Regarding Future Battle Armor, Qian Renxue Under Immense Pressure

"The two of us, one a Divine Craftsman and the other a Saint Craftsman, have actually been reduced to the point of being forced to take on apprentices. It really is..."

Zhen Hua walked along the bluestone path of the Shen Family courtyard. Before he could finish his sentence, Mu Chen patted him on the shoulder.

These two titans of the forging world, one a Divine Craftsman and the other a Saint Craftsman, looked exactly like two middle-schoolers summoned to the principal's office, their faces full of reluctance.

"What else can we do? We can't refuse Elder Shen's face. Besides, children from major families surely have decent talent," Mu Chen said in a gentle, persuasive tone.

"Then you take him. One of us has to, and you don't have any apprentices anyway. It's the perfect chance to pass on your mantle," Zhen Hua immediately climbed up the pole, showing no mercy.

If the boy truly had talent, he wouldn't have waited until he was nine to seek a master. He was likely lacking in other areas and was just here to make up the numbers.

Mu Chen pulled his hand back, expressionless. He didn't stop walking and replied indifferently, "Forget it. You do it, Senior Brother."

"Junior Brother, that's not very kind of you."

"Likewise."

The two crossed the courtyard and saw Shen Nanxun standing at the entrance of the living room from afar. He had changed into a black formal suit today, his cuffs tightened, his back straight, and his black eyes as calm as still water. Seeing the two titans of the forging world walking side by side, he bowed slightly, neither servile nor overbearing: "Divine Craftsman Zhen Hua, Saint Craftsman Mu Chen. Grandfather is waiting for you both in the study; he asked me to come and welcome you first."

Zhen Hua looked him up and down. He had heard plenty of rumors about the boy before arriving. But standing before him now was no heaven-favored child, just a nearly ten-year-old boy with a lean build, a composed temperament, and perfect manners toward his elders.

"You are Elder Shen's grandson, Shen Nanxun?" Zhen Hua stopped and let his gaze linger on him for a moment. Before coming, he had already made up his mind: no matter how high the boy's talent was, that was a matter for the Spirit Master realm.

The path of forging required heat control, patience, and an intuition for metal—none could be lacking.

The Shen Family was powerful, so he dared not refuse outright. But if the boy truly lacked forging talent, he had a polite excuse ready.

He coughed lightly, took a piece of silver-white metal the size of a fist from the storage spirit tool on his wrist, and tossed it onto the anvil in the corner of the courtyard.

"Sinking Silver, the basic metal for introductory forging. I heard you learned some forging basics in North Sea City. Perform a hundred-fold forging on this and beat it into a single solid piece. I don't care about the shape, only that the texture is uniform. If you can do it, I will take you as a named disciple."

Mu Chen raised an eyebrow but said nothing, simply clasping his hands behind his back. Zhen Hua's move looked casual, but it was actually quite devious.

The most annoying thing about Sinking Silver was that its impurities were extremely unevenly distributed. A light strike wouldn't remove them, while a heavy strike would leave internal cracks. For a beginner, beating such a large piece of Sinking Silver into a uniform solid piece would take at least a hundred strikes. He wanted to use this piece of Sinking Silver to make the silver-spoon-fed young master of the Shen Family retreat in the face of difficulty.

Shen Nanxun looked at the Sinking Silver on the anvil, bent down to pick up the forging hammer, weighed it, and gestured for them to proceed. Zhen Hua and Mu Chen walked straight into the study.

About five minutes later, when the two emerged, they saw Shen Nanxun lounging on a recliner in the courtyard, eyes closed as if he had fallen asleep. The forging hammer was left casually by the anvil, the handle still bearing the faint indentations of his palm's lingering warmth.

Zhen Hua's heart skipped a beat.

Had he given up?

The polite excuse he had prepared was already on the tip of his tongue. Just as he was about to speak, his peripheral vision caught the piece of Sinking Silver on the anvil.

It was entirely silver-white, glowing with a warm luster under the afternoon sun. It was square, its edges as neat as if measured with calipers. He stopped in his tracks, walked over to the anvil, and picked up the Sinking Silver, turning it over and over to examine it carefully. He even injected a trace of spirit power to probe the interior.

The interior was dense and uniform, with layers of forging patterns arranged with extreme regularity. The impurities had been removed cleanly, without a single crack. In just five minutes, the texture of the entire piece of Sinking Silver had been elevated to a near-perfect state.

This was not the level of an apprentice. This was the simplicity that followed a thousand refinements. Zhen Hua looked up at the perfect Sinking Silver in his hand, then at the boy on the recliner who was breathing evenly, seemingly truly asleep. His mouth twitched violently.

"Stop pretending. Get up."

