Xiao Jin the Little Golden Dragon Eats Iron, Power Feedback

The blacksmith shop's backyard wasn't large.

Charcoal was piled on the left, while various ores and scrap iron lay on the right. A crude furnace shed stood in the middle. The fire burned year-round, and the air always carried the mingled scent of metal and charcoal.

Chu Lie was stewing meat in the kitchen.

Meanwhile, Chu Jin crouched in the yard, beginning to study his first Martial Soul.

The little golden beast lay before him with its front paws crossed and its head slightly tilted, as though it were studying him too.

Man and beast stared at each other for a moment.

"Let's give you a name first."

The little beast's ears twitched.

Chu Jin looked it over from head to toe.

Its body was golden, its attributes primarily light and dragon, and it would eventually grow into a Twelve-Winged Sacred Dragon.

Calling it Sacred Dragon now seemed premature.

With its current round little body and habit of falling over after two steps, it really didn't suit such a domineering name.

"Xiao Jin."

Chu Jin quickly made his decision.

"I'll call you Xiao Jin from now on."

The little beast's eyes lit up. It immediately climbed to its feet, circled him twice, and let out cheerful little snorts.

It seemed to like the name very much.

Chu Jin reached out and touched the stunted wings on Xiao Jin's back.

The wings felt like they were covered in fine scales, not ordinary feathers. The broken portions were remarkably smooth, with no signs of injury. It seemed more likely that they had simply never fully developed.

His Double Pupils activated.

Golden patterns appeared in his vision once more.

Chu Jin could see many sealed energy nodes within Xiao Jin's body. At present, only a small area near its heart was active. With every breath, it absorbed a trace of the free light energy in the surroundings, though the rate was almost negligible.

"What do you need to grow?"

Xiao Jin couldn't understand such a complicated question.

It raised a paw and scratched its ear, then plopped down onto the ground.

Chu Jin wasn't in a hurry either.

Since it was an External Beast Martial Soul with an independent consciousness, he could test things one by one as if he were raising a soul beast.

He first went to the kitchen and cut off a small piece of raw meat.

Xiao Jin leaned closer to sniff it, opened its mouth and swallowed it after two chews.

Chu Jin observed with his Double Pupils.

After entering its body, the meat quickly turned into ordinary nutrients. Only an extremely tiny portion of its energy was absorbed by the heart.

The effect was practically nonexistent.

He brought over a piece of cooked meat.

The result wasn't much different.

He tried ordinary vegetables, eggs, and bone broth in turn. Xiao Jin happily accepted everything, but the energy nodes in its body never showed any obvious change.

Chu Jin rubbed his chin.

"Ordinary food won't work."

"Dragon attribute, light attribute, or high-energy substances?"

There were few soul beast materials around Bluestone Town.

Chu Lie occasionally bought low-level soul beast bones from hunters returning from the mountains to make weapons, but they weren't necessarily dragon- or light-attributed.

Chu Jin's gaze swept across the ores in the yard.

Soul beast materials were hard to find, but special metals were plentiful.

He walked over to the ore pile and picked out a piece of the most common iron ore.

Xiao Jin sniffed it and turned away.

Chu Jin switched to copper ore.

Xiao Jin still wasn't interested.

Silver ore, red iron, black steel—several ores were placed before it in succession. It merely sniffed each one before lazily lying back down.

Until Chu Jin pulled a fist-sized ore from the very bottom of a box, its surface dotted with faint silver specks.

Starshine Iron.

This ore absorbed a small amount of starlight at night. It was harder than ordinary refined iron and was often used to make weapons for Soul Masters.

Xiao Jin had still been lying on the ground.

The moment the Starshine Iron appeared, its nose twitched rapidly several times before it abruptly lifted its head.

"A reaction?"

Chu Jin placed the Starshine Iron on the ground.

Xiao Jin's eyes instantly lit up.

It charged forward on its short little legs, hugged the Starshine Iron, and took a bite.

Crunch.

A corner of the hard ore was bitten off.

Chu Jin's eyelid twitched slightly.

Starshine Iron had to be repeatedly forged in a high-temperature furnace before it softened. Chu Lie normally needed a heavy hammer to shape it.

