"Zha, starting tomorrow, you'll meditate and practice breathing every Monday through Friday morning, then study forging in the afternoon."
"On every day you train, you must write me a learning report that evening."
After witnessing Li Zha's astonishing talent for forging,
Leng Yaozhu no longer stood in his way. Instead, she quickly drew up a detailed schedule for him.
Li Zha set down his forging hammer. "A report?"
"Yes. Sum up what you did that day, what you learned, what you're unsure about, what you did wrong, and how you can improve next time."
"Include methods for improvement and measures for evaluating your progress."
Leng Yaozhu pulled out a stack of forms and handed them to Li Zha.
"In life, nothing is more frightening than carelessness."
Li Zha nodded. "Oh."
Leng Yaozhu looked pleased.
Li Zha's talent had already exceeded her expectations, but that only made it all the more important to nurture him properly.
Study habits were formed in childhood.
Leng Yaozhu hoped Li Zha would develop the habit of self-reflection, so that whether he was cultivating, fighting, or dealing with people in the future, he could judge himself and improve.
Rather than rely too heavily on outside supervision.
"What about weekends?"
Leng Yaozhu rested her chin on her hand and considered for a moment.
"On weekends, you'll have combat practice in the Spirit Ascension Platform. I'll also arrange for a Titled Douluo skilled in spiritual power to give you special training."
"Though you might have real-world combat practice, too."
Leng Yaozhu narrowed her eyes.
As a Limit Douluo of the Spirit Pagoda, her approach to training followed the typical style of the central and western Douluo Continent: actual combat was the standard.
Simply looking at figures such as soul power level, martial soul, and soul ring combinations did not really provide a good measure of combat strength.
Performance in actual combat mattered most.
Zha's first real fight had been nothing short of perfect, and Leng Yaozhu naturally hoped he would keep it up.
And so,
Li Zha's nonstop training began.
In the mornings,
Da Bai and Xiao Bai guided him through meditation and breathing exercises to cultivate his soul power.
In the afternoons,
he studied forging with Uncle Niu in the forging room.
Uncle Niu held him to the strictest standards. Other blacksmiths qualified as first-rank blacksmiths as long as they could complete Hundred Refinement purification.
But for Li Zha,
Uncle Niu required him to complete Hundred Refinement purification on almost every metal before he turned seven.
Still, this was hardly difficult for Li Zha. Thanks to the blessing of the spirit of the plane, he could easily resonate with all sorts of metals.
And thereby achieve Hundred Refinement purification.
In fact,
on his second day studying forging, Li Zha was able to complete Hundred Refinement purification on heavy silver after watching Uncle Niu demonstrate it just once.
In other words,
by the Blacksmith Association's standards,
Li Zha had effectively become a first-rank blacksmith at the age of six!
Before this,
the youngest first-rank blacksmith in the Blacksmith Association had been eight years and three months old!
And that person was Zhen Hua, the Divine Craftsman whose name now resounded throughout the world.
As for this,
Uncle Niu discussed it with Leng Yaozhu, and they decided to keep the news under wraps.
A six-year-old first-rank blacksmith would cause an uproar if word got out.
Leng Yaozhu had already made up her mind. Once Uncle Niu could no longer teach Zha, she would personally seek out a renowned Saint Craftsman, such as Feng Wuyu of Shrek Academy, or even the Divine Craftsman Zhen Hua himself!
The first week of training soon ended.
On Friday evening,
Li Zha followed Uncle Niu's instructions, wiping clean every forging tool he had used and putting them neatly away before leaving the forging room.
"Who would've thought? Uncle Niu looks so grubby, but he treats his metals and tools like his wife."
Li Zha chuckled.
He knew Uncle Niu was trying to instill good habits in him.
Back in his room, Li Zha sat down first and quickly finished that day's report.
His teacher, Leng Yaozhu, was also a stickler for detail. She even allowed Li Zha to submit a blank sheet if he had nothing to report, but if he wrote anything, he had to do it properly, with neat handwriting.
In this,
Leng Yaozhu led by example, hoping to teach Li Zha that he should either leave something undone or do it well.
