Douluo: Versions' Chosen Gather, but the Eras Are Misaligned

Seeing Duan Xuan's reaction, Bai Jiaming more or less understood.

However, some things still had to be said by Duan Xuan himself.

Hearing Bai Jiaming's voice, Duan Xuan finally came back to his senses. Reluctantly, he set down the metal in his hand and said to Bai Jiaming:

"I can't teach this child."

"Huh?"

Bai Jiaming was stunned.

Then what had all that questioning and praising him as a genius been about?

Seeing Bai Jiaming's reaction, Duan Xuan immediately realized he had misunderstood and hurriedly explained:

"I don't mean he isn't suited to become a blacksmith. On the contrary, he's far too suited for it—so suited that I'm no longer worthy of being his teacher."

Duan Xuan took a deep breath and let out a long sigh.

"I'll go invite the president."

Chapter 34: A Small Use for Devouring Power

The president Duan Xuan spoke of was naturally the president of the Blacksmith Association, as well as his eldest disciple—the Divine Artisan Zhen Hua.

In his eyes, Bai Chen had already surpassed his ability to guide. Having him teach Bai Chen would be a waste of talent; only Zhen Hua was suitable.

Besides, Zhen Hua belonged to his lineage as well. If Zhen Hua became Bai Chen's teacher, Bai Chen would still count as his descendant.

By seniority, he would even go from being Bai Chen's teacher to his teacher's teacher, gaining a generation for free. It was hardly a loss.

Bai Jiaming froze. Once he understood what Duan Xuan meant, his hands began to tremble.

He asked in a shaking voice:

"Are you referring to the Divine Artisan Zhen Hua?"

"Yes."

Duan Xuan smiled and nodded.

"Your son's talent is unprecedented in the entire history of blacksmithing. Rest assured, we will certainly nurture him properly. Barring any surprises, he will undoubtedly become the next Divine Artisan!"

"Thank you, Elder Duan!"

Bai Jiaming hurriedly bowed to Duan Xuan.

Simply inviting Duan Xuan to teach Bai Chen had already cost him considerable effort.

But from what Duan Xuan was saying now, not only did he no longer intend to charge him, he even planned to have Zhen Hua personally guide Bai Chen in blacksmithing.

As the continent's only Divine Artisan, Zhen Hua had long been renowned throughout the land. Even Bai Jiaming had only seen him once, when Zhen Hua came to Skysea City to hold a blacksmithing lecture. From beginning to end, Bai Jiaming had not managed to exchange a single word with him.

At the end of the day, Bai Jiaming was merely a leading businessman in a first-tier city. Zhen Hua stood at the pinnacle of the continent's blacksmithing world. If the value of his lessons were measured in money, the figure would be astronomical.

"All right, no need to be so polite."

Duan Xuan smiled as he helped Bai Jiaming up and said:

"Go back to your seat and rest for now. Time is pressing, so I'll begin teaching him first."

"Okay, okay..."

Bai Jiaming nodded repeatedly and returned to the seat in the corner.

Duan Xuan turned back and asked Bai Chen with a smile:

"How has your recovery been?"

Compared to before, there was less perfunctory politeness in Duan Xuan's smile and far more sincerity.

He had originally thought this was another rich family trying to gild their child's reputation. Unexpectedly, the child himself was gold.

To Duan Xuan, Bai Chen was now practically one of his own.

Bai Chen's complexion had improved considerably. After checking himself, he answered seriously:

"I've recovered about ten percent of my soul power."

"Oh..."

A trace of surprise flashed through Duan Xuan's eyes.

He had not spoken with Bai Jiaming for very long. For other children, that amount of time would at most be enough to recover from exhaustion.

Yet Bai Chen had recovered a full ten percent of his soul power during that time. This showed that both the quality of his soul power and his recovery ability far surpassed ordinary people.

Duan Xuan could somewhat understand the superior quality of Bai Chen's soul power. Bai Chen's first two Soul Rings were Natural Soul Rings. Not only did Natural Soul Rings grant Soul Masters stronger soul skills than Artificial Soul Spirits, but they also contained dense energy. This energy improved a Soul Master's body and soul power, enhancing the foundational qualities of those who absorbed Natural Soul Rings.

But what was going on with this recovery ability? He had never heard that Natural Soul Rings could improve a Soul Master's recovery speed.

The reason he was puzzled was that he did not understand the characteristics of Bai Chen's Martial Soul.

After obtaining two Soul Rings and awakening Evil Power, Bai Chen had conducted many experiments involving the evil attribute.

One of them involved using Evil Power to devour the surrounding heaven and earth energy, allowing Bai Chen to absorb that energy rapidly.

If this experiment succeeded, he might be able to cultivate without relying on slaughter in the future.

Judging from the results, the experiment had failed.

Bai Chen could not increase his total soul power through this method. Once the total amount of soul power in his body reached the limit of his current level, the heaven and earth energy he drew into his body would be expelled by the evil attribute. Even he could not stop the process, so he could not cultivate normally this way.

However, from another perspective, when Bai Chen's soul power was not full, he could use this method to accelerate its recovery.

He did not know how other Soul Masters were, but from his own experience, once he used Devouring Power, his soul power recovery speed increased fivefold.

This was undoubtedly a discovery worth celebrating. Whether in battle or blacksmithing, endurance was extremely important.

Duan Xuan smiled.

"Not bad. Your recovery ability is quite outstanding. In that case, come here."

He took Bai Chen's hand and led him to the forging table, then took out a small black hammer from his Storage Soul Guidance Device and handed it to Bai Chen.

