The Shortcut to Spirit Refinement

Watching Li Ang's calm refusal, Long Hengxu fell silent for a moment before nodding with a wry smile.

"Student Li Ang, then you should head back to Class 2 of the first grade for now."

"But let me be clear: if you want to join the Spirit Class later on, it will be very difficult for you."

"The Spirit Class requires signing a confidentiality agreement, and once you see the benefits involved, getting in will be much harder."

"Understood, thank you, Dean."

Li Ang said, offering Long Hengxu a smile.

He could understand Long Hengxu's advice, but he didn't care much about it.

As he returned to Class 1 of the first grade, Ye Yingluo, who was at the podium, was stunned to see him walk back in.

She had originally assumed the boy would head straight to the first-grade Spirit Class.

After all, whether it was teacher resources or student strength, the first-grade Spirit Class was far superior to Class 1.

Seeing Li Ang return, Ye Yingluo was momentarily bewildered.

But after a moment of thought, she ultimately decided not to say anything.

As the bell rang, Class 1 continued its lessons.

The teacher explained the relevant material, while Li Ang sat there silently, occupied with his own affairs.

The morning classes ended quickly, and as soon as the lunch break began, Xie Xie and Tang Wulin sought him out.

Both of them looked at Li Ang with confusion, unable to understand why he would have such an idea.

"Li Ang, why didn't you join the first-grade Spirit Class?"

"The learning environment in our class is great, and our teacher is Teacher Wu; his personal strength is truly incredible."

Xie Xie said, his face filled with excitement.

Although he couldn't reveal the information about entering the Spirit Pagoda and the Spirit Ascension Platform due to confidentiality, he still wanted to drop a hint to his good brother.

However, meeting Xie Xie's gaze, Li Ang simply shook his head calmly.

Such matters were of no importance to him.

With his current three-ring strength and inherent power, these school affairs could no longer affect him.

"Alright, let's go eat."

"I've taken leave for the afternoon classes, so I'll have to trouble Wulin to bring my dinner back."

Li Ang said, looking at Tang Wulin.

Since returning, he had learned the details of that day's match.

Tang Wulin's final use of the Clear Sky Hammer had shocked the entire audience.

Relying on the overbearing power of the Clear Sky Hammer, he had delivered the decisive blow, directly defeating the Martial Soul Fusion Skill of the two opponents.

Seeing Li Ang's gaze fixed on him, Tang Wulin was taken aback, then nodded.

Although he had now become a qualified Blacksmith and received quite a bit of support, he still felt a sense of gratitude toward Li Ang.

Therefore, even though he was no longer short of a few thousand credits, he was still willing to run errands for Li Ang.

In the cafeteria, a large amount of food was spread across the table, and the three of them sat there eating and chatting.

"Li Ang, do you know Na'er from your class?"

"She is truly beautiful; when she arrived in our class, we were all stunned."

"Not only is she a two-ring master, but I heard her strength is even greater than Wang Jinxi and the others."

"It's just strange that she didn't participate in this Class Promotion Tournament."

Xie Xie said while eating.

Beyond praising Na'er, he talked about quite a few daily occurrences.

To Li Ang, this was meaningless, bordering on nonsense.

Yet, Li Ang still listened to Xie Xie's words attentively.

"You mean Na'er? Her personality probably doesn't favor such competitions; everyone is different."

"Your class has special training every night? It seems Teacher Wu's teaching style is quite good."

Li Ang replied sentence by sentence, not minding Xie Xie's chatter.

While the two chatted, Tang Wulin was busy devouring his food.

By the time they finished lunch, the three parted ways.

Tang Wulin and Xie Xie returned to their classroom to wait for the afternoon session, while Li Ang left directly, heading toward the Blacksmith Association.

Over the past few days, the two little ones had been improving their cultivation by hunting spirit beasts.

Li Ang was not idle either; he had already reached a certain conclusion regarding Spirit Refinement.

However, he could not be certain if this conclusion was accurate, so he prepared to find Mu Chen to study it together.

He boarded a vehicle, and it began to move slowly.

At the same time, Li Ang sent a message to Mu Chen in advance.

Although Mu Chen was somewhat surprised by Li Ang's sudden visit to his office, he did not pay it much mind.

This sort of thing happened often, and Mu Chen could understand that Li Ang was a rather special child.

After all, compared to others who held a near-worshipful trust in him, Li Ang had no such thoughts toward him at all.

Instead, he viewed their master-disciple relationship with a stable, and even equal, attitude.

As for Li Ang's non-hypocritical and even somewhat blunt personality, Mu Chen could not say he disliked it.

Li Ang arrived at the Blacksmith Association building very quickly.

As he went upstairs, he swiped his card for the top-floor elevator, reached the top floor, and walked straight into Mu Chen's room.

After three years of getting along, the two were already very familiar with each other.

Seeing Li Ang arrive, Mu Chen stood up almost without hesitation.

"Speak, what problem do you need help with this time, kid?"

"Teacher, I want to perform Spirit Refinement, and I need you to help me see if it is feasible or if there are any other issues."

"Spirit Refinement? You can already perform Spirit Refinement? Is it that fast?"

Mu Chen's tone carried a rare hint of surprise.

One had to know that Spirit Refinement was a major hurdle that many people could not cross in their entire lives.

That Li Ang could break through this hurdle within three years was something even Mu Chen had not expected.

Especially because he understood Li Ang's personality, he knew that if he said he could perform Spirit Refinement, there was a high probability he had already completed the simulation and could even succeed in forging it.

He only wanted him to check if there were any problems.

Listening to Li Ang's words, Mu Chen hesitated for only a moment before taking him directly to the forging room on the lower level.

Inside the forging room, Li Ang did not dawdle; he picked up a standard piece of Black Iron and began to use his ability.

As a deep yellow light surged, the impurities within the Black Iron were cleared away.

A piece of iron ore, black and silver throughout, lay quietly there.

Looking at this piece of iron ore that was already equivalent to a Thousand Refinement at its base, Mu Chen's gaze remained fixed on Li Ang.

Li Ang raised his hand, and with a light strike of his hammer, it fell.

He struck hammer blow after hammer blow, each one landing almost perfectly on the most rhythmic nodes of the metal.

As Li Ang struck, the impurities inside the metal were gradually cleared away.

With no impurities left, the speed at which the metal completed the Thousand Refinement was very fast.

In just a few dozen breaths of time, this piece of metal had already completed a standard Thousand Refinement and reached the most critical stage of Spirit Refinement.

Feeling Mu Chen's gaze, Li Ang's expression remained calm.

Spirit Refinement was about imbuing metal with spirituality.

The reason he had been unable to succeed was that, according to traditional forging methods, one needed to generate a sense of spirituality oneself.

This method was very difficult, or rather, there was no logical explanation for it.

It was as if this sort of thing relied entirely on talent.

As long as you could break through this hurdle, you would naturally know how to do it.

But if you could not break through this hurdle, you might never learn it in your entire life.

This kind of hurdle did not rely on the brain, nor did it rely on intelligence.

It relied on a feeling, an absolute mastery of talent regarding metal.

And this was a talent that Li Ang clearly did not possess.

Therefore, he had been doing one thing for the past three years: building a ladder.

He was trying to find a way to use his own conveniences and advantages to cross this hurdle and complete Spirit Refinement directly.

At this moment, after a period of research, Li Ang had finally confirmed the plan he intended to execute.