"Only 98.5%? As expected, my timing was still a little off on my first attempt at fusing five metals. I still need more practice!"
Lu Chuan looked at the "98.5%" on the screen,
and let out a helpless sigh.
There was even a note of dissatisfaction with himself in his voice!
Hearing Lu Chuan sigh,
Cen Yue's mouth twitched.
If he hadn't just seen how seriously Lu Chuan took forging,
he would've thought Lu Chuan was showing off.
"Only 98.5%?
You call that 'only'?
Do you know what Godsmith Zhen Hua's record for fusing four metals is?
97.2%!
You fused five metals and got 98.5%, and you're still unhappy?!"
Cen Yue was so exasperated that he couldn't help giving Lu Chuan a stern lecture.
Lu Chuan blinked, looking innocent. "Really? That's pretty high? But if it's not 100%, does it even count as high?"
As a transmigrator,
his impression was that any metal that wasn't four nines—in other words, 99.99% pure—
was a scam!
Small workshops often passed off shoddy goods as top quality like that!
"Of course it's high! Stop asking, you little freak!"
Mu Chen didn't have the energy to argue with Lu Chuan anymore.
Talking to a monster like him
was just asking to make yourself miserable!
Forcibly suppressing the urge to beat Lu Chuan up,
he turned and took a more precise testing instrument from the cabinet:
the Metal Property Analyzer!
This machine was a whole size larger than an ordinary Fusion Degree Tester,
and its casing was covered in densely etched Soul Guidance Arrays.
It was one of Mu Chen's prized possessions,
usually kept safe like a treasure!
If Lu Chuan hadn't caused such a commotion this time,
he wouldn't have been willing to use it.
Carefully placing the alloy in the testing chamber,
he pressed the start button.
The machine immediately emitted a low hum,
and the probes on it began to move,
releasing a soft glow
as they started a comprehensive scan of the alloy.
The light looked a little like the spectrometer Lu Chuan knew.
A moment later,
lines of data began appearing on the machine's screen—
[Metal Name]: Unknown [Composition]: Flame Copper · Spirit-Forged, Frost Meteorite Iron · Spirit-Forged, Thunderclap Gold · Spirit-Forged, Shadow Steel · Spirit-Forged, Life Crystal · Spirit-Forged [Fusion Degree]: 98.5% (Supreme Quality) [Soul Power Affinity]: S-rank (Excellent) [Attribute Coexistence State]: Fire, Ice, Lightning, Shadow (Devouring), Life — Stable Five-Attribute Closed Loop [Self-Healing Coefficient]: 10.3 (Ordinary Spirit-Forged Metal: 0; Soul-Forged Metal: approximately 5–8) [Adaptive Environmental Response]: Confirmed (Can automatically adjust the proportion of dominant attributes according to the external temperature and energy environment) [Other Properties]: Energy Devouring and Conversion Efficiency: 64% — Shadow Steel property activated by Thunderclap Gold; devoured energy can be converted [Spirituality Level]: Advanced Spirit Forging (Has the potential to advance to Soul Forging)
If they had to sum up the data above in one sentence,
it would be—
the data was off the charts!
Mu Chen's hands were trembling.
He had been a blacksmith for decades
and had seen countless excellent materials,
but he had never seen a single piece of metal
whose properties could shock him like this!
He'd already suspected
that this alloy's properties would far surpass those of the Spirit-Forged metals they'd seen before.
After all, it was Spirit-Forged Five-Alloy Metal.
As for its self-healing coefficient and adaptive environmental response,
those went without saying—
they were insanely good!
If all went well, armor or Battle Armor made from this metal
could greatly reduce maintenance costs and extend the time it could stay in battle.
But what was this energy devouring and conversion property?
It was simply unheard of!
Did this mean
that if someone used it to forge armor or Battle Armor, it could absorb external energy during combat, such as enemy Soul Cannon fire and elemental attacks?
Mu Chen didn't understand it, but he was deeply shaken.
"This stuff... if it's Soul-Forged and made into Battle Armor, you might be able to go straight from one-word to four-word without changing it."
Cen Yue leaned over to look at the data and froze on the spot.
Elder Zhao swallowed hard,
feeling that
the air in the Evaluation Room was too stifling.
He needed to get outside and compose himself!
As he pushed open the door and stepped out,
Mu Xi was still waiting quietly outside.
