With a thought, he withdrew the War Lord Demon Body. Four arms retracted beneath his ribs, his bone wings vanished, and the demonic eye on his forehead closed.
The violent baleful aura instantly dissipated, and peace returned to the room.
Lu Guan rose from the bed and stretched luxuriously. His bones crackled all over, and the feeling of power filling him left him thoroughly comfortable.
Bang! Lu Guan's bedroom door burst open.
"Big Brother Lu Guan! You've finished your breakthrough!"
A clear voice rang out as a pale-purple figure rushed in like a gust of wind.
She plunged straight into Lu Guan's arms.
Na'er hugged his waist tightly and tilted her head up, her purple eyes brimming with excitement.
"You're finally out! I've been waiting for two whole hours."
Na'er buried her face in Lu Guan's chest, her voice carrying a hint of grievance along with joy she couldn't hide.
As she spoke, she rubbed her head against his chest.
It tickled.
"Um... Na'er..." Lu Guan's voice sounded a little strained.
Na'er raised her head, her purple eyes sparkling. "What is it?"
"Well, you should go outside first..."
"Hmph, why? I don't want to!" Na'er protested indignantly.
The next second, Na'er's gaze suddenly swept downward.
Silence fell.
During Lu Guan's breakthrough, the violent Soul Power inside him and the War Lord Demon Body's baleful aura had spilled out uncontrollably.
The shorts he had been wearing had long since been shredded by that power.
Now Lu Guan stood completely naked, baring everything before Na'er.
Na'er's eyes instantly went round.
Her fair cheeks flushed crimson at a visible speed, and even her little ears looked ready to drip blood.
"Aah!"
Na'er abruptly let go, clamped both hands over her face, turned around, and fled the room on her pale little legs as though running for her life.
Bang!
She slammed the door behind her.
Lu Guan stood where he was, looked down at himself, and twitched at the corner of his mouth.
"What the fuck was that?"
Outside the door, Na'er covered her burning cheeks, unable to stop recalling what she had just seen.
"Whoa..."
He pulled the door open.
In the hallway, Na'er was crouched in a corner with both hands over her face, curled into a ball. Even her exposed neck was bright red.
Lu Guan walked over and gently nudged her calf with the tip of his foot.
"All right, stop covering your face."
Na'er sprang to her feet with her back to Lu Guan, her voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz. "Are... are you dressed?"
"Yeah. What did you need me for in such a hurry?"
Na'er turned around, the blush still lingering on her face, and lowered her head, not daring to look at him.
"Teacher Leng needs to go to Eastsea City to take care of something, so I thought we could go home while we're at it."
Lu Guan thought about it. It had been three months since his last trip home. "Sure. When?"
"Right now."
Half a day later.
Eastsea City.
Lu Guan first parted ways with Leng Yaozhu and Na'er, then headed straight for the Eastsea City Blacksmith Association.
People came and went in the lobby, and hammer blows rang out one after another.
Lu Guan approached the front desk.
The receptionist was a young woman, her head lowered as she sorted through documents.
"Excuse me, is President Mu Chen here?"
The young woman looked up and recognized Lu Guan.
"Oh, little Lu Guan. The president just went out on business. He should be back in about half an hour."
Lu Guan waved a hand. "All right, I'll wait for him."
"You're Lu Guan?" A voice suddenly came from behind him.
Lu Guan turned around. A girl of twelve or thirteen stood behind him.
She wore a fiery-red short dress and had her hair tied in a high ponytail. Her features were delicate, but her face was stern, and she looked as though she had come looking for trouble.
The girl strode in, planted her hands on her hips, and looked Lu Guan up and down.
"You're the Lu Guan my dad talks about all day?"
Her words told Lu Guan who she was. He set down his forging hammer and greeted her politely.
"Hello, Senior Sister."
Mu Xi, Mu Chen's precious daughter. As it happened, this was their first meeting.
Hearing him call her Senior Sister did nothing to calm Mu Xi down. Instead, it made her even angrier.
For the past three years, she had heard the name Lu Guan so often that her ears were practically growing calluses!
"Lu Guan's Hundred Refinement success rate reached a hundred percent today."
"Lu Guan completed Thousand Refinement today."
"Lu Guan's grown taller again. That kid really is a monster."
Most infuriating of all, her dad had actually sent so many resources to Heaven Dou City!
She, his own daughter, had to submit a request just to get a piece of rare metal!
Why should he get all that?
Mu Xi had been coming to forge today when she happened to hear Lu Guan's name.
She was going to prove herself!
Mu Xi pointed toward the forging room. "I want to watch you forge!"
Lu Guan: ?
Mu Xi snorted. She was only a rank-two Blacksmith and could only perform Hundred Refinement, so competing against Lu Guan was out of the question.
But she had been steeped in forging since childhood. When it came to theory, she was absolutely first-rate!
Then I'll watch Lu Guan forge, find his mistakes, and laugh in his face!
Hia~ hia~ hia~ hia~
Once inside the forging room, Mu Xi took out a piece of metal and handed it to Lu Guan.
"Forge this. Black Gold. Extremely hard, extremely brittle. Extremely difficult!"
Lu Guan stepped forward and ran a hand over the piece of Black Gold.
It really was tricky.
Black Gold fractured easily during hammering and demanded exceptionally strict control of force. Many rank-three Blacksmiths refused to touch the stuff.
"What? Scared?" Seeing Lu Guan remain silent, Mu Xi felt a surge of smug satisfaction.
"Sure." Lu Guan nodded, took out six Thousand-Refined Star Silver Hammers, and walked straight to the forging table.
He drew a deep breath, and the Soul Power inside him began to boil.
Boom!
A dark-red baleful aura erupted from Lu Guan's body, and the temperature in the forging room instantly soared.
Mu Xi jumped in fright and stumbled several steps backward. "What... what are you doing?"
The clothes on Lu Guan's upper body were instantly torn apart by the violent power.
Four thick arms burst out of his body.
The bone wings on his back snapped open, their sharp edges slicing through the air with a piercing shriek.
At the center of his forehead, the demonic eye opened.
War Lord Demon Body, activate!
Mu Xi froze completely.
Of course she knew about Lu Guan's six hands, but knowing was one thing. Seeing them in person was still rather terrifying.
Clang!
The first hammer fell.
The Black Gold gave a dull hum, and a ring of fine ripples appeared across its surface.
Then came the next blows.
Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang, clang!
The six forging hammers blurred into a swath of silver afterimages, raining down on the Black Gold.
There wasn't the slightest pause, nor a single wasted movement.
The angle and force of every strike were precise to a staggering degree.
Mu Xi had originally intended to find fault, but now she could only stare, dumbfounded.
In all her years studying forging, she had never seen anything like this.
Six arms hammered in alternation. Not only was the speed astonishing, but even more terrifying was how the unbroken succession of blows expelled the impurities inside the Black Gold more efficiently!
One brief cycle, six strikes.
The black surface of the Black Gold had already faded, revealing a dark-golden sheen.
Hundred Refinement!
Hundred Refinement in six strikes!
Before you continue