This hammer was clearly much lighter than Duan Xuan's own forging hammer. Evidently, Duan Xuan had taken Bai Chen's currently weakened state into consideration and deliberately given him a lighter one.

He took out two pieces of metal and placed one before himself and one before Bai Chen, then asked:

"In the blacksmithing world, there are actually two paths. Do you know what they are?"

Bai Chen shook his head. He had only begun learning about blacksmithing today, so naturally he did not know the answer.

Duan Xuan had not expected Bai Chen to answer. He explained:

"They are the path of elements and the path of strength."

"So-called forging is actually a process of helping metal undergo sublimation through artificial means."

"The most basic part of that process is removing impurities from the metal. The Thousand Forging you just performed was precisely this process."

"But what comes after the impurities are removed? The strength of metal itself ultimately has its limits. How to forge ordinary iron into a divine weapon—that is the issue a blacksmith must consider after truly entering the field."

"So at that point, we need to use special methods to sublimate the metal, allowing it to surpass its own limits."

"And in the process of helping metal undergo sublimation, two paths emerged."

At this point, Duan Xuan suddenly raised his hand and fiercely struck the metal before him with his hammer.

Clang!

A crisp collision rang out, and Duan Xuan explained:

"The first is what we just did: using pure strength to hammer the metal while infusing our own soul power into it. Powerful force allows the soul power to penetrate more thoroughly, rapidly improving the metal's material quality."

"As for the second..."

As he spoke, he raised his hand, and a crimson-gold radiance suddenly emerged from it.

The temperature in the room noticeably rose, and his forging hammer was coated in a layer of crimson-gold light.

He gently lowered the hammer, bringing it into contact with the metal on the table.

Ding.

Compared to before, the sound of this collision was much gentler.

Chapter 35: The Forging Lesson Begins

Yet at the instant the metal collided with the forging hammer, its surface was suddenly dyed with a layer of crimson-gold radiance.

Duan Xuan explained:

"The second path is this. As you can see, it uses the characteristics of elements to alter metal, allowing the metal to gain certain elemental traits. That is why the metals forged by outstanding blacksmiths all have their own suitable users. A blacksmith with a fire-attribute Martial Soul is more suited to serving Soul Masters with fire attributes. Likewise, Soul Masters with dark attributes should ideally choose finished products forged by dark-attribute blacksmiths."

"There is no real superiority or inferiority between these two paths. It mainly depends on the blacksmith's own traits. Take me, for instance. Since my Martial Soul's enhancement of strength is not particularly powerful, I primarily follow the latter path."

"Generally speaking, Soul Masters with light or fire attributes are the most suited to the second path. Fire is suitable because forging itself requires heating metal, and high temperatures can reshape its traits. Light is suitable because forging is inherently a process of giving life to metal, and among common attributes, light probably offers the greatest assistance in granting life."

Hearing this, Bai Chen nodded thoughtfully.

As far as he knew, Mu Chen's daughter, Mu Xi, possessed the Martial Soul Radiant Sun, a top-tier fire-attribute Martial Soul that also carried some light-attribute qualities.

No wonder their family could still become top-tier blacksmithing talents despite their Martial Souls having little to do with strength. It seemed Martial Souls still played a crucial role.

Come to think of it, didn't his Martial Soul in the Douluo I Era possess both Ultimate Fire and Ultimate Light?

Unfortunately, Bai Chen in the Douluo I Era could not access any metal right now. Otherwise, he really wanted to try using elements to alter metal as Duan Xuan had described.

Duan Xuan had no idea what Bai Chen was thinking and continued:

"Your Martial Soul is clearly strength-oriented, so you should take the first path. Next, I will..."

At that point, his voice abruptly stopped.

Before his eyes, Bai Chen spread open his palm. Three small spheres of different colors floated above it.

Green, black, and blue-violet. As a Saint Artisan, Duan Xuan recognized at a glance the elements represented by the three spheres.

Wind, darkness, and lightning.

His mouth twitched as he asked:

"Your Martial Soul can control three elements at once?"

"No." Bai Chen gently shook his head. "Five."

Actually, six.

But Bai Chen was not yet familiar with Duan Xuan, so he did not want to reveal the evil attribute for now.

"Five..." Duan Xuan murmured before urgently asking, "What are the other two?"

There was only one reason Bai Chen had not displayed the remaining two elements: they were not conventional attributes and could not be concretely manifested.

And such elements were generally extremely powerful.

Bai Chen closed his hand and answered:

"Time and space."

"..."

Duan Xuan was speechless.

He had actually guessed space, but time was something he had never expected.

How profound was the time attribute? Martial Souls with the time attribute were almost certainly top-tier Martial Souls, and stronger ones could even be rated as Super Martial Souls.

This child already possessed four attributes, yet he also had the time attribute. He could no longer be described as merely a genius.

"Ha, hahaha..."

After a long while, Duan Xuan suddenly laughed.

He slowly shook his head.

"I'm actually a little jealous of that boy Zhen Hua. He hasn't done anything, yet he's about to gain such a disciple."

He lightly patted Bai Chen's shoulder and smiled.

"No matter what, your father has paid for this lesson. So for now, I am still your teacher. Come, I'll teach you forging hammer techniques."

At his level, strength and attributes were both indispensable. It was true that he leaned more toward using fire elements to alter metal's characteristics, but that did not mean he was weak in terms of strength.

On the contrary, because he was not as naturally strong as those power-type Soul Masters, he had become even more proactive in researching how to make better use of his strength.

And for a blacksmith, the most direct way to conserve strength was naturally through special hammer techniques.