After they finished eating, Zhen Hua put down his chopsticks, stood up, and beckoned to Xiao Mu.
"Come with me."
They crossed the hallway and pushed open a heavy iron door. A forging room came into view, larger than any Xiao Mu had seen in the East Sea.
A forging table stood in the center, with a row of shelves beside it. They were stacked with all kinds of metal ingots—Deep Silver, Mithril, Dark Iron—each one labeled.
Zhen Hua walked over to the shelves, glanced along them, and casually took down a piece of Deep Silver. It was about the size of a washbasin, its surface covered in a dull silver-gray sheen. Its purity was very high.
He set the Deep Silver on the forging table with a heavy clunk.
"Let's see your forging skills," he said, then stepped back to the wall and folded his arms.
Xiao Mu walked up to the forging table. He didn't rush to begin. First, he weighed the Deep Silver in his palm, then leaned closer to examine the patterns in its cross-section. After that, he nodded, lit the fire, opened the furnace, and worked the bellows.
Orange-red flames leaped up, reflecting on his face.
In that brief moment, he had already figured out where the impurities in the Deep Silver were. Once it was heated, he could easily complete Hundred Refinement or Thousand Refinement.
Zhen Hua leaned against the wall and watched him skillfully light the fire and adjust the draft. "With skills like that, it seems what you said was true."
"Of course." Xiao Mu stared at the furnace flames as the Deep Silver slowly changed color.
The Deep Silver heated through in the furnace, glowing a dull red all over.
Xiao Mu opened the furnace door, and a wave of heat rolled over him. He gripped the Deep Silver with iron tongs, then hurried back to the forging table.
Then he took two forging hammers out of his Soul Tool.
Their bodies were pitch-black—not painted black, but the kind of black that seemed to swallow the light that fell on it.
The moment he took out the two hammers, the dust on the forging table suddenly sank.
The forging hammers' special property was weight amplification.
It could be combined with Xiao Mu's first Soul Skill.
Sooner or later, he'd have a little hammer weighing ten million tons.
"Thousand Refinement Hammers." Zhen Hua narrowed his eyes. "Is that metal Ink Tungsten Gold? It has an innate gravity attribute."
Xiao Mu didn't answer. He raised his right arm and brought a hammer down.
The instant the hammerhead struck the Deep Silver, the entire forging room trembled.
The impact was precisely controlled within the Deep Silver. The metal visibly deformed, stretched, and melded together. With every blow, another layer of fine, hair-thin patterns appeared on its surface.
His left hand followed, the two hammers falling in alternation, their rhythm as rapid as a drumbeat.
After only three strikes, Hundred Refinement was complete.
Zhen Hua watched Xiao Mu swing the hammers in alternation, and his expression changed. Without realizing it, he lowered his folded arms and fixed his gaze on Xiao Mu.
"My brother's amazing, isn't he?" Na'er said confidently, hands on her hips, as if the one forging were herself.
"Okay, don't distract your brother while he's concentrating on forging," Mu Ye reminded her.
Na'er obediently fell silent and watched Xiao Mu forge.
Xiao Mu worked with intense focus. The two Thousand Refinement Hammers fell in alternation in his hands, their rhythm as steady as a precisely calibrated machine.
Every strike landed with just the right amount of force. A blow that was too heavy would damage the internal structure; one that was too light wouldn't forge the patterns through. The Deep Silver gradually changed shape under the blows.
The metal's internal crystals grew finer, stretched, and rearranged themselves through repeated forging, their density building layer by layer.
The Deep Silver's patterns began to grow more intricate.
A dusky sheen began to emerge from the metal's silver-gray surface.
On the forging table, the Deep Silver started to turn black.
That was the effect of Xiao Mu's Martial Soul on the Deep Silver. Xiao Mu also knew what set Hundred Refinement apart from Thousand Refinement.
It was the communication between the person and the metal.
