First-Rank Artifact Refiner

"Elder, please demonstrate what the Chaotic Wind Hammer Method is..."

Ye Xingchen spoke sincerely.

Inside the Artifact Refining Hall, the furnace blazed fiercely, waves of heat rolling forth.

The moment Ye Xingchen finished speaking, the air seemed to freeze for an instant.

"Ha ha ha ha! Elder Mo, did you hear that? What did this kid just say?"

Wang Tiezhu pointed at Ye Xingchen. "You came here to make fools of us, didn't you? Even trying to fleece someone barehanded isn't this shameless!"

The several artifact-refining apprentices watching nearby exchanged glances, their faces wearing mocking expressions as though they were watching a show.

"If I don't know it, I can learn it."

Ye Xingchen remained calm, his gaze blazing as he looked at Elder Mo. "Since this is an assessment, as long as I learn it and accomplish it, it won't count as breaking the rules, right?"

"Learn it on the spot and put it to use?" Elder Mo's grizzled brows rose, a sharp glint flashing through his eyes. "Little one, confidence is a good thing, but arrogance is foolishness. Though the Chaotic Wind Hammer Method is basic, its techniques for exerting force and its breathing rhythm make it difficult even for a genius to reach the Initiation Stage in less than ten days or half a month. Are you sure you want to learn it now?"

"I only need to watch it once."

"Arrogant!" Wang Tiezhu snorted coldly. "You think you can learn it after watching it once? Who do you think you are, an immortal reborn?"

But Elder Mo waved his hand, stopping Wang Tiezhu's chatter.

"Fine! Today, this old man will make an exception!"

Elder Mo walked to the enormous black forging table, removed his gray robe, and revealed muscles so powerful they scarcely seemed human.

With one hand, he picked up the Black Iron Hammer, which weighed one hundred and eight jin.

"Since you want to see it, this old man will let you see it clearly! Open your eyes wide. How much you can learn depends on your own fortune!"

The disciples who had been laughing instantly fell silent. One by one, they craned their necks, their eyes burning with fervor.

"Watch closely!"

Elder Mo gave a low shout. His slightly stooped body straightened in an instant, and an aura as steady as a mountain erupted forth.

Clang!

The first hammer fell.

A crisp metallic ring shook the entire hall, sparks flying in every direction. The crimson refined iron instantly caved in.

Immediately afterward, Elder Mo's body twisted half a turn in a bizarre motion along the hammer's rebound. With the rotation of his waist and abdomen, the second strike was already whistling down!

Clang!

This strike rang louder and carried even greater force!

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Beginning with the third strike, Elder Mo's figure seemed to transform into a whirlwind. Every hammer blow felt as though it were striking everyone's hearts.

The wind howled like ghosts weeping and wolves howling.

"Chaotic Cloak..." Ye Xingchen's pupils contracted as he stared fixedly at Elder Mo's movements.

"Thirty-six... thirty-seven..." Some disciples nearby counted under their breath, their voices trembling.

Until the forty-ninth strike!

Boom!!

When that strike fell, the incomparably hard refined iron was smashed directly into an iron sheet as thin as a cicada's wing. Fine patterns covered its surface, and every impurity had been purged!

Elder Mo withdrew his hammer and stood tall, his chest rising and falling slightly, steam billowing from his entire body like a war god fresh from the furnace.

"The Chaotic Wind Hammer Method is an artifact refiner's strongest forging technique, and also the strongest art of slaughter! Build power with this method, and if you can wield eighty-one strikes, its might will be enough to shake a Nascent Soul Cultivator's attack!"

A Nascent Soul attack?!

Everyone was intimidated by that terrifying description.

Elder Mo turned his gaze toward Ye Xingchen and held nothing back. "This technique looks simple, but in truth, it demands extraordinarily high bodily coordination. The force begins at the soles of the feet, rises from the calves, passes into the thighs, is governed by the waist, issued from the back, transmitted through the arms, and finally reaches the hammer!"

"The heart pumps blood faster, driving the sinews and bones of the entire body to resonate. Seize the instant when the hammer rebounds, spin your body, borrow force to strike with force, and ensure that every subsequent strike surpasses the last!"

"But this is a method that overdraws the body. If your physical body is not strong enough, forcibly stacking power will result in torn muscles at best, broken bones and snapped tendons at worst, or even shattered meridians and death!

