What Was a Genius? Achieving Thousand Refinement in One Try?

After the test ended, Lin Fan received Ling Luochen's information and smiled as he spoke to her.

"Alright, I'll design your One-Word Battle Armor as soon as possible."

The corners of Ling Luochen's lips lifted slightly at his words, and she nodded.

"Sorry for the trouble."

"If there's anything you need my help with... just tell me."

Although Ling Luochen knew they were about the same age, Lin Fan was already far ahead of her and did not need her help at all. But what if he did?

Lin Fan smiled and nodded before speaking again.

"Next, I also need to further improve my blacksmithing skills."

Ling Luochen could not help giving Lin Fan a puzzled look, curiosity flickering in her eyes.

"Does making Soul Tools... also require blacksmithing?"

In her understanding, Soul Engineers mostly relied on carving knives to make Soul Tools. At the very least, compared to blacksmiths, Soul Engineers seemed to require far less physical strength.

Lin Fan chuckled and explained.

"Making Soul Tools also requires forging, though the demands for it are relatively lower."

"Most of the time, carving knives are used for fine processing, but when it comes to shaping metal, it's still difficult without a solid forging foundation."

Only then did Ling Luochen nod as if she understood, no longer asking further questions.

However, after hearing this, Leng Yaozhu, who was standing beside them, seemed to suddenly remember something and grew somewhat flustered.

She had only just realized that blacksmithing was not yet such a widespread profession in this era. There were very few smiths with outstanding forging skills, and there was no clear ranking system either.

In her own era, blacksmiths had rankings, from Level One to Level Nine, with distinct standards and requirements for every level.

Leng Yaozhu began to worry. Could Lin Fan recreate the forging techniques of her era in this time period?

Although she also knew there might be some formidable blacksmiths in this era, blacksmiths were not valued much, so those who could truly reach the pinnacle were likely very few.

Moreover, if she was not mistaken, the Tang Sect was currently in decline in this era.

Tang Sect Hidden Weapons had originally needed blacksmiths to forge them, but once the Tang Sect declined, the demand for blacksmiths naturally decreased even further.

Finding a top-tier blacksmith in this era would probably be extremely difficult.

Just as Leng Yaozhu was still lost in thought, Lin Fan suddenly spoke.

"I happen to know a blacksmith. I'm going to visit him now. Do you want to come along?"

Leng Yaozhu froze for a moment, surprise filling her red eyes.

Could there really be such a coincidence?

She had just been worrying about where Lin Fan would find a skilled blacksmith to learn from, yet he immediately said he knew one.

The two women naturally chose to follow Lin Fan. Without wasting time, he took the Soul Tool Car out of his Storage Soul Tool again and called for them to get in.

After traveling for some distance along a bumpy mountain road, the Soul Tool Car stopped in a rather secluded place. It looked as though hardly anyone lived there.

After Lin Fan led the two women out of the car and walked a little farther, an open clearing suddenly came into view. Several small wooden houses stood there, surrounded by piles of metal materials and half-finished ironware.

Lin Fan walked up to one of the wooden doors and raised his hand to knock.

"Uncle Mo, open up!"

After a while, the wooden door was pushed open from within, and a middle-aged man appeared in the doorway.

The man was broad-shouldered and powerfully built, wearing a somewhat worn leather apron. His hair was clean and neat, his face free of stubble, and he looked exceptionally spirited.

He was holding a massive hammer, its head even larger than an ordinary person's, and it looked tremendously heavy.

When the man saw Lin Fan, a smile appeared on his face, and he immediately asked,

"Lin Fan, you never visit without a reason. What do you want me to forge for you this time?"

Lin Fan smiled and shook his head.

"This time, I'm not asking you to forge something for me. I want to learn forging from you."

Uncle Mo was briefly stunned before directly laughing and cursing.

"You brat, now you want to learn the skill that puts food on my table?"

As he spoke, he stepped aside to let Lin Fan and the two women enter. His gaze swept over Ling Luochen and Leng Yaozhu behind Lin Fan, and he added,

"You even brought two little girlfriends with you. You really know how to enjoy yourself."

Lin Fan merely smiled and did not respond.

Behind him, Ling Luochen's face flushed pink, yet she did not deny it. Leng Yaozhu could not say anything either. Although Lin Fan was indeed handsome and kind, he had a good relationship with Ling Luochen. It would not be right for her to force her way into that relationship.

Uncle Mo set the enormous hammer in his hand aside, then looked seriously at Lin Fan.

"But let me make this clear first. Even if you're a genius, that doesn't mean you're talented at everything. Maybe you're simply not cut out for forging."

"You don't need to be in such a hurry either. As long as I'm alive, I can still forge things for you. After all, Elder Zhou is gone, so I'm the one looking after you now."

Within Shrek Academy ten thousand years later, Long Yeyue watched this scene in the light screen and snorted disdainfully.

"Forging and making Soul Tools are completely different things. Otherwise, there wouldn't have been so many separate branches over these ten thousand years."

"A Soul Engineer wants to cross into blacksmithing? What overconfidence."

Meanwhile, within the light screen, Uncle Mo had already brought the three of them into his forging workshop. A forging table stood in the center, while all kinds of metal materials and tools were piled around it.

Uncle Mo picked up a piece of pig iron and placed it on the forging table. Then he raised his massive hammer and began demonstrating.

"The most you Soul Engineers can do is hammer repeatedly, remove impurities from the metal, and purify it."

His voice remained especially clear amid the sound of hammer strikes.

"But truly good metal requires countless repeated strikes to create. You Soul Engineers definitely can't afford to waste too much time on this."

As Uncle Mo spoke, he swung the massive hammer in his hand. It struck the pig iron with deep, powerful thuds, sending sparks flying in every direction.

After a round of forging, the piece of pig iron had changed somewhat. Its originally rough surface had become much smoother, and its texture was denser as well.

During the forging process, Uncle Mo also shared some of his own forging insights. He truly held nothing back from Lin Fan.

After some time, Uncle Mo stopped what he was doing and handed the metal to Lin Fan, pride coloring his tone.

"Well? Want to give it a try?"

Lin Fan nodded at his words, took the massive hammer, placed a fresh piece of pig iron on the forging table, and raised the hammer to begin striking.

In the next instant, the massive hammer seemed weightless in Lin Fan's hands, carving streak after streak through the air. Dense hammer blows rained down upon the pig iron like a torrential storm.

Uncle Mo's eyes widened more and more at the sight before him, until he was completely stunned.

In only a moment, Lin Fan stopped. He picked up the now-forged metal and examined it before casually handing it to Uncle Mo.

Uncle Mo accepted it and inspected it carefully, the shock in his eyes growing stronger and stronger.

"You brat... have you secretly been forging for a long time?"

Lin Fan simply smiled and shook his head.

"How could that be? I didn't have that much time, and I didn't even have the equipment."

Uncle Mo was deeply shaken by those words. Was this what a genius was?

Leng Yaozhu also froze when she saw the piece of metal before her. Although she was not a blacksmith, she came from the Leng Family and had naturally seen much.

This was unmistakably a piece of Thousand Refinement metal! And it was Thousand Refinement Grade One!

Thousand Refinement was divided into five grades. Grade Five was the lowest, while Grade One was the highest.

Lin Fan had achieved Thousand Refinement Grade One the first time he systematically learned Thousand Refinement. That was the standard of a Level-Four Blacksmith!