He weighed it in his hand.
It was still smaller than two bricks.
The corner of his mouth twitched.
To make Battle Armor that covered his whole body, this wasn't even enough to fill a tooth.
But then he thought about it. If it were any bigger, he might not have been able to pull it off. He'd gotten through that last step by relying on the Eye of Fate and the Gold of Life, two trump cards. His Soul Power had nearly been drained dry, and he still felt a little light-headed.
This would do for now. You had to take things one bite at a time.
With a thought, the Spirit-Forged Sinking Silver silently melded into his right hand. It felt perfectly natural, and his palm grew warm.
There was no visible change on the surface of his skin, but he could feel the Sinking Silver there, like part of his own body, ready to obey his every command.
"Appear."
Golden light flashed across his right palm, and a thin golden plate of armor emerged from the surface of his skin, fitting snugly over the back of his hand as if it were alive.
Then he picked up the piece of Sinking Silver he'd hammered out earlier and held it up for comparison.
The piece he'd hammered out wasn't bad.
But compared to the Spirit-Forged Sinking Silver, it didn't even come close.
The Spirit-Forged Sinking Silver was alive, while the hammered piece was merely high-quality metal—Hundred Refinement at best.
He had his answer.
"For me, forging is a detour. Purifying the metal directly is faster."
He set the hammered Sinking Silver back on the table, sat down, leaned back in his chair, and rubbed his brow.
The Spirit Forging process had taken far more out of him than he'd expected. His mind was still foggy, and he'd used up most of his reserves of Spiritual Power.
Xiao Hongchen decided not to attempt Spirit Forging again until he reached Soul Saint. It consumed a great deal of his Power of Destiny and the life force within the Blade of Life's Watch. If he pushed himself too far, it could cause irreversible damage to his Martial Soul Origin.
The life force in the Gold of Life was a finite resource, too. He'd only used it once, to help Jing Hongchen break through, and hadn't touched it since.
That stuff could save his life in a pinch. Hadn't the Gold of Life healed Huo Yuhao's injuries, even after Di Tian descended through the Reverse Scale and Huo Yuhao withstood a strike from the Death God Tower?
Still, the gains were undeniable.
Without forging, he could still purify metal to Thousand Refinement. He had no idea what grade it was, but it couldn't be too bad.
Xiao Hongchen wanted to skip the One-Word Battle Armor stage and go straight to making Two-Word Battle Armor, but Thousand Refinement metal couldn't reach the level of Spirit Forging through further purification, and his technique wasn't mature yet. Better to take it step by step.
When Xuan Ziwen saw Xiao Hongchen freely merge the Sinking Silver into his body and then make it reappear, his jaw nearly hit the floor.
The idea of giving metal its own consciousness so that it could appear at will was incredible, but to him, it had always seemed a little too far-fetched.
What was even more shocking was that Xiao Hongchen had actually made it in a single afternoon.
The excitement Xuan Ziwen had felt that morning instantly faded. His invention, the Sealed Milk Bottle, simply couldn't compare to Xiao Hongchen's achievement.
For one thing, if Spirit Metal could be widely adopted, every Soul Engineer could nurture their prized Soul Tools close to their body. Then every Soul Engineer would have a Life-Bound Soul Tool.
And if Spirit Metal were used to carve Core Arrays, Soul Tools would fit their owners perfectly. They might even be able to make the legendary Level-Ten Soul Tools.
"You..."
He opened his mouth, but couldn't find the right words.
"You made it in one afternoon."
"Yeah." Xiao Hongchen withdrew his right hand, his voice a little excited as well. "It's just too small. It's still a long way from covering my whole body, and it takes too much out of me."
Xuan Ziwen paused, took a deep breath, and reined in his emotions.
"How did you manage the Spirit Forging? Start from the beginning, and don't leave anything out."
Xiao Hongchen sat down across from him and described the whole process, from heating the Sinking Silver until it glowed red, to testing it with two hammers, to purifying it with his bare hands, and finally biting his tongue and using his blood as a catalyst. He explained everything in great detail, only leaving out the use of the Gold of Life and the Eye of Fate.
Xuan Ziwen listened in silence for a moment, then lightly tapped the edge of the table twice with his fingers.
"How strong do you think you'll need to become before you can imbue metal with spirit at will?"
Xiao Hongchen thought it over and gave a cautious answer.
"At most, I'll be able to Spirit Forge with ease once I reach the Soul Saint stage."
Xuan Ziwen did the math in his head and nodded. His expression eased a little.
"That's not too far off."
He paused, then looked up at Xiao Hongchen, his expression serious.
"When that time comes, you'll have to prioritize supplying me with Spirit Metal."
"No problem."
Xiao Hongchen agreed readily, then separated the Sinking Silver from his right hand and handed it to Xuan Ziwen.
Xuan Ziwen fell silent for a moment, then put the Sinking Silver away, his expression turning more serious.
"I'll study it first and see what we can do with Core Arrays designed using Spirit Metal."
"Sure." Xiao Hongchen nodded. "Speaking of Core Arrays, there's something I'd like to discuss with you."
He picked up the paper and brush beside him and began sketching.
It was an outline. His strokes were quick and precise, and in just a few lines he had drawn the general shape.
Xuan Ziwen leaned over to take a look and froze.
"This is..."
"Battle Armor," Xiao Hongchen said. "Or, more precisely, the Battle Armor I have in mind."
The design differed somewhat from the Battle Armor concept they'd discussed before. Rather than a suit of armor that covered the whole body and fit closely to its wearer, it was a small Mecha Soldier about three and a half meters tall. Its joints had clearly marked Array nodes, and its core was a human-shaped cavity, just large enough for someone to stand inside.
Xiao Hongchen explained:
"Technology isn't mature enough yet. Making Battle Armor that covers most of the body while retaining a high degree of agility would be far too difficult. The number of Core Arrays needed would also exceed what we can manage at this stage."
He pointed to the Core Array nodes on the drawing.
"So we compromise by making it bigger. Trading space for precision makes it more feasible."
All right, the truth was that he wanted to pilot a Mecha Soldier. Normal Battle Armor just didn't give him the same feeling.
Xuan Ziwen stared at the drawing, his brows slowly knitting together, then easing apart.
"So essentially, this isn't Battle Armor. It's a Mecha Soldier."
"Right. My body doesn't undergo beastification during Martial Soul Possession, so I don't need extra space to accommodate it. Sitting inside and piloting it would actually give me more freedom. My Spiritual Power would flow through the entire Mecha Soldier, letting me direct it wherever I wanted."
"It should be feasible. But nurturing that much metal inside your body would put an enormous strain on your body and mind, even if it had a spirit and could actively reduce the burden on you."
"Teacher Xuan, you don't need to worry about that. I have my reasons for doing this."
"Also, we can start by practicing with an ordinary Mecha Soldier. We can use the Thousand-Rank rare metal I've purified for the materials. I can still handle Thousand Refinement without much trouble."
"No problem."
Xiao Hongchen and Xuan Ziwen discussed the plan in detail.
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