Doing something right the first time saved the most time.
Cutting corners and going through the motions would only cost more time making up for it in the end.
After finishing his report,
Li Zha quickly washed up and lay down in bed.
Da Bai said my meditation is going really well. At this rate, I'll reach level nineteen by this time next year and touch the threshold of a Two-Ring Soul Grandmaster.
I hope I can go faster. I'm still too weak right now.
Li Zha thought to himself.
The Karma Fire System required him to kill Evil Soul Masters to earn karma fire points.
The problem was,
Leng Yaozhu, a four-word Battle Armor Master, was keeping such a tight watch over him
that he had no chance to come into contact with Evil Soul Masters.
Li Zha soon drifted off to sleep.
In the middle of the night,
a figure suddenly flashed past Li Zha's door. Someone shrouded in a black robe moved silently toward it and gently turned the handle.
On the bed,
Li Zha's ears twitched, and his eyes snapped open. By the faint moonlight in the room, he quickly noticed the door handle turning all the way down.
Heh, testing my vigilance?
This is all the combat training amounts to?
Li Zha had not forgotten
that weekends were for combat training. Given Leng Yaozhu's meticulous nature, the weekend began the moment midnight passed on Friday night!
The door opened,
and the black-robed figure walked silently toward Li Zha, raising his right hand as the cold gleam of a dagger flashed.
Li Zha pretended to remain asleep. Beneath the blanket, a Fire-Tipped Spear had already appeared in his right hand.
Hum!
The black-robed figure approached the window and thrust his dagger at Li Zha with one hand!
A tangible surge of killing intent emerged, startling Li Zha. Was this damn test really that realistic?
If I didn't react in time, would I actually get stabbed to death?
Even as these thoughts ran through his mind,
Li Zha's hands did not slow. With a practiced carp's spring, he flipped himself upright, evaded the dagger, and thrust his spear backhanded into the black-robed figure's waist.
Bang!
As expected, something hard blocked the Fire-Tipped Spear. When his strike failed, Li Zha immediately retreated to create distance while calmly observing his opponent.
"Huh? So you were pretending to sleep."
The black-robed figure was slightly startled, then gave a cold laugh.
Just then,
white Samadhi True Fire rapidly spread from the spot Li Zha had struck, engulfing the figure's entire body in an instant. His black robe burned away at once, revealing his true appearance.
The sight gave Li Zha a shock.
Beneath the black robe stood a skeleton, without a scrap of flesh on his bones, and nothing but a ball of ghostly flame inside his skull!
The skeleton froze briefly. Then two soul rings appeared beneath his feet, one yellow and one purple.
And,
as his soul rings manifested,
a thick aura of evil enveloped Li Zha inside the room.
"An Evil Soul Master?!"
"Is this real?"
Li Zha frowned and instinctively looked out the window.
Flames suddenly shot into the sky all around him. The entire Spirit Pagoda shook violently as explosions erupted everywhere.
In the distance,
a phantom phoenix appeared and rushed straight toward him. It was none other than Heavenly Phoenix Douluo Leng Yaozhu.
"Zha! We're under attack!"
Leng Yaozhu hurtled toward him, only to be intercepted by three figures.
Leng Yaozhu shouted furiously, "Dark Bell, Dark Hummingbird, Dark Blood Demon? You're from the Holy Spirit Cult?! You dare attack my Spirit Pagoda?! How dare you!"
The three figures before Leng Yaozhu chuckled.
"Your Excellency Heavenly Phoenix, since we of the Holy Spirit Cult dared to act, we naturally have confidence in our success. You should worry about whether you'll make it out alive first."
The Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Holy Spirit Cult launched a joint assault on Leng Yaozhu.
Leng Yaozhu instantly deployed her full four-word battle armor and clashed with all three at once. Terrifying waves of energy swept outward, nearly knocking Li Zha off his feet!
"What the hell?!"
"Why would the Holy Spirit Cult attack the Spirit Pagoda?!"
"You've got to be kidding me!"
Li Zha braced one hand against the floor, his pupils abruptly contracting.
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