The moment she saw Elder Zhao,
her eyes lit up.
"Uncle Zhao, has he finished forging? Did he succeed?"
Elder Zhao took a deep breath and nodded.
"He's finished, and he passed.
Now all that's left is to issue him his Level Six Blacksmith badge!
That kid's name is Lu Chuan. He's young, a monster, and it seems he's a student in Eastsea Academy's advanced division.
Little Xi, if you like him, you'll have to work hard!"
Mu Xi's face instantly turned red at his words. "Uncle Zhao, what are you saying? I'm just concerned about a rising star in our East Sea Blacksmith Association!"
Hearing that,
Elder Zhao laughed heartily.
He knew the girl was shy,
so he didn't call her out on it.
Waving a hand, he headed down the corridor.
Mu Xi watched Elder Zhao walk farther and farther away,
then pushed open the door and entered the Evaluation Room.
As soon as she stepped inside,
she saw Mu Chen and Cen Yue crowded around the Metal Property Analyzer,
their heads nearly touching as they stared at the data on the screen,
motionless as if someone had cast a Binding Spell on them.
And the Lu Chuan she'd been thinking about was standing to one side, drinking water.
He looked exhausted, and most of his clothes were soaked with sweat.
"He must really need this right now!"
Mu Xi took a pink handkerchief from her pocket,
walked over,
and offered it to Lu Chuan.
As a fellow blacksmith,
she knew all too well
how much a blacksmith needed a towel after finishing a forging session.
It was the first time Lu Chuan had ever been given something by a girl he didn't know,
and he was clearly taken aback.
He looked down at the clean, neat handkerchief.
Faced with the girl's kindness,
he hesitated for a moment,
then reached out and took it.
"Thanks!"
Lu Chuan wiped away his sweat,
and his attitude toward Mu Xi softened considerably.
Seeing that, Mu Xi immediately broke into a broad smile.
"You're welcome! Let me introduce myself. I'm Mu Xi. And I'm really sorry about earlier. I didn't mean to interrupt!"
Lu Chuan smiled too. "I'm Lu Chuan. I'm not bothered by what happened earlier anymore."
Mu Xi giggled at that. "Really? I'm glad you're not! I heard you're in Eastsea Academy's advanced division?"
"Yeah." Lu Chuan nodded.
"What year and class?" Mu Xi asked.
"I'm a first-year, but we haven't been assigned classes yet. I just enrolled, and I'm going to register at the academic affairs office tomorrow,"
Lu Chuan answered honestly.
Mu Xi's eyes lit up at once.
"A first-year? What a coincidence, so am I!
I'm in Class One!
Why don't you come to our class?
Our homeroom teacher is pretty nice,
and the atmosphere in class is good too."
Mu Xi enthusiastically invited him.
But before Lu Chuan could answer,
Mu Chen coughed from the side.
"Xi'er, which class he chooses is up to him. Don't stick your nose into it."
Mu Xi had been chatting happily, and hearing her father butt in immediately annoyed her.
"I'm giving my classmate some information. How is that sticking my nose into it?
You're the one interrupting my conversation with my classmate!
Want me to tell Mom you drank again yesterday?"
Mu Chen's expression changed instantly. He hurriedly lowered his voice.
"Xi'er! Don't say things like that! When did I drink? If your mom finds out, she'll skin me alive!"
Mu Xi huffed at that.
"Then don't interrupt me while I'm talking with my classmate."
Mu Chen was immediately left speechless.
He opened his mouth several times, then closed it again. In the end, he retreated to one side, utterly aggrieved.
His daughter was taking someone else's side. What could he say?
Watching the father and daughter bicker,
Lu Chuan and Cen Yue couldn't help grinning.
It was only natural to enjoy a bit of gossip.
But when Mu Chen's sidelong glance swept their way,
the two of them instantly acted as though they'd seen and heard nothing.
Lu Chuan put on an affected air and walked up to the forging table, asking Cen Yue a question he already knew the answer to,
"Can I take this alloy with me?"
Cen Yue immediately caught on and nodded along,
"According to the rules, the Association provides the assessment materials, but the finished product belongs to the blacksmith.
You can take it with you.
But before that, why not give it a name?"
"A name?"
Lu Chuan was slightly taken aback.
He hadn't thought of that at all.
After pondering for a moment,
he spoke again,
"Let's call it Five-Derivation Origin Gold!"