Spirit Forging-Star-Patterned Sinking Gold!!

Fang Le shuffled his feet over to Shi You.

"Um, go easy, okay? I'm afraid of pain!"

He cautiously held out his left hand, turning his head away and squeezing his eyes shut.

He looked every bit like a little kid afraid of getting hurt.

"Hahaha! With you being that afraid of pain, you still think you'll make a name for yourself across the continent? Shoo, shoo! Go hug that egg over there!"

Looking at the childish Fang Le, Shi You burst out laughing and told him to hug the capsule-shaped object connected to the hammer.

"So what if I'm afraid of pain? As long as nobody can hurt me, I can still make a name for myself across the continent!"

Pouting, Fang Le poked the strange egg growing on the hammer.

"I... Hey?! This feels great! It's so soft!"

Cautiously, Fang Le placed his hand on the egg.

But instead of the stinging pain he'd expected, his hand was firmly sucked onto it.

Before he could even be surprised, the egg enveloped both his hands like liquid.

It was warm and soft, with a faint sensation of a tight, sucking grip.

It writhed as it drew from Fang Le's body, then tiny threads of crimson flowed through the tube behind the egg and toward the hammer.

The strange sight couldn't help but make Fang Le think of other things.

But perhaps his thoughts were clear enough...

Could this thing have been used by Uncle before?

Before he could think any further, Shi You's voice rang out beside his ear.

"Don't just stand there. Hurry up and put your Soul Power into it, too. If you run out, meditate to recover. Once these two pieces of metal are hot enough, it'll be the hammer's turn."

As he watched the metal in the furnace, Shi You summoned his Martial Soul. A hammer appeared in his hand, much smaller than the one he'd used earlier.

"Clang, clang, clang!"

While gauging the heat, he added the metal ingredients and gave them a simple shape.

Smithing was a monotonous process. Shi You hammered the metal while Fang Le charged the tools they'd need later.

Time flew by. The midday sun had now quietly slipped behind the mountains.

The fist-sized pieces of silver and refined gold really were worth more than Shi You's entire smithy.

Their immense value was matched by the difficulty of forging them.

But even after working all afternoon, Shi You's eyes showed no trace of fatigue.

Instead, he grew more and more excited!

He watched the metal in the furnace glow red-hot.

"It's time!"

With a sudden shout, he snatched up the large iron hammer beside him.

Ignoring the fact that Fang Le was still connected to it, he swung down fiercely on the two pieces of metal.

The patterns on the hammer flashed crimson. That was clearly Fang Le's blood and Soul Power, which had been infused into it.

He shaped the pieces into two metal bars of different sizes.

Shi You switched hammerheads, using the chisel-like head on the other side, flat and sharp at the edge.

He began splitting the silver.

Then he shaped the two resulting strips of silver to resemble the refined gold in length and width, but made them flatter.

He sandwiched the refined gold between them and put the whole thing back into the furnace.

"The sandwich method?! I saw that at a forging competition!"

Rousing himself despite his exhaustion, Fang Le recognized the familiar technique before him and couldn't help exclaiming in admiration.

He'd thought Shi You would use the alloying technique from Douluo III and fuse the two metals directly.

He hadn't even considered whether Shi You had the skill to do that.

"The sandwich method? You've got some knowledge, kid. And a forging competition? Have there been any around Nuoding City in the past few years? How come I haven't heard of them?"

Shi You scooped up a ladle of water from a nearby vat and poured it over his head. After taking a hearty drink, he asked in surprise.

"Just a competition in some little backwater! I only saw those blacksmiths competing and heard people explaining the technique. But is this really all it takes to make that Blood-Forged Spirit Gold?"

Fang Le answered evasively, then looked curiously at the metal in the furnace.

It didn't look anything like the wondrous metal described in Douluo III, with its bursts of spiritual light.

Had he gotten it wrong? Did this have nothing to do with Spirit Forging?

Was it just a fancy name?

"Of course not! If you want a treasured sword, this little bit of time isn't nearly enough! You'd better get used to staying here. At the very least, it'll take forty-eight days."

Shi You rolled his eyes and told Fang Le a number that left him feeling a little desperate.

With forty-some days, he could probably reach level ten by hunting with an ordinary blade.

But his anticipation for the treasured sword won out over his desire to level up.

He was already here!

He couldn't bear to leave without seeing the finished product!

"Um, Uncle Shi, does that mean I'll have to bleed and expend Soul Power every day like I did just now?"

"What do you think?"

"Nooo!"

Time flew by. Forty-nine days later.

"Is it finally done?"

Fang Le stared delightedly at the piece of metal before him, feeling it resonate with him.

He cried out in surprise.

No wonder smithing was such grueling work! He'd hardly rested at all during those forty-nine days.

He'd either been bleeding or expending Soul Power.

To ensure the forging succeeded, Fang Le had continuously nurtured the metal with his Soul Power for all forty-nine days.

The amount was small, but it was still enough to wear him down.

The process had been difficult, but the results were gratifying.

With Shi You's final hammer strike, spiritual light burst from the metal.

Fang Le made one last blood sacrifice, cutting his palm with a dagger.

"It's done!"

Shi You cried out excitedly.

After a long period of hammering and nearly ten thousand cuts and folds, the metal had perfectly fused with Fang Le's blood and Soul Power.

It had surpassed Thousand Refinement and entered an entirely new realm.

Although Shi You possessed only a trace of Soul Power, he could still sense the perfect spirituality bursting from the metal before him.

If it encountered the right opportunity, this metal might even become the first metal Soul Beast in the history of the Douluo Continent.

"Hm?"

Feeling the strange connection between himself and the metal, Fang Le unconsciously reached out to grab the scorching piece.

But the searing heat seemed to be gone, and its hard, rigid nature had vanished too, as if it were flowing water.

The moment Fang Le touched it, the metal rushed into his body.

"This! This! Hahaha! I did it! I finally did it! Blood-Forged Spirit Gold! This is Blood-Forged Spirit Gold! This is exactly what I wanted!!

"Xiao Le! Quick! See if you can summon it again! Just like you summon your Martial Soul!"

Shi You excitedly shook Fang Le by the shoulders, sharing his joy.

At the same time, he urged Fang Le to attempt what he'd been looking forward to most.

"Yeah!"

Fang Le was just as excited. He began to sense the metal that had fused with his body.

He could feel it—he could summon it.

With a slight movement of his will, the metal that had been on the forging table appeared in his right hand.

Star-shaped patterns and golden-silver luster intertwined across its surface.

Magnificent and mysterious!

"So this is Spirit Forging? The potential of people really is limitless!"

Looking at this miraculous metal, which should have appeared in the third installment and required at least the strength of a Soul Ancestor to forge, Fang Le couldn't help marveling at how the potential people unleashed through passion was limitless.

After spending so much time together, Fang Le had also learned Shi You's true strength.

He was a level-eight Soul Scholar, and didn't even have a Soul Ring.

And yet this man, who hadn't even reached Soul Master rank, had relied on nothing but passion and a spirit of inquiry.

He had forged this epoch-making metal by sheer grit.

Spirit Forging—Star-Patterned Sinking Gold!!