Shen Nanxun opened one eye, closed it, then opened the other, pretending to have just woken up. He sat up from the recliner and rubbed the corners of his eyes. "Divine Craftsman Zhen Hua, is this acceptable?"

Zhen Hua and Mu Chen exchanged a glance. The two titans of the forging world, one a Divine Craftsman and one a Saint Craftsman, shared the same expression in their eyes.

The joy of a hunter finding prey.

To complete a hundred-fold forging of Sinking Silver in five minutes with such flawless uniformity—at this age, he was a genius among geniuses.

Zhen Hua took another piece of Sinking Silver from his storage spirit tool, this one a full size larger than the last.

"A hundred-fold is just the beginning. A thousand-fold is truly touching the threshold of forging. Same requirements: beat it into a uniform solid piece."

Shen Nanxun took the Sinking Silver, weighed it, and his mouth twitched slightly.

Is this a nesting doll situation?

He didn't say it out loud, though, and picked up the forging hammer again. This time, his movements were completely different. He gripped the hammer with one hand. Deep in his consciousness, that nine-colored light cluster pulsed slightly. The portion of the Dragon Prince's bloodline belonging to absolute power slowly awakened with his stance, and a dark golden light pattern flashed between his fingers.

The Dragon Prince's bloodline already granted immense strength, and he had since absorbed the origin power of the Golden Dragon King—though he couldn't possibly have absorbed it all immediately. Even so, it had caused a qualitative change in Shen Nanxun's strength.

Zhen Hua walked to the door, leaned against the frame with his arms crossed, and stared fixedly at Shen Nanxun's hand.

A thousand-fold forging required absolute power. Without sufficient strength, one could not shake out the microscopic impurities within the Sinking Silver, nor could one hammer the texture to true uniformity.

But Shen Nanxun's bloodline allowed him to ignore this threshold. His movements were not fast, but every strike was incredibly steady. He gripped the hammer with both hands, exerting force from his shoulder blades, driving the entire arm into the hammerhead. The nine-colored light patterns flowed through his meridians into the hammer face and conducted into the Sinking Silver.

With every strike, dark golden light radiated from the point of contact between the hammer and the metal.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

About twenty minutes later, the final strike landed. Shen Nanxun straightened up and placed the forging hammer by the anvil with a casual motion. He then picked up the thousand-fold forged Sinking Silver.

The silver-white metal surface no longer reflected light; instead, it presented a warm, restrained matte texture. When held up to the sun, one could faintly see the layers of forging patterns arranged with extreme regularity. It was perfectly square, its edges precise to the millimeter.

Shen Nanxun placed it on the forging table and turned to nod slightly at Zhen Hua. Despite such high-intensity forging, his breathing remained as steady as ever. "A thousand-fold, is this acceptable?"

Zhen Hua did not answer. He simply walked over, turned the thousand-fold Sinking Silver over and over, and injected spirit power to probe the interior.

Dense, uniform, perfect.

These three words jumped into his mind simultaneously, blocking all the excuses he had prepared. He held the Sinking Silver and turned to Mu Chen.

"Junior Brother, come and feel this."

Mu Chen took it, injected his spirit power to probe it, and remained silent for a long while before looking up at Shen Nanxun.

"How long have you been studying blacksmithing at North Sea Academy?"

"I spent about half a year laying the foundation. I mostly focused on sword and spear practice; blacksmithing was just an auxiliary course," Shen Nanxun answered truthfully.

North Sea Academy had long since begun training them in secondary professions, though Shen Nanxun had spent the majority of his time on cultivation.

Yet, he had already reached the level of a third-rank blacksmith with his Thousand-Refinement, and such a perfect Thousand-Refinement at that. Especially considering Shen Nanxun was not even ten years old yet...

Zhen Hua and Mu Chen exchanged a glance, and the former immediately stepped forward. "I will be your blacksmithing teacher..."

"Get lost!" Mu Chen shoved him aside, smiling brightly. "It has to be me. Don't look at him as a Divine Craftsman; his teaching ability isn't even a fraction of mine."

"Mu Chen, you just said you didn't want to take an apprentice!"

"Bullshit!"

Zhen Hua squeezed back in, enunciating every word. "I already let you have Junior Sister Bao'er; are you going to fight me for this apprentice too?"

"Go to hell, don't try to moral-shackle me. Bao'er likes me, it's none of your business. You're just a pathetic simp!"

"A simp?! Say that again!" Zhen Hua was so angry his beard stood on end, and he grabbed Mu Chen by the collar. These two titans, whose mere foot-stomps could shake the entire blacksmithing world, were currently bickering in the Shen Family courtyard like two schoolboys fighting over candy.

"That's enough, stop arguing." Elder Shen's voice drifted from the study doorway. It was unhurried, yet it caused the two bickering old children to freeze in place.

