The light screen in the Hall of Heroes slowly faded, and Yan Qing walked out of the trial hall.
A burly figure approached him. It was Hu Jie, who had been waiting outside.
"Greetings, Teacher." Yan Qing bowed slightly.
"There's no need for so much formality with me." Hu Jie clapped him on the shoulder casually, satisfaction in his eyes.
"I watched your test just now. Your practical combat skills have basically passed muster."
"But in another two months, you'll be going to Star Luo Soul Master Academy to begin your formal studies as a Soul Master."
Hu Jie's tone grew more solemn.
"It's time I told you.
"Besides Soul Rings and Soul Spirits, we Soul Masters have another way to enhance our fighting capabilities. Do you know what it is?"
"I don't know. Please enlighten me, Teacher." Although Yan Qing already knew the answer, his gaze remained earnest.
"Those would be the Battle Armor Master and mecha paths. Two different directions.
"Yan Qing, have you decided which path to take?"
Without hesitation, Yan Qing answered immediately:
"I choose to become a Battle Armor Master."
Hu Jie nodded lightly.
"Good. I knew you would choose that. But to become a Battle Armor Master, you need to master a related foundational profession. Is there any field that interests you now?"
"Teacher, I want to learn forging. I've been extremely interested in it since I was little."
Without blushing or skipping a heartbeat, Yan Qing spoke to Smiling Douluo with a perfectly straight face.
"You have a good eye. Back in the day, Amorous Douluo Zang Xin was a master blacksmith himself."
This counts as a son following in his father's footsteps too. No, his mother's footsteps.
"Yan Qing, since you've decided on forging, I'll introduce you to a new teacher."
"Saint Craftsman Li Zhuyun, one of only two Saint Craftsmen in the Star Luo Empire."
"You'll study forging under him from now on. I believe you'll soon reach the Thousand Refinement level."
The Tang Sect's forging room in the Star Luo Empire.
Passing through one heavy metal door after another, Hu Jie brought Yan Qing to a secluded chamber at the end.
The metal door slowly opened, and a rapid patter of metallic hammering greeted them.
An enormous metal workbench stood in the middle, with a gray-haired, middle-aged man busily working before it.
It was none other than Saint Craftsman Li Zhuyun.
Saint Craftsmen ranked second only to Divine Craftsmen.
Even the entire Douluo Federation only had a dozen or so.
Saint Craftsmen willing to settle on the distant Star Luo Continent were as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns.
"Old Li, I've brought you a student this time. I hope you'll look after him from now on."
The gray-haired man turned and nodded to Hu Jie before looking at Yan Qing, his brows furrowing slightly.
"Branch Head Hu, don't make fun of this old man. This child is only seven or eight. He can't even lift a forging hammer. How is he supposed to learn forging?"
Hu Jie stepped forward and lowered his voice:
"This child's background is a little special.
"You can take that piece of divine-grade metal the Tang Sect has in the Star Luo Empire for your research. Consider it this child's tuition."
Li Zhuyun's eyes abruptly lit up, and even his breathing quickened.
Since Divine Craftsman Zhen Hua had announced his retirement, divine-grade metal had become something money could not buy. Even a Saint Craftsman would be tempted by it.
Such a precious bargaining chip, merely as a child's tuition?
"Do you mean that?"
"Every word."
"But let me make this clear up front. If this child can't even learn Hundred Refinement within a month,
"then no amount of divine-grade metal will make me accept him as my disciple."
"Of course." Hu Jie nodded with a smile. Naturally, he felt no pang over the expense.
That piece of divine-grade metal had been left here by Amorous Douluo. Presumably, there would be no problem with turning it into her son's tuition.
After Hu Jie left, Li Zhuyun sized Yan Qing up.
His build was a little thin. He probably wasn't very strong.
That was his first impression of Yan Qing.
Let's start with the very basics.
Li Zhuyun first took out a small forging hammer.
After a moment's thought, he replaced it with an even smaller one and handed it to Yan Qing.
Even so, Yan Qing's arm abruptly sank when he took it, and the forging hammer nearly hit the floor.
After all, not every child was born with superhuman strength like Tang Wulin.
