Hundred Refinements, Thousand Refinements

Time flew by after Ling Yi began studying under Fifth Brother Wang Meng.

In the blink of an eye, a month had passed.

During that month, nothing unexpected happened in Mu Zhi City. It was calm and uneventful, leaving Ling Yi quite satisfied with this remote little kingdom far from the accident-prone central region of Douluo Continent.

In the familiar Room 304 of Building No. 3, Ling Yi opened his eyes once again and looked at the "Blue Silver Grass" wall stacked around the bed beside him, already half a person tall. His mood grew even brighter.

A month ago, Ling Yi had asked someone to carry three letters back to Jiang Blacksmith Shop in North River Mouth Town.

One was for Master Jiang. In the letter, he thanked him for the recommendation, saying that he had now entered Old Master Jin's tutelage and was studying forging under Fifth Brother Wang Meng.

The other two letters were delivered respectively to Ling Bai and Yan Bin, the Deacon of the town's Spirit Hall Branch.

The letter to Yan Bin was more or less the same as the one to Master Jiang: words of thanks, plus mention that he had visited Lu Yi, a senior Deacon at the Spirit Hall Main Hall here in Mu Zhi City. The two had caught up a little, become familiar with each other, and could be considered to have initially built some rapport.

As for Ling Bai's letter, it mainly reported his safety to Ling Bai, as well as to his parents, grandparents, eldest uncle, cousin, and the others back in Shan Hai Village, stating that everything was going well for him now and that they need not worry, and so on. At the same time, the latter part included thoughtful words specially marked for each person.

At the end of the letter, Ling Yi specifically instructed Zhang Lei to help dig up the two hundred and four "Blue Silver Grass" plants planted in the corner enclosure of his family courtyard, crowd them together into a wooden crate, and hand them over to Ling Bai to bring to town.

On the third day after the letter was received, those two hundred and four "Blue Silver Grass" plants were brought by a merchant caravan heading to Mu Zhi City to Silver Xin Blacksmith Shop in the city's east.

After more than twenty days, these "Blue Silver Grass" plants, which had been wilted and drooping when they first entered the city, had long since recovered their former thriving vitality. Because they had been nourished by soul power for over a year before this, they had more and longer grass leaves and roots than the hundred plants Ling Yi had cultivated before the school term began, as well as the "Blue Silver Grass" he had cultivated afterward. Their vitality far surpassed them too.

Besides the nearly five hundred "Blue Silver Grass" plants around him, there were also sections of bamboo tubes beneath the inner corner of the wall by the bed, each planted with the excellent "Blue Silver Grass" seeds brought over together last time. Once they grew a little bigger, they would start being stacked beside Ling Yi's bed too.

At this rate, before the end of the year, Ling Yi might be able to turn the bed he occupied into a single room!

Silver Xin Blacksmith Shop.

As usual, after eating breakfast with Fifth Brother Wang Meng's family of nine, Ling Yi came to the forging platform, preparing for today's practice.

However, before Ling Yi could raise the forging hammer in his hand, Wang Meng did not go to his exclusive forging platform. Instead, he walked straight over to Ling Yi's side.

"Fifth Brother," Ling Yi said in greeting, lowering the arm he had just lifted halfway.

"Little Yi." Wang Meng nodded, his gaze falling on the iron ingot in front of Ling Yi.

This was not the same piece from a month ago, but the eighth piece. This piece had originally been the size of three adult heads, but now it was only the size of two adult fists.

"Tempering raw materials such as Pig Iron is a path every Blacksmith Apprentice must walk."

"Generally speaking, when Pig Iron has been hammered down to one-third of its original size, it becomes a qualified Iron Ingot, one that can be used to forge all kinds of ironware..."

Wang Meng looked at the iron ingot that still stood unmoving as the fierce flames licked at it, repeating the words he had said a month ago.

These words had also been said to Ling Yi by Master Jiang more than a year ago.

"Of course, ironware forged directly like this can at most be used as Kitchen Knives, sickles, Hoes, shovels, and other household tools or Farm Tools..."

Wang Meng's words continued, while Ling Yi listened quietly, even though he had long since committed all of this to memory.

"A Novice Blacksmith can easily complete the tempering of Pig Iron, then forge it into shaped tools using the corresponding Iron Ingot. Generally speaking, the strength of these tools is not bad, roughly equivalent to the strength of the Martial Soul of an ordinary Tool Martial Soul awakener without soul power...

"In other words, the most basic ironware!"

"Above that, one must use a larger Iron Ingot to forge the desired ironware. During this process, the Iron Ingot must be further refined through hammering, allowing the quality of the material to improve!

"Within ten refinements, there is no detailed subdivision. The forging process of basic ironware essentially already contains it.