Elder Shen stood behind the threshold with his hands behind his back, a hint of a smile on his aged face as he looked at Shen Nanxun. "Little Xun, you choose. Who do you want to learn blacksmithing from?"

Shen Nanxun looked at Zhen Hua, then at Mu Chen. One a Divine Craftsman, the other a Saint Craftsman, both staring at him with an incredibly fervent gaze.

The longing in their eyes was even more intense than when Na'er saw spicy rabbit heads. He didn't answer immediately, instead pondering for a moment before speaking calmly.

"Two teachers, whoever can help me solve a problem, I will take as my master."

"Speak!"

The two spoke in unison, their tones identical.

"My Battle Armor needs to be compatible with the power of five different attributes simultaneously."

The courtyard suddenly fell silent. Zhen Hua frowned slightly, and Mu Chen's smile froze at the corners of his mouth.

Five attributes—this wasn't the concept of twin martial souls; even the most complex Battle Armor for twin martial souls was merely a balance of two forces. Five attributes meant five distinct power systems. How to engrave five sets of non-conflicting array circuits onto the same metal, and how to make the Battle Armor automatically adjust its structure as attributes switched during combat—this was no longer a matter of blacksmithing craftsmanship; it touched upon the theoretical limits of contemporary Battle Armor design.

"Five," Shen Nanxun repeated calmly. "My martial soul is special; my Battle Armor is essentially required to be compatible with five martial souls."

Zhen Hua and Mu Chen looked at each other. They suddenly realized a truth: having an apprentice with too much talent could be quite troublesome.

Shen Nanxun wasn't looking for a teacher; he was inviting an ancestor back home.

But the hesitation in their eyes lasted only a moment before being replaced by an even more intense light. A five-attribute Battle Armor was an unprecedented topic in the history of the entire blacksmithing world. But a Divine Craftsman and a Saint Craftsman existed precisely to challenge limits.

Zhen Hua pondered for a long time before saying, "First, even if such a Battle Armor could be completed, we couldn't rely on ourselves alone; we would need a top-tier designer. But the advice I can provide immediately is that this set of Battle Armor must be made entirely of Dazzling Iron Gold."

He paused, his expression becoming exceptionally grave. "Dazzling Iron Gold is rarely used even in standard four-word Battle Armors, appearing only in critical areas like knees, joints, and elbows—places that must withstand maximum impact while ensuring flexibility."

"Because this material is extremely rare, a whole mine can often only yield enough Dazzling Iron Gold to forge a fist-sized alloy ingot. Furthermore, its forging difficulty is immense; it must be completed within a specific temperature range. A fraction too high, and the toughness is ruined; a fraction too low, and the hardness is insufficient. Even I do not have absolute certainty."

"But if your Battle Armor is to carry the power of five attributes, conventional materials simply won't work. Ordinary alloys suffer from thermal fatigue when two attributes clash, and they crack outright with three. With five, the internal stress would tear the metal into fragments. Dazzling Iron Gold is the only currently known metal theoretically capable of bearing the conflict of multiple attributes simultaneously. Its crystal structure has inherent multi-directional ductility, allowing it to micro-adjust its internal stress distribution under the impact of different attribute soul powers. It's not enough, but it must be used. The entire set of Battle Armor, from head to toe, every single plate must be forged from Dazzling Iron Gold."

"Although it is difficult, if it can truly be designed, it will be an epoch-making work." He added, "Relying on your Shen Family's resources, plus the scheduling of the two of us, solving the material problem shouldn't be an issue. But the design of the Battle Armor is also one of the major hurdles."

He added, "Dazzling Iron Gold is too rare on the Douluo Continent, but the Douling Continent has quite a few such mines. It's just that they lack the technology and have never developed them."

Add one more reason to destroy the Douling Empire.

Elder Shen narrowed his eyes slightly; it seemed they would need to use some special means to resolve the Douling Empire ahead of schedule.

However, Shen Nanxun didn't hear the second half of that sentence, as he was currently putting immense pressure on a certain angel sister in his Sea of Consciousness.

Inside the Sea of Consciousness, Qian Renxue was sitting at a desk, wearing a pair of tiny black-rimmed glasses on the bridge of her nose, with a mountain of mecha design classics piled in front of her.

Her delicate face was full of irritability. Her right hand gripped a pen, rapidly deducing on a draft paper. She drew an 'X' through her work, crumpled the paper into a ball, and tossed it into the corner, where a dozen similar paper balls had already accumulated.

She took off her glasses and threw them onto the table, grabbing her hair with both hands and banging her forehead against the desk.

"So annoying, Shen Nanxun, this is harder than becoming a God King!"

"If I had known, I wouldn't have agreed just because I was greedy..."

Fate truly loves to tease a gluttonous pig!