Seeing Duan Xuan's reaction, Bai Jiaming more or less understood.
But 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."
"Ah?"
Bai Jiaming froze.
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'm not saying he isn't suited to be a blacksmith. On the contrary, he's too suited for it—so suited that I'm no longer worthy of being his teacher."
Duan Xuan took a deep breath, then let out a long sigh.
"I'll go invite the president."
The Devouring Power's Little Uses
The president Duan Xuan spoke of was naturally the president of the Blacksmith Association—his eldest disciple, the Divine Artisan Zhen Hua.
In his eyes, Bai Chen had already surpassed what he could guide. Having him teach Bai Chen would be a terrible waste of talent. Zhen Hua had to be the one to do it.
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.
In terms of seniority, he would even go from being Bai Chen's teacher to being his teacher's teacher, gaining a generation for nothing. It was hardly a loss.
Bai Jiaming was stunned. Once he understood what Duan Xuan meant, his hands began to tremble.
He asked in a trembling voice:
"Do you mean 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 well. Barring any surprises, he will definitely become the next Divine Artisan!"
"Thank you, Elder Duan!"
Bai Jiaming hurriedly bowed to Duan Xuan.
Just inviting Duan Xuan to become Bai Chen's teacher had already taken considerable effort on his part.
But judging from what Duan Xuan was saying now, not only did he not intend to keep charging him, he even planned to have Zhen Hua personally teach Bai Chen blacksmithing.
As the continent's sole Divine Artisan, Zhen Hua's name was 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 even gotten the chance to speak to him.
At the end of the day, Bai Jiaming was merely a top businessman in a first-tier city. Zhen Hua stood at the pinnacle of the entire continent's blacksmithing world. If the value of his lessons were measured in money, it would undoubtedly be an astronomical figure.
"Alright, there's no need to be so polite."
Duan Xuan smilingly helped Bai Jiaming up and said:
"Go sit down and rest for now. Time is tight, so I'll begin teaching him first."
"Alright, alright..."
Bai Jiaming nodded repeatedly and returned to the seat in the corner.
Duan Xuan turned back and asked Bai Chen with a smile:
"How is your recovery?"
Compared to before, there was less perfunctory politeness in Duan Xuan's smile and much more sincerity.
He had originally thought this was another wealthy family trying to gild their child's name. Who would have expected the child himself to be gold?
To Duan Xuan, Bai Chen now counted as one of his own.
Bai Chen's complexion was already much better than before. After sensing his condition, he answered seriously:
"I've recovered about ten percent of my Soul Power."
"Oh..."
A hint of surprise flashed through Duan Xuan's eyes.
He had not spent long talking with Bai Jiaming. For an ordinary child, that amount of time would at most have been enough to recover from exhaustion.
Yet Bai Chen had restored a full ten percent of his Soul Power in that time. This showed that both the quality of his Soul Power and his recovery ability far surpassed those of 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 were the soul skills granted by Natural Soul Rings stronger than those granted by Artificial Soul Spirits, but they also contained abundant energy. That energy improved a Soul Master's body and Soul Power, raising the foundational qualities of those who absorbed Natural Soul Rings.
But what was with this recovery rate? He had never heard that Natural Soul Rings could enhance a Soul Master's recovery ability.
The reason he had this doubt was that he was unfamiliar with the traits of Bai Chen's Martial Soul.
After obtaining two Soul Rings and awakening the Evil Power, Bai Chen had conducted many experiments involving the Evil Attribute.
One of them involved using the Evil Power to devour the spiritual energy of heaven and earth around him, allowing Bai Chen to rapidly absorb that energy.
If the experiment succeeded, he might be able to cultivate without relying on slaughter in the future.
Judging by the results, the experiment had failed.
Bai Chen could not use this method to increase his total Soul Power. Once the total amount of Soul Power in his body reached the limit of his current rank, the spiritual energy he drew into his body would be directly expelled by the Evil Attribute. Even he could not stop the process, so he could not use this method for normal cultivation.
