Forging Talent

Shen Ming spoke casually. It was obvious he wasn't particularly interested in forging, and didn't care much about it.

Li Ang didn't argue. After all, he still wasn't sure whether he had any talent for forging.

By all ordinary reasoning, he possessed the Geo Archon Rex Lapis Template, which gave him absolute control over the Rock Element.

And he should have had a strong grasp of metals, too.

But he couldn't be sure how things would actually turn out.

As the vehicle rolled along, a tall building came into view.

As an organization in Eastsea City second only to the Spirit Pagoda and the Tang Sect, the Blacksmith Association was hardly short of money.

After all, the Spirit Pagoda was responsible for supplying Soul Spirits to all Soul Masters, while the Blacksmith Association provided raw materials for powerful individuals, the military, and others. It was just as well-funded.

Shen Ming made his way over with practiced ease. It was obvious he had a good relationship with Cen Yue at the Blacksmith Association.

The receptionist seemed to recognize the Spirit Pagoda's Pagoda Master as he approached, so they didn't stop him.

Shen Ming didn't stand on ceremony. He pressed the buttons himself and took Li Ang straight to the seventh floor.

This was the testing area. As soon as he stepped out, he saw a handsome middle-aged man waiting quietly.

Calling him middle-aged was a bit of a stretch. At first glance, he looked to be only in his thirties. With that handsome face, he had the air of a pretty boy.

Li Ang wasn't interested in handsome men, though. After only a glance, he followed behind Shen Ming without a word.

At the doorway, Cen Yue turned his gaze to Li Ang.

Li Ang was ordinary-looking, and his somewhat stiff expression didn't make him especially likable.

But his eyes held a rare calmness and openness. Even when facing this sixth-level blacksmith, his expression remained perfectly placid.

"This is the disciple you told me about? Are you sure you want him to learn forging from me? Forging takes up a lot of a Soul Master's time."

As he spoke, Cen Yue glanced at Li Ang.

Shen Ming had told him that his disciple was supposedly very talented.

Not only did he have Innate Full Soul Power, but he was also said to be quite strong in battle.

"It's fine. It won't take up much of his time. Let him learn from you. Learning a bit about forging can't hurt. It'll give him another option for the future."

"Fine, then. Send him over!"

Cen Yue pointed to the doorway behind him, pushed the door open, and turned to walk inside.

Shen Ming and Li Ang followed him in.

It was a large forging room. On the table lay a piece of metal that had just come out of the furnace.

It hadn't even undergone the most basic tempering yet, and its shape was still irregular.

Cen Yue sat down in a chair and casually pointed to the metal.

"The test is simple. Take a hammer and strike that piece of metal."

"Hit it however you like. Follow your own rhythm."

Cen Yue spoke casually, but he put extra emphasis on the word "rhythm."

Shen Ming sat calmly to one side and looked at Li Ang.

Li Ang glanced at the metal and quickly constructed a simple cutting model in his mind.

He worked out how to turn it into a flat square, but didn't move right away.

After a brief pause, he casually picked up a hammer from nearby and slowly walked forward.

Li Ang was very strong now, with a strength of up to one ton—more than many Soul Masters with three or four rings possessed.

But unless he could fully control that strength and wield it with precision, it would be of no use in forging.

Yet as Li Ang drew closer, with both Cen Yue and Shen Ming watching him, his steps came to a slight halt.

He stared at the metal, then silently tossed the hammer aside.

Cen Yue and Shen Ming both froze at the sight, but before they could react—

Li Ang raised his hand, and a wisp of pure Rock Element gathered in his palm.

As the power of the Rock Element slowly condensed, the metal before him began to tremble faintly.

Then it began to separate on its own—or, more accurately, to refine itself.

The sudden turn of events left both Cen Yue and Shen Ming stunned for a moment.

Then they saw the impurity-riddled metal refining itself.

Li Ang easily extracted all of its main constituent metals.

As the piece began to break apart, a pale-red metal emerged.

Then, as it slowly condensed into a small, flat square, Cen Yue's mouth fell open. He shot to his feet.

Cen Yue's eyes were full of disbelief. He stared at Li Ang as if he were a monster.

After ordinary forging and tempering, more than fifty percent of a metal's content was impurities.

The initial stages of forging—Hundred Refinement and Thousand Refinement—were all about removing those impurities and refining the metal to a high degree of purity.

Only after reaching the level of Spirit Refinement or Soul Refinement did a blacksmith begin to imbue the metal with something more.

Spirit Refinement endowed metal with vitality, while Soul Refinement gave it a soul.

After Heavenly Refinement, metal gained emotions much like a human's.

That was the essence of forging, and its true secret.

Yet Li Ang had merely raised his hand, as casually as could be, and separated out the purest Dragon Blood Iron.

The metal had started out as an irregular piece of Dragon Blood Iron. Only after undergoing Hundred Refinement could a blacksmith pick out Dissolved Blood Iron with a purity of over seventy-five percent.

It took Thousand Refinement—or even Thousand Refinement Grade One—to produce Dragon Blood Iron with less than fifty percent impurities.

But Li Ang hadn't forged it at all, and he'd already produced Dragon Blood Iron.

"How is this possible? What's this kid's Martial Soul? Is it related to metal?"

"How did he separate out the Dragon Blood Iron?"

Cen Yue stared at Li Ang in shock, his eyes filled with confusion.

Although metal looked like metal on the surface, anyone who knew anything about it understood that it contained all sorts of elemental substances. Rock Element and iron were the main ones, while Dragon Blood Iron also contained some other substances.

Under those circumstances, even someone with true mastery over metal couldn't separate out Dragon Blood Iron.

It demanded an extremely high level of control. Yet Li Ang had done it with such ease, without even showing much emotion.

For him, it was simply too easy. He'd even raised his hand without thinking—

—and separated out the other elements it contained.

Looking at the small, intact piece of material in his hand, made up of nothing but Dragon Blood Iron, Li Ang's expression grew complicated.

He suddenly understood why, in ancient times, the Geo Archon Rex Lapis—or Morax—had been able to forge weapons on such a massive scale.

With a technique like this, forging weapons was no difficult task at all.

He didn't even need a blacksmith's forging skills to effortlessly create weapons exactly to his liking.