The next moment, light burst from the forging table, flashed over Xiao Mu's fingers gripping the hammers, and shot up to the ceiling.
The black light reached a full seven feet or more.
Xiao Mu stopped hammering. The black light slowly gathered in, then withdrew into the Deep Silver's surface, leaving swirling dark patterns on the metal, as if it were breathing.
Thousand Refinement, awakening of the spirit—it was done.
Zhen Hua leaned against the wall and watched the Deep Silver still glowing faintly. He remained silent for a long time.
"First-grade Thousand Refinement, and you clearly still have strength to spare. You might even be able to attempt Spirit Refinement."
He didn't want Xiao Mu to risk attempting Spirit Refinement. If he failed, the backlash would be severe.
"Not bad. Are you interested in becoming my disciple? You could definitely become the second Divine Craftsman."
"Huh?" Xiao Mu blinked. Was he really being this direct?
"Don't be afraid. Your talent is unprecedented. You can definitely surpass me and become the youngest Divine Craftsman," Zhen Hua said bluntly.
"I have no problem learning forging, but there are a lot of things I still need to do."
"What could be more important than learning forging?"
"The Federation's satellite launch. I have to go inspect it."
"Are you sure you're using that term correctly? Could you be that genius...?"
"That's right. I also made the Federation's metal reform."
After hearing Xiao Mu out, Zhen Hua felt that something was wrong with the world. He couldn't help feeling as though the current Federation's leading materials scientist was also the one who had created Heavenly Refinement.
Zhen Hua was asking the challenger before him whether he wanted to take his place.
It was a strange feeling, a contradiction between wanting to watch the younger generation surpass him and not wanting them to climb to the top over his head.
"Fine. No problem. Just stick to the original plan. The most important thing is for you to learn Heavenly Refinement from me. I'm the only person in this world who can teach you."
After hearing that, Xiao Mu couldn't help nodding. If all he had to do was learn Heavenly Refinement, he could make time for it.
It was time to think about where to build his laboratory.
Ming Capital had such a polluted environment. The main risk of an experiment going wrong was a leak. Maybe he should build it in Shrek City instead. The Sea God could handle a lot of things.
The Golden Ancient Tree could purify wastewater, too. He really had been far-sighted.
The Golden Ancient Tree could even purify the power of destruction. A little radiation would surely be nothing.
Then he could begin the experiments. After all, he had already gathered the right ore, and the Federation was already searching based on his sample.
He could just conduct the experiments in Shrek City. If anything went wrong, he'd say it was Shrek City's fault.
At that moment, Ah Yin was under tremendous pressure. Elder Jin of the Golden Ancient Tree remained calm and collected. As long as he was the source of life on Douluo Planet, this thing couldn't hurt him.
Xiao Mu thought his idea was brilliant. He could live in Ming Capital, far from Shrek Academy, and not have to worry about anything.
Of course, he didn't say that aloud. He kept it to himself.
He turned the Deep Silver billet over in his palm, feeling the energy still faintly flowing within the metal, then suddenly looked up at Mu Ye.
"Sect Master, Na'er and I rarely get to visit Heaven Dou City. We'd like to look around."
Mu Ye was discussing the first-grade Thousand Refinement Deep Silver with Zhen Hua. Hearing that, he waved a hand. "Go ahead. Don't cause trouble."
Zhen Hua nodded too. "Be back before dark."
Xiao Mu turned toward the door, and Na'er skipped after him, her silver eyes brightening.
It was just Xiao Mu and her. The advantage was hers.
As the two of them went out the door, Mu Ye called after them, "Don't tear down Heaven Dou City."
"Got it." Xiao Mu paused, but didn't turn around.
Zhen Hua, meanwhile, secretly arranged two bodyguards for them.
Xiao Mu had a clear goal for this outing: take advantage of the Spirit Pagoda's network outage and get some Spirit Souls from the Spirit Pagoda for free.
At the same time, Gu Yue couldn't help sneezing. She felt like a bad omen was coming here.