But 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 according to his own experience, once he used the 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 he took out a small black hammer from his Storage Soul Guidance Device and handed it to Bai Chen.
Compared to Duan Xuan's own forging hammer, this hammer was obviously much lighter. Clearly, Duan Xuan had considered Bai Chen's weakened state and deliberately given him an inferior 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 the process of artificially helping metal undergo sublimation."
"The most basic step in this process is removing the impurities from the metal. The Thousand Forging you performed earlier 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 what a blacksmith must consider after truly entering the field."
"So at that point, we need to use special methods to elevate the metal and make it 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.
Clang!
A crisp collision rang out as Duan Xuan explained:
"The first is what we just did—using pure strength to hammer the metal while injecting one's own Soul Power into it. With powerful force, the Soul Power can permeate it more thoroughly, rapidly raising the quality of the metal itself."
"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 rose noticeably, and his forging hammer was coated in a layer of crimson-gold light.
He gently lowered the forging hammer until it touched the metal on the table.
Ding.
Compared to before, the sound produced by this collision was remarkably mild.
Blacksmithing Class 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 is like this. As you can see, it uses the traits of elements to alter metal, giving it certain elemental characteristics. That is why the metals forged by outstanding blacksmiths all have their own suitable users. A blacksmith with a Fire Attribute Martial Soul is better suited to serve Soul Masters with Fire Attribute Martial Souls. Likewise, Soul Masters with Dark Attributes should preferably 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 example. My Martial Soul's enhancement of strength is not especially powerful, so I mainly follow the latter path."
"Generally speaking, Soul Masters with Light Attributes and Fire Attributes are most suited to the second path. Fire Attributes are suitable because forging itself requires heating metal, and high temperatures can reshape its properties. Light Attributes are suitable because forging is fundamentally a process of giving life to metal. Among common attributes, Light Attributes are probably the most helpful in granting life."
Hearing this, Bai Chen nodded thoughtfully.
As far as he knew, Mu Chen's daughter, Mu Xi, possessed the Radiant Sun Martial Soul, a top-tier Fire Attribute Martial Soul that also carried some Light Attribute traits.
No wonder their family could still become top blacksmithing talents despite their Martial Souls having little to do with strength. It seemed Martial Souls truly played a crucial role.
Come to think of it, wasn't his Martial Soul in the Douluo I Era dual-attributed Ultimate Fire and Ultimate Light?
Unfortunately, Bai Chen in the Douluo I Era could not access much metal right now. Otherwise, he truly wanted to try using elements to alter metal properties 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.
In front of his eyes, Bai Chen spread open his palm. Floating above its center were three tiny spheres of different colors.
Green, black, and bluish-purple. As a Saint Artisan, Duan Xuan recognized the elements represented by these three spheres at a glance.
Wind, darkness, and thunder.
His lips twitched as he asked:
"Your Martial Soul can control three elements at once?"
"No." Bai Chen gently shook his head. "Five."
Actually, it was six.
But Bai Chen was not yet familiar with Duan Xuan, so he did not want to expose the Evil Attribute for now.
"Five..." Duan Xuan murmured, then urgently asked, "What are the other two?"
There was only one reason Bai Chen had not manifested the final two elements: they were not conventional attributes and could not be physically displayed.
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. This could no longer be described with a simple word like genius.
"Ha... Hahaha..."
After a long while, Duan Xuan suddenly laughed.
He slowly shook his head.
"I'm starting to envy that brat Zhen Hua. He hasn't done anything, yet he's somehow gained such a disciple."
He lightly patted Bai Chen's shoulder and smiled.
"No matter what, your father has at least paid for this lesson, so I'm still your teacher for now. Come, I'll teach you forging hammer techniques."
At his level, strength and attributes were both indispensable. It was true that he preferred using Fire Elements to alter the properties of metal, but that did not mean he was weak in terms of strength.
Quite the opposite. Because he was not as naturally strong as those power-type Soul Masters, he had instead studied even more diligently 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.
Before you continue