloy, yet Shi Fen had increased the difficulty for himself by forging multi-element alloys. Wasn't he just making things difficult for himself?

Shi Fen had forcibly increased the difficulty of his trial.

Although wrought iron only contained iron elements, it was too soft and not suitable for forging. Extreme forging usually started with pig iron.

If you called Shi Fen stupid, he had forged 52 types of multi-element alloys to the "ninefold metal concentration" level with extreme proficiency. If you called him smart, he hadn't even figured out such a simple thing.

Shi Fen stood stunned for a few seconds.

Having figured out the key issue, Shi Fen dropped a single sentence.

"Wei Wen, eat whatever you want for lunch, even if it's at a 5-star hotel. It's on me!"

Regardless of Wei Wen's reaction, he grabbed his short sword and ran back to the forging room.

Wei Wen was left completely bewildered, having no idea what had just happened. He had a slight understanding of Shi Fen's "eccentricity" and vaguely felt that some remark of his own had given Shi Fen inspiration, which was why he was acting this way.

Wei Wen stopped dwelling on the matter and continued directing the unloading.

Once the unloading was finished, Wei Wen took the workers to a small restaurant he frequented. The food there was excellent and the prices were very affordable; his parents would occasionally bring him there to treat him to a better meal.

Wei Wen ordered plenty of hearty dishes and enjoyed a satisfying meal with the workers.

Wei Wen was not the type to let favors go to his head; he had his own code of conduct.

His parents placed great importance on upbringing, teaching him from a young age that the most important thing in life was to know one's place. No matter when or where, one must remain humble, cautious, and avoid arrogance or impatience.

Wei Wen lived by these principles.

"Three Stones" had already helped him too much. As an "apprentice" of "Three Stones," everything he ate and used there was free, not to mention he didn't have to spend a cent. The people at "Three Stones" were extremely friendly toward him; even the cameramen were very polite.

Wei Wen was now a member of "Three Stones," and as long as he worked hard, he would surely become a blacksmith for them in the future.

Even though Wei Wen didn't know what he had done to help Shi Fen that made his brother so excited—resulting in Shi Fen giving him such an inexplicable "reward"—he knew his limits.

A high-end five-star hotel was an absurd place for someone like Wei Wen. He had indeed received Shi Fen's permission and could certainly go, but his conscience wouldn't allow it.

How could he treat his own family like that?

He didn't even want "Three Stones" to pay for this meal; the 600 yuan he had earned earlier was more than enough. He felt at ease and secure spending money he had earned himself.

However, he didn't feel entirely comfortable spending that 600 either, as it was ultimately due to Shi Tian's skill, and he was just an outsider who had struck gold.

Shi Fen entered the forging room, locked the door from the inside, and went into the attached rest cubicle. He lay down on the bed, preparing to enter the "Virtual Trial Space."

He lay there, feeling exceptionally excited. It took over ten minutes for his mind to calm down enough for his consciousness to enter the Virtual Trial Space.

From the raw material rack, he picked up a square block of pig iron with sides 30 centimeters long.

This block of pig iron weighed over 200 kilograms, but thanks to his physical fitness—which granted him a punching force of over 800 kilograms—Shi Fen moved it to the forging table without much effort.

He activated the forging table, and the platform carrying the pig iron block slowly descended into the interior of the table to be heated evenly.

Shi Fen paced back and forth in front of the forging table, clutching the massive "Vibration Hammer," his excitement evident.

The glowing red pig iron block slowly rose from the forging area of the table. Shi Fen, who had been waiting anxiously and pacing back and forth, saw the block rise completely.

Shi Fen struck it with a heavy blow.

With just that one strike, all the oxidized dross on the surface of the pig iron fell away. The block showed no deformation; it simply became brighter.

Shi Fen gave the top side of the block a light tap, causing it to flip over. Once it stabilized, he delivered another heavy blow. The pig iron grew even brighter.

