"Godsmith, what if I said I could help you take your forging to the next level?"
Leng Hanyuan's calm words were like a massive boulder crashing into a placid lake, making it difficult for Zhen Hua to maintain his usual composure.
Take it further?
Having reached the level of Heavenly Forging, Zhen Hua felt that he had completely exhausted his potential.
Even if he devoted the rest of his life to it, he feared he would never make another breakthrough.
To be honest, Zhen Hua's first reaction was indeed excitement.
But he quickly calmed down again.
A bitter smile tugged at his lips as he shook his head.
"Your Excellency Mystic Phoenix may not know this, but though I am unwilling to accept it, I have no choice but to admit it."
"After reaching Heavenly Forging, my potential has likely come to an end."
"No matter how much I have studied forging over the years, I have made virtually no progress."
"It is almost impossible for me to go any further."
As he said this, Zhen Hua's expression visibly darkened.
For someone who had spent an entire lifetime pursuing a single path, seeing its final end before him was a deeply sorrowful thing.
Zhen Hua was a godsmith.
But he was still far from reaching the ultimate end of forging.
Even with the Ascension Platform's assistance, his success rate for Heavenly Forging was only one in ten.
Yet for him personally, that was already the end.
Perhaps future generations with greater forging talent could go further, but that would not be him.
However...
"I never make empty promises." Facing Zhen Hua's denial, Leng Hanyuan merely spoke those words calmly.
Seeing Leng Hanyuan's expression, confident to the extreme as though everything was under his control, Zhen Hua's heart suddenly skipped a beat.
The flames of hope began to burn within him.
He recalled the many secrets hidden by the person before him.
Could it be...
"Godsmith, what factors determine forging?"
Zhen Hua answered instinctively, "Naturally, one's understanding of metals, the external environment, and one's own abilities."
"Then where do you think lies the constraint that has prevented your forging attainments from advancing any further?"
Zhen Hua fell silent for a moment, then looked at his palm.
"My own abilities."
That was right. What most limited Zhen Hua's forging now was his own ability.
After studying forging for so many years, his comprehension of metals had long reached an impeccable level.
As for the external environment...
He had also spent astronomical resources to construct the Ascension Platform, all to provide the finest forging environment and increase the success rate of Heavenly Forging.
But why, even so, was his Heavenly Forging success rate still only one in ten?
The greatest issue was his own ability.
Lower-level forging might not pose a problem.
But at the level of Heavenly Forging, completing a full Heavenly Forging required enduring a lightning tribulation!
And that lightning tribulation had to be borne by the forger himself.
Although Zhen Hua was a Title Douluo,
his talent in martial souls was actually quite limited.
His cultivation had also been forcibly raised through the effects of countless medicines.
His foundation was far inferior to those Title Douluo who had cultivated step by step.
His combat strength was also considerably weaker than that of an ordinary Title Douluo.
Previously, Zhen Hua had not cared about this.
After all, his original goal had never been to become a powerful soul master, but to become a master forger.
But only after entering the realm of Heavenly Forging did Zhen Hua realize how laughable his former thoughts had been.
The greatest forgers also had to be powerful soul masters!
But by the time he came to that realization, everything was already too late.
Because his early overreliance on medicinal cultivation had long exhausted every bit of Zhen Hua's already limited talent.
It was now almost impossible for his strength to grow again.
This was why his Heavenly Forging success rate could never rise.
There was no possibility of advancing further in forging.
"What if I said I could help Divine General resolve this problem?"
Leng Hanyuan spoke softly.
"This..."
"It is not that I do not trust Your Excellency, but my body's potential has long since dried up."
"Over the years, I have sought many ways to improve my body, but none have produced any substantial results."
Zhen Hua explained.
"What if it were an immortal herb?"
An immortal herb?
Zhen Hua froze.
Mu Ye, standing to one side, seemed to have thought of something. His expression became incomparably excited.
"Does Your Excellency Mystic Phoenix mean the immortal herbs once consumed by Ancestor Tang San and the others?"
Mu Ye recalled certain records from the ancient texts of the Body Sect.
Twenty thousand years ago, the Shrek Seven Devils had consumed a special miraculous elixir that seemed to be called an immortal herb.
However, the related records were extremely scarce, mentioning it only briefly.
If Mu Ye had not paid special attention to anything that might possibly become an ingredient, he might not have remembered immortal herbs at all.
"That is correct."
"Immortal herbs are heavenly treasures that seize the creations of heaven and earth."
"They can transform one's body and fortify one's foundation and origin."
"The reason the first-generation Shrek Seven Devils were all able to enter the God Realm was largely due to the assistance of immortal herbs."
Leng Hanyuan explained calmly.
Listening to him, Zhen Hua began to realize just what kind of treasure these immortal herbs were.
Transform one's body!
Fortify one's foundation and origin!
Wasn't this precisely the treasure that could resolve the unstable foundation he had developed from relying on medicine?
"Your Excellency Mystic Phoenix, do you mean that you possess those legendary immortal herbs?"
Zhen Hua's eyes had turned faintly bloodshot from excessive excitement.
"Precisely."
Leng Hanyuan nodded.
The immortal herbs of the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well were practically essential treasures for every transmigrator after arriving in this world.
Leng Hanyuan was no exception.
Throughout the entire era of Douluo II, he had only done a few particularly significant things.
He obtained Electrolux's inheritance through a special transaction, intercepted the Two Emperors of Ice and Snow, and brought all the immortal herbs of the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well under his control.
That was right!
The entire Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well!
Other than consuming immortal herbs himself, Leng Hanyuan had practically stripped the entire Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well clean.
He now possessed a vast quantity of immortal herbs.
He had preserved these immortal herbs with ultimate ice, so there would not be the slightest loss of medicinal efficacy.
Leng Hanyuan felt no shame whatsoever for doing all this.
After all, if he had not done it, the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well would sooner or later have fallen into the Tang Sect's hands under the God King Tang's control.
Thus, without the slightest psychological burden, he harvested every immortal herb from the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well.
In a sense, he had even done a good deed.
At the very least, Huo Yuhao would not have to torment himself at the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well as in the original story, under the God King Tang's fabricated demands.
As for Bei Bei and the others from Shrek Academy losing the immortal herbs' assistance because of this, what did that have to do with Leng Hanyuan?
Even if those people had consumed immortal herbs, they still would not have successfully entered the divine realm in the end and could only become a heap of dust.
It would be better for him to take them ten thousand years into the future, where they could realize their greatest value.
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