Xiao Jin's teeth weren't even as large as the tip of a chopstick, yet it chewed through it as easily as a crisp biscuit.

Crunch.

Crunch.

Half the fist-sized piece of Starshine Iron was quickly eaten.

Xiao Jin's belly swelled slightly, and pale silver patterns lit up across the surface of its stunted wings.

In his Double Pupils' vision, the Starshine Iron's energy traveled through its stomach into its heart, then flowed from its heart to the stunted wings on its back.

The previously sealed energy nodes loosened slightly.

The next second, a warm current of power surged into Chu Jin's body through the Martial Soul connection.

Chu Jin's body trembled.

He could clearly feel the muscles in his arms, waist, abdomen, and legs strengthening all at once. A faint tingling came from within his bones, and his blood circulation accelerated noticeably.

Power feedback!

When Xiao Jin consumed special ores, it not only strengthened itself but also fed part of its growth power back to him, its master.

Chu Jin raised a hand and slowly clenched his fingers.

The improvement brought by merely half a piece of Starshine Iron wasn't dramatic, but it was real.

More importantly, this improvement hadn't come through Soul Power cultivation and didn't affect his dantian or meridians.

It acted directly on his body.

That meant that as long as he had enough materials, his physique could continue improving.

When Soul Masters absorbed Spirit Rings, the greatest limitations were their physical endurance and mental endurance.

The Double Pupils enhanced the mind.

Xiao Jin enhanced the body.

Together, they had every chance of breaking through the Spirit Ring age limit of ordinary Soul Masters ahead of time.

"Keep eating."

Chu Jin pushed the remaining half of the Starshine Iron toward Xiao Jin.

Xiao Jin gave a delighted cry and quickly ate it clean.

Its belly grew another size larger. It lay on the ground, let out a satisfied burp, and puffed a little silver dust from the corner of its mouth.

Chu Lie came out of the kitchen carrying the stew and happened to see the scene.

He first looked at Xiao Jin.

Then he looked at where the Starshine Iron had originally been.

"Where's my Starshine Iron?"

Chu Jin pointed at Xiao Jin.

"It ate it."

Chu Lie lowered his head and looked at Xiao Jin's bulging belly.

He fell silent for several breaths.

"It ate it?"

"Mm."

"That ore cost me three Gold Soul Coins."

"I'll pay you back later."

"This isn't about the money."

Chu Lie crouched down and pried open Xiao Jin's mouth for a look.

Its teeth were neat, its tongue wasn't hurt, and there wasn't even a speck of ore residue left.

He then touched Xiao Jin's belly.

It was soft and warm inside, with no trace of an iron block.

The expression on Chu Lie's face grew increasingly strange.

"Other people's Beast Martial Souls eat meat, but yours eats iron?"

Chu Jin seriously corrected him. "It doesn't eat ordinary iron. It only eats metals containing special energy."

"That's even more expensive," Chu Lie replied instinctively.

After saying that, he quickly came to his senses.

"What effect did it have after eating it?"

Chu Jin didn't explain right away.

He walked beneath the furnace shed and reached out to grab a hundred-jin forging hammer.

Chu Lie normally used this hammer when forging large ironware. Its hammerhead was bigger than Chu Jin's upper body. Before awakening, Chu Jin could barely lift it with both hands, but he absolutely couldn't swing it normally.

Chu Jin gripped the handle with one hand.

He exerted force through his waist and abdomen.

The heavy forging hammer rose directly off the ground.

Chu Lie's eyes widened.

"Careful!"

Just as he was about to lend a hand, Chu Jin had already steadily raised the hundred-jin hammer to shoulder height.

The movement wasn't effortless, and his arm trembled slightly, but he was far from his limit.

Chu Jin set the hammer back down.

With a bang, even the ground shook faintly.

"My strength has increased by about thirty percent."

That was only his preliminary estimate.

Chu Lie stared at the forging hammer, then looked at Xiao Jin, who was lying on the ground burping.

"One piece of Starshine Iron increases your strength by thirty percent?"