Immediately after, he gave it another light tap to flip it again.

Once the block stabilized, he struck it with another heavy blow.

Following the sequence in his memory, Shi Fen took turns striking all six sides of the pig iron block with the Vibration Hammer.

The intelligence of the forging table would choose the perfect moment to sweep away the fallen dross. Shi Fen didn't need to worry about anything else; he only needed to focus on swinging the hammer repeatedly and forging with concentration.

As the heavy blows fell one after another, the pig iron block grew brighter and brighter, radiating increasingly intense light and heat. It was as if it were "sweating" from the heat, with dross constantly appearing on its surface and being shaken off.

Its shape remained unchanged, but its volume was gradually shrinking.

Shi Fen was using a top-tier forging technique. Thanks to the "Vibration Hammer," he didn't need to follow the standard steps and could forge the pig iron directly to the "Star Sea Pattern" stage.

This saved a massive amount of time.

When the pig iron block shone as brightly as a "star," Shi Fen changed his forging method.

He began to strike the eight corners of the block one by one. As the block deformed, its volume began to shrink, and its brightness gradually dimmed.

Shi Fen sensed the changes in the metal with his heart, listening to "its thoughts," and swung the hammer subconsciously.

The volume of the pig iron block gradually shrank.

It shrank by half.

It shrank by two-fold.

It shrank by three-fold.

It shrank by nine-fold.

At this moment, Shi Fen did not realize that the pig iron block before him had already condensed to one-ninth of its original volume.

He was completely immersed in the state of forging. Following his intuition, he stared fixedly at the metal block, swinging the hammer unconsciously.

With one final blow, the volume shrank by 93 times.

The bottleneck that had been troubling him was finally broken.

However, this was not his limit.

He continued to swing the hammer frantically.

It shrank by ten-fold.

It shrank by eleven-fold.

It shrank by twelve-fold.

With every strike of the Vibration Hammer, the metal block grew increasingly dull, gradually smoothing out as Shi Fen seemed to be forging a solid metal sphere.

Shi Fen had completely abandoned conscious guidance, emptying his mind entirely and allowing this peculiar sensation to take control of his body.

The forging at this moment relied solely on subconscious hammer swings. Shi Fen was like a bystander; his consciousness was completely "off-duty," requiring no effort from him to manage the forging.

Shi Fen felt this state was even more precious than the hundred-fold concentration of the metal. Right now, he was desperately memorizing this state.

Once Shi Fen had fully entered this state.

The metal began to condense frantically once more.

Shrinking twenty-fold.

Shrinking twenty-one-fold.

Shrinking thirty-three-fold.

When the volume of the metal had condensed thirty-three times, the block had completely transformed into a sphere.

The Vibration Hammer struck the sphere, but it no longer deformed. No matter how he struck it, it remained a perfect sphere.

The brightness of the sphere grew dimmer and dimmer, and its volume began to condense at an accelerated pace.

Shrinking forty-fold.

Shrinking fifty-fold.

Shrinking sixty-fold.

Until it had shrunk one hundred-fold.

At this moment, Shi Fen instantly ceased his hammering, his arm holding the hammer dropping unconsciously to his side.

The metal sphere cooled down completely, as if the condensation of its volume had exhausted all of its heat. The sphere turned pitch-black and sat quietly on the table, as if it had grown right out of it.

Shi Fen's consciousness was frantically memorizing the feeling from just moments ago, completely lost in an "epiphany." His consciousness was entirely sealed off, and he had lost all ability to perceive the outside world.

Shi Fen did not know that he had completed the ultimate forging, the most difficult hundred-fold concentration of metal. Before him lay the "Hundred-Fold Iron" he had dreamed of.

Yet, Shi Fen just stood there, dazed and unresponsive. His consciousness was completely immersed in the epiphany... his mind entirely submerged in the forging process he had just performed.

Shi Fen found himself in a wondrous place, repeating the forging process over and over again, as if it would never end...