Three days slipped quietly by amid the forge fire and the ringing of hammers.
The forging room was located on the academy's first underground level. Soundproof soul-tool materials embedded in the walls completely shut out the noise from outside.
At its center stood a standard forging table transported from Shrek City. The dents across its surface gleamed softly beneath the soul-tool lamps, like an ancient artifact steeped in the passage of time.
She stood before the forging table, having changed her moon-white short jacket for fitted work clothes better suited for the task. Soul-tool bracers tightened her cuffs, exposing slender yet strong wrists.
The Spirit Forging Star Hammer was taken from the star ring Zhen Hua had given her. Purple-gold light flowed over her palm—this was merely a temporary form condensed from her soul power. True forging still required the soul-tool core within the forging table.
Star Marrow Soft Iron slowly softened in the furnace fire.
It was a rare metal produced deep within the Star Dou Great Forest. Fine silver patterns naturally covered its surface, like rivers soaked in starlight. Yun Zhiyu used her soul power to guide the temperature of the flames, heating the Star Marrow Soft Iron to the perfect critical point before swinging her hammer—
"Clang!"
The first strike fell, and ripples spread across the metal's surface. Her movements carried a unique rhythm, like an ancient dance. Every hammer blow landed upon a node in the metal's grain, injecting soul power into it at a specific frequency.
Half-Step Spirit Forging.
That was the result of her deliberate restraint. At her true level, Peak Spirit Forging and even Half-Step Fusion Forging were effortless. But here at East Sea Academy, before the others in Zero Class, she had to hide, restrain herself, and conceal that shocking talent beneath