Little one, do you understand now? If you're afraid, it isn't too late to withdraw."

Ye Xingchen stood where he was as the system's notification chimes began ringing wildly in his mind.

"High-grade forging technique detected: Chaotic Wind Hammer Method"

"Completion: 100%"

"Detected that the host currently has 500 Source Points. Use One-Click Skip to bypass cultivation?"

"Skip!"

Boom!

At that instant, an immense torrent of memories and muscle memory surged through Ye Xingchen's entire body like an electric current!

It felt as though he had spent thirty years beside a furnace, sweating through bitter practice! Every contraction of muscle and every twist of joint had been deeply branded into his soul!

"Congratulations, Host. 500 Source Points consumed. One-Click Skip has bypassed the cultivation process of Chaotic Wind Hammer Method, reaching the Great Mastery realm (eighty-one strikes)."

Ye Xingchen slowly opened his eyes. Within his once-clear gaze was now a steadiness seemingly tempered by a thousand hammerings and a hundred refinements.

He walked to the forging table and reached out to grip the one-hundred-and-eight-jin Black Iron Hammer.

"Hey, look at the way he's holding the hammer. So loose and sloppy. You can tell at a glance he's an outsider."

"Forget twenty-four strikes. If he can swing nine, that'll count as extraordinary talent."

"Nine strikes? I say he'll smash his own foot within three!"

The murmurs around him entered his ears, but Ye Xingchen turned a deaf ear.

He took a deep breath, spread his feet slightly, and dug his toes into the ground.

Rise!

Ye Xingchen moved.

There was not the slightest awkwardness, not the slightest hesitation.

The first strike—Clang!

Crisp, resounding, and incomparably precise!

Then his waist twisted sharply with the rebound force as if fitted with springs, the iron hammer in his hand carving a perfect arc through the air.

Clang!

The second strike!

It was faster than the first!

The smug expression on Wang Tiezhu's face as he stood with folded arms froze at that moment.

When an expert made a move, you knew whether they had the real thing.

Those movements... were far too standard!

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Three strikes, four strikes, five strikes...

Ye Xingchen's movements grew faster and faster, as though his entire body had fused into one with that enormous hammer. The wind began to howl, and sparks began to scatter.

Nine strikes!

He passed it with ease!

By now, all discussion around him had completely vanished. Everyone stood with mouths agape, staring blankly at that once-frail figure.

Eighteen strikes!

His momentum was like a rainbow! Ye Xingchen felt the blood in his body burning, his heart pounding violently, every pulse sending fresh strength into his muscles.

Twenty-four strikes!

First-Rank Artifact Refiner Initiation Stage!

Yet Ye Xingchen did not stop.

Wild flames burned in his eyes.

I can keep going! My limit does not end here!

Twenty-five... thirty...

When he reached the thirtieth strike, Ye Xingchen clearly heard his bones creak within his body. It was the mournful cry of a physical body unable to withstand the backlash of such immense force.

The system's "one-click perfection" had given him the techniques and experience, but it had not directly raised his physical strength to a level capable of matching forty-nine strikes!

His arm felt as though it were about to tear apart. The web between his thumb and forefinger had long since split open, blood streaming down the hammer handle.

Yet the thrill of unleashing that power made him unable to stop!

Thirty-four!

Thirty-five!

Thirty-six!

Boom!!!

The thirty-sixth strike fell, and the entire forging table jolted violently.

Ye Xingchen felt as though his right arm had gone numb, while a piercing pain instantly swept through his entire body.

I can't strike again. If I do, this arm will be crippled.

He made the judgment calmly in his heart, then used the rebound force of the final strike to fling the iron hammer aside.

Thud!

The enormous hammer struck the ground, smashing out a deep pit.

Ye Xingchen's body swayed. His face was pale as paper, and he panted heavily, his clothes already drenched through with sweat.

The entire hall was silent as a cicada in winter.

Every gaze looked upon him as though he were a monster.

Thirty-six strikes...

A newcomer at Qi Refining, Fourth Layer, had wielded thirty-six strikes on his very first attempt?!

This even surpassed many veteran disciples who had been in the hall for two or three years!

"Good! Good! Good!"

Elder Mo said "good" three times in a row, his voice trembling with excitement he could not conceal.

"I never thought... that in my lifetime, I would witness such a genius of artifact refinement!"

"From today onward, you are a First-Rank Artifact Refiner of my Artifact Refining Hall!"