Disorder Splitting Wind Appears, Stealing Hammer Technique

The first hammer fell, sending sparks scattering across the pig iron.

Shi San had wanted to remind Tang San not to use his strength recklessly, but swallowed the words before they left his mouth.

The blow was unadorned, yet the force traveled from the soles of his feet all the way to his wrist without dispersing midway.

Tang San drew back his arm, and the second hammer immediately came crashing down.

Shi San's eyes lit up. "Good! Again!"

Xiao Wu stood in the doorway. She had found the heat unbearable at first, but when she saw Tang San actually display some skill, she could not help moving closer. "Tang San, you know how to do this too?"

Tang San did not let himself be distracted. He only replied, "I learned it when I was little."

Ji Yuan received the vibrations deep within the hammer handle, while the demonic vine's main body slowly unfurled inside the layer beneath the sole.

The first hammer was the opening stance.

The second borrowed the residual force reverberating from the first.

By the third, the power began to stack.

Tang San thought he was gripping an iron hammer, but through the spore offspring, Ji Yuan broke every vibration down into something he could consume.

The sequence of force from the calves, the angle of the waist's rotation, the rhythm of the shoulders and arms releasing force before storing it again, and the hidden force in the wrist's final downward press—all of it was carved into Ji Yuan's plant instincts.

Vines could lash out too.

Vines could stack force too.

As long as the timing was right, even soft demonic vines could deliver a crushing blow.

The fourth hammer, the fifth, the sixth.

Several workers gathered inside the blacksmith shop.

Someone murmured, "How old is this kid? Uncle Shi, where did you pick him up?"

Shi San glared at him. "Quit talking nonsense and go work the bellows."

The worker refused to leave. "Let me watch a little longer. This technique is anything but ordinary."

Tang San heard him, but did not respond.

All his attention was on the anvil.

When the tenth hammer fell, the impurities on the pig iron's surface were shaken loose, and its color began to change.

Xiao Wu clapped. "Impressive. Much better-looking than when you beat up Xiao Chenyu."

Tang San's hands did not stop. "This isn't fighting."

Xiao Wu laughed. "More or less the same. Either way, you're smashing things."

Shi San laughed and scolded her, "What does a little girl like you know? Blacksmithing is all about the path of force. Smashing blindly will only ruin the material."

Xiao Wu refused to concede. "Then is he doing it well or not?"

Shi San stared at Tang San's hands. "Well. Too well to be an apprentice."

Ji Yuan did not care about those compliments.

He only cared that the Mysterious Heaven Skill inside Tang San had begun to circulate faster.

With every additional hammer of Disorder Splitting Wind, Tang San had to call upon more inner power to keep his muscles and meridians from giving out.

The blood and qi leaking out from that strain were ready-made fuel.

Ji Yuan did not draw in huge mouthfuls. He merely took the overflowing portion along the edge of Tang San's heart meridian.

Tang San's blows grew heavier and heavier, sweat dripping from his forehead.

When the fifteenth hammer fell, his wrist began to go numb.

Shi San immediately said, "Stop if you can't hold on. Don't injure your hand."

Tang San shook his head. "I can keep going."

Xiao Wu frowned. "Don't push yourself."

"I know my limits," Tang San said.

Hearing that, Ji Yuan felt somewhat annoyed.

Tang San's so-called knowing his limits seemed to him like nothing more than convenient self-depletion.

Still, it suited him perfectly.

The eighteenth hammer, the nineteenth, the twentieth.

The spore offspring within the hammer handle endured increasingly violent vibrations, and cracks began appearing inside the wood.

Ji Yuan drew upon a bit of the demonic vine's toughness to protect the spore, keeping it from being shattered.

He was not merely watching. He was learning.

The fine vines in the layer beneath the sole contracted in rhythm with Disorder Splitting Wind—first drawing back to store force, then lashing forward, before the remaining force curled back and continued stacking.

Faint marks were scraped into the old cloth, but Tang San only assumed the sole had been worn down by debris from the blacksmith shop.

The twenty-fourth hammer strike fell, flattening the pig iron another ring.

Shi San watched even more intently. "Kid, who taught you that hammer technique?"

Tang San did not stop moving his hands. "My father."

"Your father was a blacksmith too?"

"Mm."

Shi San nodded. "No wonder. Anyone who could teach such craftsmanship wasn't an ordinary blacksmith."

Tang San did not respond.

He remembered Tang Hao's perpetually drunken face. His feelings were complicated, but the hammer in his hands came down even harder.

Sensing the internal energy fluctuations brought on by those emotions, Ji Yuan immediately tore away a portion of his vitality and blood from the edges.

Human emotions were really useful.

Sorrow could drive cultivation, and obsession could push the body beyond its limits.

As long as they did not die, it was all nourishment.

By the twenty-seventh strike, Tang San's breathing had become ragged.

Xiao Wu immediately stepped forward. "That's enough, right? Your face is white."

Tang San gritted his teeth. "Just a few more strikes."

Shi San added, "Don't push yourself. Getting this far at your age is already frightening enough."

Tang San did not stop.

He needed to earn money, and he needed the practice.

Tang Sect hidden weapons could not be made without materials. He had to familiarize himself with forging as quickly as possible.

