Mang Tian: Am I Worthy of Teaching Such a Student?

Hearing Mang Tian call his name, Lin Nuo immediately stood up. Beside him, Na'er offered encouragement: "Go for it, brother!"

Lin Nuo nodded at Na'er and walked over. Just then, Tang Wuling approached as well, handing him a pair of 10-pound metal hammers. "Good luck, Brother Lin Nuo."

"Thanks." Lin Nuo nodded, took the hammers, and walked toward Mang Tian.

Tang Wuling returned to her parents, high-fived them, and then looked toward Na'er.

Na'er sensed Tang Wuling's gaze. After a moment of silence and recalling her brother's words, she finally looked at her and said coldly, "Congratulations."

"Thank you." Tang Wuling felt happy. She was certain that Na'er was just being a bit tsundere, but she would definitely become her best friend!

The group looked into the distance; it was time for Lin Nuo's forging.

"Too light."

Holding the small metal hammers before Mang Tian, Lin Nuo heard Lin Yan's words and immediately looked at the master. "Master Mang Tian, these hammers are a bit light. Could I swap them for a different pair?"

Mang Tian, who had been about to signal for Lin Nuo to begin, looked at the young boy and retorted, "Really that light?"

"Yes." Lin Nuo nodded.

Seeing the boy still looking so confident, Mang Tian nodded solemnly and spoke decisively: "I understand." Before the words had even faded, he turned, grabbed a single 50-pound iron hammer from the weapon rack, and flicked his wrist to signal for the boy to take it.

Lin Nuo reached out and caught the hammer steadily. Mang Tian had let go almost instantly, deliberately trying to test if the kid was just putting on a front, but the next second, his eyes froze.

Lin Nuo held the 50-pound iron hammer and tossed it casually as if it were weightless. The hammerhead traced a shallow arc in the air before landing back in his palm, steady as a rock. He even looked up at Mang Tian with a faint smile, adding nonchalantly, "Just right. Not too heavy, not too light."

The casual look on Mang Tian's face vanished completely. His expression was even more serious than when he had watched Tang Wuling forge, and his eyes surged with undisguised shock and gravity.

Lin Nuo gripped the 50-pound hammer and looked at the tungsten steel before him, asking internally, "A-Yan, are you ready?"

"Mm."

Receiving the reply, Lin Nuo didn't hesitate and began to strike. With the first blow, the entire piece of tungsten steel trembled.

Standing to the side, Mang Tian found himself subconsciously holding his breath.

The next second, a hair-raising scene unfolded before everyone's eyes.

Lin Nuo's arm seemed to move beyond his own control; each strike was so fast it left only a blur. The moment the hammer collided with the tungsten steel, a deafening "CLANG!" exploded—a dull, piercing sound that echoed repeatedly through the enclosed studio, making one's eardrums ache.

Such reckless, high-intensity hammering was, for a six-year-old child, an extreme overdraft of physical strength and vitality. Any ordinary child would likely have collapsed after three strikes, lacking even the strength to lift their arms.

Yet, Lin Nuo seemed to feel no fatigue at all. Instead, a strange fervor surged in his eyes. He swung the hammer with tireless enthusiasm, his speed not slowing but accelerating, becoming so fast that the hammer blurred into a single streak of light.

Under the weight of Lin Nuo's heavy blows, the incredibly hard tungsten steel began to change at a visible rate. The patterns on its surface were hammered into distortion and indentations, and its originally regular shape grew jagged, as if enduring a force it could not withstand.

Mang Tian stood frozen in place, his eyes wide, staring fixedly at Lin Nuo, his face etched with disbelief.

How could this kid look like he was forging alone?

It looked as if two invisible hands were controlling his body, each striking in a rhythm that was both bizarre and precise. The force of two hammers intertwined, creating such astonishing speed and power.

But as soon as this thought surfaced, he shook it away violently, muttering to himself, "Impossible, absolutely impossible! How could a six-year-old child possess such a strange state? I must be seeing things."

