"I never expected you to want to become a forging craftsman, Zha'er."
Leng Yaozhu could not help feeling disappointed. After all, ever since she had brought Li Zha back, she had intended to raise him as the heir to her craft.
Heaven's plans truly could not keep up with human plans. Li Zha actually had no interest in the mecha design she excelled at.
Still, despite her disappointment, Leng Yaozhu decided to respect Li Zha's wishes.
"Forging is a good secondary profession, too, but it demands a great deal of talent."
"How about this, Zha'er? I'll find a forging craftsman within the Spirit Pagoda to teach you the basics and let you get a feel for forging."
At this point,
an idea suddenly stirred in Leng Yaozhu's mind.
That was right. Forging demanded talent and technique. Zha'er had merely expressed an interest in it.
Being interested and actually having talent were two different things.
She could let Zha'er try it for a while. If he had no talent, he would naturally be discouraged from continuing.
Then wouldn't Zha'er have no choice but to study mecha design with her?
Having thought this through,
Leng Yaozhu immediately headed out. "Stay right here, Zha'er. I'll find a forging craftsman from within the Spirit Pagoda to assess your talent."
Li Zha nodded.
While he waited, Li Zha casually flipped through the battle armor blueprints on the workbench to pass the time.
These blueprints were all the personal work of Leng Yaozhu, a Four-Word Battle Armor Master. People outside would have fought over them, but to Li Zha, they were merely reading material to kill time.
I hope I have some talent for forging.
That was what Li Zha thought.
In the Dragon King era, soul tool technology had advanced far beyond anything in the previous two installments.
The advent of battle armor marked the dawn of a new age. Generally speaking, battle armor could boost its wearer's strength by the equivalent of around twenty levels of soul power.
For example, a Five-Ring Soul King who met the entry requirements to become a One-Word Battle Armor Master could put on battle armor and immediately fight a level-seventy Soul Saint!
Two-Word Battle Armor could permanently incorporate a soul skill, effectively giving its wearer an extra skill slot. It also allowed flight.
Three-Word Battle Armor could permanently incorporate two soul skills and even activate a battle armor domain.
Four-word battle armor possessed spirituality and lay concealed beneath the skin.
And below the four-ring level, even ordinary people wearing soul-powered mechas could fight soul masters.
In other words, the development of soul guidance technology could already determine every battlefield below the level of the strongest soul masters.
In fact, it could affect even those at the pinnacle. Sky-Cleaving Douluo Yun Ming, for instance, had already become a demigod, yet he had died beneath two Level-Twelve Fixed Soul Cannon Shells.
Naturally, Li Zha still hoped to acquire knowledge of soul guidance technology.
If he could become a Divine Craftsman in the future and obtain four-word battle armor, it would undoubtedly be a tremendous boon.
Of course, it would not matter if he failed.
With Nezha's legacy, his absurdly overpowered stats would make up for everything!
Soon, Leng Yaozhu returned with a middle-aged man.
The man wore filthy work clothes, had dark skin, and sported bulging veins on his exposed arms. He looked every inch a hard-luck blacksmith.
"Zha'er, let me introduce you. This is Master Niu from the Spirit Pagoda. He's a Six-Star Grandmaster Forging Craftsman."
Li Zha greeted him. "Hello, Uncle Niu."
Master Niu crouched down with an enthusiastic smile, his weathered face creasing like a chrysanthemum in bloom.
"Hey there, Little Spirit Connection."
Li Zha froze. What the heck was Little Spirit Connection?
Leng Yaozhu chuckled. "Master Niu heard that your spiritual power had reached the spirit connection realm at such a young age, so he's calling you Little Spirit Connection."
The corner of Li Zha's mouth twitched. This Master Niu certainly liked giving people nicknames!
Was this master reliable?
Master Niu handed Li Zha a bracelet. "Little Spirit Connection, I don't have much to give you for our first meeting. Here's a Storage Soul Tool I made myself. It has one cubic meter of space inside."
Well, this master looked reliable at a glance!
Li Zha hurriedly accepted it and put it on curiously. "Thank you, Uncle Niu."
Storage soul tools were expensive.
The moment Master Niu appeared, Li Zha ranked him fourth in the Spirit Pagoda, right behind the big and little Xiao Bais and Leng Yaozhu.
"Little Spirit Connection, I heard you want to learn forging. I'll give you a simple test to see what sort of foundation you have."
Li Zha nodded.
Master Niu led Li Zha to a forging bench inside Leng Yaozhu's workshop.
Li Zha could see that Master Niu was rather restrained, perhaps because this was Leng Yaozhu's place. He seemed worried about disturbing anything here.
