Su Li nodded to show he understood.
"How do I control it?"
Talia dragged an exceedingly heavy iron chest out from beneath the table. Opening it, she revealed a complete set of incredibly precise tools: carving knives of all sizes, mental-force guide needles as thin as actual needles, and several low-grade mana ores polished flat.
"The first step in smithing is purification. You've already reached a very high level at that through brute force alone." Talia took out a blank refined steel plate. "But the second step is enchanting. You need to draw the aether within your body out strand by strand, like unraveling a cocoon, then use these tools to steadily carve it into the metal."
She picked up a guide needle and held it in her hand.
"Watch carefully."
Talia focused completely. The aether within her flowed down her arm, and a faint light lit up at the needle's tip.
She slowly drew a straight line across the refined steel plate. The line was smooth, without the slightest unevenness in thickness, and the aether was perfectly sealed within it.
"This is the most basic form of aether control." Talia set down the needle. "Your method of treating aether like dough and stuffing it straight in is far too crude. When you encounter high-tier materials with complex internal structures, forcing it in like that will only make the material explode on the spot."
Su Li recalled the piece of refined steel he had blown up in the woodshed yesterday morning and deeply agreed.
Talia pushed a brand-new guide needle toward Su Li.
"Now, you try. I'm not asking you to carve any complicated circuit. Just inject aether into the needle's tip and draw a straight line an inch long on this plate. It has to be steady. It can't