Taking in Yan Qing's reaction, Li Zhuyun frowned inwardly.
He struggled even to hold up a forging hammer. He didn't seem like promising material for forging.
"Try shaping this piece of metal first."
Li Zhuyun handed over a piece of heavy silver one inch square and pointed to the blueprint on the table as he told Yan Qing:
"Use whatever amount of force you think is appropriate. Let me see your talent, little fellow."
Yan Qing focused his gaze on it. It was a simple blueprint for a mecha component.
He needed to forge the square piece of heavy silver into the outline of a shoulder plate.
Heavy silver was hard, and its malleability ranked near the bottom among the various rare metals.
Never mind a novice who had never learned forging-even an apprentice who had already reached rank two
would take quite some time to complete this blueprint independently.
Of course, Li Zhuyun had never expected Yan Qing to finish it on the spot.
The merit of this blueprint was that its steps were simple. With many days of effort, completing it was still possible.
With unrelenting perseverance, even metal and stone could be carved.
This was the first lesson he wanted to teach Yan Qing.
Yan Qing gripped the hammer's handle and slowly exerted force through his wrist. Naturally, he had no fear of this little test.
With the system's foundational profession bonus, his forging profession was already at rank three.
In the forging trade, ranks one and two were entry-level. Independently completing Hundred Refinement on three different categories was enough to receive a rating.
Rank-three forging required independently completing Thousand Refinement. The Douluo Federation Blacksmiths' Association's record was eleven years and three months old.
Thus, machining this component was no trouble at all for Yan Qing.
The forging hammer struck, and a small dent immediately appeared in the heavy silver's surface.
His strength is actually quite good. Li Zhuyun nodded slowly.
However, his forging rhythm was a little too fast.
"Little fellow, forging isn't a speed contest. Faster isn't necessarily..."
The rest of Li Zhuyun's sentence caught in his throat.
Because he saw Yan Qing hammer away with several clangs, already beating the heavy silver into the outline of a shoulder plate.
How many minutes has it even been?
Shouldn't a novice slowly figure out how to use the forging hammer, then feel his way forward little by little?
How did he get it right in one go and finish it outright?
"You... have you learned forging before?" Even Li Zhuyun's voice trembled a little.
Yan Qing had long since prepared his explanation.
"Teacher, this is my first time holding a forging hammer. The moment I took hold of it, I felt this was how I should use it.
"I followed the blueprint and finished it before I knew it."
Hundred Refinement!
He could achieve Hundred Refinement on his very first day!
Looking at the metal component before him, Li Zhuyun could barely speak.
No, to be precise, this child has been exposed to forging for less than an hour.
A heaven-sent genius! A heaven-sent genius!
Li Zhuyun had no way of knowing that this half-finished shoulder plate was already the result of Yan Qing deliberately holding back.
The foundational professional abilities granted by the system went straight to the upper limit of the current rank.
In other words, after the system's +3 reward, his forging skills had gone from zero foundation to rank 3.9, only a hair's breadth away from becoming a rank-four blacksmith.
As long as he wanted to, he could easily complete Thousand Refinement.
But he had actually spent less than an hour learning forging, all of it just now.
If he really completed Thousand Refinement, it would probably shock the entire continent.
After all, Tang Wulin had only barely reached this level after completing his apprenticeship under Mang Tian.
Thus, during the forging process just now, he had deliberately sent several hammer blows off target.
Only then had he produced a very awkward Hundred Refinement shoulder plate.
Even so, it had already left Li Zhuyun dumbstruck, and the gaze he now directed at Yan Qing burned with fervor.
His stare made Yan Qing's skin crawl, and he found an excuse to slip out of the forging room.
Behind him, Li Zhuyun was calling his friends one after another through soul communicator, announcing that he had found a peerless genius.
Leaving the forging room, Yan Qing let out a long breath.
There were still eight years left on the Martial Soul loan-neither a long time nor a short one.
And the system mission had hit another wall. Yan Qing had already tried taking someone with the exact same name as Yu Xiaogang as his teacher, but it was completely useless.
Could I really have to dig Grandmaster out of the ground?