Master Niu took out a small, pitch-black iron hammer and a large chunk of silvery metal.
Master Niu placed the heavy silver on the forging bench and heated it until the metal glowed red and was ready to be hammered.
He then pointed at the little iron hammer on the table.
"Little Spirit Connection, the test is simple. Take this hammer and strike this piece of heavy silver until you run out of strength."
"As you hammer, use your own ideas to reduce the impurities in the metal. I'll assess your talent."
Li Zha nodded and picked up the iron hammer with one hand.
With the little hammer in hand, Li Zha swung it twice and found it rather light.
He silently thanked Uncle Niu and his teacher for considering his young age and specially preparing a small hammer for him.
Beside him, Master Niu's eyes widened.
His hammer looked small, but it actually weighed a full ninety kilograms.
If he remembered correctly, Li Zha had only just awakened his martial soul, which meant he was six years old. Why did he look as though he were waving a toy around?
Leng Yaozhu was also a little surprised.
She had specifically told Master Niu not to prepare a special hammer. In truth, she had still hoped Li Zha would retreat in the face of difficulty and study mecha design with her instead.
Now it seemed that even if Zha'er lacked forging talent, he at least had enough strength.
Clang!
Li Zha raised the hammer and brought it down.
Since Uncle Niu had told him to hammer however he pleased, he would let loose.
One strike left a deep dent in the heavy silver.
Listening to the ring of metal, Li Zha felt a strange sense of delight.
It reminded him of the sound of the Fire-Tipped Spear striking the Mandala Snake. Forging was like fighting a fierce battle and slaying enemies.
The corners of Li Zha's mouth lifted. He raised the iron hammer and unleashed a wild barrage like a furious storm!
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang...
Chaotic, irregular noise immediately filled the workshop.
Li Zha hammered away with great relish, and the heavy silver soon became a lumpy metal sheet beneath his hammer.
Even after more than five hundred consecutive strikes, Li Zha was not short of breath.
By now, Master Niu was utterly dumbfounded.
"Little Spirit Connection really is strong. Even one of my two-ring soul master students doesn't have this much strength."
"Unfortunately, this child doesn't seem to have any feel for metal. All he has is brute force."
Forging craftsmen were divided into ranks as well.
From hundred refinement to Thousand Refinement, then Spirit Forging, Fusion Forging, Soul Forging, and even the highest level, Heavenly Forging, there were nine ranks in total.
The standard for first- and second-rank forging craftsmen was whether they could meet the purification requirements of hundred refinement.
All metals contained impurities. The most basic hundred refinement involved removing those impurities through hammering.
It was not simply a matter of striking a hundred times.
Take Li Zha right now, for instance. He had delivered more than five hundred hammer strikes in one go, flattening the originally square piece of heavy silver into a sheet, yet plenty of impurities remained.
That was because Li Zha was hammering at random without carefully examining the metal's grain.
This was the threshold of talent required for forging.
Those with such perceptiveness could easily get started and even become high-ranking forging craftsmen.
Without that talent, even great strength was useless.
After watching for a long while, Uncle Niu already had his answer.
Just as he was about to speak and interrupt Li Zha, Li Zha stopped hammering.
"Hehe, that was fun."
"All right, time to get serious about removing the impurities."
With that, Li Zha manifested his lotus body and carefully examined the piece of heavy silver with the Void Gaze of the Dharma Image.
As a metal unique to the high-pressure environment of the sea, heavy silver possessed excellent ductility and soul power conductivity. Li Zha had seen it before in his seaside fishing village.
Someone in the village had once been lucky enough to find some heavy silver and received a large sum after handing it over to the Federation.
Uncle Niu was stunned. Little Spirit Connection had only been playing around with those five hundred strikes?!
Under the gaze of Li Zha's [Lotus Body], his spirit connection realm spiritual power went to work. Li Zha intended to examine the metal with his wide-eyed method.
Just then, the Immortal Court Seed inside Li Zha suddenly began to glow faintly.
The Immortal Court Seed was an opportunity Taiyi Zhenren had left Li Zha to create the Divine Realm anew, and it had therefore already received the recognition of the Douluo Plane Will.
In other words, this meant Li Zha had also received the plane will's recognition.
And heavy silver was itself a part of Douluo Star.
Li Zha immediately detected a faint trace of spirituality hidden within the heavy silver.
That spirituality guided Li Zha to the impurities inside the heavy silver.
"Eighty! Eighty!"
Li Zha raised the forging hammer and unleashed a frenzied series of blows.
This time, compared to before, the sound of Li Zha's hammering followed a strange rhythm. Beside him, Uncle Niu's eyes immediately shone.
Before you continue