"Mom, Dad, isn't Brother Lin Nuo way too fast?" Tang Wuling watched Lin Nuo's hammering speed and compared it to her own; it was like comparing a small stream to a vast ocean. She was far behind.

Tang Ziran and Lang Yue exchanged glances, agreeing with their daughter's assessment, and nodded.

"That's right." Hearing Tang Wuling, Na'er immediately lifted her head proudly, like a haughty white swan praising her brother. "My brother is the fastest. You weirdo, you can't compare to him at all!"

Tang Wuling heard Na'er and nodded in agreement. "As expected of Brother Lin Nuo, he really is different. He's just too fast."

If Lin Nuo hadn't been in a self-forgetful state of frantic hammering, he would have thrown a hammer at them directly upon hearing their discussion.

Half an hour passed. Lin Nuo clearly felt his stamina waning, and Lin Yan on the other side needed time to process the feedback. He struck the final blow—exactly one thousand strikes—and then withdrew the hammer.

"A-a thousand-fold refinement?" Mang Tian was stunned. He looked at Lin Nuo as if he were looking at a monster.

Is this really a six-year-old kid? Are you sure he isn't some old monster reincarnated?

This wasn't like Tang Wuling's case earlier; she had reached a total of one thousand strikes, but Lin Nuo had done one thousand with a single hand. If he had used both, it would have been two thousand, though that was no longer necessary.

Because...

Mang Tian looked at the tungsten steel, which had already reached the quality of thousand-fold refinement; there was no need to continue.

"Kid, are you sure you've never studied forging?" Mang Tian gasped, looking at Lin Nuo with extreme seriousness, his curiosity piqued.

He wanted so badly to hear Lin Nuo say he had studied before. If a child could become a Level 3 quasi-forger on their first attempt, this guy was destined to be a future Divine Craftsman!

"I really haven't studied it." Lin Nuo shook his head. "And this thousand-fold refinement was just a stroke of luck. So, can I and Wuling become your students?"

Without Lin Yan's assistance, his limit would likely be similar to Tang Wuling's, perhaps even slightly worse.

This thousand-fold refinement was indeed a matter of luck; it was only because Lin Yan was forging with him that he managed exactly one thousand strikes. There was still much he needed to learn from Master Mang Tian.

Mang Tian fell into a deep silence. He began to hesitate internally: was he truly fit to be this boy's teacher?

Mang Tian was not like Yu Xiaogang, a man who cared only for his own reputation; he was a good teacher who considered his students' futures.

"Do you really want to be my student?" Mang Tian couldn't help but ask. "I'm afraid I'm not qualified to teach you much."

"Accept him, host." Lin Yan's voice echoed again. "He is very suitable to be your teacher at this stage."

Hearing this, Lin Nuo responded with his mental energy: "I naturally understand that."

He looked up at Mang Tian, who was watching him with a complex expression, and bowed ninety degrees. "Perhaps you cannot teach me everything, but you are absolutely the most suitable teacher for me and Tang Wuling at this stage. Please, teach us."

Lin Nuo added another name in his heart, and that was naturally Lin Yan.

Mang Tian hurriedly helped Lin Nuo up upon seeing this, understanding that the little guy was giving him a way to save face. "Good, good, good. Good children, you are all good children. As your teacher, I must prepare some gifts for you." He then hurried off toward his room.

At this moment, Na'er and the others walked over. She looked at Lin Nuo, "Brother, you're so amazing! And so fast too!"

Hearing the words "so fast," Lin Nuo felt a bit awkward. He looked at Na'er, "Na'er, be a good girl. Don't say the words 'so fast' to brother in the future, okay?"

"Ah, why?"

"Brother doesn't like it."

"Alright then~ I'll listen to brother." Na'er nodded obediently.

At this time, Tang Wuling also spoke excitedly, "Brother Lin Nuo, this is truly wonderful. We can learn forging together from now on."

Lin Nuo nodded. Learning forging was one thing, but another goal was to cultivate his status in Tang Wuling's heart, slowly replacing the Sea God Tang San.

Hehehe...