Ji Yuan continued stealing along with his resolve.

The twenty-eighth strike.

The twenty-ninth strike.

The thirtieth strike.

The hammer crashed down. The final layer of impurities inside the pig iron was forced out. Sparks fell along the edge of the anvil, making a fine, crackling sound.

Tang San's arms trembled, and he finally stopped.

Shi San walked over, picked up the refined iron with tongs, and examined it. His face was full of astonishment. "Good kid. What you just did is worth half a year of practice for an ordinary apprentice."

Xiao Wu immediately lifted her chin. "Hear that? I told you he was amazing."

Tang San put down the hammer. His palms were numb, and his chest felt hollow too.

He frowned and examined himself, discovering that his Mysterious Heaven Skill internal energy had diminished considerably again.

But forging had consumed so much energy just now that the depletion did not seem out of place.

Ji Yuan withdrew his roots beneath the sole of the shoe, and the dark-red patterns on the demon vine's surface glowed.

The first thirty strikes were enough.

The core of Disorder Splitting Wind was not how heavy each strike was, but catching the force that had not yet dissipated from the previous strike and feeding it into the next attack.

Humans bore that force with their arms. They would tire, be injured, and break.

Plants were different.

Vines were tough and pliable, naturally suited for coiling up and storing force. As long as he combined their resilience with metallic barbs, every lash could grow fiercer than the last.

Ji Yuan gave this stolen technique a name.

Disorder Splitting Wind Vine Technique.

Shi San took out some copper soul coins from the counter and tossed them to Tang San. "Today's wages. I gave you an extra share."

Tang San caught them. "Thank you, Uncle Shi."

Shi San waved a hand. "Coming again tomorrow?"

"I am."

"Then I'll save some good materials for you. It'd be a waste for your skills to forge ordinary pig iron."

Anticipation appeared in Tang San's eyes. "All right."

Xiao Wu pulled him outside. "Come on, come on. You reek of iron."

Tang San said helplessly, "Weren't you the one who wanted to come?"

"I regret it now."

The two left the blacksmith shop, and the sky had already darkened.

Tang San kept working his wrists as they walked. When Xiao Wu saw, she grabbed one of his hands and looked at it. "They're all red, and you still say you're fine."

Tang San said, "How can forging not wear up your hands?"

Xiao Wu snorted. "If you cough up blood again, I'll go tell Grandmaster."

Tang San gave a bitter smile. "I won't."

Ji Yuan paid no attention to their conversation.

His perception remained within the hammer's wooden handle.

That spore had not been withdrawn. Every time Tang San forged in the future, all of his exertions would continue to be recorded.

A blood pack that even taught him while he practiced.

When they returned to the Seventh Dormitory, Wang Sheng and the others crowded around to ask about the advancement test.

Tang San gave them a brief explanation and took out his Soul Master badge.

The work-study students' eyes gleamed with envy.

Wang Sheng said, "Boss, you're an official Soul Master now."

Xiao Wu slapped the table. "If Xiao Chenyu dares come again, we'll show him the Soul Master badge."

Tang San put the badge away. "Stop always thinking about fighting."

Xiao Wu shot him a look. "Who was the one who pinned someone to the ground today?"

Tang San was left speechless.

While the Seventh Dormitory was bustling, Ji Yuan awakened the spore at Xiao Wu's hairline and gently drew out the overflowing origin essence.

Xiao Wu was bickering with Wang Sheng and did not notice the faint itch at the base of her neck.

As the life aura of a hundred-thousand-year soul beast entered the demon vine, the Disorder Splitting Wind Vine Technique Ji Yuan had just learned became even more stable.

He had a thin vine tentatively lash out from the inner layer of his shoe sole. The short vine-shadow produced a low burst of air before he immediately suppressed it again.

He could not expose himself.

He was still too weak.

Late at night, the Seventh Dormitory gradually fell quiet.

Tang San lay on his bed, his wrists still aching and swollen, yet he could not help savoring the hammer technique from the day.

He felt that he was still far from the level his father had taught him.

Yet Ji Yuan had already absorbed the first thirty hammer strikes completely.

After Tang San fell asleep, Xiao Wu's scorpion braid hung over the side of her bed.

As usual, Ji Yuan drew out the overflowing origin essence to replenish the expenditure from simulating the hammer technique during the day.

The barbs on the demon vine's surface contracted. A faint metallic sheen appeared beneath its dark purple bark, and both its toughness and strength were steadily rising.

Just then, a heavy pressure came from the direction of the back mountain, crossing the academy walls and sweeping directly toward the Seventh Dormitory.

All of Ji Yuan's vine tips retracted.

It was not a teacher, not a student, nor a low-ranking Soul Master from Spirit Hall.

That aura carried blood and killing intent, suppressing even the demon vine's roots within the shoe sole's inner layer until they dared not move.

Tang San was still asleep.

Xiao Wu turned over, but the spore at her hairline was forced by that pressure to shrink back beneath her skin.

A shadow halted outside the window. The window paper of the Seventh Dormitory rustled softly in the night wind.

Ji Yuan severed every spore connection one by one, and the demon vine's main body began to dehydrate and wither.

That man had returned.