"Twenty refinements, thirty refinements, forty refinements... These represent the improvement of a Novice Blacksmith's skill, step by step, climbing toward Intermediate Blacksmith!"

"When one can shape a material through fifty refinements, it represents stepping across the threshold of Intermediate Blacksmith. This is the same as the Hundred Refinements required later for Advanced Blacksmith.

"What prevents many Novice Blacksmiths from advancing to Intermediate Blacksmith, and Intermediate Blacksmiths from advancing to Advanced Blacksmith, is, on one hand, the blacksmith's own strength.

"If one's strength is insufficient, naturally one cannot further temper material that has already been hammered to a certain degree.

"On the other hand, there is technique. How to use the smallest amount of strength with every hammer strike while still producing the greatest effect is an unavoidable problem for all blacksmiths who are weak in ability and strength."

At this point, a look of melancholy inevitably appeared on Wang Meng's face. It was partly because he himself was nearly forty years old now and still trapped at Level 19 soul power, finding it difficult to advance further, with little hope for the future. It was also because his four sons had failed to inherit his Soul Master talent. Although, under his careful instruction, it would not be a big problem for them to become Intermediate Blacksmiths, if they wanted to become Advanced Blacksmiths, the requirements in technique would be even harsher for them as Ordinary Persons!

Shaking his head to dispel the negative emotions in his mind, Wang Meng looked at Ling Yi with a serious expression and continued:

"And all of this is extremely, extremely crucial during the period when an apprentice practices material tempering!"

"Master once said that in Metal City, Gengxin City, whether Novice Blacksmiths, Intermediate Blacksmiths, or Advanced Blacksmiths, they are actually only blacksmiths who have just entered the profession."

"Because below Blacksmith Master, many Soul Masters can rely on their own powerful strength to forcefully complete the forging process of Hundred-Refinement Grade. At most, their utilization rate of the material will be much lower, and the service life of the tools they forge will also be shorter..."

At this point, Wang Meng smiled bitterly. "Of course, whether in any major city or main city of the Two Great Empires, this actually isn't much of a problem.

"Because most Soul Masters actually use their own Martial Souls. As for the tools forged by blacksmiths, many of them are simply cast aside and left unused..."

"They trust their own Martial Souls more!"

Faced with Wang Meng's words, Ling Yi neither agreed nor disagreed.

Who asked this to be a world centered on Martial Souls? Even if one's Martial Soul was a wooden stick, as long as one had Innate Soul Power and could cultivate, with the enhancement of Soul Rings one after another, it would very quickly possess hardness surpassing steel. Add in the support of Soul Skills, the fact that it was closely tied to oneself, self-repair, and other such factors, and naturally the demand for tools forged by blacksmiths decreased greatly.

"Whew—"

Wang Meng let out a long breath and no longer sank into those pessimistic thoughts. He asked Ling Yi:

"Little Yi, over this past month, with more than twelve hours across four weekends, four hours on each of twenty evenings, and a full one hundred and twenty-plus hours of material tempering, what thoughts do you have?"

Faced with Wang Meng's question, Ling Yi looked at the iron ingot at the bottom, its surface faintly reddening, then shifted his gaze to Wang Meng. Their eyes met, and he softly uttered two words:

"Rhythm? Cadence?"

Hearing those two words, Wang Meng's eyes widened despite himself, and surprise appeared in his gaze as he looked at Ling Yi.

His mouth opened and closed a few times before Wang Meng finally said, anticipation on his face, "Tell me."

"Mm." Ling Yi nodded, thought for a moment, organized his words, and then said:

"When I studied with Master Jiang last year, I also started with tempering materials. It took about a month too, tempering Pig Iron into the state of an Iron Ingot. After that, Master Jiang began teaching me how to forge an Iron Ingot into the shape of the tool I wanted through hammering..."

"At that time, when I hammered materials, I was only thinking about removing the impurities inside Pig Iron and other materials through tempering, refining and shrinking the material.

But over this past month, I felt that after I found the forging posture I was most comfortable with, every strike let me sense the feedback from the iron ingot under the hammer, as if... it was breathing!"

"And with every swing of my hammer, the more the rhythm of my whole body's movements matched that breathing cadence of the iron ingot, the better the efficiency and effect of the refinement became!"

"Not bad!" Wang Meng listened to Ling Yi's explanation, and the more he listened, the more obvious the smile on his face became. By the end, he could not help but start clapping.

"Xiao Yi, though I've always known you were smart, I truly didn't expect your comprehension to be this strong!"

"You're practically a born blacksmith!"

Thank you to book friend Earthwood Sorcerer, book friend Dade Potato, and book friend Qingxin T Wuqing for the monthly tickets; thank you to book friend 20211012224807747 for the tip; and thank you to all book friends for your Recommendation Tickets and continued reading. Thank you, everyone!!! (^▽^)