"My original strength was low because I'm young, so the increase only looks obvious. If it keeps eating ores of the same grade, the effect should gradually diminish."

Chu Jin hadn't let the first round of feedback cloud his judgment.

Strength couldn't increase without limit.

Xiao Jin's body was still too small, so there had to be a limit to how much special material it could digest each day. If it ate too much of the same material, the effect would most likely diminish as well.

The exact pattern required continued testing.

After hearing this, the surprise on Chu Lie's face gradually turned into excitement.

"What are we waiting for, then?"

He set down the stew, turned around, and rushed into the storeroom.

A moment later, more than a dozen varieties of ores, large and small, filled the yard.

Chu Lie crouched beside the ores and beckoned Xiao Jin over as though calling the family dog.

"Come on, Xiao Jin. See which ones you like."

Drawn by the aroma of the stew, Xiao Jin was just about to run toward the pot.

After hearing him, it turned to glance at the ores. In the end, it couldn't resist the temptation of special metals and charged into the ore pile on its short little legs.

Red Copper Ore.

One sniff. No interest.

Cold Iron.

It gave it a lick, then stuck out its tongue in disgust.

Fire Cloud Stone.

Xiao Jin opened its mouth and bit off a small piece. A faint red light appeared across its scales, but it soon stopped eating.

It could clearly eat it, but the compatibility was mediocre.

By the time they tested the ninth type of ore, Xiao Jin's belly was so round it was nearly touching the ground.

It waddled unsteadily, then simply flopped onto its back amid the ore pile, all four limbs in the air, completely motionless.

Chu Lie reached out and poked it.

"Stuffed?"

Xiao Jin rolled its eyes.

Chu Jin recorded the test results.

Its interest in ordinary materials was extremely low.

It could consume metals containing energy.

Its affinity with light was the highest, fire came second, and ice was the lowest.

Its daily intake was roughly equivalent to two fist-sized pieces of Starshine Iron. Beyond that amount, it could no longer digest them.

"Sure enough, there's a limit."

Chu Jin wasn't disappointed by this.

A limit meant Xiao Jin's growth would still require accumulation. It wouldn't turn into a Twelve-Winged Sacred Dragon after a single meal.

Chu Lie had already taken out paper and pen and began recording alongside him.

"Xiao Jin, tomorrow I'll ask the merchant caravans in town if they can get more special ores."

"Don't buy large quantities yet."

Chu Jin said, "We haven't tested the effects of identical ores. Buy small amounts of different materials first."

"Alright."

Chu Lie agreed readily.

Uncle and nephew—one in charge of experiments, the other of procurement—quickly laid out Xiao Jin's feeding plan for the next few days.

After dinner, Chu Jin continued rummaging through the pile of ore.

Xiao Jin was already stuffed today, but it could still conduct scent tests on ordinary ores first.

At the very bottom of the box, a pitch-black piece of ore with no luster whatsoever caught his attention.

The ore was only palm-sized, yet it was astonishingly heavy in his hand.

"Uncle, what is this?"

Chu Lie glanced at it.

"A meteorite iron I bought from an old hunter a few years ago. He said it fell from the mountains. It's absurdly hard, and even the forge couldn't melt it. I couldn't bear to throw it away, so it's been sitting at the bottom of the box."

Chu Jin placed the meteorite iron on the ground.

Xiao Jin, which had been lying belly-up and playing dead, suddenly twitched its nose.

The next second, it abruptly flipped over.

Its round body lunged straight at the meteorite iron.

"You can still eat?"

Just as Chu Jin was about to stop it, Xiao Jin had already bitten down on the edge of the meteorite iron.

Crack.

It bit off a small piece of Black Meteoric Iron.

A strange fluctuation spread from within Xiao Jin's body.

Buzz!

The long sabers, iron swords, spear blanks, and forging hammers hanging inside the smithy all trembled at once.

Dozens of metal weapons rang out in succession, as though answering a summons from deep within their bloodlines.

Chu Lie suddenly looked up.

Chu Jin's Double Pupils opened at the same time.

He clearly saw a golden node, once dormant deep within the remnant wing behind Xiao Jin, light up with the energy of the meteorite iron.