The Secret of Soul Guidance Metal! Please Bookmark! Please Vote!

At the Blacksmith Shop in White Cloud Village, about half an hour later, Chen Hong handed an exquisitely understated hoe to the village uncle and watched him leave amid his grateful thanks.

After the man left, Chen Hong took the mysterious ore from the crucible beside him and used a hammer to smash it bit by bit into powder. He found that silver light seemed to glimmer within the powder.

"Huh? Did I really stumble upon a treasure?" Chen Hong noticed the silvery metallic sheen in the ore powder and felt somewhat surprised. However, after experiencing countless failures and disappointments, he understood that he could not indulge in expectations before the results were out.

Indulging in expectations would only lead to indulging in disappointment.

Chen Hong placed the powder in a wooden basin and began washing it with water. After initially filtering out some impurities, he placed the sediments of varying quality into separate small bowls. He still did not know which ones were the true impurities, so he could only burn them all first and see.

Before long, Chen Hong added coal to the furnace. Coal was easy enough to obtain; it still existed in this world filled with Soul Power. Chen Hong could actually hand-build a Steam Engine, but he felt that was too simple and lacked challenge, so he had not bothered with it.

Once the furnace was hot enough, Chen Hong placed the crucible containing the densest batch of powder inside, covered it, and began smelting it.

"I remember that when I graduated from the Imperial University of Science and Technology, my graduation project was a steam mech." Looking at the blazing red furnace, Chen Hong could not help recalling something from deep within his memories. A faint smile appeared on his lips as though he had remembered his old campus days.

Steam and mech were clearly such common words, yet when put together, they instantly felt unfamiliar and niche—so much so that they almost seemed unrecognizable.

"Sigh, what a pity those bastards ruined my mechanical art. The heavy engine was sent straight to the battlefield as soon as it was completed."

Chen Hong sighed inwardly and temporarily set aside his memories of his previous life. He came from a world on the verge of entering an interstellar civilization; he was not originally from this world.

Precisely because he was not from this world, he found this world of mysterious powers to have such a bleak future.

If this world possessed terrifying Supernatural Power capable of shattering galaxies with a single punch, like the worlds described in fantasy novels, then Chen Hong might have decisively kept his mouth shut and happily joined in.

However, through Chen Hong's observations over the years, he discovered that in this world known as Douluo Continent, its strongest figures—the Titled Douluo—seemed to have rather "small-scale" Destructive Power. And then there were the soul beasts of this world. Chen Hong seriously suspected that they might be some kind of giant single-celled organisms, the sort with only a few neurons in their entire bodies.

Given the chance, Chen Hong would definitely catch a few and dissect them. But the most important thing right now was to localize his professional knowledge first.

After all, Chen Hong had been an Intelligent Mech Field Engineer in his previous life. He knew a little about computer programming, Materials Science, and mechanical construction—just a little, really. His level was only that of someone who scavenged scraps on the battlefield and hand-built combat mechs.

"The Soul Power in this world feels far too versatile. Only an idiot would abandon Soul Power and struggle with steam, internal combustion, electromagnetism, and then nuclear energy."

As an ordinary researcher from a technological plane, Chen Hong deeply understood that physics had limits, while mysticism was still racking up points. Especially once dimensional theory became involved, even the Empire's bigwigs could not help wondering: was mysticism also a kind of science? Was science also a kind of mysticism?

"Huh, it's done."

Chen Hong stared blankly for a while before noticing that the powder in the crucible atop the furnace had turned red-hot and melted into liquid. He hurriedly removed it with iron tongs, then poured it into a container he had prepared earlier, waiting for the nail-sized glob of red liquid metal to cool slowly.

Sizzle!!!

Once it had mostly cooled, Chen Hong submerged the unknown metal in cooling water, then took it back out. To his surprise, a small lump of silver metal reflecting mottled colors had appeared in the container.

"Ah? I really did find treasure? It worked on the first try?" Seeing the finished product, Chen Hong was slightly astonished. He had been prepared to find nothing at all, so why was he suddenly being given such an unexpected delight?

Once the silver metal lump had completely cooled, Chen Hong's psychic sense stirred, activating Martial Soul Psychic Power. The faint force barely managed to lift the small lump of silver metal.

"Let me take a look—huh? Its Soul Power conductivity is this strong?!"

Chen Hong's Martial Soul Psychic Power was an extension of his Soul Power and Mental Power. Thus, the instant his psychic power touched the silver metal, he sensed this metal's powerful Soul Power conductivity!

"This is... Soul Guidance Metal! No, wait! Let me observe it properly!"

Chen Hong seemed to think of something. A yellow soul ring appeared behind him and began to glow faintly. Sage—er, Mental Focus activated!

Chen Hong felt a wave of cool clarity sweep through his mind. All worldly desires vanished, and at that moment, his thoughts seemed to reach a state of Clear Mind and lucidity. Every stray thought in his heart dissipated, and the only thing in Chen Hong's eyes was the silver metal lump that his psychic power had lifted before him.

His faint but adorable—no, tenacious—Mental Power slowly spread across the silver metal lump under the drive of his intensely focused will, wrapping around it completely.

All sorts of minute data concerning the silver metal quickly surfaced in Chen Hong's mind: its volume, mass, density, and other details.

"So that's it! So-called Soul Guidance Metal is actually metal with its own tiny magnetic field!" In his state of extreme mental concentration, Chen Hong quickly discovered the faint anomaly within the silver metal lump. It seemed to possess its own positive and negative poles, allowing Soul Power to flow through it with exceptional ease.

Chen Hong was able to discover this because, after his faint yet tenacious and adorable Mental Power completely enveloped the silver mental power, a field diagram of a magnetic field weakly deflecting Mental Power appeared in his mind.

"Sure enough, being small, short, and weak isn't without its benefits." As the effects of Sage—his soul skill, Mental Focus—faded, Chen Hong began spouting nonsense to himself again.

Chen Hong felt that this was probably the side effect of the Sage Time skill. It definitely was not his own problem.

"That's why I say this world's future is bleak! During the golden years when they should be studying to grow wiser, they spend every day at Martial Soul School learning how to fight. Can society progress? Can technology develop? Can civilization advance?"

Looking at the silver metal in his hand, Chen Hong could not help feeling the joy of finding a new path after seeming to have reached a dead end.

"I'll call you Soul Guidance Mithril. I need to get Uncle Wang to find me more of it!"

Inside the Blacksmith Shop, reflected in the furnace's firelight, Chen Hong's flushed face was filled with delight.

His Machine Soul Great Joy—Soul Engine version 0.2—had a feeling—ptui! It had the beginnings of one!